(FM24) Sir Alex Ferguson (SAF) Challenge - Brentford FC

[Coxie84]

Can I emulate one of the greatest managers of all time in this challenge…

 

STARTING THE SAF CHALLENGE ON FM24...

This involved me simulating the game on FM24 until the 6th November and taking over the club that sits in 19th in the Premier League on that day, pretty much what Sir Alex Ferguson did back in 1986 (I was about two years & half years old then) when he took over the reins as manager of Manchester United. Also, I’d like to say I am not a United fan, however I have massive respect for what Sir Alex achieved during his managerial career, a true legend and one of the greatest managers in the English game. Also, I am not a fan of any Premier League clubs so I am not fussed at which club I get but you will already know what club I got from the thumbnail anyway…

So before I get started, here are the rules etc. if you don't know already...

RULES TO THE SAF CHALLENGE...

You need to;

• Stay at one club – The Scotsman managed Man United for 26 years.
• Aim to bring Youth Players through – “Class of 92“.
• Persuade long term players to become part of your backroom staff.

Goals of the Challenge;

• Win a Domestic Cup/Trophy within 4 seasons – Ferguson won his first Cup vs Crystal Palace in 89/90.
• Win a League title within 7 seasons – Ferguson won his first title in 92/93.
• Win a League and Cup double within 8 seasons – Ferguson won his first double with United in 93/94.
• Win a League, Cup and the Champions League within 13 seasons – Ferguson won the infamous treble in 98/99.

Total number of trophies that the Scotsman won during his managerial career at Old Trafford;

• Premier League (13)
• FA Cup (5)
• League Cup (4)
• Community Shield (10)
• UEFA Champions League (2)
• UEFA Europa League (1) (Replaces the Cup Winners Cup)
• UEFA Super Cup (1)
• FIFA Club World Cup (2) (One Replaces Intercontinental Cup)

A few rules to follow when taking this Football Manager Challenge on;

• No usage of the in-game editor – Which I never have on anyway. Also, have Real World transfers on and the first window disabled to add that little bit of a challenge.

• No buying or selling from/to your direct rival. – This depends on the club I get really. Plus it’s difficult if one of the so called top six club come in and offer you £100m + for a player, I don’t think anyone would reject it in this day and age compared to when Sir Alex was manager.
• No more than 11 signings per season, of which only 8 can play in the first team that season.
• Spending restrictions.
• Promote as many youth players as you can and have a minimum of 1 player promoted from the youth academy in every single matchday squad.
• Promote at least 1 new player to the youth academy to the senior team every single season.
• Sacked or Relegation the challenge comes to an end.

ON 6th NOVEMBER 2023…

The Premier League table looks like this…

So, its Brentford that sit in 19th place, which I am surprised to see them so far down the league table to be fair as I thought they would have been higher up the table. I was thinking it would have been more like Burnley, Luton or Sheffield United I would have takeover as manager but I was so wrong.

Well, it could have been Burnley if it wasn't for that points deduction for Everton or if the Bees scored difference wasn't greater than Burnley's. The Bees league record so far isn't the greatest with them only winning once. However, they are only two points from getting out of the relegation zone we ain't to bad to be honest and doable. But, my first two games in charge are against North London clubs Tottenham and Arsenal. Also, we are out of the Carabao Cup beaten in the 3rd round by Aston Villa.

BREAKING NEWS

CoxieFM takes over the reins as the new Bee's manager and replaces previous manager Thomas Frank...Only time will tell if I can rescue the Bee's from the drop and lead them on to greatness...

Edited June 20 by Coxie84

[Coxie84]

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER '23

I only had a week to get ready for my first game in charge and it was a home tie against Northern London's Tottenham Hotspur. Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo were both on target to give me a debut to remember as we came back from behind to beat Spurs 2-1. Only days later, we faced another North London side in the Arsenal and we so nearly made it two wins in a row, however a late goal by the Gunners meant I drew by second game in charge 2-2. Mads Roerslev and Bryan Mbeumo had given us a two goal lead but we had to settle for a point as we were pegged back.

Our unbeaten streak continued for another six as we made it eight games without defeat. In that eight games we drew six of them in a row either 0-0 or 2-2 which looks mad as below. My second win in charge was a 2-0 win over the Hammers at the London Stadium with goals from Wissa and Roerslev.

However, it was managerless Chelsea who gave me my first defeat in charge of the Bees' in my ninth game. They beat us 5-2.

Table

So after nine games in charge and we end the year 2023, we currently sit in 16th place. However, we are only one point above the relegation zone which is slightly worrying but it could have been better if we had made some of them draw wins. On the flip side some of them draw could have been easily defeats and we could have been in the drop zone.

Tactic

So, this is the tactic, I will be using for this challenge and its somethings a lot different to what I normally play tactically with. If you know me or seen my content before, I do like to play an asymmetric tactic but not this time FM fans...

Going to use a 352 which has been created by FRANKLYFM84, here is the links so why not try it out or show them some love my dropping a like etc...

[Coxie84]

January '24

TRANSFER NEWS

So my first transfer window has arrived and there has been some in's and out's at the Brentford Community Stadium. Little recap, I did start this challenge off with real world transfer so part from the normal players coming and going I made my own decisions.

OUTs

Firstly, I will start with the outgoing...I was not going to let any of my first team players leave, however stupid Saudi money came in it was hard to resist. Al-Ittihad offered me £55M+ for our top goalscorer at the time Bryan Mbeumo and now he earns £875K a week and was our record fee received for a player. The other transfer is Yoane Wissa imminent departure to Al-Nassr for £35M+. The latter not completed yet as our transfer has closed but there is still open... But £90M for both and have sell on clauses ain't bad bit of work in this first window...

*Remember legends like Owen and Beckham playing the game? Well they both have signed for Wrexham after departing the Bee's. Riley Owen (no relation) but Romeo Beckham is are both off to Wales. I will keep an eye on Romeo to see how he does. I could see that transfer happening in real life.

INs

I signed six players during in my first window as the Bee's manager. I think three or four of them were at the first of January and then two were on deadline day. That's when roughly the Mbeumo money came in.... I brought in three defenders, one midfielder and two forwards into the club and they were as follows

• Nicolas Romero - Atletico Tucuman - £4.5M. The 20 year old defender has a bright future and will look to push into the first team.
• Thiago Borbas - RB Bragantino - £5.5M. The forward comes in and I will look to start him ahead of Maupey as he's only on loan and rather play permanent players. Hopefully play alongside Toney when he gets back from his ban.
• Carlos Dominguez - Celta Vigo - £2.8M. The 22 year old joins and like Romero will look to push for a starting spot of the coming months or seasons.
• Matteo Gabbia - AC Milan - £5M. He was transfer listed my the Italian giants and with a couple of injuries in the first team, decided to bring the24 year old defender to London.
• Wilfried Gnonto - Leeds - £30M. The first of the deadline day signing and they biggest fee of this challenge so far. I felt I had to bring in another forward and the 20 year old Italian fits the bill.
• Jordan James - Birmingham - £13.5M. The second deadline day signing, however the young lad has returned back to the Blues on loan for the rest of the season. He has the potential to become a five star rating.

THE MATCHES

In the League, we brought in the new year with a home victory of bottom side Everton, thanks to a debut goal from defender Carlos Dominguez who's only just arrived at the club that morning and got PoTM award. However, first choice GK, well my first choice Thomas Strakosha got injured in training days after and is out for two months. Drawn against another Scouse club in the 3rd round of FA Cup at home and pushed of a miracle to got into the 4th round after a 2-1 win. In the 4th round we drew against Ipswich Town, so the replay will follow at a later date. How come we beat a Prem team but draw against Championship, well the enjoys of FM right. The final game of the month was the away tie against Wolves, which we won 2-1.

TABLE

Slowly but surely we are moving away from the drop zone and currently four points above it. There is like six points difference for midtable positions so the odd win could see us climb the table or even drop back into the relegation places if we lose. However, wild card is that we are only 13 points from a European place but with 15 games still to go anything is possible right?

[Coxie84]

Feb - Mar '24

ON & OFF THE PITCH NEWS...

On the 3rd Feb, we travelled to Sheffield to play the Blades in the League with both sides looking at moving away from that relegation battle and it was us that came away with all three points. Goals from Pinnock, Borbas and Dasilva secured the 3-1 win. Also, below was the confirmation that Wissa will be leaving the club for Saudi in the summer for £35M+.

In the FA Cup 4th round replay, we beat the Tractor Boys 3-1. I just can't see why we couldn't do that in the first place and had to rely on the replay. They of course took the lead but goals from Borbas, Wissa & captain Norgaard sealed our next round tie against Brighton. Well, might as well cover it now, it ended 0-0 after extra time and then we won 4-3 on penalties to win the 5th round match. Them, travelled across London to face the Gunners who beat us 2-1 to knock us out at the QF stage of this season's competition.

Anyway, back to League action now as we look to move away from the relegation zone. In the other six league games across Feb to Mar, we only managed to win against Brighton and Fulham but then dropped points losing to the likes of Aston Villa, Liverpool, Bournemouth and Spurs.

TABLE

So with only eight games remaining in the league, we are currently 13 points clear of relegation zone. There are still 24 points to play for as we look to remain in the league. To be honest, i reckon our highest placed finish would be 15th as that Brighton are 9 points ahead of us in 14th place. As long as we survive then I ain't fussed if we even finished 17th.

In the summer, we will be welcoming the following to the Brentford Community Stadium.

• Malcom Palacios - The 20 year old defender on a free transfer.
• Oscar Hojlund - The 19 year old midfielder from FC Kobenhavn for £3.5M.
• Jobe Bellingham - The 18 year old midfielder from Sunderland for £12.5M.

Both the latter's signing have famous brothers and the latter one of the two is more for the future if/when we get into Europe and need of home-grown players. Not even got passed the first season and thinking of Europe, lol....

[Coxie84]

April '24 & End Of Season Review

Premier League 

In April saw us drew at home against the Gunners, thanks to late goals from Wissa & Dasilva to rescue a point for the Bee's. Of course, we lose in the very next match against City 3-1. I hate playing against City!! Six goals galore in the game against Saudi United, I mean Newcastle as both sides shared a point each in the 3-3 draw. Soon to be relegated to the Championship Luton beat us 1-0 which I wasn't surprised about and standard on FM of late before ending the month with a 3-0 win over Forest. 

The final games of this first season in May, saw a 3-1 victory over Palace before EPIC wins over Burnley and West Ham United 7-0 and 5-1 respectively...There were seven different goal scorers in the Burnley fixture and five against the Hammers which was nice to see us win the final three games to end the season on a high.

Table 

We finished the season in 15th place and nearly 19 points clear of the drop zone which I am happy with. 

[AlfieLucas]

Well done on surviving in the PL. Tottenham had quite the run to finish 5th. Some big sales as well, Saudi's come in handy for the lower teams lol.

Taken on the SAF challenge myself, thanks to you.

[Coxie84]

On 25/06/2024 at 20:41, AlfieLucas said:

Well done on surviving in the PL. Tottenham had quite the run to finish 5th. Some big sales as well, Saudi's come in handy for the lower teams lol.

Taken on the SAF challenge myself, thanks to you.

Many thanks for the comment and the first to do so...

 

So which PL side did you get?

[leobiazzi]

That's a beefy transfer budget for a team like Brentford. I bet you'll be able to sign some promising players and do even better next season.

[AlfieLucas]

On 26/06/2024 at 21:10, Coxie84 said:

Many thanks for the comment and the first to do so...

 

So which PL side did you get?

I got Fulham. Offloaded three first teamers for big money, trying to mould the team into my shape now.