Career Changing The Landscape of Modern Football

[liam1872]

Changing The Landscape of Modern Football

Hello, and welcome to my first career on 2017's instalment of the FMM series!

If you don't know who I am, my name is Liam and I've been around these parts for a couple years now posting careers which some of you might remember, others maybe not.

I usually attempt an Unemployed Challenge, which I have posted in both of the previous two FMM games, however this time I thought I'd go for something a little different and came up with this idea which I think will be interesting for both myself and all of you. I hope you will be looking forward to it as much as I am. 

Also I'd like to say a little thank you to @Ashez for his help in tweaking and fine tuning this idea to make it as fun as possible for all of us!

The Concept

Four of the "not so major" leagues available to us in FMM will be loaded and a set of challenges must be completed in each nation throughout the duration of the career. Each nation has TWO main objectives, as well as ONE bonus objective. The bonus objective for each nation will be tougher, maybe impossible, but its fun to try right ?

In order for the overall challenge to be considered complete, the main objectives in each nation MUST be completed. The bonus objectives are optional however will make the career that bit more exciting and successful should they be completed!

 

The Rules

1. NO unlockables are allowed throughout the career.

2. MUST start with no coaching badges.

The Nations and Objectives

Belgium

MAIN OBJECTIVES

1. Take a Belgian club to success in Europe, an achievement which has only been managed by one other Belgian club, Anderlecht.

Anderlecht won the Europa League way back in 1983.

2. Break the Pro League record for most goals scored by a team in single season, 112.

Anderlecht scored 112 goals back in the 1946/47 season.

BONUS OBJECTIVE

1. Have a player break the record for most goals in a single season, 40.

Albert De Cleyn of KV Mechelen managed 40 goals  in the 1945/46 season.

Portugal

MAIN OBJECTIVES

1. Put an end to the dominance of Portugal by Porto, Benfica and Sporting. Become the first club outside the big 3 to win back-to-back Portuguese League titles.

Only two clubs other than Benfica (33), Porto (27) and Sporting (18) have won the Portuguese League. Boavista (2000/01) and Belenenses (1945/46).

2. Break the record for most points accumulated in a single season, 88.

Benfica reached 88 points in the 2015/16 season.

BONUS OBJECTIVE

1. Break the record for the most consecutive games unbeaten, 56.

Benfica managed 56 games unbeaten from 1976 to 1978.

Holland

MAIN OBJECTIVES

1. Take a Dutch team to Champions League glory for the first time since 1995.

Ajax won the UCL back in 1995, their 2nd overall.

2. Break the record for most games won in a row, 19.

Back in 1971/1972, Ajax managed 19 consecutive wins.

BONUS OBJECTIVE

1. Break the record for the most consecutive clean sheets, 13.

PSV managed to shut up shop for 13 games in a row in 2004.

Turkey

MAIN OBJECTIVES

1. Guide a Turkish team to success in Europe for the first time since 2000.

Galatasaray won the Europa League in 2000, beating Arsenal in the final.

2. Break the record for the most league wins by a team in a single season, 29.

29 wins has been managed by two Turkish clubs, Besiktas (1959/60) and Fenerbahce (1988/89).

BONUS OBJECTIVE

1. Have a player break the record for the youngest goal scorer, 16 years 107 days.

Enes Unal netted for Bursaspor vs Galatasaray in 2013 to set the record.

Final Words

As I said above, I hope that now you know what the career will entail that you are looking forward to it as much as I am. Some of the objectives will be difficult, no doubt, but then it will just feel better when we complete them .

THANK YOU ALL FOR READING AND I WILL SEE YOU ALL SOON.

[BatiGoal]

Finally someone going for Holland and Belgium, missed seeing these leagues/careers in particular here.

This is definitely not going to be a walk in the park. Goodluck!

[Ashez]

Some great ideas in here, I can't wait to watch the drama unfold  

[danovic78]

Will defiantly look at these ones, loved playing my triple threat last year in Holland.

[Jens]

Excuse me my friend, but what about the mighty KV Mechelen beating the invincible Ajax in '87-'88?

[liam1872]

On 12/16/2016 at 03:57, BatiGoal said:

Finally someone going for Holland and Belgium, missed seeing these leagues/careers in particular here.

This is definitely not going to be a walk in the park. Goodluck!

Cheers! It will be a challenge for sure 

On 12/16/2016 at 07:33, Ashez said:

Some great ideas in here, I can't wait to watch the drama unfold  

Cheers Ash, me neither!

On 12/16/2016 at 09:09, danovic78 said:

Will defiantly look at these ones, loved playing my triple threat last year in Holland.

Haven't played much in Holland so will give me a chance to do that!

On 12/16/2016 at 15:28, Jens said:

Excuse me my friend, but what about the mighty KV Mechelen beating the invincible Ajax in '87-'88?

Appears to have missed the cut!

[liam1872]

Update One

As promised in my introductory post, the four nations selected would be Holland, Belgium, Portugal and Turkey in no relevant order with no coaching badges applied. What I kept to myself for the time being, was which country our first club would be in. So just who would be our first team in management?

Spoiler

Konyaspor

On day one of the career we would be taking charge of Turkish side Konyaspor. Given Turkey was one of the new leagues added this year I thought why not head there first and find out what its all about. I wanted to take over at a club that was in European competition in the first season, however was not one of the so called 'bigger' sides in the division.

Konyaspor would be competing in the Europa League in the first season, but dont have the squad that would make meeting the objectives of the challenge too easy.

Spoiler

Transfers

OUT

Spoiler

Alben Meha was the only player to leave the club for actual money this season due to his lack of game time frustrating him. We managed to negotiate a £525,000 fee with Valenciennes for him and off he went to France. Vedat Bora and Ali Turan were also unhappy at their lack of game time and their anger was upsetting the rest of the squad so I went ahead and released them from the club.

IN

Spoiler

We managed to bring in a few players to the club to strengthen the squad without spending any money at all. Alper Ademoglu and Bartlomej Dragowski came in on loan with us paying none of their wage. Young Nigerian striker Victor Osimhen arrived on a minimal wage while Flavio Ferreira and Süleyman Koç came in to go immediately into the first team.

NEW SIGNINGS

Spoiler

Pre-Season

The club had arranged 3 friendly matches for us to play in preparation for the new season, all 3 being on home turf. AA Gent would make the trip from Belgium then we would face two lower league Turkish sides.

A 1-1 draw with AA Gent was followed up by two comfortable victories as we finished pre-season unbeaten and headed into the domestic season full of confidence.

Turkish Cup

We managed to make it all the way to the Semi Final of the Turkish Cup this season which isn't a half bad achievement. However when we got there we would have to face one of the big guns in Besiktas.

Besiktas' quality shone through over the two legs as they walked to a 4-0 aggregate victory. Disappointing on our part however Besiktas are a very good side and it was always going to be a difficult tie.

Europa League

Group Stage

We were handed a tough group in the Europa League where we would have to travel to Ukraine, England and Holland. Manchester United were unquestionable favourites to top the group while it was expected that it would be a close battle for second between ourselves and Vorskla.

Heracles were very much a guaranteed 6 points however the other fixtures were difficult. Vorskla managed to beat Man Utd on matchday one leaving me wondering if we had any chance of progressing. We did however squeeze our way into the next round on goal difference after a draw and a win over the Ukrainians.

First Knockout Round

Coming out of the group stage was already a good achievement and anything now was a bonus and we were expecting a tough tie when we were drawn against Spartak Moscow. A 2-1 win in the home leg gave us an advantage as we headed to Russia for the second league however nothing was finished yet. A tight second leg was decided by a set piece as Çamdali rose above all else to head the winner after 51 minutes.

Second Knockout Round

Am even tougher test in the second round would take us to Greece to face Olympiakos. If I'm being honest, I really was expecting to be out of it after the first leg but that wasn't the case as we held on (despite being dominated) to take a one goal deficit to Greece. A 0-0 draw was a good result on the night but wasn't enough to take us through as our Europa League run would come to an end.

Super League

Our expectations were to finish in a European spot, and I thought that to be realistic however an incredible stat saw us win 8 from our opening 10 and sat at the top of the table. Understandably we began to think that we could do more this season but it wouldnt be easy.

A dismal run in November and December saw us fall as low as 7th as we struggled to keep up our early season form. We did manage to put together some results and drag ourselves back up the table after the turn of the year but it wasn't enough to get back into the top two.

A third placed finish in our first season is still in line with expectation however Champions League football wouldve been incredible two seasons in. Besiktas proved to strong for everyone else, losing only 5 games on their way to the title.

Awards

Top Scorers

Despite our lack of goals as a team, Ioan Hora notched up 28 league goals seeing him top the scorers chart come the end of the season.

Top Assists

Two of our players got themselves a mention in the assists chart with left back Barry Douglas getting 8 and Süleyman Koç getting 11.

Player of the Year

Hora's incredible goal scoring form meant he picked up the Turkish Super League POTY award.

Youth Player of the Year

Loanee wonderkid Dragowski got himself the YPOTY award as he headed back to Fiorentina.

Season Review

Come the end of the season our progress looked like this. Third placed in the league, a run to the Semi Final of the Turkish Cup and an unexpected run to the 2nd Round of the Europa League.

Finishing the third is nothing to be sniffed at after one season, even if we did only just scrape it on goal difference. The 3 'bigger teams' in Turkey will be hard to overcome, however finishing above one of them in Galatasaray in our first term is a good start!

Ioan Hora managed 39 goals in all competitions this season, a very good return for the Romanian, while new signing Süleyman Koç got himself 15 assists making him a bargain on a free transfer. Demircan's highest average rating can be somewhat annulled given how few games he actually played.

No objectives were going to be completed in the first season however we've made some good progress towards them. Let me know with a comment if you think we've had a successful or unsuccessful season!

As always, thank you all for reading and I'll see you all for Update Two soon!

Edited December 26, 2016 by liam1872

[kylieboi88]

Great read. Indepth but captivating, cannot wait for next update. Hopefully not too long.

That osimhen was mustard for my parma save had him couple of seasons then sold on for a tidy profit. 

Great work

[BatiGoal]

Solid start mate, and you laid the foundations for what's hopefully going to be a successful second campaign, where I'd like to see more than just the 43 league goals in 34 games.

[Ashez]

A very interesting and drama filled start mate, I can't wait for more  

[liam1872]

On 12/26/2016 at 20:38, kylieboi88 said:

Great read. Indepth but captivating, cannot wait for next update. Hopefully not too long.

That osimhen was mustard for my parma save had him couple of seasons then sold on for a tidy profit. 

Great work

Cheers Kyle, Osimhen hasnt played many games because of Hora's goalscoring but will defo come in soon.

On 12/26/2016 at 23:27, BatiGoal said:

Solid start mate, and you laid the foundations for what's hopefully going to be a successful second campaign, where I'd like to see more than just the 43 league goals in 34 games.

Cheers mate, I'll admit 43 goals in 34 games is a tad low haha. Hopefully the next update satisfies your need for goals ;).

On 12/26/2016 at 23:50, Ashez said:

A very interesting and drama filled start mate, I can't wait for more  

Cheers! All going well, update should be out today..

[Ashez]

2 hours ago, liam1872 said:

Cheers Kyle, Osimhen hasnt played many games because of Hora's goalscoring but will defo come in soon.

Cheers mate, I'll admit 43 goals in 34 games is a tad low haha. Hopefully the next update satisfies your need for goals ;).

Cheers! All going well, update should be out today..

I'm waiting  

[liam1872]

Update Two

Transfers

OUT

Spoiler

There was a mini clear-out at the club this season which saw a number of players move on upon the expiration of their contracts due to varying reasons, whether that be they rejected new deals or that I deemed them not good enough to take the team where I want it to go. Three players did however bring in a fee with Selim Ay (£1,500,000), Ali Çamdali (£575,000) and Serkan Kirintili (£300,000) departing to give us an extra couple million to spend in the window.

IN

Spoiler

Two of our incomings had already agreed to join the club back in January on pre-contract agreement. We lacked depth at DM and so Wakaso arrived at the club for a bargain £170,000 while Aílton came in to provide competition for Barry Douglas at DL. Young frenchman Jonathan Bamba came in from St Etienne for £450,000 and we spent a large chunk of our budget on DC Christopher Jullien due to the amount of injuries we got in the position last season.

NEW SIGNINGS

Spoiler

Pre-Season

The club had arranged four home games this year to prepare us for the season to come,

Given all four friendlies were against lower league opposition we were expecting to win all four games, however the amount of goals we notched up impressed me. 22 goals in 4 games is never easy, while only conceding 3 gave me confidence going ahead into this term.

Turkish Cup

Oh dear. After our run to the Semi Final last year we fell a step shorter this year as we lost in the Quarter Final. That wasn't what annoyed me the most however, it was how poor the two performances over the entire tie were especially to lower league opposition. I can't even defend our exit and pretend we deserved to progress because we didn't, anyway moving on..

Europa League

Group Stage

Yet again we were handed a tough group, probably tougher than what we had last time out. Another trip to England awaited this time to Tottenham however, as well as Bordeaux and Midtjylland. It would be a tough ask to qualify, but we'd give it our best shot.

Well, that was unexpected. We managed to finish 2nd in the group and qualify for the knockout rounds, losing only 1 game along the way to Tottenham. What made me particularly happy was how far ahead of Bordeaux we managed to finish and how early our progression to the next round was confirmed.

First Knockout Round

Yet another trip to England for the first knockout round this time to face Leicester City. I was expecting this to be the end of the road in all honesty but that wasn't to be. At home in the first leg we managed to hold them to a 0-0 draw, despite having much of the possession we didn't manage to break the deadlock. The 2nd leg was the other way around however as we suffered in terms of possession but still managed to come out on top with Ioan Hora bagging a brace before Berahino pulled one back for Leicester.

Second Knockout Round

A massive task for us to progress given we were drawn against Fiorentina. The first leg was more eventful than what I would want it to be given we were 2 goals to the good yet managed to almost throw it all away. It finished 4-3 to us in the end however the away goals rule worked in Fiorentina's favour when they picked up a 1-0 win in the return leg making it 4-4 on aggregate. Our European dream was over for another season..

Super League

Well, well, well. Would you look at that. Last season champions Besiktas dropped all the way out of the European places into 5th while it was left between ourselves and Bursaspor to battle it out for the title. We massively improved our scoring on last season scoring an extra 23 goals while keeping our goals conceded low. This became vitally important when it came down to goal difference to decide who would win the title. Edging the title in our second season is a massive achievement and getting it on goal difference just adds to the drama.

Awards

Top Scorers

Ioan Hora was once again top scorer managing a hugely impressive 38 goals in the Super League this season, 22 more than his nearest competitor.

Top Assists

 

Much like Hora did, Koc ran away with the top assists on 17.

Player of the Year

Ioan Hora got himself POTY for the Super League mainly down to his incredible goal scoring form.

Youth Player of the Year

Amir Hadziahmetovic picked up YPOTY for his performances this season which made him a mainstay in the team.

Season Review

Come the end of the season our competition progress looked like this. Winning the Super League was a massive deal for the career and can hopefully help us to bring in a higher calibre of player in order to push on to complete the objectives.

A summary of the league table shows just how close it was in the race for the title. Hora had a truly incredible season managing 56 goals and the same can be said for Koc who got himself 23 assists. Wakaso turned out to be a bargain signing at £170,000 getting himself an average rating of 8.20, proving his worth whenever he was called upon.

As always, thank you all for reading and I'll see you all for Update Three soon!

[kylieboi88]

Quality update mate cheers!

[Ashez]

Shame you didn't achieve the targets this season but progress has been made. Both targets will be tough to hit but this season has shown signs of it being possible IMO! I can't wait for more  

[Real_Random]

Unlucky with your objectives mate but this season showed promise. KIU

[Taff]

Dude a fantastic challenge and one you've started incredibly well

keep up the good work

i can see this becoming a very popular challenge (nice to have an option outside the 1K/DT/TT option)

[Woody]

Hi all, after reading this challange i decided to have a go my self. To be honest i have struggled with tactics on this years game so this was going to be a BIG challange.

I decided to start in Portugal and i chose Braga as they were in the Europa League too.

I made a few signings with the measly £1.9m i had to spend and bought in Suleyman Koc, Martin Caceres and Victor Osimhen on frees and paid £600,000 on Raul Almieda as i needed another left winger.

Right here is season stats....

Some how i managed to win the league in the 1st season...but only just!

 

My main striker Hassan finished with the top goalscorer and won the POTY too...

I qualified from the group stage of the Europa league but lost to Southampton 1-0 over the 2 legs....gutted!

 

And i did the double over Man Utd too!!

Overall im really please...now its time to go for those records!!

Edited January 8, 2017 by Chris Woodward

[Taff]

Nice to see this already getting a following, and you had a great first season there @Chris Woodward shame about the Europa cup but still doing the double over United is a big boost to team moral going forward 

[Woody]

Cheers Taff....i think the unbeaten challange part is going to be tough.

[Taff]

1 hour ago, Chris Woodward said:

Cheers Taff....i think the unbeaten challange part is going to be tough.

Keep the faith my friend "If you Believe, then it will happen young grasshopper"

Edited January 8, 2017 by Taff

[liam1872]

On 1/6/2017 at 22:45, kylieboi88 said:

Quality update mate cheers!

Cheers mate, glad you enjoyed.

On 1/7/2017 at 11:46, Ashez said:

Shame you didn't achieve the targets this season but progress has been made. Both targets will be tough to hit but this season has shown signs of it being possible IMO! I can't wait for more  

Yeah it is, definitely a step in the right direction though! Good to see people enjoying the career.

On 1/7/2017 at 12:18, Real_Random said:

Unlucky with your objectives mate but this season showed promise. KIU

Cheers, a step forward for sure.

On 1/7/2017 at 19:16, Taff said:

Dude a fantastic challenge and one you've started incredibly well

keep up the good work

i can see this becoming a very popular challenge (nice to have an option outside the 1K/DT/TT option)

Thanks for the kind words!

@Chris Woodward Glad someone else has found it interesting enough to attempt also :D! Good luck.

Edited January 17, 2017 by liam1872

[Taff]

I'm going to apologise to @Chris Woodward as I have just started the challenge my self and have chosen Braga as well, not intentional just forgot to check who had who before I started 

[Woody]

On 19/01/2017 at 06:48, Taff said:

I'm going to apologise to @Chris Woodward as I have just started the challenge my self and have chosen Braga as well, not intentional just forgot to check who had who before I started 

No worries Taff, i'm going to update my progress as soon as i get chance. 

Oh....and good luck.?

[Taff]

3 hours ago, Chris Woodward said:

No worries Taff, i'm going to update my progress as soon as i get chance. 

Oh....and good luck.?

Cheers dude I'm almost finished my second season and will post once leg one is complete