FM24 - MY TIME TO COOK

[FMCTVaughaniola]

JULY 2023

The club picking process was one of the toughest I have ever been through, and it was to pick a club from England. I, myself am from England and support a club known as Sunderland, however I felt it would be a bit boring to start off at Sunderland as my hometown club, so I decided to look further down the pyramid and started to look at clubs League Two and below. This was when I saw the club that I thought I would start this save with, and that was Oxford City. A club from a University city which had a much larger club from there, which seemed like it would be a good challenge to topple the giants of Oxford United. However I then looked at the kits and realised there realistically wasn't going to be much creativity I could use making kits for a club that wear blue and white hoops. My next option was Altrincham, a club in the same division as Oxford City, however they wore red and white stripes just like my beloved Sunderland, however it can be the little things that put you off a club, and it just so happened that the little thing was the badge... I was not a fan.

The next club I ventured to was a club from the Vanarama National League North, a club that wore claret and blue... no, not the once Championship Scunthorpe United, we are talking about South Shields. But then, I was reminded that I had previously done a South Shields save this FM and it didn't go perfectly to plan. At this point I had already decided on my nation but we'll get to that later on in this blog. I kept looking at the National League North as I believed it had potential for a club I was really wanting to get immersed into. The penultimate club I thought about managing was Blyth Spartans. I had been a "supported" of South Shields for quite some time, and managing Blyth Spartans could've ruined my reputation so that was a definite no.

The next club was the club that I had fallen in love with, from the badge, to the kits, to the players, to the staff and finally the fans, this club had everything I was looking for. Having researched more about the club, they are destined to be defunct before the start of the 2024/25 campaign, which would be traumatic for the fans as the club is quite established and has been running since 1906.

This club was of course, The Shrimpers, Southend United. The badge was stunning, the kits were amazing and I could definitely add a little bit of creativity to it.

You may be wondering why I called this blog "My Time to Cook" well I am about to tell you. The islands are a country in Polynesia, known as the Cook Islands, and to fit the script of the Big Club Small Nation challenge, they have never reached the heights of the World Cup, having been in the qualification rounds since 1998. This was going to be quite a large feat to try and take Cook Islands to winning the World Cup, nevertheless, it's my time to cook...

Upon my arrival at Southend United, there were a few things I had discovered. Mainly a 10 point deduction heading into the 2023/24 season, which I wasn't too happy about. The next thing I checked was the finances page, which honestly, wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, we weren't even in the red!

The last thing I checked before making my tactic was the squad, and oh no we were going to be in trouble this first season. We only had 20 players in the first team! Some youth players had to be called up which rounded the numbers up to 23, but three of those were also goalkeepers! I was certain that I had to dip into the free transfer market, but I headed to the tactics page and tried to make something delightful, to make us play good football but also rough football, as that was the level we were at.

All we need is one promotion and that will send the club sailing as then we would be in the football league! However I could be getting ahead of myself here as the media's prediction in the season preview saw us finishing rock bottom of the table without a chance of survival, but what else is FM for other than proving the doubters wrong...

After going through the first few inbox notifications, you know the generic stuff you get when you first load up a save, I saw one that wasn't as generic... and that was that a transfer embargo had been placed on the club until 31st December 2023! Which meant we would have to go until January with the players we had, which was just the final nail in the coffin, I was prepared to call it quits there and say that we were down and out, but hopefully the current squad would be able to pull through until then...

The first tactic I made in Non-League football was always going to be a spin-off of the traditional Route One style, going in hard and settling back once we have lost the ball. My plan was to sit back and invite the pressure before bursting away when winning the ball and trying to score luckily on the counter-attack. I believe this could be the way for Southend United.

I got 4 friendlies set up before the start of the National League campaign and I was hoping for smashing wins against Hampton & Richmond and Celtic B, although I was less confident in facing Bromley. I am excited to see how we do against Premier League Everton though, that could certainly be an interesting one.

We did have an Assistant Manager, which meant I wouldn't have to sit through the pre-season friendlies or speak to those poxy journalists at all throughout my stay here at Southend, which had me overjoyed.

I did do somewhat of a dive into the nation I took control over, Cook Islands, however our best player being Ben Mata, a 24-year-old Centre Back playing the Kiwi League didn't strike me with much hope managing them, most of my focus would be going into Southend whom, if I'm honest, weren't showing much promise of success either.

Now it's time for pre-season (please God just don't let us lose to Celtic B.)

Uhm... well that was an interesting turn of events! When I saw a 1-1 draw to Everton, I immediately check the line-up they had out because I expected it to be riddled with youngsters as they were playing a Non-League football club, but NO! This was the line-up Everton played against us and oh my lord am I excited for the season to come now!

That IS a full strength Premier League side we just drew with there! What a result for The Shrimpers in my first month of management.

Thank you for reading the first blog in the My Time to Cook series. Hopefully next time out we get to play more as Cook Islands and get more of a feel about what it is really like managing a National Team in Oceania.