Zane Pritchard FM
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The 1860 Diaries
Zane Pritchard FM
Over my years on FM I’ve journeyed through multiple types of saves. Some I’ve enjoyed, some I’ve given up on after a season or less and some I absolutely love. The 2 saves that jump to mind straight away are Gremio and Austria Vienna. Both 1 club saves. As much as I enjoy sleeping around […]
Journey Germany – Episode 13 – The Blueprint – Part 1
Zane Pritchard FM
So, how did we get here? In my relatively short career here in Germany, I’ve won the Champions League with 3 different clubs, twice in which we were huge underdogs (Hamburg and Wolfsburg). Along side Champions League victories I have won the Bundesliga 3 times and the DFB Pokal 3 times. And this is everything […]
Journey Germany – Episode 12 – Wolfsburg
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Career achievements: Trophies – 8 – (Hamburg) – DFB Pokal x2, Bundesliga, Champions League (Bayer Leverkusen) – Bundesliga x2, DFB Pokal, Champions League Promotions – 2 – (Dynamo Dresden) – 3. Liga – Bundesliga 2 Read Episode 11 here – Episode 11 Instead of a blog which goes through results month by […]
Journey Germany – Episode 11 – Bayer Leverkusen
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Career achievements: Trophies – 5 – (Hamburg) – DFB Pokal x2, Bundesliga, Champions League (Bayer Leverkusen) – Bundesliga Promotions – 2 – (Dynamo Dresden) – 3. Liga – Bundesliga 2 Read Episode 10 here – Episode 10 Recruitment We’ve got something good going here at Leverkusen. A neck and neck race last […]
Journey Germany – Episode 10 – Bayer Leverkusen
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Career achievements: Read Episode 9 here: Episode 9 One of our key Centre Backs, Tapsoba, wasn’t signing a new deal and was free to go in just 6 months. With that in mind we brought in Onur Ates from Brugge for £27m. At 6 foot 6, I think I’ve found my new […]
Journey Germany – Episode 9 – Bayer Leverkusen
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Career achievements Read Episode 8 here: It was an incredible 2 and a half seasons at Hamburg, culminating in winning the treble which nobody, including me, expected. I took the difficult decision to walk away from the club I’d fallen in love with for a new challenge. What I didn’t anticipate is […]
Journey Germany – Episode 8 – Hamburg
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Career achievements Read Episode 7 here: Improvements It was a strong first half of the season for us, but we needed improve if we were serious about this title. I’ll begin with highlighting some key performers though. Wonderkid Cuvelier staked a claim to be our main number 9 with 7 goals in […]
Journey Germany – Episode 7 – Hamburg
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Career achievements Read Episode 6 here: Recruitment A successful season last season means one thing, expectations are greater. We’re clearly building something very impressive here, and with a good start this season as opposed to last season, we could be in with a title shout. But of course, we need to dip […]
Journey Germany – Episode 6 – Hamburg
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Read episode 5 here – Episode 5 Despite being fairly happy with the squad, we were having trouble in the Goalkeeper position. Fernandez was full of mistakes now, especially with his distribution. Therefore we brought in Christian Fruchtl from Austria Veinna to provide a bit more quality in goal. We also bolstered […]
Journey Germany – Episode 5 – Hamburg
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Read episode 4 here –Episode 4 Summer of Business After a strong start to my career at Hamburg, we got busy in the transfer market in order to ensure a relegation battle was a distant memory for the club. We’ll aim high in the league this season, I don’t think we should […]
Journey Germany – Episode 4
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Stipulations: Read episode 3 here – Episode 3 Something I didn’t anticipate when resigning from Dynamo Dresden, was being out of work for half a season. Borussia Monchengladbach offered me an interview in November, but it just didn’t feel as if it was the job for me. Bayer Leverkusen had parted company with […]
Journey Germany – Dynamo Dresden – Episode 3
Zane Pritchard FM
After all the celebrations and plenty of empty steins, it was time to build for the 2. Bundesliga! Not only were we weak squad depth, but we needed more quality in our starting 11 if we were to do anything this year. We had a £2m transfer fund and would have to be smart to […]
Journey Germany – Dynamo Dresden – Episode 2
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Rules: Read episode 1 here – Episode 1 At a Canter! We’ll just cut to the chase here! After our strong start to the first half of the season it was pretty evident that nobody could stop us from an immediate return to the 2. Bundesliga. On the 29th March, we were crowned […]
Journey Germany – Dynamo Dresden
Zane Pritchard FM
Objectives and Rules: Getting Started The first thing I do in a new job before clicking continue, and before I even look at the squad, I’ll have a look at the staff vacancies and make sure they’re swiftly filled. As a recently relegated club, we were strong favourites to make a swift return to the […]
Journey Germany
Zane Pritchard FM
With the news that FM 25 will be delayed until March, I, like many others, have been searching for something to dive in on FM24. Save after save has been loaded up and just as quickly discarded. This got me thinking, why don’t I just treat it as FM25. The plan was to do a […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 24
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 23 Here – Part 23 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: Champions League Ro16 At home in the first leg against PSG, we played our normal, attacking game. I’ve noticed that attack may be the best form of defence considering in these types of games in […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 23
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 22 Here – Part 22 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: With an unbeaten season still fresh in our minds, let’s take a look at some of our key players along the way. Endrick Endrick was okay. He didn’t set the world alight like I thought […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 22
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 21 Here – Part 21 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: 2029/2030 We are well and truly at a point now where we may be too good for the Austrian Bundesliga, but not quite good enough to be crowned Champions of Europe. We’re still building, and […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 21
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 20 Here – Part 20 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: As we came into the second half of the season we were greeted with the news that Terrazas had won the APA footballer of the Year award followed by El Khannouss and Reinier. My inbox […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 20
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 19 here – Part 19 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: We were in a great position in regard to playing staff. We don’t really need to recruit for any positions in the starting XI but of course some wonderkids came through in the scout reports […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 19
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 18 Here – Part 18 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: When a season comes to a close, naturally you look back on who has done what? Who has been our main man? Thankfully, we have a few key players who have contributed to our 2nd […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 18
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 17 Here – Part 17 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: The second half of the season started with the news that Prestianni had agreed to a new 5 year deal. The absolute key element of the new contract is the minimum fee release clause. Now […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 17
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 16 Here – Part 16 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: Well what a season it was in my 4th season at the club. Almost going unbeaten and a Champions League Quarter Final appearance. There were some stand out performers along the way, of whom I […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 16
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 15 Here – Part 15 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: We were rapidly becoming Wonderkid FC! Our scouts were getting a lovely tan in South America whilst bringing back some absolute gems for us to sign! Some of these kids are first team ready, and […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 15
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 14 here – Part 14 The mission statement is as follows: An updated mission statement is as follows: The decision to rebuild the squad in the summer was certainly the correct one. We were untouchable! After 22 games in the league we had won 19 and drawn 3. Unbeaten so far, and with […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 14
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 13 here – Part 13 The mission statement is as follows: After the disappointing collapse of last season, it gave me good reason to pull the trigger and have a summer rebuild at the club. The season started with positive news from the board, they have put in place plans for a new […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 13
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 12 here – Part 12 The mission statement is as follows: January January saw the acquisition of a big, big player! Reiner was available for free from Real Madrid and a £16k a week deal was enough to convince him to swap Madrid for Vienna! This is a huge signing for us and […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 12
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 11 here – Part 11 The mission statement is as follows: We started our league campaign strongly, winning 10 of our first 13 games. We scored a spectacular amount of goals, and although it’s early in the season we looked good for a third consecutive title. The Champions League fixtures were drawn and […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 11
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 10 here – Part 10 The mission statement is as follows: After our a second consecutive Bundesliga title, we were ready to make it a 3peat! We had a war chest of £20 million to spend in the summer and we got to work right away! Departures We didn’t have a lot of […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 10
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 9 here – Part 9 The mission statement is as follows: With another Bundesliga title under our belts, it’s time to take a look at the development of our young lads in the squad who were key to our success. Before we take a look, a personal award came when I won the […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 9
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 8 here – Part 8 The mission statement is as follows: With 10 games ahead in the Championship group, we were ready to get over the line in our defence of our title. We received £3.2m for Fischer in January and put the money toward the signings of Torban Rhein from Bayern (£325k) […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 8
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 7 here – Part 7 The mission statement is as follows: Bundesliga We started the season like a freight train! A 6 – 0 win on the opening day followed by a 6 – 1 win away from home on the opening day set us up for a very strong start to the […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 7
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 6 here – Part 6 The mission statement is as follows: As reigning Bundesliga champions, we were keen to recruit well in the summer in order to defend our title. The board had given me £2.88 million to spend and there would be some departures as well. The board were feeling very generous […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 6
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 5 here – Part 5 The mission statement is as follows: As mentioned multiple times throughout this series, the key focus for the save is player development. Therefore, this episode will be focusing on how some of the key, young players performed and developed over the course of the season. At the moment, […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 5
Zane Pritchard FM
The Europa Conference League Final Read Part 4 here – Part 4 It had been hell of a journey in Europe. From going through three Qualifying rounds to reach the group stage a coming of age performance against a superior side in Frieburg. We were huge, huge underdogs in the final against the other team […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 4
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 3 here: Part 3 The mission statement is as follows: With the ‘regular’ season done and dusted, our point tally was halved, taking us to 24 points and we had 10 more games to make our 2 point advantage count and lift the Bundesliga. If we could do it, it would be the […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 3
Zane Pritchard FM
Read Part 2 here: Part 2 The mission statement is as follows: We continued our strong start to the season and we manged to close out the regular campaign with a top of the pile finish. We had some poor results toward the back end of the season, but we can put that down to […]
Vienna Whirl – Part 2
Zane Pritchard FM
The mission statement is as follows: Read Part 1 here – Vienna Whirl A Duck to Water Things here at Vienna have started very well indeed. We navigated through a couple of tricky ties in our ECL qualifying rounds. My first competitive game as a manager looked pretty straight forward against Neman Grondo, and we […]
Vienna Whirl
Zane Pritchard FM
Introduction One of the things I’ve always wanted to do on Football Manager is to win a Champions League with a club from a nation where the top league is almost unheard of. I, as I’m sure many others have, have taken the likes of Torquay United, Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers and Plymouth Argyle from […]
Atletico – Part 7 (Season 2)
Zane Pritchard FM
With the La Liga title well and truly wrapped up, we had our sights set firmly on the Champions League. In case you missed it, we lost in the final last season to Paris Saint Germain, who we are to face in this season’s Semi Final. Semi Final 1st Leg We had the disadvantage of […]
Atletico – Part 6 (Season 2)
Zane Pritchard FM
It had been a near perfect first half of the season, which you can read about here https://zanifblog.wordpress.com/2023/12/29/atletico-part-5-season-2/ and we were more than set to win La Liga, but we had the big one in our minds, and that was to win the Champions League. This squad was more than capable of doing so, it […]
Atletico – Part 5 (Season 2)
Zane Pritchard FM
With recruitment done and a Fifa Club World Cup trophy in the cabinet, we were set for the La Liga season. I was very pleased with the business we’d done and how we looked on paper, and after 19 games I was beyond happy with what we were doing! Out of 19 games we had […]
Atleti Part 4 (Season 2)
Zane Pritchard FM
Recruitment With it being my first full season in charge, naturally there was going to be a lot of change in the playing staff. We had a few big earners out of contract and set to leave, thus bringing in a lot of money back into the budget for us to spend. Llorente, Javi Gavlan […]
Atleti – Part 3
Zane Pritchard FM
Copa Del Rey Final Real Madrid had proven to be very tricky customers for us, and they certainly had the bragging rights in the derby since I’d arrived at Atletico. They’d beaten us in La Liga and in the Super Copa Final, with an aggregate score of 5 – 0. Anything can happen in a […]
Atletico – Part 2
Zane Pritchard FM
Life at Atletico started brightly. In my first 17 games we won 14, drawing 1 and losing only 2, one of which to Real Madrid, certainly no shame in that just yet. Amongst these results we notched up an impressive victory against Barcelona, 4 – 0! Our strong run of form took us up to […]
Atletico – Part 1
Zane Pritchard FM
Now it’s not like me to jump ship early, but as I mentioned in my previous blog (which you can read about here) https://zanifblog.wordpress.com/2023/12/06/real-sociedad/ I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to manage players like Felix and Doku. Almost a carbon copy of an issue at Sociedad, the wages here were very high! 8 players were […]
Real Sociedad
Zane Pritchard FM
With my time at Schalke coming to it’s conclusion, I felt it was only right to test my managerial ability in a new league. That league will be La Liga! We have taken the reigns at Real Sociedad. Some great players come through at Sociedad and they have some great heritage in Spain, however, there […]
Schalke – The Last Dance
Zane Pritchard FM
With our second Bundesliga title under our belt, we were now ready to face the campaign in which we were challenged to win three in a row. I hadn’t officially resigned yet, however, I knew this would be my last season at Schalke, so the plan (or the dream) is to win it all. We […]
Schalke – Season 04
Zane Pritchard FM
After our phenomenal Bundesliga win last season, we set out to defend our title and hopefully add more trophies to the cabinet. We were a good team, but there were improvements to be made in the playing squad. The main area I wanted to improve on was Goalkeeper and Centre back as we conceded more […]
Schalke – Season 3.2
Zane Pritchard FM
January Our strong start to the season, which you can read about here https://zanifblog.wordpress.com/2023/11/05/schalke-season-3-1/ had us in 2nd place at the turn of the year. Coming into January it was a very tricky start fixture wise. Bayern Munich at home to start the year was always going to be tough. Just 3 days after that […]