Deeb’s Challenges

This is designed as a central resource for all the challenges I try at various
times during my FM gameplay. There may be one or two you fancy. Why not give
them a go?



Pentagon

Not my idea, but one that I really want to try and achieve. The way I see it is
that you can only really do this by being a different manager each time, but at
least you’ll know the achievement you’ve earned.

Basic Principles
• Aim is to win 5 Champions League around the world.
• Load a league from each Confederation, choose a club and then try and win the
Champions League.
• The greater challenge is to move onto the next Confederation each time you’ve
achieved your first task.
• The less challenge is to start a new game each time you want to compete in a
Confederation, giving you a greater chance of knowing the best players in the
area.
• There is no time limit on this, and the beauty of this challenge is that you
can set your own rules. You could limit yourself to only taking over clubs who
have never won the Champions League.


Relegation Challenge

This one is where you become a manager who saves clubs from relegation. You
won’t have to bother with transfers as this is purely based on your ability to
motivate players and set the tactics that will work for your players.

Basic Principles
• Load up the leagues you want. You could of course just stay in one country.
• ‘Holiday’ the game until 3 months before the end of the season. In England, I
set this to the end of February.
• Choose one of the teams in the bottom 3, and try and stave off the drop.
• As mentioned earlier, the transfer window is closed, so you don’t have to
worry about transfers. You are only going to stay till the end of the season,
so you don’t need to bother with contract renewals either.
• Once you achieved ‘the impossible’, just resign and ‘holiday’ the game again
till next season, then do the same. How many can you achieve?


Premiership Challenge

This isn’t what you think. If you want a real challenge, where finances are
likely to be tight and attracting/keeping players could be tough, this is for
you

Basic Principles
• Load up England and any other leagues you want to attract players from
• ‘Holiday’ the game until the end of the season, then take over one of the
teams relegated from the Premiership.
• Of course when you start the game, you will have no idea who your team will
be. It could be a big team.
• Your challenge is to get them back into the Premiership. Will they become a
West Brom or Newcastle, and bounce straight back? Or will they be a Coventry,
Derby or Southampton and spend years in the lower leagues?
• There’s no time limit for this, and you may end up sacked due to wage
constraints or a board that has an unrealistic expectation of recovery. But if
you are THE man to turn this round……


Virgin Challenge

This challenge can be done in any country in the world. Choose a country and look
at the top clubs to see who has and who hasn’t, won the title, EVER. Then you
take over a club that has NEVER won the title, and you try and become the first
manager to bring the trophy home. Portugal is always a good one for this, as
few teams other than the top 3, have ever won the title. Holland is another
one, and I bet there are plenty of others. You just need to do a bit of
research first.


Past Glory Challenge

I realise nearly all of these challenges are based on the EPL, but then that’s
where I live so what else do you expect? This one, could be used for other
countries.

The idea is you look for clubs who used to be big sides and have not won
anything for years. Tottenham, for example!!

Seriously, in England, I’d go for clubs like Huddersfield or Preston. In 1926,
Huddersfield became the first club to win the title 3 times in a row. Last time
they in the top flight was 1972. Can you get them back there?
Preston were the first ever winners of ‘the double’, and in 1889 went through a
whole season unbeaten in league and cup. Their last major trophy was 1938


Founder Member Challenge

Bit like the past glory challenge, in that you will take over a club that has
fallen on hard times, and try and restore them to former glories.

At the start of the 2010-11 EPL season, there were only 9 clubs competing who
were founder members of the EPL in 1992. Interestingly, Norwich and QPR have
just won promotion back to a league they were founder members of.

So there are 11 other clubs who are no longer competing in the top division.
Choose from Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United, Wimbledon (MK Dons or AFC
Wimbledon), Coventry, Ipswich, Leeds, Southampton, Oldham, Crystal Palace,
Middlesbrough, Nottingham Forest.

Of course as FM11 starts in 2009-10, you could see if you can emulate QPR or
Norwich and see if you can get them back into the Premiership.


Conference Challenge

At the start of the 2010-11 season, there were 7 clubs who had spent many
seasons in the Football League and were now competing in the Conference.

Choose from Luton Town, York City, Mansfield Town, Cambridge Utd, Wrexham,
Darlington, Grimsby.

Of course, you will struggle with lack of funds and also many players who wish
they were back in the Football League. Not to mention a fanbase who believes
the club doesn’t belong in such seedy surroundings. So, are you THE man to
restore league football to any of these clubs?






International Challenges




You can adapt many of these challenges to international football.


World Cup Challenges

First Timer

Such as choosing a country who has never competed in the World Cup Finals, and
see if you can get them to qualify. There are any amount of European countries
who’ve never managed it, although choosing a different Confederation may be
slightly easier, or take less time, as they are less constrained by the seeding
system that UEFA adopts. India is an interesting one. They did qualify once,
but didn’t compete as FIFA wanted them to play football in boots, and they
wanted to play in bare feet!

Past Glories

Uruguay were the first winners of the World Cup in 1930. In 1950 they shocked
the world by winning the trophy for a 2nd time, beating Brazil in the Maracana.
They’ve struggled to qualify for many tournaments since, let alone look like
challengers.

Could you bring the glory days back to Uruguay?

The Welsh

Now you may think the Welsh have enough challenges as it is, but this one is to
get them to qualify for the World Cup Finals for only the 2nd time in their
history.

This is quite a challenge, though, and you will have to be prepared to be
patient. Whether the Welsh FA can be, is another thing, but you should set your
sights ahead for the 2018 tournament at least.

Due to the seeding system, you are very unlikely to be able to win your group.
But finishing 2nd or 3rd will give you a better seeding next time round.
Therefore, you are gradually eliminating better opponents, and more likely to
come up against lower rated teams, giving yourself a much better chance of
success.

World Rankings Challenge

This is quite simple. Load your game, find the country ranked lowest in the
World and take that job. This really will take you to exotic places that few FM
managers ever experience, but of course any success will be an improvement on
what things were like before you came along.

How high in the rankings can you get them?


Of course you could take on plenty of countries who have a history they’d love
to replicated

England
Scotland
Hungary
Belgium

to name just a few.




I’ll add more of these as I think of them, but you may find one or two to your
liking.


If you do decide to try one or two of these, why not post up your progress in the stories section

Some good challenges there mate, will have to have a go when I get some time.

Cheers