Down the Danube | #3 - Getting Back to Work

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.

1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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?

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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

7. FM Admin - it's tempting to just crack on with it from here, but before you click "Continue", just take a few more minutes running through the usual admin areas and potentially avoid a world of pain if you've overlooked something. Are there any adjustments needed for Training? Any contract renewals that need your attention or are about to be finalised? Any unfinished transfer business that's pending. What about your staff? Did your assistant leave before you could identify his replacement?

I'd say the above took me less than 30 minutes to whiz through. I rediscovered my starting GK was out of the team owing to an injury he'd just recovered from, my assistant manager accepted an offer from a rival club and I'd not gotten on to finding a replacement yet, plus my next game was in about 1 minute and against a local rival - all critical information I had long forgotten.

Since I was in the groove of reassessing the club, i also took the time to look again at my tactics and, with the help of the match analysis, i was able to make a few tweaks that have led to significant improvement on the pitch.

I suspect for many, the thought of not playing the game on a regular basis is laughable anyway, but for those of you looking to get back into the swing of things after an absence, I hope this helps you recapture your spark!

Content Corner

In this section I've highlighted some of the content I've been consuming of late. There are some excellent content creators out there, some old and some new, and the vast majority of which are all on Slack so I strongly advise you to join that community and check them out here.

• Best Save Update Blog: I've been really enjoying FromElevenOne's save updates from his time with FK Macva Sabac in Serbia. Read here about how he's building a dynasty in the Balkans.

• Best Advice Blog/Article: I had to change this last minute owing to a brilliant piece from FMRensie that he released this week. It's a great article on getting the most of your coaches advice and well worth a read if you're looking for that little extra percentile to give you the edge.

• Best Audio/Video: Something different this time after I tumbled down a YouTube rabbit hole and stumbled across a brilliant interview with Ian Holloway. The interview talks through the various challenges Holloway faced with roles at QPR (rebuild project), Leicester (consolidation), Blackpool (chasing promotion) plus others, and how he handled things with his own management style. You get a great insight into the world of football management, and it's given me a lot to consider for my FM world. Check it out here.

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And that's it for another update from me. Thanks so much for reading down this far, I hope you enjoyed it. As ever your feedback is always welcome either here in the comments, on Twitter or on my Slack channel. If you're not already on Slack then you're missing out. It's free to join, there's no pressure to post anything, and you'll find there are some excellent people who you can chat to if you want.

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

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

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

1. goalkeeper

2. right sided full back or wingback

3. left sided full back or wingback

4. right sided central defender

5. left sided central defender, always with a Cover duty

6. central defender in a back three OR defensive midfielder OR right-sided central midfielder with a Defend or Support duty

7. right sided wide player, either a Winger or Inside Forward and usually assigned an Attack duty

8. left sided central midfielder, often the play maker and usually assigned a Support or Attack duty

9. central or right sided striker, usually quick and with good finishing

10. 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

11. left sided wide player, either a Winger or Inside Forward and usually assigned a Support duty

12. reserve goalkeeper

13. back up to 2

14. back up to 3

15. back up to 4

16. back up to 5

17. defensive minded central midfielder (regardless of formation)

18. back up to 7

19. back up to 8

20. back up to 9

21. reserve striker or attack minded midfielder, depending on formation

22. back up to 11

23. third choice goalkeeper OR utility man OR simply a player that offers something different to the rest of the squad

24. U21 defensive minded defender/midfielder who might break into the first team

25. 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

In this section I've highlighted some of the content I've been consuming of late. There are some excellent content creators out there, some old and some new, and the vast majority of which are all on Slack so I strongly advise you to join that community and check them out here.

• Best Save Update Blog: 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!

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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

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!

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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

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?

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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

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:

1. Attain my Continental Pro coaching licence

2. Win a nation’s top domestic league

3. Win a domestic league and cup double

4. 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.

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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.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Epilogue

To say that I've enjoyed this save and FM19 must be the greatest understatement of the year. It's been absolutely brilliant! In this update I'll be highlighting some of my successes from the save and offering my thoughts on the game itself as attention starts to turn towards FM20 in the coming weeks.

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it went here. For more regular updates and other FM chat, why not join the FM Slack group and follow my #fm_athlete channel? It's free to join and you'll be warmly welcomed by other FMers too!

Expectation vs Reality

Way back in the Summer of 2018, F.M. Athlete began his fledgling career in football management as an unemployed beginner with Sunday League experience. The goal of this save was to get offered the chance to manage one of the Premier League's big 6 clubs, a feat that would be a long time coming as he plyed his trade in the lower leagues before hopefully progressing one day in the future.

F.M. Athlete's starting profile.

Crucially, I interpreted this long-term goal as requiring the "Big 6" club in question to effectively headhunt for the job, rather than F.M. Athlete applying for it directly.

While i clearly failed to achieve what I set out to, the 6 clubs I did manage were all so enjoyable, and I did at least get offered two interviews from "Big 6" clubs in the end, as first Manchester City and then Manchester United both came knocking. On both occasions I was unsuccessful but I can't say I'm disappointed, after all this save has been anything but dull. In addition to those, I was also offered the England job twice, as well as the Scotland job and the Finland job too. I politely declined them all.

F.M. Athlete's ending profile

Highs and Lows

It's hard to pick one specific highlight, particularly as from the 6 clubs I managed, there were three promotions (Nosaby IF twice and FC Emmen), a League title (Hibernian), a League Cup (KuPS) and two MOTY awards (Nosaby IF and Wolves) during the save.

F.M. Athlete's Career Landmarks

I think though, that the part I enjoyed the most was securing European football with Wolves. In fact, less about the achievement and more about how satisfying it is to see the team you've built over 5 years come together and deliver in exactly the way you wanted.

In terms of low points, there were plenty of those too. Getting sacked by Wolves was particularly crushing, but there were also some unjust Semi-Final and Final results peppered throughout the save as well.

Overall though, I think my biggest disappointment was KuPS. In hindsight I should probably have stayed with them another 1 or 2 seasons as the team were still young with lots of potential. I left out of frustration at not being able to challenge for the title, but KuPS went on to secure 4 consecutive league titles in the years that immediately followed my departure.

Some Love for the FM Community

I appreciate my thoughts on the game are unlikely to turn any heads, but I wanted to take a minute to offer some praise for FM19 since this version has given me so much enjoyment. According to the game status, I've played it plenty this year...

The revamp of Training seemed to be the biggest headline of this edition, and it really didn't disappoint. I loved the detail applied to this part of the game, and particularly enjoyed building my Training Planner tool in Excel which is free to download here if you're interested.

I know the game has come under criticism for the match engine and player animations but I have to say that these weren't an issue for me. I've no doubt improvements could be made, but the aspects of the game that I really love, like scouting, squad building and assigning shirt numbers, aren't affected at all so no complaints from me.

At the start of 2019, I also took the plunge into blogging and have enjoyed being able to share some of my career updates throughout the year. While I started just writing for me, it was really great to build up some followers across Wordpress, FM Twitter and of course Slack, and I'm really greatful for anyone who's taken the time to read an update, share a tweet or favourite a blog post.

The Slack community in particular has been brilliant and I can't recommend it enough. If you're not already in there, make sure you click the link below and join. It's free and full of fellow FMers so don't be shy!

Away from social media and FM forums, I also love a good podcast. This year I enjoyed some excellent podding from One More Game, Grass 'n' Gear, North American Soccer Manager, FM Notebook, 5* Potential and more recently Gaffer Graemo's new podcast: The Technical Area. Thanks to all of you for keeping me entertained!

The Best Version of Football Manager?

Like so many others, I've been playing FM for 20 years now, and so having a "best" or "favorite" version is a hard thing to quantify given that it depends where you are in life. FM05 and FM07 hold significant memories for me, being at Sixth Form and University and having no responsibilities was a wonderful feeling.

In FM12 I had one of my greatest saves of all time, starting in the National League South and eventually taking the Coventry job, steering them into the Europa League, before managing Napoli and winning Serie A three times. That save abruptly ended on 27th June when my eldest son was born.

I still played the game each year, even after my second son was born in 2016, but it took until FM17 to really find the time to play again. Here I began unemployed before managing Dartford and eventually Fiorentina where multiple Champions League titles were claimed.

So how does FM19 compare to those great versions of the game? Well, my third (and final) child was born last year so logic would suggest I shouldn't have time to play as much as I do. In fact, I think I've enjoyed FM19 more than any of the others, and that's down to the game itself and the brilliant online community that it feels like have been with me all the way.

The Future (an FM20 Teaser)

Congratulations for reading this far. As a special prize you get to enjoy a little FM20 teaser before anyone else does! In addition to what's below, I have prepared an FM20 save reveal video which will be released later this month. Keep an eye on my Twitter and Slack channels for more details.

The more attentive readers out there will have noticed I've started to refer to F.M. Athlete as a separate character to myself. That's because as I start planning my FM20 save and subsequent blog posts, I'm keen to write about him as a different person with his own background and experiences.

With that in mind for FM20, you should know that Frank M. Athlete's journey continues from where he left off, in the small Spanish coastal town of Villarreal...

Over the course of his 16 year long FM19 career, Frank had amassed a staggering £12M in career earnings. While of course plenty of that was spent on accommodation, food and several craft beer subscriptions, he still had a small fortune left in the bank should he choose to spend it.

As he sat on the stony beach at Camí del Palaciet and pondered his next move, he looked out to sea and watched as several small boats sailed up and down the coast. Frank had never taken to sailing before, he'd never had the time, but he'd always wanted to, imagining it to be a serene and peaceful past time.

He'd had very few opportunities to be on the water in his lifetime, it's not something his family had ever been interested in when he was young, despite them living so close to the river. And for the first time in a long time, he thought about the family he had left behind. His grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins he presumed still lived there, or some of them at least. He stood up abruptly, lost in his thoughts as he walked back towards the car.

In that moment, he had decided what he would do next. He smiled as he thought of seeing some familiar faces again, and who knows, maybe he'd make a point of venturing out on to the river as well?

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

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 21: Hopes, Dreams and Disappointments

Welcome back to Wolves. Last season we hit our peak, finishing 5th and qualifying for the Europa League. Let's see how we fared in a season full of hopes, dreams and European football.

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. For more regular updates and other FM chat, why not join the FM Slack group and follow my #fm_athlete channel? It's free to join and you'll be warmly welcomed by other FMers too!

Preseason

Straight back from our well earned break after our most successful season, and a very satisfying email is waiting for me in the inbox:

It's nice to be recognised for your efforts, but the England job doesn't appeal at the moment so I politely declined, and cracked on with assessing and improving the squad.

The core focus this year is to bring through some of the younger lads and afford them more time in the starting XI. The key positions that need strengthening are a new BBM to challenge Querol for a starting place, plus a new DM to give Gaggiotti competition.

Beyond that I'm loathe to making signings for the sake of it, especially after this team did so well last season. For our BBM, we've brought in Alex Okonkowo from Wolfsburg for £20M, while at DM we signed Antonio Rocic from Fiorentina for £21.5M.

Performances

Our start to the Premier League season started the same as it finished last term: very well indeed. Three wins from our opening four fixtures saw us safely within the European places by the end of August. Meanwhile, the Europa League draw grouped us with Iraklis, Zorya and Sevilla which would be challenging but far from impossible to progress from.

September would see us begin our Europa League campaign, as well as another three more league games and a 3rd Round Carabao Cup tie as well. Sadly though, our good form would all but collapse, with not a single victory in sight across all six fixtures. Losses to Burnley and Fulham and a draw to Southampton in the League, an early exit in the cup to Championship side Bolton, and two draws in the Europa League to Zorya and (rather pleasingly) Sevilla.

We started October with another loss to League title challengers Liverpool, but managed to secure our fourth win of the season against Manchester City who, in 2032, were still a big 6 team but far from the side we know today in 2019. We took that good form into our next game as well, another Europa League game, this time to Iraklis where we were convincing 4-0 winners. Unfortunately, we failed to keep it going and ended the month with a draw to West Ham and another loss at the hands of Arsenal, seeing us stuck in the bottom half of the table.

Wolves 2032/33 - Results (Aug to Oct)

As we headed into November, we managed a 2-0 win over Iraklis in the reverse fixture in the Europa League, with our only other point secured this month away to Sevilla. Our other three fixtures in the league all ended in defeat and resulted in an ultimatum from the Board for the second time in my career at Wolves - "earn 10 points from the next 5 games, or you're fired". I found this slightly unfair since i still had two games in hand at this point, and felt the Europa League campaign was going to plan as well.

That said, it seems to me that the ultimatum was the kick up the arse that we desperately needed as we went the entire month undefeated across all competitions, winning 16 points in the league, including a brilliant win over Tottenham (who are 2032's team to beat), plus a win in our final Europa League group game as well saw us qualify as group winners for the knockout stages.

Our points haul in the league was enough to move us back into the top half and into 9th place with a game in hand. And there was more good news as our performances also earnt me a Manager of the Month Award, my third while at the club.

Wolves 3032/33 - December Manager of the Month Award

Wolves 2032/33 - League Table (at end of December)

Our first game of the New Year would see us enter the FA Cup in the 3rd Round with a tricky home tie to Chelsea, whom we entertainingly dispatched 3-2 to setup a 4th Round fixture against our bogey team, Brighton.

We would play our FA Cup game the week after we played Brighton in the league, but not before we won our match against Leicester City first. In the league, Brighton maintained their reputation as our bogey team, beating us 1-0 and setting the tone for the upcoming FA Cup fixture. For once though, we were at our best and beat them easily 2-0, with Southampton drawn as our 5th Round opponents next month.We round January off with another two wins, and another two clean sheets against Villa and Burnley.

Wolves 2032/33 - Results (Nov to Jan)

Our Europa League 1st Knockout Round tie saw us drawn against my previous club, Hibernian (it's funny how football does that sometimes). Unfortunately, we preceded the first leg with two consecutive league losses against Watford and then Fulham. Thankfully, we didn't take that forward with us and beat Hibs 2-0 at Easter Road, before thumping them 3-0 in the reverse fixture at Molineux. Sandwiched in the middle of those games was our 5th round FA Cup game, where we ran out 1-0 winners and set up a Quarter Final away against Aston Villa.

Liverpool were our next opponent in the league and we were unlucky not to do better, losing 4-3 but genuinely deserving something from the game. We were much better in the next one though, smashing City 5-1 to give us our first league win since January. 

As we entered March it became clear that our Wonderkid striker, Jorge Alomia, was well in with a shout of being named the Premier League's top goal scorer for the season - an incredible achievement, particular when you consider how our league form has been. In addition, I was attracting the attention of some of the bigger clubs in the league, not least Manchester United who offered me an interview. I attended the interview without hesitation (after all, the goal of this save is still to manage one of the big 6 teams) and i was full of hope with this news item landing in my inbox:

Despite the press building up the hype on my behalf, within a few days the Manchester United board had squashed it again, naming Scott Bridgewater as their man in charge instead.

Back at Molineux and out of the three league matches in March, we'd only manage 1 point against West Ham, losing the other games to Stoke and then Arsenal. Our opponents for the Europa League's 2nd Knockout Round were Athletico Bilbao who would offer a big challenge for us to progress, but our form at home in the first leg meant we would take a 4-1 victory into the reverse fixture. Despite our best efforts to throw it all away, we scraped through to the Quarter Finals, while losing the game 2-0 (but winning 4-3 on aggregate).

Our only other game of the month was the FA Cup Quarter Final where fate had set us up a nice West Midlands derby as we went toe to toe with Aston Villa. It turned out to be a close encounter, but one which we saw out in the end thanks to a 2-1 win, setting up a Semi Final tie against West Ham at the start of April. 

For the second year in a row we were heading to Wembley for an FA Cup Semi Final. Last season we didn't make the grade and so were hoping to go one better this time around. After a nervy start, it was clear that things weren't going to go to plan though. A first half injury to Antonio Marin (our left winger) meant we had to make an early change, but it went from bad to worse when, in the 46th minute, Javairo Grootfaam (our right winger) goes down and has to come off as well. As if that wasn't enough, Rocic (DMC) then makes a rash challenge and gets a straight red card to give West Ham the advantage. They grabbed it with both hands, scoring the only goal of the game and booking their place back at Wembley in May where they'd play against eventual winners Man City in the Final.

Another Semi Final without reward, but fresh from licking our wounds we were able to win in the next game against Southampton, before our first leg Quarter Final tie where we were drawn away against Bordeaux. They proved to be a really tough opponent, but after taking an early lead and then conceding a second half equaliser, it looked like we were on course to secure the draw, that is until their 93rd minute winner to undo all our good work!

Next up was a win against Watford in the league before the second leg. I was hoping our away goal would prove useful but in fact they out muscled us in every department and the 3-2 scoreline flattered us far too much. Bordeaux win 5-3 on aggregate and we're left with nothing but our worrying league position to compete for.

In the final 5 games of the season, we managed just one win, two draws and two losses which was enough to see us finish in a fairly average position of 10th. After the Board's crisis in confidence earlier in the season, coupled with our big miss in meeting the league objective of a Europe spot, I was worried for the future, and it turned out I was right to be as we'll find out a little later on.

Wolves 2032/33 - Results (Feb to May)

Wolves 2032/33 - Final table

Season Review

As i mentioned earlier in the post, Jorge Alomia had been among the contenders for the league's Top Goalscorer and I'm thrilled that after 14 years in management, one of my players managed to win the award with 21 goals from his 32 appearances. On average he managed a goal almost every two hours across the season which was quite impressive.

Beyond that, I had to be relatively pleased with how the season had gone. Our league form had suffered as a result of our involvement in the Europa League, but as far as I'm concerned it was worth it after we made the Quarter Finals of the competition, not to mention that second Semi-Final in two years in the FA Cup as well.

Unfortunately for me, the Board weren't convinced and immediately called a meeting to ask me why we had failed to qualify for Europe next year as promised. None of my assertive responses were adequate though, and in the end it was clear that they had made their minds up before I'd even walked into the meeting:

In Search of my 6th Club...

To be honest, I was devastated. After 5 years in the job, I'd built a really great side that I thought could regularly challenge for a top 6 spot going forward. The prospect of having to do that again was a daunting one, but I began applying for vacant roles anyway as I looked to keep my career progressing.

I was not short of interview offers, but the bulk of them were coming from England and I thought I needed to go abroad again for what would probably be my last club in FM19.

It took me until January of the following year (2034) to find the right club, but I was pleased that we could make it happen in the end:

The club had been expected to finish in the top half of the league, but found themselves in a relegation scrap instead. I joined the club with 48 hours remaining of the January Transfer Window and immediately signed two central defenders as cover for the first team since there were only two senior CD's at the entire club!

We bossed our first game away against Malaga before turning our attention to the next three games against Barcelona, Real Madrid and then Athletico Madrid. An impossible fixture list but one we'd have to get on with all the same.

Incredibly, we earnt a point against Barcelona before thumping real Madrid 3-1 in the next one. Unfortunately Athletico were too good for us though, and beat us 4-1 despite us taking the lead early on. We also picked up a number of injuries and that would set the tone for the remainder for the season where we'd struggle to price together a starting XI, never mind a match day squad.

Our next win didn't come for three more games as we headed into March, but our form was still stop-start as we failed to notch up consecutive victories until the end of the month. We snatched a deserved 3-2 win at home to Sevilla, and followed it with wins at home to Atletico Pamplona and Levante before getting drubbed 5-0 away to Las Palmas to bring us squarely back down to earth with a bump.

From the remaining 5 fixtures, we notched up 2 more impressive wins against Valencia and Espanyol, 2 more draws and only one loss on the final day of the season against Athletico Bilbao to see us finish the season in a respectable 13th, and 14 points clear of the relegation places.

Villarreal 2033/34 - league performances since taking over

Villarreal 2033/34 -

Despite a reasonably successful season in spite of substantial injuries, I already know that my time at Villarreal is at an end. I don't have the energy or desire to start building a new side for the future and so have taken the decision to resign my post before considering F.M. Athlete's next move. One thing is for sure, I can guarantee he will return in FM20 though.

Keep an eye out for one final FM19 update from me as I round up the save and key career stats that have kept me glued to my laptop all this time.

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

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 20: A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Welcome back to Wolves. Can we finally break into the top half of the Premier League, or will it be a fourth consecutive 11th placed finished? Read on and find out!

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. For more regular updates and other FM chat, why not join the FM Slack group and follow my #fm_athlete channel? It's free to join and you'll be warmly welcomed by other FMers too!

Pre-season

In the previous chapter, I had declared that the ceiling we we were trying to break through was in fact made from concrete, as opposed to the standard design of "glass". For three consecutive season's we've finished in 11th, never managing to break into the top half despite strengthening the squad in all areas and bringing in some young stars for the future.

As we kick off another season at Molineux, I'll be aiming once again to climb into the top half of the table and embed the foundations needed to eventually reach the upper echelons of European football.

The squad's looking in great shape, but there are one or two areas left to strengthen, primarily on the left hand side of the pitch.

Wolves 2031/32 - Transfers In

Both our left backs, Josko Gvardiol and Samuel Antwi have decided they'd like to leave the club with Gvardiol headed to Celtic for a meagre £6.25M and Antwi going to league rivals Leicester for £24M. In their place I've signed 29yo Chilean full back Camilo Zamora from Chelsea for £26M and promising youngster, Sascha Schawinski from Feirense for £1M. We also have academy starlet Ryan Hilton in the U23s so one of these will head out on loan, and the other act as Zamora's backup.

Wolves 2031/32 - Camilo Zamora's attributes

For the AML slot, I opted not to give Diogo Jota, who's been at the club since 2017, a new contract. This was a tough decision, but i think necessary if we are to strengthen the squad properly. I also decided to sell Jota's backup, Jose Pascual for £21.5M, who despite being a good player, I think needed to be upgraded. In their place comes 22yo Vincenzo Cortese for £50M and 30yo Antonio Marin for 22M.

Wolves 2031/32 - Antonio Marin's attributes

My final signing wasn't planned, but at the last minute i decided to bring in a new goal keeper. I'd been pleased with Guittierez who we had signed last season, but the opportunity arose for a much better keeper to come in, so we took it. Enter 24yo Italian maestro Carmine Vignes, signing from Everton for £62M.

Wolves 2031/32 - Carmine Vignes attributes

As you can tell, i spent a lot of money in this window, all our money in fact, but hopefully our tactic of less signings of higher quality will pay off!

Performances

After winning all 6 of our preseason friendlies we kicked off the league with an Away tie to Southampton. Although we were less than spectacular, we secured the 1-0 win comfortably and then headed into the next game against West Ham where we picked up another 1-0 win.

We then made it three from three making this our best start to a season as we beat Burnley 3-1. A blip in the next game against newly promoted Stoke saw us head into the 2nd Round of the Carabao Cup with low confidence against Everton. We lost to the better side on the day and the League Cup run was overin a flash.

Rounding off August, we were back to winning ways with a 1-0 defeat of Newcastle and we were sat comfortably in the European places with just one loss and 4 wins to our name.

September dished us up fixtures at home to Manchester City and Manchester United, before an away tie against Liverpool. Not the easiest run of games and City proved too much for us in the first one, beating us 2-0 on our own turf. We responded magnificently in the next game against United, winning 2-1, before Liverpool exerted their superiority on us, winning 3-1.

This seemed to be the catalyst for a poor run of form through October and November. Two wins against Huddersfield and Fulham were supplemented by a 0-0 draw with Everton, and the other 3 games all down as losses.

Come December we were still keeping pace with some of the big boys, but had slipped to 10th and were in need of some consistency. We had 6 fixtures in one month, with the final two games against Chelsea and Arsenal, and we didn't disappoint. A 100% win record, three clean sheets, 10 goals scored and 4 conceded were not quite enough to win me Manage of the Month though, I've no idea why not!

Wolves 2031/32 - Results from first half of the season

As the January Transfer Window opened, we chose not to bring anyone in but we did move on two players. Maxence Caqueret wasn't getting the game time he wanted and so went to Slavia Prague, while our reserve DC, Nikola Pertkovic was sold to Olympique Marseille for £10M.

Wolves 2031/32 - Transfers Out (January)

In terms of performances on the pitch, we continued our unbeaten streak with a 0-0 draw away at West Ham. Next up was a tricky Third Round FA Cup tie at home to Chelsea. Having beaten on their patch just over a week ago in the league, we were brimming with confidence and dispatched them 3-0 to set up a 4th Round tie at home to Arsenal. Before that, we stayed unbeaten and kept our clean sheet run going too, having now not conceded since Boxing Day.

If our win against Chelsea was down to high confidence, it was positively soaring against Arsenal, smashing them 4-0 to set up another home tie, this time against Huddersfield in February. A loss against Man City was humbling, but we quickly recovered to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford in the next game.

Huddersfield proved to be a worthy adversary, taking us to Extra Time where a 118th winner was required to get us into the Quarter Finals where we'd play Stoke City. Prior to that game, we secured a Merseyside double win as we beat Liverpool and Everton within 4 days, before Brighton proved why they've become a bogey team for us, beating us 2-1 at Molineux. Despite the loss to Stoke in the league earlier in the season, we were dominant against them in the cup, and booked our place at Wembley for the FA Cup Semi-final where our opponents would be Liverpool.

Another win and a loss in the league before the trip down to London where we hoped our great run would continue. An early goal on 3 minutes was instantly cancelled out as they equalised int he 4th. An even game went one sided though as they struck again after half time and continued to lead as we headed to full time. We tried everything, but our master stroke proved to be Vincenzo Cortese who netted the equaliser on 88 minutes and kept us hanging on by the skin of our teeth!

Wolves 2031/32 - FA Cup Semi-Final result

Our hopes of dragging it out to penalties were swiftly dashed though, no sooner had we started to dream again than they cruelly score again in the 91st minute. They would go on to win the competition, while we crashed out, so close yet so far.

Back to reality in the league, and our recent run of form had seen us reach 4th place and stay there. With 6 games remaining we had to hold our nerve if we were to prove that we belonged among the top teams.

Wins against Reading and Leicester sandwiched draws against Watford and Norwich and took us into the final two games of the season, still in 4th and with all the power in our hands. These results were also enough to see us guarantee a place in the Europa League next year as a minimum.

Just like our final two games of December, our last two games of the season were the reverse fixtures against fellow 4th place challengers Arsenal and Chelsea. We needed to match or better their results in order to clinch 4th place and that much coveted Champions League place.

First up, a battering at the hands of Arsenal as they ran out 2-0 winners and heaped the pressure on us for the last game of the season. Chelsea now couldn't make 4th, but Arsenal could. We had to match or better their result in order to keep hold of 4th, and we were confident, having already beaten Chelsea twice now and with this tie at the Molineux fortress.

We were in for a rude awakening. A shocking performance from us practically gifted them the points and since Arsenal won their game as well, we dropped down one place to 5th for the first time in 21 games.

Wolves 2031/32 - Results from second half of the season

It seems daft to be disappointed. Having spent three seasons consistently in the bottom half, to reach 5th is incredible, but it does feel bittersweet to have bottled Champions League football so easily.

Wolves 2031/32 - Final table

Season Review

It's been a sensational season for us. I consider the concrete ceiling well and truly smashed! An impressive FA Cup run to the Semi-Final, a 5th placed finish, a guarantee of Europa League football and plenty of optimism for this young team in the future.

We also spent more than half our season in 4th place, and i was pleased to see we used 24 of our 25 players in the squad - the only player unused was our third choice keeper.

Wolves 2031/32 - Season Review

In terms of player awards, our new AML, Antonio Marin, stole the show, winning Fans Player of the Season, Goal of the Season and Signing of the Season (obviously).

Perhaps the most pleasing award though, was for Young Player of the Season which went to academy graduate Justin Vernon, who broke into the first team and hasn't looked back since.

As for the Player Stats, Antonio Marin also earned Top Goalscorer with 15 goals, not to mention Highest Average Rating, Most Assists (8) and Most Player of the Match Awards.

Gaggiotti ended the season with the best pass completion ratio, proof that he suits the Deep Lying Play-maker role very well.

And that isn't where the accolades ended either, as I also won an award for my efforts, taking the Manager of the Year Award for the first time in the Premier League, and for the second time in my career.

Wolves 2031/32 - Manager of the Year Awards

Next Season Aims

I'm not planning significant changes to the squad as i believe with the players another year older and wiser, we have enough in us to keep challenging. I'm looking forward to the Europa League and will aim to get out of the group, and in the league we'll try and keep our foot on the pedal. I don't think replicating this season's finish is realistic, but i think top 8 is a minimum requirement. Check back next time to find out how we get on.

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 19: This Ceiling is Made of Concrete

Hello again from the West Midlands where, at Wolverhampton Wanderers, the rebuilding continues as we enter the 2030/31 season. Fresh from our second consecutive 11th placed finish, we're keen to push on this year and climb into the top half.

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. For more regular updates and other FM chat, why not join the FM Slack group and follow my #fm_athlete channel? It's free to join and you'll be warmly welcomed by other FMers too!

A glance at the Premier League in 2030

Not much has changed about the Premier League in 2030. The "Big 6" of 2019 are still considered the biggest 6 teams in 11 years time, with Liverpool (still with Klopp) and Spurs (managed by Pep) now the dominant force each year.

Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United are a little behind the top 2 but still routinely sit comfortably in the other top 6 spots. Making up the rest of the top half are Everton, Leicester City, West Ham United and Newcastle United, all now firmly established top-half sides.

The bottom half of the league includes some familiar faces. Burnley, Southampton and Watford are all still around, while Brentford, Fulham and Reading have all established themselves as Premier League sides in recent years.

Brighton & Hove Albion were relegated last season, along with Stoke City and Swansea City, while AFC Bournemouth, Norwich City and Sheffield Wednesday have all achieved promotion for the 2030/31 season.

Preseason

The squad is starting to take shape now, after last Summer's major clear out and with the players we brought in, I've only identified a few positions that need strengthening this year. Owing to a couple of departures last term, we're in need of a new back up Striker to challenge Adam Hawkins, and also need a new starting AMR to replace Ihattaren. I've already secured Frenchman Lionel Nicolas's signature to play as Striker on a free transfer so that's one box ticked.

Elsewhere, Gary Taylor failed to impress in his first season at the club and so will be moved on, requiring a replacement at DR, while our backup DC Mashao is complaining over the lack of first team football and so will need replacing if he leaves. Our promising Dutch centre back, Eppink, is also grumbling after i failed on my promise to achieve a top half finish last year. I'm hoping he can be persuaded to stay but he's currently unhappy so time will tell if he'll still be here come the start of the season.

We were handed a handsome budget of £70M, not including any additional funds raised through player sales. We've a number of players out on loan who haven't cut the mustard and will be sold to generate more funds as well.

Our first piece of business was to bring in Francesco Gaggiotti, a promising DLP who will sit in the DMC slot as cover for the back four. He's a huge upgrade on Caqueret and Roden so am pleased to strengthen our depth there. Next in is our big-money signing, Javairo Grootfamm, a promising Netherlands international, who will play as our starting right Winger on Support duty, and joins for £30.5M from recently relegated Brighton.

Lining up behind him is experienced Irish full back, Lee O'Connor. Joining from Man Utd, he should be a great mentor for young Brian Eadie who did so well last season and is still only 20 years old. O'Connor is an expensive buy at £32M but the money's there so i think it's a worthwhile purchase.

Wolves 2030/31 - Javairo Grootfamm

Mashao did leave so i saw that as a massive opportunity to bring in a solid DC. David Boldeo joins us, also from Brighton, and his English nationality will help boost our HG number as well. Nikola Petkovic also signs as DC, offering cover in case Eppink continues to grumble.

As the Transfer Window headed into July, an offer came in from Bayern Munich for Holdridge, our Canadian international goalkeeper, which i reluctantly accepted at his request, meaning we needed a replacement ASAP. His understudy, Brandon Martinez, also sought a move away and before long a suitable offer comes in meaning we also need a new backup keeper. Reza Ghorbani is still only 19 and i feel needs another year of development before i consider him to be our backup so i'll look to sign someone a little older that he can learn from.

We manged to bring in Guittierez as our number one keeper, whom i believe to be a slight improvement on Holdridge which is saying something. His backup will be Cadogan, a 30yo Englishman who's happy to sit as backup for the season and should provide some mentoring towards young Reza Ghorbani for the next couple of years.

Wolves 2030/31 - Roberto Gutierrez

Wrapping up our transfer business, my DoF brought in Blackburn's hot prospect, Jari Caesar, while i secured the signatures of two wonderkids, Alomia (striker) and Lavergne (centre back), both of whom will join in January.

Predictions

We set out with the aim of finishing in the top half of the league, a big ask in this competition, but not impossible given our steady progress in the past two campaigns. I once again looked at our opposition to try and predict where i thought we'd win points.

Last season we nabbed 8 points off the big 6, despite me predicting we'd get 0. This year i've gone for half that tally, but am also confident of picking up extra points against each of the promoted teams.

54 points would have been enough for 8th place last year, let's hope we can get close to that tally, and then push on from there.

Performances

We didn't get off to the best of starts, two draws and two losses in the league for August, and a win in the League Cup, albeit via penalties. This seemed to give us confidence and we earnt two more wins in the next two fixtures which got us off the mark in the league.

Our cup run was cut short as Everton easily dispatched us in the 3rd round, but this meant more time to focus on the league, which saw us earn a well deserved draw against Arsenal to round off September.

A loss to Man City at the start of October prompted me to create a more defensive tactic for when we play the bigger teams. A 4-4-1-1 set up with more direct passing and less dribbling, along with a Cautious mentality. We employed the tactic in the next tie away to Liverpool and boy did it work as we ran out 2-0 winners.

Our return to form was short lived, just 1 point collected in our next three, before another stunning away win, this time against Chelsea at the Bridge. We finished up the calendar year with just one more loss, two more draws and four wins, the highlight being an emphatic 4-1 defeat of Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The new tactic was great, but we were losing too many points against the teams around us. That said, we found ourselves in 8th place, keeping pace with the likes of City and Chelsea, and pulling away from Manchester United and Arsenal at the half way stage.

As we headed into January, a bid came in form our club captain, star striker and England international, Adam Hawkins. I'd expected this to happen at some point, although had hoped we'd wait until the Summer. He wanted to go and i wouldn't stand in his way, so we accepted the offer of £55M from Manchester United (now managed by Pep) for him. Nicolas was promoted to starting forward and 20 year old Alomia, who signed on the 1st January, would play as his back up with Henriksson. Elsewhere, Eppink secured his move away from the club which i hope will help settle the team a little.

New Years Day saw another opportunity to use the new tactic as we played Tottenham at the New White Hart Lane. Unfortunately, they had the measure of us in this game and we found ourselves on the receiving end of a solid 3-1 loss, which we followed up with an FA Cup 3rd Round win against Newcastle, a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Everton, and then our own 4-0 demolition of Sheffield Wednesday.

In the twelve games that followed, we collected just one more win and two draws, one of which was my 500th game in management against Fulham. Our spectacular collapse in form saw us sink back down the table, but it also saw a bizarre approach for my services from another club:

The goal of this save was to end up managing one of the big 6 teams. This is the first one to come knocking and despite enjoying my time with Wolves, it was too good a chance to pass up. I attended the interview and awaited my fate. That was until:

With my feet firmly back down on the ground, it was time to try and revive our season. Our recent slump had seen us drop to 14th and with a top half finish all but gone now, our next best hope was to try and finish 11th for the third season in a row.

With four games left, we needed to pull out all the stops to climb back up the league places. We reverted to our 4-1-4-1, with slight tweaked TIs to include a standard tempo and more direct passing as this had served us well in the other tactic.

We travelled to newly promoted Bournemouth where we put in a stellar performance, comfortably winning 2-0 with a rare goal from our centre back Justice Hlophe. This was one of the best performances from this team that i can remember, and in fact we continued our resurgence at home to Brentford and then away to Southampton, both 2-0 results and another two clean sheets to boot.

We took our three consecutive wins with us to our last fixture of the season, a tricky home tie against Manchester United. I had a dilemma to consider, do i stick with the tactic that won us three games on the bounce, or do i revert to my "big 6 demolition" tactic that had won us so many points this season?

I opted to stick with what was working and was pleased to see i made the right decision. A hard fought 1-0 win meant 4 wins in a row, and a league double over Man U this season. Meanwhile, Watford lost in their final game which meant we soared back to 11th place in spectacular fashion!

We ended so well, but i can't help feel that had we done better in the second half of the season then we'd have been one or two places higher. I think our lack of progress may make it difficult to hang on to some of our better players next year, but time will tell if i'm right.

Wolves 2030/31 - Final league table

Season Review

We were aiming for a top half finish and we fell short, despite a bigger points haul compared to last year. We also doubled last season's points tally vs the Big 6 with 16 points, but it wasn't enough to break through the concrete ceiling that is the top half.

I think our performances against the likes of Burnley, Norwich and Reading, coupled with not earning a single point against Everton, Newcastle or Spurs contributed to our downfall, but had we achieved our target of 54 points, we'd still have only managed 11th such was the competition this season.

On the positive side, our last minute recovery to 11th did attract some attention from the media:

Liverpool finished 2nd, which obviously wasn't good enough for their board, so with Klopp gone, they looked to his successor. Which, despite the media suggesting so, wasn't to be me. Not so much as a sniff of an interview offer!

I did however secure May's Manager of the Month Award, and that wasn't the only plaudit we received as Phil Foden's long-range effort against Fulham saw him earn Goal of the Season.

Wolves 2030/31 - Foden's Goal of the Season

We did at least manage to top one table, that was for the net transfer spend in the Premier League with us some way in front after deciding not to spend all of the transfer kitty.

Depending on how you look at it, you might also say that we're close to top of this table too, with just 34% of our total revenue going on wages, the second lowest in the league despite being the 7th highest earning club in the division.

Next Season Aims

All in all, the picture above paints a bright future for the club and for me as a manager. Our financial future is secure, we have a strong hold of 11th place now, and i'm starting to attract the attention of some of the bigger clubs.

In terms of the squad, Diogo Jota will be leaving, thus creating an opening for a new AML, while Gvardiol, our back up DL, has already secured a move away and will need replacing. Will Hughes has also retired so we'll need to bring in some additional cover in the middle of the park as well.

Our aims for the season ahead are the same as ever, try and hang on to our best players and attempt to break through the concrete ceiling to reach top-half stardom. I think we'll stick to a similar points target as this year and hope that it's enough to see us through.

Until next time friends. Thank you for reading.

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 18: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Welcome back to the Black Country. You join me in my first full season in charge at Wolves, after we finished 11th last year with an excellent run of results following my transfer from Hibs in January. If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here.

Preseason

We had a busy Summer as we looked to start clearing out some of the old guard and bring in some fresh faces. The key here was to get us some strength in depth and so we were really looking to fill roles all over the pitch.

Wolves 2029/30 - Transfers In (Summer)

Pascual will push Jota for a starting place at AML, with Gvardiol coming in as starting left back and Taylor his opposite number on the right hand side. Roden will offer a DMC option, rotating with Caqueret while Turner, Leonard and Marques are all destined to go back out on loan, with a chance of making the first team in a few years time. The pick of the players is Fito Querol, an impressive midfielder who i'll play as BBM to start with and see how he gets on.

In terms of home grown talent, I've promoted Brian Eadie (18) and Leigh Tobin (21) from the Under 23s to act as cover at RB and LB respectively, while Gabriel Lechon returns from two years out on long to bolster our AMR options. I've also got a number of promising midfielders available to bring in from the U23 set up if they can make an impact, or an injury crisis ensues.

With the squad assembled, we headed for our preseason friendlies, most of which would take place in the Netherlands. Some pleasing performances, albeit against lesser opponents, but 24 goals for and only 2 against in 5 games is a great record to kick us off for the season.

Wolves 2029/30 - Friendly results

Competitive Performances - Part I

Wolves 2029/30 - Predicted results

Our opening games would see us host Liverpool and Man United at home with tricky away fixtures to Brighton and West Ham sandwiched in the middle. Before the season started I attempted to forecast where I thought we could pick up points as we aim for a top half finish.

I knew we'd lose to Liverpool and was pleased to meet my expectation of a draw against Brighton, but i was absolutely dumbfounded in the next game as West Ham utterly demolished us 8-1 at the London Stadium - from memory, my worst ever defeat in FM. A hapless and dejected squad then succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Reading in the League Cup just three days later. A bad week all round.

Manchester United next and some significant changes to the team were implemented as we attempted to turn things around. Although we lost, we did play well and were unlucky to concede the one goal that secured them the win.

In retaliation for the cup defeat, and in a vain attempt to claw back the negative goal difference, we had a little demolition derby of our own next as we smashed Reading 6-1 back at Molineux, before following that up with a second win, this time against Leicester.

It was a while before we managed 2 consecutive wins again, in fact only managing to pick up 4 points (including a win against Chelsea) from the next 9 before a win at home to Everton in mid-December. Despite the victory, the Board were less than impressed with how things were going, and promptly called a meeting to discuss the matter, the outcome of which was that i would need 7 points from the next 5 fixtures in order to keep my job.

We kicked off with a 4-3 win against Newcastle before a devastating defeat at the hands of Watford, who got the win with a last gasp goal making it 4-3. A win against Fulham before the New Year would mean i needed just 1 point from the next two games and i was feeling confident.

Wolves 2029/30 - Results from August to December

Despite a poor start to the season, by the halfway stage we we were hovering between relegation and a top half finish with a game in hand, although against Liverpool we could hardly call it an advantage.

Wolves 2029/30 - Table at halfway point

Competitive Performances - Part II

With the New Year comes the opening of the January Transfer Window and a chance to bring in extra troops to shore up weakened positions. My 21yo LB Leigh Tobin wasn't cutting the mustard and so was sent out on Loan along with promising Iranian centre back Reza Ghorbani. Samuel Antwi would join from FC Nordsjaelland to give competition to Gvardiol at LB while 35yo veteran centre back, John Stones, would see out the remainder of his playing days with us, offering a wealth of experience and much needed cover in case of injury. Finally, Alan Mcleod was an inspired choice by our Director of Football, cited as one for the future, he'll play in the U23s until he can prove his worth.

Our January fixtures saw us continue our march towards the 7 points needed to appease the board, with Brighton and West Ham our remaining two games, and our first FA Cup game of the campaign sandwiched in the middle. A win at home to Brighton meant my job was secured, for now at least.

The bubble was abruptly burst in the next game though as we hosted Swansea at home in the cup, and lost 1-0. Now out of both cup competitions without so much as a walk, let alone a decent run.

Three consecutive draws saw us end January still within touching disctance of the top half, and with a win in our next game against Leicester, i was feeling confident we could do it. No sooner had that thought entered my mind, did we then go on our worst run of form since taking over, with just 2 points from 21 in our next 7 games. Suddenly we were being dragged into a relegation battle, hovering perilously close to the drop, we hosted fellow relegation strugglers Swansea in the next tie, waiting until the 91st minute to secure the win and seeing us to the end of March.

April was a mixed bag, with a win, a loss and a draw in our three fixtures against Stoke, Everton and Newcastle. Enough to see us secure safety from relegation, but with hopes of a top half finish utterly dashed.

Wolves 2029/30 - Away win against Arsenal

A disappointing loss to Fulham in the next game mean that to match last season's finish of 11th, we'd need two wins away to Arsenal and then at home to Watford, plus results elsewhere to go our way. We kept up our end of the bargain, impressing against Arsenal with a dominating performance before ending on a high with a 2-1 victory against Watford.

Wolves 2029/30 - Results from January to May

As results from around the grounds started to trickle in, it was clear the gods had smiled on us once more and we managed to climb two places to secure another 11th placed finish. A satisfying end to the season all things considered, but short of our goal of a top half finish.

Wolves 2029/30 - Final league table

Season Review

The media predicted we would finish in 14th and so we can be pleased to have surpassed expectations, even if we fell short of our own goal of a top half finish.

We set out to attain 52 points which would have been good enough for 9th place, but instead had to settle for our actual tally of 45 points, 4 points shy of 10th and 14 points above 18th. The "Difference" column in the table below shows green boxes to reflect where we secured more points than forecast and red boxes to show where we dropped points.

Wolves 2029/30 - Predictions v Actual results

I was pleased to secure wins against Arsenal and Chelsea as well as draws against the two Manchester clubs, plus we did the double over Leicester equating to 10 extra points than planned. On the flip side, both Burnley and Southampton took all the points in our fixtures, and we failed to win either of our games against both Brentford and West Ham which was really disappointing. Add to that dropped points against Fulham, Everton, Swansea and Watford and we managed 17 less than plan in these games.

Stat Attack

In terms of team performance, i was surprised to see us anywhere near close to the top in some categories, compared to other teams in the division. We ranked 7th in terms of total goals scored, but our goals conceded saw us the worst ranked side overall.

Our Shots on Target ratio was pleasing, ranking 3rd with 48% of 246 total shots over the course of the season.

In terms of individual performances, our English starlet, Adam Hawkins, notched up 12 goals for us as well as 5 Player of the Match awards while Gabriel Lechon, after a two year loan spell away from the club, returned as arguably our best player, achieving a 6.98 average rating and 9 assists.

The fans felt differently though, handing Jota the Player of the Season Award who also got our Goal of the Season and the league's 3rd best goal for his thunderbolt against Fulham. Elsewhere, Hawkins also won the Young Player of the Year Award while new man Jose Pascual took the honour of Signing of the Season.

And finally, I wanted to give a special mention to our academy graduate, Brian Eadie, who, after a few terrible performances from Gary Taylor, managed to own the shirt as our starting RB for the majority of the season, and still at the tender age of 18.

Wolves 2029/30 - Team of the Season

Next Season Aims

I'll be looking at strengthening our Defensive Midfield position, as well as bringing in another centre back as I'm concerned Hlophe may not be a long term solution. Elsewhere, we'll need cover at right back and striker plus will need to replace any outgoing players.

I think with those few additions, we can come good on our ambition of a top half finish and push for 52 points. I do think we should look to secure a few points from the top 6, and perhaps i'm being too ambitious trying to take 4 points from each of the mid table teams. I'll need to adjust our forecasting accordingly.

Until next time friends. Thank you for reading.

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part V) | Chapter 17: On the Road Again

Welcome back to Edinburgh where the sun is shining on Leith and fans are still basking in last term's success.

The Journey So Far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. Chapter 16 saw Hibernian crowned as league champions after an excellent second half to the season and in this update we'll take a look at our preparations for Champions League football, as well as that title defence.

Preseason

Needless to say, after our overwhelming success last season, the squad were all happy to stay and see how far we could go in the upcoming season. The financial benefits of a league win and, therefore, champions league qualification, was enough to see the clubs stature secured, although our new found wealth wasn't reflected in the £2M transfer kitty we received.

I went about looking for a few new additions that might provide some strength in depth. We also had a few players out on loan last year who returned but weren't good enough to compete for places, so they were moved on.

We signed Scott Cunningham for the DM role on a free from Stoke, as well as a promising Iranian right winger called Rouzbahani who would be a great understudy to Mark Hay.

Hibernian 2028/29 - Transfers In/Out

In defence we picked up Allan Paterson (DL) from Celtic and Philip Michael (DC) from FC Ebedei, both on frees and both bringing in strength in depth to the squad.

The pick of our new players though was our new goalkeeper, 22yo Abram Ndlovu, signed from South African side Sundowns for a mere £650k and will push Robbie McCrorie for a starting place each week.

Hibernian 2028/29 - Abram Ndlovu

Performances

Our preseason friendlies saw us continue the good form from last year, and once the competitive fixtures got under way, it was just more of the same.

We went unbeaten in our opening 8 league games, with just 2 of those being draws. Our first defeat came against bitter rivals Hearts whom drubbed us 4-0. Two draws followed which saw our lead at the top of the division begin to diminish as others started to catch up, however a pleasing 4 consecutive wins in the next round of fixtures let us hang on to top spot.

Next came our worst run of form since i took over, a draw followed by two consecutive defeats, another draw and another defeat meant we'd secured 2 points from a potential 15. We slumped to 4th place, despite a less than convincing 1-0 win at home to Hamilton in the next game.

Meanwhile, we made a good start in the Betfred Cup with a Second Round win to Raith, followed by a penalty shootout win over Aberdeen to set us up with a Semi Final against Kilmarnock. We were much too strong for them, thumping them 4-0 and teeing us up for the Cup Final against Celtic at the end of November. Once again we fell short against Celtic and they convincingly dispatched us 3-0 meaning we'd have to settle for the Silver medal.

Perhaps more excitingly, this season saw our return to the Champions League. We were drawn in Group E against Italian titans Juventus, Portuguese giants SLB and French colossals AS Monaco. Qualifying from the group would be a big ask but if we can secure a win or two then i'll be happy.

Juventus immediately put us in our place with a convincing 3-0 win, however we bounced back in the next game with an unexpected win against SLB. After two games, all four teams in the group have won one and lost one, meaning we were keeping pace and in with a chance of qualifying.

Normal service resumed in the next fixture as AS Monaco beat us convincingly, but a draw in the reverse fixture meant the roller coaster ride wasn't quite over yet.

Despite our best efforts, we weren't up to the task though. Juventus beat us at home and then SLB got their revenge as we lost 3-1 away. We were dumped out of the group, but with 4 points on the board i thought we'd done ok.

Despite our dip in league form, exit from the Champions League, and my obvious poor management of the team, I was amazed to see an interview offer from Wolves in my inbox after the Hamilton game.

Obviously I've only just got to Hibernian so i had no intention of leaving, but with the title already bagged last year, it did prove to be a tempting prospect. I attended the interview and within a week they'd offered me the job.

I don't like jumping from club to club too often and the thought of not even completing a full season at Hibs didn't sit right with me. That said, the goal of this save is to manage one of the big 6 clubs in the Premier League and maybe Wolves will prove to be a useful stepping stone toward that aim. With that in mind:

Their current position is precarious, sitting in 17th after 20 games and with just 1 point earnt from the last 7 fixtures.

Squad Assessment

A glance at the squad and there are one or two familiar names still there, even as we enter 2029. Will Hughes, formally of Watford, is now 33 and a Key Player in the middle of the park, while Diogo Jota (32) is now in his 12th season at the club after his 2017/18 loan was made permanent the following season. He's notched up 111 goals, 44 assists and 24 POM in just over 400 appearances for Wolves alone.

The club also signed Phil Foden (28) this year, joining from Arsenal after they signed him from City in 2025. It's fair to say his 7 games in 3 years at Arsenal have seen his development take a hit but hopefully there's still time to get the best out of him.

In addition to these, there are a few more ageing players, not to mention some under-performing, high value players that i'll be looking to move on in the January window to generate some funds. The board have allocated just shy of £50M so we have some cash to splash.

Wolves 2028/29 - Players Out (January Transfer Window)

In addition to that, we generated another £92M in transfers as our leading DC, Nicolas Leal, and our midfield maestro, Brahim Diaz, both left to join Arsenal and Man City respectively. This took some delicate management of the players as many were disappointed to see two key players leave in one window. The Livakovic and Barkley transfers were already arranged before i took over, but i managed to move on the ageing and unhappy Calvert-Lewin and Chris Mepham to free up some of the wage bill. Elsewhere, a few of the youngsters were sent out on loan to earn their stripes.

In terms of players in, i focused on youth mainly, the two most exciting prospects being a pair of Iranian 18yo - central defender, Sajjad Jahan Alian, and keeper, Hamid Reza Ghorbani. For the first team, we brought in Maxence Caqueret to play in defensive midfield, Danny Lynch as a back AMR and Mitchel Eppink, a 21yo Dutch central defender who looks really promising

Wolves 2028/29 - Players In (January Transfer Window)

Wolves Performances

As i mentioned earlier, we were on a poor run before i took over, and unfortunately i wasn't able to make the instant impact everyone was looking for. My first game in charge would be at home to Brighton, followed by QPR at home (in the league) and away (in the cup), before home ties against Liverpool and Man City.

From those opening 5 games, we took a shocking 1 point and were casually dumped out of the cup in the process as our form had us now 11 games without a win. The point, at least, came at home to Man City, still a big 6 club in 2029 and we did well to draw, before taking that good performance with us to Leicester where we churned out our first win under my tenure at the start of February.

I assume our poor start was in part down to the fact i had changed our formation and also down to a few new players still bedding in to life at Molineux. We were now faced with a two week break for internationals and cup games (which we were not a part of), but i was keen to keep our momentum going so I scheduled a friendly against Kaiserlautern which we won convincingly.

My plan worked as we won our next three against Fulham, Reading and Everton before Tottenham swiftly brought us back down to earth with a crushing 5-0 defeat. Just prior to that, we'd managed 5 games unbeaten, a welcome turnaround in our fortunes.

We recovered in the next fixture against Brentford, before being faced with another break - this time for three weeks! I organised us a mini tour in Vienna (where my family are from) and we played three games, winning all three in the process, before returning to beat Bournemouth at home.

Things had gone well up to this point, as we climbed the table and began to put a gap between us and the relegation zone. Unfortunately, we were about to learn what complacency was all about, as we managed 4 consecutive defeats, culminating in a 2-1 loss at Chelsea. Miraculously, other results had gone in our favour and we were guaranteed top flight football for another season next year as we sat in 14th place.

With safety assured, I used the final few games to trial a few more of the playing squad and to develop a new tactic that might better utilise Phil Foden as an AMC. This seemed to work very effectively, notching up 3 wins including away to West Ham who were knocking on the door of the top 6 at the time.

We managed an impressive 11th place finish, leaving us plenty to work on for next year but huge satisfaction for everyone involved with the club.

Season Review

Diogo Jota continues to be a key player for the club and i was pleased to see Maxence Caqueret voted as our signing of the season. Elsewhere, our striker Hawkins, an English young wonderkid, makes the team of the season, along with new signing Eppink in the heart of defence.

And it's many of the same names in the end of season stats, Hawkins getting the most goals, Jota with the highest rating and Caqueret with the best pass completion.

All in all, i'm delighted with the move to Wolves and am eager for the the next step as we look to rebuild an ageing squad and push on for great things. Thank you for reading.

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days (Part IV) | Chapter 16: Across the North Sea

Welcome to Easter Road in the Scottish capital where i'm excited to have taken on the role as Hibernian manager, my biggest job yet with what i hope will be plenty of success ahead.

The Journey So Far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. In the last update, I'd just taken the job at Hibernian in the Scottish Premier League, and in this post I will be delving in to how my first foray into Scottish football has gone. I've opted to stick with the same running title of this blog series, despite having now moved across the North Sea. I think it makes more sense than keep changing it - I hope you agree.

Before i get to the update though, some pleasing news came through in my final days at FC Emmen as i completed my Continental Pro coaching licence, the highest accolade attainable. It's taken around 9 years to achieve, having started the save as an unknown manager with Sunday-League experience, and now have a 3.5 star reputation after 4 jobs (including Hibs) in management.

FM Athlete - manager profile in 2018

FM Athlete - manager profile in 2027

As a brief reminder, the goal of this save is to manage one of the big clubs in England, something i believe i'm on track to achieve one day.

State of Play

Anyway, back to the update from Hibernian. Unlike most new starts, i'm not following on from a failing manager that got the sack. Derek Innes has moved on to bigger and better things as he takes on the role as Scotland Manager, which leaves me with a different challenge.

Hibernian 2027/28

We have a fairly decent side and are performing well across all competitions. After 16 games, Hibernian currently lie in 4th place in the league, 12 points behind league leaders Rangers and 3 points off 2nd placed Aberdeen.

A quick look at the history books has Celtic down as having won the last 16 league titles consecutively. With them in 3rd at the moment, this could be the year we see their crown topple as i can't see them closing the gap on Rangers. For us, that means a challenge for the other Champions League slot in 2nd.

Elsewhere we're 2nd in Europa League Group C and are through to the 4th Round of the Scottish Cup, having already been knocked out of the Betfred Cup in the Quarter Finals.

Hibernian 2027/28 - Competitions Overview

In terms of league form, we've failed to beat either Rangers or Celtic in the home and away fixture against both clubs, while also losing at home to Edinburgh rivals Hearts and away to Motherwell. Recent results have us with just one win in our last 5 league games so looks like we're in a bit of a dip.

I take up my new job on the same day as out final Europa League group game against 3rd placed Ludogorets, a winner-takes-all match for both sides wishing to progress to the knockout stages. I'll come back to the game later as i settle in to some much needed FM admin first.

Squad Assessment

As i mentioned, the team have been performing well overall so there's no need for any major change or upheaval for the playing staff. I couldn't afford to being my Assistant Manager with me from Emmen but a couple of coaches and one of my scouts have crossed the North Sea with me. My AM leaves a lot to be desired in terms of his attributes, but he'll have to do for now.

In terms of players, we've an impressive forward line and some creative talent in the middle as well. Robby McCrorie is our main man between the posts, while the rest of defence is a little underwhelming. Ben Gibson, formerly of Middlesbrough, is the pick of the players but at 33 yo he's not one for the future.

I'll be implementing my 4-1-4-1 tactic that i developed at Emmen, but with only one player on the books that is capable of playing as a DMC, i'll look to recruit for this role come the January transfer window.

Match Performances

As i mentioned earlier, we line up against Ludogorets in the final Europa League Group C fixture on the same day I start the job. Ludogorets are 2 points behind us so a win for them will see them through to the knockout stages of the competition instead of us.

Hibernian 2027/28 - Europa League Group C table with one game to go

The players already have reasonable familiarity with my 4-1-4-1 tactic, the shape being the main part that they'll need to adjust to, so without further ado we head to the match.

Despite being away, we started the brighter of the two sides and capped our performance off with a first half goal from our left winger Benjamin Fraser. Harrison Wilton got us the second on 54 minutes and although Ludogorets gave us an instant reply with a goal on 56 minutes, we saw the game out and made it through to the knockout stages!

Meanwhile, we had six more games to get through before the New Year and a two week winter break at the start of January. Home wins against Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, Aberdeen and St Mirren, along with an away win against Ross County and a 0-0 draw away to rivals Hearts, saw us go unbeaten through the rest of December.

While we picked up 16 points, Rangers managed a meagre 4 (albeit from one less game than us). This left us lying in 2nd behind Rangers, now both on 42 points and separated by their Goal Difference.

We kicked off the New Year with two friendly wins during the Winter Break, before a 4th Round Scottish Cup tie at home to Peterhead. They were no match for us and we comfortably dispatched them 5-0. A 1-1 home draw to title challengers Rangers gave way to 7 consecutive wins in all competitions, including a league win against Celtic, a 5th Round Scottish Cup win against St Johnstone and a win from both legs of the Europa League 1st Knockout Round against Borussia Monchengladbach where we toppled them 7-1 on aggregate.

A draw to St Johnstone in the league and then a 4-0 win against Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup Quarter Final had us head into the Europa League 2nd Knockout Round in scintillating form. Olympique Marseille were our opponents and despite our good run so far, i knew this would be our toughest test yet. In fact we dominated the match with an impressive display and a 3-1 victory and could head to the second leg with renewed confidence.

In truth, we were no match for them in the reverse fixture and they dominated possession and dictated the play brilliantly, ultimately winning the tie 2-0 and securing their progression to the next round through that away goal in the first leg. We were not to be disheartened though, having progressed further than expected and this coming as our first defeat since i took over, an impressive run of 21 games unbeaten across all competitions. We ended the first stage of the season strongly with another 4 wins and our first league defeat to Aberdeen, followed by a pleasing win in the Scottish Cup Semi Final against Dundee United to set up a Final against Rangers after the league fixtures were over.

After 33 games, we were second on goal difference with both us and Rangers having 68 points. Incredibly we'd closed a 12 point gap to 0 points and had given ourselves a great chance at the title. As the league splits, we will take on the other 5 teams in the top half, with Rangers being served up as our first opponent, an away fixture billed as the deciding game in the race for 1st.

Our good form continued as, despite being away at Ibrox, we secured a 2-1 win, their goal a mere consolation in the 91st minute. Now 3 points ahead, it should have been plain sailing from here as we'd already proved ourselves superior to the other teams. Instead, we chose this moment to completely abandon our winning mentality and succumbed to a draw against Hamilton, followed by consecutive losses to Aberdeen and Celtic.

Meanwhile, Rangers picked up a win and two draws, enough to see them nudge a point ahead of us with 73 to our 72. It was out of our hands, and would go down to the final game of the season where we needed a win against St Johnstone and for Celtic to beat Rangers at the Celtic Stadium.

We did what was asked of us, beating St Johnstone 3-0 and to my shock and delight, so too did Celtic, defeating Rangers 3-1 and handing us the title in the process!

With the league action done and dusted, and the celebrations in full swing, we still had the small matter of the Scottish Cup Final to contest. It seemed fitting that our opponents be Rangers again and thoughts of doing the double were hard to resist. Unfortunately though, it wasn't to be and with revenge on the cards for them, they were clearly keen to make a point, beating us 2-1 in the end, but leaving us with something to aim for next season.

Season Review

It's been an incredible start to my time at Hibernian, securing a league title for the first time since 1952, not to mention being runners up in the Scottish Cup and making it through to the 2nd Knockout Round of the Europa League.

Hibernian 2027/28 - End of Season Review

I was pleased to see the spine of the team represented in the Team of the Year and unsurprisingly, many of the same names involved in the End of Season Awards as well.

Hibernian 2027/28 - Team of the Year

Hibernian 2027/28 - End of Season Awards

We've a good bunch of players here and assuming we can keep them all, i'm only looking at bringing a handful of new faces in next year to give us more strength in depth. I'm also hopeful that the Champions League prize money will help us stay on an upward trajectory as we look to continue to build up the stature of the club. More on how that pans out in the next update.

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 throughout the season.

Random Ramble | How to Employ Rugby Tactics for FM19

Last month the GrassNGear Podcast released their 29th episode called Tactical Annals where DGear86 and FMGrasshopper assessed the tactics of fellow FMers and offered advice on how they could be improved. To say the episode was a success would be an understatement and if you've not heard it yet, then give it a listen now via this link.

I'll admit that i felt a frisson of pride when the lads messaged me and asked if i'd like to feature. I eagerly agreed and sent over my tactic, along with a short description of what i was trying to achieve with it. This is important since the critique was based largely on whether the tactical set up was meeting the tactician's objectives or not.

I was the fifth FMer to be reviewed out of the six of us featuring on the show, but as i listened while driving in to work that morning, little did i know that my previous admission of knowing nothing about tactics was about to take centre stage.

Below is what i submitted, along with what i wanted the tactic to do.

Here's the tactic which is my interpretation of West Hams style of play through the years - the West Ham Way. The aim is to play exciting football with a balance of creative play makers and hard working ball winners, who break down the opposition and quickly transition through the middle to one of the forward men. Possession stats should be high with it, as well as tackles and interceptions. It's versatile too, with the AMC sometimes being swapped for a DMC when needed to add extra cover in front of the back 4

3/10 - See me after class!

If you want to skip ahead to the part of the episode where this tactic is reviewed, it starts at around 34 minutes 40 seconds. It was very funny to listen to and the more the lads talked, the more i realised the obvious flaws in my approach. I can't say I cared much for the anti-West Ham comments (what do they know?) but I enjoyed the rest of the feedback, which included some brilliant quotes, such as "I can't see how this is working successfully, if it is" and "I would start again". I have to say though, my favourite has to be "Could this be really effective in rugby?"!

Once you've finished rolling around the floor in hysterics at my expense, i think you'll agree that you can distil the advice down to these main points :

• A symmetrical approach means your team only has one way of playing. It's best to vary the roles, particularly of the wide men, to give your team a plan B or second option when they need it

• Employing a playmaker will encourage the rest of the team to give him the ball, whilst two playmaker roles will create confusion for the players as they don't know which one to pass to

• Adding too many central themed Team Instructions, such as "underlap" and "pass through middle", will limit the amount of variation and wide play, making you easy to breakdown

I don't doubt that for most of you reading this, these points are obvious but somewhere between initially building my tactic, to the point where i'd submitted it for the podcast, i lost sight of what i was trying to do, and in turn i ignored some of the basic principles of tactic creation.

I'd been given my school report, and now it was time to face my punishment.

Detention Exercise - 500 lines of "I will apply what I've learnt"

This tactic was one i'd been using while in charge of FC Emmen, and one that i'd developed in my previous role at KuPS. I've already written about how i created the first iteration of it and you can read more about that here if you so wish.

Over time, i'd made the mistake of tinkering with a system that worked, and the result was what you see above. Bizarrely (and presumably Dan will be disappointed to learn), it wasn't a total failure either! That is, i was winning some games while admittedly losing just as many others.

Taking in to account the feedback from GrassNGear (captured above) and Dan's suggestion of "starting again", i decided to do just that, sort of.

Actually what i did was loaded up the original tactic (which i'd saved thankfully) and started applying the edits accordingly. The two big differences were the swapping of the AMC back to my trusty DMC and the reinstatement of the asymmetrical roles for the wide players. Both of these changes had been implemented to suit players in the new Emmen team, and I'd become sentimental about them as i tried to keep them happy - big mistake! I immediately sold my AMC and set two of my ageing wide men for release at the end of the season.

The next thing to do was to work on the Team Instructions, of which there were a lot. I'd started off with the Vertical Tika-Taka template which includes a lot of instructions, hence why so many are included above.

Dan has talked many times on past episodes about allowing the players to make their own decisions on what to do with the ball, rather than giving them strict instructions that limit their creative freedom. FM Samo has also spoken before about the same thing and so i boldly (for me anyway) cleared every one of them and went through each phase of play to methodically re-add instructions that suited our style.

Out of possession, i want us to chase for the ball and harass the opposition to force a mistake, while during transition i want to quickly recycle the ball and utilise our playmaker to get it knocked forward to our attacking trio as quickly as possible.

From there we have the option down the left of running down to the byline and crossing it in, or the option down the right of cutting inside and attempting a long range shot or through ball to the forward.

Behind the left Winger on attack, our Roaming Playmaker should have room to move and find the right pass, while with the right Inside Forward cutting inside, we've a Mezzala moving across in the space behind him and the Wing Back on attack can provide an overlap option as well.

With all that taken into consideration, below you can see how the revised tactic looks.

A Fresh Start and a New Leaf

I don't doubt that for many of you, even with the changes I've made to the tactic, there are still some things you would do differently. In my opinion there's no "one way" or even a "right way" to play the game and so, just as in real life, this is how i will set up and while i hope it will work, I accept that sometimes it won't.

Initial results suggest it's going very well, even better than when i was at KuPS. At the time of writing i have moved from Emmen to Hibernian and now have a solid Complete Forward at my disposal. This seems to have made a huge difference to the tactic and we've managed to string a series of wins together, even against tougher opposition.

In terms of tweaks and alterations, i try to keep these to a minimum. Against superior opposition i might downgrade our mentality to Balanced or even Defensive, but usually not until we've played the first half with Attacking. Even away from home, a more positive mentality seems to put our opponents on the back foot, allowing us to profit most of the time.

In closing, I'd like to thank GrassNGear for their feedback and entertainment, and for featuring me on the show. I hope that this blog post might prove helpful to anyone out there who might be stuck or at a crossroads with their tactic. My suggestion, aside from absorbing much more sage advice from other content creators out there, is to strip it back to a shell and be methodical with what you put back in. Even it fails, you'll have a much better understanding of what's failing if you do it this way. Good luck!

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 15: An Unexpected Journey

Welcome back to the Netherlands as FC Emmen prepare for the 2027/28 campaign in the Eredivisie as we look to build on two 12th place finishes, with a twist to the season mid-way through.

The Journey So Far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. The Board have proposed we avoid relegation for the third consecutive season but i firmly believe we are a mid-table team now, even knocking on the door of a top-half finish if things go well. In the Cup, we're expected to reach the Third Round and i believe we s'r capable of achieving that.

Preseason

Another preseason upon us and yet more changes to personnel as i had a bit of a reshuffle with the backroom team, bringing in a few new faces including a better qualified Assistant Manager to help me out.

There was also great news for my own professional development as news came in that I'd completed my Continental Pro Licence which i was thrilled about.

As for the playing staff, just £1M in the transfer budget, supplemented by £800k from selling some transfer clauses meant we'd have a tough time bringing in anyone who could set the world alight. That said, we've a number of youngsters who have been out on loan last year and are deserving of a place in the First Team Squad now.

In all, three were promoted and the only real vacancy in the squad was an improved Roaming Playmaker. Keita has been playing the role since he joined but he'd be much more suited to being our main Mezzala and so i wanted to find someone he could play alongside.

I was adamant not to sign someone for the sake of it so i painstakingly reviewed countless candidates to compare their attributes, form and traits with Keita so as to make sure we were improving, not going backwards.

It took all of the Transfer Window to find him but in the end we got our man as 26yo Italian maestro Diego Pedretti signed as an improvement on Keita.

In terms of friendly performances, we upped the ante in terms of who we played and were scheduled against some stiff opposition. Comfortable wins against our affiliates book-ended defeats to Sunderland, Brighton and Chelsea's U23's, but ultimately should better prepare us for the season ahead.

Competitive Performances

We were off to a flyer, securing three straight wins from our opening few games, but our success hit the buffers as we lost at home to FC Twente in a dismal display. A short lived recovery saw us collect 5 points from the next three games before we were taught another lesson at home, this time at the hands of Vitesse.

It's a slippery slope from here, as with just one win among 4 defeats in October, among which was a 6-1 demolition at home at the hands of Feyenoord, we slid down to 9th place. We approached the Winter break having picked up 2 wins, a draw and 2 more losses through November and early December, and valiantly held our position in the league - just.

As for the Dutch Cup, comfortable victories against lesser teams GVVV and then DOVO saw us secure a third round tie against VVV-Venlo.

FC Emmen 2027/28 - League Performances

FC Emmen 2027/28 - Cup Performances

With a cup game sandwiched between two more league games before the New Year, news began to circulate that Hibernian Manager, Derek McInnes, had taken the Scotland job and FM Athlete was touted as the favourite to replace him.

I'd had numerous interview offers in the last few years, mainly from other Dutch clubs and the English Championship. With each opportunity i attended the interview, but with no strong desire to leave, other than my longer term ambition to eventually manage a top Premier League club.

This was no different, in fact i was so convinced i wouldn't get the job offer that i was very carefree in my responses to the interview questions, which apparently is a great technique because...

So, decision time. Emmen are now an established top flight team, and i've got a great squad of young talent that could help take us to the next level. But, on the other hand, Hibernian presents a chance to compete in Europe, and to potentially challenge for silverware as well, helping me to reach my ultimate career goal.

So after yet more deliberation...

I leave Emmen with a heavy heart, but i believe i have to go for the good of my career. Hibernian have a few really talented young players, as well as some old heads so a good base squad, but something to build on, but I'll give a more in-depth update in the next post. That's all for now.

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 14: Emmen Wasn't Built in a Day

After a short recess, I welcome you back to Holland where FC Emmen are eagerly awaiting the start of their second season in the Eredvisie as we look to build on last year's 12th placed finish.

The Journey So Far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. This season the Board are being just as cautious as last year, requesting we survive relegation again and reach the 3rd round of the Dutch Cup, something we failed at last time around.

Preseason

Our decent placing in the league last season earnt us just shy of £4M in prize money, enough to run the club for at least a year, even after the board generously gave me £1M towards transfers.

I decided we needed a major resuhuffle in personnel, with the most significant casualty being Oliver Antman. I'd gotten sentimental about Antman having chased after him for so long while at KuPS but it was clear now that where i'd tried to rework my tactic to suit him, that hadn't gotten us much success. Antman would fetch £2.2M and we'd get a further £540k from the sales of Maria (AML) and Dest (DR). A further four players would leave on free transfers, freeing up some much needed cash on the wage bill.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Transfers Out

All told we would now need to recruit a back up keeper, an AML for the first XI and another in reserve, a first team DMC, plus backups for DL and DC as well.

Despite the transfer kitty and the extra cash from player sales, we struggled to find the players we needed and i was loathe to sign players that wouldn't improve us, just for the sake of it. I opted to utilise a few loan deals to help bridge the gap and bring in the quality we needed.

Pavlin Iliev joined for the season from Leeds and was a great addition in the role of DMC while Ronnie Gordon would bolster our DC options, on loan from Brighton. I also brought in Richard Willems from Vitesse as a last minute third choice keeper. I knew i wouldn't need him but i was also starkly aware of the lack of GKs in both the Reserves and in the U19s.

In terms of permanent signings, we made a few of those too. Five players joined for the future and were all placed into the Reserve team, all coming in on free transfers. We then brought in Steenvoorden and Le Gall for the AML slot, Sangweni for DR, Schoonbrood for DL, and Fabry Torres to challenge Funch for the number 1 jersey. Lancey is a 19yo DC from Wales who will be a key figure in years to come, while Mariani should provide cover in midfield. Peter Benninga has some impressive technical and physical attributes and i hope with some solid mentoring, he can develop into a leading striker.

That leaves Muller, who didn't come until the January but has stats to rival our on loan DM, Pavlin Iliev and has time to bed in ready for next season when he'll be in the starting role.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Transfers In

In terms of games, we'd scheduled five friendly matches against similar or lower opposition and i was pleased with how we fared, winning all of them and keeping 4 clean sheets.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Friendly results

The player making the biggest impact was new signing Jetta Schoonbrood who scored all five in our 5-0 drubbing of our affliliate club HZVV, and then scored the winner against Billericay as well. Not a bad way to kick start your career, let's hope he carries the form into the league matches!

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Jotta Schoonbrood

League Performances

The first half of the season proved to be a similar one to last year, consisting of a mixed bag of wins, draws and losses. In truth, we were very average in most of the games, picking up 7 losses, 7 draws and 5 wins. That said, two of those wins included a 5-0 demolition of Heracles Almelo and a 6-1 destruction of N.E.C. which was pleasing for the fans and board alike. A win at hme to Ajax and a draw away to FC Groningen are also not to be sniffed at and we found ourselves comfortably in mid-table as we headed into the winter break.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - League results (first half of the season)

As previously mentioned, the January Transfer Window saw Valentino Muller join from Rapid Vienna as the only new player in as he would create some competition for Iliev in defensive midfield.

We would restart the campaign with a couple more friendlies, both of which were won comfortably, before the return to league action saw us pick up just 4 points from our opening 5 games. Despite a further 4 wins, including a very satisfying away victory to high flying sc Heerenveen, we would labour to the end of the season and eventually succumbed to another 12th place finish, this time not really challenging the teams above us.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - League results (second half of the season)

Despite a slightly abject end to the season, we have at least started to solidify our status as a club capable of staying in the Eredivisie. Hopefully we can continue to build on this footing in the seasons to come.

Cup Performances

The board had requested we reach the third round of the Dutch Cup and I was determined to meet their expectations. We were drawn against Eerste Divisie club VVV-Venio in the first round and so i took the opportunity to rest a few of the starting XI. In the end, we got the job done but were far from convincing with the score stuck at 0-0 after 120 minutes and a penalty shoot out required to see us through.

Next up, another Eerste Divisie club in Telstar, and another lacklustre performance from us saw us scrape a 1-0 win, the only goal coming from the head of our centre back via a corner.

We'd achieved our goal, we'd reached the third round and would be drawn against league leaders Ajax. I fielded our best team and new that we had it in us to beat them, having already done so in the league.

They took an early lead and defended superbly, but we were able to soak up the pressure and match them as they attempted to put it beyond doubt. As we entered injury time, it looked like we would succumb to their superiority but a 91st minute equaliser meant we would battle it out for another 30 minutes in extra time.

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be as they scored another which was enough to knock us out. I was pleased with the performance though and thought on another day, we might have scraped the win.

Season Review

All told, another successful season as we continue to establish ourselves in the league and made the last 16 in the cup. Plenty to build on for next year as we look to break into the top half of the division.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - End of Season Review

In terms of player performances, Keita took most of the awards with Player of the Season, Goal of the Season and Young Player of the Season, while new full back Steenvoorden grabbed the award for Signing of the Season.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Player Awards

Just 6 goals each for van Duijn and Junior was enough to see them jointly top the club's goalscoring record this year, suggesting the goals are being spread around the team. Iliev achieved 92% pass completion, while Keita took the plaudits for highest rating and most assists from his RPM role.

FC Emmen 2026/27 - Player Stats

I'm keen to continue the progression of the club, but am very happy with most of the squad and so will be giving some of the younger players time to develop and improve next year, hopefully meaning we can use the bulk of our transfer kitty for fewer, higher quality players. See you next time.

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 13: A Marathon, Not A Sprint

Welcome back to De Oude Meerdijk in the North East corner of the Netherlands, home to newly promoted FC Emmen.

The Journey So Far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. The upcoming campaign sees us return to the Eredivisie for the 2025/26 season and the Board have sympathetically asked us to avoid relegation while reaching the 3rd round of the Dutch Cup.

Preseason

After promotion in the most unlikely of circumstances, we found ourselves preparing a squad for a relegation battle, rather than a promotion campaign, which I'd originally been expecting.

We have the bones of a decent squad, but are seriously lacking in defence, not to mention some decent backups to the starting XI and so I set about identifying our most urgent needs for the upcoming season.

I'd already signed our loanee DM, Bonke Innocent, and a DC in Jarno Janssen on permanent contracts earlier in the season and they would be joining at the start of July. Unfortunately, both were signed for the Eerste Divisie but i'm hopeful they will be decent backups when needed. Elsewhere, we need another GK and DC, plus a backup DL, AMR and two MCs.

Last year's signing of the season, Enzo Millot, would return as our leading IF on the right hand side, while our 22yo Italian maestro Pantaleo Manzo would join as his understudy.

Our GK vacancy would be filled by Oliver Funch who was initially signed as a backup but in fact will feature as our main GK.

In DC we brought in Marco Kana who has great attributes and youth on his side to become a mainstay at the club. I also signed another youngster called Adni Cani who i hope can develop at the club and possibly play a few games as a squad player this term.

At DL it's Logan Ndenbe to challenge Cristiano who at 32, is probably entering his last year at the club.

In central midfield we brought in Cheick Keita and Arthur Beauvallet, both of whom would push for starting places and create some healthy competition.

With the first team squad assembled, i was happy enough with the players we brought in, but there's no question that we will struggle against the bigger sides. Hopefully we've enough in us to secure our Eredivisie status for another year come May.

League Performances

FC Emmen 2025/26 - We're top!

The fixture list was kind to us to begin with, offering up Heracles Almelo, N.E.C. and NAC Brada in our first 3 fixtures. There are no easy games here but at least this opposition were closer to our standard than the likes of Ajax or PSV. We came away with a draw and two wins and found ourselves at the top of the league on 7 points (while the rest of the league were yet to play their third game).

Ajax showed us what we could expect against better opposition as they smashed us 4-2 at home. I didn't mind the defeat and was pleased to net a couple of goals but was very frustrated that Cani (only playing out of necessity) passed the ball into our own net from outside his own area.

Cani attempts a pass-back, but chooses to score instead.

Despite the wake up call from Ajax, we didn't completely collapse in the next few games. The highlight being a remarkable comeback away to AZ who led 3-0 at halftime, only for us to squash their celebrations and net 3 in the second half!

Following our promising start in our opening 6 games, we would go on to secure just three wins in our next 15, the other 12 games being losses. We slid down the table but those early wins were what we needed to keep us comfortably in 12th, and away from a relegation battle.

January couldn't come quick enough and a couple of weeks away from the league was a welcome distraction. We played two friendlies and won both comfortably, before restarting the second half of the season with 3 wins from our opening 6 against AZ, Roda JC and Excelsior .

With 8 games to go we were within touching distance of 8th place, with just 4 points separating us in 12th. Two impressive away wins against Groningen and then sc Heerenveen saw us take 6 points in convincing fashion, but unfortunately an inconsistent run of final games saw us finish the season in 12th with a draw against 13th placed FC Twente on the final day of the season.

All told, 12th is still mid-table and so we comfortably met the board's expectations and can be pleased with our highest ever finish in the Eredivisie, earning us a little over £5M in prize money which is enough to see the club stay in the black for the next year or two.

Cup Performances

Our cup campaign held hope for some much needed revenue and with the Board expecting us to reach the Third Round i was expecting at least three rounds of prize money to come in.

We kicked off against second-tier side Fortuna Sittard whom we beat in last year's promotion playoffs and we managed a decent win here as well to set up the Second Round with VVV-Venlo. VVV proved to be a tougher opponent and managed to scrape a 2-1 win, although in part thanks to a poor showing on our part, thus resulting in an early exit from the cup.

There's no worse feeling than getting knocked out of a cup but unfortunately for us, it would be another 11 months before we could have another go.

Season Review

If I'm honest, I'm shocked that the Eredivise doesn't have the same bizarre permutations as the Eerste Divisie, and therefore can't believe we've not qualified for Europe!

In all seriousness though, we went up a season or two earlier than planned but held our own against a number of bigger teams, which has given us a solid platform to build on for next year.

FC Emmen 2025/26 - Season Review

The main focus of our investment will need to be in defence but i'm unsure what we can expect in the way of financial backing so may not get what we clearly need. Time will tell.

In terms of stats, we were surprisingly the league's 6th highest scoring team, 2nd best in passes completed ratio (top in total passes) and top of the average possession table.

We also did well in some of the more obscure metrics, including average attendance and stadium sellouts, both of which have led the Board to start looking for a site to build a new stadium on.

I'm looking forward to bringing in some new recruits to strengthen the squad next year and am hopeful we can push for another mid-table finish, maybe even top half. Until then...

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights and Dutch Days | Chapter 12: Heading South for the Winter

Since the Netherlands is not a Nordic country (fun fact for you!), I've opted to change the series name so it still makes sense for where I'm managing. For the purists among you, fear not, this is still very much the same save - i just didn't think it through!

In the last update I revealed that I'd run out my contract with KuPS and had taken the job at FC Emmen, currently sat in 15th place in the Eerste Divisie, Dutch second tier.

The Journey So Far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. For this season (2024/25), the Board have asked for a mid-table finish which I believe is realistic, and the league will be our only focus, having already been knocked out of the Dutch Cup.

Current Position

The first thing I did once i got through the door was a detailed assessment of the club's current state of affairs. FC Emmen have literally no silverware to their name, and although were predicted to finish 8th this year, are clearly off the pace with just 16 points from our opening 15 games.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - Eerste Divisie League Table at time of taking over

Having spent the last 6 years working in Sweden and Finland, it will take some adjustment to the season running from August to May, rather than in a calendar year. The Eerste Divisie also has 20 teams in it which will make for a much busier fixture schedule.

You will note that one team will be relegated and one automatically promoted from this division. You may also have spotted the "Pl" next to Almere City which denotes the fact that they have already qualified for a playoff spot. That's because the league splits the fixtures into 4 "periods" of 9 or 10 games, and if you finish top for any of those periods then you qualify for the Promotion Playoffs at the end of the season.

This presents an enormous opportunity for clubs who might not be consistently at the top, to still be in with a chance of gaining promotion. We're already midway through the second period and won't get near top spot so if this is a route we want to take, we need to target the third or fourth period instead.

Financially the club are doing ok with a relatively small debt that costs us £33k p/m, but a healthy bank balance, and i have a few thousand p/w left to spend on the wage budget, plus £1M for transfers.

Initially, my main focus was on the staff, of which there were hardly any. We'd retained the AssMan, DoF, GK coach, a scout and a physio but that was it. The only one worth commenting on is the GK coach who's attributes for GK coaching were all 18 and above. I set up adverts for all the vacant positions and within a few weeks had filled them all with good quality staff. We went from our staff being below the league average for almost every attribute, to having the highest ratings in almost every category instead.

Next up was assessing the squad. For the first time in a long time, i opted to prioritise my tactic over the players I had. That meant a few of the lads would be retrained to suit new roles, and i would be planning to bring in some new talent both in the January window and in the Summer as well. The squad as it is is very unbalanced, with just 2 central defenders, but 7 wide attackers. Some will stay on as Inside Forwards but a few will be sold or loaned out.

Not many prospects in the Reserves or U19s either, but i'll wait until the Summer before doing a clear out there.

League Performances

The three games prior to me taking over had seen the team draw once and win twice, not bad results and hardly sackable form but here we are anyway! We kicked off my first game in charge with a win and picked up 14 points from my opening 7 games in charge.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - league fixtures and results (after I took over)

With just two wins from our next 10 games, our form took a bit of a hit and our climb up the table stagnated somewhat. We would go on tot take 13 points from a possible 18 in our final 6 games and despite coming close in the 4th period to topping the league, we failed in our bid to grab a promotion playoff spot, not that we were expecting one. Our league form was enough to see us climb 6 places and secure 9th so all told, not a bad season.

I believe that part of that success was down to my decision to ditch the defensive midfielder in favour of an AMC in the Advanced Playmaker role. While this left us open to counter attacks, it also made us far more convincing in the final third and, most importantly, we have an excellent AP in Oliver Antman - a Finnish national whom i'd tried and failed to sign while at KuPS.

With a top-half finish in the bag, I'd surpassed the board requirements of a mid-table finish and could call the season a success, before turning our focus to planning for next season. That idea was short lived though as news broke that our fairly average 9th place finish was enough to see us qualify for the First Round of the promotion playoffs!

We were drawn against FC Eindhoven, the team we had just laboured to a 2-2 draw against int he final game of the season. Our pre-match prep worked wonders though and we hammered them 4-0 in the first leg at home. We weren't so fortunate in the return, but we held out to qualify for the Second Round with a 5-3 aggregate win.

Next up are Eredivise relegation strugglers Foruna Sittard who were hoping to keep their place in the Dutch top flight. We were drawn at home gain for the first leg and did our best to burst their bubble with a convincing 4-1 win. They sought revenge in the second leg but we managed 3 away goals and ultimately a 7-5 aggregate win to set up a playoff final game with Jong Ajax.

There was some confusion over whether Jong Ajax were eligible for promotion given their senior side were already in the Eredivisie but i noticed that Jong PSV had been promoted the season before and so assumed it was a possibility. Regardless, we could take no chances and would need to be at our best to get past them. We held our nerve in the first leg away and managed a 1-0 win so confidence was high as we went into the second leg at home.

Nothing prepared us for the battering that we would receive as they repeatedly hit us again and again, notching up an impressive 6-0 win and a masterclass of a display.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - Promotion play-off fixtures and results

Against all odds, we'd qualified for the playoffs and some how navigated our way to a final, only to be undone by a superior team. All of this was a bonus though, and so i looked forward to the next season where we might put in a decent challenge for promotion from the get-go.

A Twist in the Tale

That was until the incredible announcement greeting me in my inbox, Jong Ajax were ineligible for promotion after all and so we would take their place in the big time! In almost 20 years of FM, I've never managed such a a bizarre promotion where we finished 9th and got smashed 6-1 in the final, but still went up anyway!

FC Emmen 2024/25 - we're promoted!

Season Review

What should have been a routine start to a new club, where stability was the word of the day, instead turned into a shock promotion and now a scramble to try and ready the team to survive the drop. I'm pleased of course, but am thinking this may have come a season or two too soon for us. Time will tell.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - Season Review

The quote in the screenshot says it all, "It was a season of unlikely yet jubilant success for FC Emmen, who really picked up momentum around October to propel them into 12th place, providing them with a platform to go on and clinch promotion".

In terms of player highlights, our main striker Joseph van Duijn managed 15 goals from 32 games whohc is not a bad return for his first season at the club. My favourite highlight here though is my new AMR, a 22yo Frenchman by the name of Enzo Millot who went down as the signing of the season with 6 goals and 4 assists from 26 games and a 7.07 average rating to go with it. I'm very hopeful for his development at the club.

FC Emmen 2024/25 - End of Season Awards

As for a comparison with the rest of the competition, we led the charts on possession, tackles won and passes made which was pleasing to see. I'm not sure how hard the step up next year is going to be but I'm hopeful that bringing in some strength in depth will see us beat the drop, but only time will tell if we have what it takes.

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 throughout the season.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 11: The End of an Era

Thanks for joining us again in the city of Kuopio, Finland where the average annual temperature is just 3.4° C. We're entering my 4th year with the club and my 3rd full season in charge as we strive to build on two 3rd placed finishes in the league, a cup win and a record best of reaching the group stages of the Europa League.

The journey so far...

If you've missed any of the previous updates, you can read a quick summary on how it's gone so far here. My goal this year is to challenge HJK for the league title (media predict 2nd, Board expect 3rd), win the Finnish Cup (Board expect a final) and reach the group stages of the Europa League (no Board expectations yet).

Close season

Last season was very up and down and so this year i want to bring more stability in terms of our performances on the pitch. I also struggled to meet the Finnish homegrown rules in some of our league games and so will need to bring in some local talent so we don't have the same issue this year.

Following the departure of Lancini to Inter, I recalled Moreau-Lehmann from his loan as i wanted to promote him to backup striker and needed him fresh for the season ahead. From KuPS 2 i promoted our Spanish keeper, Abel, to replace Paulo after he left for Crystal Palace.

Elsewhere, i needed a new DR and DC for the first XI, a backup DL, and a backup MC that would push Sepalla for his starting place as our RPM. I managed to bring in Peiponen from HJK (DR), Heinonen from FC Lahti (DC) and Makinen also from HJK (MC), all of whom are Finnish and so help bolster our homegrown contingent. For the backup DL role, i brought in Castro, a young Peruvian with real promise and he'll be an ideal understudy to Bruno Dita, our regular DL.

With the squad fully assembled with just those 4 new signings and 2 promotions, my next challenge would be keeping hold of my other star performers from last year. The first to come under off was my first choice centre back, Jean-Clair Todibo who picked up Fans Player of the Season, Signing of the Season and Young Player of the Season last year. Hammarby came in for him and i promptly rejected the offer, he's going nowhere.

Unfortunately Todibo had other ideas and stirred up a storm in the dressing room at the idea of not being allowed to talk to them. His intrinsic value to us is far more than his transfer valuation but i had no choice but to agree a minimum fee with Todibo, which Hammarby then came back and matched. Finding a replacement at the same level was proving too difficult so I had my DoF suggest some targets. He identfied a Brazilian named Iurl who looked almost as good as Todibo, but two years younger and higher potential. We snapped him up for a little shy of £300k.

Next was the biggest upset of them all. The success of my system depends on the athletic and technical ability of our RPM, a role that's hard to fill at his level. Ours is a 20 yo Fin called Sepalla and i've built the team around him, but i hadn't realised that i'd accidentally included a minimum fee release clause in his contract. In came Anderlecht and Stoke City who both met the minimum requirement and despite my best efforts to persuade him to stay, the prospect of English Premier League football was too much for him to resist and he went on his way. I was devastated. To make it worth, Stoke stuck him in the U23s and promptly put him up for loan. I tried to bring him back on a temporary basis but i couldn't afford the 50% wage contribution that they wanted.

I set about trying to identify a replacement but neither I, nor my DoF could find anyone as good, nor with the same potential. In the end I decided our new man Makinen was good enough for the first XI, albeit not quite as good as his predecessor. I'd also just signed a very promising 17 yo MC, Araujo, who was rated good enough for the first team by my coaches, but lacked the familiarity in the RPM role. His attributes told a different story though so i put him on individual training to learn the role and put him in as an understudy to Makinen.

No further departures from the first team but i did bring in a few additions for the future that would sit in the KuPS 2 side for the time being. Kevin Ashbee from Colchester United has some impressive technical and physical ratings and joins for free at the tender age of 18.

KuPS 2024 - Squad List

Preseason Performances

As with last year, I set up 3 friendlies to be played prior to the Finnish Cup qualifying round, while Litmanen (my AM) took care of the other friendlies to be played before the league kicked off in a few months time.

All told we played 10 games, mainly against similar reputation teams and once again came away unbeaten, notching up 9 wins a a draw. We conceded 1 goal while we scored an impressive 19, and with all 22 players now match fit, we were ready to take on the new season.

KuPS 2024 - Friendly results

Cup Performances

We kicked off the campaign in sensational form, winning 4 and drawing 1 of our qualifying games in the cup. We drew IFK Mariehamn in the Second Round who we beat comfortably 3-1 away from home.

Things were going so well and confidence was high, that is until we met FC Lahti at home in the Quarter Finals. No matter what tactical changes i implemented, we were destined to lose the tie 1-0 - a shock upset by all accounts. I was crushed, we were out of the cup before we'd barely got going!

KuPS 2024 - Cup results

League Performances

Our League performances saw us get off to a good start, keeping pace with HJK and last year's Runners Up, VPS. By a third of the way through the season we were top on goal difference, but finally proving that we could run with the big boys.

KuPS 2024 - League Table after 11 games

By the mid-way point we still clung to top spot having added another 5 wins and a draw to our tally from our last 6 games. We were level with VPS but 5 points clear of HJK which highlighted just how bad their season was going for them.

KuPS 2024 - League Table at halfway point

Our leading striker Tuominen picked up a long-term injury at the start of the campaign and so spent most of the first half of the season sidelined. Eventually LASK came in and offered a very healthy £1.2M for him which i couldn't refuse. Our financial stability was wavering and this cash would be enough to see us through for another few months. That meant that Antoine Moreau-Lehmann got the nod as our leading man, with Kevin Ashbee promoted from KuPS 2 as the backup striker.

Things unravelled a little as we headed into the second half of the season as we went 8 games with just 1 win. Two of those games saw us lose to HJK and then immediately draw with VPS a few days later. Meanwhile, three of our starting 11 had been sidelined with long-term injuries and unfortunately their stand-ins weren't up to standard. Our lead slipped and with 5 games to go we found ourselves in 3rd, 6 points off the top now, but still 3 points clear of 4th.

KuPS 2024 - Title race

HJK took full advantage of their game in hand and closed the gap with VPS to 3 points. By the final game of the season, we were safely in 3rd but wouldn't climb any further. Meanwhile VPS and HJK found themselves on level points, meaning the title would be decided on the final day. HJK could only manage a draw, while VPS took all three points and finished on top.

KuPS 2024 - Final Premier League table

Europa League Performances

Our Europa League campaign began against Belarussian outfit Slutsk where we won 4-0 in the away leg, but were held to a 2-2 draw in the home return. The aggregate win saw us meet Laqi in the Second Round whom we beat 6-1 in the first leg, followed by a comfortable 3-0 away victory to see us through to the next round.

The 3rd Qualifying Round paired us with Teplice and we did well in the first leg to hold them to a 0-0 draw. I hoped we could play our usual game and scrape a 1-0 away win to go through but it wasn't to be, they trounced us 3-0 and we were out of the competition.

KuPS 2024 - Europa League results

Season Review

All told, another tough season for KuPS. A poor Cup run and a poor end to the season had me contemplating my future at the club. We'd not achieve what i'd wanted to but the lack of resources coupled with the challenging Homegrown rules had made it almost impossible to compete with the likes of HJK, and now VPS. Their consistent performances in Europe meant a gulf had started to form between them and the rest of the league.

I did at least have some personal successes, including back-to-back Manager of the Month Awards for April and May, plus the completion of my National A and my Continental C coaching licences.

The End of an Era

As my contract was coming to an end, i declined early negotiations for a renewal and pondered my next move. Do i stick it out and hope some of my youngsters coming through will be enough to see us win the league, or do I move on to pastures new and find a new challenge?

In the end, my heart wasn't in it with KuPS and so i told the Board i would be resigning when my contract expires at the end of this month. I applied for jobs at higher reputation clubs and got offered a few interviews with Molde, Nottingham Forest and FC Emmen.

Naturally, Molde would be the preferred choice but despite the interview going ok, they decided to go in another direction. As for the other two, both offered me a job and so i had a decision to make.

Nottingham Forest were struggling at the bottom of League 1 with no money and half a dozen loan players on the books - what a project it would be to rebuild them to their former glory. The downside is, it's England which is my ultimate destination and i wonder if this opportunity has come too soon.

On the other hand, FC Emmen presented a different challenge. They had no silverware to their name, found themselves in 15th in the second tier of the Dutch league, and had a few promising talents in the squad. The downside is their limited resources and low reputation might make it hard to bring in the right players.

I went back and forth a few times, before making the decision that to some extent i'd already made once i received the job offers. I accepted the contract and called my travel agent to book my flight.

Let's hope the grass is greener in... the Netherlands.

FMathlete hired as new FC Emmen boss

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 throughout the season.

Random Ramble | How to Ignore the Signs That You Don't Know What You Are Doing

If you read my last random ramble, you'll have noted my admission to not being very good with tactics. I hate to write another blog about tactics creation (not least because I just admitted to knowing nothing on the subject) but i can't help but share my recent experience, in the vain hope that someone out there might find it useful.

There's some great content on tactics out there, but for me, some of it lacks the explanation of how you apply it to your save. I don't want to plug in someone else's tactic, i want to create my own, but I need a little help to get me there. So this is my attempt to explain how i used the sage advice of Cleon, FM Pressure, DGear86 and others to create my very own tactic from scratch.

I don't pretend that any of the ideas here are entirely my own, they're not. Rather, it's an explanation into my process of applying what I've learnt from others. As always, your feedback and comments are very welcome!

Getting into the Mindset

It was a grey Tuesday. At dawn. Due to illness, I ended up taking a sick day from work. We sent my eldest off to school and in between looking after my wife (who was also sick), and the two youngest children, I fired up FM.

If you've been following my save this year, you'll know I'm currently in Finland with KuPS (if you're not following, join the other 7 that are!). We had a fairly average start to the season and I felt a change was needed, which got me thinking about creating a new tactic. I wanted to do more than be average, i wanted to win well and with a style of play that i could be proud of!

My approach to tactics has always been a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it works really well and other times it's a disaster, but if i'm honest I've never understood the inner workings of tactics and so can never pinpoint why something works, or doesn't. I blame a lack of time for that, but there's also a lot of information out there to digest which can be contradictory.

Cleon's recent blog about Creating a Tactic the Paysandu Way seemed as good a place as any to start. I read through the first few paragraphs of the blog, down as far as the section "Copying/replicating real life" and I stopped reading. This is where i always get stuck, i don't really know what it is in real life that i want to replicate.

There's a lot of chat on this topic on FMslack as well. Dgear86 and FMPressure in particular talk a lot about thinking about what you want the team to do, rather than just randomly assigning roles. Taking a methodical approach to how each role interacts with another seems obvious but is not something I've really put a huge amount of thought into, beyond reading the role name, which can be misleading as we'll get to later.

I sat and pondered all this for a good hour while I had a bath and felt sorry for myself (I was sick remember). I started to think about my real life team, West Ham, and the way they play - or at least the way I like them to play when we do well. I began to make some mental notes, and little did i know at the time, i began to create a tactic, all on my own.

Style

Perhaps a bit unorthodox, but the first thing I thought of is what we do when we're out of possession. I love it when you see the players giving 110% to win the ball back. I also love it when we win it back, and quickly transition into a fast-paced attack. I want the team to play positively (as opposed to defensively) and to quickly, but safely, move the ball up the pitch to try and score. There's a handful of things that I'd like my team to do on FM.

In addition to these ideas, I also thought about what i don't want the team to do, and i think this is the bit that often gets missed out when people talk about tactics. Here's what I came up with:

• I don't want the fullbacks running forward with the ball - i want them to pass to the midfielders or the wide men.

• I don't want my wide attackers running to the byline and crossing the ball in - i want them to cut inside and score or play a through ball

• I don't want my centre back hoofing the ball from the back to the front for my striker to try and control - i want to keep the ball and play our way to the front

• I don't want my defence to be caught out by pacy wingers or a killer through ball - i want to close down quickly or match them for pace every time

• I don't want my midfield so far up the pitch that we're under staffed in the middle if we lose the ball - i need someone i can count on to sit back, just in case

• I don't mind about possession too much, i'd like us to have the ball more than the opponent but equally soaking up the pressure of a better opponent and then hitting them on the break is just as satisfying

There's nothing wrong with any of these playing styles by the way I'm just trying to illustrate some of the things I personally want to avoid with our gameplay.

Shape

I carried on reading Cleon's post and got all the way to the end of the first part. By now, I've got in my head a team shape. I'm picturing a flat back four with some cool heads in the middle, and a bit of pace from the full backs. Sat in front of the defence is a Declan Rice or a Michael Carrick, reading the game, harrying the opponents and winning the ball back. I've dubbed this role the Disruptor.

My all-time favourite hammer is Joe Cole. I loved it when he played for us, how he could turn a game with some creative genius and i need that flair and creativity to be the primary outlet when our Disruptor wins the ball back. He'll be my Playmaker.

The final piece to the midfield puzzle is the Engine Room. I can see a Mark Noble or a Scott Parker, running tirelessly up and down, providing support in attack, and being an outlet for the other midfielders.

Up the top, i want a dynamic attack. When we don't have the ball I want the wide men to drop back and help get it back again. When in possession, i want them coming into the middle and supporting the lone striker, either making that crucial through pass, or having a go themselves. That striker role needs to be reminiscent of Di Canio or Tevez, or even the Arnautovic of last season, with strength and pace but also the determination and desire to succeed.

With all of that in mind I created a new tactic slot and set the playing style to Vertical Tika-Taka. Normally i would never opt for a style like this - in fact i've never bothered to read the description of it. Previously i have always gone for Wing Play or Control Possession but that was before I'd given it any thought!

In my mind, Vertical Tika-Taka is what the top top teams, like a Barcelona or a Manchester City side would play, definitely not a second-favourite Finnish team, but reading the descriptions of each of the base styles, this was the one that jumped out as doing what i wanted. It does the positive, forward passing when we have the ball, but doesn't risk losing it with a looping over-the-top pass you might get with Route One.

I opted for a 4-1-4-1 formation with a a flat back four, a DMC, two MCs, two wide AMs and a lone ST. Obviously this is not how West Ham set up at the moment, but in my mind it's what makes the most sense to me in terms of what I want the team to do.

Positions, Roles and Duties

As i continued through Cleon's post I quickly realised that almost everything i have described above is what Cleon had already blogged about. Just for the record, I'm quite chuffed i thought this up on my own, but I have to say that it doesn't hurt that Cleon clearly thinks it's a good system too!

With the formation set, I started allocating roles. If you read through Cleon's section on "Understanding The Roles And Team Instructions", he shares some great advice which is to ignore the role names, and instead focus on the descriptions and instructions of each role. The template had set the goalkeeper up as a Sweeper Keeper. I hadn't given much thought to the keeper and so switched him to a GK-D as the instructions seemed to make the most sense to me. I can always change it later if I want to.

For the fullbacks, i will admit to pinching this from other FMers. I'd recently read some advice on Slack from FMPressure and DGear86 that seemed to coincide with Cleon's article and thinking about what i expected the role to do. I was looking to play narrow and so I opted to use inverted wingbacks and avoid the fullbacks running up the line. I thought it was worth trying as it seemed to coincide with my theory on how the system should work. For the central defence pairing, i opted for a BPD-D and a bog standard CD-D, nothing too fancy or revolutionary and the BPD choice was mainly because i have a decent centr back capable of playing this role well.

For the midfield trio, i set the DMC (the Disruptor) as a Defensive Midfielder - again the instructions and description seemed to be the closest match to what I wanted. In front of him is an RPM-S (Playmaker) and B2B-S (Engine Room).

Both the AMR and AML are set as IF-S, while the lone striker is set as an AF-A. The striker was the hardest role to choose as I'm not exactly sure what I want him to do. I assume a CF would be best but i really don't have anyone capable of playing that role. A Poacher might be a more apt description but i worried it was too one dimensional, so the AF seemed a good place to start with.

And with that, I was ready to play my first game. I changed one thing in the default team instructions, which was shifting the mentality from Balanced to Positive. My reasoning here is twofold: 1. on paper we are the one of the better sides in the league and so should really be able to match or better most teams, and 2. I want to play progressive football, but am not so daring as to go Attacking just yet. A positive mentality implies we'll be forward thinking, rather than sitting back and letting our opponents come on to us. Other than that I left everything else as is as I wanted to see how it would go first.

Analysis

This is definitely the part I'm worst at. Usually I watch the games on key highlights and so I miss most of what's happening, although I'm never convinced I'd spot it anyway. I started as I meant to go on and set up to watch the games on comprehensive highlights and away we went.

First up is SJK, a fairly strong side who are usually in and around the top 3. Taking Cleon's advice on the analysis bit, I paused the game quite a lot in the first half. I was looking at the shape of the team, particularly when we didn't have the ball, and when we had just won it back. Without the ball, the lads were chasing down the opposition, putting them under pressure and generally looked like they were giving 110%. The Disruptor was winning the ball back in front of the back four which is what i wanted, and then was quickly getting it to our Playmaker who was holding it up while the IFs got into position. So far so good. Plenty of shots from the IFs and the AF too, around half of which were on target which I thought was good.

As i let the rest of the game play out we were hit by two very similar goals. SJK had clearly identified my fullback as a weakness and played a through ball inside him for the winger to run round the outside and pick up near the byline. A cross across the 6 yard box and a tap in for their centre forward made it look easy. Then they did it again, almost exactly the same. At this point, I'm not sure I understand why it happened yet but have made a note to watch for it in future. SJK got their third from a free kick and so not much i could do about it. Although we lost, I thought we played really well, or at least in the style that i wanted to play. We hadn't scored, but created chances and we conceded two goals in a similar way that i hope to eradicate later on.

Next up were three time champions and league leaders HJK with a 100% win record from their opening 7 games. I didn't change anything from the previous game and once again i was pleased with our play. Good hustle to get the ball back, nice passing and plenty of shots on target. We'd eventually lose 2-0, with one of their goals coming from a wide cross into the 6 yard box - clearly this was a recurring theme.

In the next two games we drew 0-0. Again the play was good in both matches, and the the clean sheets were a nice bonus. Both opponents are good sides and regularly finish in the top half of the league. I figured that the team were starting to adjust to the new system and that surely the goals would follow.

Our fifth game had us up against Honka. Could we build on our two clean sheets and score our first goal? In short, no. Another 2-0 defeat and another goal from a wide cross.

5 games, 3 losses and 2 draws. Not a good start at all, but success can be measured in more than just the final score.

Make That Change

I'm pleased with the teams performances to date and feel like I'm close to a winning tactic here, but there are some obvious flaws that a better tactician would have probably resolved by now.

I switched the DL and DR to full backs and initially set them as Defend, but decided this went against the Positive mentality that had served us well so far and so changed it to Support. I hoped that as more traditional FBs, they would not sit so narrow and not get caught out as much by the pacy wingers and this cutting inside through ball.

As for the lack of goals, we had plenty of shots and more than half on target. A lot of them were long shots though, including from my AF. I looked at the average positions and found the IFs very deep which i thought might be whats making them shoot from distance. I changed them to IF-A, and i changed my AF to a Poacher. My reasoning for this is he looks too deep as well and with all theses shots coming in, surely a Poacher would be able to snatch a few goals from rebounds and deflections.

Analysis: The Sequel

Back into the fire and this time we had a fairly average foe in FC Inter. We started bright again, breaking down their attacks and then countering with gusto. I was watching the fullbacks closely and they seemed to be in a much better position to make those key interceptions. At the other end, plenty of shots but still no goals until a penalty comes out way. Up steps out lone striker and tucks it away. Not the goal i was looking for but i'll take anything at this stage, we were off the mark. Not long after, a second goal for our poacher. Now we were in business! We finished comfortable winners at 2-0.

I kept it all the same for the next game but our turn in form was short lived as we were beaten 1-0 away from home. I wasn't disheartened though, the team looked really good and much like the other defeats, we were beaten by their only shot on target. I looked again at the average positions and liked what I saw. My only issue was my poacher now seemed too far forward to be effective. I'm relying on my midfield trio to distribute the ball to the 3 forwards. If he's too far forward then he can't get the ball. I switched him to a DLF instead, and here's why: my IFs are running into the box and shooting. If they score then great, but if the ball is blocked or saved by the GK, my DLF is there to pounce on the scraps. Let's see if it works.

Into the next game and another solid performance. A deserved 1-0 lead going into the closing stages, courtesy of my left IF. We ended with 2 goals from my DLF in the last 5 mins and a resounding 3-0 win.

And from there it was plain sailing. This proved to be the start of a 13 game unbeaten run in all competitions, with only 3 more losses for the rest of the season, one in the Europa League qualifying and 2 in the league.

Incidentally, in preparation for our 2nd Qualifying Round Europa League fixture against highly rated Romanian side FCSB, I duplicated the tactic to create a backup system. In this second tactic, the mentality was downgraded to balanced and the Wide AMs switched to an MR and ML. I thought this might be handy if we struggled in the opening exchanges but in truth i was relishing trying the tactic against tougher opposition. Turns out we were superior, comfortably winning both legs, with the score 4-1 on aggregate.

Conclusions

All told, this has been a fun exercise for me. I've learnt a lot about what I want from the team, but also what I don't want. Although the season was a success in the end, I want to work on converting some more of our chances into more goals but overall we're looking good.

More than anything, i proved to myself that with a bit of application I can create a working tactic. If, like me, you're a little overwhelmed and don't know where to start, here are my top tips from what I've learnt so far:

1. Start with an idea of what you want the team to do. Everyone says this and it's essential to get you started. You don't need to think of what all 11 players will do, just start with one basic principle and go from there. For example, do you want to run down the wings and cross in for a target man, or play through balls for your fast striker to run on to?

2. Consider what you don't want the team to do. This is as useful as working what you do want them to do. For example, if all your strikers have a poor first touch rating then drilling in crosses for them isn't going to work very well.

3. Ignore the names of the tactics, roles, duties and instructions. Instead, focus solely on the descriptions of what they do. This is the best advice and i wish I'd done this sooner!

4. Don't change the system until you know why you're changing it. It took me 5 games to work out why it wasn't working, but in the end the changes I made were spot on. You need a reason to make the change, even if it ends up being wrong, that way you get a good sense of why things work or don't work.

Credits

Huge thanks to Cleon, FMPressure, Dgear86 and the whole FM Slack community for helping me to learn more about creating a tactic and the theory behind it all. You can get a lot of insight from just reading articles and other people's conversation threads and hopefully my very basic approach and relative inexperience might help someone else to find some success.

Thanks for reading this update. You can follow me on Twitter @FM_athlete and on my FM slack channel #FM_athlete if you want to keep up with my save updates and any other Random Rambles in the future.

Nordic Nights | Chapter 10: Comfort is the Enemy of Progress

You join us back in south central Finland, 390km NNE of Helsinki in the city of Kuopio where I'm with KuPS, preparing for my second full season in charge.

The journey so far...

• 2018 - started unemployed (Sunday League experience, no badges) before getting the job at Nosaby IF in the Swedish Second Division East on 3 August 2018. Took over with 9 games to go and secured a 9th placed finish.

• 2019 - finished runners up in the league, enough to make the playoffs which we went on to win to secure promotion to the Swedish First Division South. May MOTM Award winner

• 2020 - stormed the league and won the title against all odds to win automatic promotion to the Swedish First Division Elite. 2020 MOTY Award winner

• 2021 - after a terrible start and a struggle to sign the players needed, I resigned my post. Took the job at KuPS in the Finnish Premier League on 25 July 2021. Finished 7th in the league and reached Second Qualifying around of Europa League. They also won the Finnish Cup before I took over

• 2022 - Finnish Cup Winners for the second consecutive season, a comfortable 3rd place in the Finnish Premier League and a departure at the group stages of the Europa League, the furthest we've been to date. May MOTM Award winner.

• 2023 (present day) - media predicts a 2nd place finish in the league, while the board expects us to finish around the top of the league and reach the final of the Finnish Cup (the Europa League expectations will be set later in the year). I've set myself the ambitious target of pushing for the league and cup double this year, along with another run to the Europa League groups for good measure.

Close Season

Fresh off our relative success last year, we entered the close-season with renewed optimism. The foundations were in place, we could start building a legacy. I was confident of our chances to do well in the Finnish Cup again, and keen to build on our success in the league and push HJK for the title.

With that in mind, i set about assessing the squad, and in doing so, also had a look at my tactics. We'd been playing a fairly basic 4-4-2 which had worked ok, but we hadn't set the world on fire. I wanted to try and improve this somehow, especially since as yet, i hadn't found a striker pairing that worked. I thought an AMC sat behind a lone striker might yield more goals and assists between them, especially as I'd had some success with this on previous versions of the game.

The man i identified for the position was Deom from Belgium who was available on a free and was perfectly suited to plays as an Advanced Playmaker behind our star striker Frederico Lancini.

Elsewhere, we were in desperate need of a solid centre back to cover for the departing Cipriano, and we also needed some strength in depth if we were to fare better with the busy schedule this time around. In came Alessandro Confente (GK), Aldin Adzovic (MC) and Bruno Dita (DL) as cover for the first XI.

Meanwhile, the board gave me an enormous transfer kitty of £3M, most of which came from the Europa League prize money. Since i'd already made most of the additions needed for the squad, i didn't want to get carried away spending needlessly. We still needed a centre back and my scouts identified the Frenchman Jean-Clair Todibo as a perfect candidate. He cost me £575k but i think he's a great investment for the future too at just 23 years old.

Jean-Clair Todibo

Since legacy was what I had in mind, i wanted to start building a decent reserve side of hot prospects that might push for first team places later in the season. I also hoped to use this system to train some foreign talent so they could reach Homegrown status and help out with the Premier League requirements - finding Finnish talent is proving very hard.

KuPS 2023 - Transfers In

The first thing to do was establish KuPS 2, an official reserve team that would play competitive matches. I used some of the transfer budget to hire in the extra staff needed and started bringing in the hot prospects that were available on frees. I signed a player for each position, and then supplemented the squad with my best U20 players and any unused first teamers. Another Belgian looked a great prospect as Oliver Bertrand would undoubtedly be a star of the future.

I still had a little shy of £2M for transfers and so opted to use a lot of it to bump up my Scouting budget. As we were now able to scout all over the World I thought could make the most of it in the hope of uncovering some hidden gems.

Preseason

Unlike last year, i wouldn't make the same mistake as leaving my assistant to schedule all our friendlies after the Finnish Cup had started. I still had the last Europa League game to play, despite already being knocked out and so i scheduled 3 more friendlies around this fixture so the boys could start building up their match fitness.

Unsurprisingly, we were battered by SC Freiburg, but were very comfortable against our lesser foes. In fact, stepping out of chronological order, i can reveal we were unbeaten in all our preseason friendlies this year, including the ones we played in between the Cup and League fixtures.

KuPS 2023 - Preseason friendlies

Finnish Cup

We entered the tournament having won the cup for the last two years running and so i was confident we had the ability to make it three from three. We navigated the qualifying group stage, with relative ease, bar a wobble against much lesser ranked TPS, and a poor draw against SJK.

The second round drew us against Futura from the First Division, but they proved to be a worthy opponent and we scraped through 1-0. Next up were fellow Premier League side RoPS in the Quarter Final who again battled hard against us and we were lucky to win. I'd been so sure we'd breeze through these stages, now my resolve was beginning to waiver.

The Semi Final drew us against FC Lahti who won the league back in 2019 and so far had outplayed us in a few of our previous encounters. I ploughed ahead with the new tactic and instead of a solid win, i got a solid lesson as they dispatched us comfortably 2-1 - our goal a mere consolation in the 90th minute. Were were out of the cup and i was devastated. FC Lahti would go on to win the cup so at least we went out to the champions, but it didn't make defeat any easier to swallow.

KuPS 2023 - Finnish Cups results

Premier League

Meanwhile, the Premier League fixtures had gotten underway after the Quarter Final and things had not gone well there either. A lacklustre performance in the second half against FC Inter saw us give away a two goal lead to draw at home. Up next were HIFK, another side we should be comfortably beating and yet we found ourselves on the end of a shock 1-0 loss.

The next two games had us up against our opponents from the Cup Quarter and Semi Finals - FC Lahti and RoPS. Both games took place before the cup fixtures and we were comfortable winners, taking both games 3-1.

I thought things were improving, but then we went away to recently promoted Ilves and managed a pathetic 0-0 draw. We hosted TPS at home in the next game and ran out 3-0 winners, that was just before the Finnish Cup semi-final defeat which proved to be the last straw for me.

After 6 games in the league, we were joint 2nd on 11 points, already 7 adrift of HJK who had a perfect record so far. Needless to say, this is not a bad record and the team were playing ok, but i think that was my issue. I wanted to dominate, not scrape by, and I'd allowed us to get carried away with the previous seasons success in thinking this would be a walk in the park.

I'll save the tactical epiphany that i had for another blog, and instead will skip to the part where i developed a system I was happy with. I changed from a 4-4-1-1 to a 4-1-4-1 with two wide inside forwards, and set my midfield three up to win back the ball in front of the back four and quickly recycle possession to the attacking three.

In the next 5 games we lost 3, drew two. 0 Goals scored and 7 conceded, but two of the games were 0-0's and i was pleased with the clean sheets. Some would call this failure but in fact the team were brilliant, we dominated possession, had plenty of shots and most on target, we'd just been unlucky. The goals conceded were good goals and i was confident with a tactical tweak or two we could perfect our system.

In our 6th game with the new tactic we lined up away to FC Inter and we hit gold! A penalty and a well taken second for our Finnish frontman Mikko Tuominen saw us win comfortably and from here on out, we fared much better.

We were 20 points adrift of top spot by now, and languishing in mid-table so we had our work cut out to recover. Having been knocked out of the cup, we had to finish 3rd or higher in order to qualify for Europe next year.

In fact we would go on to win 11 of the next 21 games, drawing 7 and losing 3. This was enough to see us climb the table and had we been more clinical in goal, we'd have finished 2nd. Instead we settled for 3rd place which i can't complain about given we switched gears mid-way through the season.