International Management - How to make it more enjoyable
Average Rating: 8/10 Hits: 997 Submitted: Feb 23, 2008
Essentials - Patience, Time, Your nations selected with the lower leagues of the countries picked as playable.People are torn away from International Management at the Idea of having months in between a game is crazy - Yes, you may right, but there are ways to spice this up, hopefully I'll pinpoint them all in the course of this article.As we all know, International Management can lag the excitement and passion a normal game might hold, but who's to say it can't be just as good? It can, with a little few pointers you'll be on your way.
Pick the team you wish to manage, It has to be an international team obviously. Bored already? Thought so. You go to look at your fixtures list and it's over a month before your first game and it happens to be a friendly. At this point you're yawning and checking your watch. There's a hill you're going to have to climb, It'll last about 6 months, FM time, maybe 4 if you're lucky. It's coming up on December, have you noticed it yet? You're getting messages into your Inbox telling you 'Manager X has been sacked'. Tempting isn't it? Well now's your chance, take it, although I advise you don't just dive on the first team that comes around for a silly reason, wait a little, I know you've been waiting for a while at this stage - If you can do that, you can surely afford to wait another half hour or so. Apply for the job. It'll most likely be a lower league team that accepts you, as, unless you've had an illustrious six or so months in charge of your national team, you'll still be regarded as 'unknown'.
So you've got the job, now you've got twice as much responsibility on yor hands as you would if you started managing a club team from the very start - Chances are after 4 or so months, you wouldn't have a national team job. You shouldn't be bored now, as you've a challenge. Lower League Jobs are never easy, especially if the team aren't dubbed for promotion, it could really go either way. Most of the time the players are unknown to you as well, so you're really stuck in a rut. So get going and make the most of it - You time is ticking to try make a difference in between International managerial duties.
If lower league management isn't your thing, Perhaps manage the younger International teams, The u-18s, u-21's, whatever it may be. After all, you're in charge of winning the games for the national team, it'll give you a good indication of who you should bring right up through the ranks in the future, that's if you're in it for the long run. You'll now find that you should have about 2 matches on average every month, that can vary though and you'll often find yourself playing 4/5.
Most of the time, you'll find you have some major international tournament to qualify for, with qualifying matches for that going on for about a year and a half, with friendlies in between if you choose to arrange them. It's always good to do them against worthy opposition, no point fooling yourself really into thinking you're team are good - I mean, If you're brazil and playing Costa Rica, and demolish them 5-0 with an average team, what's that proving? Nothing.
International Management can be as fun as you want it to be - You sit there moping about, you're hardly going to get into it, just stick the 6 month gap, and things will open up for you surely. Good luck with it all.
So you've got the job, now you've got twice as much responsibility on yor hands as you would if you started managing a club team from the very start - Chances are after 4 or so months, you wouldn't have a national team job. You shouldn't be bored now, as you've a challenge. Lower League Jobs are never easy, especially if the team aren't dubbed for promotion, it could really go either way. Most of the time the players are unknown to you as well, so you're really stuck in a rut. So get going and make the most of it - You time is ticking to try make a difference in between International managerial duties.
If lower league management isn't your thing, Perhaps manage the younger International teams, The u-18s, u-21's, whatever it may be. After all, you're in charge of winning the games for the national team, it'll give you a good indication of who you should bring right up through the ranks in the future, that's if you're in it for the long run. You'll now find that you should have about 2 matches on average every month, that can vary though and you'll often find yourself playing 4/5.
Most of the time, you'll find you have some major international tournament to qualify for, with qualifying matches for that going on for about a year and a half, with friendlies in between if you choose to arrange them. It's always good to do them against worthy opposition, no point fooling yourself really into thinking you're team are good - I mean, If you're brazil and playing Costa Rica, and demolish them 5-0 with an average team, what's that proving? Nothing.
International Management can be as fun as you want it to be - You sit there moping about, you're hardly going to get into it, just stick the 6 month gap, and things will open up for you surely. Good luck with it all.
