Taking On Linecoigne's Back To The Future Challenge

[FM_TNSSO]

So, Linecoigne1998 has recently come up with and posted a new challenge which he is calling the 'back to the future' challenge! After inviting some other players to give it a go, I though 'I fancy a bit of that'. So here I am. I'm not turning my back on my own Dutch challenge with Willem II but will be trying to have a go at running two saves simultaneously.

You can find a full list of rules (and how the points scoring will work) for this challenge on Linecoigne's story here:

http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/foot...ger-stories/373009-back-future-challenge.html



But here's a rundown for you (copied from the above story)...

In this challenge, you may choose any manager you want but the more successful and smaller teams managed, the better. A great example of this would be Carlo Ancelotti, who managed Reggiana and Parma before getting to the bigger teams managed in his career. A terrible example would be Pep Guardiola. Yes, he's a very successful manager, but has only won these trophies with big teams like Bayern and Barcelona, which wouldn't make this a challenge.

Once you've picked a manager, the idea is that you have to look through their stats to see how many games you're allowed to manage for, how much money they've spent throughout that career and how many players they've signed as well. The financial restrictions mean you cannot break a manager's transfer record (in Mourinho's case, Pogba for £89 million), and you cannot spend more than what the manager has spent over his career or sign more than the amount of players that manager has signed. This would make it more difficult for the smaller teams to win trophies which means that if you do want to get to the smaller teams, you better save up on your signings spaces when you're managing big sides like United or Real Madrid! After that, your career as a manager should last as long as the manager's picked. In Mourinho's case, 794 games. An added little bonus can be that if you reach the end of the games your manager has had in his career and you have a better record (in Mourinho's case a better record than 518-157-119), you get an extra amount of points. I haven't decided if it would be something huge like 200 points or a little less.

Oh, and I also forgot to mention that you may use the in-game editor to move from club to club, as building up the reputation to go from Porto to Real Madrid for example could take ages and therefore make the challenge impossible. The one restriction I'll put in place for that is you have to spend at least 2 years at a club before using the editor to change if you wish, since Mourinho stayed at least 2 years at Porto, Inter and Chelsea.

To explain my choice of José Mourinho: he's managed a few big teams in United, Chelsea, Real Madrid (and Inter who could be included in that list) but also two weaker teams in Porto and Uniao De Leira. This means that I could stay at a few big clubs for the duration of the story but wouldn't get as many points as I would if I managed one of the weaker sides. On top of that, he's made some pretty big signings in his career and has signed quite a few players which could make this interesting with regens being so expensive in FM.



So which manager's career have I decided to focus my version of the challenge on......

The legend that is Claudio Ranieri!


So let's have a look back through Ranieri's career (most recent first)....


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So by my reckoning, I make that a total of 1,062 games managed, with a record that reads....

W. 498 D. 286 L. 278


Ranieri has managed plenty of clubs during his career, ranging in size, so it should present me with plenty of options during my attempt at this challenge. And here's the stats on his transfer dealings which will give me my limits/budgets throughout my own manager's career....

Ranieri's total transfer spend: £666.6 million
Ranieri's highest transfer fee paid: £38.25 million for James Rodriguez (Signed for Monaco 01/07/2013)
Ranieri's total number of players signed: 98


My next post will introduce my 'in game' manager along with the team I have decided to start this challenge with!​

 

[Linecoigne1998]

That's a lot of teams to take on, assuming you won't be doing them all hahaha but good luck!

 

[coolmcool]

Sounds good looking forward to it, did you see the TV shows on the history channel called the Football's Godfathers was really interesting especially Ranieri's seemed to get really unlucky at a few clubs

 

[Linecoigne1998]

TheNotSoSpecialOne's multiplier table:
​

Club	Multiplier
Juventus	x 1.0
Monaco - Inter - Roma - Napoli - Chelsea - Atlético	x 1.25
Valencia - Fiorentina - Leicester	x 1.75
FC Nantes - Cagliari	x 2.5
Parma	x 3.0

This is what I had in mind for you, let me know what you think. You could arguably put Atléti and Chelsea in the first row with Juve but they don't necessarily dominate their domestic leagues and competitions as much as Juve do, which is why Iv've put them in the second row. Again, let me know what you think and we can edit this table together to find one that will work best for your story!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

I think it's pretty fair. I'd probably move only one side....possibly making Leicester x2

 

[Linecoigne1998]

I think it's pretty fair. I'd probably move only one side....possibly making Leicester x2

Fair enough!

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Introducing...

Introducing Emidio Roberti...

So here’s the manager I’ve created to play this challenge with. Everyone, meet ex Italian player Emidio Roberti. At aged 37, Roberti starts his managerial career at the same age as Claudio Ranieri and with a similar playing profile, having played at a national level in his home country, but never receiving a call up to the national side. Hopefully, he can fare better as a manager than he did as a mediocre player.

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Having been a centre back during his playing career, it is expected that Roberti will favour a defensive style to his coaching, with the ethos being that if you don’t concede you don’t lose!

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So where to start….well Ranieri managed in Italy, Spain and France, so Roberti chose to begin his career in the weaker of the three leagues (no offence intended to the French here). And he’s opted to take over at AS Monaco.

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AS Monaco is a club with a rich history and a whole host of trophies to their name. Ranieri spent 720 days managing the club between 2012 and 2014, leading the club to 51 wins in 86 games. He only lost 11 as a manager here, and led the club to the Ligue 2 Championship for the first time in the club’s history, gaining them promotion to the top tier. He then followed that up with a 2nd placed finish behind PSG in his first season in the top flight, but his contract was not renewed at the end of that season and he left the club – many feel he was extremely unlucky not to be kept on as manager!

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Taking a look at the squad, there is one thing that really stands out and that is the sheer lack of French players in this team. In the first team squad there are only four!! Despite that, I am blessed with some serious talent in this team, with no less than 7 players valued at more than £20 million!

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Danijel Subasic is the best keeper in the squad. The Croatian will make a decent number 1 this year and I’m lucky enough to have a decent backup in Swiss keeper Diego Benaglio as well. I’ll be trying to give him some game time where I can.

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The defence ain’t bad either and initially doesn’t look like it will need a lot of investment to improve. Maybe a new left back to push Jorge for his place in the team. It’s Polish international Kamil Gilk that stands out as the rock at the back.

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The midfield is jam packed with a whole array of players. Pretty much all bases are covered from defensive midfielders, to wide attacking players. With players like Fabinho and Thomas Lemar, the midfield looks extremely strong. The other thing to notice is the age of these players, with majority of them being 21 and under, so still have plenty of improvement in them as well! The biggest task may be to try to keep some of them at the club!

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Up front, the star man that has been associated with Monaco for a few years now is Radamel Falcao! And guess who brought him here….Claudio Ranieri! Monaco also have some other good strikers to support the main man up front as well!

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So with the players at my disposal, I have opted for a version of a 4-3-3 tactic I guess you’d call it. It looks pretty bare down the right side, but with Sidibe bombing on from full back, Fabinho drifting into the flanks from his mezzala role and Falcao also coming out wide as part of his complete forward position, I’m sure we are going to have plenty of the ball down that side of the pitch. Lemar is given a wingers role, but out wide there on the left, he is pretty much going to be left to his own devices to utilise his talent and do pretty much whatever he likes. I’ll be looking to him to create some magic down that wing as well as cut inside and score goals as well!

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The final thing to have a look at is the club’s ridiculous bank balance. However, despite there being over £150 million in the bank account, only £22 million has been made available for transfers….which is pretty lucky really as I don’t want to max out too early on my ‘career transfer budget’ of £666 million that Ranieri has spent.

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With the pre season campaign around the corner, here’s who we’ll be taking on next month!

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​

 

[FM_TNSSO]

Just letting you all know I'll probably come back to this at some point but for now, I'm putting it on the back burner. Three reasons really....the first being that I just can't put my Dutch Challenge save/story down! Second, I have committed to the 4 managers are better than one save with KLIPPYBO. Third, work is pretty darn busy at the moment and running two of my own saves at the same time is going to be way too time consuming.