I’m currently in a period of transition in my Pro career.  From managing the same club since it’s inception back at the beginning of FIFA 10 I now, for one reason or another, find myself a free agent in search of a new home.

From an ex-manager’s point of view I’m really looking forward to being ‘just’ a player.  This transition is really making me realise what hard work managing a Pro Club really is.  Fortunately, I was blessed with wonderfully close team of great players who loved playing for the club and who quickly became good friends.  Not once did I ever have to worry about losing players because we had a sense of togetherness that’s hard to find amongst clubs these days.

I was lucky that my club practically ran itself but looking back I still feel like there was a lot of effort put in by me and my co-managers.  I really feel for some of the managers out there trying to run successful Pro Clubs.  Especially some of the eleven man clubs on the FVPA forums.  Trying to co-ordinate a large number of people to work together to achieve your goals is no mean feat.

Whether you’re thinking about management or a player signed up to a team it’s worth taking time to think about some of the duties involved in managing a FIFA Pro Club so that you can really appreciate the commitment involved: (by no means is this list exhaustive.  If you can think of any more duties let me know in the comments!)

Recruitment

Especially difficult for relatively new teams.  Players want to know that the team will still be around next month and it’s up to the manager to convince them.  For established clubs it’s important to bring in the right type of player with the right attitude so as not to upset the apple cart.  Trials are tough because you’ve got a record to maintain.  It’s all very well trialing players in practice mode but we all know that playing AI players is a whole different ball game.  At what point do you get them in properly with minimum impact if they’re not up to scratch?

Scheduling Playing Times

This might seem straight forward but it can potentially be a headache for managers.  It’s not always as easy as putting a post on the forum saying “7:30pm – 11:30pm – See you there”.  You have to continually check for confirmations.  Are you short anywhere?  Do you need to find cover?  Then there’s the times when people let you down with little or no notice.  Can you cope without them or can you draft someone in at the last minute?

Picking Teams / Positions

Once players have confirmed it’s time to pick the team.  Depending on who’s on sometimes players will have to player out of position.  If you’ve got a big squad there’ll always be the odd time when everyone turns up and people don’t even get a game at all.  It’s all about managing peoples expectations.  How would you deal with this?

Getting the Best Out of Players

If a player wasn’t performing for our team we always saw the chop as a last resort.  First we’d look at the players style and see if he’d be better suited to a different position.  He might not want to change positions and decide to go but at least you’ve given them a chance.  Can you help them improve their game?  We had a left winger in our old club that was with us from the start.  He could beat a man but was really inconsistent and gave the ball away a lot.  We had a quiet word in his ear making him realise that it was better to keep possession than to beat 3 defenders and lose it.  He took on board what we said, worked hard on his decision making and developed into one of the best attackers I’ve seen on FIFA 11!

Keeping Everyone Happy

Unless you’re just playing with a bunch of mates the chances are you’re in a club with people of all ages, from different countries, different backgrounds, maybe even with different languages.  The point is you’re managing a team of very different individuals all probably with different ideas and different needs.  How do you keep everyone happy?  How do you deal with disputes?  How do you bring all of these individuals together to play great football and enjoy themselves and motivate them to work with one another to achieve the same goals?

Keeping Your Team Focused

You know where you want your team go and what you want to achieve but as a player playing a lot of games it’s easy to switch off sometimes.  Not only do you need to motivate people continuously but you also need to be able to constructively criticise players when they don’t perform without getting their back up.  (Believe me, this is a whole skillset on its own!)

Keeping Hold of Your Superstars

Players get bored and get itchy feet. You’ve got to know when to pander to your best players and when it’s time to just let them go. Nobody likes you showing favouritism but at the same time you don’t want to lose your star striker. Where do you strike the balance? Do you give in to their demands or do you show them the door? You never know, they might find out that the grass isn’t always greener and come back?

Letting People Go

By far and away the hardest thing that a manager has to do.  If a player’s just not cutting it or is disrupting the rest of the team there comes a time when the manager has to draw the line and let the player go.  It’s really difficult!  Nobody plays bad on purpose and everybody’s got feelings.  It takes real tact to let people go with no hard feelings.  I know from experience.  Nobody wants to let players go but sometime you just can’t avoid the inevitable.

I think that my point in this post is that being a FIFA Pro Club Manager is a tough job.  Sometimes a thankless job.  We all need to appreciate our managers a bit more and maybe help them out where we can.  They certainly deserve our respect.

As FVPA co-founder Kelley put it in his FVPA 1st Birthday speech,

“Managers are often not given the full credit they deserve, some players do take them for granted. A lot of time is spent organising players for Club Meets, running trials etc. So I would like to say Well Done to all Fifa Clubs Managers, its not easy Managing a team, you are a credit to the Community.”

After all, without Managers there’d be no Clubs.

If you’re a manager let me know what you find toughest about management and if you’re a player what does your manager do well and what do they do badly?

Thanks for reading,

Craig (COLE UK)