Stade Malherbe Caen: The First Months

Hi Guys! and to the ladies — How you doin?

My name’s Michael but I’m usually just called Majk and that’s exactly the way I like it. I’m Swedish and i live in a city called Norrköping, I just moved here from Helsingborg. I’m 24 years old and I’m currently unemployed after quitting my old job as a label-printer. I’m hoping to study here in my new city in the next few years, the have a great Graphics Design-course here where I’m looking to get in. Anyway, I’ve just become a new member to the team of Footballmanagerstory.com and I’m more than grateful to be getting a chance to post my FM stories to a wider audience. I had my own blog for a short while, managing teams like Reggina to Serie A and Champions League glory and then there was Millwall who managed to get a 8th place finish in the Premier League before i quit.

With the newest patch released I decided to give it a new go, adding what I’ve learned and what doesn’t work from my latest games and from what Johnny Karp, Kevin, Laxeyman etc. have come up with. I wanted to try out a new league and I had fond memories from CM 98/99 when I took Montpellier from ligue 2 to a dominant ligue 1 winning streak. The french league also boast one of the best talents in the game and by managing a french team I’ll get a perfect view over who will develop and sprout into future stars. You always seem to find gems when playing in different countries and I’ll be sure to report all my findings to you guys except for the obvious choices.

You can all wikipedia Stade Malherbe Caen, I won’t go into detail about history of the club since I don’t have any real bond to it. I Found that this was the most interesting Ligue2 outfit with a player that i looked forward to work with — Sambou Yatabaré

The also had some very good older players that would propel the team for an early championship win (hopefully) and then slowly make their way out of the squad as I find better players. It’s just sad to see young players who work their ass off for qualification just to get shipped away or dumped to the reserve squad when money comes rolling in and better players are required.

I had some improvements to do right away and that was to find a solid CD, a Fullback and a reliable Striker and with almost no budget (1,2 M £)

I released a very good central defender in Sorbon but I got Kryvtsov who I really wanted. So you could say I sacrificed him in order to improve the future for the club. Ritchie De Laet is a great and all-round defensive piece. Andrea Rossi is a good, pacey Fullback. Kakuta and Tafer make good additions and I hope they will grow to love the club so that they might want to join the club later on. Dady was an affordable option to the vacant Striker position.

I play an 4-4-2 with a wide diamond midfield.

Benjamin Nivet is a wonderful play-maker and even though Yatabaré have the qualities he’s doing even better than I thought in a target man position. Dady is the goalscorer just like I planned and the other areas works fine, except for the right wing. Deroin is primarily a Defensive midfielder so I’ll be looking to add a natural Right midfielder next season.

I’m looking good for qualification even though I’ve slumped to a few defeats it’s not going to be that hard to qualify. A few nasty injuries have been hampering our play. Yatabaré was out for 3 months and has just come back into regular play, Andrea Rossi broke his leg and Tafforeau was out for several weeks leaving me with a make-shift left back in De Laet.

It’s pretty even at the top but things look good for the moment. We’re out of the league cups so all focus is on the Championship. Well I’ll be signing out for this time but I’m gonna go monthly with this baby so the next post will cover the month of March.

//Majk