Hi guys, this is my first ever story on this website. In this story, I will be called Zeke DeJesus (completely fictional of course) and I will be trying to bring Eastleigh FC to the top of the hierarchy. I'll post the first post soon as I complete a few matches in-game but I hope I can achieve promotion within the next season, or if not, then in the next two seasons

Good luck. First stories are always difficult, so don't try to be 'the best one ever' but just keep going and working hard, and don't get flustered by tough results. A good story doesn't need good results

Zeke DeJesus -- How I Got Here...

Although possessing a sharp mind, Zeke wasn't always the brightest bulb in the sets of his schools, but he had only one passion. That passion was football. Born to an English father and American mother, Zeke always wanted to play for a football team ever since he was 5 and had a special understanding of the game that only certain people possessed. He was born and bred in Eastleigh, and wanted to have a career in football. He managed to have a successful trial at his local (and favourite team) Eastleigh FC, but suffered a horrible injury during a training session so he never got to break into the first team and had to bring an untimely end to his short career as a player. However, Zeke never gave up. After studying for coaching certificates, he sat down at a small pub trying to think about his future. It was this pub where 25-year-old Zeke met a middle aged man called Stewart Donald. They discussed football tactics and players, both supported Eastleigh FC and both shared the same passion for this team. Little did Zeke know who Stewart Donald actually was until:

SD = Steward Donald
ZD = Zeke DeJesus

SD: "You know your ways around football don't you lad?"
ZD: "Yeah I guess, I've always wanted to be a player but I never really got into it that much, so I'm hoping to become either a manager or a coach for a small time team you know, just to make a living."
SD: "That's decent I suppose, how much managing experience do you have?"
ZD: "None really, I play Football Manager a lot so that's the only experience I have of managing a football team, but how can you get managing experience if you need experience to be a manager? I don't get it."
SD: *chuckles and puts out his cigarette* "Tell you what, I'm the owner of Eastleigh... We have a manager vacancy right now. How would you like to meet me and the board directors tonight at Silverlake Stadium and we could show you around the club?"
ZD: "What?! You're THE owner? Are you serious? I'm not too sure about this, it's too much pressure!"
SD: "Yes, I'm sure. I know a manager with potential when I see one, we really need a young manager right now before the season starts, and chatting to you about football's given me an idea of your knowledge of the game itself. Plus, who'd be a better manager than someone who actually supports the team?" *laughs and gets up* "See you there tonight son, no pressure!"

* At Silverlake Stadium *

SD: "Welcome Zeke, welcome to the Spitfires! I want to assure you that I think that you're the right man for the job... this club is now in YOUR hands, son."
ZD: "Great, I'm looking forward to this, thank you!"
SD: "Do you want me to email you the history of this club?"
ZD: "Yeah that'd be great... boss."
SD: "Our minimum expectations are that with the current squad at hand you should be able to secure promotion this season so we'll give you a budget of £50k. Is that good enough?"
ZD: "Hmm... I guess that would be good but can we discuss this later anyway?"
SD: "Sure, I'm going to set up a small press conference for you to introduce you to the Spitfires and our fans tomorrow."
ZD: "Yeah, that'll be good thanks!"
SD: "Oh, and one last thing... your assistant manager is called Guy Butters and he'll speak to you soon after. That'll be all for now, good luck Zeke!"

I'm liking this so far, good luck with Eastleigh

2013-10-21 17:48#139030 Akash : Good luck. First stories are always difficult, so don't try to be 'the best one ever' but just keep going and working hard, and don't get flustered by tough results. A good story doesn't need good results

Thanks for the support Akash!

2013-10-21 19:11#139048 AlexTHFC : I'm liking this so far, good luck with Eastleigh

Cheers Alex, I hope it's onwards and upwards from now!

Team Meeting

Shortly after my meeting with my assistant manager last night, I rung up the captain Glen Southam and gathered the squad together at Silverlake Stadium so I could introduce myself.

ZD = Zeke DeJesus
GS = Glen Southam

ZD: I'd like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the new manager of Eastleigh FC. I can assure you that together our squad has the potential to be promoted -- which is our minimum expectation -- but we must not take matches lightly.

GS: We're looking forward to working with a new young manager to take us forward! Welcome to Silverlake, gaffer.

ZD: Thank you Glen. And thank you all for your time, the training session starts at 10:00am tomorrow, and DO NOT be late. See you all later.

As the squad marched out of the room with enthusiastic faces, I realised I needed to sort out tactics and formations for the upcoming friendly fixtures:

Squad Report

Guy Butters also emailed me a detailed squad report (and a scouting report of every player in the senior team:


Judging from this list, I think I'm going to look for Stuart Fleetwood and Mark Hughes to produce the goods this season as they seem to have immense quality for this level of play. After I've played a few friendlies, I'll get an idea of which areas need to be strengthened and which areas of the team are good enough to get Eastleigh FC into the Blue Square Bet Premier next season.

If anyone has any ideas of players to sign (mainly free transfers then don't hesitate to post below!)

First of all, a big thank you to whoever made the banners for me :)


Pre-season went worse than I'd expected from my team. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we got absolutely blown apart to smithereens by Oxford. It was that game that made me realise you cannot save and reload like you can do in Football Manager; this was reality and time never goes back for anyone in real life. Come on Zeke, get it together... this is your beloved club, you're in charge of it. Donald constantly kept reminding me that it's only pre-season and that the board were backing me 100%. After that loss against Oxford, I knew I had to strengthen my defence, mainly the goalkeeper. So, I decided to cross my fingers and splash the cash on a new keeper and I converted the remaining transfer budget into the wage budget:

As I was finishing off my cup of coffee, the chairman sent me a text asking me to check my emails as it was urgent. My heart sank to my stomach, surely they're giving me the sack? Such a bad pre-season was bound to have its toll on me, but I never expected it to be this quick. My fingers went numb as I clicked on the new email:



Finally, the long awaited moment had arrived... It was time for my first league match as a manager.


Staines FC, bring it on.

Good luck

2013-10-23 19:10#139266 BayernAmerica : Good luck

Thanks, I've seen yours too it's pretty cool

Liking this story so far, keep up the good work:)

THE END

I'd started this story because I thought I wouldn't buy FM14, but that changed and now I've got it. I'll start a new story in FM14 with a similar team and similar storyline and I'll bring them to the top. Thanks for viewing my first posts for this story, I'll be back bigger, better and stronger next time