[FM19] Going home - Cardiff City FC

[scott]

Intro

I’ve been an avid FM’er since Championship Manager 2001/02. I got a demo in a box of Frosties (I was seven, okay?) and was hooked straight away. One of my mum’s friends had the full-version of the game and installed it on our family PC. 

The rest, as they say, was history. 

Countless fun saves, including Marseille, Napoli, Granada, Schalke, FC Twente and many more, have followed and even a bit of silverware - lots of these were posted about on The Dugout. 

I was active for a few years on The Dugout, going to and graduating university, and getting a real job, meant my time waned and I’ve simply been playing in my own time quietly. 

I want that to change on FM19. I want to be active in the community and enjoy writing about Football Manager once again.

I'd initially started a blog and put a post up on there, but upon seeing the return of this place; this is where I want to be. 

So what do I have planned for this year? 

To me, there was only one save. I’ve toyed with the idea for the past few versions, but never really got into this save. This time it will be different. This time, all the odds are stacked against this club. 

The club? You guessed it… Cardiff City FC. 

I’m going home.

Why Cardiff? Well, I’m Cardiff born and bred first of all. Although I live in England now, I’m still a season ticket down the City and have a deep love for the club. 

I’ve always flirted with the idea of managing my club, but have always either resisted or not made it past season one. I always find myself too attached; be it a certain player, philosophy or taking my failures to heard. 

So why will this year be different? 

First of all, all the odds are stacked against us. Before a ball was kicked this season, 99.99% of football fans were certain we’d be relegated from the Premier League. Eight games in, it’s hard to argue against that. 

The Bluebirds are without a win, with just two points from eight games and there’s a clear lack of cutting edge. 

I’m certain all of this will be reflected in #FM19. 

“It’s my hardest challenge by an absolute mile. Biggest ever. I always knew it would be. I knew before the end of the season I knew what my budget would be, what I could spend so I knew it would be a minor miracle in that respect.” — Neil Warnock 

It’s certainly not going to be easy, but I’m hoping that by implementing a vigorous plan and philosophy, I’ll be able to establish Cardiff City as a Premier League club and, who knows, maybe beyond.

[Nick]

I'll be quick to admit, I was one of the 99.99%, sorry Scott. It's gonna be tough mate, both in real life and in FM. I actually think you boys have got a good chance of staying up. Fulham, Newcastle and Huddersfield are absolute garbage and, if you can pick up points off those around you, I reckon you can do it.

Good luck in-game. I'm interested to see your approach.

[dalenichol]

Good luck with this Scott, I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on. I quite like Cardiff and, for some reason, my best mate is also a Cardiff fan (despite having absolutely no connection to the club whatsoever).

[scott]

Nov 2, 2018 12:44:49 GMT Nick said:

I'll be quick to admit, I was one of the 99.99%, sorry Scott. It's gonna be tough mate, both in real life and in FM. I actually think you boys have got a good chance of staying up. Fulham, Newcastle and Huddersfield are absolute garbage and, if you can pick up points off those around you, I reckon you can do it.

Good luck in-game. I'm interested to see your approach.

Nov 2, 2018 13:22:09 GMT dalenichol said:

Good luck with this Scott, I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on. I quite like Cardiff and, for some reason, my best mate is also a Cardiff fan (despite having absolutely no connection to the club whatsoever).

Thanks both.



You're right - it's certainly going to be tough. I think in real life we've shown the last couple of weeks that we can be competitive and are certainly making a better go of it than people expected.



I've written a piece on my approach, which I'll post later, but I've quickly realised that my machine is struggling to run the full version so I'm going to resorted to touch, which is a lot better to run but does mean a smaller database. One of the things I want to do is get more Welsh players in the squad, but after having a look around that's going to be tough.

[fmamerican]

Seems appropriate given the thread title.


 

[scott]

1.0: Developing an identity
Thoughts on my FM19 Cardiff City save and how I plan to build an identity for the club




Cardiff City have never really had an identity. Think about the club and what you associate with them. Anything? Probably not.

If you did think of something, it was probably either hooligans (the club had a notorious crew called the Soul Crew at the height of football hooliganism) or route one football.

Let me discredit both of this. First of all, the Soul Crew haven’t been in operation for a number of years and Cardiff actually won Family Club of the Year in the EFL in 2013. Secondly, while Cardiff are currently a long-ball side, this is a characteristic of Neil Warnock, rather than the club itself.

You see, Cardiff don’t really have an identity. To many, they are a bit of a nothing club. It’s time to change that.

As manager of Cardiff City Football Club, I will be implementing a number of guidelines and rules on how the club should operate.

I’ll run you through them, as well as our goals:

Competition goals
Short term

Season one:

- Avoid relegation from the Premier League
- Cup competitions unimportant

Season two to five:

- To establish Cardiff as a Premier League club
- Qualify for Europa League
- Reach the final of a domestic cup competition (FA Cup or League Cup)

Long-term

Season six to eight:

- Reach the semi-finals of the Europa League
- Qualify for the Champions League
- Win a domestic cup competition (FA Cup or League Cup)

Season nine and above:

- Win the Premier League title
- Reach the semi-finals of the Champions League

Squad rules


To achieve this, and to assist in giving the club an identity, I’m keen to use guidelines and squad rules. Below are a list of squad rules I will implement, which will assist me with my recruitment and squad building.

Land of my fathers

I’m a passionate Welshman and it pains me to see only one Welshman in Cardiff City’s Premier League squad. Over time, I will look to develop that.

By 2025, I hope:

-30% of my 25-man squad will be Welsh (eight players out of 25)

Talent

I’m an admirer of how some clubs operate to buy young talented players. Lyon are a perfect example of this, as are PSV in Holland. I’m keen to follow this and create an identity for Cardiff City to be a club that develops young talent.

By 2025, I hope:

- 50% of my squad will be under the age of 25 (twelve out of 25)
- 25% of my squad will be under the age of 23 (six out of 25)

Academy

When I was growing up, a number of talented local players came through the Cardiff City academy. From Robert Earnshaw to Joe Ledley, Aaron Ramsey and Chris Gunter, Cardiff had a good track record of developing talent.

It’s been a long time since that was the case. The last (from memory) academy player to play for Wales was Declan John, who is now at arch-rivals Swansea City. That needs to change.

I’m not going to put a number on this because I’ve never been particularly successful at developing academy products in FM, but if I have one player graduate from my academy and get a Welsh cap, then I’ll be happy.

Money, Money, Money (Money)

Cardiff don’t particularly have a good record with finances. From Sam Hammam’s exploits to the current level of debt, it’s clear that this needs addressing.

I aim to be financially prudent during this save, keeping a close eye on my expenditure, income and balance.

I’ve downloaded this handy financial spreadsheet from VolksRepublikFussball to help me keep track of my finances. I’ve also adapted it to use to keep track of my quotas as discussed before.

I’ll be using this template to calculate a wage budget and putting a cap on what I can offer a player based on their squad role. More to come on this once the game is out and I get my budgets.

[scott]

1.1 Season Preview



The summer of my first season in South Wales was interesting. I spent a lot of time trying to find the right recruits, as well as working out how we could survive in the Premier League! Here's the first update of my FM19 save with Cardiff City, in which I'll take a look at transfers and pre-season friendlies.

Transfers

There's a lot of dead wood in the Cardiff City squad. The likes of Matt Connolly, Lee Tomlin, Loic Damour, Brian Murphy, Kadeem Harris, Gary Madine and more are not good enough for the Premier League. I had real trouble offloading this dead wood, with just Lee Peltier and Anthony Pilkington leaving the club on permanent deals.



Incoming, I targetted three main areas; goalkeeper, centre-halve and attacking firepower. Remember, I'm always thinking about how I can recruit with my two set criterias in place; young players and Welsh. In my first summer in South Wales, I made small steps towards this. Dominik Livakovic and Xadas both joined as young, talented players, while Tom Lawrence returned to the club to boost my Welsh contingent to two.

My other signings were short-term fixes, reflecting a lack of budget and a lack of viable options to improve us in the short run. Jores Okore joined to provide a bit of competition at centre-halve, while Scott McTominay and Marcelo Trotta both joined on loan.



Pre-Season Friendlies

I did a lot of re-arranging of our friendlies at the start of the summer. I know I'm going to have to play a counter attacking style in the Premier League and the friendlies we had arranged, against lower league sides, did not give us the best opportunity to work on this style of play.

We had a successful pre-season as I was able to develop two styles; a counter attacking style and a more attacking gegenpressing style. Convincing wins against Bayern Leverkusen, Rangers and Aston Villa were really pleasing, although the defeat to Sporting was provided a reality check.



Thoughts

An overall positive first pre-season back home in South Wales. I was never going to be able to do big things in the transfer window with just £8,000,000 to spend. I was disappointed not to be able to shift some dead wood, particularly as a few were on big wages. I'm trying to be financially prudent, remember, and have a salary cap in place, which I'm slowly trying to introduce. I currently have nine players over the salary limit for their selected squad role, which is something I hope to address over the season and next summer.

[scott]

1.2: Mid-season Report




I've hit February and the Bluebirds are flying in the Premier League. I actually can't get over how well we've been doing in the Premier League. Read on to find out more...

Premier League



That's right, it's early February and Cardiff City sit in 7th position in the Premier League. It's been an incredible first half to the season for the side that nobody gave a chance. At the start of the season, we were predicted to finish in bottom place with 1000-1 odds to win the title. While I don't think that will happen - we're far exceeding everybody's expectations, including mine!

While we've only won 11 games, we've been aided by the fact that so many teams below us simply aren't doing very well. Just seven points separate the relegation zone with Everton in 12th.

So how have we done it?



The season got off to an exceptional start, with a 5-3 win against Everton on the opening day of the season. That win certainly gave me hope that we could compete at this level. Manchester City certainly sent us back down to earth, but three wins in our opening seven matches was really positive.

From September until the end of November, we failed to string a good run of form together. We picked up some important points, but would often follow good wins up with losses or draws. It's not too concerning and it's what I'd expect from our first Premier League season.

Then December hit. What a horrid month. I thought our season was about to be derailed there, with just the single win in seven matches. It was an intense schedule and we struggled to cope. The goals also dried up, with our strikers particularly struggling. After scoring five goals by the start of October, Kenneth Zohore has failed to register a goal since. Bobby Reid hasn't scored all season, while Marcelo Trotta has registered just once, in January. I knew this was an area I had to address in January (more on that to come).

After a horrid December, I dreaded Manchester City on New Years Day, but a 2-1 win against the odds set up a fantastic January for us. Four games, three wins and a draw, and we've carried on that good form into February, where we currently have two wins from two, including an impressive victory over Arsenal.

So as you can see, it's been an incredible season so far. Here's how the rest of our games look in the Premier League.

League Cup

Out at the first hurdle. We drew Crystal Palace and after a draw 0-0 draw the game went to penalties. It was one of those shootouts that seemed to go on forever, with Palace winning 9-8.

FA Cup

So far, so good. Two wins, against AFC Wimbledon and Bolton has set up a 5th round tie against Spurs, which is coming up soon in-game.



January Transfers

As I mentioned above, my main priority in the January transfer window was getting a striker through the door. My only problem was a lack of funds, so I had to shift some of the deadwood before I was able to bring somebody in.



I managed to do that, with Connolly, Tomlin, Ward, Damour, Hoilett and Harris all leaving the club. I wasn't able to get big fees for them, but it does free up lots of wage budget.

I was able to bring in two players during the January transfer window. 23-year-old Lys Moussett joined from Bournemouth, where he was transfer listed, for £7million. He's young, with plenty of room to improve, and seems perfect for the system I'm playing. He's also scored two in two so a great start to life in South Wales! The other addition was a loan signing, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa joining from Lyon for the rest of the season. Jores Okore damaged his crucial ligaments earlier on in the season and has been missing since October, while Sol Bamba has been feeling 'homesick' so has been on leave for the past month. We were light in that area and, while I don't think MYM will play much, it's good to get him in as cover.

Thoughts

I don't really know what to say. We've been fantastic and I can't complain, but I do feel like this is all a bit too much too soon. I'm desperate for us to not qualiyy for Europe and my goal is simply to finish as high as we can without European qualification. Twelve games remain, so let's see what happens!

[scott]

1.3: End of season report



The first season of my FM19 save with Cardiff City is complete and what a season it has been. Just to remind you; Cardiff City were predicted to finish rock bottom of the table. Nobody gave us a chance of survival.

Premier League

When I left you in the mid-season report, we were challinging for seventh place and qualification for the Europa League. Well, we finished in seventh place. Much to my wanting of finishing outside the European places - it just felt too early for us - we managed it anyway.



A seventh place finish, with 58 points picked up over 38 games. It was an incredible season for the Bluebirds. Our form since the mid-season update wasn't actually very good, winning just five of the twelve league games. Our good start of the new year form meant that we maintained our position outside the top six and the final day win over Fulham, with eighth placed Watford losing to Manchester City, meant we qualified for Europe.

It was a great season in which we won some big games. I can't say I was disappointed in the side in many games either, apart from the 5-0 loss at home to Watford. The same team beat Manchester United away in the next game. A strange old season.

FA Cup

As you can see from the screenshot above, we lost to Spurs in the fifth round of the FA Cup, ending our run in that competition.

The players

With a superb season comes plenty of standout performances. As was old tradition on The Dugout, I've picked out three star performers. You can see the full squad stats below, too.



3. Dominik Livakovic: 30 appearances, 36 conceded, 10 clean sheets

While his stats may not be standout, I was really impressed with the young Croat. To keep 10 clean sheets on his first season outside of Croatian football is a great achievement. He's only 24 but kept two experienced 'keepers out of the side. Didn't play a single cup game, but was almost ever-present in the league for us.

2. Tom Lawrence: 25 (9) appearances, 6 goals, 6 assists

The young Welshman joined in the summer for his second spell in the Cardiff City Stadium and soon displaced Josh Murphy as our first choice left-winger. He scored some crucial goals and played well this season. Constantly received the best training ratings, too.

1. Nathaniel Mendez-Laing: 31 (5) appearances, 11 goals, 4 assists

What a season for Mendez-Laing. To be honest, I had signed Xadas and Lawrence with the idea of one of them taking NML's place on the right-wing, but the Championship free signing didn't look back all season. Our top goalscorer and a constant goal threat.

Our season awards:



Thoughts and looking to the future

To say I wasn't expecting a season like that would be underestimating how much we've overachieved this season. While I strengthened over the course of the season, I still expected us to be in a relegation fight.

My biggest concern now is how to shape the squad for next season. The Europa League is going to be a big ask for us and I currently have a handful of unhappy players who need replacing and a few loans finishing. I'm not sure what my budgets will be, but here's what I'm planning for the summer.

Leaving will be...
Harry Arter, Victor Camarasa, Scott McTominay, Marcelo Trotta, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa (loans finishing)
Neil Etheridge, Sol Bamba, Joe Bennett (all unhappy with play time)
Bobby Reid, Kenneth Zohore, Alex Smithies (wages above self-imposed salary cap for their squad roles)
Bruno Manga's contract is expiring and his wage demands are too high
Aaron Gunnarsson wants to leave (he feels he has achieved all he can at the cup, but I'd like to keep him).
Reserve players like Gary Madine and Stuart O'Keefe will be going too.

As you can see, that's 11-12 first team players all leaving. I'll need to work hard to replace them and improve the squad. It's going to be a summer of upheaval.

The areas I want to add to are...

Backup GK
New right-back (Paterson is out for 8 months)
2 x new CB
3 x new CM
1 x new ST

It's going to be an interesting summer...

[Torgiano]

Good start to the game scott. 7th is a lot higher than expected. What was key in that high finish? Good to see you are clearing out some of the dead wood. Even with it taking some work to form a new first team. Good luck!