Football in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes - A regional challenge

[Muttley84]

This might look like the last career on FM20 (FMT actually), so going for one of the regional challenges, where I set myself the restriction of only using players from a specific region to achieve success (I previously did that in here with Peruvian players from Lima but fell after two seasons due to the a game breaking bug - Rise of the Incas). For this career I will be moving to more familiar pastures, playing in the country which holds the World Cup - France, but failed to produce another Champions League winner since Marseille won it. The region will be Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and I haven't picked the club yet, but they are some interesting options out there: Olempique Lyon and AS Saint-Etienne in Ligue 1, Clermont Foot and Grenoble Foot in Ligue 2 or the 4 teams in Championat National (Playing on FMT means I can't activate below that as some interesting teams also in Championat National 2). Will read about the clubs and check out their facilities and players to pick a club and kickstart this thing. Of course, suggestions are more than welcomed.

 

[Muttley84]

Decided in the end to go with Grenoble - seems like the perfect mixt between being to easy (Lyon or St. Etienne) or being to hard (all the clubs in National). Instead we are a club sitting mid-table in the second division, with not a lot of aspirations on the short term from the board and predicted to finish 12th. A big stadium and a big city will certainly help in the long run. Facilities are as they say "not great, not terrible" but we are going to have to make the best out of them. Taking my time now to get to know a bit about the playing squad and see where improvements are needed and/or possible.

 

[Muttley84]

Our squad is a bit reduced in size but I think it has enough quality to at least achive the mid-table mediocrity expected by the board. Not a lot of well-know players in the squad, but it was to be expected. On the positive side is that the ages of the players are pretty balanced with a lot of them being in the mid-20s which should mean ready for action. Will probably try to add some loan players from Ligue 1 clubs to gives us better options. My top priority will be an AMC, but also looking for options on the wings and at GK. We aim to play a 4-2-3-1 wide system this season (not sure yet if control possesion or gegenpress).

 

[Muttley84]

After filtering over the birth place of players there are a little over 200 from the region which are eligible to play for us. Albeit, some of them are to bad to bring us anything and some of them are out of our rich now. Hoping in time Lyon and Saint-Etienne will continue to produce good eligible players for us to grab. Below I have uploaded of a tentative first 11 of the best players from Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes (actually missing one position as i can't seem to find a decent option). Does not look bad at all, such a formation would fight for the top of Ligue 1, but I seriously doubt we will ever see the likes of Benzema, Lacazette, Fekir, Aouar, Tolisso, Anthony Lopez, Bouna Sarr or Kimpembe playing for Grenoble.

 

[Muttley84]

Our transfer budget for the season is nothing to dream for... only around 150k left and we are going to probably throw them in the wage budget also and try to attract some young youth players. That might be part due that transfer activity before my arrival at the club was pretty intense, with a lot of ins and out. To be fair, most of the ins are from lower reputation clubs, indicating we dont have the power yet to attract big names at Grenoble.

 

[Muttley84]

These are the three players who joined our club on loans this summer. All 3 of them come from Ligue 1 teams, and are not going to be first options but rather rotations allowing us to offload some of deadwood (if anyone would take them). I guess we can best describe them with '"not great, not terrible". Pre-season almost finished and I think we won't see anymore big changes in the squad of players now.

 

[Muttley84]

Mixed results in the pre-season, but won't be to bothered about it as we rotated a lot and I tried to get to know all the players with their strengths and weaknesses. Of course we were not a match for top clubs such as Fenerbahce and Sheffield United (no idea how we got them to travel to Grenoble for friendly matches, my assistant scheduled the matches). But I am a little surprised by the low turnout for such opponents (getting 2.5k people show up in a 20k stadium is a bit desolating). Just hoping that attendances will increase with official matches.

 

[Muttley84]

Before the official start of the season we are predicted to finish 15th, just in mid-table mediocrity. Way behind league favorites Lorient, Guingamp or Lens.

 

[Muttley84]

A good start of the season. We have passed through two stages of the League Cup against fellow Ligue 2 teams (Valenciennes and Rodez). We are also undefeated in the first 5 league games, but we only won two of them (Chambly and Chateauroux) for a position at the upper end of the table in the promotion places.

 

[Muttley84]

Playing on FM Touch also means that I have to worry less about the staff at the club, as I only have one man in each department. Currently they are pretty decent for Ligue 2 level (well maybe except the Chief Scout but considering the restrictions I have set myself might not be that important).

 

[Muttley84]

Due to the international break (in which our players had no major role) we only had three matches in September and manage to win two of them. Our attendances at home are still pretty low, despite of us thrashing Niort 4-0 only around 5,7k people showed up to the match.

 

[Muttley84]

Our finances are not terrible yet but they are going on a downhill direction, mainly due to the low incomes we are generating. Hopefully we will not bleed to much this season...

 

[Muttley84]

October was a month in which we went undefeated, the biggest upset coming in the League Cup were we somehow managed to win away at a Ligue 1 club - Amiens. In the league we were not as successful as we only managed two boring draws away from home. After 11 matches we are sitting in 5th place (which is a play-off place at the moment, but it is pretty tight at the front of the race).

 

[Muttley84]

We need serious improvements in our youth department if we are to be competitive on the long run. As it stands our second team is lingering in mid table mediocrity of the reserves competition, and there are no real youth prospects for the future. Hopefully the first youth intake which will arrive next summer will change that.

 

[Muttley84]

A rather poor month by our standards as we haven't managed to win a single league match, drawing with Sochaux and Paris FC and losing with Auxerre and Clermont to drop down to 8th in the league. We are now 13 points apart from league leaders Lens and need to recover fast. We managed to pass one round in the French Cup but it was against lower league opposition.

 

[Muttley84]

We recovered a bit in December. Although we are out of the league cup (Montpellier proved to be to strong for us) we continue in the Cup (beating neighbors from Annecy) and won all three matches in the league (Troyes, Caen and Le Mans) to send us back into the playoff places.

 

[Muttley84]

It seems that our performance so far were enough to convince the board that we deserve a new contract. No immediate pressure from it as they still want mid-table, but it is good to have re-assurance of the confidence in us.

 

[Muttley84]

Talk about financial fair play in Ligue 1. PSG holds the three most expensive transfers of the winter window in French football, the cherry on top being Sergi Roberto bought for 75M from Barcelona. How can the other teams compete with them though? How are we to do that with only regional players? Lucky for us we are still a far far road ahead of actually having that problem.

 

[Muttley84]

We are out of the Cup but I can't be to disappointed as we took Nice to extra-time before being defeated. In the league we took 7 points out of the possible 9 and are sitting in 4th place in the league. Lens has yet to lose a game, but their lead at the top to Nancy and Auxerre is not that great. We need to continue this good run of form and secure better our playoff position.

 

[Muttley84]

Something to be excited about in waiting for the summer as it could be that we have a decent first youth intake. Will have to take that with a grain of salt though as our standards in both facilities and coaching are not the best, so what looks promising to us might be just mediocre by top Ligue 1 standards.