Västra Frölunda and the League

Divison 2 West Gotaland 2011 team's location.
The red dots show 1 team's location
while the green dot are 4 teams
including Västra Frölunda.

Before I start my game I had to check the history of Västra Frölunda. I know the team since when they used to play in Allsvenskan (the top division in Sweden) so I know its history a little bit at least.
Because of the cold winters in Sweden, the leagues play from spring to fall. I will start with the 2011 season, that in real life is already finished. Frölunda are placed in Division 2 West Gotaland, a division with 12 teams. There are 6 different regional leagues in division 2, and is the 4th tier in the Swedish football league system.
Each team play each other twice with a total of 22 matches. We will also take part in the Swedish FA Cup (Svenska Cupen).

Västra Frölunda is located in the western part of Gothenburg. Our fiercest rivals are IFK Göteborg, GAIS, Häcken and Örgryte, but they are all in division above us. We do however have three other teams located in Gothenburg and its suburbs. First we have Kållered SK located in the suburb Kållered, then there's Lindome GIF in the suburb Lindome, both very close to each other. We will have a real derby against Utsiktens BK as they are also located in the Frölunda borough. They'll be my main enemy this season, I'll make sure to win whatever the cost.

Västra Frölunda was relegated in 2010 so our main goal must be to get back to Division 1. However, the media predicts us at around place 6th, and the board expects us to get a respectable top half finish. I haven't had a chance to inspect my players and compare us to the rest of the league yet, and there isn't much money to improve the squad either, so perhaps I'll just do as expected and aim for a "respectable top half finish".
To get promoted to Division 1 we'll need to win the league, or gather enough points to be the best ranked second-placed team. The two lowest placed teams in each league will be relegated while the third lowest placed team will have to play promotion/relegation play-offs.

Västra Frölunda has always been considered as a feeder club for bigger teams in Sweden. The clubs brings in youth players and then sell them on, and has never really spent any money on bringing players with better quality. To not jeopardise the clubs economy, no real money are ever spent.
The clubs highest ever position was in 1998 when they finished 5th in Allsvenskan. Now it's my job to bring them back.

Next up, I'll present the squad and staff.

My first team

So the game has been out since last week, but I haven't had the chance to touch it yet. I've been messing around with the demo a lot, but I finally installed the real version today.

As I said before, I will start my game in Sweden, and let it randomly choose a team for me. To start with, the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish leagues are all playable, while I have all big European leagues as viewable. As my goal is to move to bigger clubs in "bigger" countries, I'll add them as playable later.

The team I will start my career in will be Västra Frölunda. A small team from Gothenburg, that once played in the top division but now find itself in the 4th tier. The game explains its history better than me:

This will be exciting. I'll write soon again.

Trying the demo

So I tried the demo over the weekend, also a little last night, and I found it a positive experience. I really enjoyed most of the new GUI and how easy it now is to get information fast.

I started a game with Manchester City just to try it out, and I wanted to know what it feels like to be able to buy anyone you want ;)

So I was really just fooling around to get used to the new system. With new graphics, menus, and new ways to interact with your players and staff, I want to be ready for the real deal.

I really like the new menus, they've made it easier to find what you are looking for and added a few short-cuts. I love the short-cut to the Transfers-screen, I've always wanted that.

I was a little uncertain about the new tones when you are talking to your players, before and during matches as well as those little private chats. One of the biggest problem I had in FM11 was that I always managed to make my players angry as soon as they wanted a private conversation with me. I was worried that now with even more conversation options I would find even more ways to make my players angry at me.
I let my assistant take care of the first few teamtalks so that I could get a hang of it, all those options made me confused, but I guess once you get to know how to use them, it'll be a fun new function. Even the private conversations went better than expected.
But really, you should read this article from FM Manual, cause it's spot on!

So how about my Manchester City?
Well I tried to buy Maicon, but even with a lot of money and Tevez in the deal, they wouldn't sell him to me. I ended up buying Marcell Jansen from HSV and Keisuke Honda from CSKA Moscow instead. ManC obviously doesn't need any more midfielders, but I wanted a someone good on the left and I like Honda as a player.Still just trying out a few things, I made a silly 4-5-1 Christmas-tree looking formation. I played a few friendlies, with the most interesting match against Dortmund that ended 1-1.
First competitive match was the Community Shield against Manchester United. A great strike from Aguero after just 2 minutes gave us the lead and everything felt great. Sadly, it only lasted a while. A lack of communication between Kompany and Hart left the ball free for Rooney to take just outside our own area. A simple touch and it was all level after 15 minutes. United had most of the ball for the rest of the half, both teams hit the post twice, but the half ended all square. United continued their domination in the second half and it was just a matter of time before Nani made it 2-1 for United. A corner in the 63rd minute saw the ball being ping-ponged in the area before it found its way to Nani who knew what to do.
We tried to get back but United defended well. Aguero and Silva had great chances to make it level again but De Gea made two super saves to keep his side on top. The match ended with defeat 2-1 with de Gea as Man of the Match.
The match had two bad news for both teams. My new signing Jansen, and United's Rooney both got injured and would miss the following week's international matches. Just for you information, Bent was called in instead of Rooney.

Sorry, but I don't have any screen shots from the season as I'm only trying and fooling around a little. When I start the real game, there'll be a lot more to talk about and show you in screen shots.

The blog, the game and the rules

Hi there, and welcome to my Football Manager blog.
I've decided to write about how my progress as a manager goes. I will start a new game as soon as Football Manager 2012 is released on October 21st. I do this for my own amusement as I think it'll be fun and interesting, and I hope that you might find it fun and interesting too!
I will try to play and write as much as I can, but I have work and something called life to take care of as well. We'll see how often I'll update.
Don't forget that you can follow my progress on Twitter @RaidFM . My own as well as the game's updates will be there.

How I'll play the game and the rules
I will try to make a career as a manager would in real life. I will start in the lowest league available in Sweden, my home country, and try to make my way up to bigger teams and bigger leagues. The goal is to one day manage a big world famous team and take them to Champions League glory. I will of course take the team I manage as far as I can before I change team, but there's always a chance that I might fall in love with the team and remain there throughout the game.
So, I'll start in Sweden's division 2, the 4th highest tier of Swedish football. There are 6 regional groups with 12 teams each. I will let the game choose a random team for me from one of these divisions, my manager setting will be "Sunday League Footballer".
Though it's similar to the Dafuge Challange, I will not play by its rules. I like the idea, but I will play my own style.
I will not cheat. No reloads, not scouting software, no editing or similar. I might take help with the training settings as it is my weak side. I will, however, try first.

The leagues
There's a new feature in FM12 where you can add and remove leagues during play. (See this link about this new feature) I made a map of which leagues I will make playable or viewable depending on which league I'm currently playing in. See the map here: http://i.imgur.com/G9vg4.png Sorry for the bad quality.

I hope to have my first update during the first weekend after the release. I hope you'll drop by and have a look at my progress.
Until then, take care!