Football Manager 2017

I missed out on jobs at pro clubs after interviews with Exeter (who appointed Keith Curle), Oldham (somehow 12th in the Conference and ripe for career building promotions, but Dean Saunders got the job, lucky sod) and currently waiting on a reply from Inverness Caledonian Thistle (who are similarly languishing 8th in the Scottish Champo and primed for a run at the playoffs and promotion back to the SPL).

I've decided that I've gotten Forfar as far as I can - they resolutely reject all suggestion of turning professional as they "simply can't afford it", home attendances stick doggedly around 1,400 per on average and whilst performances are good, realistically promotion to the SPL would be probably very damaging for a semi-pro club with such small home gate receipts (notwithstanding the annual sellouts that Celtic and Rangers would bring to the table). So, I'm actively hunting a professional club willing to take a punt on me. Two promotions and a cup win in 3 seasons should hopefully see me snapped up somewhere soon...

Terryhall said:

I missed out on jobs at pro clubs after interviews with Exeter (who appointed Keith Curle), Oldham (somehow 12th in the Conference and ripe for career building promotions, but Dean Saunders got the job, lucky sod) and currently waiting on a reply from Inverness Caledonian Thistle (who are similarly languishing 8th in the Scottish Champo and primed for a run at the playoffs and promotion back to the SPL).

I've decided that I've gotten Forfar as far as I can - they resolutely reject all suggestion of turning professional as they "simply can't afford it", home attendances stick doggedly around 1,400 per on average and whilst performances are good, realistically promotion to the SPL would be probably very damaging for a semi-pro club with such small home gate receipts (notwithstanding the annual sellouts that Celtic and Rangers would bring to the table). So, I'm actively hunting a professional club willing to take a punt on me. Two promotions and a cup win in 3 seasons should hopefully see me snapped up somewhere soon...

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Might have a go with starting unemployed like you did with zero badges etc and go from there, seems bit more of a challenge. Will let you all know how it goes!

Ex-ciderrr said:

Might have a go with starting unemployed like you did with zero badges etc and go from there, seems bit more of a challenge. Will let you all know how it goes!

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It's tough, that's for sure. Your starting coaching stats will be bloody awful if (like me) your experience amounts to "Sunday league footballer"....

EDIT - also I've been doing this for a few years, but it's also covered here alongside 4 other decent "challenges" to try... http://thesetpieces.com/gaming/fm17-beta-five-challenges/

(With apologies for the double post) - the Inverness job went to Graham Alexander, but I then successfully applied for, and got, the job at League Two Bristol Rovers. Currently 18th in the league after 28 games, and as part of my interview I said I could get them a top half finish... might have promised a bit too much in my desire to land the job...!

Taking a break from the game at the moment, like a few have said on here it becomes a problem when you've been on it a few hours and find it's 11pm but say to yourself just 1 more game then realise it's 2/3am. More productive things to do in an evening at the moment and Christmas is around the corner so gonna knock it on the head until the new year.

Wise.

Yup - same here, a quick half hour at the weekend soon became 3...

My better half is at a lecture tonight so might finally get a chance of a match with Brizzle after hours sorting out the staff and training

One interesting thing that has happened in my journeyman save so far is that James Coppinger was hired as Exeter manager in 2026. He only lasted a season at SJP before being hired by another team. No prizes for guessing who that team was.

Really bugs me because I get 3 or 4 seasons in and then get bored. Much rather go 10 or 15 seasons deep and see what happens but I just can't bring myself to do it.

Quick update on things. Into 2022 now, Tisdale still at Southampton and going strength to strenght - still listed as a "club legend" at ECFC. Tagg and Perryman still pulling the strings at ECFC and Keith Curle, having flirted with relegation (and the sack) last season has the club on the fringes of the auto promotion spots at the moment. The only survivor in the squad is Liam McAlinden who is firmly leading the line, scoring for fun and is also already confirmed as having "Legend" status with the fans.

My own time at Bristol Rovers was a struggle, rarely if ever troubled the top half of the table, partly because the board wanted me to play possession based football and blood youngsters for the first team, whilst refusing to allow me to actually develop the youth academy or hire many youth coaches, and unable to offer wages to get players good enough to dominate games from a possession-based style of play. What I did manage to do was get them to stump up for all my coaching badges, so having completed the UEFA Pro Licence I applied for a few jobs more in hope than expectation and (still not sure how) managed to land the job at Blackburn Rovers. Took over with them bottom of the champo with 7 points from 17 games, no clean sheets all season and just lost 14 on the spin, with an expectation to avoid relegation at all costs (and bizarrely, to focus on set pieces as a means of doing so.) Oddly, it seems that at some point Venkys decided to sell up to the current chairman... David Beckham. Kept the same tactics that worked at Dundela and Forfar (and didn't at Brizzle) and have taken 13 points from my first 5 games, with 5 clean sheets in the process (which is largely down to having Declan Rudd in goal, which is a bonus). Still the whole 2nd half of the season to go and already only a point from safety - plenty of cash in the bank and Blackburn already have excellent facilities, so this could be the start of something decent.

Anyone else struggling away from home?

At the Stadium of Light we (Sunderland) are fantastic - 43 wins in 70 games - yet away we're absolutely pathetic. 14 wins in 71 games including regular tonkings.