Real Life Football Manager Challenge: Unemployment to Managerial Genius

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seanhrfc

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Hi all!

As my Football Manager loads up the start of a new game, I have decided to embark on a different kind of FM Journey. Instead of starting as a team - I've had two long games as QPR and Cambridge United - I am going to start Unemployed. However I shall be doing it with a twist:

1. I have loaded the database down to English Tier 9.
2. I will start with Sunday League Footballer Experience.
3. I will be playing it as realistic to real life as possible.

Manager Profile:

Name: Sean Page

Age: 22 (Will show as 25 in the game)

Playing Experience: Sunday League Footballer

Coaching Experience:
Haverhill Rovers Youth Coach (06-09), Eastbourne Borough Youth Coach (09-11), Brighton & Hove Albion Youth Coach (11-Pres), University of Brighton Futsal Club Coach ( 10-12, South East Champions 2011, National Champions 2012)

Coaching Qualifications:
UEFA C Licence (B Licence pending)
Bsc Hons Sport Coaching (final year undergraduate)

Football Management:

After several years in youth and University coaching, I am going to be taking the next steps into open age management. I will be looking for a part-time managerial job in the South East of England, somewhere commutable from home and/or University. Any open jobs will be applied for.

Managerial Philosophy:

First and foremost my emphasis will be on bringing in young players with potential, age's that I have worked with before and that I can mould into the team I want, rather than having older players that will be more critical of my approach due to my age and may be stubborn to change. I will be sticking to a strict way of playing that I believe in:
  • A quick back line is crucial, allowing us to push our line forward and pressure the opposition, as opposed to sitting back inviting them.
  • I want my team to keep the ball well and keep it on the floor. This will involve being patient and going backwards to go forwards. Therefore a global low mentality will be set. But, I feel it is important to keep the ball moving at a high tempo where possible, holding onto the ball where necessary to move the ball on again.
  • I am a big believer in allowing creativity, to pass, to dribble, to do the unexpected. All players will be allowed to play with high creative freedom and midfielders/forwards to move freely (a global low mentality will ensure that we are not caught with too many forward).
  • We will look to work our way into the box, moving the ball waiting for an opening or dribbling to beat players. Although wide areas will be used to maintain the ball, crosses and byline play will be kept to a minimum.
  • A formation with a sweeper-keeper, quick back four, holding midfielder, box to box midfielder, 2 wing inside forwards, a no-10 in attacking midfield linking a lone forward to the rest of the team.
I will stick to this philosophy through thick and thin, as I would do in real life. It may struggle in the lower leagues, but as I bring in the right players it will become better and better.


My next post will be when I finally get a job, it could be days, weeks or months into the game. I will provide screenshots etc and I hope you enjoy reading my story.
 
Quick Update, 1 week into the game after applying for all open positions I have been offered a manager's job at the listed clubs:

Coventry Sphinx
Shildon AFC
Oxford City
Greenwich Borough
Highworth Town
Didcot Town
Leighton Town
Wivenhoe Town
Croydon FC
Abingdon Town

Will be making a decision shortly.
 
Cheers Jordan.

I'm going to be taking the helm at Croydon F.C. I know a lot of the clubs in that division and its near enough to where I study. Update later on today to go over the club in detail.

One thing I forgot to do was un-check the mask player attributes, which normally annoys me. But I'm keeping it, adds to the realism and makes it even more challenging!
 
Looks good mate - will be following, still think the best stories are at the smaller clubs
 
Croydon F.C....Initial Thoughts!


Well, I had made my decision. Some of the clubs were just too far away from Home and University. It was going to be Croyden F.C. I met with the Chairman who seemed supportive and excited about my ideas to take the club into a new direction. I was a bit disappointed not to be paid for the job, however I was offered expenses for my travel so I was at least not out of pocket. The club had been in the Isthmian Premier Division in the 2000/01 and 2001/02 seasons and I told the Chairman this was where I believed I could take the club. This experience would be ideal for my Year 3 University Coaching Placement as well as a stepping stone onto a career in Football Management.

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I was told that the team train Tuesday & Thursday Evenings, with Games on Saturday, like most semi-pro / amateur teams. However, I was surprised that after the previous manager had gone, pretty much the whole team went with him, leaving me with only one player! I've got 2 weeks until my first league game and a game on my first day of arrival. I have managed to assemble a group of local lads together to 'trial' for the team, saying that anybody who performs exceptionally could be offered a contract, but the face quality of the team is really low. I need to assemble a squad and fast!

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Sounds like its going to be a great story, I play for Coventry Sphinx, would of been great to see somebody do a story of them!

Good look at Croydon anyway I will be following!
 
Sounds interesting i will keep my eye on this also. good luck
 
Complete Overhaul at Croydon F.C.


Well, August was a very big month for both myself as Manager and for Croydon F.C. I scouted far and wide in search for players and staff alike. I kept to my guns and decided to go for young players, 17-22. As an amateur club I knew it would be difficult to keep players, so I used this as a selling point explaining to players that Croydon could be their shop window onto bigger, better things. i believe some of the players may go on to play professionally. Here's an overview of the players/staff in and out:

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Overall I am very happy with the quality of the players I have been able to bring in. Really excited about the prospects of these players, as well as the quality of Romone Rose who is certainly a blue square south striker minimum.

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Despite being able to assemble a very good squad for the league, it has been a tough start. With a squad of very young players grouped together at such short notice I reckon it's going to taken them a long time to gel as a team, let alone get used to playing 'mens football' as a lot of them have come straight from the youth game. I am also finding it hard to build up a good relationship with them all yet, still a lot of skepticism about due to my experience so its difficult to motivate the team on the training field and during the games. Tactically I think it's going to take a long time for them to get used to the system.

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We started the season without scoring for the first three games. Tactically I went for how I want my teams to play, but despite looking good it just didn't seem right and the results were awful, particularly when I want to win the team around to my philosophy. With better players and more time on the training field I knew it would work well, but with the limited time and resources I have a change was in order. I've gone for a 4-5-1/4-3-3 with an attacking approach, but less creativity and tempo and not relying on a high defensive line. Two games under the new tactic and two wins.

Things are looking positive! Its going to take time to gel this team and get them playing to their potential, but I think promotion can be achieved this year.
 
Good luck mate! It's not that bad of a start, I wouldn't worry about that. Thing with LLM is you need patience, if things don't go as smooth as you want them to right away, just keep persisting. But anyway, yeah, good luck!
 
A very interesting story, will be following. Also, be sure to follow my Market Drayton Town story.
 
I'm going to give it two months or so to really start seeing the effects of tactics and players gelling, I guess patience is the key!
 
This has definitely caught my attention. When I get around to buying FM13 (currently have 1 exam left before I give in!) I'm going to try a similar thing (starting unemployed in lowest divisions etc) to see how far I can get.

Good luck on your journey!
 
I'm now in February 2013, will update here soon but its going well!
 
Last edited:
End of Season 1

Season 1 Summary

My first season has come to an end and I'm very happy with the way it has gone. A treble in the first season, winning every competition possible - Combined Counties League, Ryman Cup and FA Vase. Here's a look at the season:

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I've managed to build up a very strong squad, full of English / English academy youngsters who I think could do well up to the highest tiers of non-league football. Overall player ratings have been pretty good all round, however a group of about 10 players showed that they were not good enough and were either released or put in the reserves as last resort back-up. Through some extensive searching I managed to replace these squad places with some quality Dutch players, who seemed to be interested in making an impact in the English leagues. My biggest goal threat came from Romone Rose and Bobby Traynor (from Kingstonian) who both got over 20 goals each, despite Rose being injured for 2-3 months and Traynor not signing until February.

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The name Page is now talked about regularly among non-league pundits, managers, players and fans alike and I have a growing reputation in the game. Now I've come to the end of the season I need to start considering the next steps in my career. Will it be away from Croydon? I'm not sure yet but having just completed my coaching degree I am out in the world of work and I can't afford to be an amateur coach for much longer. I'm not going to make any hasty decisions, but my future could be further up in the football pyramid. It just all depends who is willing to take a punt on a young up-and-coming manager with instant but minimal success.

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Really loving this mate, well articulated and thought out. Keep it up!!
 
Cheers, I think this summer is going to be an interesting one!
 
Breaking News!!!

Turmoil at Croydon
​

Once the transfer window opened in June clubs all over the country rushed to ****** up the talent at Croydon FC. I had a very strong feeling that this would happen, as I had even used it as a pulling point to the players - perform here and you will get noticed by bigger clubs! I would like to look at it as an achievement, having helped these young stars that had fell into obscurity back into a career (or at least a semi-career) in football. Two players went on to sign for league clubs and therefore professional terms and several other players took a leap up two or three divisions. In total, 14 players were snapped up, but some were fringe players that went to similar standard teams.

**** Tijdman --> Hythe Town, Isthmian Premier. Key Player on £200 p/w
Ollie Monguel --> Wealdstone Town, Blue Square South. Key player on £200 p/w
Romone McCrae --> Welling Utd, Blue Square Prem. First Teamer on £350 p/w
Joseph Debayo --> Boston Utd, Blue Square North. Key player on £230 p/w
Smalj Suljevic --> Exeter City, League 2. Back up on £550 p/w
Liam Kingsmill --> Maidenhead Utd, Southern Premier. Key player on £270 p/w
Joe Anderson --> Hampton & Richmond, Isthmian Premier. First teamer on £150 p/w
Connor Roberts-Nurse --> Dartford, Blue Square Prem. Key player on £350 p/w
Jordan Snodin --> St Albans City, Southern Premier. Key player on £200 p/w
Romone Rose --> Yeovil Town, League 1. Back up on £600 p/w


Decision Time

​
Although disappointing to see a lot of my best players leave, it will be interesting to follow their careers and I wish them well. But for me it seems like that may be the finishing point with Croydon, providing a good opportunity came my way. I had helped Croydon to their first treble, smashed the league points record, got them into a good financial situation enabling semi-pro status and they still had a side full of decent youngsters that would now require compensation to sign. I searched around for jobs, but for a couple of weeks nothing stood out. Recently relegated Bishop Stortford and Workington had vacancies, but Workington was far too up north for me and I didn't think just one league up was ambitious enough. But then two jobs came up I was interested in, Fleetwood Town and Basingstoke FC. Both had just narrowly avoided relegation in League 2 and BSS respectively. I applied for both, to the wrath of the Croydon board, and patiently waited for correspondence.

After a few days I had my first response, I was pleased to see that Basingstoke had got back to offer me the role. The next day I met up up with Alan Pearson, the chairman, who was very straight to the point. He said that the last season was clearly not good enough and a relegation struggle this season would not be an option. However, due to poor finances, most of last years squad had already been released and the wage budget had been significantly decreased. He explained his appreciation for my work at Croydon and believed that I could achieve what is needed at Basingstoke, swiftly moving onto money and contracts - a 1 year part time contract on £300 per week! Containing my excitement at being offered my first paid management job, I replied that I firmly believed I had the skills needed for the job and that I could help push Basingstoke onto the next level, but asked for a week to delay the decision as it was a life changing decision for me. Of course I had the thought of managing Fleetwood in the back of my mind too.

Two days later I received the call. It was Andy Pilley of Fleetwood and I didn't quite know what to expect. Unfortunately it was bad news for me, Pilley said he was flattered that a young, up and coming manager was interested in the post and that he had been following my success, but they were looking for someone with more extensive experience of higher level football. Former Aberdeen and Bristol Rovers manager Mark McGhee was to be appointed. Ah well, it was a very ambitious application anyway. So I set about ensuring I found a job to go alongside my managerial role at Basingstoke - fortunately I had contacts at Wellington College 30 mins up the role and was offered a coaching role at the college and a part-time Sport Lecturer role at Queen Mary's College. Money was sorted, Basingstoke here I come!

Next update will be the first part of the 2013/14 season with my new side!
 
this has the potential to be the best story on fm base good luck with basingstoke good jump so early in your career
 
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