Fancy a challenge?

The inspiration for today’s piece comes from Footygamer’s Mike who has recently revived the site’s Chelsea Nationalist Challenge with Leigh RMI (which actually makes it the Leigh RMI Nationalist Challenge I suppose, but anyway…). If you’re wondering what the challenge is then click the link and have a read. It’s not entirely original (in so far as most sites have done something similar at some point) but it is a fun way to play and it’s a perfect introduction to the idea of challenges for anyone who’s never tackled one before. Leaving aside the notion of originality (I don’t want to get bogged down in a ‘who first came up with the idea’ discussion), Mike did get me thinking about some other challenges that might be worth trying should your current FM07 save get boring.

The Nationalist Challenge (With a twist).

It’s something that’s briefly touched upon in the Nationalist Challenge Rules and something I remember doing myself in FM05, but can you achieve success with a club which doesn’t play in its home nation while still following the Nationalist rules? I came close with Berwick, an English team playing in Scotland, in FM05 but ultimately the cash rich Glasgow clubs were my undoing and, despite five seasons in the SPL, I never felt that I would achieve anything other than what I considered a moral victory of finishing in third place. There are other clubs that fit the bill if you want to try this idea, the ones that spring most readily to mind being Cardiff, Swansea and Wrexham who are of course Welsh clubs playing in the English leagues. Other clubs that share this strange ‘honour’ include FC Vaduz (from Liechtenstein but playing in the Swiss League), San Marino (who play in the Italy), AS Monaco (who play in the French leagues) and the New Zealand Knights (who ply their trade in theAustralian A-League).

The Lisbon Lions Challenge.

In 1967 Celtic won the European Cup. Nothing particularly remarkable about that until you consider that all the members of the team were born within 30 miles of Glasgow. Can a similar result be attained in Football Manager? Well, the game provides data regarding player’s place of birth so, theoretically at least, the answer is a ‘Yes.’ From a practical point of view you’re going to need to choose your club carefully when starting this one, a city the size of London or Manchester would probably give you a reasonable chance of success whereas a smaller city (Wakefield or Exeter) is going to seriously hamper your bid. It’s reasonable to argue that this is simply the Nationalist Challenge with the difficulty level turned up.

The Nottingham Forest Challenge.

Nottingham Forest are a club with a unique history, being the only club to have won their continental championship (European Cup) more times than their domestic championship. Sounds odd but it’s true; in 1978 Forest were crowned Football League Champions and followed that up with the European Cup in 1979 (when they finished runners-up in the league) and 1980. Since then the club has declined somewhat and the club now holds the dubious honour of being the first team to win the European Cup and then eventually fall to the third tier of it’s respective national league. So, how does this translate to Football Manager? I would suggest the following – Win your domestic league title and then see how many times can you win the Champions League consecutively WITHOUT winning your domestic title again. The only problem I can see with this would be that the board of directors will probably expect a serious challenge for the title and failure to deliver may bring you close to the sack, though they may view winning the Champions League as a compromise.

The Hokey-Cokey Challenge.

So named because everytime someone goes in, someone else must go out.

Can you maintain the squad size at your club and still achieve success? Simply add up the number of players in your squad (including any reserve or youth players) and that’s your upper limit; at no point in your game must you exceed this figure. So, before you can bring a player in to improve your team (either permanently or on loan) someone has to leave (even when you get kids promoted from the youth team, if you want to keep any of them, someone else has to go). It sounds quite harsh but in reality there’s plenty of scope in this one as most squads start the game with upwards of 40 players and you can simply clear out a lot of your reserves and youth sides to allow you to bring in new players. To increase the difficulty level a little more you could also apply the same process to staff recruitment – want a new coach? Then one of the scouts/physios has to go.

Free Transfer Challenge.

Jean-Marc Bosman revolutionised football’s transfer system when he took his employer to a tribunal and demand to be able to move clubs for free at the end of his contract. The term “Doing a Bosman” is now such an everyday part of football life that almost every club loses at least one player each summer via Mr. Bosman’s legacy. Indeed there are a number of famous players to have moved clubs on Bosman-style deals, including Steve McManaman and Michael Ballack. Can you collect these players and form a winning side from them? One word of caution – be careful with young players, they often have hidden fees associated with their transfers.

A Tactical Challenge.

A little bit different here as the challenge is aimed at getting a number of people involved and there are two end results to the challenge – your league position/match record and, hopefully, a half-decent tactic. Everyone taking part start the game with the same club. A formation is then set and must be used in every match. It is the only formation that is allowed but how many variants you create (home, away etc) and how you set up the team/player instructions is entirely at your own discretion. For example, the basic tactic may take the shape shown below:

But one player may decide to add backward-arrows to the wingers while another may add forward-arrows to the full-backs. The winner of the challenge is obviously the manager who achieves the best league position.

The International Challenge.

San Marino and Liechtenstein have been known as the whipping-boys of European football for some time now, can you change that? Start a game with either the Italian (San Marino) or Swiss (Liechtenstein) leagues running and the appropriate nationality of players loaded. Then get yourself ready for some humiliating defeats. Long-term I’m sure it’s possible to lead one of the minnows to success or at least to qualify for a major tournament, though you’ll need plenty of patience I imagine.