So why am I back?I’ll try and keep this short. In the first instance you might not even realise I’m ‘back’ and that would be understandable. Towards the end of FM16 I started my blogging life on the DLP’s website with a save about Empoli. Having done a lot of FM writing but never actual stories it was fantastic to have a bit more creative freedom. Unfortunately that was quite a tough time for me as I left my job and struggled to get some regular income for a while and rather than previous years when FM has been my release from difficult times. I just didn’t seem to love the game in the same way.
On this year’s version I was determined to go back to Argentina with FM Grasshopper but the Copa Libertadores bug put me off and I actually ended up getting quite into an Ajax save that I never really felt like writing about. With more regular work in the real world and, this year in particular, other non-FM games I haven’t spent as long on FM and thus when the usual quiet before the new game I didn’t find myself dabbling too much save for an ill-fated spell with Palermo.
However both myself and a number of others on the FMArgentina slack channel (seriously join Slack) were very excited for the U20 World Cup and in particular Argentina’s team. To say we were let down would be an understatement… For such talented players the performances were hugely disappointing and just like that, there was the bite I needed to get myself back in.
I would take over the Argentina U20’s at the start of the game with the sole aim of winning the World Cup, ideally in the first season. Was this ambitious? Of course, but with the talent at their disposal, particularly in the forward areas, I was confident. This gave me one year with the players, a slightly more relaxed pace for the first season of management and in my opinion a youth international job is a fun way to start a journeyman save. When I was younger I could spend hours and hours tucked away in tiny leagues working my way up, now if I’m planning a journeyman save I’ll start at a decent level, not amazing, but a solid footing, I just don’t have the time.
Argentina welcome
This will be the first of a series of posts to get you caught up to where I am now in game, i.e. the start of 2019 and it’s been a very interesting ride, not to mention I’m in a very interesting place in my career. Aims? There are none, I’ve been loving this save and I want to keep it that way. I always screw up journeyman saves by being way too impulsive with new jobs so I’m going to rein myself in when I consider moving on, as you shall see!
Oh and the name? There’s two reasons for that a) I practically never manage in the UK and b) I’m awful at picking names.
A Sharland Abroad 