Alma Mater

Grazer - preseason and transfers. While the scouts are working hard to identify recruitment targets for our limited budget, I set up an intense pre-season. The matches are a mix between lower level Austrian teams to boost morale, and a few from Bundesliga 2 to give us more of a challenge. Once the first friendlies are close, I bring in a few players on trial - specifically ones who would be available on free transfers or for very little money. I'm looking primarily for mezzalas, a back-up DLP and a back-up striker, although if I find a good cheap winger I'll consider it. In the very first game, against a Regional League team from Vienna, two of our trial midfielders show that they can produce goals. It's David Philip from Germany, who could play as either mezzala or winger, who scores in the 7th minute, and Alem Pasic, potential back-up for DLP or mezzala, who scores in the 86th. Between the two of them comes a goal from our own striker Philipp Ablinger. First Vienna only manage one goal. Two goals come from a header following a cross, and the first from Philipp's wrist finding the ball after a header following a cross. Too early to talke about a pattern, of course, but it's interesting. In the next game, David Philipp once again performs well, although our two goals come from Ablinger and an injury time header by Gantschnig. I start to think about twin mezzalas played by Filip and Philipp, despite knowing that Filip would prefer to be a winger. But I have other wingers, and those matching names are hard to resist. Just think what the fans could do with a set-up like that! Next, we test ourselves against Bochum from Bundesliga 2, and we're completely trounced. Their team was simply much better in every way, while I was trying out teenagers and trialists. After these first three matches, we reach the opening of the transfer window, and I make several hires right away. Aside from Philipp and Pasic, I pick up a potential DLP/mezzala, one mezzala/winger, and one winger/striker. All three are fairly young with good potential, but more back-ups than first eleven players at this point. In our first July game, we meet another Bundesliga 2 team, Magdeburg. I start my double Philips as mezzalas, and my two new wingers Keiblinger and Marte, mostly because everybody else is tired. We somehow manage to come away with a 1-0 win without playing well. Next is a lower-ranked Austrian team, so I rotate quite a bit. Among other things I move Huber into the DLP slot and bring in Fritz as a CD, while Mujkanovic and Ostermann take on the mez roles. Goals come from veteran midfielder Nutz and young striker Kiedl as we dispatch our opposition easily. Then we take on Shalke 04, and they're definitely not what they used to be. We dominate the game throughout, although it's not until the last few minutes that Kalajdzic snaps up a sloppy pass between their defenders and chips the ball into the top far corner, out of reach of their keeper. The final two matches of the pre-season are against Regional League teams, and we have no trouble with either. So we end the pre-season with a team that's won five matches in a row without conceding a single goal. Everybody's match sharpness is high, and there's no doubting our form. The only player I'm still looking to recruit is a back-up striker, and I have my eyes on someone there. We're ready for the season to begin!

Hello there! I have enjoyed reading stories here of other people's FM careers, and felt an urge to share my own. I should note that a) I'm fairly new to FM (as in a few months), and b) I'm currently four years into this save, so the story of the early days may lack some detail in places. This is a career in journeyman style more than strictly by the challenge rules, mainly because I haven't yet figured out how to make a amateur or semi-professional club work well, so I decided to start with a National C license and a past as a regional player. I've set some guidelines for myself, but at least some of them could be flexible in the right circumstances - time will tell. The guidelines: * Build for the future. Always try to do right by the club I'm currently employed by, even if I may not be around long enough to see the benefits. This means things like improving youth recruitment and facilities, securing long-term contracts whenever possible, etc. No shenanigans like giving a good player a shorter contract because I want to steal him away for my next club! * See the season out. This may change if a perfect offer comes along at a bad time, but I myself won't go looking for new jobs until a season is coming to its end, and won't leave until everything is wrapped up. * Work with what's there. I don't want to make too much of a change in the team as soon as I arrive; instead, I want to work with the players I have. Obviously, some selling and buying will typically need to be done, especially since I expect to be arriving in or just before a transfer window, but I'm not looking to change everything to suit my system. I'm the new one, I'll have to adjust to what's in place. By the next transfer window, I'll have a better idea of what's working and what isn't. * Integrity. I won't badmouth other managers or teams, blame the referees, or hang my own players out to dry with the press. (Unless they do something to really deserve it.) I will try to keep my players happy or at least content with their contracts and playing time, and I will embrace the club culture to the best of my ability. * Accomplish something. I won't leave a club until I can point to something I've accomplished with them. The obvious thing would be a trophy or promotion, but depending on the situation it could also be something like reaching a certain stage of Champions/Europa/Conference League, establishing feeder clubs on every continent, or improving all facilities to the max. I'll evaluate this as I go. I loaded at least the top two leagues of most European countries, started in the summer of 2021, and applied for all available manager jobs. It took a few months to get one.