[FM14] Zeb's Journeyman Career

Having worked in retail since leaving school, I finally got fed up with where my career was heading and made the decision to go into football management which had always been my ambition after realising that actually playing football was something that I was not so good at.

After successfully completing several coaching courses, I was now ready to put my name forward for any football management jobs available.

So having applied to a good number of jobs, several teams were potentially interested in hiring me and after attending interviews, these were the teams that were willing to offer me a job:

Stockport (England)
Isloch (Belarus)
Frigg Oslo (Norway)
Nesodden (Norway)
Ålgård (Norway)
Völsungur (Iceland)

Of those offers, Stockport would seem the most logical due to its proximity to my home and there being no language barrier. Isloch however made the best offer in terms basic wage and team budgets. Isloch were also doing well in the league, which had already started. Of the Norwegian teams, Frigg Oslo were doing the best in the league but all three teams offered me similar deals. A move to Oslo would also be more interesting to me than a move to one of the other Norwegian towns. Finally Völsungur made the worst offer and considering the other job offers on the table, I was not really interested in joining them at this time.

Now as I am trying to get to the top, I also have to consider what the best way to do that will be. Stockport is in the 6th tier of English football, the three Norwegian clubs are in the 3rd tier of Norwegian football while Völsungur and Isloch are at the 2nd tier of their respective leagues. Because of this it would be (in theory) easiest to get to the top level of a countries football system and into Europe by managing either Völsungur or Isloch as they have less far to go to reach the top of their country. However, reputation wise the Icelandic and Belarusian leagues are fairly low down the European ranking system. As such while I may get to the top quicker, managing in England, albeit lower down may be more beneficial to my own reputation.

In my next post I will reveal my choice and my reasons.

Frigg Oslo hire unknown Englishman

I decided to accept the offer from Frigg Oslo. This was their offer...

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As you can see, its not a huge wage and it certainly wasn't the most logical place to start my career given that I don't speak Norwegian and that a team close to my home offered me a job but I liked the idea of managing abroad and Oslo is as good a place to start as any. After speaking with the chairman, it turns out that many of the players actually speak some English, so it shouldn't be too hard to introduce myself to the team and make a start on running the team.

The board's expectation of me is to avoid relegation and reach the second round of Cupen, which is the main cup competition in Norway. As the season is already underway and the team already eliminated from Cupen, the board will not be judging me on the cup, only the league. As I join the team, they currently occupy a respectable 4th place, which coupled with good morale, should hopefully make my job a whole lot easier.

Looking at the table at the moment, I think a realistic aim, if I can get the team to continue their form now that I have taken over management, would be to challenge for 2nd or 3rd place. 1st place is also within reach but it all depends on whether the team is currently overachieving based on the players skill or merely underrated by the media and board expectation. If things don't go so well I hope I can hold onto 4th or drop no lower than 6th.

Respectable results see Frigg up to 2nd in Oddsenligaen Avdeling 2



So its now three games away from the end of the season and after a four game winning streak starting with Odd 2, and some other respectable results my Frigg Oslo team has moved up into 2nd place, one point above Strømsgodset 2. The team has done well to not only maintain their form but to push on into their current position, it is however impossible for me to win the league at this point and therefore the team cannot get promoted to the Adeccoligaen.

During the season I have only signed in three players, all of them on youth contracts. The club has been doing well with the players it has, so I am happy to see out the season with the current line-up. The three players I brought in are Trond Holberg, Inge Larsen and Brian Lien. The only player to depart was Bård Olsen, who left on a free transfer.

With promotion no longer possible and with the club being small, the problem I now face is that several key players within the squad, notably Brent Brattbakken, Johan Nås and Markus Norheim Cham are not willing to negotiate contract renewals. I believe they probably think themselves too good for a team of this stature so they are not interested in playing at this level any more. This will leave me without my goalkeeper, star central defender and captain and one of my strikers who has done wonders up front. The prospect of rebuilding the squad for next season now seems daunting and challenging for the league title seems a long way off. To end this post on a more positive note, the club has been steadily making profit for most of the season and looks set to end the season with a balance of roughly £157k.

Frigg manager sensationally quits before Strømsgodset 2 match

Moments before the game against Strømsgodset 2, I decided to resign from my position as manager of Frigg Oslo. I was able to apply successfully for a position with another club, Leaving Frigg Oslo three games before the end of the season was hard to do as it does not show any loyalty to the club that first offered me a job. I do believe however, that this new team has a lot of potential and hopefully I can take advantage of their leagues restructuring and gain a promotion in my first season with them.

The team that I am to join is Messina. Messina is an Italian team that currently plays in the Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Girone B which to those not familiar with the Italian league system, is the 4th tier. The team lies in 17th place and recently sacked their manager due to their poor form, but with the right man in charge (hopefully me), they can put together some decent results and aim for a promotion place (which due to the restructuring, would be anything from 1st down to 8th for the automatic promotion or 9th-12th for the playoffs).

As a former Serie A team, Messina have dropped quite a long way to their current position in the relegation zone in the fourth tier of Italian football, but I believe that they also have the potential to return to the top level. My next post will detail my initial expectations and my expected first team and any other relevant information about the beginning of my time in Messina.

Hello Messina

So having turned my back on the Oslo-based side, that I briefly managed, I have now made my way down to the city of Messina on the island of Sicily in Italy. The weather is a vast improvement and looking at the deal I was offered and the club's facilities, I think most things here are a vast improvement, or will be once I have established myself at this new club.

So, what do I have to work with...

The club is currently in the 4th tier of Italian football and in a league of eighteen teams, finds itself in seventeenth place after a six game run of poor form. The club has a wage budget of £20.5k and a £0 transfer budget.

The transfer budget is fine, at this level of football it is meaningless to me, what I need is wages and a little room to manoeuvre. Looking at the squad, I can already see a number of players who could be loaned out or sold to make room in the budget if needed and as the club is already slightly under the budget, I can see no major issues here.

Expectations for this season, require me to gain promotion to the Lega Pro Prima Divisione. Based on the restructuring of the Italian football system, the top eight teams in my division get automatic promotion while the team that wins the playout, will also gain promotion, leaving the rest to be relegated to Serie D.

At seventeenth place, the club has an uphill struggle to remain in the league, let alone gain promotion. The media prediction is fifteenth which suggests a long hard season, but on the bright side, there is plenty of time left in the season to change things around and improve the fortunes of this struggling Sicilian side. Based on the fact that anything other than a top eight finish or a playout final victory will mean relegation, I can be almost certain that anything other than promotion will result in my sacking, so for me at least, this will be a do or die season.

In my next update I shall reveal my thoughts on the squad, my tactics and any signings/sales.

You had a very good first season, shame you couldnt secure the top spot good luck at your new location

Team Review

With me now sat in the hot seat at Messina, my immediate task is to turn around the teams performances so that this season does not end in disaster for the club. The club has been performing badly in the few games they have played so far, though we are not long into the Italian season and if I can set things right, the club can quite possibly achieve the minimum expectation of promotion.

Promotion for the club this season due to the restructuring of the Italian league will mean finishing in the top 8 or winning the playout. The playout is like a promotion playoff but while the winner will go up in this instance, the teams in it that don't win, will go down to Serie D. Basically what is happening is that the Lega Pro Seconda Divisione is being disbanded and some of the teams from leagues A and B will be going up to form a league C in the Prima Divisione while the rest drop to Serie D which will move up and become the 4th tier of Italian football, replacing the Seconda Divisione. As Serie D is not playable in my game (I'm using no league mods in this game) if I get relegated to it, It means automatic sacking as is normal when you get relegated to any non playable league.

So with the league situation explained, hopefully anyone reading this will understand how important it is that I get the team performing to a better standard. With that in mind, I can reveal the player star ratings...

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As you can see, the team is not really short of talent and really the club should be doing a lot better than they are doing currently. With the players they have, there are several formations that come to mind but I think a 4-3-1-2 like I used at Frigg Oslo might work well here or alternatively a 4-1-2-1-2. There is an abundance of talented central midfielders here and while the wide players are reasonable, there is a lack of depth there that wouldn't be an issue if I decided to not use wingers. Either of the two formations that I just mentioned should work well as there four players who can play well in the central midfielder role and two of them can play well as a defensive midfielder, not too mention that there is a really good attacking midfielder in the squad.

This is the likely first team I will use based on my initial inspection of the squad.

GK - Rino Iuliano
DR - Luigi Silvestri
DL - Riccardo Bolzan
DC - Giovanni Ignoffo
DC - Alessio De Bode
DMC/MC - Antonino Comegna
MC - Francesco Simonetti
MC - Stefano Maiorano
AMC - Mirko Guadalupi
SC - Fabrizio Lasagna
SC - Roberto Chiaria

Aside from the above players, I also have Rosario Bucolo who is easily good enough for the first team and Giorgio Corona who I will likely rotate with Roberto Chiaria. Another player of note is Marco Guerriera who while not quite good enough for the first team, is in my development plans. With Guerriera, I plan to try and train him up as a more central player, to provide backup for the first team and to play as a wide player on the right of midfield if the situation should call for one. I will attempt to do the same with Pedro Ferreira as well but he will cover the left of midfield if needed as well.

With the squad I have, I could probably get by just fine in the league but while I don't especially need any new players, I may sign a striker. Fabrizio Lasagna looks really good but my other two strikers are fairly average and Giorgio Corona is close to 40. After a new striker, I think youth players would be the best investment. Offloading players that are no longer needed will also be a priority.

My next post will detail who I signed and sold and if/how that alters my proposed lineup & formation.

Transfers

Over the course of the season I made three signings and sold two players.

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My first signing for Messina was experienced goalkeeper Generoso Rossi on a free transfer. Rossi had previously played for Sorrento and such teams as Siena, Lecce, Venezia and Bari and in his career had played in Serie A and B along with a brief stint for Q.P.R. in the English Championship. Signing Rossi was not really intended as I didn't really need a goalkeeper but he was available on a free and with his higher level experience, I figured he might make a better first choice than Rino Iuliano.

Unfortunately Generoso Rossi did not perform as I had hoped and when he played, we tended to lose, while we won more when I had Iuliano in nets. This lead to Iuliano reclaiming his place in the side and at the end of the season Rossi would be released.


My second signing was striker Antonio Montella. I scouted Montella and the feedback was very positive and so I handed him a contract. He has played much of his career in the Lega Pro divisions but he did play briefly for Messina in the past so I figured it was time to give him a second chance at the club.

With Montella on the team, Chiaria and Corona were largely restricted to appearances from the bench. Montella's partnership with Lasagna did not last as Lasagna got injured and Chiaria and Corona were both inconsistent when I tried to bring them back into the first team and that lead me to use up the remainder of my wage budget on my last signing.

My final signing was veteran Northern Irish striker David Healy. I signed Healy in the January transfer window on a one year deal. This deal gave me a good striker to replace Lasagna and as it was a short term deal, it meant that if he was not up to standard, I could be rid of him at the end of the season.

Antonio Montella and David Healy both proved their worth. Montella is now my star striker and David Healy has been a decent purchase and earned himself a contract extension.


The outgoing players were Tommaso Bonanno and Antonio Chiappone. Neither were anywhere near the required standard to play in the first team and both lacked the potential to be of any use in the long term.

The next post will detail how the season went.

The End Result

My first game in charge ended in a 2-0 loss, the next game was slightly worse at 3-0 but during both games, I was experimenting with the tactics, trying to work out what would work with this team. I hate the fact that my career with Messina started with losses but out of these losses came an understanding and with that understanding I was able to hit back hard with three straight wins, scoring a total of ten goals. After a third loss, I was able to get another three straight wins.

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After eighteen matches I found myself all the way up to 4th in the table, an awesome position given where the team was when I joined. With a new manager and the improvement in results, the moral quickly shot through the roof and this I think, gave the players a confidence that allowed me to put in some good results.

The good run of form eventually gave way to more average results and with a lot of drawn matches and the occasional win, my team slipped down the table a little. A run of three straight losses in March dropped me to the point when I wondered if we would even survive as anything less than 8th would risk getting put into the playout or straight relegation.

The last half dozen games saw my team grab three wins, two draws and a loss and that was enough to ensure that I finish in 8th place and secure a promotion spot. I only beat the 9th placed team by two points which meant that it came down to the last day of the season before I knew if I was going to be still in a job.

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By gaining the last promotion spot, my team had now confirmed their place in the Lega Pro Prima Divisione C which would see me play against most, if not all the promoted teams from the two leagues of the Lega Pro Seconda Divisione. What gives me hope for next season, is the fact that the way the C division has been organised will mean I face no teams relegated from Serie B and that means I only face teams that are roughly equal to mine in terms of ability.