The Hero The World Has Been Waiting For

Welcome one and all to this, my first foray into FM15, and I've picked a biggie as my inaugural career;

The Challenge:
To unlock all six Steam Hero achievements in a single career, this is done by taking a team from the bottom division to the top in England, Scotland, Italy, France, Spain and Brazil. (you don't necessarily have to win the top division, however it seems a shame to have brought the club all the way up and not finish the job.)

My Set-Up:
As a bit of a masochist I have made my task even tougher by adding the French CFA and Brazilian Serie D as in my experience it is difficult to get jobs even in the lowest divisions that are available in the vanilla game.

Options Selected:
These are my normal settings, I will be starting unemployed, and to prevent any suspicions if I do well the ingame editor is disabled.

My Profile
I'm starting with a sunday league reputation with no coaching badges or additional languages. (I can speak some very remedial German however I wouldn't say I was fluent enough to add it to my profile)

Not sure where I'm going to start off, as you might expect with my editor data, almost all of the bottom division vacancies are in France and Brazil so theres a good chance I will be starting in one of those two beautiful countries. Of course it's important I pick the right club for me, we will hopefully be going on a long, rollercoaster ride together and I need to base my choice on more than just whether I like the badge and kit or not.

Best of luck Rick! Hopefully this can be the long term save like your Italian one last year!

Good luck with this Rick.

Good luck Rick!

Good luck!

Also has anyone ever completed this before?

Tall task ahead of you. Good luck!

A fantastic idea this one Rick but a very tall order. Best of luck!

Best of luck Rick!

I've finally decided on my first step on the long winding road to superstardom, I applied for seven or eight jobs in Brazil and France, however none of the Samba clubs seemed interested in a completely inexperienced Englishman who can't even speak Portugese. The French however seemed to want to bite my hand off when I offered as I received four interviews within a day, eventually I plumped for the club in the best financial shapes as they represent the best option for long term prosperity even if they are predicted to struggle this season.




My Contract
Whilst I have money to spend, I think it would be unwise to go splashing it at this stage, I want to keep the club on an even keel and not slip into debt which is all too easy to do at this level. I'm building for the long term remember. besides there are ample free agents who are of similar quality to those who I could buy for that price.

Club Info
I whipped up the kits on Photoshop this morning, the home one is true to life, although the away is fantasy as I struggled to find a good picture of the real one. Hopefully we can give those dedicated 25 season ticket holders their monies worth!

My Initial Sqaud
Pretty happy with it to be fair! Some back-up might need to be added but we have some good players, especially in defence so I will probably look to build from the back. This guy looks to be about the best;

Bertin Ze Ndill

CFA
For those who are unfamiliar with the French football system, the CFA is the fourth level of the pyramid, it contains four groups of 16, the winners of each group win promotion to the third tier. As you can see the media predicts that we will struggle this season, I'm aiming for a solid mid-table, keeping well clear of any relegation battle. That would be an ideal first season for me.

So I have a nice club in the beautiful Pyreneese, I can easily imagine us being a popular away day in Ligue 1 as giants like PSG, Monaco and Marseille visit the plucky mountain dwelling underdogs. Let's make it happen!

Good luck Rick...I look forward to seeing how you go. This should be entertaining!

GL, that should be tough one!

My pre-season preparations are complete, or at least as good as they are going to get. I have been busy on the squad building front this summer as I trialled a host of players to fill in the gaps within the squad as I look to build a solid defensive unit capable of withstanding the relegation battle that the media has forecast for us this season.

I have thus far brought in five new faces;
Jean Proenca - A talented defender who was let go by Ligue 1 side Toulouse in the summer, a great capture for a club of our stature who adds some genuine quality to the back line.

Erwan Benbraham - I have long held a deep seated love for a good target man, I need somebody up front who can hold up the ball and bring others into the play, after a successful trial Auxerre trainee Erwan looks as if he is adept at doing just that as well as tucking in a few himself.

Sylvian Heckly - Hands up, Sylvian was not my first choice when it came to signing a forward, however I needed somebody who was willing to work for a crap wage which my other targets were not. still he is decent enough cover for the player below.

Jerome Dupouy - Trained at Saint-Etienne the striker looked sharp in pre-season, should get a few goals this season as he links up with Benbraham.

Anoh Attoukora - Signed as my left wingback, strong and pacy he should prove a handful going forward as well as being a reasonable defender.

Outward BoundThere have been two departures, both on free transfer as the players were on amature contracts which are not protected.

Results - Pre-season was solid if not spectacular, the stand out result was obviously the 7-2 win over Gernika in which we stretched the play and looked a constant danger going forward. The rest of the games were not quite so straightforward as we laboured to some credible results.

Formation - I've been tinkering with 5-3-2 so far, as I said previously I want to start off building from the back and gradually become more expansive as I learn my players strengths and weaknesses, which I feel is the best way when inheriting a squad full of players you are unfamiliar with.
My team instructions are also inherently conservative, the players should stick to their positions and maintain a disciplined approach which will hopefully make us difficult to beat.

Well, thats about it for this update, on to the real business as I embark on my first season with TPF, the first small step on the long road to glory.