Here I was thinking Bond would be too over the top for a realist like you, but it falls into the Skyfall plot nicely haha

2014-12-07 16:01#203034 Feliks : Here I was thinking Bond would be too over the top for a realist like you, but it falls into the Skyfall plot nicely haha

Tallery 007 boring?!
Icarus I knew the secret was safe with you :*
Josh_MU 007LAD
pompeyblue Yup!!
Justice lmao so true.
Paddy James Bond is becoming a football manager!
Feliks You were the one I first told, you just didn't realise :')
Nealão #bandwagon tx bb

Meeting James Bond

Not known by many, if any people in the world of football, James Bond arrives at Hermandad Gallega FC with little to no experience of senior football management and will have his work cut out at Los Gallegos in the upcoming Venezuelan Lower Division season.

The Englishman, who was born in London on the 11th of November, 1977, arrives at the Carabobo club with an aura of mystery surrounding him as he seems to have arrived from out of nowhere.

With no record of any previous managerial experience or any information on him at all for that matter, Bond's performance as head honcho is hard to predict. Some say he's destined to fail with a depleted Hermandad Gallega outfit in need of a spark.

Bond himself has cut a reserved figure with the media, when he decides to meet the press. So far he's decided to shun the media in favour of working on the training ground and trying to prepare his side for the league season ahead.


NOTE: I'd just like to apologise for the lack of activity on this story. It's been a while since I updated because it's summer over here and I'm outside for the majority of the day - limiting my FM playing time, and plus - there's no internet until January where I am. I have pre-written updates so expect a little more activity in the coming days!

Snubbing the media, wowow. Anyway, I was wondering which Bond you were using?

Snubbing the media is understandable, but surely in this day and age people would find out Bond is managing a football club

James Bond as a football manager, now that is interesting! Perhaps there is even a criminal mastermind also posing as a manager is the same league, now that would be quite something

Neal Just the character in general, but he'd look like Connery
Feliks Ok you tell me the latest managerial appointment in the Venezuelan third division
TheOtherSpecialOne That would be quite something indeed

Bond may be a super skilled secret agent, but can he mastermind a victory on a hot, humid day in San Felix, against Estudiantes de Caroní FC?

2014-12-24 00:10#204370 pompeyblue : Bond may be a super skilled secret agent, but can he mastermind a victory on a hot, humid day in San Felix, against Estudiantes de Caroní FC?

lmao, pompeyblue you have officially won the internet for a bit, congratulations

Setting the Foundations

Hermandad Gallega Football Club were founded in 1998 and are based in the city of Valencia, Carabobo. They play their home games at the Polideportivo Misael Delgado, which they share with crosstown friends and Liga Movistar outfit Carabobo. The club boasts below average training facilities and basic youth facilities. The junior coaching is graded at fairly basic and our youth recruitment network is limited. The club goes by the nickname of 'Los Gallegos'.

The club has an empty trophy cabinet and it will be my job to ensure that in the next few years there will be trophies that need polishing every week. The club has never even been in contention for many trophies and a search on the internet sheds little light on this club's small and somewhat insignificant history.

I assigned the first training sessions to my assistant manager, who I retained at the club due to the replacement options being less than adequate. Whilst he oversaw that I started to observe some of the skills of my players and the team as a whole, and that would shape how my tactics would be constructed for the season ahead.

The Squad

As you can see our team is a fairly basic one with a few standout players. I feel our attacking options are plentiful and we already have a surefire way of getting goals - through crosses. We have two quality wingers in Victor Archila on the right flank and on the opposite side Freddy Granados. Although he's naturally a central attacking midfielder I feel he can do an adequate job on the left.


Upfront we have quite the attacking duo. Jesús Reyes has to be the clear best at this club. Watching him waltz around our reserves in training made me cringe as much as clap as he ran the show. I feel he can offer us more than just goals and he has to be the fulcrum of our team. Partnering him up top is Eduardo Cañas, a plain and simple target man. From the dugout he looks to be a player who can head the ball much better than anyone else on the team which is great for bringing others into the action. His finishing and strength are also beneficial.


The rest of the team is acceptable and I think only a few additions will be made. I haven't been given a war chest, in fact I've barely got a penny to spend. Therefore I'll have to adjust my budgets in order to find some free agents that'd be interested in joining my club and that could add some much needed depth to this squad.

Tactics

Due to the four attacking players in our team I think a 4-2-2-2 or a 4-2-4 Wide is the best way to go. If we utilise the speed and crossing of our flanks and the heading machine that is Eduardo Cañas we will be in good stead

Finally, I organised a preseason with the help of my assistant manager. It was already partially in place but I felt the need to chop and change a few fixtures in order for the players' fitness to be optimized ahead of the new season. I can confirm we began preseason with an intra-squad friendly, which we won 7-3 courtesy of those front four attacking men.

2014-12-23 20:21#204408 Walter :

2014-12-24 00:10#204370 pompeyblue : Bond may be a super skilled secret agent, but can he mastermind a victory on a hot, humid day in San Felix, against Estudiantes de Caroní FC?

lmao, pompeyblue you have officially won the internet for a bit, congratulations

Why, thank you

Crosstown friends Carabobo? Since when are crosstown teams friends? Especially when they share a ground

pompeyblue No problem
Feliks That was meant to be rivals, yes

Los Gallegos Preseason: 2014

The first game of our preseason training camp took place on home soil when we scheduled the intra-squad friendly against our Hermandad Gallega Reserves team. I think the team looked to impress me in this match and despite our lowly opposition our lethal touch in front of goal was eye-catching. Particular standouts were my star striker Jesús Reyes and his partner in crime Eduardo Cañas. They both worked well together with the former playing the poacher role and the latter becoming the target man. We also had some great service from winger Freddy Granados. I thought the only negative was the fact we managed to concede thrice to our reserves but I will give the team time.


Following on from the intra-squad friendly we came back to the Polideportivo Misael Delgado for another local friendly but this against lowly fourth division outfit Valencia (not to be confused with the Spanish La Liga side). In this match it was again our front line duo of Cañas and Reyes who stole the show. They both exchanged goals before the former made way for 21-year old Dervis Barrera, who also popped up on the hour mark to open his account. Altogether a fantastic performance and the clean sheet we attained is another positive, with all the defence doing their duty.


A short journey to the west of the Carabobo state of Valencia took us into Yaracuy, and more specifically the Florentino Oropeza, in San Felipe. That was the venue for our exhibition match versus Atlético Yaracuy of the Venezuelan Regional Division. Again we found our smaller opposition easy and won by a comfortable five goal margin. There were no particular standouts this game as I felt the whole team played well. It was also good to see yet another clean sheet, that makes two in three games and we're growing more confident after every good result.


This had to be the shock result out of all the friendlies. I went into this game against Arroceros de Calabozo thinking we'd be blown out of the water and be brought right back down to earth. Well was I proven wrong. Even after telling the players it was only about the fitness they still delivered a marvellous performance. Eduardo Cañas again took the plaudits as he netted a superb hat trick. Jesús Reyes also scored another and our fourth goal came through an own goal by their defender. Not only keeping a clean sheet against a second division side but thrashing them by five goals to nil is surely a good sign. I'm not going to get carried away, however, and I think we still need to keep our heads down and focus.


The preseason was rounded off at lowly Bejuma FC and the result was never really in doubt. There's no prizes for guessing who managed to score four goals, as our target man Eduardo Cañas really hit first gear in this game, and Jesús Reyes also put his name on the scoreboard. The only worry about this game was the two goals conceded so I don't want to see the defenders going back to old habits in terms of complacency and their mindset. I'm sure they'll switch on once competitive football arrives, however.

Player of Preseason

I can't really think of a more suitable nominee for this unofficial prize. All credit goes to Eduardo Cañas for really showing his worth to me and cementing his place in the side for a few weeks to come. What I really enjoyed about his performances were how he brought others into play with little flicks and so on as well as just hitting the back of the net consistently.

The Month Ahead