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Day One
Jan 10 2011 09:16 PM | Tommo in Squad Management
[u]Day One[/u]
This guide was initially written by me for Football Manager 2010 but with the new features in Football Manager 2011 I have decided to add a few things in a re-write big parts of it.
So you're say at your desk after moving into your new office, where to go from here?...
Welcome to my guide/article on the world famous Football Manager series, in this article I will go over the various tasks I do before I press the continue button and start my new journey as a manager. There are five main topics that I think about when it comes to taking over a new club, the Club itself, the Squad of players, the Staff at the club and then Personal tasks.
The Club
First on my list I like to play a game I call 'getting to know you' which is a little game where I research about the club i'm taking over, firstly a brief google search, this would usually bring up the clubs official website and usually also a Wikipedia entry. Having a quick eye over both of these gives me a good understanding of their history, nine times of out of ten i'll read something that I would never of imagined, a financial scam in the 60's and takeover in the 80's etc. Alot of odd little quirky notes. Quick looks at the 'Information' screen can give you knowledge of your new rivals, the clubs Legends, derbies and Icons. Lastly I check out the history tab and a list of the clubs Honours to see where I need to take the club.
The Board Room
Next stop for me is the Board Room, after a brief check of affiliated clubs would it make sense to request a new affiliate to mark you new reign as manager, depending on club size this can range from a regional partner for National Loans or even a link across nations for commercial reasons. Depending on what links I have already I usually request a new Feeder Club and dependent on club size a Parent Club too. Keeping things inside the Board Room I evaluate my budgets, do they match my expectations and aims? If needed adjustments are needed and at a push I might need to request extra transfer funds and wage to increase the budget. I don't do this very often though.
The Squad
Arguably most important part of the Club, the Squad a in-depth analysis of all the players under contract at the club, the first team, the reserves and also the youth team. This means firstly for me hearing what my Assistant has to say in the Squad Report, if I know the club then this would probably back up my thoughts on what i have just taken over but if I don't this would give me vital knowledge on my new unknown adventure. Usually a few first team players are demoted to the reserves and transfer listed, sometimes a few reserves players are promoted as cover for my first team positions and other reserve team players are given the chop and placed on the dreaded transfer list. Some people like 22 players in the First team, mine usually swings between 22 and 25 depending on the length on the season, of course having 25 players in a squad it's sometimes hard to keep them all playing football so I make some fringe players available for Reserve team fixtures, usually 2 or 3. My best youth team players are usually given experience elsewhere, this could mean organising a loan to a current feeder club link or placing them on the loan list and offering to club chancing my luck at gaining some funds whilst doing so. Scouring my youth team I usually find a few players that could benefit from tutoring so a few tutors may be planned. New this year is obviously the ability to load three tactics in at once and use the Match Preparation to prepare your squad for next weeks important match, I have three tactics that I usually use depending on the personnel I manage, a attacking one, a defensive one and a moderate one. I set team blend to high for pre-season and then introduce the defensive/attacking set pieces once they have been setup with the new set piece creator.
The Staff
Probably the second most important people at the club would be the Staff from your Assistant to your scouts and even your groundsman you'll to keep on top on them. I'd spend a fair bit of time evaluating my coaches, physios and scouts and organising some new ones if needed. Personally I like to have the most allowed, on my current game at the moment I have One Assistant, Eleven Coaches (First Team, Coaches, Fitness Coaches and Youth Coaches) Two Physios and Nine Scouts. Once these are sorted I move on to Organising Training Schedules, for Pre-Season all my players have the same schedule, a fitness intensive schedule, high Strength and Aerobic to get them in shape, i'll change the schedules to position schedules the day after my last Pre-Season Friendly. Talking of Pre-Season I always cancel all the Friendlies that are already organised before I joined the club and Organise my own. I like to start with an Away game then a three game Tour of a smaller European country usually Austria, Belgium, Portugal or in Scandinavia. This followed by creating a new Cup fixture which we'll hold every season whilst im at the club. Teams that I have been known to invite usually include one South American team, one top level European team and one American team. Following the new cup I like to end Pre-Season with home Friendly against a top side.
So I have the coaches organised with Training and the players sorted with Pre-Season duties all I left to do is to organise my Scouts. For me a vital part of my management strategy. In my current game I have nine scouts and each scout has a different country as their highest knowledge. I have sent each of them there. Over my various games of FM11 I have collected various players on each of my shortlists, I have saved them from each save so I now have a 'database' of players of my shortlists. I've uploaded all seven Shortlists into my current game and assigned a scout to each list to collect three match reports on each player, I would do this three or four times a season so I can get a view on their progress. The last thing I do regarding my staff is to organise my Team Settings, going through the list I handle all Press Conferences myself and also arrange my own Friendlies. Personally I also like to have the same tactics used throughout all my teams so I tick that box. I also find a suitable coach to manage the Reserves and also another for the Youth.
Personal
The last thing I do before I press continue is insert and sort out my Notebook. 'The use of the Notes feature is undoubtedly the single most under-rated feature on any of the football manager series of game. At the start of any game I play the very first thing I do before I even read my news is to set up my Notes so that I have a constant reminder of things I need to do/check throughout the season. I set up several notes to reoccur at Weekly,Monthly, 3 Monthly, 6 Monthly and Yearly points with another note set up to reoccur a month before each transfer window so that I can start to think about getting deals done ready for the 1st day of the window.
Weekly
Category: Reminder
Title: Weekly Reminder
Note: This Week you must remember to
1. Attend Staff meeting
2. Check Squad Morale in the First Team, Reserves and Youth Team
3. Check your next opponent The Weather forecast for the game and any injury notes.
Monthly
Category: Reminders
Title: Monthly Reminder
Note: This Month you must remember to
1. Check Finances
2. Check Board Confidence for the past month
3. Reassess Training regimes
4. Reassess the players contracts
5. check on the Progress of the youth team
6. Request A Team report and read and digest the Information on it
7. Set up player to player tutoring
** Update Story on TAS**
** Set up Friendlies through out the following month against weaker opposition containing a mix of unused first team players/reserves and promising youth players**
Three Monthly
Category: Reminders
Title: Three Monthly Reminder
Note: Don't forget to ask the board for a new affiliate club (Parent and Feeder)
Six Monthly
Category: Reminders
Title: Six Monthly Reminder
Note: Its that time of the year again to:
1. Reassess the clubs coaches
2. Ask to upgrade the youth Facilities and Training facilities
3. Reassess the budget adjustment bar in the board room
4. Reassess the clubs Scouts looking to Sack/Hire taking into account Scouting Knowledge
4. have a look at and remind yourself of all the transfer clauses linked to the club so that you have an Idea of how much you are spending on them.
Annual
Category: Reminders
Title: Annual Reminder
Note: Time to:
1. Assess the season just past
2. Ask to relay the Pitch
3. Ask to expand the Stadium
4. Construct a new Training regime for the following season
The lazy man's list/checklist
[quote]
Squad Analysis
- 1st's
- 2nd's
- 18's
- 25 players
- Backroom advice (if club is unknown)
- 'Dead Wood'
- Transfer List
- Loan List
- History of the club
- Season expectations
- Potential tutoring
- Tactics
- Match Preperation
Team Settings
- Handling Press Conferences (Myself)
- Arranging Friendlies (Myself)
- Reserves & Under 18s use the same match tactics
- Reserves & Under 18s friendlies handled by Assistant
- Assign coaches to reserves & youths
Training Schedules
- Pre-Season (Aerobic)
- Season (Positional)
Board Room
- Request feeder club
- Adjust Budgets
- Request extra transfer funds (if needed)
- Request extra wage budget (if needed)
Pre Season Friendlies
- Cancel originals
- Away
- Tour
- Cup
- Home
Staff
- Organise coaches
- Organise scouts for scouting network
Scouting Network
- Apply internal scouting limitations
- One scout per region
- Shortlists
- One scout per shortlist (7/8)
Personal
- Organise Notebooks
- Upload shortlists
I hope you found this helpful, feel free to discuss what you do on your first day at work...
Comment on this article in our Forums
Back to Football Manager Guide Index
This guide was initially written by me for Football Manager 2010 but with the new features in Football Manager 2011 I have decided to add a few things in a re-write big parts of it.
So you're say at your desk after moving into your new office, where to go from here?...
Welcome to my guide/article on the world famous Football Manager series, in this article I will go over the various tasks I do before I press the continue button and start my new journey as a manager. There are five main topics that I think about when it comes to taking over a new club, the Club itself, the Squad of players, the Staff at the club and then Personal tasks.
The Club
First on my list I like to play a game I call 'getting to know you' which is a little game where I research about the club i'm taking over, firstly a brief google search, this would usually bring up the clubs official website and usually also a Wikipedia entry. Having a quick eye over both of these gives me a good understanding of their history, nine times of out of ten i'll read something that I would never of imagined, a financial scam in the 60's and takeover in the 80's etc. Alot of odd little quirky notes. Quick looks at the 'Information' screen can give you knowledge of your new rivals, the clubs Legends, derbies and Icons. Lastly I check out the history tab and a list of the clubs Honours to see where I need to take the club.
The Board Room
Next stop for me is the Board Room, after a brief check of affiliated clubs would it make sense to request a new affiliate to mark you new reign as manager, depending on club size this can range from a regional partner for National Loans or even a link across nations for commercial reasons. Depending on what links I have already I usually request a new Feeder Club and dependent on club size a Parent Club too. Keeping things inside the Board Room I evaluate my budgets, do they match my expectations and aims? If needed adjustments are needed and at a push I might need to request extra transfer funds and wage to increase the budget. I don't do this very often though.
The Squad
Arguably most important part of the Club, the Squad a in-depth analysis of all the players under contract at the club, the first team, the reserves and also the youth team. This means firstly for me hearing what my Assistant has to say in the Squad Report, if I know the club then this would probably back up my thoughts on what i have just taken over but if I don't this would give me vital knowledge on my new unknown adventure. Usually a few first team players are demoted to the reserves and transfer listed, sometimes a few reserves players are promoted as cover for my first team positions and other reserve team players are given the chop and placed on the dreaded transfer list. Some people like 22 players in the First team, mine usually swings between 22 and 25 depending on the length on the season, of course having 25 players in a squad it's sometimes hard to keep them all playing football so I make some fringe players available for Reserve team fixtures, usually 2 or 3. My best youth team players are usually given experience elsewhere, this could mean organising a loan to a current feeder club link or placing them on the loan list and offering to club chancing my luck at gaining some funds whilst doing so. Scouring my youth team I usually find a few players that could benefit from tutoring so a few tutors may be planned. New this year is obviously the ability to load three tactics in at once and use the Match Preparation to prepare your squad for next weeks important match, I have three tactics that I usually use depending on the personnel I manage, a attacking one, a defensive one and a moderate one. I set team blend to high for pre-season and then introduce the defensive/attacking set pieces once they have been setup with the new set piece creator.
The Staff
Probably the second most important people at the club would be the Staff from your Assistant to your scouts and even your groundsman you'll to keep on top on them. I'd spend a fair bit of time evaluating my coaches, physios and scouts and organising some new ones if needed. Personally I like to have the most allowed, on my current game at the moment I have One Assistant, Eleven Coaches (First Team, Coaches, Fitness Coaches and Youth Coaches) Two Physios and Nine Scouts. Once these are sorted I move on to Organising Training Schedules, for Pre-Season all my players have the same schedule, a fitness intensive schedule, high Strength and Aerobic to get them in shape, i'll change the schedules to position schedules the day after my last Pre-Season Friendly. Talking of Pre-Season I always cancel all the Friendlies that are already organised before I joined the club and Organise my own. I like to start with an Away game then a three game Tour of a smaller European country usually Austria, Belgium, Portugal or in Scandinavia. This followed by creating a new Cup fixture which we'll hold every season whilst im at the club. Teams that I have been known to invite usually include one South American team, one top level European team and one American team. Following the new cup I like to end Pre-Season with home Friendly against a top side.
So I have the coaches organised with Training and the players sorted with Pre-Season duties all I left to do is to organise my Scouts. For me a vital part of my management strategy. In my current game I have nine scouts and each scout has a different country as their highest knowledge. I have sent each of them there. Over my various games of FM11 I have collected various players on each of my shortlists, I have saved them from each save so I now have a 'database' of players of my shortlists. I've uploaded all seven Shortlists into my current game and assigned a scout to each list to collect three match reports on each player, I would do this three or four times a season so I can get a view on their progress. The last thing I do regarding my staff is to organise my Team Settings, going through the list I handle all Press Conferences myself and also arrange my own Friendlies. Personally I also like to have the same tactics used throughout all my teams so I tick that box. I also find a suitable coach to manage the Reserves and also another for the Youth.
Personal
The last thing I do before I press continue is insert and sort out my Notebook. 'The use of the Notes feature is undoubtedly the single most under-rated feature on any of the football manager series of game. At the start of any game I play the very first thing I do before I even read my news is to set up my Notes so that I have a constant reminder of things I need to do/check throughout the season. I set up several notes to reoccur at Weekly,Monthly, 3 Monthly, 6 Monthly and Yearly points with another note set up to reoccur a month before each transfer window so that I can start to think about getting deals done ready for the 1st day of the window.
Weekly
Category: Reminder
Title: Weekly Reminder
Note: This Week you must remember to
1. Attend Staff meeting
2. Check Squad Morale in the First Team, Reserves and Youth Team
3. Check your next opponent The Weather forecast for the game and any injury notes.
Monthly
Category: Reminders
Title: Monthly Reminder
Note: This Month you must remember to
1. Check Finances
2. Check Board Confidence for the past month
3. Reassess Training regimes
4. Reassess the players contracts
5. check on the Progress of the youth team
6. Request A Team report and read and digest the Information on it
7. Set up player to player tutoring
** Update Story on TAS**
** Set up Friendlies through out the following month against weaker opposition containing a mix of unused first team players/reserves and promising youth players**
Three Monthly
Category: Reminders
Title: Three Monthly Reminder
Note: Don't forget to ask the board for a new affiliate club (Parent and Feeder)
Six Monthly
Category: Reminders
Title: Six Monthly Reminder
Note: Its that time of the year again to:
1. Reassess the clubs coaches
2. Ask to upgrade the youth Facilities and Training facilities
3. Reassess the budget adjustment bar in the board room
4. Reassess the clubs Scouts looking to Sack/Hire taking into account Scouting Knowledge
4. have a look at and remind yourself of all the transfer clauses linked to the club so that you have an Idea of how much you are spending on them.
Annual
Category: Reminders
Title: Annual Reminder
Note: Time to:
1. Assess the season just past
2. Ask to relay the Pitch
3. Ask to expand the Stadium
4. Construct a new Training regime for the following season
The lazy man's list/checklist
[quote]
Squad Analysis
- 1st's
- 2nd's
- 18's
- 25 players
- Backroom advice (if club is unknown)
- 'Dead Wood'
- Transfer List
- Loan List
- History of the club
- Season expectations
- Potential tutoring
- Tactics
- Match Preperation
Team Settings
- Handling Press Conferences (Myself)
- Arranging Friendlies (Myself)
- Reserves & Under 18s use the same match tactics
- Reserves & Under 18s friendlies handled by Assistant
- Assign coaches to reserves & youths
Training Schedules
- Pre-Season (Aerobic)
- Season (Positional)
Board Room
- Request feeder club
- Adjust Budgets
- Request extra transfer funds (if needed)
- Request extra wage budget (if needed)
Pre Season Friendlies
- Cancel originals
- Away
- Tour
- Cup
- Home
Staff
- Organise coaches
- Organise scouts for scouting network
Scouting Network
- Apply internal scouting limitations
- One scout per region
- Shortlists
- One scout per shortlist (7/8)
Personal
- Organise Notebooks
- Upload shortlists
I hope you found this helpful, feel free to discuss what you do on your first day at work...
Comment on this article in our Forums
Back to Football Manager Guide Index
