Sporting Director : A Different Approach to FM

I know there are a bunch of different "return to glory" stories so I wanted to take a different approach. I've been lurking/posting on FMScout/FM-Base as well as other forums and I don't think I've seen or read a story portrayed as the DoF before, although I'm sure I'm not the first one. I first read about playing as a Director of Football through Tea and Busquets and I always make sure every year, I make one save where this is my position.

What is a Sporting Director?

A Sporting Director is someone who overseas the "business" side of football. It is a more common role in leagues other than England, but Premier League teams are starting to realise the potential of such a role. They recruit players, coaching staff, renew contracts and in some cases even implement a philosophy.

Take Ralf Ragnack former RB Leipzig Sporting Director for example. He is responsible for the philosophy of the football club, recruiting players for the desired philosophy, hiring suitable managers for the philosophy and even assigning players to reserve and first teams. As far as transfers goes, he is the main decision maker with Chief Scout and Manager used as only advisors.

Then look at someone like Txiki Begiristain at Manchester City. He operates in a quite limited role as Sporting Director. He is still in charge of the majority of things behind scenes like contract renewals and negotiating transfers, however Pep has the last say and is in charge of the clubs philosophy and club vision.


How do we become a Director of Football?

While we cannot officially become a Director of Football, we can assign staff responsibilities so we can simulate the role. We cannot hire a proper manager as we are still the "manager". We will have to hire a Assistant Manager instead who will act as our Manager. It isn't perfect and we do get mixed results, but it is a lot of fun.


Responsibilities

We are going to be taking on a more hands on approach like Ralf Ragnick.

We will be in charge of:

-The overall philosophy and vision of the club from the bottom up
-Finance budgeting
-Hiring and firing of all staff members
-Tactical design
-Youth pathways
-Implement a scouting network and scouting strategy
-Using our scouting network and excel spreadsheet analysis to identify targets that fit our tactical system
-Transfer negotiations
-Contract renewals
-Assign players to the different teams of the club using coach's reports (First team, U23, Youth)
-New signing press conferences

What we won't be doing:

-Team selection
-Adjusting tactics against different opponents
-Training
-Other press conferences


Few rules

-We are going to make ourselves unsackable for the sake of the story/challenge
-We will never intervene in any of the areas that aren't our responsiblity
-As for scouting, players have to have 100% scouting knowledge to be signed, no using lists from the internet and just searching them.

I always gravitate towards teams who have reserve teams in the same league setup. I believe it is more fun and rewarding seeing your reserve team climb through the bottom leagues to the second division. It also gives your players real game time.
However as the Premier League is moving towards a DoF model, there is one team that stands out and is in dire need of a Sporting Director with clear vision.



Till next time

Interesting idea. Best of luck!

Really like this idea and will follow along, despite the fact your using my supported clubs biggest Rivals

I echo the previous comments, really interesting idea and one I look forward to following!

A very interesting idea to take on, I hope this continues!

Liking the idea of this, look forward to seeing how your approach fares.

Tactical Philoshpy, Squad Analysis and Pathways

Lets get stuck into it. First thing I always do is determine how I want to play. Since 04/05 I've always played 2 different formations/styles of play. Around 13/14 I started dabbing in strikerless models. The 3 are

4-2-3-1/4-3-3 fast paced attacking
3-4-3 possession based
4-3-3-0 strikerless based on the magnificent work at Strikerless.com (dare to think outside the box)

For me, it just wouldn't feel right going to Manchester United and implementing a slow, European possession based philosophy. 4-2-3-1 is solid and would provide an excellent base. However, every second team I will come against the same formation. So let's dare to dream.



Obviously it isn't going to be a cut and paste, but the idea will be the same. Will have to make some sort of tweaks, the first would be implementing a deeper line and playing with the player roles a bit, but this formation has always excited me.

Lets take a look at the first team squad








As you can see, its a decent squad but does lack some depth. I like to apply a rule that I'm sure others also apply, which is called the "times 3" rule. I make sure that every position has 3 players able to play there. 3 different players. One first choice, one backup and one prospect. So if we play 2 centrebacks, we would need 3 for the LCB and 3 for the RCB. First thing I'm going to do is implement this. It also gives us a pretty good scope of our needs for the squad.




Glaring hole in midfield as we don't have a starting midfielder to play along side one of Bruno/Pogba. I don't believe Tuanzbe and Williams to be 2nd choice yet, may change. Few prospects here and there need to be signed up but those aren't of real concern.

Lee Grant, Jesse Lingard and Phil Jones are deemed a surplus and will be moved on.

So for this transfer window, I believe we need the following

-LCB
-RCB
-LB
-CM

With CM taking huge priority over the rest.



Youth Pathways

Having a youth pathway I think is one of the most important things you can implement in your save. Having a structured system that each player has to go through, regardless of ability is a mainstay for some of the biggest academies in the world.

Each player needs to fulfill checklists before moving on to the next stage in the system.

This will be my Youth Pathway for Manchester United

-Each youth team to have 18 players in each. Best 11 +7 subs.
-Player must play a minimum of 1 full season in each team.
-Players who have graduated from U23 then must be sent to our affiliate in the Championship for 1 season.
-Players in the U23 who are talented, will join in on First team training sessions.
-Players at the age of 19 who haven't graduated from U23 will then be sent on loan.
-Maximum age for the U23 team is 21.

Till next time

Good to see you have set out a clear plan for the youth and hopefully this will be stuck to. The squad has some holes in it for sure but with some smart recruitment it is definitely a team that can start to challenge again.

A clear strategy is in place. The hard part is ensuring it is executed correctly.

Backroom Staff

First point of call, is our "manager"

We need someone who is has high Man Management, Tactical Knowledge, Determination, Adaptibility and Motivation. JPA and JPP are massive bonuses. Also since we will be using our own tactic, he will need to know a 4-3-3 or similar formation

2 candidates immediately jump out

Rui Faria and Juan Carcedo

Carcedo has better secondary stats like JPP and JPA, also has a similar formation/tactical style to our philosophy.

We, however have decided to go with





Rui has way better primary stats. The adaptability stat is amazing, plus with the added bonus of chipping in with fitness coaching, its too much to turn down.



Coaching



A lot of 3 star and even 2 1/2 star areas that need work. Lets see what we can do





Much better, mostly 4 and 4 1/2 now.

We also improved all our physio's and sports scientists. I however won't be touching Scouts or Data Analysts. As you all know Man Utd have 30+ scouts for 15 slots, I'm not sure if I mut terminate their contracts if I can replace them. I honestly can't remember.

Also won't be touching our HoYD, Nick Cox. Guy has amazing mental stats and would love for my youth products to be the same, even though his working with youth and JPA could be better.

For now, I am happy with the current backroom, but will still need work in the coming seasons.

Till next time

(next post will be the longest since it will detail the scouting network and recruitment strategy in place)

Rui Faria is definitely the ideal candidate for the role.

Recruitment Strategy

Recruitment is what basically makes or breaks a club and its effects can last for periods on end. Bad recruitment can cripple a club due to missing out on specific targets such as European football.

Take Newcastle's recruitment of Saint-Maixmin, Almiron and Joelington. Overall outlay of 82m for minimal improvement, even though Saint-Maximin has shown brilliance, Newcastle have struggled offensively and currently sit 13th on the Premier League table. On the other hand a club like Leicester has brought in Maddison, Ndidi and Ricardo for 62m. These 3 are key pieces in the side that is at the time of writing, 2nd on the table.

A lot more goes into recruitment other than just plucking players out of a giant hat. A general plan is in place, that target specific regions, leagues and type of players. Ours will be no different


-Target young players to enter our youth setup

First, we want to make sure we have the pick of the bunch when it comes to talented young players. We want to get them into our system before they start rising up in value and attracting different teams. We want first dibs. This will be our focal point and will expend most of our resources into this area as this is the key to our sustainability.

-Find value in the transfer market for bridge/stop gaps and depth players

Finding value for depth and bridge players will be an integral part of our system. Bridge player is someone who fills the gap when there is a young player who is extremely talented, but isn't quite ready. An outlay for 4-5m for a squad player is better than spending 50m on an elite player when in 3 years, you'll have 2 elite players in the same position and you won't be able to recuperate the money you lost. Also scouring through transfer listed players is a way to grab great value for our depth players.

-Best of the best, no matter what the cost

When we are buying a player for the first 11/long term, they need to be best of the best. Will not be wasting money on very good players, when there will be an elite player available somewhere else.

For instance, if we need a CB for the first team, my line of thinking would go something like this:

Is there a talented player in our system? Age 16-17? Buy best of the best. Age 18+? Buy value. None? Buy Elite and Young talented.

When we buy a world class player like this, we always want to make sure we have another player like him, coming through the ranks, which is why we pair buying an elite player with an elite talent.

I have found buying players to replace your weakest link to be the most effective way of improving your squad. Even buying Messi when you have De Bruyne or Pogba seems like a waste. However signing someone like Andy Robertson when you have Fabian Delph, seems like good strategy

Scouting Network

Now we have our recruitment strategy, its time to implement a scouting network. I read an article the other day while researching for this project that had an interview with a chief scout from top European club. They said that France and Germany have the most complete and successful players overall. Spain and Netherlands have the most technical. Mexico and Portugal have some of the most natural gifted players, but its often not nurtured properly from a young age.

So for our focal point of our recruitment strategy of gathering youngsters for our systems, these are the areas we will spend our resources on. France, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico, Portugal and of course the 2 others, Brazil and Argentina. Having only 8 nations to focus on gives me the opportunity to go further in depth in these nations with proven talent. Sure, I may miss out on the wonderkid from Angola or China, but I'm willing to do that to get the consistent 160 PA from Germany every year and the 190PA every 5 years, instead of the 199 from Russia every 20 years.

We will be sending out "ongoing" scouts to these nations with instructions of 18 and under, PA of 4 stars and above. We want the best of the best, nothing else will cut the mustard here.

For value, the former chief scout said the best value is always in the French, Portuguese and Dutch leagues. They are competitive and physical enough to attract talented players, while also attracting the right type of players. Dutch leagues often get South American players, Scandinavian and eastern European players, Portuguese league get a lot of South American players and French leagues get African players due to dual nationalities, which is incredibly handy, seeing as the clubs from these leagues, can pretty much do the scouting for us and act as a testing ground for players that are outside our scouting network or sometimes, have slip through.

Instructions will be sent to these 3 leagues as ongoing, PA of 130+, value less than 15m. Transfer listed is a bonus.

Our final part is pretty straight forward. Best players in the world. I want a database of the best players in the world in every position. If i need a LB for our first 11, I can choose from there.


Another little network thing that I do is go through every nations u19/21 teams. I will be adding players I see fit for our initial screening process.


Shortlisting

So now that we have 2000+ players in our scout network, how do we translate that, to a potential signing? My screening process is pretty simple to begin with. Just scout recommendation. They all are jammed into an initial screening shortlist for more scouting. From there, they are screened again, this time being divided up to our 3 separate shortlists that align with our recruitment policy, Youth-Value-World Class. From here, they are all scouted by our chief scout to 100%. Sure, we may miss out on a couple of players, but this has been very successful for me throughout the years.

Signing players

Now that our shortlists are full of potential signings, how do we know which player is the right fit? Well, this is where our excel comes into it. First, we need to identify attributes that align with our tactical philosophy.

We have 4 attacking attributes (Vision, Agility, Balance, Technique), 4 defending attributes (Positioning, Strength, Tackling, Marking) and 5 neutral attributes (First touch, Passing, Anticipation, Decisions, Composure) that are calculated into both. I also have 2 intangible stats that are professionalism and home grown. Home grown is a combination of both played/playing in the league and grown a club from our league.

Many people using FM use something like this. Make an average of both attacking and defensive stats, add in your intangibles and viola, you have a basic player analysis model.

Lets take 3 similar players and put them into our spreadsheet, using our player analysis model.



As you can see, Luka Modric is the best player for our club, based on our model. However, this is just a huge guideline. We must use our own feelings or common sense in different situations.


We are almost ready to play

Till next time.

Absolutely love the insight here! I'm looking forward to you delving into the save and providing this level of analysis.

Wow. Fantastic in depth analysis of your transfer plans, I really like where you're going with this and hope your ideas translate to success for the club under Rui Faria.

Wow this is a fascinating save, I had a similar idea a while back but I never tried it. I think I might now!