The first club I will be managing is after a 9000 INR connecting flight to Mizoram from Chennai to start things off will be Aizawl FC in the I-League, India’s 2nd Division after the ISL was recognized as the first
My contract terms
Based on exchange rates you could see that is enormously high for a typical I-League job(85,000 INR) but sometimes FM makes it more balanced across leagues so it’s to be expected.
And given I am in charge of a relegation threatened club it makes sense my contract is for one year along with a high relegation salary drop clause and a low promotion clause.
My Manager attributes
This is what my manager attributes look like at this point including the tactic I have planned:
This is what the grind is all about
Meeting the Squad
My first impression looking at the team as a whole ability wise, the full backs and keeper are such glaring holes really. You can see it down below:
Seeing the dynamic surrounding the squad, I have never ever seen a worse cohesive squad like this one. As a squad I do see some good potential given the youth products who are starters which always is a big deal in a game like FM. And we have an odd man out in the midfield too.
These are the dynamics and the squad split:
The first image shows us 3 things:
Cohesion: The worst I’ve ever seen it like I told you before. This shows how well this team works like a team(Straightforward but you might be surprised at how many teams aren’t a team)
Club Atmosphere: I already shackled myself with a promise to improve this when I gave my interview to Aizawl FC. Maybe I can have a new manager bounce and keep it going but looking at the squad I wouldn’t count on it
Leadership support: This is where having a good reputation absolutely helps and why I should build a good reputation. Think of it like this: Would you respect a manager who’s been in big companies and got so much experience or would you trust someone they picked off the street as your leader? The answer to that question is the leadership support portion. It depends a lot on the reputation you have and the reputation the players have. And I thought it would be in the middle but apparently I already outrank a lot of the players here on reputation. It’s something towards improving the dressing room atmosphere so I’ll take it.
The second image shows us the pyramid of leadership. Think of this as your guide to the cliques of the club you manage. You got 4 cliques:
Team Leaders: The people you always have to keep happy no matter what. If they don’t agree with you everyone else does not. They are the Pied Piper of the team you manage so KEEP. THEM. HAPPY
Highly Influential Players: Not as strong as the team leader but still fairly important. These can be natural leaders who will one day step up to be a Team Leader or just someone who has been at the club long enough
Influential Players: They are lower down the ranks and can still hold influence depending on their friendships within the club. But usually axing them can be simple provided you replace them with a similar type of player.
Other Players: The lackeys or newbies of the squad. Haven’t been here long enough to build their reputation at the club and sadly where A LOT of the club’s players sit actually.
The main stipulation of this pyramid is to make it look like a pyramid at the very least. And well you can clearly see from the shape that it actually isn’t.
This honestly isn’t as important because the happiness is what will translate into shifts in this pyramid.
So here is the skinny
We got 11 matches left to turn our fortunes around. Most of them are against mid table and top table teams. We only have a slightly winnable set of matches towards the end of the season.
And this is the league table when I stepped in:
This is going to be a slog and a very big test of my ragequit tendencies. Let’s get into it and handle the pain as it comes.