Hi folks, me again. It's been a while since the last update, and frankly a lot's been going on which I need to catch you up on.
In this update, I'll bring you up to speed on Frank's exploits in Romania across not one, but two seasons! Plus, later, I'll talk about how I got back into playing Football Manager after an unplanned hiatus kept me away for several weeks.
Shall we?
Save Update
It's pleasing to see the progress we've made, and reassuring to me that the lads are transferring what we do at training onto the pitch. There's no doubt in my mind, this is our year.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 12th December 2022
As mentioned earlier, I'm covering two seasons in this update so I'll try to stick to the facts and avoid boring you with the detail too much! We pick up the story on a balmy Summer evening as Frank is pondering the season ahead. [Cue plinky plunky music and transition to opening scene through a cloudy dreamlike veil]
Having kept pace with the league leaders for the first half of the 2020/21 season, Frank fully expected to pick up that good form again and push it all the way through to the end of the following season. League rules stipulate you must have two Romanian U19s in the playing XI at all times and this was an area that would prove challenging this term. With limited funds available, and the value of Romanian players under the age of 19 being so high, Frank had no choice but to look at loan signings.
Loans bring a certain amount of risk with them in that you don't know how long they will take to bed in and start delivering. Nonetheless he raided the top division for some young, up and coming talent in Talmaciu (DC), Panoiu (MR) and Androne (MC), which was supplemented with Mitran (DC) and Jano (ST) joining on free transfers, bolstering the squad depth in the process.
With the squad in place, the 2021/22 season got under way and things seemed to be going to plan come end of August. Four wins, a draw and a loss kept Farul in the top three and Frank seemed sure that his transfer business and loyalty to last year's players would prove a winning combination. That was before the wheels came off though.
A run of seven straight defeats saw the team slip down the league and despite a slight recovery towards the end of the calendar year with a run of 9 games without defeat, we still found ourselves in a measly 12th place, 8 points off of 3rd.
The second half of the season didn't see a great deal of improvement, with a mixed bag of results seeing the team climb the table a little, but never reaching the form we'd struck in the previous campaign. We finished in a semi-respectable 7th place on 58 points, 2 places and 1 point below last year's effort.
With what felt like a hefty step in the wrong direction, Frank didn't waste a second in turning his back on a turgid campaign and approached the forthcoming 2022/23 season with renewed determination.
For starters, he had the good sense to look at the man in the mirror first, and recognised that his coaching abilities were below standard. He swiftly enrolled on a new training course to attain his National B licence, a decision the Board fully supported.
Next up was another look at the squad list, now with significant holes as a result of our average loanees returning to their parent clubs. Having been thrifty with limited funds over the course of the last few seasons, the club were now at least on a fairly sure footing. Constanta also had the added bonus of having a brilliant academy in place, and while most of the players would never make the first team, they would at least fetch a fair price given their status in this league: they're under 19 and their nationality is Romanian.
Frank shipped half a dozen U19 players off to better homes, raking in £50k in transfer fees, which he coupled with the boards generous budget to give himself an £80k kitty.
One area we'd really not invested in since Frank arrived was midfield, so in came Marius Airinei, on loan from Liga I champions FCSB, and Slovakian Martin Gambos to bring quality and experience to thata rea of the pitch. For the flanks, we shelled out £54k on 18yo Romanian George Pacealoiu on the right, and signed Ukrainian Denys Yanakov for the left.
Denis Radu joined as a utility man and second choice DR, while Nedelcu (18) and Curt (18) were promoted from the U19s to play at DC and ML respectively.
With the team now in place and looking stronger than ever, the 2022/23 Liga II season got under way and we were off to a great start. As with the previous season, we secured four wins and a draw from our opening 6 games, but unlike the last campaign, we didn't completely collapse in the weeks that followed.
In fact, the team took just one more loss in September, before going undefeated for the rest of the calendar year and finding themselves in 3rd place at Christmas, and 5 points off top spot. Meanwhile, in the Cupa Romaniei we'd managed to progress to the 6th Round having dispatched fellow Liga II outfit Academia Clinceni and first division side Dunarea Calarasi in the 4th and 5th rounds respectively, Frank's best cup run in his tenure.
Frank had recently attained his National B licence and with the mid-season break upon us, he promptly enrolled on the next course for his National A licence. He was also awarded the December Manager of the Month award which followed watching as the England national team won the World Cup in Qatar. Life was good at the moment.
Our Winter Break was interrupted by the 6th Round cup tie against Concordia, but our scintillating form saw us dump them out of the competition with a superb 4-0 win away. As the season resumed in late February, it seemed the side were destined to continue their winning streak, but come March our by now familiar annual collapse was upon us, starting with a cup exit in the Quarter finals, and followed by a run of two defeats and two draws.
We were slipping out of promotion contention and despite a slight improvement towards the end of March, you could see that the frustration was starting to get to Frank.
The wobble looked certain to continue as April opened in with another defeat and then a goalless draw. Something stirred in the dressing room. Opportunity knocked and the team got their act together, sprinting toward the finish line in style. The automatic promotion places were long gone, as we were 8 points behind 2nd with four games left to play, but with the chasing pack hot on our heals, we had to maximise the points.
We landed ourselves a play off spot where we would contend with Liga I relegation threatened FC Arges, our nemesis from previous campaigns. Two second half goes gave us victory in the first leg, but it took a special 81st minute equaliser in the reverse tie away from home to secure our place back in the big time. "Farul Constanta win promotion to Liga I" blared the headlines.
Frank's delight at promotion was evident for all to see. Next season would be by far his biggest challenge yet, especially since staying in the top flight had proven near impossible for most clubs going up from Liga II. Budget will be an issue as well, given the measly prize money attainable at this level, but with some shrewd maneuvering and a bit of blind faith in the team that got us there, we can work at staying up and building a foundation for the future.
Find out how we fared in the next update.
Getting Back to Work
Picture the scene. You're loving your FM save. You're fully immersed in the fictional universe. Then, BAM! Real life gets in the way, or maybe your enthusiasm starts to wane, or worse, your computer gives out and you’re left staring at the black screen of death.
If you're in the latter category, my condolences, but none of this will help you. But for those of us that have found ourselves sidetracked at some point in our FM careers, whether through our own decisions or the environment around us, it can be hard to get back into the swing of things.
For me, I had such big plans and high hopes for FM20, and while the year is still young, it's fair to say I've not played anywhere near as much as I thought I would have done by this point. Aside from the obvious challenges associated with Covid-19 and my three kids now all at home full time, a combination of starting a new job and my discovery of another game I've gotten into (Minecraft) has kept me away from FM for quite a while.
But given how much of your time is invested into FM, it can be a struggle to find your rhythm again when you do get back into it. Of course, one solution here is to simply start again. No need to go through old notes or try and remember what tactic you'd set up, or who your best player was. Pick a new team and go again.
The downside to starting again is you lose all the progress you've made, even if you're struggling to remember what that progress was. All is not lost though, here are a few simple steps you can take to getting yourself back up to speed on what was going on when you stopped playing.
Write that down - start with your own notes. If you're anything like me you'll have a spreadsheet, a notebook or even a blog that you can consult - or all of the above! You might be the type of manager to utilise the in-game "Reminders" feature so have a look there as well for anything insightful.
You've got mail - check your inbox. Working backwards, take a look at recent emails you received from your back room team, paying particular attention to injury or suspension updates, plus anything sent through from your PA. You'll be amazed at what you start to remember about your save, just from checking a few of the headlines
Fixtures and results - take a look at your recent results and when your next game is. How was the form? Would fixture congestion have played a part in your team selection? What about who's up next? Anything to be concerned about in the short term future?
Last game - pull up the analysis from your last game and check who played, who performed well/badly, and any other insights into your setup that you can glean
Assess the squad - scan through who's been picked, who's on the bench and who's not in the match day squad. Any injuries or poor fitness worth noting? What about suspensions? Has your superstar been left out from the last game? We need to work out why before chucking him back in so consult his Info page or review your email again to get more detail.
League rules - this often gets overlooked but there's nothing worse than forgetting the rules for your league and discovering one of your new signings is ineligible to play, or you sold off a player that helped you meet the home grown restrictions
FM Admin - it's tempting to just crack on with it from here, but before you click "Continue", just take a few more minutes running through the usual admin areas and potentially avoid a world of pain if you've overlooked something. Are there any adjustments needed for Training? Any contract renewals that need your attention or are about to be finalised? Any unfinished transfer business that's pending. What about your staff? Did your assistant leave before you could identify his replacement?
I'd say the above took me less than 30 minutes to whiz through. I rediscovered my starting GK was out of the team owing to an injury he'd just recovered from, my assistant manager accepted an offer from a rival club and I'd not gotten on to finding a replacement yet, plus my next game was in about 1 minute and against a local rival - all critical information I had long forgotten.
Since I was in the groove of reassessing the club, i also took the time to look again at my tactics and, with the help of the match analysis, i was able to make a few tweaks that have led to significant improvement on the pitch.
I suspect for many, the thought of not playing the game on a regular basis is laughable anyway, but for those of you looking to get back into the swing of things after an absence, I hope this helps you recapture your spark!
Content Corner
In this section I've highlighted some of the content I've been consuming of late. There are some excellent content creators out there, some old and some new, and the vast majority of which are all on Slack so I strongly advise you to join that community and check them out here.
Best Save Update Blog: I've been really enjoying FromElevenOne's save updates from his time with FK Macva Sabac in Serbia. Read here about how he's building a dynasty in the Balkans.
Best Advice Blog/Article: I had to change this last minute owing to a brilliant piece from FMRensie that he released this week. It's a great article on getting the most of your coaches advice and well worth a read if you're looking for that little extra percentile to give you the edge.
Best Audio/Video: Something different this time after I tumbled down a YouTube rabbit hole and stumbled across a brilliant interview with Ian Holloway. The interview talks through the various challenges Holloway faced with roles at QPR (rebuild project), Leicester (consolidation), Blackpool (chasing promotion) plus others, and how he handled things with his own management style. You get a great insight into the world of football management, and it's given me a lot to consider for my FM world. Check it out here.
And that's it for another update from me. Thanks so much for reading down this far, I hope you enjoyed it. As ever your feedback is always welcome either here in the comments, on Twitter or on my Slack channel. If you're not already on Slack then you're missing out. It's free to join, there's no pressure to post anything, and you'll find there are some excellent people who you can chat to if you want.
I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.