The Pentagon - The Impossible Made Possible

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LewCrisp

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Hey guys,

I’m new to this site and have never done an FM story before soplease bare with me, although I am looking to dive into this, I have beenreading a number of the various stories on here which has made me really wantto create my own. However, I will be recapping the opening 9/10 seasons of mycareer as I am currently in 2027 in game in my Pentagon save.

My first posts will be bringing you up to date on the story so farbut before that I would like to tell you a little bit about myself to get youfamiliar with me!

I am 18 years old and live in Vancouver, Canada and have beenliving here for 11 years after moving from London, England. I have been playingFM/CM since CM05 and have been hooked since, up until FM13 I would strictlyonly manage my beloved Liverpool and turn them into a world superpower. Aftermany years of that however I decided that I wanted a challenge and since then Ihave started every game as unemployed and worked my way up through the leaguesin England.

FM15 was my finest hour, I somehow reached2038 on an INCREDIBLY slow laptop, and had an amazing save with Tottenhamwinning a whole host of silverware year in year out, (I think one season I went32-4-2 in the league) I was crazily addicted to this save, so much so that whenmy English teacher told the class they had to write an “inspirational story” Ihonestly wrote an in-depth backstory about how my incredible regen ST ConorStanley won the Champions League with Spurs in 2035 (I actually got an ‘A’ onthe paper!!)

Since FM15 though I have failed to live up to the very highheights I achieved in that save. I have lost interest early in my saves thepast couple years and not played the game as much as I would’ve liked. But thisyear I have decided to start my save abroad and for the first time, and boy hasit kept me entertained. I have managed in four countries at the moment and apartfrom the FM15 save, this is the most fun I have ever had on FM.

Stay tuned guys for the start of this story!
 
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I was in a similar situation to you with last year's FM. Had started to get bored so tried my first journeyman save and it completely got me hooked again! I am running a European journeyman save in this year's FM (writing a story alongside) and although my results have been shocking so far (now in my 2nd season), it still has me hooked and I'm absolutely loving it!
 
Chapter One: South Africa


Every story has to start somewhere, and ours began in Cape Town. Now how on earth does a bloke living in Vancouver end up in Cape Town?

Well, I had been made aware of the wonderful project that was Ubuntu Football, a project that brought in young South African boys who had no father figure in their lives, they took these boys in who had a love for the beautiful game, and helped develop them into strong men to help South Africa on and off the pitch. I had gone to Cape Town to help volunteer with coaching for these young boys when they revealed to me that they had purchased the rights of FC Cape Town (yes this is actually a thing) so they would take their place in the 2017/2018 season in the 2nd​ division in South Africa. Now with a short list of professional players, a low budget and no experience as a team, it looked like a disaster waiting to happen.

However, they started off their season with the co-owner of the club Casey Prince taking control of the clubs first team, he managed 26 out of 30 games that season, putting Ubuntu in a remarkable 10th​ place in a league of 16. For a team that was virtually doomed with no kind of quality in any position, no budget and no fans, it had been a great start to an inaugural season for the club.

Unfortunately, 26 games in, Casey was having medical issues and was struggling with the physical and mental demands of leading and overviewing both the club and the academy leading him to step down as manager of the professional team to focus more on his family and the academy.
This is where our story begins. While I was volunteering in South Africa the management told me that I had a good way of communicating with the players, and with no manager in charge and nobody wanting to take up the ‘poisoned chalice’ who were immensely overachieving, the board were left with not many options, I had put my name forward straight away, as I had always wanted to become a Football Manager, and with nobody else even applying to take over the role, I got the job in Cape Town!

There was nothing to play for in the remaining 4 games of the season apart from pride, but somehow I won 3 out of the opening 4 games ending our season in a very impressive 9th​ place. I had thought the league was a very easy one to manage in, surely the future was bright for the club…..
 
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BallyC7 said:
I was in a similar situation to you with last year's FM. Had started to get bored so tried my first journeyman save and it completely got me hooked again! I am running a European journeyman save in this year's FM (writing a story alongside) and although my results have been shocking so far (now in my 2nd season), it still has me hooked and I'm absolutely loving it!
Click to expand...


Haha yeah it's a nice refresher!

I've just started reading your story, looks really good so far!
 
From promising to soul-crushing

Preseason 2018 was a relatively uneventful period. Apart from the fact that Belgium had just beaten England 1-0 in the World Cup final, nothing else of any importance really took place in my journey.

I had made the full time move to Cape Town to soak up the seemingly endless sun, however I was hit with a harsh reality when I found out that July was a winter month in South Africa and brought lots of rain to the Cape. The Ubuntu players were getting ready for the upcoming season, looking back now in hindsight I needed an entire revamp of the squad but how was I supposed to know? I had won 3 out of 4 games in charge, all by playing a 4-5-1 route one system that seemed to be working nicely. A few red flags were raised during our preseason friendlies by playing the system as we struggled to perform well against sides that were equal to our level, but I didn’t have any worries that we would be climbing the league comfortably in the fore coming season.

My only issue at the time were the clubs finances, we had to sell to buy, and apart from the selling of our players, we were left with no other means of income, our ticket prices were a whopping £4 with the biggest attendance being 50 odd fans turning up, which by my quick maths equalled not a lot of money, I was hoping that we would be able to push for a promotion, get some prize money and hopefully keep the sinking ship afloat.. Oh boy was I wrong.

As you may have guessed, the 4-5-1 route one system quickly became the easiest way to lose a match, we lost our opening 5 games as I kept persisting with the formation that had been executed so well in our final games of the previous season. Quickly, I realised we were in big trouble. I changed the system more times than I can count, and nothing seemed to work. While playing the 4-5-1, a huge problem was that we weren’t getting a kick of the ball, unsurprisingly perhaps, since I had told the boys to hoof it in a style Tony Pulis would be proud of, but on top of that, we weren’t creating anything either. So, I came up with what at the time seemed to be a brilliant idea. I thought ‘lets keep the ball, play some short passes and try and build something up from the back instead of just belting it as hard as we can towards the seemingly useless front men’. Of course, that didn’t work either as the boys didn’t actually understand how to pass a ball to one another, leading to roughly the same amount of possession and chances created (zero), fortunately, it seemed like everyone else in the league was just as bad as we were, in a lot of the games, we would play horrendous football, but so would the other team, resulting in a bizarre 1-1/2-2 draw.

I figured as soon as I could find a tactic that worked even a little bit, this league would become incredibly easier, which is probably what the other 15 managers in the league all thought too..

An entire season had gone by and I felt like Roy Hodgson at the Euro’s. I had no idea what tactic to play, who to play, what to do, or what my name was. Nothing worked, 30 games had come and gone leaving me bemused as to how I would ever achieve anything in my career. I lead the team to a 10th​ placed finish, a place lower than last season, financially crumbling, and short of ideas, I had genuinely developed a soft spot for the club but I knew I had to dive off this sinking ship as fast as I possibly could. The team were nose diving towards a bottomless pit, and I had quickly come to the realization that they would never be able to provide me with my first ever coaching badge(s).
 
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Side Note: I am currently ten years into this save, and since I have added/removed leagues along the way, I don't actually have access to the league table/stats for the first few seasons :(

However, I will be posting screenshots for the future seasons I play, and will try and retrieve as much as I can for seasons gone by!

Any additional advice on how I can improve this story would be very welcome and greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!
 
Chapter Two: We Will Be Playing 4 4 F**king 2



It took me my first full season of management to realise that I was sailing on a sinking ship destined for the bottom of the ocean, nothing was going right for me I felt on the pitch, every tactic I tried was slightly worse than the one that was tried a few games before, but due to an extreme lack of quality of other teams in the league, we had scraped our way to an impressive 10th​ placed finish. Everybody could see that there were obvious problems at the club that I had no idea how to fix. Everybody except Jomo Sono. The owner and founder of freshly relegated Jomo Cosmos. A yo-yo team who spent their time either at the bottom of the top flight, or the top of the second division. They had been relegated once again in a seemingly endless cycle of promotions and relegations and the manager/owner/founder Jomo Sono felt he couldn’t take the team any further, and for the first time in the clubs relatively short history, there would be a different manager in charge of the team for the following season. For reasons unknown to me, Jomo approached me to take the reins of the club.

After a little bit of research, I discovered that the club were favourites for promotion, financially secure, and had a much better group of players to those at Ubuntu. Obviously, I packed my bags in Cape Town and headed north to Johannesburg, with no idea how to go about the clubs expected title challenge I was going to take over at the club and see how long I could drag them along before they realised I was completely useless. I joined the club In June 2019 and my first order of business was to request that the board covered my tuition to go and take my National C coaching badge, they accepted my request and I felt like a notorious conman, how on earth had this new club fell for this? They thought I was actually good!

Well, I soon proved them wrong, and with one of the best squads in the league, I started my season playing in a 4231 formation which unsurprisingly, instantly unravelled. Déjà vu struck again to being back on the sinking ship, I knew this team had potential, but I also knew I wouldn’t be the man to take this club anywhere apart from down. I thought to myself ‘This club would literally be better with no manager than with me’.

At this moment, it hit me. I knew what to do! All the instructions I was giving the players, all the different tactic’s and (not-so) Know-how that I was giving the players was removed. I decided to be as basic as a white girl in Starbucks. Going forward, I would let the players basically do what they wanted. I was going to play a 4-4-2 with minimal instructions, and boy, did that change everything.

Suddenly, we were playing like an actual football team, we won game after game after game and rapidly shot up the table, all thanks to my brilliantly thought out tactic. We went on an incredible run of about 15 games and found ourselves 10 points clear with 5 games to go, we won 3 out of the last 5 games and equalled the record number of points ever obtained from a team in the league. We had finished first and would be competing in the South African Premier League in the following season. I knew I had contributed nothing to this team apart from standing there looking pretty while the players figured everything out for themselves but hey, that had won us the league and I was able to pick up my first few coaching badges along the way! I couldn’t wait to start our following season playing against the big boys!
 
Great start to this story, very engaging! Look forward to reading more
 
Chapter Three: A Hopeful Transmission

Growing up as a boy, I loved the Champions League, barring the World Cup/Euros it was easily my favourite competition, however in South Africa, nobody seemed to care about the African edition, it by no means had the same appeal as the huge tournament in Europe. I noticed that quite clearly when I found out that one of Africa’s strongest sides, Kaizer Chiefs, have never even been to a Champions League final.

However, I wanted to compete in the tournament, regardless of the nations view. A lot of work would be required to take this newly promoted side, Jomo Cosmos to the continental competition, but I was prepared to try.

Well, that was my mindset until I received an offer I couldn’t refuse..

At the Cosmos, they had funded a few coaching courses for me which helped me grow as a coach on the training field and bring a little bit more out of the players, which I believe helped somewhat in our charge to the previous season’s title (even though I let the players do their own thing in the trusted 442 ;) ) even if it didn’t, it sure looked like I knew what I was doing ( I really had no idea!). Incredibly, yet another club clearly had a foolish owner who thought I was a decent manager, the club in question finished the previous season as the champions of the Chinese Super League! They were Hebei China Fortune, a team struggling the season after claiming the league crown. I had a look at the team and I couldn’t really figure out how they had won the league the previous season, they had an ageing squad featuring Lavezzi and Gervinho, they seemed to have only one good player in striker Lucas Alario, but apart from that, the squad looked very bleak in comparison to other teams in the league. However compared to the Cosmos, they looked like Real Madrid.

I had enjoyed myself at the Cosmos and was excited to begin the season with the club in the top flight, but being realistic, the club were a good few seasons away from challenging for any sort of silverware. Whereas in China, I would be able to manage some big named footballers, complete most if not all of my coaching badges due to the seemingly endless funds at the clubs disposal and with a few tweaks to the squad, compete for the league title again. I also noticed the top three teams in China automatically qualify for the Champions League and if the Chinese FA cup winner were one of the top three teams, the team in fourth place would get the CL spot. This really enticed me, since as I previously mentioned, the Champions League (which wasn’t a huge tournament in Asia either) was a tournament I wanted to be involved in.

Something else that I imagined would be amazing were the wages I would be on! I was thinking 20-30k a week would be what I would be looking at, however when the contract came over for me to take a look at, I was deeply saddened by the fact that I would be on a measly £4000 a week (Rolls eyes). It seemed like only the big name attractions earned big money (Don’t know why I’m not considered a big name) and the domestic players and non A-list managers earned a pittance in comparison.

The job offer came in with a handful of games left in the club’s campaign, it was August and the season runs from February-November with the team sitting in 5th​ spot but only 2 points off the top three which meant Champions League qualification for the following season. I packed my bags in South Africa, with some regret as I felt I had unfinished business in the country, but I did what was best for my career and moved to China.

 
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Welcome to the craziest league in the world. Where else do you find some African has-beens mixed with some South American players in their prime dumped in with domestic players that English Sunday league teams would turn their nose up at? That’s just our starting eleven!

Yes, the Chinese Super League is bonkers, but I was loving it. A very interesting concept implemented in the league is that all 16 teams in the league must field a Chinese goalkeeper. Think about that, even with the top countries, after 3-4 goalkeepers, the quality would get pretty dire. I mean for England, after Hart, Butland, Pickford, Forster and Foster, (Which in itself is pretty rough) you're looking around wondering who else would be able to step in between the sticks. Now think, this is China, where the top goalkeeper is almost as good as a blindfolded, hungover Simon Mignolet with one hand tied behind his back.

Needless to say, all you had to do in this league was shoot and the goalkeeper would be picking it out of the back of the net. (Same thing happens irl, YouTube it, it's actually ridiculously hilarious). Now our goalkeeper "Ou Ya" left me saying "Oh No" what seemed like every 5 seconds as any time we were defending, the veteran 32-year-old who somehow made a living out of playing professional football would stand there like a pylon and let in goal after goal after goal. Lavezzi and Gervinho weren't getting any younger and I started to despise them almost as much as they despised me. (Honestly the dynamics were a joke, they clearly didn't think winning the South African second division was a big deal..)

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to pick up any fresh faces until the end of the season when the transfer window reopened, but in the meantime, the saying goes “a good workman never blames his tools” well I’m not a workman, I am a football manager and I could safely say I had a shambles of a side.

I took over the day before the Henan game, I had 9 games to secure our place in next seasons Champions League. As you can see, the first few games where I tried to find my feet in the country and make a tactic that worked resulted in bucket loads of goals. (Shock)

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Unfortunately, our inconsistency cost us leaving us in 6th​ place. 3 points off of 4th​ which would have given the team a Champion League place.

A crazy league, but one that was enjoyable, I knew we had to bring in some fresh faces for the next season including some new foreigners to replace to old Lavezzi and Gervinho. Next post I’ll be recapping the following season, along with the transfers I brought in, along with some key domestic players to lead us back to the top of China!
 
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