Down the Danube | #12 - News, Social and the Not-so-Never-Ending Story

November 5, 2020

Welcome back to the River Danube, where after a successful spell with Bulgaria's CSKA Sofia, Frank M. Athlete is now on the hunt for his third job as he continues his pursuit for greatness as a Football Manager.

In this episode, we'll find out how Frank got on finding new employment, plus I'll discuss my least favourite aspect of FM, the news and social screens, and how I've tried to make them more interesting to me.

This will be my last update from the Down the Danube series as I look ahead to the release of FM21 and my plans for next year. Before we go any further, I just want to say thanks for reading the blog this year and I look forward to continuing with it next year as well.

Save Update

To say I'm thrilled to be here is an understatement. This is a dream come true for me, and I cannot wait to get started.
An extract from Frank M. Athlete's first press conference at the club, 7th February 2031

As we discussed in the last update, Frank has now conquered two of the nine playable countries (Moldova isn't available in FM20) that the River Danube travels through, or borders, with spells at Farul Constanta in Romania and CSKA Sofia in Bulgaria.

In terms of his next job, Frank was looking to take a step up to a higher reputation club, however having taken CSKA Sofia and the Bulgarian first league to a much higher standard, this left much fewer options if he was going to continue progressing his career.

His other challenge was identifying a club that was a little closer to the Danube, since that is what had drawn him to this part of the world in the first place, and with Sofia being 150 km away from the river at it's nearest point, he'd grown to miss it again.

Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia all had good options in terms of proximity to the Danube with the river weaving through Belgrade, Budapest and Bratislava, but none of the clubs operating in their top leagues had anywhere near a high enough reputation level to tempt Frank.

Ukraine had both Shatkar Donetsk and Dynamo Kiev as high enough reputation clubs, but neither are near to where the Danube runs between Ukraine and Moldova, nor are they close to the Black Sea, so they were discounted as well.

This leaves the top leagues in Austria, Croatia and Germany as Frank's most likely destination. The Austrian Bundesliga presented FK Austria Vienna and Rapid Vienna with high enough reputations and situated on the Danube, while in Croatia the only real option would be NK Osijek as they met all the criteria.

In Germany, the likes of Augsburg, Freiburg, Stuttgart and Bayern Munich are all close enough to the Danube, but Frank felt the German Bundesliga was likely to be a step too far at this stage of his career.

As the months dwindled on, Frank watched each of these clubs with interest, waiting for a position to become available that he could apply for. Other clubs based along the Danube showed some interest in him, with LASK (Austria), FCSB (Romania) and Ferencvárosi (Hungary) all offering interviews, while Dinamo and Hajduk did the same but their distance from the Danube meant Frank rejected the offers.

It took until the turn of the year before movement started to happen, with the manager at Osijek becoming Very Insecure and the role at Stuttgart becoming available too towards the end of January 2031. Frank duly applied for both, hoping for some interview practice if the Osijek role became available or Stuttgart were kind enough to oblige.

What happened next was most unexpected.

Frank really thought this would be too big a jump, but when a club of Stuttgart's stature come knocking, it's hard to ignore and so as of 7th February 2031, Frank M. Athlete is the manager of VfB Stuttgart.

Stuttgart lays on the banks of the Neckar valley and is around 80 km North West of the Danube at it's nearest passing in Ulm. The city is also just 120 km North of the source of the river, and 80 km East of the River Rhine. It's Germany's 6th largest city and has been a major hub since the 7th Century when Roman occupation saw huge development in the region.

VfB Stuttgart was founded in 1912 after the merging of two local clubs, and they currently play their home games at the Mercedes-Benz Arena which was originally built in 1933. Stuttgart have a total of 5 Bundesliga titles to their name, the last one coming in 2007, however in recent year's they've finished 2nd in 2025 and 2027 and were 3rd in the 2024 campaign. They were also last year's runners up in the DFB-Pokal.

Frank's arrival at he club was met with the usual amount of scepticism from the players that had followed him throughout his career. A quick look through the playing staff and it was clear the club had hit a rut. Very few young players had graduated from the academy which was ranked as Superb with Excellent Youth Recruitment. The exception here is Wonderkid Serdar Saral who is quite simply the best player Frank has had the chance to manage so far.

Most of the players that have been a regular feature of the 2030/31 season are 29 or older and should be in their prime, but too many have under-performed, leaving the club languishing in mid-table and in danger of finishing in the bottom half of the league.

Just six league wins and five draws to their name from their opening twenty fixtures, plus an early second round cup exit, meant Stuttgart's season was going any way except to plan.

Frank's first test would be Schalke 04 the day after he started, and so with little time to influence training, he opted for a simple 4-4-2 set up that would utilise most of our better players. They held out well but in the end, succumbed to a 1-0 defeat. The tactic looked ok, and Frank stuck with it for the next couple of games against Wolfsburg and Augsburg, securing another loss, followed by a draw respectively.

A slight tweak to the tactic saw one of our strikers drop in as an Enganche in the AMC slot, while our two wide men pushed forward into the attacking strata as well. Frank didn't given any specific instructions for when the lads had possession, encouraging them to trust there instincts while maintaining a defensive mentality.

Frank was impressed with how quickly they grasped the new system in training and as we headed into March, we picked up a first win for Frank against bottom of the league SC Paderborn, with another five points coming from our next three games. We continued that vein of form with another win and a draw against Bayer Leverkuesen and Borussia Dortmund respectively, both clubs now shadows of their former selves of ten years prior.

Stuttgart would go on to secure just one more win against Freiburg from our remaining five games, with four losses to Frankfurt, RB Leipzig, FC Bayern and St. Pauli to add to our tally. Frank's first 14 league games saw him record 4 wins, 4 draws and 6 losses. It was evident that we couldn't close out the wins against teams around us, and we were currently no match for any of the league's big hitters.

Despite a disappointing league season, we still scraped into the top half of the table and so we at least met the Board's minimum requirements. Additionally, Stuttgart's placement in the Europa Conference League meant there was still a chance of some silverware too.

Having qualified as Group H winners, they entered the Second Knockout Stage where a tie against Turkish side Besiktas awaited them and we comfortably beat them with a 4-0 aggregate win to set up a Quarter Final tie against Sion. Another clean sheet here over both games, winning 5-0 across both legs.

Hungary's Ferencvaros awaited us in the Semi Final with another comfortable performance in both games, winning 3-0 at home and then 1-0 away to set up a Final against Basel.

Confidence was high and the lads duly delivered, running out 3-0 winners and claiming Frank's first trophy from Europe in the process. The Board were delighted and it set the tone for what will hopefully be a successful spell with the club going forward.

Perhaps most pleasing about the campaign though was the fact we didn't concede a single goal over all seven games.

In all the excitement of winning the trophy, it had even escaped Frank that this would mean qualification for Europe next year as well. We'll be entering the Europa League at the group stages next term and can hopefully do just as well as we test ourselves against better opposition.

As you'll see from the final league table, the gulf between 7th and 8th equates to a massive 16 points and so we'll have our work cut out to drastically improve next year.

Now that Frank had had a chance to review the squad in more detail, he would be using his time over the Summer to move on a number of expensive under-performing players, with the hope of bringing in hungrier talent that can take the club to new heights.

News & Social

This has arguably become one of the least useful features for me over the years. It's one of the first screens I disable from my flow and i'll only jump into it when I want to see something specific.

However, in FM20 I've found myself trying to get more from this part of the game and have invested some time into changing my settings. I think I have it working the way I want it to now and have shared my ideas below:

1. Ignore the Advice

Part of the problem for me is there's so much news that's not relevant, so the first thing I did was ignored all the advice from my Personal Assistant, and unsubscribed from the various leagues and cups that he'd suggested i follow.

2. Be selective

With a blank slate, I set about building in the topics that would be interesting to me, and this differs depending on where I am in the game. For example, during spells of unemployment, I'll follow clubs that I'd like to manage or leagues that I'd like to manage in, where as when at a job i'll follow the competitions we're in, along with players i want to track.

3. Add in the detail

With every item I subscribe to, I'll be sure to go in to the settings and change both the content level and the individual line items. From here you can decide which items you're interested in, and how you'd like to receive them.

4. Make the most of the split between News and Social

If it's vital I read it, I make sure it's on the social feed and if it's just a "nice to know" then it goes into News. This turns my social page into essential info only so I'm very selective about what appears here.

5. Keep on top of it

Sounds obvious, but it's easy for this to become outdated so I've tried to be as diligent about this as I would be about player contracts or scouting assignments. So far, it's paying off as well, with less clutter and what feels like more relevant information appearing for me.

Content Corner

Usually in this section I'd be highlighting some of the content I've been consuming of late, however since this is the last in the series, I thought I'd talk more about my own experience of content creation this year and my plans for FM21. Before that though, let me first point out that 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 join that community and check them out here.

So, it's fair to say that my Down the Danube series didn't quite go the way I thought it would. By that, I mean that I didn't get anywhere near as much game time as I expected, and as such I was someway off ending the series at a high profile club and a Champions league title or two. I still had a great time discovering new leagues, nations and clubs and I feel like the concept of managing clubs along the Danube is something I may revisit in the future.

A change in real life job for 2020 also meant that as the year's drawn on, I've had less time to write updates for the blog, hence why its been three months since the last one got posted! This has definitely got me thinking about FM21, and while it's true that I really only write this blog for myself, I've been conscious of wanting to keep it semi-regular too. Next year I'll most likely be posting updates as and when i feel like it, rather than at the end of each in-game season and I'm hoping that this approach will strike the right balance for me.

In terms of where I'll be managing, I'm going to save that reveal for the next blog post. However, I will reveal that for the first time since 2007, I will not be doing a journeyman save this year (insert audible gasp here). As I've documented many times, I absolutely love journeyman saves, but I feel like I need a change for this year and I'm very excited about the project I'll be working on in FM21.

I've also reverted back to placing FM on my Christmas list, rather than being a grown up about it and just buying it when it drops. I'm sure many of you will think I'm mad for this, but it's been a tradition that goes back over 20 years where come Christmas Night/Boxing Day, after months of suspense, I finally get to start playing. I missed that last year, plus in addition, there were a few potential teething problems at the start of FM20 that may or may not have impacted my save and led me to hold off starting it until well into December anyway, so what's another few weeks wait?

In the meantime, I hope you all enjoy your beta saves, and I shall be eagerly reading as many blog posts as I can find as more and more of you start revealing what you'll be up to in FM21.

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 soon with my save reveal for FM21!

Down the Danube | #11 - League Reviews

July 10, 2020

Welcome back to Sofia where after three consecutive league titles, CSKA Sofia will do battle and attempt a fourth championship while furthering their standing in the Champions League.

As we enter Frank's fifth year in Bulgaria, we'll also take a look at the leagues we've played in so far and I'll share my thoughts on each of them.

Save Update

Without a doubt, this has been our toughest challenge to date, but we're not out yet. All we can do is keep going and try to turn this run around.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 24th February 2030

As another new season beckoned, Frank looked to the future in his summer transfers, with a number of youngsters joining as he looked to use up some budget.

In terms of first team recruits, only two are worth a mention. John Martin joined on a free from Liverpool and would bring us enormous strength in defensive midfield, essential for our more conservative approach in Europe, while Czech international Pavel Popisil joins for £7.75M from Slavia Prague and will feature at the heart of central defence this year.

The new campaign kicked off with another Super Cup win, although it took Frank's men a penalty shootout to overcome Ludogorets. Thankfully, things improved in our opening few league games, taking 15 points from our first five games and only conceding one goal in the process.

It would be another 6 weeks before we recorded another win, with three draws and a disappointing home defeat to CSKA 1948 in our next league games. This downturn in form saw the team slip to 3rd in the table, with Botev Plovdiv and Levski both edging ahead of us.

Frank began to wonder whether he should have moved on from CSKA Sofia before the season had begun. With three consecutive titles under his belt, there was an overwhelming feeling of "what next?" about the club. He had hoped the answer would lie in Europe, where we would start in the Champions League Group D, and after a few near misses in recent years, would hope to qualify from the group this time, despite some tough opponents.

Wolfsburg at home were first, and our defensive tactic couldn't hold them as they left with all the points and a 1-0 victory. September's very average performances were joined by an early exit from the Kupa Bulgariya, as second division side Lokomotiv Sofia knocked us out. The board were not happy.

As we headed into October, it was clear something needed to be done to get the side back to winning ways. Consecutive losses only added to our woes, with Inter Milan smashing us 4-1 and then Arda taking all the points in the league four days later.

This would be the last defeat for a while, but points dropped in both Champions League games against CSKA Moscow meant our European adventure was already all but over. We'd go on to lose both of our next group games to leave us flailing at the bottom of the group with a -10 goal difference, and ensure we wouldn't even have enough about us to drop into the Europa League knockout stages.

With just the domestic league left to contest, things had certainly improved and the side secured five more wins as we ran into the Christmas period. Despite a few wins, we still managed to lose valuable points as we drew to the likes of Lokomotiv Plovdiv, Ludogorets and CSKA 1948, and became firmly rooted to 4th position.

After the winter break, we had two essential fixtures lined up. Levski and Botev Plovdiv were above us in the league and winning against both would help restore us to first place and provide the footing for our title defence. What Frank didn't anticipate was losing both games, with the latter coming particularly hard as we led with 5 minutes to go and conceded twice late on.

Ten points from twelve in our remaining games was enough to have us in third as we split into the Champions Group. There was a lot of ground to make up as we trailed league leaders Levski by 7 points, but Frank still had belief we could recover.

From ten Champions Group games, Frank only suffered one defeat, with Beroe beating us at home on the last day of the season. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done at this point. Despite an absence of defeats, we also only managed three wins as the Curse of the Draws reached the Bulgarian capital.

With so many points dropped, it won't come as a surprise to you that our title defence proved laughable. In fact, we were lucky that Botev Plovdiv's form turned out to be more dire than our own as they slipped to 4th place and finished a full ten points behind us.

In the end, both Ludogorets and Levski were too strong for us and this season would definitely go down as one to forget.

In fact, Frank's early-season wonderings of whether or not he should move on, resurfaced as the season neared its end and as the final whistle was blown against Beroe, he immediately went to the Board to tender his resignation. He felt he'd taken CSKA Sofia as far as he could and in truth, he probably should have left last season and moved on to a new challenge sooner.

In terms of what's next, Frank has some ideas on where he'd like to venture to, but having spoken to him, he'd like to reveal those ideas in the next update. Until then...

League Reviews

Part of my interest in doing this Down the Danube series, was the prospect of managing in some leagues that I'd not played in yet during my FM career. As Frank's time with CSKA Sofia draws to a close, I thought i'd take the chance to write a short review of Romania's Liga I and Bulgaria's First League, now that I've had the chance to manage there.

Structure

In many ways, both leagues are very similar in terms of their structure. Both have 14 sides with everyone playing each other twice, before the league splits into two groups. The top six sides after 26 matches enter the Championship Group while the bottom 8 sides all contest the Relegation Group in the fight for survival.

Each group plays another home and away fixture so the Championship Group play another 10 games while the Relegation Group play 14 more. In both leagues, the team bottom after the Relegation Group games is relegated while 7th place will contest a playoff with whoever placed second in the second division.

Whoever is top after the Championship Group games is declared the winner, while 2nd, 3rd 4th and 5th all claim places in the various European competitions. Finally, the bottom side in the Championship Group will play against the top side of the Relegation Group for one final European place, a worthy prize for those teams scrabbling in mid-table.

The significant difference between the leagues is the points allocation after the league splits. In Romania, teams take half their points from the first stage of the season with them into closing stages, while in Bulgaria, all the teams keep all the points they've earnt to date.

This means, if a side has built up a significant points lead before the split, then that gap will be cut in half for Romania's Championship Group, whereas in Bulgaria the gap would be kept intact.

Wealth

Both these leagues are certainly at the lower end of the reputation spectrum, meaning the prize money for domestic success is almost non-existent. Most of the money that successful clubs in these divisions earn comes from participating on the European circuit, and unsurprisingly it's the same teams that are making those appearances each year.

The money they earn from wins and draws in Europe, can then be used to buy more expensive players, which then gives them a better chance of qualifying for Europe next year, and so the cycle repeats.

Despite that challenge, with Farul Constanta I was able to stay in the top division after promotion, and because even the Relegation Group includes a chance of qualifying for Europe, it's quite plausible that after a few successful seasons domestically, you can start to earn some of that much needed cash.

A decent recruitment network is key to that and at Farul, we had a great one which i think is what helped us to do so well.

Ultimately though it's hard to build up enough cash reserves that you can compete with clubs in Germany or France. Even with CSKA Sofia repeatedly coming out on top domestically, we were still at their mercy when it came to our players getting poached for a lot less than their true worth. To that end, squad building is essential if you're going to enjoy long-term success.

Teams

Both leagues have 3 or 4 clubs that can realistically compete for domestic honours each year, with another 3 or 4 capable of challenging for the European places.

In Romania, FCSB were certainly the most dominant side in Liga I, but struggled to claim back to back titles as FC Viitorul and Universitatea Craiova shared the honours over the years. The likes of Dinamo Bucaresti and CFR Cluj were also regular features in the top half and were rarely replaced by lesser opposition.

In Bulgaria, Ludogorets dominated the First League for over 10 years in my save, with CSKA Sofia, Botev Plovdiv and Levski all sharing 2nd, 3rd and 4th between them over the years. What I liked most about the league though, was the occasional assault from some of the lower league sides as they attempted to raid the top 4. Dunav and Beroe were effective at this to begin with, with Arda and eventually CSKA 1948 managing to do this very effectively as well.

Conclusion

I can't recommend these two leagues enough. For me, they have everything that you'd come to want in an FM save, whether you're looking to take a club from the bottom up, or you want to topple one of the dominant sides and stake a claim as the greatest of all time.

In Romania, it's very open and there's a great chance to make your mark with one of the smaller clubs. I'd say the way the points are halved after the preliminary phase of the season will also help your chances here too.

Bulgaria is crying out for someone to usurp Ludogorets, and with plenty of sides that are capable of doing it, there's a lot of choice for you to pick the club that matches your ambition. I'd also add, i think Bulgaria is the better choice if you harbour ambitions to do well in Europe, particularly because the other top sides in the league will also do well in Europe, which in turn will help the league's reputation to grow.

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 join that community and check them out here.

Best Save Update Blog: The FM blogging scene continues to be stronger than ever with plenty of updates posted to keep us entertained. This week I read up on From Eleven, One's adventures in Serbia as he has a big decision to make with FK Mačva Šabac.
Best Advice Blog/Article: Hard to pick just one this week, since some great content creators have written some excellent pieces along a similar theme of late: tactics! Catch up on FM Samo's post on his 4-1-2-3 tactic, Oliver Jensen's post on Pep's 4-3-3 tactic, and FM Rensie's post on his 4-1-4-1 DM Wide system.
Best Audio/Video: The GrassNGear podcast returned this week after Covid-19 forced an entirely unnecessary hiatus. Nonetheless, it's good to hear the dulcet tones of FM Grasshopper and DGear86 of Boliva Bolton fame again and I suggest you give it a listen if you haven't already!

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #10 - Squad Rotation

July 3, 2020

Welcome back to Bulgaria where two time First League champions CSKA Sofia begin the defence of their title, while also looking to go one step further on last year in their campaign for a first League Cup win under Frank's leadership.

I'll also discuss my approach to squad rotation as the games continue to come think and fast, and every player wants a slice of the action.

Save Update

What a performance! I'm so pleased for the lad, and yet I also know that the sharks will now be circling. We'll just have to enjoy him in a CSKA Sofia shirt while we can.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 18th April 2029

With such a young side that are still improving, Frank struggled to identify where best to strengthen as he planned for the 2028/29. Full back is one position that could probably be improved but finding players better than what we have has proved impossible.

Instead, the only two signings he made were Bulgarian, Lachezar Georgiev, a 20yo DC who could be rotated in and keep our back line strong, plus a long term investment in Maikon, an 18yo winger who we can develop for the future.

Elsewhere, academy starlet Borislav Velev cements his place in our 25-man squad after impressive form on loan last season, while Ivan Peychev returns from his own loan spell to provide cover in central midfield.

As was becoming an annual tradition, our first fixture was the Superkupa where we were comfortable winners against Lokomotiv Plovdiv and guaranteed our first piece of silverware for the season.

As is also becoming something of a tradition, we then lost our opening league game to Botev Plovdiv, letting a 2-1 lead slip in the process. A run of 8 league games followed where we racked up 6 wins and two draws, the latter results coming against the newly promoted sides where they seemed to play without fear against us, and we didn't know how to respond.

This year's Champions League group pitted us against Borussia Dortmund, Chelsea and Juventus, otherwise known as the Group of Death! Dortmund were up first and our now famous 4-1-4-1 Cautious tactic saw us soak up oodles of pressure, while hitting them on the break. A scrappy 1-0 away win was a our reward in this game before playing the same trick on Juventus at the end of the month. We struggled to create but a 0-0 home draw was still a good result as far as Frank was concerned.

In between our two Champions League encounters, we secured two more league wins against mid-table regulars Septemvri Sofia and Etar, with our only other September fixture coming in the first round of the Kupa Bulgariya. No upsets for us this year as we despatched Hebar in 2-0 win.

As we rolled into October, CSKA Sofia had now not conceded a goal in 6 games across all competitions. Perhaps evidence that Frank's decision not to bring in too many new faces was paying off.

The natural order of things was restored in the next tie though, as local rival Slavia Sofia beat us on our own patch 1-0, which led us into the next game against Chelsea in the CL, where we were overpowered 3-2 by a much stronger side.

A win in the next round of the league cup saw us through to the Quarter Finals next month, while we managed a win and a draw in our other two league games for the month. Top of the table in the league at the end of October, and holding our own in the Champions League as well.

On the 1st November we travelled to Chelsea and our trusty cautious approach paid dividends again with another 1-0 win against much stronger opposition. Unfortunately this would prove the only high of the month, as despite a scrappy 1-0 win against newly promoted Tsarko selo, we were trumped 3-0 at home to Ludogorets, lost to Dortmund at home in the Champions League and then had to rescue a draw against Beroe.

We even made our league cup Quarter Final as difficult as possible, taking it all the way to penalties against Tsarko selo, where we eventually won to go through to the final four.

December would see us recapture some of our league form, collecting seven from a possible nine points, but defeat at Juventus saw us thrown out of the Champions League as we finished bottom of the group, level on points with Juventus and a point shy of 2nd placed Dortmund. Could we take solace in the fact we were attained the most points of any side that finished bottom of their group? Not really.

As the league split and we took up our familiar place in the Champions Group, confidence of securing another league title was high in Frank's camp. They say that overconfidence leads to complacency and we didn't disappoint with consecutive losses to Arda and then Ludogorets, seeing the chasing pack catch up with us in the league.

With the first leg of the League Cup semi-final to follow, we went ahead and made it three losses from three, making things twice as tough when we'd meet up with Botev Plovdiv in a couple of weeks time.

Before that, we got back on form with a handy 2-0 defeat of our rivals CSKA 1948, which stood us in good stead as we lined up for the second leg of the Semi-Final in the cup. What followed is quite simply the best individual performance I've witnessed in a competitive game on Football Manager, EVER!

You may recognise Velev from my Youth Development experiment in the last post. He's a player that has gone from strength to strength, now pinning down a starting place in our first XI.

In this game, Velev almost single handedly recovered our 1 goal deficit in the first leg with a masterclass in the reverse fixture. 5 goals, 87% shots on target and a stunning perfect 10 rating. What a player!

With a place in the cup final assured, we just had the small matter of the league run-in to contend with.

Botev Plovdiv were our opponents in the next game as well, this time keeping us at bay with a 2-2 draw. Two wins and two draws in our next four league matches was enough to see us stay top of the table, and put us within touching distance of a third successive title with just one more win needed.

Before that, we had a League Cup final to contest. Having been defeated in last year's final, Frank had every intention of winning this one. Our opponents would be long-time rivals Ludogorets and they started the game with the intensity we expected as we headed in at half time with the score tied at 0-0.

In the second half we blew them away, going 2-0 up before they pinched one back. With minutes left we put it beyond them with Morales grabbing our third and securing our first cup win under Frank's tenure.

Back to the league where we were one win from bagging the title. Ludogorets were our opponents again and we expected a response having beaten them in the cup. We left it late but broke the deadlock on 76 minutes with a converted penalty, and doubled our lead on 84 minutes. No response from Ludogorets, and we closed out the game to clinch the title.

A domestic treble is no mean feat, especially given how competitive Bulgaria's First League is, and Frank was still smiling at the success of the side in the Champions League.

A tremendous season, all things considered. We were not as convincing in the league as in previous championships but we did enough and grabbing all three was a fantastic achievement.

In addition to Frank's induction into Bulgaria's Hall of Fame, our success coupled with Ludogoret's and Levski's performances in Europe also saw the Bulgarian First League rise to 9th place in the European rankings, quite an achievement when you consider how competitive many of the other leagues are.

Having won it all domestically this season, Frank will be trying to do it all again next year with the added incentive of trying to go beyond the group stages in the Champions League. Tune in next time and see how he fared.

Squad Rotation

In FM20, the way we manage a player's game time got a huge upgrade, with individual players now expecting a certain amount of minutes on the pitch as part of their contractual negotiations and their squad status.

If I'm honest, I've almost completely ignored what squad status players are signing as when I bring them in, but so far in this save I haven't had to worry too much.

At Farul Constanta, we had a relatively small squad to begin with and I managed to keep it small by only replacing outgoing players, or selling who we had when I could upgrade with better quality. This meant that managing playing time was relatively straightforward, since most of our players outside of the first eleven were young backups with low expectations anyway, and so there was no pressure to keep swapping my first team around.

Fast forward to CSKA Sofia and it's a different story. Firstly, we're participating in three competitions each year, and depending on how well we do in the league cup, and in Europe, we can end up playing anywhere north of 50 games a season.

Squad rotation has been crucial to our success in Bulgaria, particularly as some of the shambolic scheduling has had us play 4 games within an 8 day period on a couple of occasions over the years.

My way to combat this still doesn't really take into consideration the new structure to playing time, at least not directly. What I've tried to do with the side is what I imagine most FMers try and do. I've identified a few key positions where i'm likely to want to rotate, and then looked for solid backups in those roles who can come in and do a job for the first team. I then populate the other backup positions with either raw youngsters who are just starting out, or a more seasoned professional who doesn't have the same physical attributes he used to.

As an example, my Advanced Playmaker and Advanced Forward are essential to our creative play and tend to stay fit throughout the season, therefore their understudies are unlikely to feature more than a few times. Meanwhile, our wingers and our BBM do so much running that having good options that can come in with fresh legs is really important.

In fact I've been using around 22-25 players each season in order to get through all the games so I've come unstuck with the above approach on a few occasions, since many of our backups aren't up to standard.

I've also had a to deal with a few disgruntled players that aren't getting the time they're expecting and so I've ended up promising them a few more games when what I really want to do is stick with the players that are winning. I can't be dealing with the tantrums though and so more often than not, I'll just agree to give them a run in the side.

The solution here is simple. It's time to start paying closer attention to who's been promised what playing time. Going forward, I'll be trying to be more selective with my signings and contract renewals, and will be considering what role I expect them to play in the squad in the short term.

It's worth noting that I could take a much longer view of this, and look to bolster our youth setup with future stars that I can bring through in my own time. However, since this is intended to be a journeyman save, in which Frank attempts to reach the top of Europe's footballing elite, I won't be staying with any club for long enough to see this through.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on squad rotation. Do you ignore the playing time feature of player contracts, or are you a stickler for only recruiting the exact players you need?

Content Corner

Best Save Update Blog: Another week of great content, but I wanted to highlight FM Eadster's latest post from his series, The Rebuilders of Pripyat. Another great update and a nice little crossover with another creator. I love the story telling element, you can't help but get sucked in!
Best Advice Blog/Article: This week I ended up down a rabbit warren of posts on SI's forum for FM. One piece I did read in detail was Llama3's article on Pairs & Combinations - The Ultimate Guide which was released earlier this year. Of course, Llama's thoughts on building a team are very interesting, but in fact I think the most useful aspect of this piece is simply having all the information in one place, as opposed to navigating to each individual tactical element and reading the tool tip. Worth a read if you haven't already.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #9 - Youth Development (Part II)

June 26, 2020

Welcome back to the second part of this update, as we find out how the 2027/28 season concluded in Bulgaria's First League, plus we'll see how Frank's CSKA Sofia side fared in the League Cup and the Europa Conference League competitions as well.

Later on, I'll also reveal the results from my Youth Development experiment as I attempt to find out what works best when developing young talent.

Save Update

I actually think we can go all the way here. We've a chance to really put this club on the map, and what a chance it is. I hope we grab it with both hands.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 26th April 2028

In the last update we left CSKA Sofia midway through the 2027/28 season, where they sat at the summit of the Bulgarian First League, in the Semi Final of the League Cup and were about to venture into their third European competition of the season.

Frank's side had been drawn against Dutch outfit Feyonoord in the Europa Conference League's 1st Knockout Round, but before the first leg in that tie, we rescued a late draw from arch-rivals Ludogorets in our first league game back after the Winter break.

The first leg against Feyenoord was away, and despite being billed as heavy underdogs, we demonstrated a masterclass and ran out 2-0 winners, following this up with a 3-0 league win against Etar to make it two consecutive clean sheets.

The home tie against Feyenoord was somewhat harder, but we managed a draw and progressed to the second round where we'd meet Getafe next month.

Before that, three more league games saw us take a mere 4 points, succumbing to a 2-0 loss to Dunav in the process, but ending with a decent win against Botev Vratsa meaning we would play the first leg against Getafe on the back of a victory. It turned out that form was essential as we beat the Spaniards 1-0 at home and then drew 1-1 away with a nice league win sandwiched in the middle to end the preliminary stage of the season.

We topped the table by three points as we headed into the final stage of the league season. Meanwhile, our 2-1 aggregate win over Getafe set up a Europe Conference League Quarter-Final with none other than our divisional rivals, Ludogorets!

Before the two legs of the Quarter Finals, we had the small matter of playing them in the league first, where we really showed them our true colours and comfortably beat them 3-0.

Next up was the League Cup semi-final against Lokomotiv Sofia and a another 3-0 win gave us one foot in the final.

In the next game we fell to a 1-0 defeat to Ludogorets in the Europa Conference League, meaning we had our work cut out for us in the next round at home. It took until the second half but eventually we broke the deadlock and followed up with a second goal, enough to send us into the Europa Conference league Semi-Final against Croatian side, Dinamo.

Back in the league, and a win in the Eternal Derby against Levski was followed by a disappointing defeat to Dunav (again!), and we followed that with a draw to Ludogorets which saw us clinging to top spot, just.

The Europa league Semi Final was upon us with an away tie to Dinamo in the first leg, ending in a crushing 3-1 defeat. Frank's lads had a mountain to climb in the second leg, but did so with style, taking a 3-0 lead after two first half goals and a third on 70 minutes. Disaster struck in the final 20 minutes of the game though, as Dinamo hit back with a goal which would take us to extra time, but before we got there, they dealt us a sickening blow in the 95th minute with a second goal of the game, and a result that would see them into the final in our place. So close but not close enough.

Frank dusted himself down and attempted to finish the league in style, which he managed with 4 wins and a draw in the final five games, and securing our second consecutive title to add to the Super Cup win at the start of the season.

This left the small matter of the League Cup Final that would take this season's trophy haul to three if we could get past Lokomotiv Plovdiv. We made the critical mistake of underestimating our opposition, and we turned up for an average league game, not the cup final.

They demolished us 2-0 and were worthy winners. Frank was devastated, this was the silverware he'd been really keen to win this year after failing so miserably last season. Now we'd have to wait again.

All told, an incredible season really. From the dizzy heights of Champions League football, to a Europa Conference League Semi-Final and a League Cup Final, Frank could be pleased with the progress the club were making under his stewardship. Another league title in the bag, and a Super Cup win as well.

The side are still very young and are only improving as they get older and more experienced. Let's hope next season we can better this year's performance. Until then...

Youth Development (Part II)

In the last update I gave a short introduction into a Youth Development experiment I wanted to run. You'll recall that I don't have much experience in this aspect of Football Manager, and so i wanted to try a few different things to see if i could glean some "best practices" to apply for now and in the future.

This test began in January 2028 and the conclusion I'm showing you is actually from June 2029 so we can review a full 18 months of development. To give you an overview, here's what we laid out in the last update:

Kurt Moe, 18 yo GK - 6 month loan to First League side Lokomotiv Plovdiv, followed by a year as reserve GK in the first team
Borislav Velev, 18yo ST - 6 month loan to First League side Slavia Sofia, followed by a year as reserve ST/impact sub in the first team
Sladjan Pavkovic, 19yo MC - 18 months on loan to First League side Cherno more
Zarko Stevanovic, 22yo MC -starting BBM for first team
Grigor Rangelov, 17yo MC - 12 months with the U19s, 6 months training with the first team

I was fortunate enough to read FM Futbol Manager's latest post on Youth Development, prior to me publishing this one, and he talked in detail about the significance of facilities and staff as a key contributor to developing young talent. With that in mind, it's worth noting that at CSKA Sofia, we have Great training facilities, Excellent youth facilities, Excellent academy coaching and Exceptional youth recrutiment.

And so, without further ado, here's how they all got on...

Kurt Moe

As you'll see form the screenshots below, Moe made huge gains across the board, and in particular with his Determination, First Touch and Passing. An improved personality as well as he switches to Fairly Determined.

Borislav Velev

Easily our hottest prospect, his development was incredible, with gains everywhere and especially across his physicals and mentals. Note his personality shift from Fairly Determined to Driven too.

Sladjan Pavkovic

Out of all of the players in the test, Pavkovic spent the most amount of time away from the club, with back to back loans at Cherno more. That said, he also played regular football at the club with 42 appearances over two seasons. In terms of development, it's been a little underwhelming with almost no technical improvements, and just small changes in his mentals and physicals.

Zarko Stevanovic

Zarko is our oldest test subject, and has already established himself as a regular starter, but for balance i wanted to include someone that still had a lot of potential to reach, but was a little older than the others. His development has continued nicely, in particular with his mentals and physicals, although nothing off the charts.

Grigor Rangelov

Finally, we have our youngest starlet, fresh for CSKA Sofia's academy, Grigor Rangelov. Grigor's development at the club has been pleasing, but probably not what i'd hoped for in that time. His physicals have come on and his mentals too to some degree, but he's not really challenging for a starting place in the same way the likes of Velev and Moe are at he moment.

Conclusions

I'd say the first thing I've noticed here is that 18 months isn't very long in a players development to judge his progress. That being said, the biggest take away for me is that splitting time evenly between training with the club and spending time out on loan at a good level is definitely the way to go.

Pavkovic's stunted development tells me that too much time away from our superior facilities and coaching staff hasn't done him any favours, while Rangelov's lack of playing time has slowed his development too.

Moe's loan to Lokomotiv Plovdiv was for a whole season, but in hindsight, I think two 6 month loans might have been better, with time spent at the club in between.

Velev was easily our best performer in terms of development and he's the only player who got a bit of everything - time with the U19s, time on loan. and time with the first team. I think this balance is what's required across the board to make it successful and repeatable.

That said, I'm sure other factors, like players hidden attributes, injuries and their personalities, will also play a part here, but I've seen enough to at least have a plan of where to start.

For many of you, I doubt anything here can be deemed as ground-breaking but I've found it useful to come up with a systematic approach to player development. Even if this approach turns out to be wrong, I find it's always best to start somewhere, and then make small incremental changes to improve.

Please feel free to share your own approaches to youth development either here in the comments or drop me a message on Twitter or in my Slack channel.

Content Corner

Best Save Update Blog: this week I caught up on NestorFM's blog, as he shares his progress across South America having gained success in Spain early on in the save. Read all about it here.
Best Advice Blog/Article: I mentioned earlier that FM Futbol Manager's Youth Development Update is well worth a read, but FM Rensie also shared some of his experiences on youth development which you'll find here.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #8 - Youth Development (Part I)

June 19, 2020

Welcome back to Bulgaria where First League winners CSKA Sofia are preparing to defend their title in the upcoming 2027/28 season, plus there's Frank's first foray into Champions League football. Since the season I'm updating you on here turned out to be quite a long one, I've split the Save Update in to two blog posts, which keeps the word count manageable, while also adding to the suspense!

In this update I'll also talk through a small experiment I've been running as I attempt to learn the best way to develop the stars of the future. I've split this into two as well so plenty to look forward to next time as well.

Save Update

What a day, what a result! The tides are finally turning, we're becoming a dominant force at last. I love it that we beat them. Love it!
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 19th September 2027

As May wrapped up, Frank had already identified one or two areas of the squad that needed strengthening. The priority was a new Box to Box midfielder who could offer more going forward than our current options. Frank had been admiring Partizan's Serbian startlet, Zarko Stevanovic, and we were able to secure him for £950K - a good price for a quality player.

Our options on the wings were also limited, so in came Giuliany Ben-David dos Santos on a free transfer from Feyenoord, along with Daniel Silhavy from Slavia Prague for £700K, who at just 18 was considered to be a prospect for the future. Although we weren't short of forwards, Renat Dadasov was also available on a free and would be an excellent upgrade as our target man and so he was signed to provide competition for Gioacchini.

Zarko Stevanovic (BBM-S)

Giuliany Ben-David dos Santos (MR)

Elsewhere, long-time servant Bradley Mazikou was in search of a new challenge and so was sent out on a paid loan to Dunajska Streda, leaving a gap at DL. Finding a full back who could also cross a ball was proving difficult, and so in the end, Frank opted for Gabriel Schur who was a natural DM but with the right attributes and a good left foot. The hope was he could be retrained to play at full back and give Matic competition for a starting place.

Our academy graduate Tsvetan Georgiev (DR) returned from his loan spell and went straight into the first team, while we also raked in £1.9M in sales for players that I knew wouldn't get any game time. Two of those departing were last year's box to box midfielders, who were replaced by Stevanovic, with Peychev deputising for him.

Despite Bulgaria's transfer window running from June until September, the season routinely starts in the first week of July and so Frank really didn't have much time to get everything in order. With the squad in place though, we kicked off with a Super-kupa tie against local rivals Levski in what's known locally as the Eternal Derby each time these two teams feature.

Despite the hype, the game never lived up to it and a bore draw was settled by penalties, with CSKA Sofia running out winners and securing our first piece of silverware for the season. As we headed into the league season, Frank's men suffered a disappointing home defeat at the hands of title challengers Botev Plovdiv. A minor blip as it turned out, with the side returning three wins from three in their remaining July fixtures.

As last year's First League winners, CSKA Sofia entered the Champions League at the 2nd Qualifying stage where they smashed Astana 5-1 away and then 6-4 at home to set up a tie against Anderlecht in the next round. Here we also ran out winners with two 3-2 wins, taking them into the Champions Playoff where we'd meet Shakhtar Donetsk later in August.

Meanwhile, our good league form continued, beating Levski and then Beroe before our form stalled with consecutive draws at home to Lokomotiv Plovidv, and then away at Etar - both teams we should be beating comfortably. Back to the Champions League action and despite a 2-0 defeat in the first leg, we started brightly in the return fixture, taking the lead in the first half and doubling it just after the hour mark. As it stood we were well within a chance of beating Shakhtar and progressing to the group stages, but unfortunately this was the moment they chose to wake up. 2 goals in quick succession dashed our hopes before they took the lead with a third. Stevanovic scores in the 96th minute but it's only a consolation prize as the lads were well beaten really.

An early exit from the Champions League meant we qualified for the group stages of the Europa League, with the draw proving challenging to say the least.

As we nudged into September, we returned to form in the league with a win away at Cherno more, and followed it with two 4-0 wins, one of which was against long-time league winners Ludogorets. A third 4-0 win was secured in the first round of the Cup as we progressed further than we'd managed last year. Four clean sheets in the league and cup did wonders for our morale as we neared the halfway stage of the season.

Two fixtures in the Europa League, with French titans Monaco up first on home soil. Frank expected a loss, but hoped for a draw and so was pleasantly surprised with three points following goals in the 78th and 86th minute. Norway's Rosenborg were up next and were arguably the weaker of the three teams we were up against. That said, CSKA Sofia had limited experience at this level and so we prepared for a tough fixture. Another surprise for Frank and his players though, running out comfortable 2-1 winners away form home to give us six points in the group.

Suddenly, qualifying from the group didn't seem so impossible, although we were yet to test our nerve against group favourites Chelsea so time would tell if we had the mettle to compete.

A return to First League fixtures saw us secure two away wins and two clean sheets with them as we headed into October, before our second defeat of the season to Botev Plovdiv (again!) ended our unbeaten run of thirteen league games. Despite the loss, this left us in top spot as we passed the half way stage, 2 points ahead of Ludogorets and Botev Plovdiv.

Our first game against Chelsea in the Europa League came just before that Botev Plovdiv defeat, and despite holding our own for large spells of the game, we lost 1-0 which sent Chelsea top of the group with three wins from three. In the League Cup 2nd Round we drew Ludogorets II from the division below and comfortably beat them 3-0 on the night to progress to the quarter finals against another lower-league opposition, Spartak Varna which won't be played until December.

November kicked off with the away tie against Chelsea and despite taking a 2-0 lead inside the first half an hour, they came back with full force and beat us 3-2. Rosenborg were yet to register a win after Monaco beat them twice, but their loss to Chelsea meant we were on level points with Monaco, and two group games remaining. Assuming Chelsea could beat them again and we could beat hapless Rosenborg, the deciding fixture would be our away tie against Monaco.

Before that we had two more away fixtures in the league, comfortably winning both and continuing to take strides at the top of the table. The Monaco game arrived and unfortunately, despite it being such a huge affair, we just didn't show up. Three goals from them and all we could manage in reply was a 91st minute effort that was recorded as an own goal anyway.

Three more league games to contest before the Winter break and we managed two wins and a draw with Levski holding us to another 0-0 after the Super Cup game at the start of the campaign. There was a tidy Quarter Final win in the League Cup at the start of December which set us up with our first Semi-Final in four years, this time against another Sofia-based team in the form of Lokomotiv Sofia.

Our final Europa League tie was at home to Rosenborg, ending in a 2-1 win and ensuring our total points haul reached nine. Frank hadn't expected much from the group, perhaps a win and a draw or two, so to have done so well was pleasing, albeit bittersweet when you consider how we finished. In the end Monaco secured a draw against Chelsea so it didn't matter, but had we both finished with nine points then they would still have progressed owing to their superior goal difference in the head to head.

Despite this being our second exit from a European competition this year, we were flung rather unceremoniously into a third one - the Europa Conference League. Here we would enter the competition at the Knockout Rounds, and would be joined by two other Bulgarian sides as we each vye for glory on the European stage.

Meanwhile, our title defence remains on track and our run in the League Cup means we're in good standing across three competitions as we enter the Winter break. Tune in next time to see how we got on as the season concludes...

Youth Development (Part I)

Of all the aspects of Football Manager, developing young talent has always been something I've been abysmal at. Barring the occasional success story, such as one graduate in my FM17 save with Fiorentina or Brian Eadie at Wolves in FM19, I routinely watch as hot prospects emerge from my academy and go on to achieve nothing more than a transfer to another club.

The reason for my failings is quite simply that I've never paid enough attention to this part of the game. Instead, I'll opt to scour the market for a ready-to-go bargain and bring them in, at the expense of my own young prospect's development. Whilst there's nothing wrong with this approach, it got me thinking about why i don't put as much effort in to this side of things and frankly, I couldn't think of a good enough reason to keep ignoring it.

Part of the problem for me is my lack of a structured approach. I don't really know how best to develop a player and so I decided to try a few different things to see what worked for me. I didn't want to do anything that would require huge amounts of my time in order to maintain it, so i stuck to some simple ideas that i could easily implement at CSKA Sofia and at clubs in the future.

I know that age and personality are big contributors in terms of how much a young player can be developed, so for the sake of this experiment, I've focused on a mixture and have tried to ensure a few different positions and roles are included too.

Kurt Moe (GK)

First up we have Kurt Moe, an 18yo Goalkeeper with 4.5 star potential. His personality is realist and he has a fairly average 12 for his Determination attribute.

Moe joined our U19 squad two years ago and in addition to the standard U19 training has also had his Individual Training set as a Sweeper Keeper on Defend and his Individual Focus on GK Distibution (short), working on First Touch, Passing and Vision.

As you'll notice from the screen shot, I decided to loan Moe out to fellow First Division side Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the hope that some first team experience at this level will help him push on in terms of development.

Borislav Velev (ST)

Next up we have Borislav Velev, an Advanced Forward who joined the U19s three seasons ago but began breaking into the first team squad last season.

His development has taken place mainly at U19 level, with 5 first team appearances last season and 8 appearances in the first half of this season, most of those from the bench.

His Individual Training has been as an Advanced Forward with Individual Focus set to Endurance to improve his Work Rate and Stamina.

For the second half of this season, he's been sent on loan to Slavia Sofia where he's likely to get more regular first team football.

Sladjan Pavkovic (MC)

Sladjan Pavkovic is my next prospect, joining us on a free transfer at the start of this year.

Unlike the others, Pavkovic has spent no time at all with our U19s coaches and was immediately sent out on loan to Cherno more for what I hoped would be regular first team football.

He has a lot to work on in terms of his physical and technical attributes, but his high technique, composure and teamwork should put him in good stead for the future.

He's a little older than Moe and Velev and since he'shad no time with our coaching staff, it will be interesting to see how much that matters compared to regular game time.

Zarko Stevanovic (MC)

My fourth pick is our new signing, Zarko Stevanovic. I'm interested to see how much Zarko can continue his development, despite being much older than the others at 22.

He joins from Partizan who are obviosuly a reputable club in Serbia and as such has likely had some decent coaching already.

His attributes are significantly more developed and he's the furthest along in terms of reaching his potential, but since he'll be a regular starter in our first team, i'm hopeful he can continue to improve.

He's also the only player I've picked out that will play European football and so it will be interesting to see how he does against much bigger teams than Bulgaria's First league can offer.

Grigor Rangelov (MC)

Finally, we have Grigor Rangelov, our youngest prospect in this test at just 17, and also the only one to have been directly recruited into our youth set-up (as opposed to be bought for a transfer fee).

Rangelov is training to become a Box to Box Midfielder, with his Individual Training set to Quickness to work on his pace and acceleration.

My plan for him is to keep him at the club for at least the next year or so, and then perhaps loan him out for regular playing time once he's a bit older.

The fact that his mental attributes are already at a good base level gives me hope that he'll be a regular first teamer in the future.

In summary, I've introduced you to five players here, with a mixture of ages, positions, abilities and their length of time at the club. In terms of development, players will either play at U19 level, in CSKA Sofia' first team, on loan at another club, or a mixture of all of these.

In the next update, I'll report back on what I found in terms of who developed the most and hopefully I can share my thoughts on some basic principles that I'll adopt for developing prospects in the future.

Content Corner

Best Save Update Blog: this week I caught up on From Eleven One's FK Macva Sabac series in Serbia. Not one but two blog posts this week, check them out here.
Best Advice Blog/Article: I suspect you all saw it but the Football Manager Byline this week featured FM Grasshopper talking about balancing your squad with older and more experienced players, something I can definitely improve on. If you missed it, you can read it here.
Best Video/Audio: FM Rensie did a piece this week on squad numbering, which, as an avid fan fo the subject matter, I enjoyed immensely. Featured in the article was a great video on the history of squad numbering and how it differs by country. Watch it here.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #7 - Core Attributes

June 12, 2020

Welcome back to Bulgaria where we'll be joining Frank Athlete for an update on how his first full season in charge of CSKA Sofia went. Since recruitment was front and centre for Frank over pre-season, I'll also cover what I look for in a new player, and in particular what my personal focus is on in terms of player attributes.

Save Update

It's unforgiveable. To lose like that, to a team like that. I'm so angry. Where are our leaders on the pitch? Where are you?!
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 23rd September 2026

Having secured 2nd place at the end of last season, CSKA Sofia qualified for the Second Qualifying round of the Europa Conference League in the process. That would mean a fair few extra games in the upcoming campaign, assuming the side didn't stumble at the first hurdle.

To that end, Frank sought to strengthen the squad's depth, opting to bring players in that would suit the roles in his favourable 4-4-2 set-up. Viktor Rogan joins as only one of two right full backs now at the club, while Martin Baturina replaces our outgoing Advanced Playmaker, Kaloyan Petrov. Frank had intended to build the team around Petrov, but he found the lure of Partizan too great to pass up. In Baturina, we have a more rounded player and at £1.7M, we have £800K change from Petrov's sale.

The team were desperately short of Target Men as well, or in fact any tall forwards with a heading ability above 9. Ivica Vidakov joins on loan while we secure America Nicholas Gioacchini on a free transfer. Gioacchini has all the right attributes we've been looking for, with Heading, Bravery and Strength all decent, but the scouts rated him poorly. Frank signed him anyway, seeing him for the true value he would bring to the side.

Two more loans rounded off the Summer business, with Brazilian Wellisson and Spaniard Eququiel Picon coming in to bolster the right midfield position.

The campaign kicked off with an excellent season opener, The Eternal Derby, which is contested by CSKA Sofia and city rivals Levski, and saw us claim first blood with a 2-1 win. This settled the team nicely with two more league wins in July, while we also comfortably dispatched Fehervar in the home and away fixture in our Europa Conference League qualifier, setting us up with Shamrock Rovers in the next round.

Our form continued into August, seeing us secure four more wins in the league, one of which was against title holders Ludogorets, although we also suffered a disappointing defeat to title challengers Botev Plovdiv. Our Europa Conference League campaign continued on course as well, despite a nervy home draw with Shamrock, we'd go on to beat them in the next game, and then also quash our old Romanian Liga I foes FCSB, winning 4-0 on aggregate and seeing us through to the group stages.

Frank found the group quite palpable. Despite Borussia Dortmund being a tough opponent, he saw both AGF and Dunajska Streda as beatable competition and so was optimistic about emerging from the group stages, an incredible feat if he could pull it off.

As Transfer Deadline Day approached, our top centre back decided he'd had enough and forced a move away from the club. We brought in the very promising Markovic as his replacement and didn't look back as we headed in to September. Things continued to go well as we opened with a 4-0 thumping of First League new boys Hebar.

Next up was our first Europa Conference group game against AGF where we took an early lead, before succumbing to a disappointing defeat at home. This seemed to hit our form badly, as we drew 0-0 in the next league game against relegation contenders Litex, before a crushing first round cup exit to lower league side Botev Galabovo. We'd earmarked the cup as a good chance of silverware and Frank had told the board as much in their last meeting. Needless to say, our early departure didn't go down too well.

Despite our recent dip in form, we were sat in top spot as we headed into October, where we'd meet Borussia Dortmund for the first time. Dortmund are a shadow of their former selves, they've not challenged for the Bundesliga title in 8 years now and have routinely finished outside of the top 4 in recent years. Nonetheless, they were the biggest test Frank's men had faced to date and showed their superiority with an easy 3-0 win.

With that fixture out of the way, the side went on a 5 game unbeaten run, including a pleasing 3-0 demolition of Europa Conference League contenders Dunajska Streda and four clean sheets in the process.

This was followed by two draws and two losses in all competitions, all but sealing our exit from the Europa Conference League whilst dropping five valuable league points as well.

Frank was relishing the Winter break, citing it as an opportunity for the lads to recuperate, and impatiently played through the last four fixtures of the calendar year. A decent win against Botev Plovdiv and another victory against newly promoted Dunav assured our top spot status in the league, despite a devastating 4-0 loss to Ludogorets in the last game before the break. It's hard to lose to your rivals but to get annihilated by them was a bitter pill to take.

Just prior to that, we played our final Europa Conference League game against group leaders and eventual competition winners Borussia Dortmund. Despite the gulf in quality between the two sides, we took an early lead and followed up with a second just after half time. They got one back but as we entered injury time we looked set to beat them, until a penalty was awarded in the 95th minute to give them a point. Frank is still fuming after the result, but he can take some pride in the fact his is the only team to have taken any points from Dortmund throughout the entirety of the competition thus year.

Bulgaria's league rules state that no players can be registered until the Summer Transfer Window opens, so the Winter Transfer Window is something of a farce, whereby you must cling to your best players as eager-eyed competitors attempt to pry them away, meanwhile any replacements or improvements you bring in are ineligible to play until next season. It's not a total disaster, in that they can bed in and work on the team building side of things before hitting the ground running in July, but it's certainly less than ideal.

We neither lost anyone, nor brought anyone in and so we played out the remaining 6 fixtures of the standard season throughout February and March, A clean sweep of wins and not one goal conceded made for a pleasing couple of months.

With the league now split for our final ten games in the Championship group, we had the arduous task of keeping hold of our lead as we played against those teams closest to us. From our three league losses, two of them had come at the hands of fellow title challengers Botev Plovdiv and Ludogorets, and we were joined in the group by Beroe, Levski and Lokomotiv Plovdiv.

Last season we didn't do very well at this stage of the season, managing just 15 points form a possible 30. That said, we kicked off with a comfortable win against Levski in our third Eternal Derby of the season so far. Up next were three tricky away fixtures, where we managed a bore draw against second placed Botev Plovdiv, before disappointing defeats to Beroe and Ludogorets.

Despite the loss, Ludogorets had been a shadow of the team that won the division and the Europa Conference League last season. This left Botev Plovidv and Levski as the only team that could realistically catch us as we headed into the final six games. In fact though, we found our form again and went undefeated for the remainder of the season, scooping 14 points from a possible 18.

We'd done it, and a season earlier than Frank had promised to the Board. CSKA Sofia were crowned First league Champions with two games of the season remaining, and the fans were ecstatic at our league record 33rd title alongside qualification to the Champions League qualifying rounds next term.

Frank could be justifiably proud of what he and his lads had achieved. This side were still young, and in some areas, were in desperate need of more quality and greater squad depth, especially with the prospect of a hectic European schedule in the season ahead. Tune in next time to find out who came in and how we fared in our title defence, and Frank's first foray into Champions league football.

Core Attributes

When it comes to scouting and assessing players, many FMer's have developed their own means of judging how good someone is, in terms of their role, their attributes and their form and statistics. One of the first things I do when I start a new game is to create my own screen view, so I can hone in on what really matters to me as i assess the squad I have and contemplate where we need to strengthen. Part of this analysis is looking at ten core attributes, that I personally like to see in my players.

Of course, each role and duty designates certain attributes as primary (green) and secondary (blue) so you can see how well suited a player is to a specific role, but I like to look beyond that in the hope of building a squad of well-rounded athletes, capable of performing to a similar standard, wherever they are on the pitch. I've seen many FMer's adopt the same approach in their saves, and here is my take on what every footballer should have:

First Touch - the player's ability to control the ball immediately as it is passed into feet. If he can't control the ball, then his passing, crossing or finishing ability is wasted.
Technique - the aesthetic quality of a player's technical game; how refined they are with the ball at their feet. Technique is important in being able to pull off a tricky pass or cross field ball. Granted, it's often harder to find defenders with good technique, but a higher rating here ensures all the players are capable of playing a quality ball.
Composure - the player's steadiness of mind and ability to make intelligent decisions with and without the ball. Being level-headed, even when under pressure is essential for a decent footballer, ad this partners nicely with the next attribute.
Decisions - the player's ability to make the correct choice both with and without the ball. Another important attribute, which can affect things like who they pass to or when/where they make their run
Determination - the player's commitment to succeed and do his very best on and off the pitch. Another obvious one, and I assume it's on everyone's list. If want to breed a team of winners then they need to be determined to win in the first place.
Off the Ball - the player's ability to move when not in possession of the ball, making themselves available to receive a pass in a dangerous position. Admittedly, this is one attribute i might sacrifice in favour if i need to, but it makes my top 10 as most players are only as good as what they can do without the ball.
Teamwork - the player's ability to follow tactical instructions whilst working for and alongside his team mates. A winning team needs strong unity and spirit, plus a willingness to fight for one another.
Work Rate - the player's willingness to work to his full capacity, going above and beyond the call of duty. This is probably the number one attribute I look for and is often the differentiator if i'm choosing between two players.
Balance - how well a player can stay on his feet, both on and off the ball. As i regularly tell my 7yo son, if you're lying on the floor then you're no good to anyone. Good balance ensures you're ready to receive that pass, or are able to ride that challenge.
Natural Fitness - reflects how well a player stays fit when injured or not in training. It is also used to determine how well they maintain their physical attributes past their peak and maintain fitness between matches. As i mentioned, playing at lower reputation clubs often means managing a smaller squad with tighter budget constraints, and so having players that maintain good fitness between games, and can play into their 30's is often the difference between good and great.

With these core attributes added to my screen view, i can quickly determine who fits the mold in terms of the type of player I like to manage. I'v also often found that using these attributes to refine your search for a player, can lead you to someone who is undervalued at another club, or has even been given a poor rating by your scouts.

The beauty of Football Manager is that everyone has their own way of playing the game, and to that end, there's no right or wrong way to play it either. Some choose to comb the database in search of hidden gems while others will opt to lean heavily on the Recruitment team to make recommendations and bring players in. For me, I'll go as far as hiring the best scouts available, and i'll also set their assignments up so any recommendations that do come in will already meet some of my criteria. Beyond that though, I like to control who we sign and over the course of each season I'll constantly review our current crop of players to identify areas of weakness, and then use these ten core attributes as part of my process to unearth the next diamond.

I'd love to know what other players do, and whether you adopt the same system or use different core attributes to judge a player's ability. Leave a comment below or drop me a message on Twitter or in my Slack channel and let me know what you do.

Content Corner

Best Save Update Blog: This week I caught up on Oaky_FM's Dutch Dreams series in which his FC Volendam side are a force to be reckoned with. Catch up on the series here.
Best Advice Blog/Article: Another week of great content but my top pick was Oliver Jensen/FM Futbol Manager's latest piece on his approach to retraining Players. This was really insightful and has helped me as I plan to retrain a couple of my players at CSKA Sofia. Check it out here.
Best Audio/Video: Since I've been working from home during the lockdown, I've lost my 3 hours of daily commute time to listen to podcasts. I did however come across a new one which i think is well worth a listen, called Well Done Michael, He's 13. Before you wonder what I'm talking about, it's definitely a football podcast and even includes a few FM mentions as well. I'm yet to find out the meaning of the name but apparently that will be covered in an upcoming episode.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #6 - Setting Up at a New Club

June 5, 2020

Welcome in to a farewell edition as Frank Athlete begins his final campaign with Farul Constanta in the Romanian Liga I. In this update I'll cover how his last year at the club went along with his job hunt for a new challenge. I'll also give you a run through of my approach to the subsequent overhaul of his new club.

Save Update

Bloody typical! Now they back me?! As much as it doesn't change anything for me, I'll miss this club, this city, the people. My first foray into management, what a time it's been.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 22nd June 2025

At the end of last season, Frank made the decision that this would be his final year at Farul Constanta. Either he'd see out the remainder of his contract through to next June, or if the right opportunity should come along beforehand then he'd be applying for the role accordingly.

Despite that sentiment as our backdrop, Frank worked through Farul Constanta's preseason with the same enthusiasm as any other year. Given the clubs prolonged stay of three seasons in the top flight, they gave virtually our entire back balance over as a transfer kitty. £2M to spend compared to £100K for the last two years!

This enabled Frank to bring in some classier recruits, starting with upgrades to our GK (Belmin Dizdarevic), DR (Florin Borja), DL (Ales Svaboda) and ML (Zejko Gavric). Elsewhere, Srdjan Krstovic and superstar of the future Lerato Da Gama both joined to gives us new options in the Advanced Playmaker role, leaving over £1M in the bank should we need it.

With the side in good shape, the season got underway and Frank got the team playing quite well with a draw and a win in our opening fixture, before an inevitable loss to current champions FC Viitorul. August saw us pick up a win followed by three draws, one of which coming at the expense if FCSB and our ability to avoid defeat kept us in mid-table mediocrity.

Just a solitary win in September and a 5th Round Cup exit was enough to see us start to get dragged down in the league, before a sudden resurgence had us score a draw followed by three back-to-back wins as we headed into November.

We weren't setting the world on fire, but comfortably holding our own in the league, with a top half finish beginning to look like a real prospect come the half way stage. Farul sat in 5th place, albeit 8 points adrift of 4th yet 7 points ahead of 7th.

Despite things going so well with Farul Constanta, it still felt that in the grand scheme of things the team were a long way short of the top 4 or 5 sides in this league. Even if they could keep their form for the remainder of the season, and scrape into the Champions group, they'd be hard pushed to get anything from it and are still probably several years away from being able to compete financially with the likes of FCSB and FC Viitorul.

With that in mind, Frank had been frequenting the Job Centre a little more often lately, wanting to be sure that should the right opportunity arise, he is ready to apply. In terms of his next post, he'd be looking to take a step up in terms of his new club's reputation, although with his qualifications stuck at Continental C licence, it's unlikely to be any of the bigger footballing nations like Germany or Ukraine.

He'd already ruled out a move to any other Romanian clubs, and discounted any jobs in Hungary or Slovakia as well due to their top league's reputations being ranked at the lower end of the spectrum. This left top division clubs in Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia and Austria to consider for his next move. He didn't want a club that routinely won silverware, instead he was looking for a team that were on the cusp of success but had never quite made it, somewhere he could ply his trade and build a club to the top.

Dynamo Kyiv fit that description having come 2nd place in the Ukrainian Premier League 9 out of the last 10 times. Osijek in Croatia are another that routinely come 2nd or 3rd but are yet to secure a title, while Partizan hadn't won a Serbian Super Liga title in 10 years and their fellow challengers Vojvodina had placed 3rd in all but two of those campaigns. Elsewhere, LASK were a regular top 4 side in the Austrian Bundesliga but given Frank's heritage descending from Vienna, he couldn't imagine managing a club outside of the capital there.

All these options would be great, but all are probably a step too far Frank at this stage in his career. They're big clubs, steeped in history and have been regular features in the annual European competitions, meaning Frank's lowly stature in the game might not be appealing enough for them.

Besides, with the exception of LASK and Kyiv, none of the manager's at those clubs, or any similar contenders, were listed as insecure, but as Farul reached the half way stage of their season, Frank spotted a club who were starting to grow impatient with their current boss. It took until mid-November for him to be sacked and another week for Frank to be offered an interview, an opportunity which he leapt at.

Aside from their title winning season of 21/22, this team had not won the league since 07/08, finishing in the top 3 on 13 out of 18 occasions. They currently sat in 2nd place with an 8 point gap behind the league leaders, who'd won 13 of the last 14 titles. Someone needed to disrupt the status quo, and restore this historic club to former glory.

Enter Frank M. Athlete.

To say Frank (and I) was delighted with this appointment is a huge understatement, it's an absolute perfect fit for him at this stage in his career. Not only does it provide a great opportunity to grab some silverware, but he'll also have the pleasure of toppling the Bulgarian First League's long-time title winners Ludogorets.

If you're not overly familiar with CSKA Sofia, they're one of 5 other First Division teams that call the capital city of Sofia home, which is situated 150 km south of the River Danube. Despite having a record 32 First League titles to their name, the team have only won the division once in the last 22 years and so it's high-tide they staked a claim for 1st place. They play their home games at the 23,000 capacity Bulgarian Army Stadium and are affectionately known as "The Reds" or "The Armymen"

However, before we could go on a charge towards untold success, we still had the remainder of the current season to navigate. In his haste to impress the board, Frank promised he could win the title this year, only discovering the side were 8 points adrift after he'd taken the job. Although not impossible, Ludogorets were yet to lose a game and weren't showing any signs of letting points slip away.

Frank's initial assessment of the squad found an abundance of attacking midfielders and so he set the team up with four at the back, two in the middle, three attacking midfielders and a lone striker. The full backs were both more accustomed to playing in a wingback role and so, sensing that CSKA Sofia had the muscle to be aggressive, he opted to tweak the roles and duties to more readily display their attacking prowess.

The setup showed signs of working in the first game, a comfortable win at home to Botev Plovdiv, but they beat us three days later in the Quarter Final of the cup and the tactic looked largely to blame for our demise. The wingbacks were far too aggressive, leaving us exposed at the back to counter attacks, and we were giving the ball away a little too easily. Frank stuck with it in the next game against Arda but we nearly threw that game away too, scraping a 2-1 win.

With Ludogorets up next, Frank reverted to the 4-4-2 system he'd employed at Farul. The AMC dropped into MC with an AP-A role and we went with a TM and an AF up front. We kept the ball well this time. although our attacking transition needed a little work as we laboured to a 1-1 draw. Another draw followed before we really got into a rhythm, knocking out 4 consecutive 1-0 wins in our next 5 games as we ended the first stage of the league in 2nd place, but still 8 points adrift of Ludogorets.

Into the Champions Group now and unlike in the Romanian Liga I where your points tally is halved, the Bulgarian First League rules state you keep all your points after the league is split. This meant we'd need Ludogorets to lose twice and draw twice more than us if we had any chance of winning the title this year.

Our first game made that quest all the harder as we lost to Beroe, and despite a win in the next game we took just two points from the three fixtures that followed. Ludogorets also managed to lose at last, but we never looked like catching them. More inconsistency followed with back-to-back wins, followed by another loss and a draw before we rounded off the season with a win in the Eternal Derby against Levski.

Whilst second place was comfortably ours, a 16 point gap between us and Ludogorets suggested there was a huge amount of work to be done if this team were going to be challenging for titles any time soon.

As the season ended, the Board's appraisal of Frank had him down at an "E", with his stay at CSKA Sofia looking more and more likely to be a short lived affair. However, there were no calls for his head in the press, nor did the Board want to discuss anything as the campaign wrapped up and so Frank began the arduous task of rebuilding this team ready for a title challenge in the season ahead.

Tune in next time and find out how he got on.

Setting Up at a New Club

There's nothing more exciting to me than the first day in a new job. As much as there are so many things to sort out and to organise, I enjoy the prospect of getting setup and having everything work the way I like it. That said, it can be an overwhelming process, and is especially dependent on the club you're taking over and how they're doing compared to how they thought they'd be doing. If you're taking over in preseason, then there's less "on-the-pitch" controversy to sort out, but you'll have outgoing players or prearranged transfers in that you'll have to contend with instead.

The relative wealth of the club can also have a big impact on the scope of changes you can or want to implement, but broadly speaking it's the same process, whether your Cheltenham or Chelsea. I always follow the same steps to overhauling a new club and I never deviate from the order in which I do things. I've developed this process over the years, and stolen ideas and tips from other players as I've gone. Here's my routine for getting set up at a club, and all before you click "continue":

Your staff - get this sorted first so you know you can rely on the validity of their reports and advice. Comb through the current team and highlight the key roles that need filling or replacing. When looking at new recruits, remember to consider their personality and adaptability as well as their role-specific attributes. I'll often hire the key roles and then place adverts for the less important ones, allowing me to get on with other things. You can also lean on your DoF to do the hiring for you but be prepared for some very average hires as his attention to detail is no where near as sharp as yours.
Responsibilities - with your backroom team in place, or at least on the verge of signing, take a minute to decide who's doing what so you don't forget to do it later. For example, I always delegate my tactical briefings and tunnel interviews to my assistant, plus I'll let my DoF handle contract renewals for my staff going forward.
Situational analysis - have a look at the clubs stature, it's history and their current placing in any competitions. How are the finances looking now and in the short-term future? Are they performing above or below expectations? Is this a blip or have they been declining for a few years? What's the recent form like? Have a look at the facilities available, as well as any affiliates associated with the club too. All this will help you get into the mindset of the club, allowing you to gauge their reality vs expectations, and setting you up nicely for the next step
Tactical setup - before you delve straight in to importing your favoured tactic, have a look at the way the team set up in the last few games first. You'll be able to get a sense of team shape and, depending on the result, whether there's a particular formation that worked better than others. Setting up your tactic needs to strike a balance between the way you want to play, and what's suitable for the players you have available to you right now. There'll be time to shape the squad to your liking later so for now, find something that works and go with it.
Squad assessment - attributes are naturally an essential factor when weighing up your starting XI, but when you take on a club mid-way through a season, often the player's match stats are more useful. If you're 3rd choice centre back has an average rating of 7.5 after 10 games then he could be worth a punt. Similarly, is there an unproven 17yo desperate to make a name for himself that you could throw in to the side? Other things to consider are the team's morale, their dynamics and social groups. In the early days, these can be more important to success than playing your most highly rated starlet.
Selling up - now you have a handle on your key players, you might also have unearthed a few names that are surplus to requirements. Now's a good chance to offer them out to clubs and rake in some extra transfer funds, or reduce the wage bill. A word of warning though, don't be too hasty to ship out everyone who plays a position that you don't favour, just in case things backfire and that 33yo Anchor Man turns out to be exactly what's required to get you out of a slump.
Set-pieces, takers and captains - Take time to set up your set pieces, or if you're using the defaults, then at least make sure you have the right players taking your set pieces, and especially if you're about to sell off the current free kick expert, or you want someone with better technique to deliver your corners for you. Now's also a good time to review your options for captain as well. I tend to leave it as is until the end of the season but if you feel a change is needed, then now's the time.
Training - head over to the training pitch and have a look at the schedules for the coming weeks. If this isn't your bag, feel free to leave it to your staff, or just take over a few of your players individual regimes to get you started. Especially important is any young prospects coming through that might need a guiding hand to reach their potential.
Planning - one of the last things I like to do before clicking "continue" is make a short-term plan for the club. If i'm joining midway through the season then i'll assess our upcoming fixtures and identify the most crucial games for us. I'll also start requesting scout reports for any players i think could do a job for us, based on my previous role and what I've come to learn in my short time here. Another thing worth considering is getting reports on any players the club has out on loan. Could they be useful additions to the side for next year maybe?
Reminders - last, but by no means least, set reminders! I rarely see people utilising this in-game feature, but it will save you a lot of trouble in the long-run if you make the most of it. Under the "History" tab on any player or member of staff you can choose "Create note" and assign a reminder date to it. The reminder will appear as an email item in your inbox so, whether you want to remember to give your 17yo wonderkid a run out against the bottom team in 3 weeks time, or you don't want to forget to check what effects your new training schedule is having on the team, or you're waiting for your top transfer target's contract to expire, then use the notes and reminders and never forget again!

And now you've done all that, please click "Continue".

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 join that community and check them out here.

Best Save Update Blog: this week's spotlight is on Gaffer Graemo's FM20 series. His writing style sucks you right in, and it's well worth a delve into his website, The Technical Area, for some additional gold nuggets!
Best Advice Blog/Article: FM Pressure released the second part of his piece on Full Backs. Hard not to learn a lot from every one of this guy's posts, check it out here.
Another Best Advice Blog/Article: Another week with not much audio or video consumed so instead I will plug SOGG's piece from the latest issue of Latte Quarterly. He's done a brilliant deep-dive into his "Striker problem" and gives an excellent illustration of his process for handling the issue.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #5 - Troubleshooting a Tactic

May 29, 2020

Hello again, and welcome back to Constanta. You join us at the start of our second season in Liga I, after we miraculously survived the last campaign. In this update we'll find out how Frank Athlete's men got on this time, plus I'll share my process for troubleshooting my tactic when things haven't gone well.

Save Update

I'm still shocked that we got him. What a player he is! I'm starting to feel this is the beginning of the next level now. The only way is up from here.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 19th August 2024

Having survived relegation last year, Frank set about bringing in some new and improved recruits that would hopefully help ease the struggle of fighting relegation this time around. A budget of £150k, combined with some player sales enabled us to bring in Raul Macea from Liga I opposition CFR Cluj as our marquee signing. He'll play as a Deep Lying Playmaker on Support duty and will look to orchestrate our creative play.

Up top, Montosori (TM-S) and Expedito (AF-A) came in on free transfers as huge upgrades to our current front line, while Italian Davide Riccardi is brought in as DC along with his experience of 28 years. Additonally, Cifor (FB-S) comes in to challenge for a starting place at DL and Tataru will backup our reglar starter Mutiu in goal.

With the team in place, and the season only a few games old, the side were struck down by several long term injuries to key players and so Frank brought in Pesic on loan to provide cover in central midfield, while Cheick Sylla replaces new signing Riccardi who broke his leg in training and was ruled out for half a season. Sylla is actually a huge upgrade on Riccardi and is now easily our best player so maybe things have worked out for the better. Time will tell.

As seems to be the custom now we're in Liga I, the season got off to a rocky start, drawing away to newly promoted FC Voluntari before successive defeats to FCSB and Hermannstadt.

A win in our next outing brought some security, and although our form didn't dramatically improve, we were comfortably placed in the league as we reached the mid-way point with a few more wins under our belt.

As 2024 drew to a close, we endured heavy, yet predictable defeats to FCSB and FC Viitorul, as well as losses to CFR Cluj and FC Rapid, picking up 7 points from our other fixtures as we headed into Christmas and the Winter break.

Form didn't really improve as the season resumed in February, with the team securing more losses than draws or wins, but there was a pleasing 4-3 victory over Dinamo Bucarestu on the last day of the season which brought hope for our Relegation Group games.

Our mediocre league campaign meant we'd take 13 points with us into the Relegation Group. Last season, 26 points was enough to secure our safety, but owing to the fact the competition isn't as fierce this time around, plenty of teams were able to steal points from newly promoted Academica Clinceni and FC Voluntari, meaning we'd need points from the other teams to survive a second consecutive relegation scrap.

We started poorly, 1 point from our first 3 games, prompting Frank to rethink his tactics after a torrid season of lacklustre performances. His magic touch worked, as the the boys were able to secure back to back wins for the first time this year in the next games, and would go on to secure another 4 wins to accompany 4 draws from the remaining 10 fixtures.

All told, a points haul of 35 was enough to secure our safety for another year, with the side finishing 4th in the group overall. It still took until the last day to confirm our Liga I status, but Frank was pleased on an improved points tally from last year.

Having secured a third season of Liga I football, Frank has been considering his future as he revisits his long-term career goals. His contract doesn't expire until the end of next season (June 2026), however it's clear that given the competitive nature of this division, it's hard to ever see Farul competing for European football anytime soon.

As such, the 2025/26 campaign will be Frank's final season at Constanta, and from here on in he'll be keeping an eye out for any exciting job opportunities that pop up before the season ends. The time feels right to move on, and start challenging for silverware elsewhere, having gotten Farul Constanta to their highest ever league finish and to some level of Liga I stability.

Troubleshooting a Tactic

As I alluded to in the save update above, we had to reassess our tactical approach midway through the season after under performing for too long beforehand.

There comes a point where every tactic needs a tweak or a freshen up, or in some cases a complete overhaul. With that in mind, i thought I'd share my process for how i go about evaluating my tactic, and making necessary changes when it's not working quite right.

Let me state from the outset, I'm not an expert on tactics - far from it in fact - but I have picked up a few tips and tricks from other players (Cleon, FM Pressure, FMRensie, DGear86 and fmFutbolManager to name a few) and my own experience over the years and so that's what I'm sharing here. If you're looking for some advice from people far more qualified than me to help, I suggest you dip into the #fmtactics-chat channel on FM Slack where there's a ton of people who can give you some pointers and constructive feedback.

But for now, here's my process to troubleshooting my tactic:

Leave it alone! The first step on the road to enlightenment is to stop changing your tactic. No more tweaks to player roles or team instructions. Do this for at least three games, no matter who the opposition is.
Switch to Comprehensive. Forget text only commentary, you need to start watching your game highlights in comprehensive mode, at least for the next few games anyway. Pay attention to player positions, their movement, and what they do when you're attacking and when you're defending. Hit pause at random times during the match and see where you're players are positioned.
Post-match party. While you're still at the match, or from the Tactics screen under the Analysis tab, have a look at any key statistics or match stats from each game. Think about possession, shots taken vs. shots on target, missed passes etc.
Write that down. Take some notes from your analysis and during each game, either when you see something that looks good or, even better, when you see something going wrong.
A bit of self reflection. After a few games of monitoring your performance, start thinking about what you're actually trying to achieve with your tactic. Saying "i want to win games" is an end result, not a strategy. Instead, ask yourself "how will we attempt to win games". Think about a real-life example of the style of football you're trying to emulate. Maybe it's Klopp's gegenpress or Pulis's long-ball routine, or simply pace down the wings vs. long-range thunderbolts? It's important to be realistic with your approach, and consider all the factors, such as the level your team are playing at and their ability compared to your divisional rivals.
Mind the Trade-offs. For every tactical instruction or setting you implement, there's likely a negative affect or risk that you add in to your playing style each time. For example, switching passing style to "Shorter" will reduce the risk of misplacing your passes, but you'll also likely be limiting the team's passing range in the process. Invariably, it's these trade-offs that can often lead to your team giving possession away with wayward passes, or being dispossessed as a result of dawdling on the ball. Be sure to consider the cause and effect of your tactic as you analyse the games. Aside from team instructions, think about the formation and the team mentality too as these also have positive and negative implications on your tactic.
Consider the evidence. How does what you've seen in your last few games compare to what you're actually trying to achieve? For example, if you want your big Target Man to score with his head, but he's goalless in 5 games, then check he's receiving crosses from out wide to knock in. What about on the defensive? Is there a particular type of goal you concede often? Or a particular area of the pitch you always lose the ball.
Get to the root of the problem. Before you wade in and make changes left right and centre, be systematic in your approach. Consider what other impact your changes might have, both in terms of Team Instructions as well as formation. Maybe the reason your Target Man can't score with his head has more to do with his poor Jumping attribute, than it does your wingers crossing ability.
Make that Change. Okay, you've got half a dozen pages of scribbled notes so you're ready to start making changes. But before you do, make sure you read the tool tips and descriptions that are built into the game. For example, you might think of your midfield maestro as a Ball Winning Midfielder, but actually when you read the description, a Defensive Midfielder better describes what you want him to do. Similarly, your Cautious team mentality might make sense to you, but in fact a Balanced approach is what will actually work here. If you're not sure what something does, then try it out. It's a game remember, and it's also highly unlikely that you'll suddenly start losing every match 8-0, so you've very little to lose in the grand scheme of things.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Keep your game highlights on Comprehensive for a few more matches and see what difference your changes have made. Have any of your problems been fixed, or do you now have new problems to consider? Try and avoid making tiny changes on a regular basis, or you'll find yourself a long way from where you set out, and with no clue how to get back to your preferred style.

As you'll have noted from our form in February, we didn't score a goal for four consecutive games which prompted me to review our tactic using the steps above. The 4-3 win at Dinamo Bucaresti was a one-off so i ignored it and used the next 4 games to review our performances in detail.

Here's how we were set up:

Here's what I observed from those four games:

Our defensive play was fairly strong. Most of the goals we conceded were from exceptional build-up play or long-range screamers
1 or 2 neat passes were often followed by a 25 yard long-ball that almost always ended up with the opposition
My goal keeper liked to often try long range passes that would result in us losing possession
Our build up play was really great to watch. Nice passing in the middle, finding our wide options who could run forward with pace and cross the ball
Almost all our crosses were finding our target man or our poacher
Our TM would routinely header over the bar or straight at the goalkeeper
Our Poacher would often shoot straight at the goal keeper
Our full backs were having almost no impact on the game in terms of attack. I'd previously opted for a defensive mentality for fear of being left exposed at the back
Our midfield pair were often seen some way outside of the box and rarely attacking any poor opposition clearances, leaving all of the goal scoring responsibilities to our forwards

And as a result, here are the changes I made:

Switched the goalkeeper's distribution to short kicks
Changed the right full back to an Attack duty and the left full back to Support - this should mean the DR gets further forward and overlaps with the left Winger, while the DL also gets forward but not too far to expose us
Changed the Central Midfield role to an Attack duty with the intent he'll get in the box more often and hoover up chances on the edge of the area
Switched crosses from Mixed to Low. Since my TM was getting on the end of most of them, but was heading over, i thought lower crosses might give him more chance of hitting the target

And it worked a treat!

Form: Played 10, Won 5, Drew 3, Lost 2
Goals: 16 for, 13 against (7 in one dreadful game where we were out played all over)
Scorers: ST (TM-S) = 5, ST (P-A) = 2, ML (W-S) = 2, MR (W-A) = 4, Other = 3

So there you have it, on this occasion I felt satisfied the changes to the tactic had worked. We still had a couple of seriously bad days at the office, but that's something I hope we can improve on in the future.

Content Corner

Best Save Update Blog: this week I caught up on FM Grasshopper's exploits in Mexico, with the tale ending with an unexpected twist. Catch up the story here.
Best Advice Blog/Article: Tough to choose just one this week, loads of good stuff out there, but FM Samo's piece on his approach to training was the pick of the bunch for me. I enjoyed learning about his setup and it's given me some inspiration to make a few tweaks to my schedules too.
Best Audio/Video: Prince William took part in a new BBC documentary that aired this week, about football and mental health featuring interviews with people involved at grassroots level up to professional. Check it out here.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #4 - Mapping a Path to Success

May 22, 2020

Welcome along to another update from the Black Sea coast. Following Constanta's promotion to Liga I last time out, we'll see how they fared in their first season back among the big boys, with Frank still at the helm.

In this update I'll also cover how I strategise our path to success each season with a run through my forecasting model, plus i've got some highlights from my favourite content this week.

Save Update

Liga I's rules differ slightly from Liga II, but I think this works in our favour. We now need two U22 players in our starting XI (was two U19s in Liga II), and only 6 of our match day squad need to have been trained in Romania (was 10 in Liga II).

There's also a change in league format, with all 14 teams contesting a standard league with home and away fixtures, before being split into two groups depending on where you finish. The top 6 then play home and away to decide the league winners and European football qualification in the Champions Group, while the bottom 8 play home and away to decide who will suffer relegation in the Relegation Group. The bottom two teams automatically drop while the 3rd bottom side contest a playoff against Liga II's 3rd place team.

I can feel the pressure mounting now, I can only hope they remain patient with me. Thank goodness for my back room team, I'd be lost without them. At least I know I'm not alone in this.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 13th February 2024

The prospect of playing football in Romania's top division was one that brought both excitement and dread for Frank Athlete. While this had been the goal all along, now the team would have to fight against all odds to stay up. The media predicted Farul would finish bottom of the league, but Frank felt confident that the bulk of his squad, with one or two additions, could do the business.

The main areas of weakness were in both full back positions, in the middle of the park and up top. We lacked strength in depth and crucially, we needed someone talismanic who could create from central midfield. The budget well was dry so Frank turned to free transfers, signing Alexandru Sirbu (DR) from Liga I rivals Universitatea Craiova and Matteo Pranic from Croation side Sibenik, both on frees to reinforce our back four.

Elsewhere, Marko Roginic came in as cover for our Target Man while Mihai Capatina was brought in for his creative mind, able to play as a central playmaker or even out wide if necessary. In terms of outgoings, there weren't any departures outside of the U19s, most of which were loans or youngsters with no future at the club.

With the squad assembled, the season got underway and things couldn't have gone any worse. Five straight defeats and only two goals scored, saw the media's pre-season prediction look more like a prophecy, although it's worth mentioning that four of those sides were expected to feature in the Champions Group come the end of February. An up-turn in our fortunes saw Frank's side go unbeaten in the next 6 though, as the team grew in confidence, and as we reached the half way stage, we found ourselves holding our own in 11th place.

In to the last few games before the winter break and while we struggled for goals, we did manage to earn a win and four draws before Christmas.

Frank left the squad intact through the transfer window, and instantly regretted his complacency. Five straight defeats in our last five games saw us drop to 12th, six points off 11th placed Sepsi, with an 8-0 hammering away to FC Rapid being particularly hard to take.

From here, the table is split into a Champions Group, made up of the top six teams, and a Relegation Group, made up of the remaining 8 sides, of which we were obviously one.

In line with the league rules, we took half our points from the first 26 games with us into the Relegation Group, meaning we began the campaign with 11 points and sat in 6th place. With 14 of our original 26 points coming from other teams in the Relegation Group, Frank had good cause to be confident of escaping the drop.

A very mixed bag of results saw us pick up a few wins and a couple of draws when we need them most, and for the most part we kept our head above the water. A win in our penultimate game kept us 1 point clear of the relegation places with one game to go.

By a strange coincidence, the final day of the season would see the top 4 teams play the bottom four teams, with Farul away to 3rd placed Sepsi. We'd need to match or better everyone else's results with literally any of the bottom 4 capable of escaping the drop.

The moment arrived, the final day was upon us, and it seemed we barely turned up. Sepsi were all over us for the entirety of the match, scoring a goal in each half and comfortably beating us 2-0. Surely that was it? Our fate awaited us as we headed in to tunnel to find out the latest scores.

In a strange turn of events, it seemed that none of the bottom teams were particularly keen on staying up, having all done our level best to throw our Liga I status away. All four sides lost their last games and so by proxy, we stayed in 5th place and would get to do it all again next year.

As first seasons back in the big time go, Frank seemed quite content that we'd done ok. We'd not set the world alight, but we'd secured our Liga I status and earnt some good points against the bigger teams. There's plenty here to build on for next year, and another year of consolidation is inevitably what awaits us before we can start challenging for a top half finish in a few years time.

Let's hope Frank can keep the good times rolling with another season of success next year.

Mapping a Path to Success

So we survived, just! And it was hardly by our own hand, in fact we really only stayed up as a bi-product of the teams around us doing slightly worse than we did. But, in terms of how I anticipated this season would play out, we weren't far off where I thought we'd be.

At the start of each season I look through our fixtures and attempt to work out where we'll accumulate points. I consider a number of factors for each fixture, as follows:

the venue - we might have a great away record against the big sides, but be dreadful at home against the teams around us
our head-to-head history - is there a bogey team among those we should be beating?
last season's finish - a good indicator of whether they've been consistent, or they're overachievers/underachievers
the media's prediction - this considers recent signings and comparisons with other teams in the league
fixture congestion or the order in which they're played - playing the bottom side two days after we played the league leaders might impact on our success
previous successes and failures - are they 3 time league champions or the latest yo-yo club?

With all that considered, I enter the predictions into my spreadsheet prior to the season starting:

The left hand column is the media's predicted finish, then we have the team and then how many points i expect us to get, home and away. This acts as a quick reference guide before each game, giving me an indication of how tough an opponent I thought each team would be at the start of the season. I can then factor in their recent form prior to the match to see whether they're doing better or worse than expected.

In the example above, I'm a newly promoted team expected to finish bottom, and I haven't played most of the teams before so there's no historical data I can look at. I find it highly improbably i'll take any points from the predicted top 6, and will be lucky to nick a draw or two from the mid-table sides. My best chance of points will be at home to the teams around me, and i will also hope to steal a draw at the away tie too.

As the season progresses, I fill in the spreadsheet and then reevaluate where I might need to get additional points from. For example, if we draw instead of win against a relegation rival, then I'll need to look at where else I can get the points to make up the difference, from an underachiever for example.

Adjacent to the Actual Results section, you'll see how we compared to what was predicted at the start of the season in terms of points attained and then where we finished. 22 points versus 18 predicted, and a 12th place finish versus an expected 14th place - enough to land us in the Relegation Group for Liga I.

The table above tells me we performed better than expected against the likes of CSM Poli Iasi and Dinamo Bucaresti, while we massively under achieved against Petrolul Ploiesti. In the last column, you'll see how each team did in reality versus the pre-season prediction. Although we were poor against Petrolul Ploiesti having lost both games, we can see they finished 5 places above their predicted 13th, with CSM Poli Iasi taking their place 5 places lower than expected.

Over the course of future seasons, i'll be able to collate the average points earned against each team and identify patterns in our results. Here's a look at the cumulative table after I repeated the above process for the Relegation Group games as well.

You can see in the top left corner, we average 0.8 points per game at the moment (after 1 season). I can also see that we do surprisingly well against U Cluj, averaging 2.3 points per game from them, while we've never won a point from relegation rivals Petrolul Ploiesti.

From here, I can apply some historical data to my individual team assessment for the season ahead as I map out where those points are going to come from and work towards consolidating our stay in the top flight.

So there you have it, my approach to strategic planning: FM style! To be clear, this process doesn't mean i don't try and win every game, that's a given. Instead, I get to take a season-long view of where we can accumulate points, and can track whether we're doing better or worse than planned as the season progresses. I won't sweat the losses if they were part of the plan anyway, and equally I can celebrate twice as hard when we nick those unexpected wins that can be the difference between a good season and a great one.

Content Corner

Best Save Update Blog: this week I've been catching up on TedRedwood's exploits with St. Pauli in his series Der Kult. Check out his progress here.
Best Advice Blog/Article: As ever, Oliver Jensen (A.K.A. fmFutbolManager) has been pumping out some quality FM tools and guides lately, but his latest one tops the lot for me. Take a look at his Player Mentality Calculator to see a visual representation of how your players are affected by changes to your team mentality and approach play. Brilliant.
Another Best Advice Blog/Article: I didn't consume much audio/visual content this week (unless you include That Peter Crouch Podcast #PassthePod) so I'm including another best advice blog, this time from FMPressure, who shared a piece on modern full backs which highlights some important takeaways in getting the most out of your full backs, plus some insight into the value of retraining players to suit other positions. Enjoy!

Mental Health Awareness Week

Before I leave you, I wanted to take a minute to highlight an important message. This week we've been observing Mental Health Awareness Week and you may have noticed Frank's usual diary excerpt (above) was more in line with battling his inner demons than usual.

I'm not a trained mental health professional, but I do know that in my own small way I sometimes struggle with life's daily pressures. Some days I handle it better than others but on the whole, I know I'm lucky to have a strong network of friends and family that I can speak to.

Sometimes just venting to a group of trusted compatriots (you know who you are) is all you need, so I can thoroughly recommend talking about what might be bothering you. More often than not, you don't need someone to fix it, but just sharing your thoughts can help you to process it. It does for me anyway.

Let's keep mental health at the top of the conversation and make sure it continues to become a normal thing to talk about.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #3 - Getting Back to Work

May 14, 2020

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

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.

I'll be back as soon as I can with another update from Frank as he continues to take us Down the Danube.

Down the Danube | #2 - Squad Numbering is an Art Form

March 6, 2020

Welcome back to the bustling city of Constanta where the Sharks are gearing up for their first full season with Frank Athlete at the helm. This season took me almost two months to complete, largely down to several work trips preventing me from getting some decent game time in.

Nonetheless, I'm delighted to bring you an update from the Black Sea and will also share my musings on the role of squad numbering - a topic that will have some of you drooling at the mouth and the rest of you now asleep in a heap, but hear me out anyway!

Shall we get on with it?

Save Update

I can't say I'm not pleased about it, I'm delighted, but there's so much more to come from this team. I really hope they can live up to my expectations, and push on to the next level within the next year or two.
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 22nd November 2020

You may recall me saying in my previous update that Frank's arrival at the club had been met with a lot of negativity from the playing staff. I believe that this, coupled with an unfamiliar tactical approach, is what led to our poor performances on the pitch and so as the players headed off on their holidays, we set about assessing what changes and improvements needed to be made before the start of the new season.

As you'll likely expect from a club of Constanta's stature, we were allocated no transfer budget and the same wage budget for the season ahead. This meant that despite my desire to build the squad with our own players, we'd instead be reliant on loan signings for at least another year. However, we had three pieces of positive news before our work had even begun.

The first was that new Brazilian signing, Luan Viana, who had joined a few months back would now be eligible to play, having missed the end of last season due to not being registered in time. He's already settled into the club well and is chomping at the bit to make a contribution to the first team.

The second bit of good news was our only two 'Influential' players in the squad would both be leaving this Summer. Neither had any interest in renewing their contracts and while their technical ability would be a big loss, it also meant that Frank wouldn't need to contend with the players revolt that had started to brew in the dressing room.

The third, and potentially the best news of all, was our youth intake, which featured quite a few hot prospects that could feature in 4 or 5 years time. Perhaps the most exciting prospect of all is Dennis Alexandroae, who at the tender age of just 15, already possesses the technical ability to play in our first team. While ideally he'd be nurtured slowly in the U19s set-up, we may have no choice but to add him as a reserve for the first team to help make up the numbers. This also has the added benefit of helping our registration commitments for Liga II where we must have a minimum of two U19s in the playing XI. To that end, Ionel Lazar also gets the nod to back up our forward line as the fourth choice striker for the season, boosting our U19 numbers in the process.

In terms of strengthening the squad from outside of the U19s squad, Frank looked to shore up our defence with the additions of Adrian Majzik at DR and Cosmin Achim at DC, both joining on a free, while Ionut Gavrilla at DL and Robert Ghita at back-up DR both join on loan for the season. In the middle of the park, experienced MC, Marian Anghelina, joins on a free, while Razvan Matis was loaned in to offer competition to Negrea at ML.

With the squad in place, we were quickly into the season proper and it wasn't long before Frank was justified in his transfer business as the team soared to second place after 10 games, despite two of those results being losses. Despite losing our opening game, we would pick seven wins and a draw from our first 10 league games, including wins against Metaloglobus, Ripensia and FC Arges, all of whom were vying for promotion this season.

In the Cupa Romanei, we didn't fare so well. We scraped through our opening 4th round tie against Metaloglobus after extra time, before being beaten comfortably by first division outfit UTA Arad. Frank didn't seemed too bothered by it though, shrugging his shoulders in the press conference that followed, it was evident that the league would take priority this year.

Fast forward through to the end of November and the board were so pleased with how things were going that they promptly offered Frank a contract extension that would see him at the helm until 2022. Frank remarked that while it was "nice to to receive plaudits from your peers, it's the results on the pitch that really matter". Such a cheerful chappy. *eye roll emoji*

As the Winter break loomed, we reached the halfway stage and our form had started to wobble. In spite of some disappointing defeats in October though, we picked up 10 points from a possible 15 in November which was enough to see us finish the year still in promotion contention, and even possibly title challengers as well.

As we returned at the end of February, we seemed to pick up where we left off with two wins from our first three fixtures, before things really started to unravel. We were avoiding defeat, but could only secure draws - 6 of them coming in our next 8 games. Meanwhile, our competition were far more clinical and began to eclipse us in the table.

We entered May as outsiders for promotion, but still within touching distance of the teams around us. Then, from relative mid-table obscurity, came FC Voluntari, stampeding to victory after victory and eventually ending the season 10 points clear of us in 3rd place, while we wallowed in 5th and rued our missed chances (which is apparently what you have to do when this sort of thing happens).

Despite our obvious disappointment at having absolutely collapsed towards the end of the season, Frank seemed in good spirits as he waved the boys off on their Summer holidays. "Let's push for a top half finish next season lads" he said. The boys unenthusiastic grunts of agreement were about as inspiring as Frank's ambition, but who am I to judge?

In the post-season review of how things went, it was at least pleasing to see a couple of records tumble as our goalie, Vlad Mutiu, set the new clean sheet record for Constanta, while our big target man Cezar Trandafirescu broke the clubs goal scoring record as well. Both bode well for the future.

Our big challenge for next year will be coping with the U19 rule in the league, where's we'll need to bring in some high-quality players that meet the criteria, and who won't upset the team dynamic that we're building here. I suspect loans will be the solution but bringing in some permanent additions will be top of the gaffer's list as well.

We'll find out next time how he got on.

Squad Numbering is an Art Form

Arguably one of the most underrated, yet best bits of FM is the squad numbering screen. Now, before you stop reading and delete my blog from your feed, just hear me out - there's method in my madness. For me, squad numbering serves so many crucial purposes.

I won't lie, I enjoy the neatness of organising your team by number, but there are extra layers to utilising squad numbering which perhaps not all football managers appreciate. Here's our squad numbers for the 2020/21 season again, let me talk you through it.

First of all, I couldn't believe that 7 of the first 11 shirts were unassigned from last season. In fact, out of our 23 man squad, almost half of the first 23 shirts weren't assigned to anyone! This serves two problems, the first that it's untidy, which I get that most people won't give two hoots about, but the second issue is there's no pride in attaining one of the lower number shirts. I like to believe that it's the desire of most players to adorn a squad number that has some history tied to it. Think of the significance of 7 at Manchester United, or Argentina's 10. Our budding 15 year old superstar prospect, Dennis Alexandroae, is hardly going to be pushing himself to claim the number 7 shirt if no-one has worn it for four seasons anyway.

At the start of each season I will reassess my best team and will make changes to who gets the first 11 shirts. In addition to inspiring my ambitious squad to earn their shirt, this also serves a second, far more practical purpose. By assigning a specific number to each player, I can glean a lot of additional information about the player, just from knowing his number.

For example, if the shirt is between 1 and 11, i know that I and my scouts believe this player to be our best option for our starting formation. I can also work out which side of the pitch he plays, and in some cases whether he's got an attacking or defensive mentality.

This code comes in handy, particularly when you've taken over at a club where you're not familiar with the playing staff, or even when you find their names difficult to read or pronounce, which in turn makes it challenging to recall who plays where. Below is an overview of how I assign squad numbers to each player (let me know on Twitter or in my Slack channel if you do something different):

Guide to assigning squad numbers

goalkeeper
right sided full back or wingback
left sided full back or wingback
right sided central defender
left sided central defender, always with a Cover duty
central defender in a back three OR defensive midfielder OR right-sided central midfielder with a Defend or Support duty
right sided wide player, either a Winger or Inside Forward and usually assigned an Attack duty
left sided central midfielder, often the play maker and usually assigned a Support or Attack duty
central or right sided striker, usually quick and with good finishing
left sided striker, usually tall, strong and assigned a Target Man role OR central attacking midfielder, OR right sided central midfielder when playing with a DMC
left sided wide player, either a Winger or Inside Forward and usually assigned a Support duty
reserve goalkeeper
back up to 2
back up to 3
back up to 4
back up to 5
defensive minded central midfielder (regardless of formation)
back up to 7
back up to 8
back up to 9
reserve striker or attack minded midfielder, depending on formation
back up to 11
third choice goalkeeper OR utility man OR simply a player that offers something different to the rest of the squad
U21 defensive minded defender/midfielder who might break into the first team
U21 attack minded midfielder/forward who might break into the first team

And so there you have it! Feel free to share your preferences when it comes to squad numbering. I'm genuinely interested in what other people do for this part of the game. Consider yourself educated in the art of squad numbering and give yourself a lingering pat on the back for reading down this far. We're nearly done now, just hang in there.

Content Corner

Best Save Update Blog: It's hard to miss @DGear86's blog posts this year, mainly because he seems to be pumping out updates and analysis posts for his Bolton Wanderers save every other day. It's a lot of content to get through but frankly, it's expertly done and his whole attitude and approach towards Bolton is refreshing and like nothing else in the community that I've found.
Best Advice Blog/Article: It's a while a go now, but earlier this year @BlackseaFM released this brilliant article entitled A Scouting Hack Inspired by Brian Clough. It challenges the standard approach of searching for players in the game, and introduces an alternative means of unearthing that rough diamond that could transform your team into glory beaters.
Best Audio/Video: Following the tantalizing success of last year's Piacenza save, YouTube aficionado JimG has returned for FM20 with his Atletico De Madrid series. As is standard with Jim's content, production is at a very high standard and his ability to suck you into the story with music and his little teasers mean subscribing to the channel is essential. If that wasn't enough, his stadium visits are legendary and not to be missed!

And that's it for another update from me. Thanks so much for reading down this far, I hope you enjoyed it. As always 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.

Down the Danube | #1 - Starting as Unemployed

January 17, 2020

Hello again and welcome back to my FM20 blog series, Down the Danube. This post is coming to you much later than I initially anticipated, but real life got in the way of getting this released sooner. In case you missed the introductory blog post, you can catch up on that here.

Otherwise, here's a quick recap for anyonee who may have forgotten the intent of this save. Down the Danube will document the life and career of Frank M. Athlete, a journeyman manager who will be working within the nine countries that the River Danube flows through (or alongside) and that are in the game. These are Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine with Moldova being left out due to them not being playable in FM20. I've not got any specific rules about the clubs I'll be managing and their proximity to the Danube, but ideally I'd like to try and stay within 50 km of the river if I can.

In this series I'd like to bring some more structure to my posts and so will attempt to include the following regular features each time:

Save Update - an update on how the save is progressing
Feature Focus - a spotlight on one particular aspect or feature of FM that's been having an impact on my save
Content Corner - a quick glance at some of the other content I’ve been enjoying recently

Anyway, enough chit chat. Let’s get to it shall we?

Game Set-up

Before I dive into how the save has panned out, I just want to give a quick overview of the set-up. Below you'll see the nations and leagues that I've loaded - sadly Moldova aren't a playable nation in the game so I've had to leave them out. You'll also notice that I've made some adjustments to the advanced settings as well to help raise the number of players in the database to just shy of 100,000.

I also opted to disable attribute masking, something I've not done in many years but, i think will help me make the most of this save, especially as I expect I won't have as much time to play this time around.

As for Frank, his set-up is below. My first goal of this save will be to see him through his badges and to get some of his attributes enhanced.

Save Update

There's a lot of work to be done, but I get the feeling that this could be the start of something really special. They've such a long history, but with little to shout about. I'm looking forward to attempting to remedy that!
An extract from the diary of Frank M. Athlete, 1st January 2020

Finding a job was quite a challenge this time around. Frank’s attributes are almost non-existent and so it was only the lower division sides in Hungary and Romania that showed any interest, and even their inquiries were hard to come by. Out of those interested enough to offer me a job interview, not one of them were among the clubs I previewed in my last blog post. Typical.

I was really keen for Frank to find a club that had a bit of a story to them and in my mind that meant they needed some historical significance. As such, what few offers we received, we promptly rejected any from newly created clubs.

As Autumn set in and eventually gave way to Winter, the dawning of the new decade threatened to make a mockery of my job search throughout 2019. Just as I began to doubt whether Frank could cut it in this bleak landscape that was the deep ravines of Eastern European football, an interview offer came in from Farul Constanta, a 99 year old club operating in Romania’s second division and at risk of being relegated if their current form went unchecked.

Frank attended the interview which seemed to go very well, albeit quite short (he was in and out in less than 6 minutes), and then we waited for what felt like the longest seven days in history to learn of our fate.

On 1st January 2020 it was confirmed that Frank Athlete had been appointed the new manager of Farul Constanta. Party poppers were fired and a bottle of local supermarket branded Prosecco was opened in a very sensible fashion that ensured minimal waste of the dry, pale toxin.

Farul Constanta are known locally as the Recchini (the Sharks) and play their home games in their 15,000 seater stadium, Stadionul Farul, in the city of Constanta, on the shores of the Black Sea. The city is around 50km East of the River Danube where it heads North via the city of Cernavodă.

They were founded back in 1920 under the name of SPM Constanta and have undergone a series of rebirths over the years, leading to their latest name and badge being adopted as recently as August 2016. Their local rivals, FC Vittorul, play in the division above and are currently our Senior Affiliate, a relationship we'll need to exploit in these formative years of Frank's tenure.

In terms of success on the field, Farul were promoted form the third division in 2018, but prior to that they spent a long time in the top division, evening managing a runners up medal in the Cupa Romaniei in 2005, and then the European Intertoto Cup in 2006.

Although this is a journeyman save, I'm inspired to try and surpass their previous achievements and establish them as a stable top division team that competes for silverware, be that a cup win or qualification to European competitions. With that in mind, I went about my usual routine of assessing the current state of affairs. Before undertaking an in-depth analysis of the playing staff, I took a look at the club’s financial health along with who my reliable cohorts would be in this epic drama that was about to unfold.

The clubs demise to the lower divisions was a result of bankruptcy in 2016 and so back-to-back promotions have seen them emerge in the second division for the first time since the 2015/16 season. Although on a slightly surer financial footing, the clubs resources are still nothing to shout about at this stage and will be part of Frank's ongoing challenge to drag the club up through to rankings.

In terms of staff, a lot of Frank's responsibilities were delegated to the team already in place, however with no Assistant Manager employed, this became the primary focus in the short-term. Crucially, January signalled the start of the Winter break in Romania so at least we had plenty of time to get everyone in place, assess the situation and get training implemented before we returned to the league fixtures.

To illustrate the club's poor financial position, we had 6 loan players in the squad which was made up of just 18 boys. The club had been expected to finish in 8th but currently found themselves languishing in 16th, hence the need to draft in a seasoned professional who could rally the troops.

Clearly there weren’t any available, hence Frank’s appointment, and the players quickly made it known that they weren’t best impressed with the uninspired choice of hiring an unknown Sunday league footballer from the UK.

We set about analysing the players attributes and utilising their recent performance data to try and work out how best to play. Eventually we settled on the tactic below with the idea being we were likely to be on the back foot a lot of the time, but we could score goals if we hit them on the break.

A good plan in theory, but not terribly effective. Injuries played their part but by and large, we just don't have the technical players we need to quickly transition the ball up the pitch. You'll note from the results below, even the wins were not particularly emphatic, and our leaky defence went on holiday towards the end of April as we attempted our best impression of a club desperate to play third division football.

While our play on the pitch left a lot to be desired, the team cohesion in the dressing room teetered on the edge of the abyss as Frank scrambled to prove his worth and keep the team motivated. Word crept out to the Board and to the media that he'd not made the best of impressions, and the pressure on his job mounted. Rather him than me.

We weathered the storm and we clung on though, securing our place in Liga II for another season and with one game to spare. Clearly the fabled "new manager bounce" proved elusive in this scenario but hopefully we're through the worst of the negativity and we can build on it moving forwards.

It's evident that a lot needs to be done to improve both our on-field performances and the atmosphere off it, but I trust Frank to get it done, after all he's got a '4' for his Determination attribute. Over the Summer we'll look to bring in some fresh faces, with youth being a core focus given Romania's league rule that two U19 players must be on the pitch at all times. We also need more depth to help us through any injury crises so expect lot's of free transfers and loans!

I'll report on our progress next time so check back soon for another save update.

Feature Focus - Starting as Unemployed

With this being the first proper post of the series, I couldn't very well do a feature focus without looking at the unemployed experience in FM20, something that kept Frank out of football management for 6 months! It occurs to me that many managers may not have played FM as unemployed, but for me I've spent plenty of time staring into the darkness over the years.

I enjoy starting the game unemployed, it gives you an element of suspense in that you don't know which team the game is going to deal to you. There are also certain advantages to starting mid-way through the season, but I'll come back to those a bit later.

In terms of the overall experience, I feel like it's been somewhat enhanced for FM20, compared to previous versions of the game. You feel closer to the job search and job stability pages of the staff section, as well as feeling more immersed through the press queries, the news and the social elements too. It's all neatly buttoned up with the temporary home page that gives an overview of the current state of affairs as well, and in addition to all that, the improvements to the job interview process and the Boardroom experience really make this whole aspect of the game quite enjoyable. More variety with the interview questions plus improvements to how your style and career goals might affect their decision, really made the whole thing feel that much more realistic.

The only downside for me was that after going through 5 or 10 interviews with Frank, before Farul Constanta gave him the nod, there was almost no feedback as to why you've been unsuccessful. The message will include something along the lines of "going in another direction" or "going for more experience", all of which is fine but doesn't really help you improve. I'd love to see more detail here. Something like "they really liked your approach towards youth development, but your request for more wage budget showed a lack of appreciation for their financial situation" would actually give you a chance to review the way you might approach the next interview. This isn't a moan of course, but is something I'll add in as a feature request for FM21.

Back to the game and, as I mentioned, there are some advantages to starting off unemployed. Firstly, you're usually taking over a club where things have been going really badly and so generally speaking, that means you're unlikely to do any worse than your predecessor. That means you have an instant opportunity to make a positive impact, without changing anything! You'll often also find that some of the staff have decided to leave as well, freeing up cash on the wage bill and giving you a chance to hire for some positions without needing to pay any compensation out.

There's no transfer window to contend with, which admittedly some might feel is a disadvantage, but for me it means I'm not worried about losing players, and I've got plenty of time to assess what we need, who needs to go and who should come in. There's nothing worse than assessing the team in July and deciding you have too many right backs, only to find that two of them just signed a contract 8 days ago and aren't going to leave!

Perhaps most crucially though, you've already got player data to look at. Since it's most likely that you're taking over your new club part way into the season, you can already see how the players have been performing in games and in training, how many goals and assists do they have and who's been working the hardest on the pitch. I find this data invaluable in assessing where the strengths and weaknesses are in the team, which in turn gives you the chance to work out what's working and what's not. Does your striker need more crosses coming in from the wing? Is the goalkeeper giving away too much possession by pumping it long all the time? Is our left backs poor form down to a lack of technical ability, or does he need an arm round his shoulder to gee him up a bit?

I hope you've enjoyed my assessment of the unemployed experience in FM20. If you've not already tried it, why not quit your current position and have a go at playing unemployed for a bit? You won't regret it (probably).

Content Corner

The upside to not blogging as often as you planned is you get more time to consume everyone else's content. There's some great stuff out there at the moment, it would seem more than ever, and I've highlighted a few below, but I'm afraid there's too much to give everyone a mention, but the vast majority are all on Slack so I strongly advise you to join that community and check them out here.

I thought I'd attempt to limit my picks to specific categories that I can repeat next time, so here are my favorites from the last few weeks:

Best Save Update Blog: FM Eadster's save for this year has a brilliant historical backstory to it which really draws you in to the save. His series entitled the RE-builders of Pripyat sees him resurrect a club that's been dormant since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Best Advice Blog/Article: As is typical of a new FM release, there's been some great content created in they way of playing guides and advice. One I found particularly useful was FM Pressure's piece on staff recruitment and responsibilities that he released back in November. There's some real insight here into what attributes and characteristics make up a successful backroom team, beyond the obvious and suggested ones given to you by the game.
Best Audio/Video: Chris Johnson started his Black Crow series back in November and it doesn't disappoint. The story is told through a series of audio blogs, supplemented by some written content too. If you've not check it out yet, make sure you start now, it's like nothing else out there!

And that's it from me. Thanks so much for reading down this far, I hope you enjoyed it. As always your feedback is always welcome either here, 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 soon with another update from Frank and his Romanian adventure as we continue Down the Danube next time.

Down the Danube | Prospective Clubs

November 12, 2019

With the official launch of FM20 now just a week away, I've been giving some further thought to my plans this year when I'll be heading Down the Danube on a journeyman save. You can watch my reveal video here, as well as catch the Prologue for the series here, but in short, I will be loading up all the nations that the River Danube currently runs through or borders and then will start the save in the form of my alter-ego, Frank M. Athlete, an unemployed football manager with no badges and Sunday League experience.

I'll be beginning with all leagues set as playable, but given Frank's experience, will expect the initial job offers to come from the lowest reputation leagues available. These are Hungary's Division II and Slovakia's Second Division, both 1½ stars, followed by Germany's Liga 3 and the second divisions of Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Ukraine, all of which have two star reputations.

In anticipation of not knowing who my first club will be, I've been digging in to some of the lower reputation clubs from these leagues that are more likely to give me some interview practice, and I've unearthed what I think could be some really interesting teams to manage.

So without further ado, here are my highlights and some of the ones I'll be keeping an eye out for on the jobs board...

Chornomorets Odesa

Ukrainian First League
Predicted finish: 2nd

Known locally as 'The Sailors', they were formed in 1936 and have enjoyed some success over the years, finishing in the Ukrainian Premier League's top 3 on five occasions, not to mention securing two Ukrainian Cup wins as well.

In the last 20 years they've spent just three seasons outside of the top flight but after last season's lacklustre performances, they were relegated back down to the Ukrainian First League. The training facilities are Great, while youth facilities are Good which could provide huge potential.

In terms of playing staff, there aren't many worth noting. Journeyman striker Olexandr Kovpak has three caps for Ukraine at the age of 36, while 20 year old attacking midfielder Mykola Musolitin shows some real promise for the future.

After a drop down from the big time, can Frank Athlete restore their status in Ukrainian football?

ETO FC Győr

Hungarian Division II
Predicted finish: 3rd

Győr are another club with a history of winning titles. Although currently operating in Hungary's Division II, they were previously relegated from the top flight by the Hungarian FA due to financial problems, and began the the 2017/18 season in Division III, which they won promotion from at the first time of asking.

They've won the Hungarian Division I title four times in their history, and as recently as 2012/13, not to mention reaching the semi-finals of what was the European Cup back in 1964. Both their training facilities and their youth facilities are set as Average, but their stadium can seat an impressive 14,000 fans with another 2,000 able to stand which should make for a good atmosphere on match days.

Their squad doesn't have many names worth shouting about, with 29 year old Marko Vukasovic probably the best of a bad bunch, but a fairly solid defensive midfielder at his level.

Will European football return to Győr under Frank's tenure?

FC Petrzalka

Slovak Second Division
Predicted finish: 4th

Another club with financial problems in their past, Petrzalka were relegated to the bottom of Slovakia's football pyramid in 2014 and have had to work their way back up. They achieved three back to back promotions to take them into the Second Division for the 2018/19 season where they finished a respectable 8th.

In the last 17 years, they've won the top flight on two occasions and finished second three times, but after their recent plummet to the bottom, they're a team having to rebuild and work back up. My only slight concern is the training facilities which are Below Average, while the youth facilities are only Adequate.

We have a few internationals on the books here, albeit just a handful of caps between them. Meanwhile, Ladislav Almasi looks a promising youngster at 20 years old.

Can Frank Athlete sustain their growth and restore them to the pinnacle of Slovakian football?

MTK Budapest

Hungarian Division II
Predicted finish: 1st

Arguably one of Hungary's most successful teams of all time, MTK have won the title on 23 occasions and the cup 12 times since their formation in 1888. In recent years they've become something of a yo-yo team after being relegated 3 times in the last 10 years, including last year.

Aside from their Average training and youth facilities, the only other significant detail of note is their current affiliation to England's number one title contenders, Liverpool.

In the squad at MTK we have one-club-legend Jozsef Kanta who's amassed over 350 appearances for the team across an 18 year career, while in terms of youth prospects we have Szabolcs Schön at just 19 who looks to be a rising star of the future.

Could glory be restored in Budapest?

ACS Campionii FC Argeş

Romanian Second League
Predicted finish: 5th

Once two time winners of the Romanian First League, FC Arges have fallen away behind their rivals. In 2009 the club were relegated from the top flight, and a few years later they were relegated again to the third tier.

After a few years exile, the club won promotion back to the Second League which is where they've stayed since 2017.

On the pitch, FC Arges can boast Adrian Mutu as one of their academy graduates while today's rising star is Grogire Turda, a decent central defender who has already bagged 32 appearances for the club.

The training and youth facilities leave a lot to be desired, as does the 15,000 seater stadium, but could this be the year that Frank takes them back to the big time?

Lokomotiv 1929 Sofia

Bulgarian Second League
Predicted finish: 4th

Lokomotiv Sofia have the prestigious honour of having won the Bulgarian First League on four separate occasions, as well as winning the Bulgarian Cup four times as well. Despite success in the not too distant past, Lokomotiv were relegated in 2015 and haven't returned to the top of Bulgaria's football pyramid since.

Lokomotiv's squad leaves a lot to be desired, with Brazilian fullback Choco probably the pick of a bad bunch at 29 years old.

Is it time to return Lokomotiv to the top of Bulgarian football?

MFK Dukla Banska Bystrica

Slovak Second Division
Predicted finish: 7th

Recently rebranded following a merger a couple of seasons ago, Banska Bystrica have won the Slovak Cup on two occasions and were runners up in the top flight in 2004.

Banska Bystrica's list of legends is sparse, but perhaps their promising left winger Robert Polievka can become the first legend in years to come having already won three caps for his country at the age of 23.

Their facilities are adequate but could their future be brighter with Frank Athlete at the helm?

And so there you have it, a few of the potential clubs I may be taking over in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for my next update once the full game drops on 19th November 2019.

Thanks for reading the blog, I hope you enjoyed this update. You can follow me on Twitter @fm_athlete and in my FM Slack channel #fm_athlete for more updates in the near future.

Down the Danube | Prologue

October 31, 2019

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m James, otherwise known as FM Athlete. I’ve been playing Football Manager since the Championship Manager 00/01 edition and played EA Sports’ F.A. Premier League Manager for a number of years before that.

Last year I made my blogging debut, as I shared updates from my Journeyman save, Nordic Nights and Dutch Days. The series saw me start out as an unknown Manager with Sunday-League experience, and after a short period unemployed, I took the Nosaby IF job in the bottom tier of Swedish football. From Nosaby, I managed KuPS in Finland, FC Emmen in the Netherlands, Hibernian in Scotland, Wolves in England and then Villarreal in Spain. The goal of the save was to manage one of the so called “Big 6” teams in the Premier League and despite my best efforts, I failed to achieve my goal.

Despite not succeeding, it was still one of my most enjoyable saves to date and has given me some inspiration for what I'll be doing in FM20.

Background

As revealed on 9th October 2019, I’ll be blogging another Journeyman save for FM20, this time returning to my real life family origins along the River Danube, Europe’s second longest river, running through Central and Eastern Europe.

Once the frontier of the Roman Empire, the River Danube is 1,770 miles (2,850 km) long and runs through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Originating in Germany, it passes through (or borders) Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine before draining into the Black Sea.

Map showing the route of the River Danube

The Danube features heavily in history, with it marking the site of many early human cultures, not to mention intertwining with other enormously significant historical figures, including Darius the Great and Alexander the Great (no relation). It’s also seen many battles and wars over the years, particularly as the Ottoman Empire looked to expand it’s reach between the 14th and 19th Centuries. In modern times, the river provides drinking water for in excess of 20 million people, and has become an essential transport route, connecting Western Europe to the Black Sea.

In real life, my family descended originally from Czech Republic, before moving to Germany and then more recently Austria, eventually arriving in England shortly after the Second World War. The River Danube presents a really interesting back story to my save, and I’m looking forward to learning more about these amazing countries where my ancestors grew up and lived for centuries before me.

Structuring the Game World

My FM game world will initially have 9 out of those 10 countries loaded, with Moldova being the only omission as they're not available out of the box. I may or may not add them in if I can find a good database to include, but otherwise I'll begin with all leagues from the other nine nations as playable. That said, I only expect interview offers from the lowest reputation leagues at the start, which are Romania's Liga III, Hungary's Division II and Slovakia's Second Division. I don’t plan on adding any other nations for this save.

Taken from FM19 with playable leagues highlighted in red

Goals

I think it’s important to have a long-term vision for the save and so, with that in mind, my goals are as follows:

Attain my Continental Pro coaching licence
Win a nation’s top domestic league
Win a domestic league and cup double
Win either the Europa League or Champions League

For many reading this, those goals may seem easily achievable, however since I’m a big fan of LLM (lower league management), I’ll likely spend a considerable amount of time in the lower echelons of Europe’s football pyramid, just working on the first goal before being in a position to tackle some of the others.

In terms of setting up the game, I’ll be going for a simple Large database without any Advanced Options this time, giving me a pool of around 32,000 players loaded. I usually play with attribute masking enabled as well, however this year I'm going to experiment with it disabled during the Beta and will see how it goes.

Say Hi to Frank

An artists impression of Frank M. Athlete

As with previous versions of FM, I’ll be starting as unemployed in FM20, and will let the game hand me my first job in management as I apply and declare interest in any vacancies that present themselves. For this series, I’ll be playing as Frank M. Athlete (see what I did there?), my alter ego, with some, but not all, of the same personality traits as me IRL, along with a very similar personal history.

Biography

Born in September 1986 in England, but with Austrian heritage, Frank M. Athlete played football at an amateur level before stopping in his late 20’s. At the ripe old age of 33, Frank found himself unemployed and keen to find a new adventure. A lifelong passion for football left him seeking opportunities in the industry he loved, and with an offer to stay with a distant cousin in Vienna, he packed his belongings and went in search of a new start.

What happened next is quite an incredible story. This story in fact.

So, without further ado, get comfortable and strap yourself in, as we go… Down the Danube.

Thanks for reading the blog, I hope you enjoyed this update. You can follow me on Twitter @fm_athlete and in my FM Slack channel #fm_athlete for more updates in the near future.