Hit the road Jack

Hit the road Jack...
 

 
I'm really keen to try another nationality challenge, and this time I've decided to focus on Swansea City, and developing the Welsh players in the footballing world. With Wales' national team constantly improving in real life, I would be keen to see this in FM15. My goals will be to focus on Swansea City, and stay clear of the national team for as long as I can.
 
Swansea have a good setup, and I believe they are a club with the potential to make this challenge difficult but obtainable. The most obvious issue is their current first team squad containing just four Welshmen. According to Wikipedia, only Neil Taylor, Ashley Williams, Josh Sheehan and Liam Shepherd are listed in the first team squad, but their U21 and player out on loan list does offer some relief.
 
The first season at Swansea will be used to bring some money into the club, and improve youth recruitment and the youth facilities. I think I will have to keep a base of foreign talent at the club, but scouting will be required to identify talents. Minimum goal will be a top half finish, but hopefully we can be succesful enough to bolster the finances.
 
Season two will be where we start to wheel and deal, and try to add key players to the squad. I hope that I can bring in a goalkeeper as soon as possible with Tremmel and Fabianski certainly not fitting the bill. A cursory glance at Wikipedia again suggests that the current three goalkeepers for Wales are Wayne Hennessey (Crystal Palace), Owain Fon Williams (Inverness) and Danny Ward (Aberdeen), so further scouting will be required.
 
This is a long term challenge, and unlike my Liverpool save where I had aimed to do it in two seasons, I believe it may take three or four seasons to bring the right players to the club. This isn't an issue for me, as a long game is always enjoyable, but it will certainly test Huw Jenkins resolve as the club undertakes a massive change.
 
I'll leave this introduction here for now, with the aim that my next post will be at the end of Season 1. As I go further into the game, update style may change as we work towards our goal.
 
So, any thoughts on the challenge? Anyone I should be targetting? Harry Wilson at Liverpool will be one player I'd love to sign up!
 
Diolch am ddarllen... Thanks for reading!

Good write up here mate!

I'm doing a similar thing with Celtic, keeping the core of the squad Scottish and bringing in foreign talent for a two or three seasons then turning a profit. Obviously some foreign players will stay around long term but only if they're happy too.

As for keepers, I'm sure Karl Darlow is eligible for Wales if you're struggling for a keeper. So he might be worth keeping an eye on

Very similar to the Gary Speed Tribute Challenge. All the best with this.

Yeah I'm not really being too strict early on, need to get the squad and finances built, and focus on developing the Welsh youngsters. Thank you for the suggestion with Darlow - will keep an eye on him for sure.


I wasn't aware of that challenge, but if it can be a tribute to the late great Gary Speed then that's awesome. Thank you for best wishes!

Take a look: http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2013-challenges-scenarios/106386-gary-speed-tribute-challenge.html