SC Bastia — fmadventure blog Blog — CoffeehouseFM

For today’s post I’m going to employ the use of the popular How We Got Here TV trope. It is the running theme of shows such as How I Met Your Mother, where the preamble is actually the middle or end of the story and what follows is a chronicle of the preceding events. For the classics lovers amongst us, let’s call it In medias res as demonstrated in Homer’s Iliad.

On 27th December 2021 (in-game date) I was relieved of my duties by the board of Sporting Club Bastiais. Here’s how that happened…

In my intro post, I’d already outlined some issues with the squad. Namely that they were the oldest average age in the league and that there was little to no money to make any major changes. I was afforded room in the budget to make just one signing and it was that of Brazillian striker Kléber.

Admittedly making the move for a 38 year old striker probably doesn’t seem like the most logical decision after complaining about how old my squad was, however, it was a sticking plaster as a short term fix.

THE TACTICAL TAKE

We’ve been through this many times. I don’t talk up my ability to translate tactical theory well into FM. It’s a big area of struggle for me but usually I find something that clicks. Throughout my short tenure on Corsica I had adopted three main tactical set ups as below:

4-4-2 was my primary tactic, focused on getting the ball down the right wing and crossing in for one of the forwards or arriving midfielders to score - or at least that was the idea. 4-1-4-1 was something that never really got off the ground - why? I’m not really sure. 4-3-3 was my go to tactic for a panicky last 20 minutes when I needed a goal. For every match it worked there were two or three that it backfired and the gaps on the flanks allowed us to be carved open with ease.

As I’ve alluded to, this was an ageing squad - and an ageing squad is, generally, not a very fit squad. We ranked bottom of the league in terms of physical attributes. It didn’t suit the way I generally like to play the game which is very much quick paced transitions into attack. I also like to have tall centre backs (6’2” at minimum) and tall strikers - Bastia had neither of these.

SO IT WAS THE PLAYERS?

Yes and No. Truthfully, this Bastia side was filled with players that just simply weren’t anywhere near a Ligue 2 level. Physically, mentally and technically they lagged way behind the rest of the league. Sure, someone who is very good at FM could probably make it work but honestly that isn’t me. This was too much of a challenge for me.

IT ALL STARTED SO WELL

Pre-season isn’t about the results, it’s about minutes on legs and tactical preparation - this is what any half-decent football manager will tell you. I lost sight of that as we embarked on a pre-season tour (to mainland France) and came away with a number of impressive results. Not least, the draws with Auxerre, Sion and Fenerbahçe who are teams well beyond Bastia’s current position.

The Ligue 2 campaign even began quite promisingly. A hard fought scoreless draw at home to Nîmes (who at my time of writing are top of the league in-save, unbeaten in their 19 games) before a poor performance against Quevilly-Rouen. What followed was a classic against Nancy, coming back from 2-0 down at half time to seal our first win of the season. 4 points from a possible 9 - not a bad start.

What followed was painful. A run of seven games before our next win before another five unsuccessful league games leaving us just a point off the relegation spots. A 1-0 defeat to Championnat National 2 Blois Foot 41 was down to a 90+2 minute winner (loser for me) and the fans had officially turned against me.

Things were bad. Maybe I was foolish but I still felt that the tide could be turned here. In the month of December we had three league fixtures: Paris FC (18th), Sochaux (12th) and Rodez AD (19th). The board called a meeting and I promised that things would be better in a month’s time. How could they not be?

How wrong was I?! Paris outclassed us, Idriss Saadi’s finish really making the scoreline flatter us more than it should. We didn’t create a single shot on target against Sochaux. Kylian Kaïboue’s late winner against Rodez gave me the slightest glimpse of hope. Maybe I’d be given a chance in January to ship players out and bring in my own identity.

As we now know, the board were not keen. With Bastia sitting perilously in 19th place they moved to sack me. Am I bitter? Slightly. We were expected simply to avoid relegation and that wasn’t beyond the realms of possibilities at this point. Though I do understand why this happens in football. Maybe a new manager boost can push them on to where they need to be.

WHAT’S NEXT?

It’s a difficult question to answer. My whole way of playing these days is geared around picking a team and building them into MY team. I can’t just jump ship to a new team in this save. In short, this save is now dead. It’s back to the drawing board to decide on what I do next.

Unfinished business at Bastia? It remains unfinished. Don’t rule out my return there at some point in the future.

I’d love to say that there was a grand story to my decision to manage SC Bastia in FM22 but in reality there was nothing special about it. Upon the beta release of FM22, I made a decision on a whim to return to the club I had chosen for FM18.

On my original virtual jaunt to the island of Corsica, Sporting Club Bastiais were in a much different position than they are today. In the summer of 2017, Bastia found themselves relegated from Ligue 1 after finishing bottom of the league. Some further investigations by the relevant authorities ended with Bastia being demoted to the fifth tier of the French football pyramid. By the end of my FM18 save I had managed to return Bastia to the top flight.

Returning to modern day in the real world, Bastia have now fought back to get themselves into Ligue 2. A curious case of life imitating art, although granted our journeys to this level were both very different - somehow FM18 couldn’t predict the effects of a global pandemic in-game.

THE STATE OF PLAY IN CORSICA

If you’re looking for a fictional manager’s backstory at this point then you’ve come to the wrong place. A few people have carved a really good niche in this way of story telling and it’d be embarrassing for me to attempt to imitate that. Grand aims, objectives or targets? Sorry - not here. A quirky or uNiQuE approach to recruitment? Unlikely.

So what’s the point? Well, I’m just going to enjoy the game and try to win things if possible… that’s the purpose of the game, right?

During the beta, the Club Vision screen has set some very realistic aims for the near future. In the 2021/22 season all the board ask is that Bastia avoid relegation from Ligue 2. Indeed, beyond that and up to the end of the fifth season all they expect is that Bastia become an established team in Ligue 2. That’s music to my ears.

The Club Culture dictates that I should sign players under the age of 23 for the first team - the bread and butter of my FMing. As far as the 5 Year Plan goes the board have two important objectives: work within wage budget and sign players to sell for a profit - simple and sensible. As for contracts they prefer maximum one-year contracts for players over the age of 34 but minimum 2-year contracts for first-team players.

The senior squad I inherit is going to need a bit of work. We have an average age of 28 years old - the oldest in Ligue 2. In an attribute comparison across the league, we are generally below average across Physical, Mental and Technical. The average wage in the squad is £1.5k per week which is £1k per week less than the league average. We’re already at the maximum of our wage budget and with no transfer funds available. The current wage budget/spend is £43,652 per week across our roster of 28 registered players which leaves little wiggle room if we were to attempt a restructure of the wages.

MY PLAN FOR (HOPEFULLY?) SUCCESS

Our three highest rated players, according to the assistant manager, are all in the latter years of their careers. However, they do span the length of the pitch which allows me to use the famous phrase: spine of the team.

Idriss Saadi is a twice-capped Algerian striker. Despite being just 5’11” he has a number of attributes that suggest to me he can do a good job as a target up top. He’s no stranger to Ligue 2 having played at this level for Reims, Clermont and our rivals Gazélec Ajaccio previously. He also had a brief stint with Cardiff in 2015/16 where he made two appearances before spending the following season on loan with KV Kortrijk in Belgium in which he had his most prolific season of his career with 16 goals in 37 games. This is his first season with SC Bastia as a free signing following a less than impressive stint with Strasbourg in Ligue 1.

Lloyd Palun is our most capped player with 62 appearances for Gabon. The 32 year old defender is another new signing as a free agent after two seasons with EA Guingamp in Ligue 2. He’s had five seasons of top flight French football with (horror club) OGC Nice in the last decade but outside of that has spent much of his career in Ligue 2 or below with a two-season dalliance to Belgium with Cercle Brugge.

Christophe Vincent is a Bastia lad. The 28 year old was born in Bastia, graduating from the club’s academy to spend six years under contract here before a move to local rivals AC Ajaccio transpired. A three year break in Belgium with Cercle Brugge (alongside Lloyd Palun for two of those years) ensued before a return to Bastia in 2018 In the fifth tier National 3 to help the club in their revival efforts.

Eventually, should I stay with Bastia, I would like to use a 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-3 system with wing backs. For this first season, and with the aim of surviving the drop in mind, I feel that we might be better suited to something like a 4-1-4-1 or 4-4-2 to find more structure and stability.

The league rules allow for a maximum of five players on loan in any season (two long term deals from the same club). As we already have two young players in on loan from top flight clubs, that leaves me room to try and bring in a further three talented young players on loan - hopefully with minimal or no wage contribution. In the first year or two I will lean heavily on the loan and free agent markets. Hopefully I can find a few young end of season cast offs from the likes of PSG who I can end up profiting from as the board would like.

Trying to develop our own talent or young free agents is an approach I’ll try to get the best from. With this in mind I will take a long look at the quality of coaches that we can bring in to support that development. We begin pretty well set for first team coaches but there is a lot of recruitment required for the SC Bastia B team and the Under 19s.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

I enjoyed my FM18 save with Bastia but don’t remember actually winning anything. The same can be said for my FM21 save. I’m hoping to put that right in FM22 even if France continues to be a challenging place to find success. Now where are those wonderkid shortlists…