For those who follow me over at Twitch, you’ll know my love for the journeyman, one of my first saves on stream in FM20 and my first major save on FM21. It’s always a rollercoaster and managing in obscure nations in even obscurer leagues, with weird rules and league systems, whilst hoping wherever you end up has enough money to pay for a coaching course, has always been some of the most fun while playing Football Manager.

This year on the other hand, I failed the journeyman. The usual end goal to win the Champions League was something I couldn’t manage, eventually I grew tired of the save and with the game. But it’s always bugged me. So here we are, take 2 of my European journeyman. Only this time in blog form!

JOB HUNT

Starting with no qualifications and unemployed is something I think every FM player should try at least once, it has you questioning every decision, whether a better team is around the corner, whether you’re being too fussy, whatever the situation you always end up messing up one or two applications along the way.

So where to for the start of this journeyman, with lots available at the start, but very few we’ll be able to get, we instantly applied to all 1 and 2 star jobs, although sadly, even 2 start jobs are probably out of reach at the start.

The first 3 job interviews came in and instantly brought about those confusing decisions only unemployed starts can bring,

Granit – Belarusian First League – the lowest rep team with 1 star are looking for a mid-table finish. A good indicator that they are not the worst team in the league which is something important to consider as you don’t want to be fighting relegation instantly. With just £1,400 per week wages it’d be something of a struggle in terms of player movement. Another plus though, professional status.

Aerostar Bacau – Romanian second division – the best name of the 3 initial interviews. Again professional, the highest rep of the 3 at a whole 2 star, however the vision states the goal is to not finish bottom of the league, a concern for sure. Around £5k a week worth of wage budget means there’s more wiggle room than Granit, but a more challenging club.

Hapoel Umm El-Fahm – Israeli National League – 1 and a half star rep, professional status, predicted 11^th and expecting a mid-table performance, perhaps the most exciting thing… 16k a week wage budget.

I wrote about these 3 to give an example of the headaches you first face, on one hand there is a 2 star team and with our barely half a star reputation it offers an initial boost, but a team likely the worst in the league would prove to do little for the rep, on the other hand although less star ratings for reputation, the other 2 offer more stability in terms of league hopes.

Plenty more were applied for and interviews were had, but I wanted to just give an example rather than bore you with them all.

Just 6 days since the beginning of the save (maybe the fastest time I’ve had doing a journeyman to receive an offer) we have 2! Aerostar Bacau and Hapoel Umm el-Fahm both approach us. So who will we pick? Find out next episode!