🎮 My first journeyman save on Football Manager in a while
I'm a Football Manager player. You probably already read a blog post I published about this game series. Despite playing the game for years, I haven't done a true journeyman save. I've had saves where I start in the lower division available in a country and take the team to win the Champions League, but not one of these. I attempted to do one a while back but stayed at the first team I managed – task failed successfully.
I'll explain what a journeyman save is for those who don't know. You create a save game where you start unemployed, apply to whatever manager roles are available, and manage whatever team offers you a contract (if you get more than one offer, you are free to choose whatever team you prefer). If you want to terminate your contract and/or apply to another team, you are free to do so. Of course, you can do this in any save, but most players start with a team and keep managing it.
For this save, I loaded Germany, Belgium, England, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, The Netherlands, and Sweden's main divisions. I would've loaded lower divisions from these countries with more RAM and a faster CPU because I would've had a very slow gaming experience if I had done it with my current hardware. Loading several countries forced me to start as a professional manager (you can start as an amateur manager if you choose to), or I would have stayed unemployed for a long time, and I didn't want that.
There were a few teams with no manager, including Ajax. I applied to all of them, but Mechelen, from Belgium, was the first to offer me a contract and accept my terms. The team is weak, but thankfully, the other teams from the league are not world-class, so I've managed to stay in first place with eight games played so far.
As with every weaker team I manage, my strategy is to get players without a contract and on loan from other clubs. To earn revenue, I try to win as many trophies as possible and sell performing players so that I can then replace better players on free transfers or loans. Keeping the wages in check is another thing I have to do, or the club's finances will suffer.
This season's objective is to finish in a position that allows me to play European football, hopefully in the Champions League, and at least reach Belgium's cup semi-final. I know these are hefty objectives, but I play to win as much as possible. I already secured some players on loan that improve the squad quality, and I have two future free transfers that will also increase the grade of the attack, an area the team lacks in quality.