Credit to Forza Hellas, original source: here.
A guide on a journeyman career
The journeyman thread has become one of the most popular on the board and with good reason. Once you play the game starting at the very bottom and struggling to build a reputation as a manager it is very hard to go back to an ‘ordinary’ save. There have been at least one or two members a week coming into the thread and asking how they should go about setting up their very own journeyman save. As a result I thought this short guide may prove useful.
Setting up your game
This is in my opinion one of the most important aspects of having a successful journeyman save.
The first thing that you should do is think about why you want to play as a journeyman and what you hope to achieve over the course of your career.
If for example you want to manage on every continent then it is important you give yourself a wide selection of leagues from around the globe. If on the other hand you are only interested in playing within Europe then you can leave the rest of the world alone.
You need to be aware of how many leagues your desktop or laptop can handle.
You can use plain old trial and error. Load up a game and see how it runs for you before restarting with a few less leagues loaded if you think it is progressing too slowly.
You have to keep in mind that as your career progresses and the size of the save increases it will start to run more slowly and its generally accepted that this is the price you pay for playing the game in this form. The ability to compress saves via the preferences menu ingame can at least allow you to reduce the size of the file and speed up the games processing time, this does not however mean you should go load all leagues avaliable in the hope it will all run quickly.
It is also worth noting that playing with a large database as opposed to a huge one will be beneficial in terms of game speed as well as meaning your game is not flooded with other out of work managers applying for the same jobs you are.
Once you have settled on an amount of leagues and your career goals then it is time to select the leagues that you are going to load. It is important that you give yourself a varied enough selection that you will be able to move from one to the other gradually working your way to the top.
The way that I always see it is that there are three levels of nations. At the top level you have the likes of Spain, Italy, England and perhaps one or two more. The middle tier contains nations like Belgium, Holland and Portugal whilst the bottom tier has nations like Bulgaria, Romania and Poland (note: these are only a selection of the leagues and I have used Europe alone as an example.)
Being Unique went to the trouble of ranking the nations within the game by the reputation of the top league in that nation.
Spoiler:
England 19
Italy 18
Spain 18
Germany 17
France 16
Brazil 15
Portugal 15
Argentina top league 15
Greece 14
Holland 14
Mexico 14
Russia 14
Ukraine 14
Turkey 14
Scotland 13
Belgium 13
Austria 12
Israel 12
Denmark 12
Romania 12
Colombia 12
Switzerland 12
USA 12
Uruguay 12
Croatia 11
Czech 11
Bulgaria 11
Norway 11
Chile 11
South Korea 11
Poland 11
Serbia 11
Slovenia 10
Slovakia 10
South Africa 10
Australia 10
Sweden 10
Finland 10
Hungary 10
Iceland 9
Belarus 9
China 9
Ireland 9
Indonesia 6
Wales 6
Northern Ireland 6
Singapore 5
Hong Kong 4
India 4
Malaysia 4
Using that guide you should be able to build a good selection of leagues to allow you to have a great journeyman save.
One of the most frequently asked questions posed by those wishing to play as journeymen is what reputation they should give themselves to start with. The widely held view is that starting at the bottom and working your way up is the most satisfying way to play the game. As such if you want to be a true journeyman then start with Automatic reputation. This will set your reputation equal to that of the lowest rep league you have loaded and ensure you will be able to get a job.
Your first job
So you have setup your save and you are happy with the leagues you have selected. Now it is time to start applying for jobs.
In all honesty you cannot really afford to be overly picky when it comes to finding employment…remember you are starting as an unknown manager so you are effectively waiting for some kind hearted chairman to take pity on you. But at the same time there are a few tips that may help you choose the best club for your career.
I am aware that the vast majority of members on this forum are British and as such it is tempting to start in the blue square North or South in a country that you are comfortable in but stop and think for a second…even if you do well and achieve one or two promotions then you are still only in the fourth tier of the English league. Do you think that has done much to improve your reputation as a manager? Think about the exposure that the lower leagues of England have in the rest of Europe, do you think that chairmen around the continent have noticed your success?
Now consider if you start in the likes of Bulgaria, Poland or Romania. Fair enough it may be more difficult for you to adapt to an unfamiliar league but consider the potential rewards. If you achieve the same success that you may have in England and get promoted then you are now in the top league of that country. Now you have a chance to prove yourself and perhaps sneak a European spot….do not underestimate the reputation boost that you will receive as a manager guiding your team into Europe.
The big leap
So you have done well in your first job and you think its time you moved on to bigger and better things. Will Manchester United will offer you the chance to continue their legacy. Probably not.
The biggest thing to remember is that you may have to be patient in waiting for the right job to come along. It is simply not realistic to expect to leave the depths of Eastern Europe or Scandinavia and walk into a job in one of the biggest leagues. I really cannot stress enough the importance of choosing the club that is right for you. Many a journeyman save has been abandoned in frustration after the wrong choice was made and a career stagnated.
It is at this point that you should be looking for the club that has the infrastructure to allow you to build and be successful. Consider the stadium size and finances of any job you do get offered and only accept of it feels right, think about the league that you will be playing in, are there any player restrictions? Does the league have promotion rules that give you a good chance of taking your prospective new side up?
All of these points should have an impact on your job choice. I really can’t stress enough that you may have to be incredibly patient in waiting for the right job offer. In my own journeyman game I sat unemployed for 6 months after leaving Volov in Bulgaria before the right job came along. Your patience will be rewarded.
Manager Reputation
At the start of the game assuming you are a true journeyman you will selected automatic reputation. This means that your reputation will be set as equal to that of the lowest rep league you have selected, As such you are all but guaranteed to get a job somewhere.
The question is how can you increase your reputation as a manager. The quickest way is obvious, win matches and trophies for your club. This will always hold true and is the only 100% sure fire way to raise your manager reputation and allow you to move on to a new job.
In an ideal world you would recieve a larger boost to your reputation if you were successful with a smaller club and exceeded the expectations set at the start of the season, In reality though the reputation mechanics within the game arent advanced enough to see the difference. You have to remember that manager reputation probably never mattered to you before you decided to start a Journeyman game and it is still relatively unimportant to the games developers. We can hope that in future versions of the game SI will take note of how popular Journeymen games have become and will try to accomadate us.
League reputation
During a brief conversation with Shrewnaldo in the Journeyman Thread earlier about which league had a higher reputation, the second tier in Belarus or the second tier in Switzerland, it got me thinking about all the different reputations of the leagues in the game.
Here's a list of every nation and every league with the leagues reputation mark (out of 20):
Spoiler:
Argentina
Premier Division 15
Second Division 9
Australia
A-League 10
Austria
Premier Division 12
First Division 9
Belarus
Highest League 9
First League 5
Belgium
Pro League 13
Second League 8
Third Division 5
Brazil
First Division 15
Second Division 12
Third Division 8
Bulgaria
"A" Group 11
"B" Group 7
Chile
First Division 11
First Division B 6
China
Super League 9
First Division 6
Colombia
First Division 12
Second Division 7
Croatia
First Division 11
Second Division 9
Czech Rep
First Division 11
Second Division 8
Denmark
Premier Division 12
First Division 8
Second Division 6
England
Premier Division 19
Championship 11
League 1 9
League 2 6
Blue Square Premier 4
Blue Square North/South 3
Finland
Premier Division 10
First Division 7
France
Ligue 1 16
Ligue 2 11
National 8
CFA 5
Germany
First Division 17
Second Division 12
Third Division 9
Greece
Super League 14
National B Division 9
Holland
Eredivisie 14
Eerste Divisie 9
Hong Kong (China PR)
First Division 4
Hungary
Division I 10
Division II 8
Iceland
Premier Division 9
First Division 7
India
National Football League 4
Indonesia
Super League 6
Premier Division 5
First Division 2
Ireland
Premier Division 9
First Division 7
Israel
Premier League 12
National League 9
Italy
Serie A 18
Serie B 12
Serie C1 8
Serie C2 6
Malaysia
Super League 4
Premier League 2
Mexico
First Division 14
First Division A 10
Northern Ireland
Premier Division 6
First Division 2
Second Division 1
Norway
Premier Division 11
First Division 9
Second Division 7
Peru
First Division 8
Poland
Ekstraklasa 11
First Division 7
Portugal
Liga Sagres 15
Liga Vitalis 7
Second Division 5
Romania
First League 12
Second Division 7
Russia
Premier Division 14
First Division 8
Scotland
SPL 13
First Division 8
Second Division 4
Third Division 2
Serbia
SuperLeague 11
FirstLeague 9
Singapore
S-League 5
Slovakia
First Division 10
Second Division 6
Slovenia
First Division 10
Second Division 7
South Africa
Premier League 10
First Division 4
South Korea
K-League 11
N-League 6
Spain
Liga BBVA 18
Liga Adelante 12
Second Division B 8
Sweden
Premier Division 10
First Division Elite 6
First Division 4
Second Division 3
Switzerland
Super League 12
Challenge League 10
Turkey
Premier Division 14
First Division 9
Second Division 8
USA
MLS 12
Ukraine
Premier League 14
First League 8
Uruguay
First Division 12
Second Division 6
Wales
Premier League 5
Ok. So why do you care? Well, most of you probably won't. Some of you, (the players who move from club to club, league to league) the Journeymen will probably find this quite interesting.
Now, we all know if you set your reputation at "automatic", the game sets it at the lowest repped league you have playable in your game.
So if you just have all the English leagues loaded your reputation will be set up as such, that you can only get a job in the Blue Square North/South. Which has a reputation score of 3. (Suprisingly, not the lowest in the game)
If you were to win the Blue Square South you would have won a league which has a score of 3. That's good. But it's not going to get you a job in La Liga which has a reputation of 18.
It will however mean that you will be seriously considered for a job in a league which has a reputation of around 3 or less. (Scottish 3rd Division, Northern Irish Second Division)
As a journeyman you can use the "points system" to work out what sort of job your likely to get if you've won or managed in a league with a low reputation.
It's fairly safe to say that if you win the Premiership, you are pretty much considered for any job in the world as The Premiership has the highest reputation score of 19. Other things such as nationality are obviously considered though.
Hopefully people will find this as useful as I have.
Summary
If you have followed some of the advice and points in this guide and you are still enjoying life as a journeyman then congratulations….you are a true journeyman and you really don’t need any more advice or help.
I wrote this guide as a means to help those newer members that wish to play the game in this way. There is purposefully no tactical advice or advice on good young players to sign in countries around the globe…you can find all of that elsewhere on the forum.
Lastly don’t forget to stop by the journeyman thread and introduce yourself. There is an infinite amount of advice available there to new players. All you have to do is ask.
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