The Journeyman - An FM15 Story

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rednaxela
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 21
  • Views Views 20K
R

Rednaxela

Guest
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story

Hello everyone, 'The Journeyman' is going to be a story for Football Manager 2015 in which I try to win as much silverware as I can across many different countries with the overall aim being to win at least 5 domestic titles, a Champions League and possibly an International Trophy. (Never tried International management!)

For this story I will be starting with no previous playing experience or coaching qualifications, as shown below:

View attachment 717082

(Ignore the part about studying for a license, I forgot to screenshot my profile when I started)

Now that you have a little bit of background information on the save let's move onto unveiling my first club.


View attachment 716430

Boca Juniors (Argentina)

I decided to begin the save in an obscure country but somewhere that I could build up my reputation as I will be starting with no previous playing experience and no coaching qualifications.

Having managed Santos on FM14 I realised that I greatly enjoyed the experience of South American management and have decided to go with this route again, this time managing Boca Juniors who are based in Argentina.


About the Club:

View attachment 716434

Founded in 1905, Boca Juniors are known for being the most successful club in Argentinian history as well as being known by Football fans across the World.

View attachment 716431

Boca have claimed the Argentinian Premier Division title an astonishing 30 times as well as winning the Copa Libertadores on 6 occassions, when put together with the array of other trophies won by the club over the span of their existence it's not hard to see why they are such a big club in Argentinian Football.

Boca Juniors have been home to some of the biggest names in Football, such as club legend Juan Román Riquelme (One of my favourite players growing up), other icons include Diego Maradona and Carloz Tevez.

Hopefully I can cement my name in Boca folklore!


The Squad:

View attachment 716440

Boca Juniors have always been renowned for being a club who take great pride in producing some of the finest young talent in the World, and as you can see in our starting squad their are certainly some great younger players with fantastic potential (Not to mention in the reserves and U20s!)

As well as the youth we have a great range of experience, the likes of former Real Madrid player Fernando Gago who will play as a Gerrard-esque player for us just in front of the back four.

View attachment 716450

Sadly a couple of our best young players are currently out on loan, such as Leandro Paredes who is spending the season in Italy with AS Roma, definitely somebody I'm hoping to implement at the club in future years.

Sergio Araujo is another player who is unavailable for selection, the young Striker is currently in Spain with Adalente side Las Palmas which I find a tad frustrating, a player with his stats would be more than useful for us this season, but we'll do our best to battle on without him!

Tomás Pochettino and Guido Vadalá will be two of the younger players I look to utilise the most throughout the season, both have great potential and have certainly impressed me during the early weeks of the game.

But with only around £1m to spend, the transfers may be a bit lackluster in the first season unless I manage to shift some players on, but overall I'm happy with the starting squad and don't see why we can't challenge for the title.

The Aims/Goals at Boca Juniors:

1. To develop a squad that is capable of consistently challenging for silverware.

2. To win my first silverware in charge of Boca Juniors.

3. To win the Argentinian title for a 31st time.

4. To celebrate a domestic treble in a single season.

5. To win the Copa Libertadores for a 7th time.

6. To develop some of the younger players at the club, hopefully promoting a few into the first-team.

Please feel free to comment with your own aims/goals that I can add to the list.


Hopefully you'll enjoy my Journeyman save!
(Which will hopefully be my long running save on FM15)
​
 
Last edited:
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story

Boca Juniors

View attachment 717572

Season One
Pre-Season Update (2014):


Having taken the job at Boca in July 2014 I had already missed two games, the first being the 5th round of the Copa Argentina in which Boca were beaten on penalties by Instituto following a 1-1 draw, the second was a Friendly match.

This meant I had to chop and change the tactics only weeks after Boca had began playing a certain style of Football, but my ideas were my rock, there's no way I could manage a club that didn't play my style of Football.

These are the two tactics that I have developed for the 2014/15 season.

Tactic #1:
4-1-2-1-2 variant

View attachment 716675

This formation is set to be used as a more offensive set-up, one in which we can quickly move the ball around the pitch while moving forwards as a unit, the defensive minded players being more responsible for staying back while the attacking players try to break down the opposition. Fernando Gago plays a large role in this tactic as the DLP, he is required to pick up the ball and spray long passes all over the pitch to try and find some of our creative attackers.

Definitely something I'll be looking to develop over time, especially when I bring in players that fit the tactic.

Tactic #2:
4-2-3-1 (Asymmetric)

View attachment 716689

This formation has been developed for games where I believe possession will play a more pivotal role, allowing us to keep the ball and patiently pass it around while generating an attack. I also like the asymmetric style of the 4-2-3-1 as it offers us more defensively and prevents us from being caught on the counter, definitely a controlling tactic.


Transfers:

As stated in the introduction of this story, the board have not supplied us with a large budget but instead a meager £1m which isn't really enough to bring anybody in and having snapped up Fernando Gago on a new long term contract it looks as if we'll be developing the current squad instead.

Predicted finances currently stand at around £15m for next season, so that's where the spending will begin!

I have however released some of the younger talent who I don't believe will make the cut here at Boca but wish them all the very best as they pursue their career.

Finally I've managed to loan out some of the young players who wanted more first-team football so hopefully they'll develop as players throughout the year.

View attachment 716705

Results:

Finally having shown you the tactics and the transfers I'll show you how we got on throughout the pre-season, and while the results weren't too important I still felt it was a good chance to see how my players perform.

View attachment 716712

As you can see we did lose the cup match against Instituto which is disappointing but that was under the old regime, so there was nothing I could do.

I took over against Aarau which as you can see resulted in a 3-1 win and a very convincing one at that, the rest of our pre-season followed suit with very impressive results across the board. We did lose to New England but it was a close game in which we were only beaten in the 88th minute.

Overall I'm very impressed with how things have gone during the pre-season and now look forward to getting things going in August, hopefully we can start strong!​
 
Last edited:
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story

Boca Juniors

View attachment 717571

Season One
August Update (2014):

​

Results:

View attachment 716904

As you can see August was a very congested month, a total of 9 matches were played in which we won 5, drew 2 and lost 2 which overall is very pleasing for my first month in charge.

I was disappointed to lose my first competitive game in charge of Boca Juniors as we slumped to a 2-1 defeat to Rosario Central after being 1-0 up and having missed a penalty which could have made it 2-0.


However we then bounced back with 3 straight league wins against Independiente, Banfield and Belgrano. This was the kind of form I was looking to go on with Boca Juniors, especially if we wanted to win the league.

In between those league victories we played our first match in the Copa Sudamericana 2nd preliminary round in which we drew to Godoy Cruz 1-1 at home which I thought was a disappointing result, but I'm glad we were able to finish the job away from home following a 3-3 draw but that was disappointing too as we were originally 3-0 up, thank God for the away goals rule!

We suffered our 2nd and final loss of the month to Estudiantes 1-0 away from home, a game in which our opponents were reduced to 10 men for the final 20 minutes but still we failed to find a way through.

We then rounded off our first month in charge of Boca with a 5-1 league victory against Godoy Cruz, our first win against them in 3 attempts!

A special mention to Andrés Chávez who amassed a total of 10 goals during the opening month of the season, a great start!​


League Table/Competitions:

View attachment 716907

We end the month currently sitting in 3rd place after 7 games, and with 12 more games to play in the season I'd like to see us put together a run of form and mount a serious title challenge.

Hopefully Cháves can keep finding the net!​
 
Last edited:
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story

Boca Juniors

View attachment 717566

Season One
September/October Update (2014):

​

Results:

View attachment 717518


Another impressive couple of months as we amassed 7 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses which pleases me, it's always nice to know that we're capable of winning a majority of our matches.

However, once again we fell to defeat in our first match to River Plate in a 1-0 loss, a game in which we were controlling the possession until our experienced CB Diaz saw red late in the game by which time River Plate's attack seemed too much to cope with as they netted a quickfire double to take the spoils.

Following our defeat we bounced back with a run of 4 straight victories in the league against Olimpo, Newell's, Racing Club and Gimnasia (LP), the impressive statistic here was that we managed 3 away league victories in a row which is always impressive as I myself struggle during away days.

The other league matches saw us suffer a heavy 5-0 defeat to Lanus, this was unexpected as I felt confident ahead of the game due to our impressive run of form but on the day we didn't turn up and were well and truly battered, which we deserved.

In our penultimate league match we drew at home to Defensa 1-1, a game in which we dominated after an early goal but failed to find the equaliser only to concede late in the game, attacking is certainly inconsistent here at Boca.

Finally we took on Quilmes away from home, an impressive performance saw us take home the points in a 4-1 victory meaning we won 4/5 of our away league matches across the two months.

Either side of the league matches we did take on Deportivo Cali of Columbia in the Copa Sudamericana 1st round, following an unimpressive 1-1 draw at home we managed to pick up the pace in the 2nd leg with a 2-0 victory, meaning we progressed to the Quarter-Finals where we would face Chapecoense of Brazil.

During our final game of the month we took on Chapecoense at home in the 1st leg of the Copa Sudamericana Quarter-Final, an impressive performance here allowed us to cap off the month with a 2-1 lead in the Quarter-Finals heading into November.
​



Competition Summary:

View attachment 717531

Heading into November we now occupy 2nd place in the table with 4 games remaining, a big ask to win the title now but with 4 straight victories anything can happen!

View attachment 717534

I said in the last update that I was hoping to see Chávez continue his scoring ways, and I'm pleased to say he's been doing that, now occupying the top spot of the scorers and average rating with 4 games to play I'd say he's a definite contender for player of the year!​
 
Last edited:
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story

Boca Juniors

View attachment 717746

Season One
November Update (2014):

November 2014 would see the end of our first 'tournament' in Argentina, sitting in 2nd we needed to win all of our remaining games to have any hope of claiming the title.​


Results:

View attachment 717747

November didn't bring about the best results, we drew 3 of the games, won 3 and lost 1, but the loss was vital to our title challenge as it meant Tigre would claim their first ever Argentinian title, a big congratulations to them!

In our other 3 league games we managed to pick up a draw against Arsenal de Sarandi in a game we really should have won. Following our defeat to Tigre that crushed our title hopes we then beat Atl. Rafaela away from home as we looked to claim 2nd spot in the table (As predicted at the start of the season) but then failed to win against San Lorenzo at home in a 0-0 stalemate.

These results meant that we had finished the campaign in 3rd place, a very disappointing season but we did manage to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana for next season.

View attachment 717749

We did however manage to beat Chapecoense in the quarter-final of this years Copa Sudamericana following our 2-1 home leg win, this time a 3-1 result away from home in which we always looked comfortable and booked our place in the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals we then took on Lanus, a team who had previously whacked us 5-0 in the league and I think it's fair to say we definitely didn't feel too confident going into the 2nd leg with only a 2-0 result at home as Lanus were always going to score at home, they had been firing all season!

The 2nd leg was crazy, a 4-4 result with plenty of action, goals and its fair share of poor defending, but we were through to the final! Could we claim our first piece of silverware at the club?

In the final we would take on Brazilian side Bahia.

View attachment 717751


League Table/Competitions:

View attachment 717753

As you can see we finished 3rd in the end, a poor campaign and much work ahead.
(Ignore the Copa Sudamericana progress, this picture was taken prior to the 2nd leg)

Player Awards:

View attachment 717755

Following an impressive individual campaign Andres Chávez managed to claim 2nd place in the Argentinian Premier Division Player of the Year award, well done Andres!

View attachment 717756

Chávez also managed to pick up 2nd place in the Top Goalscorer award for the League, 13 goals in 18 goals is an impressive feat and something I'm sure he'll be looking to build on next season!​
 
Last edited:
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 718366

Season One
December Update (2014):

Having finished the league campaign December would be a short month in which we would play the final of the Copa Sudamericana vs Bahia.​



Results:

View attachment 718369

That's right guys, as you can see from the picture I'm afraid to tell you that we fell to defeat in the Copa Sudamericana Final against Bahia, a disappointing result and I'm disappointed to end the campaign without a trophy, but they were the better team and they deserved it more on the day.

View attachment 718371

However Andres Chávez did manage to pick up the top goalscorer award for the tournament to continue his prolific form, he's been a fine striker this season!

View attachment 718374​


Awards:

Having shown you the league table in the last update I don't have much else to show you besides some of the player awards as chosen by the fans.

The Player of the Year award was awarded to Luciano Acosta who won an astonishing 40% of the votes, Andres Chávez following suit with an impressive 38% of the fans votes.

My personal player of the year would have gone to Chavéz, but Acosta had a very strong season in that #10 role behind our main Striker.

View attachment 718377

Next we have the fans best XI:

View attachment 718378

Not many surprises here as the likes of Gago, Erbes, Chávez and Acosta all make the team of the year, but defensive is certainly something I'll be looking to improve on next season.

Acosta also managed to pick up 2nd place in the Young Argentinian Player of the Year award to highlight his impressive year.

View attachment 718379​


Just a side note to let you guys know that starting in January 2015 we will be competing in a new-look Argentinian league with 30 teams participating as opposed to the standard 20, this is something that was approved by the Argentinian Football Association in May 2014 and it's nice to see the feature implemented in Football Manager 2015.

Hopefully you'll enjoy it!​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 718390

Season Two:
Pre-Season Update (2015):

After finishing last season with no silverware we now headed into our 2nd season at Boca Juniors where hopefully I'll be able to strengthen the squad and add more trophies to the famous cabinet.​


Towards the back end of last season we started to concede goals on a regular basis, most of our wins coming in games where we outscored the opposition. This wasn't something I was very happy with as I've always looked to be solid at the back at the clubs I manage, with this being said I decided to try out a new formation for the new season.

Tactic #3:
4-3-3 variant
View attachment 718398

By using a variant of a 4-3-3 I was hoping that we'd be able to have more defensive solidity by slotting Gago in as a DLP in front of the back 4, the midfielders in the center and the CF's would also be responsible for playing with more width as well as staying structured in the center, hopefully this would lead to us conceding less goals.

Transfers:

With the creation of a new tactic I decided that we needed to strengthen our squad and bring in players that could fit the roles set out by the formation, with a generous budget of £15m from the board I decided to go looking for top talent, this is what we ended up bringing in:

View attachment 718407


The addition of Facundo Cardozo allows us to add more solidity at the back, and while we do have some very good defenders they're not getting any younger, the likes of Diaz who is now 35 years old meaning that a younger future replacement would be pivotal in our long term success, and for £2.5m you can't really go wrong!

The next was quite a big deal, Argentinian star Gastón Gil Romero signing from league rivals Estudiantes in a deal worth around £4m, while this was expensive we needed to add solidity to our midfield trio and Gil Romero certainly has the attributes and mentality to fit the role of a Box-to-Box midfielder.

The signing of Giuliano from Gremio was the biggest deal of the window, the young midfielder costing us £5.5m but with his ability and array of high attributes he was certainly worth the money, hopefully Giuliano, Gil Romero and Gago can form our Midfield trio in the coming season.

Next we brought in Sergio Romero from Sampdoria for £165k, the Argentinian goalkeeper is very highly rated and for a cut price deal I couldn't pass up the offer, especially with our current goalkeeper hitting his mid 30s.

The final deal saw us sign Ezequiel Ponce from Newell's in a £3.6m bid, the young Striker had a fantastic season last year and is an emerging star in the Argentinian league and I'm delighted we were able to snap him up so cheaply.​


Results:

View attachment 718414

Testing our new tactic out in pre-season I have to say I'm very impressed with how things went, we managed to win all 4 games while scoring 15 goals, the main statistic to note here is that we only conceded 2 goals in 4 games! Definitely encouraging signs for the new defensive minded tactic.

Hopefully we can carry this momentum over into next months league opener.​


Other News:

With Boca being known as a club for bringing through some of the Countries best young talent I decided to approach the board with the idea of upgrading our facilities, to my delight they passionately agreed to the proposition and work will begin immediately on the new facilities.

View attachment 718415

View attachment 718416

Finally having started the new year we were handed our Preliminary draw for the Copa Libertadores, the South American equivalent of the Champions League which was definitely a trophy I intend on winning during my time at the club.

View attachment 718419

For the draw we would be taking on Uruguayan side Nacional, the winner will be drawn into the group stage of the tournament and with board expectations of reaching the Quarter-Finals I definitely cannot afford to lose this game.​


League/Competition Summary:

Obviously with the league having not started yet I can't show you the current table, however I can show you what the 30 team league table will look like:

View attachment 718422

Each team will be played once meaning there are 29 games in total.

The top 4 teams will qualify for the Copa Libertadores group stage while the 5th placed team will qualify for the Preliminary round, depending on the winner/runner-up of the Copa Argentina.

We are predicted to win the title this year so there's definitely a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but I thrive on the pressure and hopefully we can come up with the silverware!​
 
Last edited:
Good luck, Argentina was a great save last year. Will be following.
 
meguel said:
Good luck, Argentina was a great save last year. Will be following.
Click to expand...

It's been pretty fun so far, more fun than I predicted!

Eventually hoping to move to Europe but I'll probably be at Boca for a few years. :-)
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719125

Season Two
February Update (2015):

February meant one thing, the start of our 2nd season in charge here at Boca and with a trophy-less season last year we couldn't afford to go another year without raking in some silverware, the pressure was definitely on!​



Results:

View attachment 719147

Our first game of the campaign was a poor one, a slump to Lanus 1-0 which was an extremely disappointing result but I'm hoping this is because the lads are still working on the new tactic and this was something we'd be looking to bounce back from in the future.

Next we took on Nacional in the Preliminary round of the Copa Libertadores (South American Champions League), a round that saw us take a 5-1 aggregate win over our Uruguayan opposition despite finding ourselves 1-0 down after the first leg, a very impressive victory that would see us qualify for the group stage, which is as follows:

View attachment 719154

I can't say much about the group draw as my knowledge of South American Football isn't the best, but I'm hoping we can perform well and get past the group stage, possibly win the group.

And I mean this got off to a great start in our first match as we beat Oriente Petrolero 3-1, the Bolivian counterparts were unable to contain us as we dominated the game and took a comfortable victory to give us our first 3 points in the group, a great start!

Our other matches saw us take on Racing Club and Unión in which we secured victories to get our league campaign back on track, the results being 5-0 and 3-2 respectively.

Although we did slump to defeat again in our final game of the month to Rosario Central, another display of inconsistency lead us to a 2-1 defeat late in the game with Gaston Gil Romero giving up possession twice with both chances leading to goals, very disappointing from the new Boca man.​



League/Competition Summary:

View attachment 719160

As you can see we're performing incredibly poorly after the first month and find ourselves very low in the ranking order, but I'm glad we were able to pick up the 3 points in the Copa Libertadores.

In March we'll certainly be looking to bounce back in the league and find some consistency.​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719161

Season Two
March Update (2015):

Having just finished a rough month in February in which we slumped to 2 defeats in 4 league games we now entered March where we hopes to correct our early mistakes in order to get our title challenge back on course.


Results:

View attachment 719163

​
March proved to be a fantastic month for the club, we managed to pick up victories in all 7 of our matches, 4 in the league, 2 in the Copa Libertadores and one in the Copa Argentina, a much needed month as we quickly got things back on track after a dodgy start.

In our 4 league victories we managed to beat Argentinos Jrs, Boca Unidos, Gimnasia (LP) and Estudiantes (LP) in which we scored 10 goals and only conceded 3, a huge improvement over our defensive performance of last season with Chávez continuing where he left off last year with 7 league goals in 4 games. (11 in 7 for the month overall!)

In the Copa Libertadores we managed to maintain our 100% record with victories over Liga de Quito and Melgar, a very impressive string of performances now left us top of our group with 9 points in 3, qualification almost a certainty!

Our other result of the month saw us beat Belgrano 1-0 in the Copa Argentina 5th round with a goal from club captain and veteran defender Daniel Diaz in the 23rd minute, the Copa Argentina is definitely something I'm hoping to win in my time here at Boca!


Other News:

Romero injured!

View attachment 719165

New midfield star Gaston Gil Romero will be ruled out for the majority of the season following a leg break against Oriente Petrolero, and while this result was in February I failed to pick up on the severity of the injury until March and thought I would share it with you guys, a massive blow to the team!

Emergency Meeting!

View attachment 719167

I was called into the boardroom towards the end of March to discuss the morale of the squad and the harmony in the locker-room, with a couple of players trying to force moves from the club this was having a knock on effect with the rest of the team. My refusal to play Wingers due to the lack of wide-men in my formation led to many players complaining about their playing time and until the window re-opened in June there was nothing I could do, the squad harmony was at 25% at this point and with 3 months to go until the transfer window the pressure was definitely on!

In future games I may have to play the unhappy players while trying to offer them to other clubs, the morale is certain to have a huge effect on our squad otherwise, tough times were certainly on the horizon!​



League/Competition Summary:

View attachment 719177

Our impressive winning form in March has seen us move up to 3rd in the table, which is definitely where a club of our stature should be, and with 9/9 points in the Copa Libertadores I was extremely happy with how the season had started.

View attachment 719179

I thought I would share this picture to show you guys how impressive Andres Chávez has been this season, he currently leads the scoring charts with a tally of 13 league goals and has an astonishing 8.06 average match rating. If this form was to continue all year round we'd certainly be in with a shout come the end of the season!
​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719423

Season Two
April Update (2015):

March was an incredibly successful month as we took a total of 7 victories to get our 2015/16 campaign back on track, but if we wanted to be in with a shot of winning the league we needed to do it all again.​


Results:

View attachment 719426


As seen in the introduction I said we needed to replicate last months success and I'm glad to say we did! We picked up 7 wins and 1 draw in the month of April to continue our impressive run of form.

In the league we picked up home wins against Huracán and Godoy Cruz as well as away wins against Defensa y Justica and Arsenal de Saradi to pick up a total of 12/12 points in the league this month.

The month of April also saw us finish our Copa Libertadores group unbeaten with almost a 100% record, wins over Melgar and Liga de Quito put us in a commanding position to pick up all 6 wins but Oriente Petrolero stopped us at the final hurdle, but we progressed as the winners of the group!

View attachment 719429

The final game of the month saw us take on Universidad Católica in the 2nd round of the Copa Libertadores where we picked up a 2-1 away victory to put us in with a great chance of making the quarter finals, thus matching our boards expectations.​


League/Competition Summary:

View attachment 719430

Following this impressive sequence of results from the past two months we now sat at the top of the Argentinian Premier Division, one point ahead of Vélez, which goes to show that our hiccup at the start of the year is what's caused things to be so tight at the moment.

You can see on the right side that we have our 2nd leg of the 2nd round of the Copa Libertadores to play in May as well as taking on Gimnasia (Jujuy) in the Copa Argentina 6th round.

View attachment 719433

This screenshot shows you guys the player stats across the league heading into May and despite a slower month for Chávez he still sits joint top in the goal-scoring charts while leading the player of the match awards. It's also great to say Jonathan Calleri up there leading the way with assists, an unsung hero so far this season!​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story
​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719439

Season Two
May Update (2015):

.Having finally wormed our way to the top of the table we looked to continue our impressive form in the month of May.​


Results:

View attachment 719441

Things weren't to be this month though as we only managed to pick up 3 wins, while drawing 1 and losing 2 to end our unbeaten run of form from the past two months.

In terms of league matches the month started terribly as we were whacked 7-0 by Quilmes! A team near the bottom of the table I felt confident going into this match but clearly we had become too confident and were soon struck back down to Earth, disappointing!

Our other league matches saw us pick up important victories over Olimpo and fierce rivals River Plate to at least give us some momentum heading into future months.

After winning the 1st leg of the 2nd round Copa Libertadores match agains Universidad Católica 2-1 we headed into the 2nd leg only needing to win 1-0 and prevent our opposition from scoring, but things didn't go as planned as we slumped to a 2-2 draw and were deservedly knocked out as our play definitely didn't merit us progressing into the semi-finals.

As you can see we rounded off the month by beating Universidad de Chile 4-4 but progressing on away goals, a very lucky escape as we slumped to a 2-1 defeat in the home game before scoring late on in the 2nd to fire us into the semi-finals of the tournament.​


League/Competition Summary:

View attachment 719444

Despite a shocking 7-0 loss to Quilmes we still managed to retain top spot come the end of May sitting above Vélez by a single point, we couldn't afford to drop points in that manner.

Having been knocked out of the Copa Libertadores we could now focus our attention solely on the league, which hopefully can give us the advantage over our rival teams.

View attachment 719446

Another goalless month from Chávez is starting to worry me, as our teas main goal-scoring threat we needed him to be on top form if we were to keep our top spot in the league.​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719448

Season Two
June/July Update (2015):

Heading into June we would only play one game which would be a cup tie in the 6th round of the Copa Argentina before heading into the mid-season transfer window, a good chance to add two players to help bolster the squad (Limit)​


June 2015:

Result:

View attachment 719451

In the only game of the month we took on Gimnasia (Jujuy) in the 6th round of the Copa Argentina in which we took a comfortable 4-0 victory meaning we would be progressing into the 7th round where we would face Independiente.​


Copa Libertadores:

Having been knocked out in the Quarter-Finals of the Copa Libertadores we now had to sit and watch as Uiversidad de Chile (The team who eliminated us) went on to secure the trophy following a 3-1 aggregate victory over Atl. Rafaela, hopefully we'll be able to claim this trophy one day.

View attachment 719454

However Andres Chávez did manage to pick up the award of top-goalscorer in the tournament to at least give us a hint of pride and some positives to take away.

View attachment 719455

Emmanuel Insua and Andres Chávez also managed to find their way into the Copa Libertadores Team of the Year following impressive performances on route to the Quarter-Finals, very pleasing to see!

View attachment 719458​


July 2015:

With July starting this meant we began the mid-season transfer window where we were allowed to add a maximum of 2 players to our squad (Transfers), something we needed if we were to continue our title campaign.

Transfers:

View attachment 719461

If you look to the bottom of the incoming transfers you'll see that we did in fact manage to add two players to our squad, Leonardo Sigali was brought in from Dinamo for £400k to help bolster our defence while César Meli's loan was made a permanent deal for a steal cut-price of £600k, very pleasing signings!

Leonardo Sigali (CD):

View attachment 719464

As you can see Leonardo has some very impressive stats for a central defender and for a player value of £1.1m, a cut price deal of £400k was certainly nothing to complain about, hopefully the addition of Sigali can help prevent the goals leaking through our defence as we continue the season.

César Meli (DM/MC):

View attachment 719467

César has been very impressive this year, the young DLP has certainly been more than adequate when replacing Fernando Gago for matches and can definitely be seen as a potential long term replacement, for a price of £600k I couldn't refuse!

Extra Additions! (But how?!):

While they're not exactly transfers we did manage to see two of the clubs start players return from loan spells at other clubs, but who were the two you say?

Leonardo Paredes (AMC):

View attachment 719468

Leonardo Paredes is a name that has been floating around the club for several years now, the young play-maker has very good potential and having passed up the opportunity to sign him on a permanent, AS Roma kindly returned him to us where he can hopefully add something to the club going forwards.

Sergio Araujo (STC):

View attachment 719476

Having spent a year at Las Palmas in Spain Sergio Araujo was also returned to the club, the striker managed an impressive 15 goals for the Spanish club and with Chávez on a league drought I was very eager to see what Araujo could add to the front-line!

On the right hand column of the transfers you'll also see that a few players have left the club and while some are only loan deals for young stars, some of the first team also left the club.

Carrizo, Castellani, Zárate and Gigliotti were sold for a combined income of £5.2m, I decided to cash in on these players as they were damaging morale at the club by complaining about the lack of first team football and with my formation lacking wide-men there was simply no place for them at the club.

With these sales made the squad harmony also went from 15% to an astonishing 90% meaning my position at the club looks to be safe..For now.

The next update will see the return of league action.​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719478

Season Two
August/September Update (2015):

Having made a couple of transfers both in and out of the club we now saw August roll around in which we would see the return of league action. I have to decided to post August and September as one update for these months.​


Results:

View attachment 719480

An up and down couple of months in which the club recorded 6 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses to round off August and September.

We returned to league action by slumping to a 3-0 defeat to 3rd placed Independiente away from home, a poor return to things as I hopes we could avoid these defeats going forwards.

We did bounce back thought with two league victories in a row against Banfield and Colón before slumping to yet another defeat to Newell's Old Boys, we were really struggling to beat the teams around us!

Out of our remaining 4 league games in September we picked up 3 victories against San Lorenzo, Santamarina and Tigre and only one loss, a shocking 5-1 defeat to league strugglers Atl. Rafael (Although they did reac the Libertadores Final!)

In other competitions we were truly whacked 6-1 on aggregate by Vélez in the Copa Sudamericana 2nd Preliminary round, this competition is effectively a Europa League comparison and something I'd have liked to win having reached the Final last year, but this wasn't to be as a string of poor performances saw us get whacked 6-1 away before drawing 0-0 back at home. Our return to action really was shocking, 9 conceded in our first 2 games!

Finally we progressed passed Independiente in the Copa Argentina 7th round with a comfortable 4-0 win, something we couldn't manage in the league, but I was happy with the result.

(There won't be any updates on the competition summary as I foolishly forgot to save the screenshots, but you'll have to wait and see as the next update includes all 3 of the final months of our 2nd season!)​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719485

Season Two
October/November/December Update (2014):
End of Season!

After leaving you guys in the dark by not posting a league update last month you will now be able to read all about our end to the 2nd season.​


Results:

View attachment 719488

Not the best end of season form..We managed to pick up 5 victories, 4 draws and 2 losses out of our remaining 11 games (Although 3 were play-off matches).

The first league match was a big one, a 2-0 win over league leaders Vélez meant we were in with a chance of winning the title if we could just win all of our remaining games in hope that they slip up along the way.

This league form continued well as we then beat San Martin (SJ) 3-1 to keep the pressure up before falling victim to three draws in a row against Belgrano, Temperley and Guarani Antonio Franco, all teams located in the bottom half of the table!

View attachment 719489

These results collectively meant that we had failed to win the league title, with the trophy instead going to Vélez, fully deserved as they were by far the most consistent team throughout the season!

We had failed our expectations of winning the league.

Next you'll see that we did in fact manage to progress in the Quarter-Finals of the Copa Argentina following a 3-0 win over Olimpo, and with all of the big teams eliminated I definitely hoped we could pick up my first silverware in Argentina!

View attachment 719490

However...This wasn't to be, despite being drawn against 2nd division side Douglas Haig we somehow managed to fall to defeat 2-1! Sigali was sent off while the match was 1-1 and Douglas Haig scored a 90+4th minute winner, but the game should have been over before then, we failed to take our chances and as expected this cost us the game.

View attachment 719491

Douglas Haig did go on to shock Argentinos Jrs. as well to claim the Copa Argentina as their own, a very impressive performance and they deserved it!


At the end of the season we did take on Independiente, Tigre and Newell's in a group stage round-robin play-off and while I'm not sure what the reasoning is behind this we did end up finishing 2nd behind Newell's, all I knew is that we had in fact qualified for both the Copa Sudamericana, and the Copa Libertadores for next season.

(If you know about the play-off stage please let me know in the comments!)

View attachment 719492

View attachment 719495

Other News:

In other news we did receive word that both our Reserve squad and our U20's had both won their respective leagues, a very impressive campaign from our youngsters and I'll definitely be looking to promote some of them next season, they deserve the chance!

View attachment 719497

View attachment 719499

Our board have also announced plans to upgrade the facilities here at Boca and although I had requested this before, the work would now start immediately meaning before long we'll be able to bring in the best young talent possible!

View attachment 719502

Plans have also been announced to add under-soil heating to help upgrade the ground, nothing wrong with that!

View attachment 719505

Despite stupidly forgetting to screenshot it, I have also signed a new contract at Boca that will see me stay on as manager of the club until December 2017, if you look on the left hand side of my profile you will see the contract details, and why not have a look at my profile while you're there. Still no trophies!

View attachment 719508​


League/Competition Summary:

Here is a look at the end of season table for the Argentinian Premier Division.

View attachment 719511

And here is a look at the end of season player statistics for the league.

View attachment 719512

The next updates will be to show player awards for the 2015/16 season as well as showing you the pre-season for the 2016/17 campaign!​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story
​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719605

Season Two
End of Season Awards (2015):

Having just finished my 2nd season here at Boca it's time to share with you the awards that were given out.​


The Awards:

Fans Player of the Year:

Andres Chávez (STC)

View attachment 719606

Fans Best XI:

View attachment 719608

Argentinian Premier Division Manager of the Year:

José Flores (Vélez)

View attachment 719609

Argentinian Premier Division Young Player of the Year:

Leonardo Rolón (Independiente)

View attachment 719611

Argentinian Premier Division Best XI:

View attachment 719613

South American Best XI:

View attachment 719616

This concludes the end of season awards for the 2015/16 season.​
 
The Journeyman - An FM15 Story​

Boca Juniors

View attachment 719631

Season Three
Pre-Season Update (2016):

Heading into pre-season of our third season in charge of Boca Juniors I was once again looking to change things around as I try to build my own team here at Boca.​


A new season, a new tactical approach, that's the motto here at Boca as I try to find the trophy winning formula that will be pivotal to my success as a Manager.

The tactic last year was very good at helping us defend towards the start of the year, but towards the end the goalscoring dried up and once again we began to concede a lot, so the new tactic that I will use on FM15 will hopefully bridge the gap on both areas of weakness.

Tactic #4:
3-2-2-1-2

View attachment 719633

As you can see this formation is very narrow and that is the only issue that we may face, but hopefully the instructions set on the players will help to combat this problem, but by having two defensive midfielders and an AMC I think we have a good chance of scoring more goals while conceding less, hopefully!​


Transfers:

Again with a new tactic being made I needed to bring players to the club who would be capable of performing in these roles, the main positions I was looking to pursue were another 1 or 2 central defenders, an attacking play-maker and possibly a striker, this was very possible thanks to a £20m budget handed down to us by the board.

Here are the transfers:

View attachment 719635

As you can see we pretty much spent the entirety of our funds, but there are some great signings in here!

Signing #1; Facundo Ferreyra from Shakhtar Donetsk (£7.5m)

View attachment 719636

Facundo is a player I have always had a great amount of praise for, he was fantastic on my Hull City beta save and always seems to be a key figure for both Newcastle (Loan) and Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine.

Many forget that he is also proven in the Argentinian Premier Division having signed for Shakhtar from Vélez, so hopefully with his attributes and experience we can fire our way to our first title of the series, and although £7.5m is a big sum you have to pay big for the quality.

Signing #2; Pedro Franco from Besiktas (£5m)

View attachment 719637

With club legend Daniel Diaz leaving the club in December I decided to go looking for a new central defender and was pointed by my scouts in the direction of Colombia center back Pedro Franco from Besiktas, with very good potential and existing ability as well as a wide array of good defensive abilities I decided to invest in this player, a wealthy bid of £5m being enough to secure his signature.

Signing #3; Erik Godoy from Sport (£1.5m)

View attachment 719639

Another player offered to me was Erik Godoy, currently applying his trade at club Sport he seemed a very good defensive player for such a low fee, my scouts had given him 3* ability meaning he was more than capable of slipping into the first-team and for such a low price, I decided to snap him up on the spot.

Signing #4; Walter Kannemann from Estudiantes (£2m)

View attachment 719641

Walter Kannemann is a player who had a very season last year for Estudiantes, a stand out player in their team I decided to take him to Boca due to his versatility in defence, being able to play on either fullback position or as a central defender, a very good squad player for a low fee.

Signing #5; Matías Pérez Acuña from Vélez (£3.5m)

View attachment 719643

Matias is a player who had a very good season last term, helping his team to claim the title along the way and with the news of Vélez's manager resigning to take over Colombia I decided to make a move. A player who applies his trade as a RB I decided to bring him on board in case we need to change tactics in the season as we were severely lacking in RB's, he is a very capable player and for a fee of £3.5m I'm confident he can perform for us when called upon.

My Director of Football did also sign a youngster to the team by the name of Iván Giménez but there's not much to report on him, he has potential but for now he will stay and develop at the club and maybe one day he'll be able to step up to the first team.

Staff Changes:

View attachment 719646

With the start of a new season I also decided to switch things up in my backroom staff department, if I was to make this club a powerhouse we definitely needed to have the right staff and with these changes that is what I am hoping to do.​


Results:

View attachment 719647

Despite only playing 3 pre-season matches we managed to pick up the win in all of our matches, with Ferreyra scoring 4 in our 7-1 victory the new man was looking sharp ahead of the new campaign, here's to hoping!​


Other News:

View attachment 719649

Our board had previously announced their plans to install under-soil heating at our ground, and with the new season around this corner this installation has now been completed, snow will no longer affect our play!

View attachment 719651

With our facilities soon to be upgraded our board have also approved my request to increase the junior coaching budget, hopefully these factors when combined will allow us to develop the best youth possible here at Boca!​


League/Competition Review:

View attachment 719650

Here is a look at the Argentinian Premier Division schedule we have ahead of us, luckily we appear to play most of the big teams at home this season which touch-wood will give us the advantage going into this season!

I hope you'll enjoy Season 3, hopefully we'll pick up our first trophy!​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

FMBase

Beta

Resources

Back
Top