Career MikeF - It's a Long Way to the Top - Complete(ish)

[MikeF]

After a season of tinkering to get to know the game I've decided to kick things off with It's a Long Way to the Top:

A classic challenge and a good one to start with (you only get that badge once on iOS).

So here we go...

 

Season 1:

Starting off unemployed and with unknown rep the first thing to do was to get a job.

I had a couple of opportunities in VNS/VNN but i wanted to see if I could skip those leagues to save a bit of time. It wasn't long before I got lucky and Boreham Wood came knocking in the Vanarama National league. 

 

They wanted a mid-table finish but I knew we could do more than that so raiding the free transfer market and loan market I managed to get a play off place in the first season winning promotion too. Oh and a cheeky FA Trophy along the way which helped boost my reputation. The footballing world was starting to take note...

 

My stats at the end of the first season:

Poor loyalty as i'm applying for any higher level jobs and also players are being axed all over the pace but I'm not here to make friends.

Season 1 finished and up to League Two - i'm happy with that.

Edited December 5, 2019 by MikeF

[MikeF]

Season 2

A busy summer in the transfer market meant i had a strong team to take on league football.

With Boreham Wood pushing for a possible playoff position, my agent had been hard at work getting me up the ladder and convinced Wycombe to take a chance on this new kid on the block.

Wycombe were bottom half of the table in League One but providing I could keep them up I wouldn't be worse off that staying at Boreham Wood and promotion with BW was far from guaranteed.

I took the job.

And what do you know - the Chairboys took to my low league 5-2-3 system and started to climb the table. With a loan midfielder playing up front (who went on to score 25!) we managed to squeeze into the play off positions and then showed the teams above us how we do things in Wycombe.

We made it to the Championship in record time. Two seasons down and we're looking good. 

To get the Superstar Manager achievement you have be World Class and be at the club for 5 years so unless any jobs come up in the next couple of months higher up, I'll be sticking with Wycombe for the rest of this challenge to clock up the years served.

Championship football won't be easy with this team but I'll take a year to build and push for promotion next year hopefully giving me 3 years in the prem to go big. It's a big ask but lets see what these boys have in store.

I'm still using my low league formation but it's been delivering in bucket loads so far so won't start transitioning to my preferred 'big boy formation' until we have some better players on board. I don't want to push them too far so will keep things simple.

Stats at the end of season 2:

 

 

Edited November 25, 2019 by MikeF

[RobNemoo]

Nice work! Moving fast up the ladder. 

[Ian]

Great start!

Was it you who tried this last year and the game just wouldn’t let you get to superstar reputation?

[Mr Tree]

great stuff Mike - like you say, it's a great little challenge, i'd love to do it but got my own project to work on... maybe next year  good luck with it!

[MikeF]

25 minutes ago, Ian said:

Great start!

Was it you who tried this last year and the game just wouldn’t let you get to superstar reputation?

Twice!

[BatiGoal]

Great start with the wickedy Wycombe! 

[Woody]

Superb start mate. 

I love this challenge and maybe giving it a go myself.

[FuddledFox]

Very nicely done.

[smoggy90]

Great start, looking good!

[MikeF]

Season 3

Well these lads are just full of surprises. After a solid start to the season they grew and grew and with a little help from Morgan Rogers on loan from City we managed to grab 2nd place and promotion to the Premiership scoring 104 goals in the process. Wasn’t really expecting it this season but hopefully it isn’t too much too soon. 
 

 

Oh and one more thing... had a good run in the FA Cup getting lucky and scoring 2 goals in the last 3 mins against Spurs to get to the final. 

 

Did I say good run? I meant great run!

The winning goal scored by my 16 year old Brazilian wonderkid!

Not sure how that happened but not bad at all!

Even managed to bag myself a manager of the year award in the process:

 

My stats after season 3:

 

Need to work on that loyalty now I’m hanging around but at least I’m solid in the transfer market!

National rep now and the Premiership beckoning. 

A big overhaul is needed as these boys really over-performed this year so the Premiership is going to be a big shock for us all...

[MikeF]

Season 4

Have been off ill so speeding through a couple of seasons. 
 

Good first season in the Premiership. I didn’t have a huge budget to revamp an entire squad so bought a lot of youngsters but didn’t get enough experience in the side so had a rough start and conceded lots of goals. Then they started to settle in and only just missed out on a CL spot by a couple of points.

Edit: half way through the next season I just realised that I missed out on a Euro Cup place as Arsenal must have won the FA cup.

 

Manager of the year:

 

Stats after S4:

Im going to need CL to get my reputation up. Need to sign a lot of players for squad depth too. 

Edited November 27, 2019 by MikeF

[Kanegan]

Great run so far Mikey. Hope you get the rep soon.

[MikeF]

Season 5

Great season had here. A few of my youngsters have come of age are well on their way to becoming world class. That means they all want to leave and hate me as I turn down every bid for them. They're on long contracts so tough I'm afraid - they're too valuable to me in the team.

Well aside from when my Chairman sticks his nose in. This lad was absolute class for me. I turned down a £65m bid for him, a week later PSG bid £31m (£0.5m less than he's worth) and my chairman decides he wants to accept it!

Wycombe / Paris - it's a hard choice to make but he left.

 

Anyway, back to the challenge. With only the league to focus on (early exit from cups and no continental tournament) we had a hall of a season, missing top place by 1 point (city did the double over me).

Manager of the year award again and 4 players in the PTOTY. I have some weak areas still (CB and WB) so I need to recruit this summer. Especially with CL coming up - that's the best route to world class rep.

 

Stats after S5:

 

 

[BatiGoal]

Looks like you're setting yourself up for a killer season next campaign. All the ingredients are there. 

[MikeF]

Season 6

Team gelling nicely and some good additions. Pipped City to the title by 1 point (scoring fewer points than last season), lost in the final of the league cup, won the FA Cup and lost in the Semis of the CL. Close. But no cigar. 
 

 

All the signs are pointing to a big season this year. If I take CL I should get World Class rep (continental currently) and have now served 5 years. 
 

[broodje kip]

😂that loyalty 

[Apexteam]

You will get LC in the next seasion mate

[MikeF]

9 hours ago, Lord Danish said:

😂that loyalty 

Haha yep. Was applying for any job higher up first two years and replacing most of the team too. No one is safe haha

[MikeF]

Season 7/8

Well the curse of this challenge continues into FMM20 for me haha. 
 

After a great season 7 winning the CL and League and getting a shiny new 75,000 seater stadium built I got world class rep. I didn’t have the achievement yet as I must have served under 5 years. 
 

 

Halfway through the next season I check again and the achievement had been given but I didn’t get any notification or anything! Again!

 

 

Ah well, it was fun but consider this challenge a FAIL...

Final stats:

Onto the next one.

[Scratch]

That's weird... But, you got the Superstar achievement, so that's a success rather than failure in my eyes...

From memory though, I think the in-game announcement generally comes on 1 Jan (in FMM19 at least), presumably because that's when the 'star studded gala' is held. So maybe you got the achievement now behind the scenes, but just need to play another 6 weeks to get the announcement.

Or maybe FMM20 is different. 

[RobNemoo]

Great work Mike! Looks like you did achieve this, so no fail in my book!

 

Actually started this challenge too, but I move up a little slower. Will start a thread soon.

[FuddledFox]

Great work @MikeF even if it was with Wycombe 🤢

I can’t see that this was a fail as you got the achievement.

[MikeF]

5 hours ago, Scratch said:

That's weird... But, you got the Superstar achievement, so that's a success rather than failure in my eyes...

From memory though, I think the in-game announcement generally comes on 1 Jan (in FMM19 at least), presumably because that's when the 'star studded gala' is held. So maybe you got the achievement now behind the scenes, but just need to play another 6 weeks to get the announcement.

Or maybe FMM20 is different. 

I played on until Jan to see if it would pop up but nothing happened. No gala for me. Budget cuts in Wycombe or maybe the new stadium doesn’t have a function room...

Ah well. Minor fail then. Got the achiever but I eligible for the table as no announcement.