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Schauwn's FM 18 Journey

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
While I look for a download of the real logos and fixtures, does anyone have a suggestion of teams that might be fun to start with? I generally prefer doing some kind of non-league to legend type start, working my way up. In FM 17 I started a bunch of saves in the Vanarama North/South, and a couple in the Scottish lower leagues (the name escapes me).
 

Yankee151

Hot Girl Summer
Spanish 3rd division is a nice long journey (it's 4th tier, so should definitely be some non-league). The Segunda Division B(3rd tier) has a neat promotion system. If you just want England then I'd just do what goblue did and random roll a league.
 

Yankee151

Hot Girl Summer
There are 4 groups of 20, split up into regions of Spain (this part only interesting if you're me). The top 4 teams go to a 16 team promotion playoff (each group winner gets a priority bracket) with 4 slots up to grab (2 for non-group winners) so it's pretty high drama.

Tercera(aka 4th tier) has even more groups, basically one for each of Spain's communities(States) using roughly the same format. Having to climb up two tiers in that fashion may be hair-pullling though. It's probably a little more intriguing to me because I like picking out underrepresented regions of Spain to build up.

One of the two teams from Logrono, La Rioja would be interesting. AFAIK there hasn't been much of a soccer history there as it is one of the least populous (Great wine though). UD Logrones or SD Logrones depending on division. Both of them are remade clubs of an older club, CD Logrones, who spent some time in La Liga back in the 80s.

Anyways, there's a lot of examples like that if you want to dig.
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Serie C or the 3rd division of Portugal are good places to start too. Crazy playoff systems for promotion into the 2nd tier. I think 9th place in one of the Serie C divisions get you into the playoffs. Not sure about Portugal but I think it's all playoffs - champions included.
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
Alright, thanks for the suggestions everyone, but for my first save in FM18, I decided to stay with what I was familiar with while I learned the new features. So with that being said...I decided to start at Oxford City in the Vanarama South.

Here's our squad, we have no leaders...not sure how, but as you'll see, we also dont have the money for any new signees. I have developed a Senior Affiliate with Rothertam, but I can't quite figure out how to see who they have available for loan (if anyone can help with that, would be appreciated).

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Here's our Team Report, no surprise..we're not great.

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Rob Sinclair is by far our best player, and early on I was playing on the right wing in a 442, but over the last couple of games I tried playing him in the midfield since he is my best player and I have a good enough player to replace him on the right wing.

Here's our Friendly results. I cancelled the matches we had with higher reputation teams and replaced with with similar/smaller reputation teams in a bid to increase the team cohesion and moral. Our first 3 friendlies were just with our 442, I switched to a 4141 with Sinclair in DM for the next two games, and the last two games were with a 451 and 411 with Sinclair in the middle of the field in the 451 and as the AMC in the 4411. We did well with it one game, and then we barely drew for our last game. A pretty pathetic performance where we couldn't get the ball into the net. I think we hit the post 2 or 3 times and missed badly every other attempt.

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As for finances, we started the season about 36K in debt, but with friendlies, arranging the senior affiliate (mostly this), and a jersey sponsorship deal (worth 10k over 2 years!), we've managed to be in the positive to start the year. Because of this, we've gone from a $0 transfer budget, to a 7K transfer budget. Still trying to understand the new scouting system so I can figure out who I want to spend some money on and where the team is weakest.


Now, the season begins...
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
My game keeps crashing. Just played the first place team and pulled off a 3-0 victory, then the game crashes, now I have to play it again. Annoying.
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
Can you sim past the day which causes the crash?
It's not just this day. It's the 3rd time it's crashed on this save. I updated my video card drivers before I started the game for the first time. I just hate that I had a great result versus the 1st place team and I probably wont get it again when I play them the second time. I'll get a couple more games in this afternoon and see what happens.
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
1/4 of the way through the season...

Somehow were not in last place...
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So far, we're 2-2-6. Our best win was against first place Welling, where we looked like a complete team that really knew how to play foot soccer ball. However, immediately following that match, we got our teeth kicked in, by Chippenham, 7-1. I dont think I've ever given up 7 goals in a game.

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The beginning of the season has been rough because of our lack of depth and having 6 players injured. We were able to sign another strong striker to go along side Paterson, who played one game for us and then got called away to international duty. After returning, immediately got hurt in the next game. His signing did put us in the negative on the ledger though.

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Our team cohesion/locker room atmosphere is still shit and I'm not sure how to fix that...
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
So, after starting the year 2-2-6, we've begun to figure it out...

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As you can see, we made it to the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round before losing to Kiddeminster (the game where we decided to give up 3 goals within 9 minutes). We did well to fight our way back, but just ran out of chances. We made it to the FA Trophy First Round, after beating the Dorking Wanderers (lol).

Luckily due to our good run, we've been able to move up to around mid-table, and with the boards expectaction of "avoid regulation" the media think I'm exceeding expectations. Currently we're in 15th place. 23 games, 27 points.

Bad news is, most of our good players contracts are about to expire, and the club have no budget to extend any of them.

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I've applied to quite a few jobs, in light of the clubs finances/contract issues. I've been able to get 2 interviews out of it, but no offers yet...
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
With 8 games to go, we're currently riding an 8 game unbeaten streak.

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Thanks to our good run, and continually getting points from each match, we've climbed up to 14th, and are 7 points outside of the playoffs with the remaining 8 games. So there's still a chance that we can work our way up to a playoff spot, however slim that chance is right now.

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However, on the financial front, things continue to get worse:

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I tried selling off some of the guys that aren't getting any play time, but no one's made any offers for them and the wont agree to a mutual termination, so we'll just have to see how far down we can go.

I did get the board to offer a meeting with me since I was being offered those 2 interviews I mentioned, I asked them increase the payroll for me to say, and they said no.
 
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Schauwn

Well-Known Member
Unfortunately, we immediately lost 2 games after this update. However, we were able to secure a spot staying in the South league, so that's huge.

Where do I look up how many penalties I've given up over the season? I feel like it's one a game...
 

goblue96

Disney and Curling Expert
Unfortunately, we immediately lost 2 games after this update. However, we were able to secure a spot staying in the South league, so that's huge.

Where do I look up how many penalties I've given up over the season? I feel like it's one a game...

It should be in the team stats on the league page.
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
Well, I've made a terrible mistake...

I decided (because I wasn't offered any jobs) to stay at Oxford City, and signed a new contract just days before my first one expired. I thought for a few minutes about letting it expire and going somewhere else, but I decided to try and negotiate for a larger wage budget first. To my surprise, they were so happy with how I coached them last year, that they decided to give in and increase the wage budget. This was especially great/terrible because before I committed to returning, I released a lot of the players that were the highest earners among the club. So on July 1st I unlocked an achievement and had the board fully satisfied with my ability to manage the budget. The terrible part was, that I only had about 10 players on my senior squad and only a few of which were players that were on my first year squad. Time to hit the transfer market...

I was able to re-negotiate the loans of 2 of my 3 Central Defenders. I found a decent RB, and had a good LB that I found late last season who was one of the few to stay on for the second year. The other two players that were staying for year two, were my two Strikers, Kayembe and Paterson, both are 2 of the best players on my team. Despite this, I haven't quite been able to figure out how to get these guys free to score more goals...most of Patersons came from PKs last season and Kayembe has the pace to get to balls lobbed over the top, when he doesnt get offsides. This is our only offense and when we can't keep possession to work it up to them, or out to our attacking full backs, things go poorly.

The other terrible mistake I've made is choosing the square pitch for our home games...I thought the width would allow more space for my FBs to get on the ball on the wings and then loft crosses into the box...it hasn't played out that way yet. It does allow us to keep our defense further up field since there's less space in behind them...but were still trying to gel as a squad.

The other issue I have right now, is I have no influencers or team leaders in my team hierarchy. We've lost our first game of the season and I'm not sure how well it's going to go with some of the decisions I've made...I will use our budget surplus to get my next coaching certification, which will hopefully allow me to move on somewhere a little larger.
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
Time to make a decision:

Oxford City is currently sitting in 10th place, 1 point behind a playoff spot, 18 games into the season. We're on good form and seem to have something going. I dont think we'll be able to challenge for the automatic promotion spot this season, as Dulwich Hamlet is sitting up there with 41 points, 14 more than us.

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Up until now, I'd been turned down for every job I'd applied to, but Chesterfield have finally offered me a job.

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I haven't decided if I'm going to take the job however...I'd like to have the chance to coach for a French/German/Italian/Spanish league, but I dont think I'll get those jobs offered to me until I get my license, and I'm not sure if I'll continue my coaching course if I leave Oxford City.
 

Schauwn

Well-Known Member
So I decided to make the jump to League 2, and take the job at Chesterfield. Through 23 games, they're in 23rd out of 24, with 20 points. The board has simply asked me to avoid relegation, and with just under half the season to go, I think we can achieve that. Were 1 point away from relegation.

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It looks like the previous coach was using the 442, and wasn't having much success with it. I coached my first game with the 442 and then got a message from a supporter asking why were using a formation that wasn't working. So, for now, we're going with a 5-2-1-2 WB, since that's where my best players fit...we'll see how we warm up to it.

Here's our Team Report and our tactics:

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We're going to start with a counter mentality, and try and keep 7 behind the ball, with the hopes that our WBs and BWM midfielder can get control around midfield, and quickly give it up to our attacking third.

Financially, we're doing okay. We're under out wage budget, we have some transfer budget remaining. However, a lot of our wage budget is not being spent on our best players and I can't do much about it until the off-season.

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EDIT: Transfer window opens in 2 days, so maybe we can make some moves to better this team now. Because we just lost 0-2 in our last game, and are now in 24th.
 
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Schauwn

Well-Known Member
Well...I managed to fail upwards somehow.

With about 3-4 games to go in the season, I decided to resign. Things weren't getting much better from the previous screenshot. We did make it up out of the relegation for a few games, before immediately falling back in it. The board and the supporters began to turn on me and I started seeing news stories about asking "should he stay or should he go?". I decided I should go.

After taking a vacation until the end of the season, and applying for higher-level jobs, I got offered two jobs. One with Plymouth and one with Walsall. I decided to take the Walsall job because they were a little better off financially, and had better training facilities.

Going through preseason right now with the team, working on trying to fill in some weak spots.

My most immediate problem is that the team was relegated, and my best players all wanted to leave because of being relegated.
 
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