FM 2015 Boavista Guide

Why Boavista?

Well, because it’s a difficult challenge. Founded in 1903, Boavista is one of the oldest football clubs in Portugal and it used to be Porto’s second greatest club, behind FC Porto.  It was also the only team — along with Belenenses — outside the big three to win the Portuguese Championship. Their Golden Era began during the 70s, but they only got crowned champions in 2001. The club’s title achievement was followed by a UEFA Cup semi-final and two qualifications to the Champions League groups, the year of 2003 being the latest appearance on the spotlight by the club. And then, it was followed by downfall.

Club Information – The Initial Setup

• Reputation: National
• Estimated Value: €5.75M
• Stadium: Estadio do Bessa Seculo XXI, 30000 all-seater
• Affiliated Club(s): Interclube (Angola)
• Training Facilities: Impressive
• Youth Facilities: Average

The construction of the modern stadium left a deep hole on the club’s finances and after three consecutive failures to achieve European competition, Boavista was relegated in June 2008 to the second division due to intimidation of referees, through its involvement in the Apito Final scandal. Things became even worse when they reached the Portuguese third tier but in 2013 Boavista was invited back in the Primeira Liga, after their forced relegation proved to be unlawful. The debt was also cut in half, which created a lot of hope for the future and a good number of members returned back to the club as 2014-2015 represents Boavista’s return to the top league.

Finances

• Balance: (€8,315,000)
• Projected Balance: (€9.36M)
• Total Player Wage Budget: €276,000 per month
• Current Player Wage Budget: €278,000 per month
• Transfer Budget: €0

The club is in deep debts and these numbers above won’t let you do anything really. You’ll need to figure out something to avoid losing more money than the club is already losing, and then slowly improve that. Your current sources of income are a sponsorship deal at €283K per season which ends in 2017 and a 4-year TV deal worth €2.49M per season. That means you’ll have to sell some of the players, lower the wages, bring more people to the stadium and eventually win prizes.

Board Expectations

The minimum are to avoid relegation and that’s exactly what you should consider achieving. There’s no extra money if you choose higher anyway so there’s no need to consider the other options. No transfer budget, current wage is already exceeding and your media prediction is 17th. Well at least there are no other philosophies included.

Staff Members

Here’s where all the fun really begins. Basically put you have a poor staff that should be replaced immediately, only that you won’t be capable of doing that — not in your first season anyway. Given your current financial issues, you will be in no position to offer a decent wage so first you need to sell some players to gain extra space for the wages. After that, there’s only one change I advise you to make and that is to bring a Fitness Coach, since you don’t have any. And perhaps, an additional coach with really low wages.

• Assistant Manager — Daniel Portela is a rather poor assistant, but it’s better to keep him for one season.
  
• Fitness Coach — you can sign Mateus Costa for a season or two, low wage demands.
  
• Goalkeeping Coach — Alfredo Castro, decent enough.
  
• Coach — Miguel Carmo currently employed.
  
• Scout — you’ll start with a setup of 3 scouts at the club.
  
• Physio — decent enough to start with.
  
• Director of Football (Frechaut) — offer him mutual termination, not really worth keeping.

The Squad – Key Players & Backups

Goalkeepers: Mika will most likely be your first choice in 90% of the games. Daniel Monilor and Mamadou will act as backups, but they should be replaced at the end of your first season.

Defenders: Brayan Beckeles, Marek Cech and Anderson Correia are your best choices for your wing backs. Well, at least on the paper — the truth is, Beckeles needs to be played in the center and as such you must urgently look for a right wing back, preferably a one season loan (since from 2nd season you’ll have Agustin Pena back at your club). Marek Cech is also a bit of a problem since he is a 1st team player and has a high wage — not according to his performance. Another issue is your second option for a central defender, you have a couple of average players there and they will need to be used in rotation, as their performance is more or less similar.

Midfielders: Plenty of players to cover this area, unfortunately most of them average or below average. Quincy stands out as being a star player with incredible speed and good dribbling but unfortunately that is pretty much his only worth for the club. There are many downsides regarding this player, starting with his unbelievable high wages (compared to the rest of the group, and to the club’s financial status): undetermined, doesn’t enjoy big matches, fairly inconsistent and susceptible to injuries, despite not having injury proneness. So basically I advise you to play these instead, whenever possible: Anderson Carvalho, Ancelmo, Brito, Yoro Lamine, Tengarrinha, Leozinho. Keep these players happy!!

Strikers: Christian Pouga will be your number one striker, your key player upfront. In a 4-4-2 the best partner seems to be Uchebo, who is not even listed above in the screenshot. You can also try Leozinho, Douglas Abner and even Tiago Garcia later during the season.

The Youth Generation

• Average Junior Coaching
• Above Average Youth Recruitment

Not the best youth facilities in the league but I was quite surprised by the three 5-star potentials who arrived during the youth intake, which happens in March. Until then, you have two good prospects in Douglas Abner and Tiago Garcia, both strikers.

FM 2015 Boavista Tactics

After failing over and over again I finally found the answer which really made me wonder why is that I haven’t tried this before. It’s the KISS principle of course (Keep it simple, stupid) — more specific, a flat 4-4-2 with generic roles and a few couple of basic instructions. You can try as much as you want different systems, I have tried about 7 of them and after 10 games or so none had better results. I guess it’s not for nothing they call the 4-4-2 as the easiest system to learn, after all.

Now for a backup formation you can either make two copies (offensive, defensive respectively) or have whatever formation you think of using into the future. For your first season however, I advise you to use the one and only, 4-4-2 presented below. You’ll also notice that Quincy is not in the first 11, that’s because he was rather poor despite being offered several roles. Leozinho covered the left wing much better than I hoped for, same for Lamine on the other side and the two strikers upfront did enough of what was expected.

• 4-4-2: the system is based on a simple short passing game, with building attacks from the back. The idea is to start with a standard mentality and based on the first five or ten minutes of play, make the change accordingly. You can also change the central midfielder roles (defend/support or attack) depending on the course of the game. The team instructions should largely remain the same in all cases, with a few exceptions of course — when you urgently need to score, or to keep hold of your lead during the last minutes. [Download link]

Club Transfers

Unfortunately due to the fact that almost all players are recent signings you’ll most likely end up offering unwanted players a mutual termination. You can get a small amount on Fary and Julian, but nothing more. After many tries you can convince a few more players to accept a mutual termination and I highly advise you to do that, since they will unsettle your key players as well if you keep them at club. I eventually had to apply the same treatment to some high earners like Quincy and Marek Cech since they weren’t able to play better than their backups, which proved to be a very good decision in terms of team happiness, results and finances.

Players Out

• Fary — if offered to clubs, can be sold for around €10-15K
• Julian — can be transferred for €30K or so
• Out on a free transfer: Eddy, Afonso, Pedro Costa, Gouvela, Samu, Carlos Santos, Bobo.

Players In

• Goalkeeper(s): none
• Defender(s): Edgar Ie on loan from Barcelona, will act as a good option for the right wing back position while Jair Yglesias will be your key player on the left (Jair will also be a key player for your set pieces).
  
• Midfielder(s): none
  
• Striker(s): none

Team Management

One of the most frustrating things during your first season is keeping your players happy. You start with a low morale and that is somehow understandable. Last season Boavista were in the 3rd league and now they are back to the top. For 90% of the players this is the first season in a Boavista shirt, as the club made a lot of transfers to avoid relegation — most of them brought in a hurry and without throughout scouting.

Team cohesion is a must training. I recommend you start with a focus on fitness for two or three weeks and then switch to team cohesion (high) until December at least. Have as many friendlies as possible, against weaker opponents especially during International call-ups along the season. Try to keep your players happy, get rid of those who are becoming unsettled — or they will affect other players as well.

The Conclusion

Given the 17th media prediction I believe this is clearly an over achievement, we were 2 points away from an European place and could have gotten it with a bit of a luck.  You will however lose a few games heavily, most likely against «the big three» — notice the negative goal difference. But let’s also take into account the team talks, which in this scenario (like in all of my guides) are given by a Sunday League profile manager. A good performance nevertheless, and after the board decided to apply for a loan gift of €10M with no interest payable — which brought our finances out of the red zone — I got a good platform for the future.

The loan gift might not happen to you, but if you survive your first season you should be able to slowly build your way to the top. Just mind the key aspects of this challenge: keep your main players happy, save money and scout! — scout for young players, scout for bargains and sign them for the next season. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that this FM 2015 Boavista Guide, and others which will follow are based on the new Football Manager patch (15.3.0). Any feedback is much appreciated! Thank you and good luck!

• Pros: modern stadium, impressive training facilities, no league restrictions.
• Cons: insecure finances, 17th media prediction, poor staff, poor morale.
• Difficulty: 7/10