In the past, I always tackled the Nationalist Challenge with Chelsea, an obvious team to manage (hence its original title - Chelsea Nationalist Challenge) but one I don't want to bother with this time around. Eschewing the charms of Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal et al, it occurs to me that there's only one side I should attempt this challenge with, and that as you all know is Middlesbrough. And no, it has nothing to do with a surge of pride after they won 2-1 over the Gunners today, nor is it because I checked out the merits of Newcastle and Tottenham, and then felt a bit sick about the prospect of having anything to do with two of my most hated football set-ups. There are legitimate reasons why the Boro, they just escape me for the time being…

To read the Nationalist Challenge guidelines and henceforth to try it for yourself, click here. Go on, give it a go, and let me know how you prosper.

Starting the Challenge

I know Boro are experiencing an awful season, and that they have been exposed as being in possession of a squad that's just too light. The way I see it is that I'm no wishy washy Gareth Southgate type figure. I don't mind snarling at underachieving players, and I feel readily in a position to go out there and get results. Even if it - ulp! - means that all players I sign have to be English.

Middlesbrough have one major advantage for the Nationalist Challenger. Their squad is already packed with English players, from established internationals - Woodgate and Downing - through to the output of one of the finest Youth Academies in the country. The latter churns out (mainly English) players on an annual basis - the seeds of tomorrow's world beating squad are in there somewhere.

Hamilton Ricard chases a lost cause, againBut as far as plus points go, that's about it really. I considered writing this article as a series of pros and cons, only to realise it'd be a bit of joke when there are so many reasons to coach somewhere else instead. Forget the largesse years of Steve Gibson, when Boro's Chairman lavished his managers with fat wads of Bulkhaul cash to spunk up on Ravanelli, Hamilton Ricard and Massimo Maccarone. These days, the Riverside runs on tighter reins. I start my campaign with just over £4m in the bank, and £5.1m for my war chest. That might not sound too bad, but considering Darren Bent is apparently worth £16.5m, it's really not going to stretch very far. Let's face it, English players come with a premium price tag. Looking again at that Bent fee, is it any wonder so many sides go on the sniff around foreign climes? Wouldn't you?

Boro's first team squad is paper thin. On the surface, there's a decent spread of talent, and all bases are covered. However, once you consider that several of these players will succumb to injury at some point during the year (and incidentally, I start my year with Woodgate, Huth, Pogatetz and Taylor out with long-term problems) what's left to use isn't much. If Mark Schwarzer is unavailable, I have to call on the unlikely charms of Brad Jones. Crappy Fabio Rochemback is the alternative to central midfielder, Julio Arca. And don't get me started on the possibility that one day, I might have to give Lee Dong-Gook some playing time. My first task is to ensure we have enough first team cover to consign the Korean to the reserves. And again, the transfer fee figure comes back to haunt me - £5.1m. I wouldn't get one of Wayne Rooney's fingers for that!

At least Boro aren't Chelsea in terms of what they want to achieve. My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to establish a safe mid-table position. Even with this poo pants squad, I think I ought to manage that, though before I start I would like to draft in some warm bodies to tide us over. By all accounts, Steve Gibson aims to have us back in the UEFA Cup by the end of his three-year plan. We have a laugh about that over a pint of Cameron's, and get to work.

The Squad 2007/08

As noted, Middlesbrough's default roster is filled with English players, most of whom have graduated from the youth ranks and complement the so-called stars drafted in by Messrs McClaren and Southgate.

Here's a table that shows the team, position by position, and in order of likely starter, followed by first reserve for the position, etc. English players are in bold. Those coloured blue are injured at the start of the year. Red names are players I've signed.

Thompson and Johnson both arrived on free transfers - the former still looks incredibly useful, whilst Johnson shows up with the dubious double distinction of once costing Leeds United £7m, and being named after an old Emmerdale character. Chelsea agreed to dole Sinclair out on loan for a season, which was good of them. By all accounts, Avram Grant looks forward to handing me a good pasting when our teams meet in the league's opening weekend.

My spending isn't done. I should still like cover in defence, Jody Craddock of Wolves looking every bit the decent squad cover type in the short term. In goal, I'm looking at Stuart Taylor, who currently plays for Aston Villa reserves. He's no saviour, and at £2.8m it's an expensive gamble. Still, he's better than Schwarzer, and that's what counts for now. Preston's Matt Hill might also join as I search for someone - anyone! - to play at left back with Taylor and Pogatetz both injured for the best part of half a year.

Our first match, away at Widzew Lodz as we begin a pre-season tour of Poland, is three days away. The squad shows tentative signs of coming together, though injuries as ever remain a constant nightmare with eight first teamers out presently. I have a bad feeling about all this. Following my five years of success at Stamford Bridge, this may be an altogether shorter challenge, and I suspect the pre-season prediction of 12th is about right, and maybe on the generous side. We shall see…Apologies as ever for letting this site slip away during December. And on that note, I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and the happiest of New Years! To the occasional new reader who has stumbled upon these pages having received Football Manager for Christmas, the word ‘Help’ frozen on their lips as the bewildering mess of screens and menus hits them, welcome to one fm. There are genuinely better places to go than this for the stuff that can help you become a better manager, but stick around. From time to time, I post the occasional article, blog and (very, very occasionally) gem of advice.

Oddly enough, my lack of work here was not for want of game playing. Having been off work for most of the festive period, there were times when I got to enjoy lengthy FM sessions… that is when I didn’t have to commit to my family duties, such as going to the pantomime (where I of course shouted the loudest), taking winter walks and playing daft board games. On the latter point, what on earth is Rummikub all about anyway? Honestly, in my day we had Buckeroo and Mousetrap. These modern games with all their thinking malarkey are not what I need when I’m on my fourth glass of Pinot, thanks very much.

The reason I haven’t said more about my new Nationalist Challenge is that I find it rock hard, and in truth have more or less given up on it. Quite frankly, I have a greater degree of sympathy and understanding for Gareth Southgate now that I’ve tried to manage his flailing team for myself. In the past, Middlesbrough were never that tough a test. Certainly when Hasselbaink, Yakubu and Viduka were on the scene, you started the game with a reasonable complement of strikers. In FM 2008, all three have gone, replaced with Lee Dong-Gook (toilet), Mido (doesn’t score enough, moans a lot), Tuncay Sanli (a bit better than Mido, but still far from a regular source of goals) and Jeremie Aliadiere, who as we all know has gone from being a virtually unknown striker with great potential to someone we all know about, and he hasn’t turned out to be all that. Given Boro’s lack of funds, adding to this lot with a reasonable English forward is nigh on impossible, though I tried by getting Scott Sinclair on loan. So far, he has done precisely squat, and it’s goals – or lack thereof - that are the side’s overriding problem. The template for our matches thus far has been for us to sit back and defend, get the odd break and nothing happens. Then we sit back and defend. I’m too frightened about my side’s lightweight qualities to make us any more adventurous. Defensively, we suck once the main players are injured, and as chance would have it the majority of them start the game sidelined with long-term problems. Jonathan Woodgate has recently returned to action, only to go off again for three weeks. And as heroic as David Wheater has become for the real-life team, he ain’t as good on FM.

Matt Hill - all smiles until he joins MiddlesbroughIt’s November 2007; Boro are sixteenth, and relegation has not been ruled out as a possibility. I keep telling myself that we should be all right once the likes of Huth and Woodgate return to first the first team, but will we? What’s really scary is that despite the rut, my new signings appear to be working out. I paid £2.8m for Stuart Taylor to take over from the rapidly ageing Mark Schwarzer in goal, and he’s been excellent. He’s had to be, as has Preston’s Matt Hill, who was signed for £425k to cover the loss of left backs Pogatetz and Taylor, both of whom are out for five months. Jody Craddock has been a fine addition to the defence, having cost £220k from Wolves. And that’s about it so far. All other potential targets have either been too expensive, or will do nothing for the side. I made a mistake on the latter front, snapping up Seth Johnson on a free, my logic being that he was a warm body and that’s just what we needed to pad out the ranks. However, since then I have come to the conclusion that sometimes it would be better to have just left him alone. A slightly improved bit of business was the deal that brought David Thompson to Teesside for zero pence. ‘Thommo’ isn’t the right wing starter – that honour goes to Gary O’Neil – but he is a more than useful back-up. Taking striker Danny Haynes on loan for the season from Ipswich completes our wheeling and dealing, and shows just how impoverished Boro are.

If I’m pushed, I would suggest that we should avoid the drop and achieve mid-table stability. There are signs that the team is gelling, slowly, though we need a proper and fit defence if we are to shore things up at the back. I don’t expect to get any treats from the big teams; even the likes of Manchester City and Everton are far ahead of us. The insistence of the challenge that we may only sign English players seems ever like a millstone. We’re having to prowl around for new talent furtively, knowing that the answer to our prayers isn’t sitting around the corner, and as a consequence we could be bumming around in the middle regions of the Premiership for years to come. Then again, this always appeared to be a long-haul challenge. It isn’t as though we are about to open a can of whup ass on the rest of the league anytime soon, and that makes this very different from most of my previous FM games. Previously, I didn’t find taking a side like Middlesbrough to the top to be such a great test of my talents. Lower league games saw me rise up the divisions fairly serenely. All that’s changed. It’s history. If I am to complete the Boro Nationalist Challenge, I need to accept that doing so will take some time, and a degree of patience. Even writing these words, I can feel myself drawn back to it, rather than simply progressing the avowedly glory-hunting Arsenal game I’ve had on the go since buying FM.

Hmm, maybe time to review my tactics, or perhaps just remember it’s only a game, and somewhere in the future is a corner that’s waiting to be turned where this lot are concerned. In the meantime, don’t wipe this site from your bookmarks just yet. I will try and return to it more often, not to mention catching up with all the work that other sites have been doing in my absence. I thank you.