[FM13] Second Star to the Right...

[Sheriff7]

Good luck in play ofs,always a stressful task...

[deltablue]

36 minutes ago, Sheriff7 said:

Good luck in play ofs,always a stressful task...

Well, I've just done the semi-finals and you were certainly right about that...

[deltablue]

Playoff Semi-final

Now there was a tie of two halves. The first leg seemed to be going better than the league match if only on the basis that we actually had a chance in the first 10 minutes instead of having to wait for over an hour, and with little else happening instead of facing a wave of pressure. The second was only marginally better but unfortunately saw them take the lead in the tie with a goal after a mazy run that would have made van den Hoogenband proud, and they nearly got another.

We really had to wake up in front of a capacity crowd at Priestfield and make it 3rd time lucky against our opponents, and we got off to a good start when Coughlan played the ball to Gallagher, who knocked it in off the Notts County keeper. Unfortunately it didn't last as they slipped an equalizer past Pead at a narrow angle. Thankfully the isn't an away goals rule so if we got another it would be enough to at least give us extra-time, not an away goals defeat.

The momentum of the match was definitely on our side, though there were always close calls at the other end. Special mention has to go to the guy who hit the post, then did it again with the second chance he got on the rebound! We got the second goal we needed at the least when a Coughlan cross from a very narrow angle met Byrne's head, the Irishman only just managing to deflect it enough to go in. We then took the lead in the tie when a Gallagher corner was knocked in by Steve Davidson, we were going to the final!

Except we weren't, at least not yet. I was just about to put the team into full defensive mode when Fatai played a backpass (not under much pressure) and the ball somehow rolled into our net, with Pead on the other side and either not seeing it in time or just being baffled. I actually slammed my head against the keyboard in frustration, not being able to think of a clearly stupider way to potentially throw a tie away. Thankfully it didn't come to that. Byrne had to go off injured in extra-time (with no subs left after Oseni, always the player who tires quickest, needing replacing after 90 minutes) but Gallagher fired home again after a great run from the left. We still had a lot of defensive work to do to hold on but I didn't expect anything less.

Leicester won't be easy opponents in the final, but we did recently beat them 4-2 after being 4-0 ahead at one point, so we can definitely take them, at least if we play more like we did in the second leg of the semi (without the weak defending) than the first. Still, win or lose, I'm delighted at how this season has gone.

[deltablue]

Playoff Final

 

Right that was a disaster, our worst performance of the season in the most important game. I wouldn't have minded an exciting defeat (like I wouldn't have from that second leg against Notts County) but this was just depressing from start to finish. Their top two forwards had scored 50 goals between them in the league this season, almost as many as our entire team combined, however after a season where we owed our strong results mainly to the defence than the attack, we made it far too easy for them.

The first goal came from a ball floated in and smashed home, but the second was a sign of things to come as Davidson tried to head the ball behind only for Leicester's star forward to get to it first and dribble past Pead. We had only had the occasional sniff on goal so it already looked like it was beyond us before they hammered the final nails in our promotion dream this season. Pead and a few other defenders were committed to trying to stop a player coming in from the left so the goal was exposed when he played the ball to his teammate, then the keeper went out to try and grab the ball and fumbled it (and he was right on the edge of his area so he couldn't have held on to it anyway if his momentum had taken him much further).

Gibbons should really dedicate his hat-trick to Pead for making it so easy for him. They only had 8 shot all match (only slightly more than we did) which exposes a woeful defensive performance from everyone. We did at least claim a consolation when McEntee played in a free-kick which was headed in by Coughlan, closing our season with a goal almost identical to the one we opened it with.

There still a lot to be positive about under the circumstances, not just the fact that we came within a whisker of a second straight promotion (despite a lot of new signings and the fact that a few players turned out to be disasters waiting to happen) but also our recovery from being 15th in December. It was a far better season than I thought we'd manage, and the playoff matches alone gave us a decent financial boost with gate recepts of just over 780k being almost exactly a quarter of our total for the season.

We'll need to make a few more changes to the squad just to replace players being let go, so we won't have as big a 'second season boost' from a more settled side than I hoped we'd have, but if we have a more consistent season (or at least do better than a single win over 2 busy months) we should hopefully be in the promotion mix again, with League 1 football looking like it might return to Priestfield sooner rather than later.

Squad Stats

 

[Dexter_Morgan]

What a shame  but that end of the season run to get there was brilliant! Hopefully it carries on in to next year

[deltablue]

22 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

What a shame  but that end of the season run to get there was brilliant! Hopefully it carries on in to next year

Hopefully, but it won't be easy as we have a few weaknesses. The first is how we've been so reliant on one or (occasionally) two goals being enough and our defence doing the rest. Even when we were getting promoted from the BSP many other teams (including relegated sides) had a top scorer far ahead of any of our guys, and the gap was insane last season. At the end of November no one had more than 3 goals. It was 5 a month later and only near the end of the season with Byrne and Gallagher hitting form did anyone reach double figures. Having our goals spread out rather than relying on one or two players isn't necessarily a bad thing, but coupled with no one reaching an average rating of 7.20 it points to not having anyone good enough on a consistent basis to make the difference on a regular basis and help drive a promotion push.

We will still have an unsettled squad after a summer with 8 new signings (and room for the DoF to find a 9th somewhere) and where affordable reinforcements were harder to find than I thought, leading to a few instances where we just had to make do. I'll update on that tomorrow, along with the Gold Cup and a very late AFCON update.

[deltablue]

AFCON 2049 - Algeria

Reigning champions Ghana surprisingly went out in the group stage, as did host Algeria in a bit of a 'group of death'. The previously dominant Ivorians (who were beaten finalists last time around) went on to win this time, beating surprise finalists Togo. That marked the first time they had ever progressed beyond the quarter-finals and they were nearly always knocked out in the first round. They haven't made the World Cup since their real life appearance in 2006. Mali (who have made a World Cup in-game) were the other surprise team, making a rare appearance in the latter stages after topping a tough group and knocking out Cameroon.

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2049

Mexico don't need their first team to win these days Canada were runners up for the 7th time without a single victory (aside from 2000 in real life) as well as some semi-final defeats. Will they ever win? On current form... no, as they are bottom of the hex with no points and are ranked 104th.

[deltablue]

Summer 2049

As I hoped, I got a budgetary boost that gave a wage budget of 30kpw, double what it was 2 years ago in the BSP, though adjustments made it 28kpw in the end. After the first readjustment (helped by knowing I as about to lose quite a bit off the wage bill with players being released) the transfer budget was over 200k, though that didn't go very far at all.

I got most of what I needed done at the start with players who I could get for nothing, which was just as well, including finally releasing backup keeper Webster from captivity, and getting in a new full-back (though he wasn't released at the end of his contract so I needed to pay a compensation fee after all) to help replace the liabilities of Fatai and Buxton. Charlton (who still proved useful last season even though I didn't want him around any more) was a decent weight off the wage bill as well.

The main improvement was up front when having released and replaced Gallagher (though I very nearly gave him a new contract with his form late last season) I realized I could do a lot better than Mansfield as well so brought in another to boot him out entirely and give me a far stronger pair of poacher options.

The one problem that remained was central midfield. I had admittedly made a mistake when withdrawing a contract offer for a young player about to leave Tranmere (and who wouldn't have needed a compensation fee, for some reason) on the basis that while he otherwise looked fantastic, his physical attributes were poor, maybe not taking into account either his age or the fact that I couldn't be as choosy as I realized. Having managed last year on frees and a few 5-figure fees, I thought I could do the same again but anyone I wanted (in any position) would have been a few hundred thousand at least, and they weren't very open to loans either.

On finding someone I might be able to afford if I really stretched things saw he could come for a loan and saved my money with just 1.5k a month rather than almost 300k (which I may not have managed to do). However despite being a few years older his physicals weren't really much better than the guy I rejected earlier (who would also have been a permanant signing) so with hindsight I got that wrong.

There were still a bit more to be done after that. I had been content to have 3 full backs and Turner/Allison capable of filling in either side but that would have been a mistake so I decided to go for a young Scot who could play both sides even though it meant splashing out 160k. Wanting to rely on McEntee as little as possible and Keane getting injured just after I made the bid (missing the first couple of weeks of the season) made that a good move even if it was an expensive one.

Instead of finishing there, I noticed this morning that we had the spare wage budget for an extra player (even though that meant not being finished in time for the opening match after all) and went for another defender. The DoF was also pursuing a central midfielder on loan from QPR (with no wage cost to us) who would have been excellent but he chose Macclesfield instead for some bizarre reason.

Again we looked a little (but not massively) stronger, with a better squad as a whole. There are still a couple of players left like McEntee and Turner (who both started well before becoming disappointing) who have the potential to mess up too many times but it's still a step forward. The Ass Man actually claimed we would win the league in the press conference before the first match.

That was at home to Accrington who also made the playoffs last season so a 2-0 win was a decent gesture of intent that we were at least capable of challenging again, and that we might not be relying on a single goal as much as last season. Also promising was that the Scottish forward Thompson (not to be confused with our English defender) scored a great goal and set up the other, potentially being the star we were lacking last year, though at 33 it wouldn't be for very long unfortunately.

Signings

[deltablue]

Oct 2049

I feel rather behind the times now The start of the season can simply be described as 'mostly good'. Given the disaster we were suffering at this stage last season it's good to be consistent enough that we've been in the playoff places the entire time so far (with a brief exception at the start of October) and remaining close to the automatic promotion places, though that does often lead to thoughts of 'what might have been', given while we're doing better on goals scored (Byrne already being just a few goals away from his total last season), we still don't have enough in us to compensate for when the defence (less reliable than last season) lets us down, though there have been plenty of underwhelming performances elsewhere even when we have won as we've struggled to be at least solid throughout the entire team in any given match.

It's a familiar story to a lot of the career when things haven't gone completely our way where we seem to be a lot better at keeping the number of unnecessary draws down than avoiding too many draws in matches we should have won. However after last year's failure (and the disaster that was the middle of the season) we're at least remaining credible playoff contenders, with an eye on the automatic promotion places should we improve just a little, which is still a more than satisfactory position to be in for now.

[deltablue]

Somehow I think I look a little weirder in this year's version, even though I used the same pic as for FM17. It does at least look a little more like me as opposed to a cross with my half-brother

[Lenzar]

What do you think of FM18? Finally going to move with the times?

[deltablue]

5 hours ago, Lenzar said:

What do you think of FM18? Finally going to move with the times?

Nope I am trying it out a little and get a bit of a side save going but this will remain my main project. There's even an update coming up

[deltablue]

Jan 2050

It's interesting seeing the contrast between yesterday's session (up to the first Coventry game) and today's. The first saw us win 5 out of 5 in the league, taking us up into the automatic promotion places, and claim a decent draw away to higher division opponents in the cup, having easily dispatched BSP Wrexham. The winner of the replay would face Wigan or Dartford in the 3rd round (providing a good opportunity to make the 4th round for the second time) but we fell to a limp defeat.

In the league, some big cracks were showing in our armour. We were able to keep up our unbeaten league record (which ran to a decent 17 matches in the end) but often had to rescue draws from going behind (which actually made them feel like more positive results than the other way around), later on not doing quite enough to avoid an equalizer. We still managed to get a 5-point safety margin in early January (and briefly touch top after the Boxing Day win at Shrewsbury) but after back-to-back defeats only a late win at Wigan gave us a points advantage over the playoff places at the end of the month. I would have taken the playoffs at the start of the season but right now it would feel very disappointing not to go up this year. Still there are worse positions to be in. Wigan's for example.

After just 3 wins in our last 10 league matches, we probably need a few more from our remaining 13. It helps that 8 of those (including the next 4!) are at home, though table-topping Kettering (they were only just relegated so it's not a surprise to see them as front-runners to go up again) are the first. Aldershot are the only one of our remaining opponents in the top 7 (and one of the remaining away games), with Palace and Charlton (both at home) the other two from the top 10 we still have to face, which does look relatively favourable if we can take advantage of it.

Having got in a defender on loan (who unfortunately hasn't been a success), I let the DoF bring in two more at the end of the window (both from Aston Villa), a midfielder (where we still lack a credible permanant option) and a left-back (a position where finding anyone consistently solid has been surprisingly challenging from the start at Gillingham, as it was for years at Milan before that. Two big reinforcements in positions we badly need them that will help us cruise over the line, or two signings too many (taking us up to 12) for this season? Only time will tell.

[deltablue]

May 2050

This is easily the least happy I've ever been after a promotion (Ipswich getting relegated from the Premier League doesn't help either), and the results give a clue why, though without revealing the specific details that are still riling me up. We comfortably managed what we thought was the hard part, beating Kettering in a match that was actually surprisingly even, but clearly we had used up our 'efficiency' quota for a couple of months, as what followed was an epic display of shooting ourselves in the foot.

Our main keeper Pead was injured for the following couple of matches and while his new understudy Cunningham (the long-suffering Webster having been released from captivity last year) didn't do a good job, his defence really didn't make it easy for him. Having equalized at Charlton I was confident we could turn the game around, but that was before Dobson got sent off. That still doesn't excuse the poor defending as they raced to a comfortable win after that, including a penalty, with two more accounting for both goals conceded against Dagenham.

The real masterpiece came against Yeovil thanks to the returning Pead of all people, effectively passing the ball to the opposition with a weak short-range clearance to convert into an unguarded net. They say the key to comedy is timing and this one came not only in stoppage time, but after a minute of added time on top of that! You can nearly always point to a number of potentially costly moments in a season but it's hard to beat that one as something that could really have been avoided.

With 5 games to go I thought we had blown automatic promotion. Even when things had gone well the number of times a player (especially a defender) was hauled off for a poor performance was shocking. The on-loan Strevett was fine for a while but had clearly gone native while his fellow loanee Deakin was better but missed the final few weeks with an injury, and in the end when needing to replace a left-back during matches I went for Turner (who is competent there just as Allison is on the right) rather than trust one of the others.

A couple of wins got us on the tail of the top 3 again but it looked like we'd have a repeat of last season when we couldn't quite to enough to do it, when we were 3-0 up against Southport we were level both on points and GD (but slightly lacking on goals scored) with Aldershot. This time I felt confident that we could win our last game and that it would be enough and I was right. It was nervy for a while before we scored, and what do you know, we conceded another penalty, clearly not having completely given up shooting outselves in the foot. Thankfully it wasn't enough as we won 3-1 anyway to just about snatch 3rd.

This is the 6th promotion of the career without a single relegation so far, but things are just going to keep harder from here. Even if we can survive League 1 (and with 4 relegation spots it won't be easy to stay out of trouble), taking Gillingham further up the leagues (a reminder that they've only ever had one 5-year spell as a second tier club and that was 45 years ago by this point) will be a far bigger challenge. Having virtually no money in the bank won't help either, but that just highlights how we already needed a promotion like this soon to move onto the next level not just in the most literal terms but also with being able to continue to improve the team. However I didn't join Gillingham to not try and get them to the Championship at least.

Star Player: Tricky decision, but I think it goes to Thompson. Last season I felt we lacked a consistent attacking threat and replacing Mansfield (and Gallagher, who managed some late goals but otherwise had reached the end of the road) with the aging Scot, and to a lesser extent Martin seemed to do the trick, not just in their own contributions but also in Byrne's goalscoring record, with Thompson and Byrne getting just over twice the number of goals (45 compared to just 22) as Mansfield and Byrne last season. Despite the best efforts of the most incompetent set of defenders (even by the standards of what I've had to endure at Gillingham, so far) it's ever been my misfortune to encounter that was just enough to make the difference this time.

Squad Stats

 

 

[Pablo Sanchez]

come on delta we want a legendary fm 18 careerr!!!

[Dexter_Morgan]

Well done on promotion, even though you do sound like me moaning about it  

[deltablue]

On 11/3/2017 at 06:15, Pablo Sanchez said:

come on delta we want a legendary fm 18 careerr!!!

You're out of luck there, mysterious stranger who I've never seen before in my life

58 minutes ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Well done on promotion, even though you do sound like me moaning about it  

It did feel very strange, though a run of 5 wins in 18 matches when it seems like you're cruising to promotion will do that to you, not to mention the specific ways we were finding to potentially throw things away. That Yeovil equalizer in particular was the stuff of legend in all the wrong ways Even on the final day it looked like we were going to mess it up (which did partly dampen the joy of the crucial 5-match winning run) but thankfully we pulled through. 

[Pablo Sanchez]

2 hours ago, deltablue said:

You're out of luck there, mysterious stranger who I've never seen before in my life

It did feel very strange, though a run of 5 wins in 18 matches when it seems like you're cruising to promotion will do that to you, not to mention the specific ways we were finding to potentially throw things away. That Yeovil equalizer in particular was the stuff of legend in all the wrong ways Even on the final day it looked like we were going to mess it up (which did partly dampen the joy of the crucial 5-match winning run) but thankfully we pulled through. 

Oh well looks like ill just have to keep enjoying this one for now

[deltablue]

14 minutes ago, Pablo Sanchez said:

Oh well looks like ill just have to keep enjoying this one for now

Well I have started something on FM18 but I'm but sure I'll be on it enough for it to have a thread, though I was considering it. I'll probably just do the same project later on in this

[deltablue]

World Cup 2050 - Brazil

The first thing that jumps out is China. I took a look at all the teams and groups back in January and the Chinese seemed like no hopers in their group. Hosts Brazil are never short of top quality players, the Czechs also had a seriously strong line-up and while the Tunisians weren't quite as good across the board, they were still roughly the equal of the other two in central defense and midfield. It's a massive shock that China (with a handful of vaguely average players at best) were able to top the group.

Elsewhere I feared for Mexico with their group and I was right, they looked decent enough but were outclassed by Spain and Argentina. New Zealand getting a point and only conceding 7 goals is a shock in itself. Their main star was their keeper who had been woefully bad for Liverpool at the time I took a look through the groups. He ended up conceding 22 matches in 13 Premier League matches (which included a sub appearance oddly enough) and had clearly been dropped at some point with an average rating of 6.32. He probably had the fans singing 'Bring back Mignolet'. I really thought that was a disaster waiting to happen for them but it wasn't quite so painful.

Portugal (who haven't been good at all in this save) were the losers if what I think looked like the Group of Death, while we had quite a few groups with 3 strong teams (and sometimes a 4th who weren't bad either) meaning the likes of Paraguay,  Nigeria and Mexico had early exits. Croatia were now without Milinovic (retired from international football after the last Euros but still going strong at Milan at the age of 34) but unlike when the legendary midfielder (who in the end, never played in the World Cup) was at his peak, do have more stars now and cruised through an admittedly generous group.

Wales won the first World Cup of the save and now they claimed another title, making them the first country to win twice (which shows how open it's been, including wins for teams like Ecuador) over the course of the game, as well as denying Italy (who actually only qualified through the playoffs) the chance to retain their crown. Pirozzi shone in this tournament like he did the last so it's a shame that his miss was the one that sealed Italy's defeat. The Welsh will be doubly delighted to have beaten England in the semis, as well as Spain and the Netherlands, so they certainly earned it the hard way. Turkey had a very strong side and were well deserved semi-finalists themselves.

[deltablue]

Summer 2050

After 22 signings in the past 2 years (including loans) this was a quieter summer, which is probably for the best. Once again promotion wage rises took up a lot of the increased budget, and I was later to the party than I should have been when it came to players nearing the end of their contracts, with a lot more players having already agreed deals. It didn't help that the scouting range hasn't changed, since I know individual countries can be tacked on to the main region/continent (definitely the latter anyway). I'm used to having full European coverage in the Championship with Ipswich so I was expecting to go beyond UK/Ireland by now.

In Gillingham's case it would be great if specific club location could make a difference with it being easier to scout nearby countries (which I've seen as a suggestion elsewhere) because surely if you're in Kent (and near Ebbsfleet International, with the Channel ports also within easy reach) going to France and Belgium is at least as managable as Scotland/Ireland. Oseni remains the only non UK/Irish player I've had, if you discount Fatai who had spent his entire career in England. That might change however as with the Blackpool link being broken (since we swapped divisions) Malaga have become our parent club.

Other limitations to transfer activity included having so many players who weren't interested (or slightly were once they became free agents but were so far out of our contract price range that they'd walk away instantly even with the most I could offer), plus the most I could stretch to for a transfer budget (reduced quite a bit with adjustments after a while) was 200k, which I already knew wouldn't buy much even in League 2. We dipped into the red again this summer for the first time since the takeover so we're not going to have much to work with going forward.

Thankfully I didn't feel we needed too many changes anyway, as the problem wasn't so much the quality of our players on paper but the reliablity of some of them, especially in defence (though I was slightly surprised to see we still had the joint 3rd best defensive record last season). A few players had been released and maybe more should have been included but it would have been hard to get in replacements. There are definitely still a few on the 'hit list' to go after this season though.

Callaghan was an obvious attempt to try and get enough vaguely competent full-backs, and I was shocked to find we had signed a forward from Ipswich with him. The DoF must have sneaked him in when I was expanding the scouting staff (and just assumed every move I was confirming was related to that) and while I don't really want him, he at least gave us a 4th forward (replacing Dobson) immediately while costing nothing and on very low wages so there wasn't much harm in it.

Central midfield was the priority, having relied on short-term options (loanees and Gowland, who retired after his only season having only been intended as a one-year stop gap anyway) for 2 years. Young Green was signed as a free agent on youth wages last year in a desperate attempt to have anyone, even if he was never going to be much of a first-teamer. The Welshman Bowen seemed a decent and low-wage free option just in case no one else could be found, though he was quickly trumped by the experienced Coleman as first choice for the time being. At 120k he's the second most expensive player I've signed at Gillingham (hopefully far less of a disaster than the first, though Soutar is still just 19 and a Scottish U21 international so there's still hope for him) and only the 6th permanent signing to cost a fee at all.

That seemed to be it since we were already completely out of budget (a few hundred a week over the wage budget with the slider all the way at that end) but with the left-back situation in particular in mind I let the DoF loan someone from Everton, bringing the number of incoming players to 5, more than I thought I'd manage this year, but hopefully enough to have a more settled side. We should hopefully be fine this season, assuming the defence stops auditioning for the latest version of 'Nick Hancock's Footballing Nightmares'. (I actually had that video when I was younger, however as that was 20 years ago, as was the time when he was well-known, I'm probably showing my age here ) but pushing on beyond mid-table might be tougher.

In some ways this is where the real challenge starts. Getting Gillingham to League 1? Not the easiest task from where I found them but within realistic expectations for a club like that. Taking them further? Now that would be a far bigger achievement.

Signings

 

 

[deltablue]

Sorry guys, how on earth did I manage to write so much from very little? I guess I'm just that involved in it all that there are always things of interest to me, and often (at least mid-season) I often think of something to mention that ends up being ignored so it could be even worse

[deltablue]

Oct 2050

Mercifully for you guys, there's very little to be said here Our position seems about right, though a couple of missed penalties and complacency (from myself included as I thought the match was over at 2-0 and took off a player I shouldn't have to rest him) against Nuneaton cost us the chance to be quite a bit higher. We are showing quite a bit more defensive consistency at last (though far from perfect) and have the best defensive record in the entire division but we're really failing to fire up front.

We're dipping back into the red again (around 200k), which isn't good when we've already been dealing with the busiest time of the season. The cups have been a massive help in the past and while we didn't do much in the League Cup or Paint Pot the FA Cup provides a lifeline, as having beaten Crystal Palace, we shouldn't have too much trouble at home 'non-league' (well you know what I mean) Fylde in the second round, opening up the door for potentially bigger games after that. It still won't help us push on though if this summer's experience is anything to go by.

[deltablue]

Dec 2050

It's wonderful how things can suddenly click, at least for a little while. Defeat to Chesterfield (not local rivals of Chester, as one commentator famously assumed) gave no indication that we'd win 6 of our following 7 league matches (and it really should have been all 7), having not won back to back matches up to that point this season. At the half-way point in the season we'd actually taken ourselves all the way up to the playoff places! After woeful starts from Martin (who was on a 16-match goal drought) and Alan Thompson we started to fire while still maintaining the best defensive record in the division, making this the best-balanced Gillingham team I've enjoyed so far.

It was never going to last, especially not with a tough December run. We were a little unlucky at Burton in that a mad goalmouth scramble led to disallowed own-goal equalizer, along with Thomas Byrne getting injured for 4 months! One thing I forgot to mention last time (I told you there were always a few things) was that he hit the 100 goal mark for the club in just over 5 years, against Rochdale at the start of October I think. We're talking about a heck of a lot of matches in that time (I hit the 300 milestone shortly afterwards) so the goal to game ratio isn't that impressive but it's always a decent achievement. It also meant that we need both Alan Thompson and Martin to be consistent, and that was never going to happen, though a win at Nuneaton at least helped keep us in touch with the playoff places, despite falling to a disappointing late goal against Brentford afterwards.

It seemed a little surprising that during our good run we struggled against Fylde, but we still made it through to get our big Premier League club away day in the 3rd round. It's Huddersfield, but still. Another thing was that when I checked the wage spend table something interesting popped up. We were 4th from bottom, not far ahead of the 3 teams below us, which wasn't a surprise, but it was a shock to see who was top, with double the wage bill of anyone else. It was Newport, who have an even smaller stadium than we do! They do have a tycoon owner (and have done for 11 years, having been in administration just a few years before that) but this is as well as they've done so far, having even been back in League 2 briefly when we got promoted to there.

We're still doing much better than expected and it's hard not to think 'well, we look like we'll be safe'. We have gotten some tough fixtures out of the way and it would be amazing if we could somehow still challenge for a playoff place but if it stays similar to this (or even a decent top-half finish) it would still be something I'd be very happy with.

 

[deltablue]

AFCON 2051 - Tunisia

Algeria haven't featured much on the radar aside from a couple of 3rd place in the early 2030's and a few appearances in the 2nd round of the World Cup, however they claim a second ever African title, beating a Ghana side who have also struggled to impress. By contrast the Ivorian holders finished bottom of a tough group, with Togo (admittedly surprise runners up last time) also facing an early exit.

[deltablue]

Asian Cup 2051 - Bahrain

After China's performance at the World Cup, I wondered if they could finally de-throne Japan, and the answer was 'not quite' as they lost on penalties, having lost to them in the group stage as well. They're still the only other team to have won any of the last 7. Singapore were the big story, making just their 4th ever appearance and their first progress out of the group stage, edging out South Korea in a 3-way tie, then beating Australia in the quarter-finals. Their world ranking was in the 180s just a couple of years ago and now they've broken into the top 100 with a squad entirely based in their own league.

[deltablue]

Apr 2051

I thought we were drifting away from any sort of playoff challenge at the turn of the year, and even with a minor improvement in form I thought I'd just cruise to the end of the season before 'Finland day' tomorrow and that would be that, but FM makes fools of us all sometimes, even in a good way. A strong start to 2051 seemed to tail off after a hectic run of FA Cup matches which allowed us to take down Huddersfield (a Premier League scalp!) in a replay but then easily fall to a far fresher Middlesbrough at home after that. Our form after that was decent but not spectacular with the playoffs seeming a bit too far away.

Byrne returned from injury (but not for long, with a couple of other players having their seasons end prematurely soon after that) in time to assist the only goal against Chesterfield just after coming on as a sub, which proved to be crucial in tipping the balance firmly in our favour as they were our direct rivals for 6th. Winning our remaining 5 matches to not just beat them to it, but snatch 5th as well in the end. I thought it would be a lot tougher to break into the League 1 playoffs, and it's staggering that we managed it at the first time of asking especially after a mediocre start to the season where getting enough of a safety margin over the bottom 4 was the focus.

[deltablue]

Playoff Semi V Birmingham

Now that was a tie of two halves. It looked to be all over after the home leg where we fell behind after a poor start and even after improving couldn't even convert an equalizer. However we kept on pushing in the second leg and when Martin finally converted, the 'Get in!' level was off the scale. Thompson then gave us the lead but unlike in the League 2 playoffs against Notts County, the lack of an away goals rule proved to be our enemy, rather than our friend. They managed to snatch a late goal to take the tie to extra-time, though had their captain sent off right at the end of the 90 minutes.

We just kept on pushing and the away fans (all 5 of them) went wild when Thompson gave us the lead again. We tried to shut-up shop but it didn't work as they managed to round Pead (which shouldn't take anything away from a strong defensive performance) to make it 3-3 on aggregate, shortly after chance to finish them off which was so good that 'golden opportunity' doesn't do it justice. I didn't realize that an injury had given us an extra man advantage, so maybe I should have kept trying to run them ragged. Man of the match Thompson then missed our first penalty, followed by Martin as their counterparts made no mistake. Green (a player seemingly surplus to requirements at the start of the season) and Chandler did try and make up for it but I knew we had lost. Still, even making the playoffs was a great achievement and I couldn't fault my team one bit for their effort in almost turning the tie around.

So where to go from here? I've taken Gillingham up 57 places from where I found them, but there isn't anything in the bank to continue building. in fact we're 830k in the red! All this talk of scouting costs in FM18 has made me look them up specifically and it turns out we've spent over 1M out of a total expenditure of 8.8M. We easily have 100% scouting knowledge of the UK and Ireland (still the only area we can scout) so I can definitely dial that down a lot to save quite a bit. Maybe a sale or two could help replenish our bank balance but I'll have to choose carefully. I was set to release some people but knowing I'd find replacements hard to find, a few got a stay of execution, especially Alan Thompson and Martin (though only at the last minute) on form as well as the fact that would only leave Byrne as a forward I actually wanted in the squad, hence the early reprieve for the former despite his very advanced age and high wages.

Squad Stats

[Pablo Sanchez]

Playoff heartbreak.

[deltablue]

On 16/11/2017 at 04:55, Pablo Sanchez said:

Playoff heartbreak.

Massively, though they are a far bigger club and they ended up losing in the final to an AFC Wimbledon side who had already looked far to dangerous for us in the regular season, so it would have been a big ask to go up at this stage.

[deltablue]

Gold Cup 2051

What the blazes! It's always disappointing when a full Mexico team fail to win, and in this case failure to win their group landed them with defeat against the USA in the quarter-finals. Still better than losing to St. Lucia I suppose, and I wonder how long I can keep bringing that up. If you haven't been following my international tournament updates you'll have no idea what I'm talking about, then again you won't be reading this either so I guess it doesn't matter.

Haiti were surprise finalists instead, perhaps with an easier path to the final but still. The final seemed pretty even in terms of chances, if little else, so they definitely made a good show for a team with only 6 non-grey players. One plays in Qatar, 4 for lower leagues French clubs, and the other is a free agent.

[deltablue]

Copa America 2051 -Uruguay

Brazil definitely fall into the 'should do better' category in this save. They've managed a couple of Copa America victories but you'd probably expect better than for this to be only their 4th final appearance in 11. They've not even made a World Cup semi-final yet either. It didn't start well this time either as they scraped through in 3rd behind Venezuela. They admittedly improved a lot, knocking out holders Chile and smashing Argentina but it wasn't enough to claim the title as Paraguay got the better of them in the final.

Venezuela ended up being good after all, beating the Uruguayan hosts (who didn't win a single match) in the quarter-finals to end up as surprise finalists. They do actually have a few stars so it wasn't undeserved.

[deltablue]

Summer 2051

We started the summer in serious financial trouble, thanks to scouting costs of over 1M last season (3 times the previous year). Since we had 100% knowledge of the UK and Ireland, having 8 scouts on the case seemed like a waste of money so I've cut it down to just one on active assignment and hopefully that will lead to massive savings to help keep us financially solid again, at least once we climb out of this pit, which proved to be easier said than done.

We were far deeper in debt (over 1M by June) than in the BSP but this time seemed better poised to raise money from sales. However despite pinpointing a few players I hoped would do the trick without weakening us too much (and then a couple who might) it was hard to get any interest even for a fraction of their 'value'. Thankfully young stars (who were already a little but established) were a different story. Coughlan had been an Ireland international since he was 19 after just a single season in League 2 (much earlier than I thought he'd make it), which doesn't say much about their current state. Along with Grey we managed to raise 1.4M for two players that cost just over 100k in total.

However it wasn't as good as it seems. I'm not used to 'percentage of profit' clauses being worth very much but with 35% due on each to their previous clubs we missed out on about a third of it. The money that Waterford got on Coughlan's sale was worth slightly more than their club value. Glad to be of service. Grey's was also mainly tied up in installments but we could potentially benefit from a 20% 'profit from next sale' clause ourselves. He left with 'decent' Premier League potential so it's easy to see him go for a 7-figure sum to the Championship or one of the bigger Scottish clubs.

I had succeeded in getting far more budgetary room than before (including taking 25% off the wage bill) but money in the bank was the main thing, and I'd have to spend to build the squad back up. As it turned out it was far easier than I imagined. Having spent 90k compensation on an early deal for an Irish forward we didn't spend that much on transfer fees for the rest of the summer, with some surprisingly low wages as well. Mainly that went on very young players but there was still a lot of potential talent there, including a couple of players from the youth team who would be very useful under the circumstances if they turned into decent squad players.

Having focussed on getting what I could for very little, we ended up with a surpisingly large squad, in fact once the scout reports finally finish coming in I might see if there's another good 5-figure signing available. That allowed me to offer out Davidson (with regret) as one last role of the dice to sell, and even if his 250k move to Sligo Rovers had gone through right away (instead of waiting until January due to the differing Irish schedule) we'd still be in the red but we're getting there, and we should hopefully be on a far more stable footing to stop it getting too much worse for a while.

It's hard to make predictions for this season. The board upped expectations to top-half, which I had been planning to do anyway, but in my current position the pressure is very much off. Making the playoffs again under the circumstances would still be a surprise, though the upside of not being able to sell most players is that we're not much weaker (even if being able to offload one more for anywhere near what I was looking to get would have stuck a good balance between financial and team strength considerations) so somehow I wouldn't put it past us.

Signings

Youth

[deltablue]

Since I released a certain English defender in the summer, with hindsight we're denied the chance of having a central defensive pairing of Thomson and Thompson (though I doubt that reference works in other languages), which is probably for the best when you think about it Still, having Alan Thompson up front still meant that the Tintin characters very much crossed my mind, especially as they're both Scots, though very much not twins given one is 16 and the other 34. I'm very much an Asterix man myself (they say you prefer one or the other) but I did have a strong 'Tintin' phase when I was much younger.

[deltablue]

Oct 2051

Wow, this was on the 3rd page! I might pause this at the end of the season to give the Finland one a bit more momentum (people seem to only really be interested in that one anyway) but we'll see. The start of the season seemed like a case of 'crisis, what crisis?' as despite having to weaken the team a little (though admittedly not as much as intended) and been very restricted in transfer activity (though again I managed to do a lot more than I thought I would) we started off looking like strong contenders for the playoff places at least. That unfortunately fell apart a little, with the main highlight being a small run to a League Cup match at Old Trafford where we kept Man Utd out for almost all of the first half and even though we caved in a little after that (as I suspected) a late Byrne goal made it respectable.

To deviate on to Man Utd a little, they have been surprisingly unsuccessful. In just over 40 years they haven't won a single league title, though they have been 2nd and 3rd nine times each. Nor have they won anything in Europe despite being beaten finalists in the Champions League 4 times (and the Europa League). They do have 3 FA Cup wins and 5 in the League Cup which isn't a terrible record but it's not what you'd expect. Liverpool fans can't laugh too much as recently they went down to the Championship (as they did twice in the Ipswich career) and took 4 years to return. Creating interesting in-game history like this is why I like ploughing on far into the future as quickly as possible on a save like this.

Despite beating Aldershot in our first Paint Pot match I still felt like tweaking the full-backs to give them a wing-back role again, which I had done at Milan but seemed too ambitious for the BSP. We kicked off like that with a win over table-topping Bradford but afterwards we lost at Chesterfield then went 2-0 down at Sheffield Utd. We bounced back to draw 2-2 thanks to the on-loan Lillis (thanks Ipswich!) then looked like beating Blackpool. Their late equalizer came right at the same time to an injury to Cambridge, who had only been on the pitch for 7 minutes. I know the game is incapable of actually trolling but every so often something like that happens which makes it appear that way.

[deltablue]

May 2052

I had decided a while ago to focus on FM18 and the Finland career, the trouble with that was I wanted to finish the season (which had just started first), or I'd be even more confused trying to resume this, along with not having had much FM motivation in the past month. Thankfully today I finally managed to blast through the entire second half of the season having already decided not to bother with full updates, since that's clearly not what you want to see from me right now.

There isn't much to say, which is just as well. After a surprisingly strong start (given I had my eye on the financial situation in the summer) we suddenly found ourselves in mid-table for a while. Some good loans (which exposed how light we were in central midfield) helped in January, along with the abandonment of a brief tactical adjustment I had tried for a couple of months and we started to climb up the table.

Just as we were on the verge of breaking into the playoff places we suddenly slumped again, winning just 1 of our last 8 matches, not helped by how tight the pack was. Even going in the final match there were as many as 6 potential finishing positions. We weren't necessarily bad but even the young players brought in who did make an impact couldn't do so on a regular basis.

Despite managing to get scouting costs under control (at just a 1/5 of last year) and a decent transfer profit we were almost back to where we started in terms of how deep in the red we were. Despite that and taking a big step back on the table I won't quite Gillingham that easily, and maybe a break on the other career will help. Given how frustrating that could potentially be itself, I doubt it.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

End of an era

I've started playing this quietly in the background for a bit, at least moving through the summer (and maybe making progress on next season soon even if my focus will still be on Finland) and a big moment has arrived. Mexes has just left Milan after 20 years and while he's wasn't set to retire he unsurprisingly did so anyway and has become an Ass Man. Not a very good one though.

He won Serie A 11 times, the Italian Cup 9 times, but he failed to add to the 3 CL titles he won when I was in charge. His international career was less of a success as France didn't even make a major final (with just a single 3rd place at the World Cup). He still managed 112 goals in 150 appearances but that still leaves him some way short of the record of 147 (from 162 caps) set by an early newgen who also managed 432 goals in 585 matches at club level for St.Etienne and Arsenal between 2018 and 2039. 

His strike partner in crime van dan Hoogenband retired as well, though he spent the final few years of his career in Spain.

[deltablue]

Summer 2052

[deltablue]

Dec 2052

This has still been going on in the background (at least when I've been playing FM, having been hit by the same recent hiatus as the Finland save) and I wasn't really planning on making updates until I was ready to give it more attention (as this this is still the long-term save even if it's taking a back seat for a while) especially as after finishing 15th last season, the start of this season seemed like more of the same so it didn't look like there was really anything very interesting going on anyway.

When I left off we were in a similar financial hole than the year before despite getting scouting costs under control (dropping them to under a quarter of what they were before), partly because I still felt like spending a decent bit of transfer money due to getting a lot more coming in, which I knew had to stop. Thankfully we're doing fine even without having to, a 55k compensation fee being the only amount spent on a few good players and I did even better in December, remembering to scout the players in Scotland in time for the '6 month' mark and grabbing 5 players for next season.

The trouble is that it's meant getting in a lot of young players, talented to be sure but that doesn't do much for short-term consistency, which in turn doesn't do much for selection consistency without a clear first-choice. There were also a few tactical changes including having 3 central defenders (in terms of role, not postion) instead of a Ball-Playing Defender like normal once Allison was sold (though as the bulk of his seemingly impressive 1M fee is spread out over 4 years, it doesn't do as much for us as it seems) and his long-term backup Routledge (who was actually originally a 17yr old DM I inherited) was completely out of his depth now.

However as the autumn went on we managed to pick up form to move up the table into the playoff places, despite struggling a little more recently. That would be great financially (especially if we make the final, as I've kept a closer eye on that at Gillingham) as is a potential cup run, both elements sorely lacking last season. Leyton Orient (in League 2) at home isn't exactly a glamour tie for the 3rd round but gives us a good chance of progress as well as more gate and prize money income, as well as slashing the odds for a more valuable match afterwards.

[Deisler26]

GIIIIILLLS

My hometown club

[Dexter_Morgan]

Decent start to the season Delta, glad this is still going even if it isn't your main save at the moment. Hopefully you'll get through the cup tie and get a big club away to help with the finances as it's always tough down there  

[deltablue]

3 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

GIIIIILLLS

My hometown club

Really? I'm a Kent native (leaving aside the whole 'born in London' bit) but a from a very different area. Did get to see Ipswich beat Gillingham some years ago though.

3 hours ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Decent start to the season Delta, glad this is still going even if it isn't your main save at the moment. Hopefully you'll get through the cup tie and get a big club away to help with the finances as it's always tough down there  

I agree on the finances. We were a bit in the red when I arrived in the BSP which I seemed to have sorted out, then I over did it with scouting costs (interestingly at a time when FM18 was bringing putting it more strongly in people's minds) and found ourselves 1M in red two seasons ago having spent more than that on scouting alone. I slashed it to under a quarter last season (a little over 200k) but were in even worse trouble, partly because I still spent 500k on signings since we were still making a decent profit (which is why aside from the occasional small compensation fee like I did last summer, spending money on players is off the table now) along with the fact that it was the first time in a while we didn't at least make the playoffs or get much money from the FA Cup, making up the rest of the shortfall. I know ether (at least if you make the play-off final) can be worth a decent 6-figure sum though on past experience.

While I'm being careful in terms of wages that's not going to make much difference by itself, not when we're talking about 2-3kpw being a lot and we've got the 3rd lowest wage bill in the division as it is. I did manage to get it from 1.3M in the red to under 100k this summer though. I think it's 150k now and a forecast (admittedly not always reliable) of 250k in the red, which is a good step forward, especially as a big cup tie or the playoffs if ether happens might even briefly nudge us back into the black or pretty much since that won't be part of the calculations.

In the past I might have actually quit the club both because of the big step back in the league last season and the financial situation but since I've already hit the top in the save there's no pressure to move on. Reaching the playoffs on the first two seasons after promotion helps show that we can go up and it would feel rewarding to do so, especially with having to make an effort with the financial situation as well rather than getting impatient and moving like I often would do.

I actually didn't feel much motivation any more by the time I put this save on hold because it felt like I'd suddenly fallen into a rut at Gillingham but taking time out from it helped get me back in the mood, probably helped by it turning into a more casual side save for now. Good to see there might still be interest in it as I was getting the impression after I started the Finland thread that everyone had switched their attention to that one.

I'd still go back for myself anyway since I've always loved progressing many seasons in a save with a lot of nations loaded and see the game world develop, and the fact that I'm not playing anywhere near as often or as quickly (due to finally switching to from commentary only to extended highlights during the Ipswich save. Even with a large number of leagues loaded, playing the matches is what takes up a lot of the time, not regular processing) as my heyday means that the save progress I've made on here is even more valuable and harder to replace.

 

[Deisler26]

11 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Really? I'm a Kent native (leaving aside the whole 'born in London' bit) but a from a very different area. Did get to see Ipswich beat Gillingham some years ago though.

I went to Wembley to see them lose to Man CIty in the playoffs in 1999

I also went to Coventry when they drew 2-2 (COV being in the Prem at the time)

I remember the joy of signing Dennis Bailey from then-Prem QPR, the agony of losing Carl Asaba and Bob Taylor just after the playoff defeat. (BT went to bloody City for £1.5m)

[deltablue]

Euro 2052

Since this is going to be updated after all it's a good thing I grabbed screenshots of the Euros at the time for a usual international tournament post, even if it's been long enough that it's hard to put it in a wider context of the international scene and recent performances.

One thing I can say with confidence is that Wales were able to follow up on winning the World Cup for the second time by becoming European champions as well, probably feeling especially satisfied at beating England in the final. England in the meantime had knocked out Scotland in the quarter-finals (their second penalty win in a row!) in what was clearly a strong tournament for home nation rivalries. The Scots had actually beaten Italy in their group and while the Italians still made it through they didn't last long against holders Germany. Portugal haven't done well at all in this save and being bottom of their group (admittedly not an easy one) really wasn't that out of the ordinary.

[deltablue]

Erm...

That gives us over 1M in the bank all of a sudden, with another Premier League away day in the next round.

[Sheriff7]

love these screenshots they remind me old fm series...

[deltablue]

AFCON 2053 - Egypt

The Ivorians were dominant in Africa for a while with 4 wins out of 6 from 2029-39 and seem to be returning to supremacy with a second win in three (knocking out holders Algeria on the way), no one else having even been in the top 3 twice in that period. Beaten finalists Angola had actually won in 2045 but couldn't quite repeat the feat in their second ever final appearance, though they did knock out the previous runners-up Ghana in the group stage, with Nigeria and Cameroon joining the Ghanaians in suffering an early exit.

[deltablue]

May 2053

Since I'm still deciding what to do in Finland I thought I'd finish the Gillingham season. I already gave the headline of the win over Arsenal, which came despite not actually trying, setting up for damage limitation and to avoid tiring the team out too much and as you can see it worked perfectly by not working at all. When they scored anyway that seemed to be that but then Bannigan somehow slipped it past the keeper at very tight angle. It wasn't exactly a first choice team (even though there were some incredibly good players that definitely were, including a Venezuelan forward with a lot of 20's in the right places) but even the weaker players were more fringe first team squad members than youth teamers and should have easily been too good for us. The keeper was just 20 but already looking very good and is part of the England squad so you'd expect him to do better in that situation against a free signing from East Stirlingshire.

I dared to dream when Murray (20k well spent even when I had to be frugal) gave us the lead and even though it didn't last, a replay would still have been nice. As it happened it didn't come to that as the 18yr old Irish forward quickly struck again for a result we couldn't believe! I knew we'd be severely undone at Norwich in the next round, our 7th FA Cup game of the season. Since I knew the same trick wouldn't work again (though technically it didn't the first time) and they were struggling I went for it a bit more and half the team gave a good account of themselves, the rest proved to be a liability and made it an easy win for them but we had still had the run we needed.

The league results weren't so good, not helped by a series of injuries to defenders in quick succession. It didn't really matter anyway as since we needed an improbably good run to catch the top 2, all that happened was that we weren't able to comfortably establish ourselves in the playoff places and only briefly dropped out when we fell slightly behind in terms of our schedule. The win over 7th placed Lincoln followed by their defeat in the following match boosted themargin from 3 points to 9 with just 5 matches left and confirmed what had been likely for a while anyway, which is just as as well as we didn't finish the season strongly at all.

The playoffs saw us face Newport which was not good. They're tycoon owned and comfortably have the highest wage bill in the league (while we're just off bottom) as well as the top scorer. A couple of early attacks at home gave me hope but came to nothing before they scored (and could have buried us as I wondered why the defenders bothered to turn up) to put us in serious trouble. We were much better in the return but not enough to score the goal that might have at least given us extra-time. They still had enough chances that I couldn't complain about a draw too much. It hadn't helped that Allen got a straight red in the final match of the regular season, earning him a suspension for the playoffs (and the start of next season) and weakening our midfield.

I hadn't actually expected to go up, just being in the playoffs again was enough of a step in the right direction. With such a young team (and quite a few players were much improved from last season already) time is on our side, especially with another influx coming from Scotland. Financially we went from 1.3M in the red to having almost 1.5M in the bank but I still intend to be careful to keep the situation stable. I'm glad I took time out from this to get my motivation back and we can definitely afford to be patient, feeling our day to go up will come eventually.

The fortunes of the East Anglian teams provided an added bonus. Both were struggling near the bottom of the Premier League but Ipswich stayed up and won the FA Cup on top of that while Norwich went down.

Star Player: It was a bit of a surprise to see Bowen top the average ratings, not because I don't think he's a good player but he's more someone who does the business quietly rather than grab many goals or assists. He actually made the division's team of the year as well so credit where it's due for such a strong season.

 

Squad Stats

 

[deltablue]

On 3/5/2018 at 22:18, Sheriff7 said:

love these screenshots they remind me old fm series...

I know. When I started this save coming off FM16 I felt a massive difference in how it all looked and worked and I actually prefer it this way