The Impossible Season-The Walsall Story

Hey Guys this is my first Fm Story for Football Manager.

I will began my FM2011 journey with a team that is close to my heart <3.
When i first came across the Football Manager series in 2007, I had no idea what I was doing.So when i decided to work my way up from Npower League One, I went for my team Walsall.This club isn't very big and hasn't in its 123 year history of football. We have always been overshadowed by the big four of the Midlands: West Bromwich Albion,Wolverhampton Wanderers,Birmingham City and
Aston Villa. With a fan being at the helm I want to bring what the club deserves and that is Championship Football. And one thing I would love to do with this club is to bring what we have never had before and that is Premier League Football.
I want to bring glory to the club and be up there with those top teams like Manchester United,Liverpool,Chelsea,Arsenal,
Tottenham and Manchester City.

My first aim is to do what the media predicted and that is to get a mid-table position by the end of the current season. I hope to fulfill this but hopefully do a little better than expected

Onwards and Upwards!!!! UpTheSaddlers!!!

Hey Craig, I'm glad to see you're starting your first FM story here.

Some quick tips for you:

• Start by getting the best staff you can afford and push their numbers to the allowed limit
• Get your training coach assignments and schedules as decent as possible
• Evaluate your current roster and decide who will be part of your team and who should leave
• Make sure you talk to the ones you intend to sell by explaining why you want them to leave; it should be easier to get rid of them this way with minimal side effects on individual and team morale
• Aim for 3 loan deals locally (England) and some more from other countries if possible (try Scotland, Ireland and N.Ireland for example) - they shouldn't cost you anything at this division
• Have your scouts dig up those 3 UK countries I just mentioned, especially Ireland has some great talent pool at the cheap
• Try building a team that shouldn't need many tweaks to survive in CH in case you get promotion in your first season
• Whatever happens with your players demanding new contracts or other crap, don't take it! Be strict in such situations and honest really
• Remember to arrange some strong friendlies during pre-seasons but always look to have a last friendly with a crap team for morale reasons - also make sure to keep arraning plenty of easy friendlies for your reserve team, there's a good reason for that
• If a player has his morale dropped, make him available for the reserves - he should up his morale after a game there or two
• Stick with one formation and 1-2 slight variations of it and in match preparation go for "team blend" and place that slider to the maximum

This is what comes to mind now. Apart from telling us merely results for your monthly fixtures, personally I'd like to read some insight regarding your own approach to the game. How you do things and why.


Anyway, good luck with your first season mate!


P.S. I guess showcasing some video highlights from time to time it would be nice too. In case you are not aware of how to directly embed YouTube videos here, you can do it like this:

[youtube=VIDEO_ID]

where VIDEO_ID is the value of the "v" variable... for example in this URL youtube.com/watch?v=0iOETrdIuEk it's the 0iOETrdIuEk part.

You used the wrong picture lol Hutchings isnt there anymore its the Ginger Mourinho Dean Smith and thanks for the idea's

Oh right, I changed the picture then

Kev the dancer is a legend! he is a right laff, thanks for more information

What I'd bring across in my own opinion to the Walsall squad is
To pick every team for every match, unless I cant decide who I want, so I would ask my Assistant to pick who he thinks should play,

I look for my own players who I think can improve the current squad and who I want to keep and get rid of.

Players in my opinion who i should keep of the current squad: Jimmy Walker,Clayton McDonald,Manny Smith,Andy Butler,Matty Richards,Paul Marshall

Players to get rid of: Johnny Brain,Aaron Lescott,Jon Macken,Darren Byfield.

Youth to keep:David Bevan,Will Grigg,Jamie Paterson,Connor Deards,Jake Jones,Will Mellor-Blair,George Bowerman.

I'm going to give each youth player sometime to test themself within the first team,first up is Connor Deards...

I think i'm gonna get rid of this story and start another with my Chelmsford season because they are a really good team in the Blue Square Bet South,


maybe its just cos im not updating my season as i should, been busy sorting other stuff out, maybe i should carry on with this story?

Write about the one your having the most fun playing

Well for my Walsall season ive wrote like 15/16pages + on Wordpad, but i struggle to upload my pictures....
But i feel people wont be interested in my story as much as they are with Joannes3000 story with Newport County.

Why are you struggling with uploading pictures mate? Do you need any help figuring out stuff?

As for the potential lack of interest, let me just say that writing a story you have to initially do it for your own reference, for your own fun.
Sharing it here it shall be read from others and you will get feedback, it doesn't really matter if feedback will be 10 replies or 50. However, the more feedback you get the more motivated you become to write further.

joannes3000's story is an old one and he's also an old timer here, so no point comparing to this one for now.
I believe that people need to see commitment from the story's author before they start following a story.

Keep going with Walsall! I'm watching from a distance.

I've got plenty of pages its just uploading them all on imageshack, which is taking ages, else I will carry on

Walsall are welcome the new manager that is Walsall_Craig, we hope this new appointed will bring a good future for this club, With past managers not able to get that promotion push that fans have wanted, this could be a new era for Walsall Football Club.

Walsall_Craig says : This is a dream come true to manager a club I have supported my whole life, and I hope to bring in my thoughts into the professional game and to bring to this club what I and also the fans want to see,which is Championship Football !!!

Media Prediction : 13th

For todays aim is going to be the contracts of my players I want to keep for the next few seasons, i cant get rid of deadwood because most of them have come in at the start of the season, So I plan to update the squad with freebies and loans from clubs.

I want to bring players who are in our current squad to the team with the likes of Emmanuel Jorge Ledesma,Jordan Cook,Marco Gbarssin,Marc Laird.

With Marco,Jordan and Laird all coming in on-loan from the following clubs,
Gbarssin-Carlisle(reserves),Cook-Sunderland(reserves) and Laird-Millwall.

If I can get Cook he will hopefully being the youthness and flair to the squad, as Macken and Byfield are getting to the start of being deadwood.

I want to use some of my youngsters into my squad also, with the likes of Alex Hickman(Defender),Jamie Paterson,George Bowerman and Sean Geddes.
Also my Assistant thinks i should concentrate on my youth as I have some good players.