Franjo: A Journeyman Story (New Episode Every Week Day)

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What's up Franjo! Hadn't had a chance to catch up on this since like November and i've just read through the whole lot to date!

Wow I was really impressed with the turn around at Santos, when I was last reading I had a feeling it was going a similar way as GSK so props on the turn around! Really excited to see where this goes with Auxerre, such a step up in terms of the size of the club! Be awesome to see you push for promotion and really break into a top league.

P.S So glad you took Hicham Aidir with you, what a diamond!


Thanks for such an enjoyable read, keep up the good work.
 
Judging by his stats and age (and performances, obviously!) I genuinely reckon Aidir could be a £10m+ player in a couple of years' time. Just hope it's at Auxerre!

I also hope Franjo doesn't leave all the squad numbers intact again - the AI seems to auto-assign them every year, and for some reason prioritises #6 for wingers, which is just sacrilege. Especially when those wingers can also play up top, so you end up with #6 playing at centre forward... ugh
 
Oh god i'm the same. I hate it in real life! Like Wilfried Bony having the #2 literally boils my blood.

Agree with Aidir, he just seems like one of those diamonds you come across on FM that just stay in red hot form all the time. Let's hope so anyway!

The other thing I noticed was the quality of the youth and training facilities, I think if the board are good and invest some decent money you could have an awesome job here.
 
@jakec91 Cheers mate and welcome back! ****** ****, that’s quite a binge read. I’ve got to be honest there were moments when I suspected my time at santos was going the way of GieKSa too, but thank **** for Hicham Aidir. And Mandla Masango, who I didn’t really appreciate that much in my initial play through, but going back to write about it I realised he was magnificent too, especially in the 2nd half of the season.

I completely agree with both of you, genuinely think that when me and Aidir are separated it’ll be because he makes a big money move to a top club, he’s ridiculous. I’ll give you a minor spoiler though, I erm... Didn’t change the squad numbers :D Maybe next Summer if I’m still around.
 
Apologies all - The last week's been a bit hectic so I won't be back until next Monday (19th). See you then!
 
Ossie Ardiles #1
Wilfried Bony #2
Asamoah Gyan #3
Hal Robson-Kanu #4
Milan Baros #5
Darren Huckerby #6
Winston Bogarde #7
Glen Johnson #8
Khalid Boulahrouz #9
William Gallas #10
Dario Srna #11

I need a lie down
 
When was Glen Johnson no.8?! That’s horrible. I remember Edgar Davids being no.1 at Barnet and Eto’o having no.5 for the toffees too, both awful choices!

Good effort there :D
 
Ahh Darren Huckerby.. brings back memories of when my beloved Coventry were a staple of premier league mediocrity. Him and Dion Dublin were pretty formidable for a few seasons!
 
Glen Johnson was #8 at Stoke. Yuck.

Edgar Davids and Eto'o, great shouts. I knew there was a better one for #5.

The Gallas one really stuck in my craw - especially since I'm a Spurs man, so the fact that it was at Arsenal just made it worse.
 
Haha the fact that Gallas played for Arsenal, Chelsea and Spurs and wore the no.10 shirt as a defender makes me think that he just didn’t give a single **** :D

I vaguely remember Coventry being in the Prem. I think the first Really long term FM save I did was with them actually when they were in the championship, maybe mid 2000’s? I signed superstar left back Michael Ball on a free and he was actually really good, but Michael Doyle did my nut in, never known a man see so many red cards in my life. I was actually really excited for them last year or whenever it was when you got Joe Cole, but from what I gather he wasn’t much good :(
 
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Yeah I was 10 when we were relegated, holding as banner in the local paper saying we'll be back... Didn't quite work out that way haha!

Michael Doyle is actually back at our club and captain again believe it or not! Yeah Cole played maybe 8 or 9 games? You could see he was a cut above technically wise but his legs just weren't there anymore. Think he's playing at Tampa Bay now, he's popped up on sky as a pundit a few times.

I had been living vicariously through you on FM the last few months but last week I brought a new laptop and have became an addict almost immediately again. (Hasn't gone down great with the other half) haha.

Trying to follow your path of starting from the bottom so I am currently 4 months into my management of Rupel Boom in the 3rd division in Belgium!
 
Currently on a journeyman of my own having holidayed all the way to the 2050/51 season. Started at Royal Mouscron-Peruwelz in the Belgian 3rd tier, got them into the promotion playoffs in my 2nd season and then moved onto Dinamo St Petersburg in the Russian 2nd tier with 9 games to get them out of the relegation zone. Went from 17th when I took over to 12th at the end of the season, so that was good.

2nd season with Dinamo SP I somehow took them to 2nd position and promotion, but then I resigned because, well, have you seen the Russian 1st tier? It makes the Scottish Prem look competitive. The top sides are flush with cash and full of international stars, while the bottom half are literally below League 2 standard. I didn't really fancy getting tonked 12-0 by Krasnodar and Zenit every week, so I resigned, assuming I could pick up a lower-level job somewhere else. Hasn't happened yet.

...but that brings me to the point of this little tale, which is that Angrense got relegated from the Portuguese 2nd tier this season :( I went for the job but didn't fecking get it. Best job I've been offered thus far was Baroka who have just been promoted to the South African Premiership... I was tempted, but again didn't really fancy a year of struggling against relegation, even if you've made me very interested in managed in South Africa through this story.

All good fun.
 
@jake haha excellent :D Rupel Boom is a ****** magnificent name for a club. Are you off to a good start? Let me know how it goes!

@sammu starting in 2050 sounds fun, have you found any club horrifically out of place? Like say Liverpool went into administration and slid down to the conference North? Unlucky about Angrense, I think I’ll definitely go back to them at some point in a future FM. Have you found a new club?
 
I figured 2050 might be fun, at least it makes a change not knowing who or what is going on. Obviously every player is a complete unknown, which means there's no temptation just to go for the old favourites.

Disappointingly, though, very few clubs are horrifically out of place. No big ones, anyway. The top 6 in the Premiership are routinely City, United, Palace, Leicester, Liverpool and (you'll be pleased to hear) Everton. Chelsea, Derby and Spurs tend to be the clubs pushing for Europe. Rather brilliantly, Arsenal got relegated, although they went straight back up. Southampton and Sunderland have just been relegated to League 2 - annoyingly, I didn't get the Saints job though.

Funny thing is, I originally played this save from the start up until about 2027ish (and then holidayed to 2050 from there having retired my manager), and on that journeyman my big 2 teams were Bayern and Barca. They're still the top 2 teams in the world, though La Liga has dropped to 5th in the standings, with Ligue 1 even overtaking the Premiership and the Portuguese league making it into 4th above Spain. Hilariously, Ross McCormack (yes, that Ross McCormack) is one of the most successful managers ever, having inherited my ridiculous Barcelona squad from me when I retired in 2027.

After I quit Dinamo Saint Petersburg I kinda assumed the reputation bump from promotion would net me a cushty job in the English lower leagues, just for a bit of familiarity insofar as I'd be able to actually read the teams' names (seriously, look up the Russian teams). Unfortunately my reputation wasn't QUITE high enough for the Saints job, or the other English ones I went for, so I ended up unemployed for a little while, waiting for the right job to come along...

Eventually, the Fredrikstad job came up, despite them being 1st in the Norwegian 2nd tier, 4 points clear with only 9 games to go! I managed to get the gig, which is an absolute win-win, since I can just play out the remaining 3 months of the season, wrap up an easy title win (we're now 7 clear with only 7 games to go), get another nice reputation boost, and then hopefully make it back to a bigger job in time for the January transfer window (Norway's season ends in December).

Here's hoping!
 
It really is a great name, I have little knowledge about the club aside from the fact that Lukaku spent his formative youth years there (Left at the ripe old age of 10).

It's been an interesting save so far we are currently in the top 4. The belgian league system is very confusing however and I don't think i'll stick around for too long!
 
Best of luck with the new season, Shame about the striker being out for 6 months! Hopefully Hachim can step up and make the difference! Competitive looking league as well.

On a side note look how far you have come.. relegated in the lower leagues of Sweden to now rubbing shoulders with Pep.

Awesome!
 
Thanks mate! You’re right it looks competitive as **** so it should be a good season. Not sure about rubbing shoulders with Pep though, I think I rubbed my shoulder against his shin at best
 
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