Leyton Orient - An Irish Man's new home

This is the first time I have ever attempted to write a story about my Football Manager exploits, I have read numerous ones finding them very entertaining and feel I have story of my own to tell. Any advice is very welcome thanks!

The team I could never leave is Leyton Orient, if you want a story about a manager only wanting to get himself to the top then stop reading now, this is about the club that took me in and showed me loyalty in darker days.

My love for Leyton Orient started when I got Football Manager 2009 after seeing my friend playing it. I had a few seasons as mega rich Arsenal and loved it but after a couple of seasons it got a bit stale with having a lot of money with no need to spend it. I started a new game as MK Dons (now known as 'the enemy') in League One, mainly because they had a decent stadium with a pretty good transfer budget and a squad that could achieve something special. With a league including Leeds and Leicester I felt play off promotion would be the aim with a team only expecting a mid table finish. The first season went amazingly well (sorry for no stats but this was 5 years ago and I am surprised how much I remember even now!!!) I achieved a 3rd place finish in a very competitive league and faced Darlington in the Playoff Semi-Finals going 3-1 down at home after the first leg I wasn't hold out much hope in the second leg away. How wrong I was, the score reversed 3-1 making it 4-4 and we headed to penalties where we won!!

Unfortunately in the next game, big spending (and underachieving) Leicester City won 3-1 to end my promotion hopes :(. Heading into my second season with the club I probably showed how little I knew about the game, I had no scouting networks set up and didn't really have any players lined up as targets. I pretty much stuck with the same bunch as the season before and added a few young English men to my ranks. Something you will see which I didn't realise at the time is the home nation players never play well for me with the exception of one or two but I can never seem to get the balance right with them, to quote Red in Shawshank "It must be because I'm Irish."

To start the second season I confidently told the board I would win the league exceeding their minimum hope of a play off spot. This was a major error as my team suffered greatly from second season syndrome and the results were poor. By late September I was sitting mid-table and the board got fed up and sacked me, hence why they earned the name 'the enemy' for their disloyalty to me! Having never been unemployed in the game before and I was simply lost, I went on holiday and applied for any job going and got two offers, one from Yeovil and the other from my soon to be beloved Leyton Orient. I had no idea which side to choose from and only chose the O's because they were in a slightly higher position in League 2 than Yeovil, both clubs offered no transfer budget and very little wage budget but the O's it was! In the second half of that season I guided them to 3rd in League 2 and enough for automatic promotion. Again going into League 1 I was offered no transfer funds at all and could only take them to a mid table finish, in my second season in League 1 I was getting a bit bored, the team had a few unknown then but now heroes such as FA Cup winner Ben Watson but it looked like I needed some money to get promoted. During a game against Leicester (who got relegated after one season in the Championship) my team went 3-0 down up to the 60min and then made a remarkable comeback to 3-3 that probably cemented my love of the club. Leicester sacked their manager after that game and offered my 10mill and a huge wage budget to take over which I couldn't refuse, I ended up buy the whole Orient team for vast sums but it was never the same even though I got promoted with many of the players providing good back ups.

Quickly getting bored of Leicester in the Championship I decided to restart the game with Leyton Orient from the start, with a 50k transfer budget and 2k in wages left I got to work releasing loan players that were a burden on my wages. Signing cheap players mostly from the Northern Irish League (I have to use my local knowledge) I gained promotion to the championships by winning the league. After a couple of seasons messing around in the Championship we got to the Premier League but it was bitter sweet because most of the players that got me from league 1 to the prem league at this stage were older and not able to contribute (I had not yet developed a ruthless streak for getting rid of players).

After the promotion my girlfriend bought me Football Manager 12 and so there was only one team to pick! I have been manager of Leyton Orient 19 long years creating history along the way!

This first story wasn't suppose to be so long but if you all would like I can give you a very short break down of my journey with Leyton Orient in FM12 from Agogo to Adebayor, from Rennella to Rooney and to the new Ronaldo!!

If you don't want to hear it I am planning to start Football Manager 14 this weekend and will be updating my story!

Finally another Leyton Orient story.

Welcome to the board and good luck with the story. I will definitely be following.

The O´s is a fun team to manage even if you don’t have a lot of money to spend in the beginning.

Northwood - Thanks very much game downloaded so just waiting on it to setup!!

Good luck Rory, Will be reading

So it begins!!


My journey with Leyton Orient is about to begin, if I can match the Honours from my FM12 game shown below it should make for some good reading.
As this is my first story any advice or changes you would like me to make is fine

A good Pre-season (results wise)


Well its begun and I am sadly missing FM12 with my all star team and high list of honours. I have to admit I am struggling with the many added features to this game and feel my new signing haven’t been that impressive but I will leave that there and finish August before updating you on them!!

Pre-season went very well a win against QPR was the highlight in a game I went 3-0 up in the first half before becoming sloppy in the second. A loss in the last game took the wind out of me abit.

I will update you all tonight or early tomorrow with the first month of competitive fixtures but all I can say is if you know any gems out there for no money let me know because this game is so different to what I am use to!

Those are a great set of honours from your FM12 save. Lets hope you can emulate them!

denzy - thanks very much an update to follow soon

James237 - let's hope indeed but this game is a huge step up for me

A mixed set of results and a transfer window mess up

The title summarises Augusts update unfortunately.

Lets start with the transfers, only two left and they were Gary Sawyer (LB) and Kevin Lesbie (CF), in hindsight I probably would have kept Sawyer but both players wages were restricting me in the market.

We have got Liverpool as a parent club which I am sure will help in the future with loan players

Transfers IN

First up is Brad Smith a young left to replace Sawyer on the bench, he is a free loan signing from Liverpool



Next up we have Tom Lawrence from Man Utd on loan again, he joined quite late on in the window and is just getting to full fitness so will have to update on him later



We then have Damien Mozika, he joined on trial at first and looked to adapt quickest to my tactics and fit in quite well with the rest of the team. He is a decent enough rotation player especially with a key injury I had to a midfielder.



Panic Buy on the season and just an awful decision goes to Jody Morris! My midfield looked a bit bare and after a few drinks last night I remembered him from FM12 being a decent we veteran, so when his agent came calling I jumped. Ohh Dear! Injured for 4weeks a day after signing



Liam Boyce is the perfect example of 'my heart ruling my head' I went to school and played football for 7 years with Liam and so when I saw him in game with decent potential I thought lets give it a go. Might still come good if he gets a run of games but cost me far too much money at 60k.



This is it for the update, one will follow soon about how I fair in the fixture list but if everyone could pray its better than the transfer market!

August Report

I started brightly with two away wins, the tie against AFC Wimbleton proved tougher than the media predicted. With my players struggling for fitness I really didn't want this going into extra time.

Exhaustion could have been the cause for the draw against Shrewbury with an 86min goal by them taking the shine off a very good performance by my team.

There was no excuse for the loss against Stevenage, my team couldn't do anything right and their team played like Barcalona! After this loss I decided I needed to take abit of time and learn more about the tactics and ways to set up the team.

Clearly this worked as I had a huge win of 4-0 against Crewe in the next game where I had 4 different goal scorers.

Crystal Palace deserved the win but I felt we should have at least got a goal in the game because there was times when we dominated possession.

The last game against Colchester ended a nervy 1-0 in my favour which showed me my side can grind out a result even when they arn't playing the best which will no doubt do my well over the season!!



I was pleasantly surprised by my league position at the end of the month, thinking after a few poor results I would be lucky to be in a play off spot, however....



Yes I am 2nd in the table although joint with quite alot of people I am happy with how the team has performed with my new tactics which involve direct passing, high tempo and a huge amount of closing down. We seem to be hurrying the opponents into just humping the ball up field which is fine by me because my CB Baudry seems to be one of the best in the league.

Next month finishes with a tricky fixture against Brentford and I have a feeling if I can be in the top two by month end I am set up to get promoted this season.

My Player of the Month - David Mooney - He has chipped in with a few goals and basically assisted all the rest.

Solid start.
I also signed Tom Lawrence so it will be interesting to see how he develops in your story.

Northwood - This is a strange old league! An explanation of that will come tonight!

Tom is an interesting one, not really sure how to play him yet

Don't Start Dreaming September/October Report

When we last spoke I was second in the league after one month and daring to dream history could repeat itself and I would just a successful in this file as in previous.



After the international break we scraped through against lowly Portvale and I started to fear this could be a tough month, especially with the other three team we had to play doing well. We then destroyed Notts County in a match that even shocked me!!

The the game against Brentford I already highlighted as highly important and we ran out 4-1 winners away from home, I still can't believe it to this day!

Then the only sour note of the month, a lost at home to highflying Walsall, who if you remember were top by 5 points the at August end. The signs weren't good in this game and I was furious with the players I picked and also myself for choosing this game to bleed some players in and rest others. An injury time goal made the scoreline look better but they took their only 2 chances and we didn't take our multiple.

Soo Where would I be come the end of September, find out a little late.


Player of the Month - Michael Baudry - He was a rock at the back and chipped in with a few goals from corners too, David Mooney continued to be very impressive scoring quite a few and assisting again this month but Michael gets my vote.

October

Frustrating and strange is what I would use to sum up the month of October. I played poorly, but still remained undefeated. However 3 draws against Oldham, Tranmere and Rotherdam in what I consider to be the most frustrating matches I have managed. My teams seems to show great heart because in 2 of these games we came back from 1-0 in the first half however we can never completed turn the score line around.

A 3-0 win against promotion rivals MK Dons (the enemy) was a very nice feeling for myself personally and for the the team. Coventry have being doing very well in the league despite a 10point reductions and would be challenging for top if not for it, so a victory there was a great one.

Lastly the win in the JPT was a must for me, I want to win the cup badly, my Leyton Orient from FM12 won the trophy and got promoted and it has always annoyed my I never got to defend my cup. So this is a must win trophy for me personally.



Player of the Month Michael Baudry - Again a rock for the second week running, he can do no wrong even though his partners in CB seem intent on putting him to the test with numerous red cards between them mean I am filling holes every game.

An Honourable mention must be given to Liam Boyce, a player I had my doubts would ever repay the money I spent. He had been the only disappointment the board had reported in the last 2 monthly reports. But I feel this is unfair, he chipped in with a few goals, with some coming in the last moments which is always a good feeling!!

September table:



October table:

Hey everyone,

cheers for reading can I just ask you all would it be better for me to change the way I am writing the story to a more first person view from a managers perspective ie talk about board meetings and player requests in more detail? Would this make it more appealing and interesting to read? Thanks