Career Superstar Managers - here we go!

[StuartM]

There's really only one way to start out on a new release of FMM right?

Yep, its a long way to the top. I did this last year and as well as being a long way, it took a long time! Not to be deterred - here we go again!

Here's the day one profile:

The managerial merry-go-round started before the season and that made an opening at VNL Bromley, who duly saw my raw potential and jumped at the chance to snap me up!

Lets see how this turns out, starting above the basement and already with 2.5 star facilities - it looks like I've fallen on my feet. Season one is done so I'll be along with an update soon.

[DoneHisCruciate]

I just went and had a look at your go last year—outstanding effort! I hope you have better luck in the championship this time.

Newcastle’s plummet through the leagues was crazy!

[StuartM]

Thanks mate, getting stuck in the Championship made it more real in a way though I hope its plainer sailing this time!

Yep, the Newcastle drop was very odd but it was fun to build them back up. Depending on how this goes I might do something similar but I should twist it somehow I think

[DoneHisCruciate]

Yeah I totally agree. I don’t mind not getting back to back promotions as it should be hard to lift a club up the ladder!

[MikeF]

Good luck mate 

[StuartM]

Thanks Mike. Here's how Season One went...

Has anyone noticed more penalties in this year's edition? This was literally my first game! Two misses (one rebounded goal) and a successful one. I had loads at the start of the season (probably 7 or 8 in 20 games) and then they tailed off as the season went on.

I had the 'can he turn it around' message before a good run which turned into:

At the halfway stage we were sitting quite pretty and I managed to strengthen with some free transfers from the Irish league so I was fairly confident.

I like the development hub, it brings simple but effective depth to the game. I promoted a 5 star youngster to keep Sheffield Wednesday from nabbing him.

We never quite clicked and a patchy run meant that we couldn't take the top spot.

Into the playoffs, we cruised through the semi-final and played Wrexham who had battered us in our 2 league meetings.

An even match but we couldn't get the chances that we needed.

Not a bad start so hopefully with reinforcements we can take 1st place next season. 🤞

[DoneHisCruciate]

All set for next season hopefully.

2nd place seems to be the worst place to finish for the playoffs! 🤷‍♂️

[Pinuccio]

Good luck and have fun manager friend.

[StuartM]

I did some typically frugal non-league business in the summer stocking up on decent young freebies with the expectation that some should make an impact and the rest fill out the squad.

So as long as my tactic works, this should mean a successful season and so the start proved...

The pressure started to build but apparently my team talks seem to do the business! A nice little touch for this year I reckon.

I cranked up the pressure a little more, thinking why not!

But then came the dilemma, a job offer from 4th place League Two Stockport County... a foot up the ladder but putting the Superstar status out for 5 years... given it took me a lot longer than that last year anyway, what should I do?

Spoiler

I thought about putting it to a vote but then decided it would be best to change tack from last season's effort. Lets see how this shapes up for the rest of season two...

[DoneHisCruciate]

Nice! On to bigger and better 😁

[StuartM]

So I picked up a squad sitting in 4th and I was expecting good things and there were a few good players but on the whole it was pretty average and they were also suffering an injury crisis in CM, where I play 3...

This was the table as I started.

I did a small amount of business in January, mostly loans and frees to get a balanced squad.

My team talks didn't always pay off 😬.

But we did pick up and had a good run that put us solidly in the running for automatic promotion.

In the run in, we had a very odd 4 games, where we were FMM'ed 3 times either side of a 6-1 win 😤.

Spoiler

This led to us slipping into the playoffs and our poor form meant low confidence and a poor start. We were almost out of the tie by half time in the first leg but I read the riot act at half time (watch Neil Warnock on YouTube, especially the Shrewsbury one) and although the players didn't like it, it worked!

The 2nd leg was more like it.

And we cruised through the final despite a later scare.

On to L1!

[hhooo]

5 hours ago, StuartM said:

So I picked up a squad sitting in 4th and I was expecting good things and there were a few good players but on the whole it was pretty average and they were also suffering an injury crisis in CM, where I play 3...

This was the table as I started.

I did a small amount of business in January, mostly loans and frees to get a balanced squad.

My team talks didn't always pay off 😬.

But we did pick up and had a good run that put us solidly in the running for automatic promotion.

In the run in, we had a very odd 4 games, where we were FMM'ed 3 times either side of a 6-1 win 😤.

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This led to us slipping into the playoffs and our poor form meant low confidence and a poor start. We were almost out of the tie by half time in the first leg but I read the riot act at half time (watch Neil Warnock on YouTube, especially the Shrewsbury one) and although the players didn't like it, it worked!

The 2nd leg was more like it.

And we cruised through the final despite a later scare.

On to L1!

Good luck! L1 has some serious quality in my save. I've run into half of the current Spurs squad and De Gea all on loan down here.

[DoneHisCruciate]

More talk, less shouting 😂

 

[StuartM]

Thanks for the comments folks, here comes a season 3, L1 update.

As usual, I went a little bit mad on the free transfers, changing the squad around quite a lot and once I've got the best freebies I can I go into the loan market and see what I can get on zero/low wages. What that means is an oversized squad but I'm here to get promotion not keep the players happy.

It does surprise me when I get these messages after literally two games though!

He was a new signing and was in the team just two weeks later!

We motored through the early season and the players happily shared my optimism.

And we looked pretty handy at halfway making it look like a regulation promotion season 🤞.

Below is another nice little touch for FMM23, though I did need to look up Walter Benitez!

We duly strode through the second half of the season and added straight promotion and the title.

And we had the chance to make it a double in the Papa Johns Trophy...

... but a disappointing no show held us up there.

The final table shows it was quite comfortable and I got the manager of the year...

... which triggered my coaching qualifications taking me from Bronze to Gold in a day!

Lets see how we get on with County in the Championship!

[StuartM]

The Championship Chapter Part 1

Yes, this one is still going! Sorry for the lack of an update folks.

There was my usual flurry of transfer dealings and I managed to assemble a decent looking squad for the Championship.

We had a strong start which cued the usual message and I thought I would big up our chances.

But this led to a bit of a sticky patch.

Though we were still quite well placed at halfway.

A small amount of business in January. This really does niggle me, I sign a guy on a free, he literally doesn't start the first 2 games and requests a transfer.

Then a bit of a poaching attempt for a lad in my academy, I called his bluff and it worked. It was a bit of a risk as it turned out he was decent (the next Nabil Fekir apparently).

We had another sticky spell with some seriously frustrating games.

Though we rebounded to make the playoffs.

It wasn't to be though as Leeds were too strong in the playoffs, though I got a bit of credit for the work done... the Championship gets a part 2.

[StuartM]

The Championship Chapter Part 2

So I thought that I would try and leave things in no doubt for this season and I splashed the cash (and loans) to assemble what I thought was an overpowered squad for the Championship.

The start was steady and I think there was some settling in needed but nevertheless, the media had expectations of us.

Not quite getting the results I wanted but okay.

We faced City in the Stockport derby in the FA Cup, competing well to get a replay.

Then we got Haaland'ed in the 2nd game... it was ridiculous!

Though apparently, I get some credit here too?

We struggled for consistency and though we scored plenty, we couldn't challenge for automatic promotion and it was playoffs again.

Darwin Nunez tormented us, taking after Marcus Thuram last year and again we didn't make it through the semis.

But apparently, I did a decent job... I wasn't so sure myself!

[StuartM]

The Championship Chapter Part 3

I was quite frustrated at the last season and decided to change formation to field 2 strikers and drop the IFs as I had a wonderkid coming back from loan and a 1st choice FC who couldn't play anywhere else...

... My change meant that I scored the same and conceded more! I changed back to my original shape this time with IWs but it wasn't quite as successful as my original setup and so I went full circle!

Anyway, I made it to January in 3rd.

And we faced a raid on the players I brought in the season before, so a fair bit of turnover in the playing squad and it happened again with a new player... 😡

I tweaked mentality to try and stop the breakaway goals that were infuriating me and whilst we weren't amazing it seemed to do the trick and I got my own back on City in the FA Cup Stockport derby.

And then went on to secure automatic promotion.

It only took me 3 seasons this time 😂.

Edited December 11, 2022 by StuartM

[DoneHisCruciate]

Good stuff! That 7-5 would have been a great game to have a ticket too—losing with a 7.9 rating! (Might be worth a record methinks 🤪)

Btw, after the “Squad lost respect for manager M” message I’m kinda hoping you get a Bond in the squad at some point 🙂

[StuartM]

The Premier League Years Part 1

I'm a bit behind with my updates so I'll try and catch up a little here.

We had a fairly significant turnover of players as is usual for me! I happened to end up with a huge Belgian contingent as they seemed really good value, I guess by this point they were regens of their golden generation (but no De Bruyne or Lukaku).

We had a good start but as usual I misjudged the messaging...

And this seemed to lead to some strange outcomes where either my keeper was garbage or the opposition finishing was out of this world whereas we couldn't finish our dinner!

But no worries at this point, we were still okay.

The results continued in the same manner and when I got this in the FA Cup, I decided to try and find a new system.

But, my messing around just destroyed morale and we faded to the end of the season 😬.

We still ended up in a credible 13th and so I opted to address dynamics with the summer transfers and go back towards my old tactic.

[StuartM]

The Premier League Years Part Two

So I went for aggressive team dynamics improvements, shedding as many of the bad influences as I could, which meant some of my better players and one or two that I couldn't keep. No problem I thought  as I still had a strong squad and now with better dynamics...

Erm, well no need to panic. There is some bedding in and we were again afflicted by being the wrong end of clinical finishing in attack and defence. In fact the opposition were scoring from 65% of their shots on target where mine was 15%! I abandoned the offside trap and we had a small improvement. 

Not looking great at the halfway stage but I was not yet panicking. In this period the opposition were scoring from 42% of shots on target and mine was 23% (can you tell I was putting this in a spreadsheet?!).

We pulled away and then got drawn back in, the pressure was mounting as was my frustration.

Against relegation rivals 😡.

Well, he can do one.

Aargh!

Oh no, but the board were keeping faith for now.

😬

But we showed a little fight, surely our quality would show now?

Our fate was in our own hands though we were playing multiple champions City in the final game.

Would be nice to stay up and send Chelsea down...

Spoiler

Three disallowed goals for the opposition and we still lost, I nearly laughed.

But I didn't 😔

And we still had 3 players in the team of the year 🤷‍♂️.

[DoneHisCruciate]

Ouch! Pretty unlucky having to face Man City in the last game and also having Chelsea also in the bottom 3!!  

Time to bounce back I guess. 🙃🙂

[StuartM]

Championship Again

I thought it was time I updated this as I try to keep things going! I think I've only been relegated once previously, I usually get sacked long before that! My fear was that a bad start could make that happen and set me back even further.

I gave up on my old tactic completely, part in protest and part in thinking that I must be able to come up with something better.

Fortunately, we did start well and my new inproved squad dynamics meant that team talks and the like were easier to read.

We lost a lot of players over the season as they thought they were too big for us but we were in good shape at halfway including a good scalp in the cup. I went from a massively oversized squad to needing to add depth in about 18 months.

The board wanted more than 1st 🤔.

And we added another scalp which gave me some faith in what the tactic was doing.

We started to slow but managed to secure automatic and the league title to get back to the big time at the first attempt 👍.

[DoneHisCruciate]

Wow, tough board. Good job you did well in the Carabao cup otherwise you might have been sacked for “only winning the championship” 😂

[Massey127]

Great thread and enjoying following this, good job mate

[StuartM]

Thanks folks, I've got a few more updates to post now too so I'll try and catchup this weekend 👍.

Back in the Prem

Making it back to the Prem at the first attempt helped put to a bit of faith back that I'll still get to Superstar status. I must admit it dented my pride a little but I'm glad I kept going.

I couldn't resist tweaking my system again, it works better but still not clicking. I think my squads have been consistently better than my results.

We did have a decent start.

And the board seemed happy too so much less chance of getting sacked!

At halfway we were situated comfortably in midtable, a bit 'meh' to be honest but we did pick up and with a gentle schedule I was picking my strongest XI more often of course.

After this shocker, which nearly persuaded me to change up my tactic again, we went on a very decent run.

And this run put us in reach of CL football remarkably!

Could we do it?

Spoiler

After a bit of a breakthrough season, a bit of recognition followed too.

Edited January 7, 2023 by StuartM

[DoneHisCruciate]

Nice bounce back to the Champions League. Superstar status can’t be far behind!

[StuartM]

Bye bye Edgeley Park

As fun as it would have been to host Champions League football at Edgeley Park, the board wisely opted to build a new stadium as we seek to become European giants.

We had a slow start with my tactical genius not quite making the impact on results that I hoped. Everyone else thought it was a good start though.

I had strengthened the squad to cope with the extra load from a European campaign and we did quite well there but struggled for consistency.

We went out in the quarters and didn't threaten in the other cups or league. We missed out on 4th but still managed to qualify for the CL again fortunately!

No disasters but still plenty to think about as we try to step up to the top table.

[StuartM]

This must be it, right?

I had big hopes in the lead up, decent squad, better dynamics and an alright tactic. That must be enough to challenge...

Well, we started 'steadily' or badly as non-Town fans would call it.

No panic but it was time to adjust and things did improve.

Though something wasn't just quite right as some poor results and performances kept cropping up... this one was particularly galling.

We were making baby steps, clearly we weren't that bad getting to the CL semis with last season's winners getting battered.

The semi was frustrating as we didn't get past Bayern despite being 'the better team' in both legs.

Second half league performance was less impressive and a bit of a repeat of last year. After the CL exit I tweaked tactics again and there was a hint of a click.

Could it be on next season?

(now, you're up to date too 🙂)

[StuartM]

Did we click or did we creak?

With a statistically valid sample size of 2 games, I reckon a noticed a 'click' with my latest tactical change at the end of last season. Could this mean that we finally start well and make a challenge for league and cup success?

We did start well...

And we put down a marker... they were still the team to beat and I had beaten them before but not as well as this.

Hear, hear!

The table at halfway looked pretty good...

And the Champions League table looked even better!

The game (like real life) likes to throw up the odd shock, so I was hoping this wouldn't upset our form.

And it it didn't as we pull further away.

Could we add some cup success?

Not domestically! Two very average performances saw us tumble out of the cups but I wasn't too bothered.

There was another FMM'ing in the run in but no cause for panic.

We saw off PSG to make the CL semis where we have been before. Could we make the next step?

A bit of a stand off in the first leg against Bayern who have knocked us out before, I was more confident of seeing them off at home this time.

But we needed to take care of business at home first, which we did with ease in the end!

Early goals in the 2nd leg put us in control and whilst we offered a glimmer of hope, I was never too worried.

The final league table showed our dominance domestically and City dropped to 3rd with their now ageing stars looking a bit leggy. Of course we would face them in CL final though!

My players were treating the cup final like a... cup final!

But we were too much for them, yesss!

And despite my inexperience at the top level 🤔...

... we were seen as the real deal!

So on the 3rd June 2035 after 13 seasons, I've completed the challenge! Slightly faster than last year I think 😂

Edited January 14, 2023 by StuartM