The Alphabet Challenge FM2020 Edition (Cancelled -- technical issues).

After doing a few one-club saves on FM 20 I've decided to go on a mega-hard long challenge -- The Alphabet.

The Rules:

1. I have to start as a Sunday League footballer with no coaching badges at a youngest possible age;
   
2. I have to start unemployed;
   
3. I have to manage clubs with their names in alphabetical order, so I start unemployed, wait for a job from a club with A as the first letter in the name, sign contract with the first one to make an offer, win the top domestic competition and Champions League with that club, then go unemployed and wait for an offer from a club with a name starting with B, and repeat that cycle for each letter of the english alphabet. If I get sacked, I can only go to a club of the same letter.

That's it for the rules. I really hope that this save will become an exiting journey both for me and for you, the readers.
I really hope for some feedback from you guys, because that's my first FM story ever.

I want to give credit to:

• STG, for giving me the core idea;
  
• Bodal, for inspiring to make that idea more challenging
• FMBlake, for creating this wonderful banner at the top.

P.S.: next post will be an introduction of my manager for the series,

A ridiculously hard challenge, but one I look forward to seeing. Good luck

Setup for the save
I have every original FM20 country loaded and expanded lower leagues with custom databases (links will be provided in a separate post).

About 200000 players loaded, no nations in "View-Only" mode, so simulating will be very, very slow.

Enough about techy stuff, let me introduce our hero for the series!
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Another year of my life is gone. I can't even remember how old I am -- and it's not like this information is really needed. The three things that don't let me end this all are football, motorsports, and studying aerodynamics in the St. Petersburg' Federal University... I wonder -- where did it all go wrong for me?
"-Hi Lev, happy Birthday mate!
-If I only knew who's talking...
-It's me, Max. Listen, I've got a surprise for you here, I'm sure you'll love it!...
-Well, i'd rather stay home for today, kinda tired, you know...
-Dude, come on, this really isn't a normal birthday present, it could change your whole life!
-Alright, OK, I'm coming. At least tell me what do I have to wear, I'm sure it's some kind of a party.
-It isn't. You better prepare your suitcase, because you're going on a trip! Ok, get to the airport. Hurry up, I've got your ticket.
-Excuse me?!!
-Stop lingering, come on, move!

Meet Lev Shevel, a depressed student. He never played in a professional football match, and didn't play in any amateur match since the last PE lesson at school, which was two years ago, but he plays a lot of FM, has about 5'500h on all editions since FM 10. He absolutely loves football and dreams about becoming a manager of a real team, even of a regional-based one, but he is never sure if he should go for that move. His second passion are motorsports, specifically Formula 1, and that's why he studies aerodynamics.
At this time he doesn't yet know what awaits him on that plane trip, but it is something amazing -- probably the biggest opportunity in the years gone by.

Quick note: I am not trying to add a story here, this is just for introduction.
Also, here are my Advanced options:

A hunt for an A job
With lower leagues loaded the most challenging thing isn't actually getting the job -- it is all about leaving it someday.

Plenty of opportunities actually coming in from Germany's 6th tier, French lower leagues, etc., so yes, it will be really, really challenging to complete the "A" objective.
I will attach a progress-monitoring spreadsheet to the next post, just in case someone will also be interested in doing this challenge along with me.
One more thing should be said: I will not be using the Pre-Game Editor or Genie Scout to scout players, because realism. I also disabled the use of In-Game Editor, as seen in the post above.

It takes 15+ seconds to simulate 1 day with no matches out of the transfer window, that's a lot.

Got a random interview with Baranovichi from Belarus, but declined. Rules are rules!

Also got 42 more interviews which I will attend and then pick the better options.

And here it is, the best move possible. 1,1k/week is a lot for a starting wage, and in German 6th division 1,1k of wage budget will really help. Season goals are not that hard to achieve too, mid-table and 1/8 of the local cup.

And yes, the deal is done, I am now the manager of ASC Dortmund.

Pre-season and first ever transfer window
ASC Dortmund is a semi-professional German club with local reputation playing on Aplerbecker Stadium.
In real life the club is part of a sportive association, and not the main part. They were found in 1909, so yes, plenty of resemblances to Borussia Dortmund.
Training and youth facilities are poorly developed, which is normal for 5th tier in Germany.



I signed a few players after the first two matches, and these signings immediately improved the situation, as we scored 3,5 times more in last two games than in first ones.
Transfers

Signing players for 0 euros transfer fee is exciting. I will actually try to bring in more people, as we really need a new CB and LB.
Out of those people only three are interesting:
Daniel Beiersdorfer

The only stand-out features are passing (he plays in central midfield, so will be useful) and Leadership, I might actually make him our captain.
Dominik Titz

4 goals in 3 friendlies he apperared in - he will hopefully have similar statistics in the league. I'll be using him as a Pressing Forward.
Adam Drury

I consider him to be my biggest success on the transfer market. A right winger, previously played for Man City, agreed to quite a low contract... Have already done well in friendlies, will be our main chance creator this season.
Season goals
Midtable would be superb to achieve, as we are predicted to finish 12th this season, we can do better, but still. There are no promotion/relegation playoffs, so top two teams get to a higher division, but I don't think there is any need for us to get promoted, I'll better take it slow (if, obviously, we won't be on an unbeaten run for the whole season). Cup run would be appreciated, as there are 3-4 3.Bundesliga teams in Westfalenpokal.

There is one gigantic problem though, as players under-17 are not allowed to be registrated or used in matches, so half of my squad immediately gets discarded into U-19s.

All the best mate!

Starting the regular season and figuring out the tactics

Rounding off the transfer window

Not too much news on that front, just two major free signings:
Christian Kaes

This will probably be his final year in professional (well, semi-) football, hopefully he will join club as a coach/assistant manager after retirement.
Aaron Egner

Will hopefully score 2, maybe 3 goals this season... My system doesn't really let forwards become goal machines.
Season start - Oberliga Westfalen/WestfalenPokal (2019/2020)

After losing first two matches I've revised the tactics, it took 3 friendly leagues (done through reloading the save) to figure out what was wrong, and I really hope this one will work:

Pre-season predictions placed us in 13th, and that's what I should aim for, our squad is disbalanced (not because of my signings), small and inconsistent.
I don't actually think I'll stay in ASC Dortmund for longer than 2-3 seasons, there are plenty of "A" category clubs which can offer a lot more opportunities.

Some nice dealings in the transfer market for Levs ASC Dortmund side. Interesting to see how it all works out!

A Rollercoaster Ride: 1st Half of 19/20 Season

In a month I went from nearly getting sacked to having an 8-match unbeaten run, going through to the quarter-finals of WestfalenPokal. What a start that was so far.
Not everything is going well though:

Our most-paid player is Adam Drury, and he hasn't really live up to my expectations (and to his wage of 350 euros/week), so I really hope to get him out of the club at winter, as I have some newgens scouted, and those are much better than Adam and will only ask for a wage of around 40 e/w.

We are not flying high in the league, but at least we could score goals now, which really is a fantastic thing to say. I changed the system again, this time adding a shadow striker instead of a CM. Titz is doing really well, and he actually turned out to be a useful signing even after Egner arrived (who only scored 2 goals so far, as I thought he will).



When I said that we were not flying, I actually meant that we had a dreadful start to the season. Even after first tactics' tweaking it didn't work, so I went all-counter and "play out of defence"-like.
My manager's profile actually suggests that I want "High-tempo pressing game", and that last part doesn't sound right...
Off the pitch everything is going quite well, i am studying for a National C License, which will really help later, and I calculated money I already got from this job, and my paycheck is actually quite large, already earned 26.4k euros, which actually is... *drum roll* about 2.1 MILLION roubles (amazing, right? I could actuallly buy myself a flat in Moscow downtown).
I really hope that this run of good events will continue, so I could get to a club (at least) a division hire with a bit more wage budget.

Well, looks like it isn't happening, guys.
This journey has only just started, but it has already come to an end. Under current circumstances I am not able to continue playing the save, there is a database issue, so it just can't go past 10th of April.
If anyone has any suggestion on how to fix this, please suggest.
For now I have to say farewell to this save and this challenge too (I won't start this over).
Thanks for reading this series, and yeah, I'll provide a link to another story, I've got a couple of ideas on next challenges.

start with arsenal end with zenit