The Challenge
Take a team of your choice from the lowest league of there respected country all the way to the top division and finally on to Champions League Glory.Rules
1. Please only use the official Football Manager 2012 databases with no custom databases enabled.
2. Please set your past managerial experience to Automatic/Sunday League Footballer.
3. Please do not cheat in any way as you are only cheating yourself and will not get much of a sense of achievement if you complete the challenge by cheating.
Prologue:-
My phone hadn't stopped ringing all week. I was tipped to become the Greatest manager of all time, after receiving all of my coaching badges. I had breezed through the exams, every one wanted me. I was getting calls from Chelsea, Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona. They had all parted ways with their managers in the hope that i would join them. They all promised me well over £400 Million to spend on players in the first year alone, They were offering me hundreds of thousands pounds a week. But i was ready to make my decision!
My phone started ringing and it was some intern from the F.A. The rude git, he had just woken me up. What the **** did he want?
"Mr Dresdenov, i'm ringing to congratulate you on passing your coaching badges. you should receive your qualifications through the post as you have opted out of the ceremony"
This is what i wanted to hear, now just to sign for some huge club....but then his next words shattered me, they were blunt, to the point and cold. Cold enough to wake me from my dream.
"As you know, at the F.A, we try hard to find all course attendees a job within the footballing community. Unfortunately, we have been unable to come up with anything for you, apart from a club in Belgium. I will forward you on the details"
Great, so i've just walked out of my job and spent all of my savings. I really thought i'd end up somewhere half decent, like all the lecturers kept on saying. "Yeah, our training scheme is so respected that you'd get a job any where, you're hardest decision will be to decide where you want to work"
Respected my ****! Belgium! I've been to Belgium, it's alright but it is abit of a dump. The only club i could think of was Club Brugge, maybe they would offer me something. I jumped out of bed and headed over to my laptop and logged onto my email....Nope, Not Brugge...Verbroedering Geel - Meerhout
Needless to say, i was in a no win situation. I had no money left, no job, just a dream. I had to go to Belgium and at least see what they were offering, after all, they were going to pay for my Journey to and from Belgium. I hopped onto the Euro-Star and after a two day Journey, i was there, in the Owners office. Why did it take two days? Because it was cheaper for the club to have me break up my Journey.
I sat infront of an old man, who just looked at my qualifications from the F.A
"Oh, England F.A Qualifications, very good. We have you"
"We have you?, sorry, sir, i do not understand"
"we have you, you start today. You use clubs Volvo and sleep in Clubs house"
Wow, i had just been giving a job, as a manager, of this club. I didn't even know where their Stadia was, i didn't even know if i was still in Belgium. He showed me a picture of the clubs house. I presume it is a room next to their training facilities, i thought it was probably used by the clubs caretaker. I went onto learn that the caretaker had died back in 1995 and the house stood empty for all those years. Oh well, i thought, it was very surreal.
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Verbroedering Geel-Meerhout
I went onto learn that Geel was a province of Antwerp. i love Wikipedia, they have information on so many clubs world wide, usually in depth, but when i looked at the Geel-Meerhout page, there was nothing there apart from the following:-
"Founded in 1926 as Meerhout Sport, the club received the matricule number 893. In 1966, Meerhout Sport merged with the other club from the city named Hand in Hand, with matricule 2169. The new club took the name F.C. Verbroedering Meerhout. At the end of the season, the club reached the Belgian Promotion. They were relegated to the provincial level in 1987. Ten years later, the club was back at the 4th national level, and even managed to reach the third division in 2006, where they stayed only one season. In 2008 the neighbour club of K.F.C. Verbroedering Geel went into liquidation, so F.C. Verbroedering Meerhout moved to De Leunen stadium, which was not used anymore, and added the name of the city Geel to their name"
I had my work cut out!
We were in the Belgian Third Division, B! along with 17 other clubs i'd never heard of. Non the less, the owner did mention that the club was predicted a 13th placed finish. He never said anything else, apart from good luck.
A few days had past and i let the coaches look after the training whilst i observed. My conclusion? we needed some new blood, but with no money to spend on anything, it was going to be hard to get a cup of tea, let alone a player.
How ever, there was a Trialist game being played in Antwerp, so i drove up there, with my assistant, to have a look. The play was poor and i could see why these guys didn't have a club. But they were still better then what we had. I don't know what come over me, but every time my assistant said a player looked good, i said offer him a contract. I hope my gamble pays off, firstly, i hope that we actually sign some one and secondly, i hope they're half decent.!
Players In :-
Nathaniel Cathalina
Nathaniel was 22 years old and looked good playing on the right wing. As soon as we offered him a contract, he snapped out hands off. I really should've looked at his history. He started out at Ajax back in 2005 but was deemed surplus to requirements and was picked up by Club Brugge. He barely saw a reserve team game and was released in 2008. I asked he had played for after and he said no one, he worked at a fast food resturant and played with his brother and dad on a Saturday. Wow
Jeroen Van Erkel
Jeroen was 20 years old and looked good in defence. He was a youth player at Lommel United before being signed by Genk, but he was released in 2009 and had spent 2 years in the wilderness. Needless to say, he also jumped at the chance to play for us. I really hope we didn't screw up here, we could break some of these young boys hearts
Raoul Ngadrira
This guy was a youngster at Anderlecht before moving onto KV Mechelen in 2002. He left them in 2010 and joined Rupel Boom on a free transfer, but after a year he was let go. I was pleased we picked up the 22 year old who had been at a club with out a break, how ever, he is a striker and i nearly laughed out loud when he told me he had played 30 senior games and scored just one goal.
Steven Godefroid
Steven was previously at Olympic Charleroi and had played 60 games for them in 2 season. he looked pretty good but he never disclosed why he was released. But what the ****, i gambled on a striker who had only ever scored one goal.
Abdullah Omaria
I cannot believe we even offered this guy a contract. He had never played for a team, ever apart from a 2 week trial with Kortrijk. How ever, we were short on players and we need to beef the team up
Davy Versprille
We took a chance on this 17 year old who seemed really immature. He started his footballing life with Cercle Brugge in 2008 before being sacked for playing a prank on a fellow team mate. Deinze then picked him up but refused to renew his contract. So we got him.....Great
Lucas Plautz
I am actually happy with this signing, he was one of mine. When i say one of mine, his agent approached me. He played for Bleid but was always in their starting 11. His contract was up and we swooped in and picked up the frenchman.
Aitor
Another one of my signings but it may prove to be a mistake. His stats came through on our fax machine and there must have been a mistake with the printer because it printed 33 next to goals. When he signed, he had infact scored 3 goals in 43 appearances, not 33.
Ricardo
A young Brazilian Goalkeeper who looked pretty good. God knows why he chose us but he's here after impressive spells at Joinville, Juventus (SP) and Liege
Now for the pre season friendlies, i hope my signings pay off
