Search
On FM Scout you can chat about Football Manager in real time since 2011. Here are 10 reasons to join!

Ryan Ferguson - The Path To Power

Ryan Ferguson is back; but everything has changed!
Started on 14 September 2014 by Justice
Latest Reply on 11 October 2014 by Ziechael
  • POSTS94
  • VIEWS40118
Pages  
Justice's avatar Group Justice
10 yearsEdited


Hi guys!

Well, I'm back again for yet another Path To Power story but things are quite different this time. I've decided to start in slightly different circumstances to what I'm used to and I will try not to restrict myself to just one club on this adventure. I will be looking to find my way to the top of world football, starting from near the bottom, by either raising a club to become a side feared across the globe or by joining a club who is already successful. International management will also possibly be on my agenda, although nothing is certain as of yet. I can't promise that I will update regularly but I will try my best!

My Targets + Guidelines

My Aims:
  • To win a continental trophy
  • To win ten trophies
  • To win fifty trophies
  • To enter the Hall of Fame
  • To top the Hall of Fame

My Guidelines:
  • To develop young players wherever I go
  • To develop new, effective tactics
  • To be friendly towards other managers
  • To not sleep with the chairman's wife, unless she pays me

Who am I?



'Man from internet' has returned! It is Ryan Ferguson who will be deployed once again. However, instead of being a drug-addicted alcoholic as he was in his Luton adventure, he will start this journey from before he earns his coaching license. Born on 23rd November 1985, the twenty-seven year old Liverpudlian is of English and Spanish descent. He will look to complete his coaching course alongside an interesting set of colleagues to be prepared for whatever lies ahead. Wearing his shiniest shoes, his best-pressed suit and his cleanest tighty-whities, Ryan Ferguson is almost ready to step in to football management once more!

Index



Nyíregyháza Spartacus FC

great start man, i'm looking forward to this!
1
Ryan is BACK! Good luck Justice, I love your stories!
1
Yes Fergie has returned :D gl Justice
1
Get in! I can follow a Justice story from the start! :)
1
Yess! First Ryan Ferguson story I can follow from the start! Good luck Justice :D
1
Is this title ever going to be discontinued? :P

Either way, it's good to see Ryan Ferguson back - and very intriguing that he hasn't got his license in this one.
1
Justice's avatar Group Justice
10 yearsEdited

Back To School


I never paid much attention to my teachers in school. Endless hours of taking notes and learning definitions never sat well for me. Well, I did pay interest in one class, although Was not so much a student of general education then as I was of the beautiful game. What is the beautiful game? It's the one which captivates millions, if not billions, of people all around the world for a period of ninety minutes. The skill, the intensity, the atmosphere, the emotions. The made the beautiful game what it is; a game of two goals, twenty-two players and one ball. Some people call it soccer, I refer to it as what I believe it should be called. I call it football.

That being said, you would probably earn yourself one or two annoyed glares for mentioning the American term where I'm from. Although being a Scouser, you get used to the unusual. I grew up in a place known as Kirkby, where a legend of the game originated from. Liverpool's skipper and full-time hero Steven Gerrard was my childhood neighbour, and eventually my idol as I sat in my seat in Anfield's Kop End, cheering my team on through thick and thin. I was born with Liverpool blood in my veins and nothing excites me more than seeing the ball hit the back of the net and one of our own celebrating at the Kop End.

Stevie G was my neighbour as a child but his former team mate, Jamie Carragher, was my neighbour as I sat in class once more, listening to yet another lecture. Thankfully it was not a class on mathematics or science or history which we were sitting, but a class on football management as our small class of twelve continued our education of the game. You might have heard of some of the other students. Jamie Carragher, Joey Barton, Gary Neville, Paul Koncheskey, Nick Sherwood and Beth Felix were among the more high-profile students seeking their Pro License, alongside myself.

After today's lesson, only one more module was to be completed; a study of how a certain player would fit in if he were to move to a specific club. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, my task was to write a report on how the infamous Mario Balotelli would fit in if he were to move to Liverpool. I was fairly happy with my task. With the likes of Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge in Liverpool's side already, it would certainly be an interesting prospect to have another big-ego player in their ranks. Anyway, I like a challenge and I was willing to do as much research as I can so I could be successful in this module. Having already completed our general coaching, manager studies, tactical studies, football history and financial management modules, passing this module would grant me my UEFA Pro Coaching License, allowing me to manage any team in the world, subject to getting an actual offer, which seemed very unlikely to me at the time.

Enough thinking about the future, I still had a lot of work to do to produce a hopefully excellent report on how Balotelli would fit in at Liverpool were he to join my childhood club!




NOTE: I am playing on the 14.3 database with no editor files so transfers are as they were after the January 2014 transfer window.

Previous Update: Introduction
Next Update: Judgement Day - The Final Module
Nice update, interesting to see where this goes!
1
Yayyyyyy, a new Justice story! Good luck :)
1
Justice's avatar Group Justice
10 yearsEdited

Judgement Day - The Final Module


It was time to present my report for our final module. As explained before, I was required to create and present a report on how I believe Mario Balotelli would fit in at Liverpool, were he to make the switch to the Anfield club. After many hours of video analysis and many more hours of studying his records and behaviour, along with actually creating the report, I was finally ready to show my work to my fellow classmates.

Ryan Ferguson: "Mario Balotelli, born 12th August 1990, was conceived in Palermo to Ghanian immigrants, the Barwuah family. His family moved to Bagnolo Mella in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, when he was two. In 1993, local authorities suggested he be placed into foster care. The Barwuah family gave up the three-year-old boy to an Italian foster family, the Balotellis. His foster parents are Silvia, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors, and Francesco Balotelli. They lived in the town of Concesio, Brescia, in northern Italy. At first, he stayed at the Balotellis during the weekdays, and returned to his biological parents on weekends. But after a while he started to be indifferent towards his biological parents and adopted the surname of the Balotellis, and it was arranged for him to be permanently fostered by the Balotellis. Why am I telling you this? Well, I believe it shows his ability to settle in to new surroundings and make a home for himself wherever he goes.

Mario joined the ranks of Lumezzane in 2001 and made his senior team debut in 2006, aged fifteen. In 2007, Italian giants Internazionale purchased Mario Balotelli, initially in a co-ownership deal of €150,000, for a total sum of €340,000. In three years at the club, the exciting Italian youngster scored twenty goals in fifty-nine games for I Nerazurri, before departing for Manchester City in 2010 for the sum of €21.8M. His time at the up-and-coming Manchester club was marred by his poor disciplinary record and his inconsistency but his record of twenty-six goals in forty-three games is rather impressive. However, he fell out of favour with Roberto Mancini and departed for Milan once again for €20M, although this time to AC Milan. He has played just half a season at the club, scoring twelve goals in thirteen games since joining in January of this year.

If Mario Balotelli were to join Liverpool, there would be problems fitting in all their attackers, as one or two of Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling and Coutinho would have to be sacrificed. In my opinion, the best way to play would be to play a 4-3-2-1 system, with Balotelli up front and Suarez and Sturridge playing off of him in slightly deeper, yet wider, roles. Balotelli is the biggest presence in the air and his fellow attackers can use that to their advantage by winning flick ons or making runs off of him after some hold-up play. A midfield trio of Gerrard, Henderson and Allen would provide a great passing range for Balotelli & co.

What would Mario add to the current Liverpool side? Physically he's strong, sharp, agile, good in the air and has a great engine. Technically, he is very skillful, has a precise header, has a wonderful technique of hitting the ball and he possesses a menacing shot from open play, on the volley and even from set-pieces. Balotelli rarely loses his cool in big games as pressure rarely effects the Italian monster. However, his inconsistency and his low work rate might burden a strong Liverpool mentality and could potentially upset the group.

Would Mario Balotelli be a good capture for Liverpool? Yes, I think he would. Despite his issues, he is a talented player and I believe that Rodgers' motivational skills would break through the cloud in Mario's head and make him a better player. Thank you for listening to my presentation, I hope you learned from it."


I sat down anxiously after a high-tempo round of applause. Carra and Neville both whispered words of praise to me while Barton told me that he believes Balo came from a nut-house. The end of our final session arrived and we were each given a padded brown envelope containing either a certificate and our licenses or a commiserations sheet. Did I earn my qualification?




NOTE: Just remember that this is discounting the entire 2013/2014 season, as I have started in the summer of 2013.

Previous Episode: Back To School
Next Episode: The Job Hunt
Lovely graphic! And a nice update too! Excited to see how this pans out.
1
2014-09-14 16:55#194101 Josh_MU : Lovely graphic! And a nice update too! Excited to see how this pans out.
Thanks Josh, hopefully I can get far in to this save :P
Justice's avatar Group Justice
10 yearsEdited

The Job Hunt


Chuffed with earning my pro coaching license, the next week was a blur of drinking and night clubs as I looked to cloud out the harsh reality of the future from my mind. Yes, I know had a professional qualification but that wouldn't help me if I had no job opportunities to exercise my new degree in. I had no previous footballing experience, unless you counted winning the Champions League with Vauxhall Motors and Luton Town on Football Manager as relevant experience. I had successfully placed myself in the direction which I had wanted to go but with no direction and no plan.

My dream was to manage a top club to many trophies but everybody has to start from somewhere to reach that goal. For me, I did not wish to become part of another manager's coaching team unless I had no other alternative, as I wanted to be the main man. I wanted to be the guy running the shots. I did not want to be another man's slave. I also ruled out any opportunities in my home country of England, as I wanted to earn experience managing abroad in a country which didn't rely on money or media power to earn success in football. I suppose that took the likes of Spain, Italy and Germany out of the equation too. I wanted to go somewhere where footballing roots were strong but wasn't governed by money.

With that in mind, I set about putting my name out in to the pool of other eager managers looking for a job. Did I have anything that gave me an advantage over the other free-agent managers? On paper, I did not. Everybody was ambitious, but realistic, too. The job hunt was tightly contested for many months until one day, when I earned myself an interview with a club in the Swedish Division 1 Norra called Nyköpings BIS. I had a Skype interview with their director, Lars Wessman, in three days time. It was my time to impress, could I earn myself the job?





Previous Post: Judgement Day - The Final Module
Next Post: A Nervous Meeting
Tough challenge there, but I think we all know nothings too much for you in this game :P Good luck man! :D
1

You are reading "Ryan Ferguson - The Path To Power".

FMS Chat

Stam
hey, just wanted to let you know that we have a fb style chat for our members. login or sign up to start chatting.