False Start [2028]

Well I gave it a go but my heart wasn't in it. After 7 games in the premiership with Vasteras, despite being in a healthy 13th place, I decided to resign.

Things weren't bad but I wasn't enjoying it. To be fair this was my 12th or 13th season in Sweden so a change of scenery was probably about due.  I was also struggling with the fact that we had become a default selling club but the players weren't raising much even by Swedish standards, and there was little to reinvest it in. The facility upgrades cost too much and players just weren't interested, even those from lower down (not without a big price tag).

So I left. Head held reasonably high. Two promotions with Vasteras. All the way from the 3rd tier to the 1st on a shoestring. It had been fun, but it was time to go.

Where next?

Well I'd like a bigger club in a bigger league. Ideally a club without a great deal of history (silverware wise) or a league where there was a monopoly on the title that hadn't been broken for some time. I wanted the difficult balance of potential for building yet a size that meant I wouldn't be a complete minnow. Which league or country I didn't really mind.

At this point I had leagues loaded in England, Scotland, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Greece, Turkey, Portugal and Holland. Some only the top flight but there was plenty of places to go. I also didn't mind revisting somewhere I'd been before.

Career Recap

I would just put up the club history from the manager profile but it is horribly broken, and one of the few things in FM13 that really disappoints me. For someone playing a long career a working club history screen would be fantastic.

So I've broke it down into some key information. I think I'm at that the definite journeyman stage. Several clubs, some limited success. Silverware is silverware though.

Clubs Managed: 8

Oskarshamn
Eskilstuna City
Leeds
Aberdeen
Houstan Dynamo
Boavista
Degerfors
Vasteras SK

Countries Managed: 2

Republic of Ireland u19's (and 1 Republic of Ireland Senior game as caretaker!)
Morocco

Countries Managed In: 7

Sweden
England
Scotland
USA
Portugal
Ireland
Morocco

Silverware: 5

Swedish Second Division SS Title
Swedish First Division North Title (X2)
Scottish First Division Title
Scottish Challenge Cup

A brief interlude: From Houston, to Morocco, to Boavista, to the watching daytime T.V. in your pants

Bit of a mouthful for the title but I didn't think it was worth breaking things down into individual posts. Basically I got wanderlust and moved around.

Houston

The season started well and I shot up to 4th place! Even hit 1st but then I realised something whilst I had my 4th place and X amount of points I had played many, many more games than the teams around me. I had 23 points I think. The team in 5th had 23 points and had played 5 games less than me. As I looked around I realised all the teams in the division had played 4-7 games less than me thanks to the wonder of MLS scheduling.

So I wasn't 4th, I was more likely to be well out of even the wildcard places when the games were played. Disappointing. What also added it to it was my growing frustration with the youth system, or lack thereof, in the MLS.

I loved the draft but only being allowed 6 developmental contract players in the squad was making it a little hard to build a young team.

So I jumped ship.

Morocco

Seemed like a perfect move. They were without a manager but were in the 2022 World Cup. A good move I thought from MLS Houston to World Cup Morocco.

Wasn't quite to be though. We had a group with Saudi Arabia, Paraguay and France. I had my eye on just squeezing through. Saudi Arabia and Paraguay should have been doable.

We beat S.A. by an own goal, then got trounced by Paraguay 4-0 and then by France. We ended up bottom. So off I flounced.

Boavista

To newly promoted Portuguese Premiership side Boavista. Tiny budget.

Managed to build a good squad, all apart from the keeper position. Over 10 games we leaked goals like no ones business. Silly keeper errors and fantastic shots that should have been stopped ruined everything. My backup keeper? Even worse.

I  was going to persevere. We had picked up a couple of points, and the teams around us at the bottom were terrible too. But then I got linked to the Blackburn job...and when I expressed my interest they were flattered but said they couldn't afford the compensation. So I left....and they gave the job to someone else.


So there we are. Whistlestop tour of my most recent folly. It's only been 4 years since leaving 'Tuna City and I have managed Leeds, Aberdeen, Houston, Morocco and Boavista. Some success and a lot of failure in that time. I've learnt some lessons though.

1) Good 'Keepers are valuable - sounds a bit obvious but I hate buying keepers. If you get it wrong you get it horribly wrong. But they can undermine everything.

2) Be flexible tactically - I thought I'd learnt this from my disaster save before this one but I keep falling into the trap. I love playing my two main tactics. A counter attacking 41221 or a controlling 4312 but there's more to the game than that, and it needs the right players for the level you're at. I've been missing the mark on that.

3) Stop moving around! - Not because I'm concerned with loyalty but because it's easier to build if you actually stay somewhere long enough to do so. If I'd stayed at 'Tuna, Leeds or Aberdeen I think I'd be progressing much better.

So with that in mind my next team needs to be a project. I have to stick with them through thick and thin. I need an enjoyable league, with potential. A transfer system that makes a bit more sense in regards to youth and building and a team I can see myself with for sometime.

I've had it [2018/19]

I've had enough of Leeds. And it's not just because I don't like them as a club.

After the pick up in form I brought in a couple of players in the January window.

Both stars of the future I think and both for less than £600k, combined. Allen I knew about from my U19's role. I put both of them to work in the 1st team. Usually from the bench.

Our form became hit and miss though as you can see.

Not terrible, in fact we still had a pretty good run. At one point I think I had 1 league loss in about 20 games. But we started to drop points and fell off the pace a bit. At one point we were just outside the playoffs. Oddly enough our drop away happened around the same time that Danny Rose got injured for the season....

So we ended up 12th. Not what the board wanted but better than when we had started and something I was fairly happy about. Throughout my first season with Leeds I had the dreaded 'one bad performance away from the sack message' about four times. I also had the fans or fan favourites (ta Nigel Martyn) say they wanted me to have more time.

My job security fluctuated from secure, to precarious and all shades of worrying in between. By the end of the season I back on very insecure. I had a feeling I was going to be sacked after the playoffs and the manager merry go round started, or that maybe I'd get the start of next season but it wouldn't be a very forgiving one. Which left me with a bit of a choice. Did I want to stay and chance it or jump ship - hoping the season (ish) I'd done in the championship had enhanced rather than harmed my standing?

On one hand I was starting to build a team. I had my two new players and two new youth players coming in on a free at the end of the season. I had room in the wage budget for some more and some dead wood to clear that might bring a little bit of cash in.

On the other hand the players irritated me. The best I could hope for in a team talk was no reaction across the board. What I tended to get was players switching off or getting angry. Now I'm not grand master when it comes to team talks but I wasn't saying anything to them that was horribly wrong. They just didn't respect me or what I had to say. The way around this was to increase my rep or get rid of them. Increasing my rep meant doing better which the players didn't seem to care about, and getting rid of them involved a pretty extensive clean sweep.

Rose and Gosling occasionally seemed to dislike me and my talks but they were the heart of the team. I couldn't really get rid of them (though getting rid of Gosling would have please half the team who hated he was captain).

So I decided to leave. I didn't care about the club. They were going to be nothing but a stepping stone. Although I had a soft spot for the players I'd brought in I wasn't tied to a long term development of a club.

Lesson's learnt:

1) Love for the club matters - If you hate them or don't think you want to build with them then it's not the move for you. Battling relegation and failing with Eskilstuna City would have been more rewarding than being snubbed by Leeds.

2) Rep and Respect matter - If your rep is low and the players don't respect you...you're going to have a bad time. I was constantly fighting in team talks, and in team meetings, to combat morale issues. It was an uphill battle because ultimately most of them didn't care what I had to say unless it was something they already agreed with.

3) Personalities matter - They had plenty of clashes within the team which meant we became less effective. Gosling had an amazing season as captain but that didn't filter down because so many of the team struggled with him.

Later's 'Tuna - it has been fun [2018]

Well it was on the cards. Let's recap where we are first though.

I'd stuck it out with the team despite dropping into the relegation zone at times. With 27 games played, so only 3 to go till the end of the season, we were 9th. Same place we finished as last season and with only 3 less points than our final total at 37. In theory we could finish higher and/or with more points than we did last season. Technically we were better than we had been before which is nice. It just didn't feel that way. I think it was because of our form.

We had bad runs and good runs. When we were bad we were very bad, and most of the time when we were good we were a little lucky. Don't get me wrong, we were still playing some good football, and with Granqvist in the team things were picking up. But overall we seemed a little weaker than the season before.

At this point I was happy to just get to the end of the season and see how things were. None of the players I'd gone in for during the transfer window had wanted to come but I thought maybe if I get to the end of the season and survive they'll change their minds?

I won't know though because I got this job offer...

It wasn't completely out of the blue. When they sacked the previous manager I put a cheeky application in. I was told I wasn't one of the favourites but they must have seen something and the offer came in. Now, let me be clear, I really don't like Leeds. I'm a Huddersfield fan. But on FM it was too good an offer to turn down. They're under achieving but have a good squad, no real debt that I can see and in a much higher league. I also have the benefit of not caring about the team too much if it goes horribly wrong - I can be mercenary about it.

Struggle at 'Tuna (as much as I love them) or try the championship? It sadly didn't take too long to decide.

So I'm off but what of 'Tuna? Well they've done well under me. Promoted from the 4th tier to the 2nd, with two (albeit minor) titles on the way.

From a piddling little balance to one of over a million, with a youth facility improvement on the way. I'm rightfully one of the favoured. I've enjoyed it. Even though I've been moaning this season. The only thing stopping me from staying on and rejecting Leeds is we can't turn professional yet. If we could I'd give it another season.

But it's been a good run and hopefully my favourite Bergh who is now the assistant manager will take over from me (nice to have a bit of continuity!). I think they might stabilise and become part of the First Division Elite furniture even without me.

Had some good players whilst I've been there. Felic has done well though I think he's on his last legs. Owe much behind the titles to his goal scoring prowess. A real lower league Treq.

Kamara, Sunday, Wikstrom, Celsing, Cirak, Sundberg, Manns - all main stays and all bar Sunday with the club initially. To their favoured (by me) ranks I can happily add Hansen (the traitor), Svensson (who'll be playing the Swedish top flight soon I think), Moller, Backstrom and Viggeborn.

I was going to put a screenshot of each of my favourite players up but it's so many. I've saved the game before I left though so I can always go back and look at them if I need to.

Bye 'Tuna City! All the best!

Career Recap