Ana, FM 2012 : Let The Madness Begin!

Hi everyone!!

Feels so great to be finally back and posting, I have had the game for a few days now but was unable to play due to my PC breaking. However I have bought a brand new one and after my boyfriend finished setting it up am finally back!

I did tell Johnny it may take a few days but in all honesty I couldn’t wait to get started, I have decided to do another pentagon challenge but have included all the Spanish leagues as people wanted to see that also but I will show the leagues I have chosen later.

A brand new and brilliant feature is the ability to enable and disable leagues as I please making it a whole lot easier to switch if things are not going well!

So without further hesitation lets have a look at the challenge and my first team!

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So for those who have no idea what the pentagon challenge is basically you have to win all five of the champions leagues in North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Asia by starting with a Sunday league reputation and unemployed.

Its great as you never know where you will end up, plus you get to experience leagues you have never dared to try.

Here is my league set up for now :

Africa

South Africa — Only league available

Asia

China

Malaysia

South Korea

North America

Mexico — Can participate in both the North and South American champions leagues.

Europe

Belgium

Croatia

England — Seeing as everyone seems to play there!

Holland

Portugal

Russia

Spain

South America

Argentina

Brazil

Chile

So that’s my league selection at the moment, I chose some of my favourite leagues from last year but I left out both Australia and the USA as there rules are just to complicated for me to try and understand! I chose both England and Spain as most people enjoy English teams and Spain for me!

Please note I wont manage a team from Spain or England to help complete my challenge as that’s too easy, they are there just to keep the leagues real and see how they develop no fun in managing Barca or Chelsea to the champions league when I can try to toil with a Russian side or a team from Croatia! :)

So lets get into the story.

As always my story has to start with a stupid looking picture of me! But a long list of job’s I applied for and in turn was offered.

A classic team for last year was tempting of FCAK a trip to Brazil was also tempting but I chose a team I really liked the look of! So my first team is……………………….

That’s right the Mpumalanga Black Aces! Which will now been know as the black aces! :)

My main reason was my chairman (or chairwomen I should say!) is a woman! So with two girls in charge we cant possibly fail!

We are slightly over our wage budget by a few thousand so my first task is to sort that problem.

So an 18 year wait for some silverware but my main aim is promotion, and then hopefully build a good enough reputation to land a bigger job in the top flight of South African football.

Promotion may seem a little ambitious but we have a fairly good squad in terms of of our rivals and with a few new additions then we should be there or there abouts I feel.

Lets take a peak at my squad and what my assistant thinks on my new team.

So a pretty decent defence, all over three and  a half stars and my midfield isn’t too bad either, Shongwe my forward is more than good enough to find some goals so am more than pleased with what I have. My best player is probably this guy :

Fabian McCarthy

So nothing mind blowing but this is the second tier of South African football so don’t expect a Messi to be lurking around.

He has good experience and is a fairly good defender his speed does worry me but at 34 what can I expect!

Finances

A lot better than I expected as we have over £300k tucked away in our bank account, am expecting that to drop very quickly as the season gets going as we will struggle to make enough money to make a profit every month. As we don’t own are stadium we have to pay rent which will sap most of our money every year we will have to get promoted sooner rather than later.

The Pre — Season

So I began by assembling a new assistant manager and a new scout with my scout off hunting young talented footballers from southern Africa. My pre-season was very optimistic only losing once to Bloem Celtic who are in the premier league one higher that the league I am in.

Martizburg and Black Leopards are also premier league teams so by not losing those games has given me confidence going into the new season.

I have highlighted the excellent Myron Shongwe scoring 8 times, here is snap of his stats.

Myron Shongwe

Finally formation and transfers

So a 4-3-3 with alone striker not how I usually play I am a fan of having two strikers up top but needs must at the moment. Shongwe seems to enjoy the lone role with his pace and power and we have good service coming from out wide.

Defence can be a bit shaky at times so I added a holding midfield player to help them out with another ball winning defensive minded player in the centre. The other is an advanced play maker who will help support Shongwe when needed.

Transfers

Pickings were very slim, as I brought only Mashishi in a pretty decent attacking midfield player. I usually have no luck in these games so I decided to try and double my luck bringing in both Lucky Baloyi and Lucky Nguzan the first is an utility player the second a forward. Shane Thompson concluded my business with a years loan he is a fairly good right back.

I sold two players for very good money as Gilbert and October departed, both were decent but I have loads of decent defenders and getting a combined £250k was very nice.

So that’s it! My challenge has officially began and South Africa is my first port of call, my aim isnt to win the champions league with the black aces more to build my reputation to land a bigger job.

I will post my updates as season long posts as its just the easiest way of doing it, and I will get back to trying to complete my first season in charge!

As always thanks for reading and I look forward to seeing your opinions and what you think.