Taking Morecambe to the top!

Hey guys

I’m Evo, I’ve just joined Fm Scout after years of using the brilliant downloads and helpful forums. I’m interested in telling the story of my first FM2011 game. Morecambe FC have always been the lower league team I’ve used in previous versions of FM and I’ve decided to stick with tradition and lead them to success once again!

This is the first FM story ever so please feel free to give me advice on how I could improve my story or even improve the way I run my team!

About the Manager
John Robertson, 29, English/Czech, favourite team - Morecambe, preferred formation 4-4-2. My main focus is bringing in promising youth prospects and developing them into quality players through heavy training schedules, tutoring and regular first team football. My aims with Morecambe FC are to win promotion to League 1 within 3 seasons and reach the Premier league within 10 seasons and to win the Premiership within 15 seasons.

About the club
Morecambe FC spent 86 years playing non-league football until 2007 when they won promotion to League 2 for the first time in their history! After two 12th place finishes, a playoff final last season and a brand new stadium this season, Morecambe FC have established themselves as a strong league 2 club with a growing reputation.

I will be playing this game with no reloads and no scouting utilities or in-game editors

More to come!

I think it will be intrestint to read.

Day One - 06/07/10

Lots to do, the most important day of a career, time to get things in place.The board have handed me a 2 year contract on £850 pw, they expect a top-half finish and have given me a wage budget of 18.5k pw, transfer budget of 20k and the bank balance stands at 350k.

http://img832.imageshack.us/i/moreinfoq.jpg/

http://img208.imageshack.us/i/firstseasoninfo.jpg/

http://img526.imageshack.us/i/firstseasonfinances.jpg/

http://img830.imageshack.us/i/managerprofile.jpg/

I have a strong squad with good cover in all areas, though centre defence could use strengthening. Backroom advice states that we have a very determined, but also the oldest squad in the league, I will be bringing in many young players over the transfer period to ensure I have a squad that’s constantly improving with players who have the potential to play at a higher level.

Current Morecambe squad

http://img809.imageshack.us/i/morecambesquad060710.jpg/

Current Key players

Tony Capaldi
http://img190.imageshack.us/i/tonycapaldi.jpg/

Chris Shuker
http://img831.imageshack.us/i/chrisshuker.jpg/

Phil Jevons
http://img708.imageshack.us/i/philjevons.jpg/

First off I need to replace my staff and bring in a new assistant, coaches and scouts, setting up training schedules, tactics and deciding which players need to be replaced.

Good luck!!

Season 1 - Pre-season - 11/07/10

Interacted with the board on day one and they granted my request for increased wage budget (18.5pw -21.5pw) and more scouting staff (from 3 up to 7!). Glad I don’t have to sell/release too many players to bring in new ones.

Staff
Complete new set of backroom staff with the exception of player/coach/captain/legend Jim Bentley. New assistant is Brendan O‘Connell, good assistant attributes and excellent judging potential and ability stats for a league 2 assistant. Also many scouts from different nations to improve my overall scouting knowledge. This should give me a much wider choice of transfer options than I had when I joined the club.

Staff List
http://img181.imageshack.us/i/staff2010.jpg/

Scouting Knowledge
http://img710.imageshack.us/i/scoutingknowledge2010.jpg/

Training
With only 4 coaches allowed and no leniency from the board I haven't been able to get any training ratings over 3 stars. I increased the intensity of the training schedules (one click below very heavy) and set the players to their appropriate schedules. Over the coming month players who become unhappy with the high training workload will be moved to a lighter schedule (this also tells me they have a low professionalism attribute and helps me rule them out of being tutors).

http://img834.imageshack.us/i/training2010.jpg/

Tactics
I plan to use a standard/control 4-4-2 formation with tackling set to aggressive and closing down set to press more, This tactic worked well for me in previous games.

GK
Defend

DL DC DC DR Support, Defend, Defend, Support,

ML MC MC MR
Winger, Ball-winning Midfielder, Deep-Lying Playmaker, Winger,
Attack, Defend, Support, Attack,

FC FC
Complete Forward, Poacher,
Support, Attack,



Time to get scouting free transfer players and expand my squad

Nice tactic.

Season 1 - First competitive fixture - 02/08/10

Pre-season is over and my first competitive match as manager is against Chesterfield in 5 days. A fantastic pre-season as the team went unbeaten in all friendly matches including a brilliant 2-2 draw against West Ham.

http://img192.imageshack.us/i/morecamberesults020810.jpg/

Transfers
My summer transfers are complete with incoming transfers totalling an incredible 25! Twelve players have been released or sold. Not a single incoming player over the age of 21 and there is now tons of potential in the squad. The majority of players signed have been French, African/French and Norwegian, I recommend that any LLMs get scouting knowledge of France as there are many promising young players available for free.

http://img573.imageshack.us/i/morecambetransferssumme.jpg/

Morecambe FC First Team - 02 Aug 2010

http://img560.imageshack.us/i/morecambefirstteam02081.jpg/

The squad now looks very strong and I’m more than confident that the team can achieve the aim of top-half finish and even put up a serious challenge for promotion in our first season! There has been a change of captaincy as Jim Bentley has become more of a backup player along with his new coaching role. Will Haining has been made new captain, he's an experienced and influential first choice CB and I believe a good choice as Captain

New Key Players

Cedric Mensah - GK - Good young keeper who aleady has senior level international experience
http://img825.imageshack.us/i/mensah.jpg/

Yannick Konki - DL - Talented attacking full-back who looks as though he could be successfully converted to a winger
http://img543.imageshack.us/i/konki.jpg/

David Biaou - DMC - Influencial young defensive midfielder with very well rounded stats, should prove valuable as first choice ball-winning midfielder
http://img408.imageshack.us/i/biaou.jpg/

Arton Ademi - MC - Determined midfielder with high teamwork, will be instrumental in linking the team together
http://img51.imageshack.us/i/ademi.jpg/

Rocky Lekaj - MRL - Winger with great technical stats, already looks like a Championship quality player to me
http://img6.imageshack.us/i/lekaj.jpg/

Wesley Ngo Baheng - ST - A natural poacher with attributes in all the right areas, expecting many goals from him this season
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With so many new players I'm concerned there maybe a lack of understanding between them all, I'm hoping with match preparation set on high and focus on team blend that the team can start working well together quickly. Very much looking forward to playing some competitive matches and hopefully we can continue our pre-season form. Bring on League 2!!!

Nice work man, following your story. I will also start with a low league team when i get my FM 11 copy

Thanks to all the people who have taken interest in my story, I'm enjoying writing about it! Result of my first competitive game coming up!

Which team you thinking of going with rivercapo?

Season 1 - First result - 07/08/10

Chesterfield 0 - 2 Morecambe

Great result to start the season with... away win against fellow promotion contenders, and a decent performance to go with it. It could have been 3-0 if Ngo Bahengs goal hadn't been ruled offside!

http://img600.imageshack.us/i/firstgame.jpg/

http://img703.imageshack.us/i/firstgameratings.jpg/

Decent all round team performance and an outstanding game from my talented left back Konki, though I'm slighty worried by how easily we picked up yellow cards.

Time to get some more games under my belt

Added 10 hours 17 minutes later:

Season 1 - End of Transfer Window - 02/09/10

A good start to the season for Morecambe FC, 7 points from a possible 12 and the club is in 7th place. The loss against Bradford was unfortunate considering how even the two sides looked during the game and it took a penalty for Bradford to secure the points. We got knocked out of the League Cup in the 1st round but Huddersfield away was always going to be a difficult game.

http://img209.imageshack.us/i/010910results.jpg/

http://img217.imageshack.us/i/leaguetable010910.jpg/

Managers player of the month
Arton Ademi - MC - Played well in all 4 of his games last month and picked up 2 goals from midfield.
http://img576.imageshack.us/i/ademi.jpg/

The transfer window went well, I managed to bring in a large number of promising players who can help Morecambe progress. No new players were brought in during August with me having signed all my transfer targets in July. I’ve gone over the allowed wage budget by 1.5K pw but this seems acceptable when considering the strength in depth available to me.

Youngsters I’m looking forward to see progress

Liam O’Brien - GK - Highly determined keeper formerly of Portsmouth, great potential, Championship potential
http://img203.imageshack.us/i/brieny.jpg/

Kjetil Neple - DRC - Young defender with potential to play in Championship
http://img522.imageshack.us/i/neple.jpg/

Aurelien Teaudors - DLC - Promising defender, works hard for the team
http://img828.imageshack.us/i/teaudors.jpg/

Francois Wade - DLML - Technical wide midfielder, slow but makes up for it with good technical abilties
http://img213.imageshack.us/i/wade.jpg/

Willy Sincere - MR
http://img560.imageshack.us/i/sincere.jpg/

I’m pleased with how the first month has gone and we haven’t looked like the weaker team in any of our league games

I´m sorry about my english, i am from Argentina. You had a nice start hehe. I´m wondering if i should start with The Millers (Rotherham United) the one i got to the top in FM 10(and i feel some appreciation for them), or if i should begin with a team from the lower league.
Keep going!

Rotherham look like a good choice and challenge, similar to my team Morecambe (League 2, playoffs last season). If you go with them you should check out some of the players I picked up for free.

Looking forward to your story

Added 3 hours 49 minutes later:

Season 1 - November update - 02/11/10

Some patchy form through September followed by 3 consecutive league game wins in October including an impressive 3-0 win against rivals Accrington Stanley. Two losses since then and the club occupies 10th place in the league. Unfortunately a loss against Oldham in the Johnstones Paint Trophy 2nd round has ended our participation in that competition.

http://img266.imageshack.us/i/results021112.jpg/

http://img828.imageshack.us/i/mrc30acc.jpg/

http://img508.imageshack.us/i/leaguetable021112.jpg/

Managers player of the month - September
Rocky Lekaj - MRL - two goals and two MOM awards in September
http://img709.imageshack.us/i/pomseptember.jpg/

Managers player of the month - October
Delson Banda - DC - Some solid performances after a late start to the season due to injury
http://img821.imageshack.us/i/bandac.jpg/

With a third of the season gone I’m quite pleased so far, our goal difference suggests were certainly one of the better teams in the league. I’m looking for some good form to take us into promotion contention before Christmas

Rotherham aren't much of a "challenge". They're statistically too good for league 2 and have 1 of the best strikers outside the prem. Getting them to the championship should be done within 3-4 seasons as long as you can sign a few more players which looking above does look good.
Personally i'm a huge Barnet fan and trying to survive with them is a proper challenge
If you want a challenge then you should go for a team sat near the bottom struggling like Barnet, Macclesfield, Burton etc. I would say Bradford too but they have a massive fan base so money wont be tight with them i would imagine.
*edit*
But then come to think of it, each team does have their strengths. Like Barnet they alrdy have awesome training facilities so thats good for the youngsters. As well as some already talented individuals. It's just about getting the right mix for any team and making them play in a way that suits them

I was enjoying this until you signed 25 players mate, to unrealistic for my liking

good luck getting them to gel!

Yeah 25 players is a lot to sign in 1 season. I think I never sign more than like 13 players in 1 season.

Understand that the players I signed were all 21 or under and the majority of them are in the reserves on contracts under £500 pw. Key players from last season are still in the first team its the fringe players that have been replaced

When I joined Morecambe FC we had the oldest squad in the league and I felt it was necessary to bring in much young talent so we could smoothly replace the aging players and also so I could set up some momentum for us becoming a club that develops players up through the reserves.

The players seem to be gelling quite well, though my young Forward Ngo Baheng hasn't scored as many as I have expected (only 3 in 12 appearances)