Wanderers F.C - The Second Begining

*First an introduction to me*
I have probably been a fan of the FM series for no longer than a few months , but after picking up FM2006 for my xbox , i got hooked on it.
My dad introduced me to the game during the summer , i was not epecting to enjoy it at all , i started with southampton , and enjoyed it more than i expected after winning the Championship first time out.
I then played on this for about a month , before i picked up a cheap copy of FM2009 for the PC.
My dad bought me this 2011 version for my birthday , and i have so far taken Pompey FC into the prem.

I started to read a few stories while waiting for the logo pack to download , and got somewhat into one ,
and thought i should make my own. I have no clue how this is going to go down , but here's for trying!
First , we'll start with some true football history , then we'll move on to my story.
I hope i don't bore you!


*True story*
Possibly one of England's first great football teams , Wanderers F.C , were the first ever winners of the famous F.A cup.
They then went on to win the competition 5 times between 1872 and 1878.
However , despair hit the team after the 1880's , when the team slowly dissapeared into the depth of football history ,
playing their last ever competitive match in 1881 , and the last ever friendly match was played on the 20th December , 1887.
This match was played against Harrow , who won the game 3 goals to 1.

The team was re-founded as a charity football team in 2009 , donating most of the money earned through match fees to their partner Unicef.

*Fictional from here on in*
In the start of the 2010/2011 blue square south campaign , the team Hampton and Richmond went bust ,
the club was un-able to pay outstanding fees , and therefore , were forced to remove their team from the BSS ,
Unless they could find either a buyer , or the money to pay the fees.
The Unicef charity decided to put in an undisclosed offer for the team , and the future started to look bright for the club.
The offer for the club was succesfull , and Unicef had decided to rename the team Wanderers F.C ,
and combined the club with the previous team of the Wonderers and Hampton and Richmond.

This caused uproar among the fans and player. They were furious that they were able to rename the club ,
and furthermore , unite the club with players that were not even semi-proffesional.
Reportedly , there was a huge argument in the changing rooms during a pre-season friendly ,
which resulted in most players walking out on the club , and the second half of the game was cancelled , causing a riot.

Neither the staff or any of the players showed up during training the next day , pushing the club into worse troubles than before.
Unicef then sensationally revoked ownership of the club , after owning it for just one month. At this point , the future looked extremely doubtfull.

This was when goalkeeping legend , David Seaman , announced that he would be teaming up with an un-named london buisnessman to buy the club.
This bid was succesfull , and Seaman claimed that he would be backing the club with a starting budget of £1,000,000 ,
a lot of money for a blue square team.

Plans were later announced the intention to move the club back to one of wanderer's previous venues , battersea park ,
where plans were announced to build a new 5,000 seater stadium.

Although Seaman was offered the managerial position by the new owner , he decided an assistant manager position suited him more.
At the complete shock of the few fans that were left , a mere 15 year old was appointed manager , Davey Locks.
Seaman announced that he believed the young manager had lots to give , and that the fans should respect his presence.
Due to his age , the young manager was not even allowed a full-time job , making it look like the club's chances look very slim.
He had 20 days before the season starts , to completely rebuild the squad , and backroom , an exeptional task to be performed by anyone , yet alone a 15 year old.

Trials were held at the stadium , where any players could turn up , whatever their age and talent level.
David Seaman was present , and picked out a few more talented players from the bunch ,
and advised Locks to try and hire these players.
Out of the dust rose a promising young midfielder , James Bolder , who particulary impressed the new management duo.
In total , Locks and Seaman picked out 11 Players to sign , enough to make a first team squad , but no more.

Locks and Seaman still have 10 days before the season starts to sign any out of contract players ,
and complete their squad for the coming season.

Davey got himself busy in the Transfer window , signing young striker Tony Boto on a free signing.
Wanderers then carried on signing , snapping up ex swansea striker Lee Trundle , and experienced veteran Darren Barnard.

*Ok , enough of the media talk*
As things stand , i think i've got a reasonable team despite terminating all my previous players contracts.
Most of these came straight from my youth ranks , so i'm looking for better all the time really.
I am currently fielding a 4-3-1-2 formation.
Here is a list of my squad so far : (most of these are fictional players i found in my U-18 team)
Richard Fisher (GK-17)
Alan Pickett (DR-17)
David Richardson (DC-17)
Bob Bowater (DC-16)
Samuel Mensah (DL-18)
Keiron Holgrove (MR-16)
James Bolder (MC-18)
Darren Barnard (ML-38)
Fabrice Otshudi (AMC-19)
Lee Trundle (STRCR-33)
Tony Boto (STRCR-21)

My key players , i would say are James Bolder , Darren Barnard , and Lee Trundle , and possibly Tony Boto
*i will do an update with player stats soon!*


In the Database editor , i gave myself a very nice transfer budget of 200,000 , created a new stadium , changed the club name ,
and a few other minor things.

I will not be cheating at all during the course of this story , what happens stays , even if it aggrevates me a little.

I'll update as much as i can , just bare in mind i go to college and have a lot of work to focus on.
Also , i will upload occasional match highlights to my youtube account , and pics of my players stats etc etc.

I hope you enjoyed reading the start of the story unfold , and i'll (hopefully) see you soon for the first update!

Welcome aboard mate

An encouraging first post indeed. Try to improve your formatting a bit, play with different sizes for different 'chapters', enhance with some pictures.

Will be waiting for your next one

Cheers mate , as for the formatting , hopefully that will improve next time out , as this was a cut & paster from stuff i wrote down in notepad lol.

Now i have a few questions to ask :

Firstly , how do i get pictures uploaded onto this site ?
Secondly , i have made a custom badge for the club in photoshop , but how do i get it to appear in the game (i understand that there is a config. file , but how do i make it work ?)

thanks a lot

1. You can upload them here using your personal file space (my files). Or use an external free image hosting site, such as imageshack.us.

2. You have to do at least normal and small sizes. Normal should be 180x180 and small should be 20x20. You need to save them as png.

• Then you need to enable 'show unique ids' in FM preferences, so you can see the id of your team in order to write a proper code in the config.xml.
• When you know the id, you prepare the config file like that:
  

  <record>
  <boolean id="preload" value="false"/>
  <boolean id="amap" value="false"/>
  <list id="maps">
  <record from="<name_of_your_picture_without_the_extension>" to="graphics/pictures/club/<id_of_the_team>/logo"/>
  </list>
  </record>

• Save it as config.xml - it should be different file for normal size logos and another for small size logos. The config file must be placed in the same folder as the logos of each size.


• Make a new folder and name it as you like. Inside that create 2 different folders for normal and small sizes, and place the initial folder in > my documents > Sports Interactive > Football Manager 2011 > graphics > pictures > logos >
• Open FM again, go to preferences > display & sound. Untick 'use skin cache', tick 'always reload skin on confirm', hit confirm.

Update 1.

**August
Newly found fans of the Wanderers watched with much interest as their team took to the field for the first time.
Unfortunately for the fans , the first result was a 3-0 away loss against welling , played at Park View Road in the blistering summer heat.

However , hope was shown in the next match , as the team drew 2-2 with Dartford at the newly constructed stadium Battersea Park.

On the third game of the season , goals rained down upon Battersea , with the Wanderers recording their first league win , an impressive 4-0 result against bromley. The highlight of the match was surely James Bolder scoring his first goal for the club , an 18 yard screamer , that whistled straight past the Bromley keeper.

Thurrock then held the team to a boring 0-0 draw.

Then the club won 2-1 away to St.Albans after an exciting match. It looked like a 1-1 draw , until lee trundle came off the bench in the 70th
minute of the game and started to make an imediate impact ; he scored his first goal for the club in the 88th minute of the match.

The month ended in a bitter 0-2 loss at the hands of dover , which left Wanderers F.C in 10th place , but with another win and results going their way , they could find themselves in the playoff spots for a short while at least.

**September**



The month was started by an exciting 2-2 draw with lewes , where the team were two goals down before the 80th minute , before Lee Trundle scored from a 1 on 1 situation with the keeper , and within 4 minutes , midfielder james bolder scored a fantastic long range effort.

The next game was away to havant and waterlooville , the team smashed two Blue Square South records in this match , one for the highest scoring match ,
and one for the most goals scored by a club , as they crushed Havant & Waterlooville 7-1 at westleigh park.

In the next match , the travelling Wanderers fans watched with grim faces as two goals slipped past the keeper before the final whistle blew.

I'm enjoying this one so far , i reckon if i get a few more decent players , then i may have a chance at getting in the playoffs , and hopefully get promoted first time out.


Here is the league table as of now :
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz170/SemiDarknessx/ltable.jpg

And my current lineup , followed by my key players :

http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz170/SemiDarknessx/fcs.jpg
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz170/SemiDarknessx/jb.jpg
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz170/SemiDarknessx/db.jpg
http://i824.photobucket.com/albums/zz170/SemiDarknessx/lt.jpg

I think these players are far beyond blue square standard , and i'm very pleased with them , although i'm worried that i may lose Darren Barnardto retirement soon , and Bolton seem to have taken a large interest in bolder.

Thanks for reading