Ana, FM 2012 : Season 1 Building A Dynasty

Hello everyone!!

I hope your all well and welcome back to my story!

So after a few days spent pondering, wondering and thinking about all your suggestions I’ll be honest I was a total loss! Lots of really good challenges were suggested to me but having taken some I really liked the look of I checked the forums to find most in full swing and I didnt want to intrude on the hard work of the writer’s there.

I had settled on a return to Real Union until I saw Martin’s Tenerife post and was thinking I cant even do that!

So I had a plan to do something I have never seen as that’s always fun!

The logo should give it away! (or maybe not) I would love for someone to have guessed correctly infact I would love someone to guess what league I am in!

I will give you a chance to guess as I unveil it this post so hope you enjoy it!! :)

Managerial C.V

— Black Aces (June 2011 – June 2018)

African Premier League : 2016

Super 8′s Winner : 2015, 2016

First Division : 2012

South African Knockout Cup : 2016

The African Champions League : 2017

— New York Red Bulls (January 2019 –December 2021)

U.S. Cup : 2019

MLS : 2020, 2021

North American Champions League : 2020

— FC Seoul ( January 2022 – December 2025)

K-League : 2023, 2024

Korean FA Cup : 2022

Korean League Cup : 2024

The Asian Champions League : 2025

— Arsenal (July 2026 -June 2028)

The Premier League : 2027, 2028

The Europa League : 2027

The FA Cup : 2027

The League Cup : 2028

The European Champions League : 2028

— Velez Sarsfield (December 2028 – Present)

Premier Division Open Stage : 2029, 2030, 2031

Premier Division Closing Stage : 2032

Copa Argentina : 2031

Copa Libertadores : 2032

International Career

— U.S.A (May 2017 – July 2021)

Nothing.

— Spain (July 2024 – 2027)

Nothing .

— Peru (2031 — Present)

Nothing as of yet.

————————————-

So first up I stepped down at Velez and yes I will be continuing the same save!

The main reason is I hate starting new games and will avoid it whenever possible and I really love when the ‘real’ life players have long gone and its down to the best regenerated players you can find.

So my new job is……

Just kidding! :)

I was re-offered my role as the national manager of Spain I was so very tempted to go back but I want to stay loyal to my new employers Peru and see if I can get to the World Cup!

So lets try again!

My new team is……

That’s right Livadia Dzerzhinsk!!

Now be honest did any of you guess it correctly from the logo?!

The country I am now in is that of Belarus a place where I have never managed! :)

So the main reason I joined is that they have no history!

They have never won a thing have terrible facilities a tiny stadium of only 1,000 capacity and a squad which is let me tell you the worst I have ever had!!

The team is affectionately know as Dzerzhinsty but from now on I will call them Livadia for the simple sake that’s its much easier to type and remember! :)

 That’s right no legends, no icons nothing a perfect place to begin my dynasty!

We are predicted to finish bottom and we are in the first league which is one below the highest league and in the bottom division in Belarus (no that’s actually what its called the Highest league!) in Belarus, estimated value of a huge £60k and a ticket price of only 50 pence!

Only five pounds also for a season ticket so its nice to see 247 passionate fans decide to stick with me through my first season! :)

Star Player — Sergey Gorelov

Yes that is our star player and our highest valued player as well at £9k!!

Nothing much more to say……except we might be in trouble!

Club Finances

So really not too bad!

We have a small amount tucked away in the bank balance and a very ambitious manager from Spain so we are well on our way….

Ok, maybe not but at least we are not in financial difficulties and even turned a small profit this month!

Transfers In and Out Second Window

So yeah transfers everyone’s favourite part!

Except there was a problem the league rules state I can have zero foreign players!

I have no scout, no assistant manager, no physios and my star player earns £3 pounds a week! So what I did was quickly assign an assistant and trailed through the wealth of Belorussian talent available and sadly this was the absolute best I could find……

Vadim Zhukov

Hmm…….. he is tall at least!

I said in a response to Wicklander on the forums that when managing in these types of leagues buy players with lots of pace which I couldn’t get!!

So as a plan B buy tall players! Hopefully he can address our goalscoring problems which you will now see.

Results and Table before I Took Over

So yeah that’s what I’m dealing with!

We currently bottom of the league we struggle to score goals and have a really bad defense so what to do?

Well our squad is quite frankly terrible! We have no pace, no quality and only one decent forward and a fairly decent attacking midfield player , so my excellent 4-2-4 will have to go out of the window in favour for something a little more functional.

I settled on this formation to see how well it would work :

I know! I know I am probably the most attacking manager ever but needs must in this side!

My goal is not to try and win games but to try and not lose them very negative I know but I have the worst team I have ever managed so I have no real choice really.

New signing Zhukov will be a lone striker with Kuznetsov (I know Mardas is pictured but Kuznetsov was injured) Kuznetsov has a little bit of pace some good flair so if Zhukov can hold the ball up those two might be able to create some chances at least!

Defense is horrible and we don’t even have two defensive midfielders! I have a left winger in that position for now but amazingly he has better tackling than some of our defenders! :)

Change of Pace — Off To Peru!

So before we get back to Livadia lets have a look at the qualification for the upcoming World Cup finals and if Peru will even be there.

Yay! We are off to Australia!

We hit a great run of form beating Chile then Uruguay eight goals to one but they did have two men sent off including their goal keeper but we took full advantage.

Venezuela and Ecuador were routine victories then Paraguay had a man sent off and we ran away as four zero winners. Losses against Argentina and twice against Brazil was acceptable but at the end of the day we made it and am looking forward to the tournament next season to see just how well we do!

Livadia — Results and Table End of Season

Survived!

Just barely though after the first defeat (which I missed of my results apologies) using my 4-2-4 I felt I needed to change as we lost that game by four goals to zero, and after I used the tactic you saw earlier on I thought inspired!

This is easy as we won three games in a row and deserved to win them also. Then I guess the novelty of the new manager wore off as we struggled in the next few games then a run of real inconsistency as we won a game lost a game but the real crunch games (my boyfriends term!) were Pinsk and Klechesk.

I really wanted to get this update out tonight so whilst I jumped in the shower I gave responsibility to my better half  and he managed to get a win and a draw and in his usual modest manner he decided to upload the highlights claiming it to be the biggest win of the season! (Mostly because he was in charge whilst I was gone) but he had a point.

The game was pretty good actually so here are the highlights, I especially like Zhukov’s second and the third, a fluke from Kurilovich!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZhEqMrb834

Final Player Ratings of the Season

So Zhukov was a pretty inspired signing! Eight goals from 13 starts and a few sub appearances and as you can see he has a bit of class (especially with that chip over the goal keeper!) Kuznetsov was also pretty good and really help carry the team over the those periods of games.

That said the squad is really poor but replacing it will be even more difficult as I am stuck with only players from Belarus, my main targets is to get a scout and at least find a few new players in the upcoming window.

Platonov was an academy player who has just come through the ranks, he looks alright also but I forgot to take a pic! Lets just say he is as good as what we have got and he is only 17! :)

Star Man of the Season — Dmitriy Kuznetsov

End of Season Finances and Round-Up

So we managed to make a profit of £49k which is really nice, obviously there were no finances from last year as I have just added the Belarus league to my playable list.

So that’s my next challenge!

Am not sure what you make of it but I really wanted to give you something unique that hasn’t been done before and in a league that you wont be familiar with. I will be only signing players from Belarus and promoting players from my youth team, its sort of an everything challenge my goals is to simply take this team as far as I can go. Its not to try and win the champions league which I know will be impossible especially with the rules I have set for myself so its shouldn’t rival Johnny’s amazing story in Romania.

I tried to pick a league no-one really knows that much about and a team that I can’t even pronounce in real life!

I really wanted a team that had won nothing had the worst facilities possible and be outside of the real money leagues like England, Spain, Germany, Italy etc

Yet still be in Europe but have no real chance of winning the champions league and of course throw in my wacky twists of managing in the weirdest place’s possible without interfering with the great stories we have on the main site and the forums!

I feel I have ticked all the boxes for myself and have found something I actually want to do and am interested to see how well/bad things will go so hopefully you will stick with me onto hopefully managing over 2,000 games!

Whilst turning Lavidia into a team that can finally be proud of its history!

Thanks so much for reading!! I eagerly await to read your responses and find out what you think about my new challenge (and be honest please!). :)