Can you emulate one of the greatest managers of all time in this challenge…
STARTING THE SAF CHALLENGE ON FM23
Involves you simulating the game on FM23 until the 6th November and take over the club that sit in 19th in the Premier League on that day, pretty much what Sir Alex did did back in 1986 when he took over the reins as Manchester United manager. Also, I’d like to say I am not a Man U, however I have massive respect for Sir Alex – a true legend and one of the greatest managers in the English game. Also I am not a fan of any Premier League clubs so I am not fussed which club I get but you’ll already be aware of the club via the thumbnail for the FM23 series anyway…
On 6th November 2023…
The Premier League table looks like this…
Brighton in 19th place, which I am surprised to see them so far down the league table to be fair as I thought they would have been much stronger and higher up than this. I was thinking it would have been more like Forest, Southampton or Fulham. Which it was so nearly was the latter of the three clubs mentioned but it was a single point separating them both in the table.
The Seagulls record so far in the league is that they have only won twice in the 14 matches played and they have lost nine of them which leaves them five points adrift of safety. Can I rescue the Seagulls or will I get sacked, only time will tell…
Breaking News
CoxieFM takes over the reins as the new Seagulls manager on a two years deal and reading the information below only to find out that Roberto De Zebri got sacked 8 days prior to me taking over as manager and the ink isn’t even dry on the contract as I face Manchester United on 6th November, how ironic…
The tactic I will be using is below for the first game in charge against the red devils and this is my starting/strongest XI as well for this tactic. The tactic below can be found in this link. In this tactic we look strong in defence and okay-ish in attack, so if I can make it through the season and we survive then I believe I will only need to strengthen the forward line and bring in a top class TF.
RULES TO THE SAF CHALLENGE
The rules of this challenge is below.
You need to…
- Stay at one club – The Scotsman managed Man United for 26 years.
- Aim to bring Youth Players through – “Class of 92“.
- Persuade long term players to become part of your backroom staff.
Goals of the Challenge…
- Win a Domestic Cup/Trophy within 4 seasons – Ferguson won his first Cup vs Crystal Palace in 89/90.
- Win a League title within 7 seasons – Ferguson won his first title in 92/93.
- Win a League and Cup double within 8 seasons – Ferguson won his first double with United in 93/94.
- Win a League, Cup and the Champions League within 13 seasons – Ferguson won the infamous treble in 98/99.
Total number of trophies that the Scotsman won during his managerial career at Old Trafford…
- Premier League (13)
- FA Cup (5)
- League Cup (4)
- Community Shield (10)
- UEFA Champions League (2)
- UEFA Europa League (1) (Replaces the Cup Winners Cup)
- UEFA Super Cup (1)
- FIFA Club World Cup (2) (One Replaces Intercontinental Cup)
A few rules to follow when taking this Football Manager Challenge on…
- No usage of the in-game editor – Which I never have on anyway.
- No buying or selling from/to your direct rival. – This depends on the club I get really. Plus it’s difficult if one of the so called top six club come in and offer you £100m + for a player, I don’t think anyone would reject it in this day and age.
- No more than 11 signings per season, of which only 8 can play in the first team that season. Depends on the club this rule, If I need a complete rebuild.
- Spending restrictions. I will have no spending restriction on due to the transfer market is in a different world than the mid 80s through to the 2013 during Sir Alex’s time.
- Promote as many youth players as you can and have a minimum of 1 player promoted from the youth academy in every single matchday squad. (The likes of Beckham, Giggs, Scholes & others were all part of the youth system and went on to become legends at the club)
- Promote at least 1 new player to the youth academy to the senior team every single season. I would say the last two are really joint in some ways and I would have to see what club I get first to see if it’s achievable, well definitely the one with a youth player in the matchday squad.
- Sacked or Relegation. Don’t know – maybe let the readers decide or I just add myself back as the manager and just carry on the save and add the information onto the style of graphic above which is titled “The Impossible Dream” and complete it within 26-27 seasons with the one club.
My SAF Challenges on previous FMs
I am no stranger to this challenge…
On FM22
I took over as the Wolves manager, which being a Walsall fan, this was interesting as that I was going to managing one of our Black Country rivals. However, I tried my best to win silverware, but the save was cut short due other reasons. The series can be found under the FM22 tab.
On FM21, there was something different…
I used the same rules but The Twist To The Save Was Not In England…
I will be adventured into Europe somewhere for this series and used the “Goals of the challenge” as the baseline for the series and ended up in Italy..
As the Fiorentina manager, but unfortunately I was sacked after three seasons…The series can be found under the FM21 tab.
Final Words
Let me know if you enjoyed this blog. If you do this challenge yourself, then please feel free to tagged me in it so I can see how you get on.
In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback and questions and don’t forget to check out all the other blogs on here and you can follow me on Twitter here.
See you next time and thank you for reading…
CoxieFM 
Reblogged this on CoxieFM.
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Looking forward to this. As far as relegation/sacking goes, I think if either happens, it should be the end of the challenge, as it would be considered a failure (sorry, that sounds harsh).
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Oh defo…I’d either restart the save and see who else I’d get or SIM it until 6th Nov 24
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