Football Manager Story: Part 3 – Mandel United

14th April – 21:50

I’ve been looking forward to this all day – finding out more about my new club, my new players, and how to play the damn game. Thanks to some fantastic advice from the excellent Football Manager Show by the Athletic (which incidentally inspired me to start this crazy adventure in the first place), I will not be bashing the continue button just to get to my first match. Oh no. I shall spend time meeting the team, meeting the staff, reading reports, setting training schedules…

This is gonna be like a proper job.

But first, a reminder of the expectations I have agreed to.

Don’t sign anyone even close to their prime years, don’t get relegated, and expect the club to be sold. At least they don’t care about the cup, but only because we’ve already been knocked out. Still, looking on the bright side, that’s one failure I know I can’t be held accountable for at the end of the season.

Time to get stuck in. I have absolutely no idea where to start so I ask for it all, right now:

• Scouting induction
• Transfers induction
• Training induction
• Tactics induction
• Team report induction
• Squad dynamics induction (this is a new one since I last played FM)
• Medical centre induction
• Squad induction
• Backroom staff induction
• Development centre induction

I only have a couple of hours at best before getting a good night’s rest ahead of tomorrow’s real life work, so let’s see how far I fall down this rabbit hole…

14th April – 22:12

Hey, look! It’s me in my new dressing room!

In game time it’s 9:30am on Friday 23rd October. My first match isn’t until Saturday 31st, so I have over a week to get my new players bought in to a new style of play and my footballing philosophy.

That probably means I need a footballing philosophy, and fast.

14th April – 22:19

The first thing I do is check out the current league table. We’re bottom, 7 points from safety, but I have 20 matches to make up that deficit.

My first match will be against Rupel Boom, the phenomenally named outfit I had half an eye on yesterday before their form improved. It’s like it was meant to be.

My first action of note is to trigger a one-year contract extension for the left sided Nicholas Tamsin. It doesn’t cost us anything, and the four gold stars suggest he’s one of the best players at the club. No brainer, right?

14th April – 22:30

I have just discovered my transfer budget for the remainder of the season.

Better start looking into this team of mine.

14th April – 22:37

It turns out they’re slightly taller and sturdier on average than other teams in the league.

I won’t jump to conclusions, but I’ve immediately noted “lump the long ball up to the target man” on my tactical shortlist.

14th April – 22:42

The FM Show podcast has given me some handy pointers for setting up my team, so thankfully I’m not going in completely blind. I’m going to set up a couple of initial tactics for the team to learn, and attempt to make the most of my players’ current abilities and strengths. One defensive tactic (because this team is leaking goals) and one slightly more adventurous, but probably a variation on the first theme.

Basically, keep it simple.

14th April – 22:46

My assistant manager recommends that one of the tactical styles most suited to my team is Catenaccio, a word I have never even heard of before.

So much for keeping it simple.

However, one of the other recommendations is Route One. I put a tick next to my ‘Lump long ball…’ note.

14th April – 22:58

After a bit of experimentation, I think the Catenaccio style might actually be the best option for this squad. I opt for a Defensive 5-3-2 DM WB formation as my primary tactic as it seems to allow for the highest average star rating in the final team selection.

Lots more experimentation needed before I make a final decision though. It turns out this game is completely baffling. I feel like I’m flying blind, with a cacophony of colours and opaque numbers taunting me from the other side of my monitor.

In fact, if I hadn’t spent the last three days listening to the podcast I would probably be completely flummoxed.

But I remember one of the pieces of advice that came up early on. I’m going to check through every player in my squad one by one and see what I can ascertain from that first impression. You know, spend some time, getting to know them, one to one.

I’m off to the Squad Induction…

14th April – 23:14

I start my research with Niels Mestdagh, the club captain. He’s a solid left back, above the average standard for this level of football, and looks pretty light on his feet for a defender. Could make a good wing back but I need to be conscious of his low stamina and crossing.

Still, I need to get the captain on-side fast so he’s likely to be the first name on the team sheet. And he speaks basic English. That could be a massive help.

14th April – 23:21

Just found an extra feature! I clicked a random button on Mestdagh’s profile that had a yellow indicator showing on it, and I received a special message from one of my coaching team.

So my captain thinks the general level of team training is too low. That could be very handy to know given the guy who set up those schedules is no longer with the club.

Then again, it might not. Remember, I don’t actually know what I’m doing. Just don’t tell my chairman.

14th April – 23:28

Next up is Tom Raes, the highest paid footballer at the club and one of my two ‘Star Players’. He has a fantastic workrate and outstanding teamwork – the numbers are actually green! Also pretty decent with the ball at his feet and could be a good option to punt that ball up to the strikers.

His natural fitness is a bit of a worry though. Might need to keep a close eye of his amount of minutes to make sure I get the best out of him.

Sadly, Tom also has something on his mind that might not be as easy for me to rectify as the state of the training programmes.

What was my transfer budget again? Oh, yeah. Damn.

14th April – 23:46

Time for one more player profile today. I choose Yohan Brouckaert, my other star player. He has incredible consistency across his mental attributes, even if none of them are outstanding, and can play in a huge number of roles on the pitch. Likely to be a first choice in midfield, probably my vice-captain, and will be great back up across a number of other positions…

…when he’s actually fit.

Yes, my second best player is out of action for my first month in my first football management job. And remind me to never ask him to take a penalty.

14th April – 23:54

I must say, this whole experience has been bizarrely enjoyable so far. I mean, I still don’t really know what I’m doing and I haven’t so much as kicked a ball in training, let alone a match, but it feels like I’m putting the right amount of work in. I’m paying my dues and that will make it all the sweeter when I get Mandel’s first goal in the back of the net.

And I’ve even earned my first achievement: Window Shopping, for accidentally opening the Steam store while trying to find out how many hours I’ve played this save for so far. Probably best not to know.

But there is an in game editor available. That is good to know. It might come in handy one day.