vikeologist

TL;DR - I think it's a feature, not a bug. So I run the Ultimate Manager Challenge which is a no exp no qual journeyman. Generally, you can get a first club job in a few lower divisions, but having an international job (at all stages of the game) negatively affects getting a club job. If your reputation is incredibly high, then you're probably still going to be able to get any club job in the world, but having an international job is always a negative factor, i think. It is possible to make yourself unemployable. if you take over a really small club at the start of the save, and then leave without having achieved anything, it might be really impossible to get any job, anywhere, (even if you don't have an international job). I haven't tested that extensively enough. Taking an international job as your first job is probably always detrimental. maybe in theory if you won the Olympics or some minor international cup, it might boost your rep, but I doubt it. No qual No exp journeyman managers should always take a club job first. So, it's up to you whether you regard it as a bug. I regard it as a feature. I sort of hint to people doing the challenge not to take international or jobs in really low leagues as first jobs. The first job you take is important, as a mistake can add years to your path, or even close it off. Getting any job with no quals or experience in real life is not very realistic, so it's an unrealistic part of the game, which I'm glad is there because it provides an interesting challenge / journeyman path. There are other factors. Nationality is a factor, as is how you do the job interview. Generally speaking, the level of first job you can get goes down a little bit each year. 10 years ago you could get a first job in for instance English league 2 or the top Chinese or South African divisions. Not all jobs in those divisions, but maybe eventually you'd get a club desperate enough. That's not the case nowadays,

Yes. Should have read the terms and conditions more carefully, but it doesn't really matter. I'm not making an overall loss.

One site has an offer where if you lose your betbuilder, they'll reimburse up to £10 in free bets. I used £1 the other day, but I'm hoping I can do it in 2 goes, and they'll reimburse the wild betbuilder I've just submitted at odds of 40/1. (of course I'm hoping they won't need to, and I'll win £369, but I'm not betting on it. Hold on! Well, you know what I mean. Of course, I could subsequently lose all £9 in free bets, but that doesn't matter because I won that £9 (actually £11) using free bets in the first place.

Not a bad evening with my free bets. grinding away. The 2-1 must have been a bet £1 to get a free £1 bet (and i cocked up the free bet), but all good. Might take my summer's winnings out and start again.

Not sure if you read the Athletic article, but this thread by Geir Jordet might convince you.

Thanks to pretty much spreading various free bets around, I'm guaranteed to win something whatever the result, but a Switzerland win would definitely be my lowest gain. As I did put £1 of my own money on one eventuality, a Switzerland win would give me a net profit of 10p.

Nothing's going wrong. Their ratings are in comparison to your top players. You said that you have a Champions League winning team. Compared to them, your intake kids aren't likely to be great. It probably is largely because your catchment area is mostly Greece. There are little things you can do. Maybe improve your scouting knowledge. Get a better HoYD. Max out all your relevant facilities. I don't think it will make much difference though. Maybe eventually Greece's dynamic reputation (if that still exists in the game) will slightly increase the chances of you getting a good player or two. I don't think this is a bug. This is pretty much the way the game works. I'm currently in a very different save (flying up the lower leagues and trying to improve the facilities as i go) and haven't had a intake worth signing for years. When i do the Ultimate Challenge with the top clubs in Europe, I rarely get anybody worth signing. The chances are that some of your intakees are potentially amongst the top Greek players and if you develop them, you might be able to cash in, but that would probably not worth the time it would take.

I don't know if this was before or after XaW, but there was once a very successful mini-challenge thread. It actually only lasted about 5 months, but caught fire during that time.

Nation with 2 cups advice still stands then. However, there are 2 usual / easiest ways to start this challenge. A) start in China / S Africa and finish in Europe B) Start in English lower leagues (or i guess any of the Big 5 lower leagues you can get a job in, but for some reason the other 4 tend to be quite tough), shoot up the english league as soon as poss, (probably changing jobs a couple of times), do Europe then the rest of the world. Which is the best approach kind of depends how good you are. But people have started elsewhere recently like Hungary or S America, (I think partly to do something different)

What are you after; progressing in the challenge quickly, or an interesting challenge? (As a preliminary piece of advice, if you're going to start outside the Big European 5, choose a nation with 2 domestic cups, since people usually fall behind on the cups).

I would encourage people to offer advice. Really, there's no limit to the things people can discuss on here. Let's share our anguish.

Not sure what your question means. Obviously there's a section for discussing tactics. It's not that you can't discuss it elsewhere. It's just that the most knowledgeable people are to be found there. Of course they know they're the most knowledgeable, and occasionally they're the most knowledgeable but also maybe wrong, which can lead to spikiness. They obviously do have an etiquette, but i personally don't know what it is. If someone tells you that you're wrong, don't get into an argument. Anyway, on this particular thread, I don't think there's any particular etiquette. I don't personally give infinite advice on which nation to start in, which jobs to take etc. I'm sure I do that quite a lot, but I sort of want people to forge their own path. But everybody else is welcome to discuss tactics and advice as much as they like.

Vikeologist's 2027/8 Canterbury Tales It was an awful season, apart from reaching the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round. (So, nothing to add to the leader board). I couldn’t get any decent players to join us, and believe me I tried. We were mid-table all season until a late spurt gave us a slim chance. We stood a chance of reaching the playoffs in our final match, but that would have involved beating the league champions away from home and about 4 teams above us losing or drawing. Anyway we lost and finished 5 points and 5 places outside the playoffs. There was nobody worth signing in the youth intake. We’re in debt and we’re going to have to expand the stadium to abide by league rules. If I can’t improve the team this is going to be difficult. Our future is not great. Top Goalscorer - Dennis Bossman – 13 13 goals in 45 matches. He’s supposed to be by far our best striker, but I’m going to export the stats and look at whether that’s really true at the start of next season. Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Lewis Hooper – 7.23 The only player above 7. Man of The Match - Lewis Hooper - 9 Most Valuable Player - Lewis Hooper Season Division Position Notes 23/24 Southern Counties East League Division 1 1st Won league on last day of season 24/25 Southern Counties East League Premier Division 1st League / County Cup double 25/26 Isthmian League South East Division 1st Won league on last day of season 26/27 Isthmian League Premier Division 6th League Cup Losing Finalists 27/28 Isthmian League Premier Division 10th Awful season Southern Counties East League Division 1 15 Southern Counties East League Premier Division 20 Southern Counties East League Cup 10 Isthmian League South East Division 30 Total 75

Welcome to the illustrious 3-timer's club, and congrats on being the first to complete on FM24.

Vikeologist's Víkingur 2032 Season Report Lots of 5 star potentials in my intake, and a few that I will consider starting next season, but as I can’t register them straight away, next season seems a long way away. I’m conscious that this might upset people, but I’m finding it hard to get into the save because of the long Icelandic names. I know that they only seem long because they have ‘son’ on the end of every one, but their names just feel long and similar. I’ve had to give a few of them short nicknames because I kept mixing them up. It also doesn’t help that even though I’m quite strict about which youth candidates I sign, with this lot of candidates on trial, I currently have 74 players on the books. I suppose our first season in the top division went well. We finished 5th, one place outside European qualifying. We lost a surprising amount of money though, so not qualifying for Europe is unsustainable. Squad Season Division Position Notes 2024 1 4th Icelandic Cup Q/F, Playoffs S/F. 2025 1 10th Survived on last day of the season. 2026 1 4th League Cup losing finalists. Playoffs S/F 2027 1 4th Playoff S/F 2028 1 5th Icelandic Cup. Qualified for Europa Conference. Lost in playoff final. 2029 1 5th Lost in playoff final. 2030 1 5th Lost in playoff S/F. 2031 1 1st League Cup, Icelandic Cup R/U, League champs and promoted. 2032 P 5th One place outside Euro qualification. At the moment the only changes for next year will be 3 of my intake for this year making it on to the bench. However I might start them for the league cup campaign, and sometimes once I blood the youngsters they never relinquish their place. Top Goalscorer – Vilhjálmur Gestsson 30a – 16 My lone striker. Highest Average Rating (minimum 10 matches played) – Kristófer Máni Atlason – 7.24 Atlason was my striker until Gestsson emerged. Now he’s almost entire a sub or fill-in, in either attacking midfield or attack. Man of The Match – Vilhjálmur Gestsson 30a – 4 Most Valuable Player– Konráð Freyr Eiríksson 29a 19 year old central defender.