As the world turns

Welcome, everyone, to my annual manager story. For the 2012 edition of Football Manager, I'm going to travel the world. I didn't know what league to start in at first, so I thought I'd just get right after it. This story will begin in Spain's Liga BBVA. We won't be taking a good, team, however. I'm taking over Granada, the team picked by the media to finish 20th. It should be a fun start as we attempt to climb the rank in one of Europe's most top-heavy leagues. I hope you all enjoy this story! I know I will.

Chapter 1 - Laying siege on La Liga

Pages 1-10
Succeded - Fabri
Succeded by - Pep Guardiola

2011-2012 season:
26-3-9 | +41 | 81 points | 3rd place - qualified for Champions League
Not qualified for Champions League
Not qualified for Europa League
Eliminated in Semifinals of the Copa del Rey

2012-2013 season:
28-4-6 | 88 points | 3rd place - qualified for Champions League
Eliminated in group stage of Champions League
Eliminated in Quarterfinals of Europa League
Eliminated in Semifinals of the Copa del Rey

2013-2014 season:
29-6-3 | 93 points | 1st place - qualified for Champions League
Eliminated in Semifinals of Champions League
Winners of the Copa del Rey

2014-2015 season:
31-4-3 | 97 points | 1st place - qualified for Champions League
Winners of the Champions League
Winners of the Copa del Rey
Winners of the Supercopa de Espana

Career stats at Granada:
114-17-21
Champions League - won in 3rd season
EUROPA League - advanced to Quarterfinals
Copa del Rey - two time winners, two time semifinalists
Supercopa de Espana - won 1 time

Chapter 2 - Besting the Bundesliga

Pages 11-
Succeded - Frank Heinemann
Succeded by -

2015-2016 season
21-6-7 | 69 points | 3rd place - qualified for Champions League
Champions League - not qualified
Europa League - Winners
DFB Pokal - Winners

2016-2017 season: in progress

Great place to start off what i am certain will be a long and successful career for you Good luck!

With the new (and best)feautre IMO of being able to load and close new leagues and nations as you play will allow good stories this year especially being able to become a 'globetrotter' as this is my aim.

Looking forward to reading your story as last years was an interesting read

I'm glad to hear you guys are as excited about this story as I am! I'm in the middle of finishing off the offseason friendlies right now and will have a proper update as soon as that's done. Some things of note thus far:

* It seems like half the team are on loan. I'm certainly not complaining because many of those loaned players are talented, but it worries me going forward. I don't like the feeling of having to rely on loans every year to be successful. This means our goal of being a midtable team is very important. I want to achieve enough success in the first year to attract talented players in the coming years; preferrably on permanent contracts.

* We are looking like world beaters during the preseason! I've lined up friendlies against every big team and we are winning the vast majority of them. I'll have a screenshot up of our full preseason schedule soon, but we've beaten the likes of AT Madrid and only lost to Barca (Messi did not play) by one goal. At the very least I take these results as a sign that the team is adapting well to the 442 tactic that I've developed over the years.

* I don't like the way the La Liga has their teams set up. I'm spoiled and have gotten used to the Premier League having a reserve team and a U18 team. With Granada, my roster feels horribly cluttered because I have all the 'reserve' players on the main team. All we have is a U19 squad at our disposal. We do have a B team, but that requires players moving back and forth to an affiliate that I don't have control over. I much prefer having a reserve team that I can control in terms of tactics.

Sounds like the beginnings of a great story thread Joannes3000. Your stories have reached legendary status and the best we, or at least, I can do is to emulate what you have accomplished. Getting the balance between writting and playing is something I have struggled with....I generally start with the best of intentions and get the structure of what I believe to be a fanastic story in place, and then get caught by playing two years ahead in the game.

So well done!

Good luck mate hope your story goes as smoothly as the 2011 story. Your actually a legend of FM scout

July and August were busy months as they were my first at the helm of Granada. We quickly lined up preseason games every five days in order to get the team into shape, bring in some easy ticket money, and begin the evaluation process that is critical in the first year.

In looking at the preseason results, I was more than pleased. My goal was to go into the season with the players in decent spirits so that we can hopefully get our league campaign off on a good note. Seven wins, one draw, and only two losses later I'd say we were ready! There were shock performances all around. An opening 4-1 victory against AT Madrid. A 3-0 drubbing of Malaga. A spirited 2-3 loss to Barca. A 3-1 win over Espanyol. An epic 3-2 victory over Real Madrid! We literally looked like world beaters, but how would it translate during league play?

We only got one game in so far, but it was a 4-0 demolition at home against Betis led by a Dani Benitez hat trick. Nothing like a beatdown to get the home fans into a frenzy! The scoreboard was impressive but the little things are what impressed me. We played very sound possession football, controlling 60% of the possession over the course of the game. We managed 22 shots on goal and got 16 of them on target. As a result of that possession advantage we also limited Betis to 5 shots on goal and only 1 on target. Betis are predicted to finish toward the bottom of the table so it's not like we crushed a dominant team, but I take solace in the fact that we not only handled a team within our talent range; we owned them.



The starting eleven is pretty set and the bench looks to be set as well. Our strongest area has to be midfield. Hassan Yebda will be our defensive presence at center mid and he should do well there. And while Carlos Martins is easily our best playmaker in the middle of the pitch, I hope his lower stamina and pace don't become an issue. Our weakest link is, unfortunately, at the heart of our defense. Manuel Lucena is the most suspect of our back line and unfortunately he's also a permanent captain and the most influential player on the team.

That was a brilliant start to your season
I think it would be nice if you could write an article/download about the tactic you're using since it appears to be working well.

Very nice start to the season. I was more surprised at seeing the 7-0 defeat osasuna got at the hands of athletico madrid. Is it not a massive worry to you how many people there are on loan considering if they play well this season i would imagine their prices will go up and you wont be able to afford many of them to come back to your team the following season? (If you wanted them back of course)

# Kiwi : Sounds like the beginnings of a great story thread Joannes3000. Your stories have reached legendary status and the best we, or at least, I can do is to emulate what you have accomplished. Getting the balance between writting and playing is something I have struggled with....I generally start with the best of intentions and get the structure of what I believe to be a fanastic story in place, and then get caught by playing two years ahead in the game.

So well done!

It's an honor to read such praise and to help be an inspiration for any of you to start your own stories! You guys inspire me to write as much as I may inspire you to do the same. Thank you.

# marz3y95 : Good luck mate hope your story goes as smoothly as the 2011 story. Your actually a legend of FM scout

It's the site and all of you that are legendary, mate. Stam has created a true feeling of community here on fmscout and it's helped someone like me - someone that had never followed football before - not only feel at home here, but to also feel comfortable enough to share my stories with you all!

Good Luck with your Story mate, this is gonna be interesting because i enjoyed readinh you Newport County story in 2011

Our first full month of league play was a smashing success. Four wins out of four in the month gives us a five game winning streak overall. We have only conceded two goals to this point and we are hammering teams much like we were during the preseason. Next month promises to ratchet up the difficulty, however, as we will face Valencia away and will play host to AT Madrid and Barca. We will see if the month of October brings us tricks or treats.

Our perfect run through five games has us in second place behind Real Madrid, who lead us on goal differential. We are 2 points ahead of third place Barca and fourth place AT Madrid.



Our starting eleven looks set with the only questionable area being at center mid. Carlos Martins and his 10 natural fitness is having a hard time playing consecutive games. His conditioning is still in the low 70s right now and I'm hoping that once his conditioning improves that he will be able to play consistently with the first unit. He certainly has the talent to do so.

Good luck with Grenada!
La Liga is probably quite easy until you get ~3rd place, then you have to overtake Barca and R. Madrid. This makes it one of the toughest leagues IMO.

Ouch. That sums up the month of October. All the illusions of grandeur have quickly vanished as we find ourselves struggling. Reality has reared its ugly head as we just experienced our first winless month. We lost three league games and only managed to draw once. Nobody blew us away, but you can tell that team morale is starting to turn for the worse. Couple that with an untimely injury to one of our starting strikers (who is out for a month) and you have a recipe for a disastrous month.

That said, we're still sitting in the upper end of the table. We're 3 points behind 4th place Valencia and the final Champions League slot, we lead 6th place Athletic on goal differential, and we're 2 points ahead of 7th place Levante who are in the final EURO League slot.



The one positive note for the month is that we did manage a sound 4-2 victory over Osasuna in the first leg of our matchup in the Spanish Cup. We will travel away in the upcoming month with a very strong chance to advance to the 5th round.



As mentioned earlier, with our starting poacher out for a month I need to find someone to pick up the scoring and I need to find him fast. We can't afford to try and win games defensively because that isn't something we do well right now.