dafuge's FM18 challenge

[Swindon69]

Battle of the brothers.

 

[ZKobalt]

On 12/7/2017 at 00:41, tremor said:

There is a Brightlingsea save a few posts back on the previous page 

Thanks, I didn't see it. Abandoning the Farsley Celtic save for Brightlingsea

[DazRTaylor]

9 hours ago, ZKobalt said:

Thanks, I didn't see it. Abandoning the Farsley Celtic save for Brightlingsea

If people are missing the post, can I trouble some of you to upvote it?  If it is highlighted, more will see it.

[tajj7]

Started at Billericay, never done this challenge before and have never done a save this low down before so thought I'd go a bit easier on myself. Was going to chose Basingstoke or Dorchester if they came up as they are local (ish) to me, Gosport did come up but that is far too near Portsmouth as a Saints fan!

Hopefully I have got this right -

Are we allowed to add more leagues later? 

[Swindon69]

On a side note Craig Bellamy was managing Bradford City and before our match slagged me off so I responded in kind. I then beat Bradford and he got sacked - which gave me a degree of satisfaction.

[Swindon69]

Hereford FC

2023/24 - League 1 1st

Well an interesting season - I had a fairly large clear out with the departing players having accumulate over 800 appearances and scoring over 150 goals between them. We started off fairly poorly and it looked like my initial expectation of a bottom half of the table finish was looking about right as we won five drew 1 and lost four of our opening ten games. At this point I tweaked things and from that point lost five of the remaining thirty six winning twenty four of them. The title was only secured on the penultimate round of games. The overall financial position of the club is a bit iffy because when I signed a player I hadn't picked up on the 35% wage rise on promotion and it was only when I was checking out some details I noticed that the effect of that over two seasons was that he was on £10k a week! I also turned down a bid of £650k for my goalkeeper as the offer came in at the last minute on deadline day.

Aims for next season - don't get relegated.

The four players I primarily used up front scored 80 goals between them this season with Harvey Bradbury getting 29.

FA Cup - 5th round

I had my first cup run this season which included beating Arsenal 3-1 at home in the 4th round. I then travelled to Manchester City in the 5th round and suffered a creditable 1-3 defeat, at least the money improved my financial position.

Carabao Cup - 2nd round

Not much to say here as I got beaten 1-2 at home by West Brom in the second round.

Checkatrade Trophy - Winners

I made it through to the Final with a few decent results - I played Man Utd u23 (hah) in the final, going behind in the 3rd minute I pulled 2-1 ahead, at this point I was awarded a penalty which we missed. Wih the clock showing 90 mins I conceded the equaliser to it has to be said a good finish by the £67 million pound 28 year old Portuguese International (88 caps 65 goals) Andre Silva. So on to the penalty shootout with Hereford going first. Flitcroft took the first penalty and I think NASA are still looking for the ball  - the shootout went on quite a while but my young fullback Sanders netted the winner.

My top scorer overall for the season was Harvey Bradbury with thirtynine

The highest average rating was Felix Nmecha with 7.42

I am now a club legend.

End of season club awards

[Swindon69]

And now this

Note the stunningly original name.

[Swindon69]

A Hereford player is going to the European Championships.

[Tyggis]

 

Dulwich Hamlet  - End of season review - 2019/20

Manager at end of season | Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances | Schedule 1 | Schedule 2 | Inbox season review

 

So our first season in Vanarama National League was a disappointment. We were very inconsistent, and a dip in form with only 6 wins after Christmas was never going to be enough to keep us in the playoff spots. We can only look forward. We lost a lot of very important players we had on non-contracts during the season, which I believe contributed to us not being able to sustain our form throughout the season. At least we got a good group of young players through in the youth intake.

Finances were again very good. We made a taxable profit of £42.95K after investing heavily in the club's facilities. The board once again granted my requests to improve both junior coaching and youth recruitment, as well as a Continental C Licence.  We also improved our capacity by 1000 in total with 500 of those being seated. We finished 2nd in the league in terms of average attendance in % of total capacity, with 59 %. Average attendance ended at 1959. 

@Warhawk, @HighFlyingDwarf 

[tremor]

Little mid-season update with my Terrors. 

Definitely finding that going full on, all out,  attack attack attack is much better than trying to play defensive. We're currently top scorers, best goal difference and top of the league with 50pts going into mid January. I am finding squad fitness is a huge issue which has been compounded by Cup replays and some injuries to my key midfielders. Finance is also becoming a problem. 

Hopefully will get to the end of the season tonight and post a full review. 

[Swindon69]

My board have just sanctioned global scouting!

[Kaiserwatman]

League - Squad - Dynamics - Transfers - Finances

A new Stadium ,  A new Transfer Record (75k) , A new formation and a changing of the old guard were the main talking points as The Robins aimed to make amends for a poor season last year. Thing's certainly took time to gel and fans were crying for change as the club had slumped to 18th by October 1. The tide did eventually turn though and a manager of the month award was presented as a fine run of results saw Altincham rocket up the table.  Whilst never actually catching champions Derby County the last two months of the season were spent in with a ding dong battle with Cardiff City for the second promotion place eventually overhauling them despite losing in the welsh capital with 3 games to go.

In the cups there isn't as per usual much to write about , losing to championship clubs in the third round of both competitions .  Financially the move to the new stadium is killing me though the extra prize money will help though i will need to run with about 10% of the wage budget of most other sides within the division.

EDIT  - Euro 2028 Call-ups  -  Neil McManus is club captain and has 5 caps for Northern Ireland plays Centre Half alongside Anthony Gannon who is a recent acquisition . Gannon is uncapped at Senior Level

[Swindon69]

I'm 1-5 favourites for relegation from the Championship and 1000-1 for promotion :).

[Warhawk]

2 minutes ago, Swindon69 said:

I'm 1-5 favourites for relegation from the Championship and 1000-1 for promotion :).

So was I.  I now have a 9 point lead on January 1st.  On a 7 match winning streak at the moment which included 3 matches in a row where I came back to win from a goal deficit followed by 3 matches in a row which were all 2-1 wins after getting out to a 2-0 lead (the first match in the streak was also a 2-1 win after taking a 2-0 lead).

[Swindon69]

10 minutes ago, Warhawk said:

So was I.  I now have a 9 point lead on January 1st.  On a 7 match winning streak at the moment which included 3 matches in a row where I came back to win from a goal deficit followed by 3 matches in a row which were all 2-1 wins after getting out to a 2-0 lead (the first match in the streak was also a 2-1 win after taking a 2-0 lead).

I'm not convinced my squad is good enough for promotion - also my lower rep makes recruitment difficult - time will tell.

[Warhawk]

Odd thing happened, I have a striker on loan at Eastleigh, they sent me an offer to extend his loan (he's doing quite well there actually), but the inbox item I got would not let me accept the loan extension because Eastleigh is in the middle of a board takeover.  But on the transfers screen, it lets me accept it.

[Swindon69]

No room at the inn

[Warhawk]

lol, you sold more season tickets than I have seats capacity.

EDIT: I actually only have 2000 seats.

[Swindon69]

4 minutes ago, Warhawk said:

lol, you sold more season tickets than I have seats capacity.

EDIT: I actually only have 2000 seats.

I move to a 12k stadium in two years

[Warhawk]

Got Swansea to give me $3.5 million in the January window for my #3 striker, a talented young player without a lot of ambition or determination who started 5 matches and came in as a sub in 18, scoring 9 goals.  I've got 3 strikers on loan having very successful spells, one of whom looks just as talented as him who I'm recalling to take his spot (he's won 2 VNL young player of the month awards in a row, plus a 1st and 3rd in player of the month).  Should help defray the limitations of our attendance, we've had 13 sellouts because of our small stadium and it's going to be a couple years before the expansion is complete.  Some good news was that we drew Man U away in the FA Cup; bad part of that is that it was in the third round so we got a big lump of money then but missed out on potentially racking up some prize money.  If not for player sales and income from cups we'd be losing like 4 million per year, and that's about our yearly player salary, half that of the next lowest team in the Championship (Swindon).  As it is we're barely breaking even this season (and will lose a lot over the next few months with no cup matches on the schedule) but then we've also been doing some facilities upgrades and have a lot of tax expenditures.  Then again if I can hang on and get promoted I suppose my financial situation will be completely different.  Lost 2 of 3 since that 7 match winning streak though, had a few defensive injuries that have caught up with me a bit.

I've got Gillespie, Duffy, Langford, Boyd (my new starting striker) and Iles locked up long-term, though Iles has an annoyingly low release clause which he insisted on last time we renegotiated, hoping maybe I'll get him to drop it with a new deal in the summer, and Langford's gonna want a raise soon.  Gillespie's stated value is $1.4 million at this point but based on his youth and his good play in the Championship and League 1, I'm betting if I wanted to sell him I could get north of $10 million at this point.  I'm not planning on it but if something comes up and he wants to leave I think it'll at least pay off for me.

EDIT: After losing 2 of 3 I just had my 7th and 8th comeback victories of the season, the second was a 2-1 win where we scored in the 93rd and 96th minute.  I must have a horseshoe up my ass or something.

[Warhawk]

Whoa whoa whoa, just saw the prematch interview for my next opponent, Nottingham Forest, and their new manager (for the last couple months) who just retired last summer is Cristiano Ronaldo.

And he dissed me.

Twice.

Oh, it is ON.

[Swindon69]

2 hours ago, Warhawk said:

Whoa whoa whoa, just saw the prematch interview for my next opponent, Nottingham Forest, and their new manager (for the last couple months) who just retired last summer is Cristiano Ronaldo.

And he dissed me.

Twice.

Oh, it is ON.

I had a war of words with Craig Bellamy - then beat his side and he got fired

[Bruce Drundrige]

At the 14th attempt in the league....a clean sheet 

[joethequin]

Just starting this out with Dulwich Hamlet; combining the challenge with a Youth Academy one, so I'm going to try and manage it all by only using my youth players! I'll report back on how I do!

[Swindon69]

Good luck @joethequin

[thomas_e]

A quick update from my Billericay save. My first season in the Championship went way better than I could have imagined. 

Promotion after 38 games, 30 wins, 7 draws and only 1 loss so far. 

5 promotions in a row   

A full season review will be posted after the season has ended. 

 

[Antwebb]

Lowerstoft Town 2020/21 - Playoff Semi-Finalists

Sigh, what might've been...

League Table - Tactics & 1st eleven - Transfers

We went from having the worst defence in the league to the best. Adarkwa was top scorer in the league. At one point we were on a 14 match unbeaten run, and joint top of the league. But our form in the last 10 games of the season dropped off, and we ended up 5th. The playoff first round was much easier than the score suggests, with Nuneaton scoring two late goals, but against FC United we just weren't really in it at allOur key player this season was arguably central defender Inman, who played fantastically all through the season proper, then had a couple of nightmares in the playoffs.

It's weird, this season felt at the same time a great over-achievement and a bitter disappointment. We were predicted to finish 19th, so to get in the playoffs is great, but considering the firepower this team has, once the defence came together I fell like we should have done even better. Oh well, we'll try again next season.

Season		League				Position	Notes
2018/19		Vanarama National League Nth	21st		Sacked from Warrington, Hired at Lowestoft
2019/20		VNLN				17th		Not relegated!
2020/21		VNLN				5th		Playoff Semi-Finalists

[Swindon69]

1 hour ago, thomas_e said:

A quick update from my Billericay save. My first season in the Championship went way better than I could have imagined. 

Promotion after 38 games, 30 wins, 7 draws and only 1 loss so far. 

5 promotions in a row   

A full season review will be posted after the season has ended. 

 

Nice going - my 1st seasons a bit of a mixed affair so far.

[13-gigi]

En 6/12/2017 a las 22:40, 13-gigi dijo:

"Gigi brings glory to Hereford". The best headline that looked impossible back on july when nobody there was giving anything for me.

Won the VNS with two spare game and we're also buying Edgar Street.

Season is over and as I told you we got promoted, but also Hereford claimed some honours like Top scorer and player of season to WES MCDONALD and Manager of the year to me!

Although Wes's big seasons, our fans appreciated even more Tom Elliot's influence to our game handling to him the FANS PLAYER OF THE SEASON AWARD with a support of 55% from our fans. Wes McDonald's 35 goals and 16 assists got just the 24% of our supporters.

[Kaiserwatman]

League - Squad - Dynamics - Transfers - Finances

In a league where the highest earner takes home more a week than my entire squad collectively ,  In a club financially hamstrung by the development of The Altrincham Stadium , with a board unwilling to invest in further facilities with what little money we currently have to at least become self sufficient . With a management team unable to come up with answers resorting to chopping and changing formations ,  with a squad completely out of their depth and unable to attract further additions at an affordable price , regular hammerings were taken , eventually shipping 120 goals -  It's back to the drawing board with the funds from the championship campaign and the sale of Anthony Gannon to Newcastle United.

In the FA Cup there was much excitement for AFC Telford fans as they held Altincham to a draw in the Third Round before The Robins eventually saw them off before facing Premier League Fulham and that was that.

 

[Swindon69]

Three of my Asst Managers have now left to become managers.

[Mr_Demus]

Finding it rough in the VNL. Started out pretty well, but our form has really dipped.

My squad is apparently pretty contradictory.

I held a team meeting, where I told them, that our form has declined, and that they should try to pick it up. They answered something like "we have been performing pretty well. What more do you want from us" and their morale dropped

Fast forward a couple of weeks and decent results later.

Another team meeting. I tell them, that they have been doing fine. They answered, that thay problably couldn't play any poorer.

I hate my team...

[tajj7]

Billericay End of Season 1 Update

Managed to win the National League South -

We went 31 games unbeaten from the start of the season, before a drop in form where I didn't win in the league for 5 games ruined my chance at an 'invincibles' season, but met board expectations. In the cups we lost away to Coventry City in first round of the FA Cup, was actually a pretty even game with me matching them for chances but we didn't take any of ours whilst an on-loan Reading striker bagged a hat trick.

Also lost in the FA Trophy final 1-0, despite creating 6 clear cut chances and 6 half chances to an opposition that just had 2 shots on target the whole game. 

Here were my transfers -

Star signing was this guy who was released from Man Utd -

And best player, who won league player of the year was Sam Deering, playing as an inverted winger on the left he was sensational -

Finances have been a worry all year because we had a 32k a week wage budget so leaked money right left and centre, but the board just injected £1.8 million over the season. Sadly though this has meant we haven't had any cash to improve facilities or get my second coaching badge.

Seems like this will continue for the next year as well as we now have a 43k a week wage budget for the National League, with the expectation of reaching the minimum of the play offs. 

So far my Season 2 signings look like this -

With this guy probably being the pick of the bunch -

He is rated as a leading league 2 player. I am also re-training him to play as an AMC. 

We also released a fair whack of players -

Pennant was useless, he sat in the U23s for most of the season after he'd played terribly early on and then just moaned most of the time. We probably had £10k a week in wages just sat in the reserves for most of the season which is a higher wage budget than some clubs in the league have full stop.

Luckily I managed to get O'Hara to sign a new contract that was only £950 a week, down from his £3k a week wages he started on, so I am actually a good £10 a week under the wage budget at the moment and still have a few players I want to of so might be able to cut it down more. 

 

Tactics wise we are playing a fluid 4-4-1-1, with a higher line, pressing and playing out of the back. I was quite surprised to see it work so well in the lower leagues but we have (compared to the league) some good players for the system with good work rates, passing etc. We also have two decent centre-backs picked up from big club academies who have good pace.  I might look at moving to very fluid this season if we start well. 

[warlock]

I made a rather appalling attempt at this challenge a few FMs back, but after a couple of successful saves in non-league football, I thought I'd give it another go. So here's Nobby Charlton (born on the day England won the World Cup!) who is the new manager of Chesham...

[Dons]

Burgess Hill Town
Season Update 2024/25

Championship
FInal Position 6th

Squad - Table - Transfers - Injuries - Finances - Profile - Dynamics - Board - Conf. Review - Season Review - Financial

A season comes to an end which was a funny season indeed. We struggled hugely in the first third of the season, being midtable at best. Second third we manged to get to 4th, a position we pretty much held until 5 games remained. At this point, we were really close to get that 2nd position with automatic promotion to the promised land. Last 5 games were 1 win, 1 draw and 3 losses seeing us finish in 6th place. In general stayed with same tactics, but tried to tweak them around.

Playoffs: We played Cardiff at home in the first leg and were comfortably ahead 3-0, until 78 min and again in 93rd minute ending the game 3-2. Away and in somewhat good spirit we lost 4-3 but managed to progress on penalties. In the final we were to play Crystal Palace. Despite complete domination game ended 2-2 and we lost 4-2 in overtime, making us miss out on all the sweet millions the magic Premier League would have given us.

Cups: We did well in the Carabao, all the way to quarter finals, where Man United beat us at home 1-0 and went on to win the cup. FA was a seemingly same outcome. In the 6th round we played Arsenal at home and lost 2-1, then Arsenal went on to win the competition.

Despite having board agree to upgrade facilities, this minor improvement seems to take 18 months. We will be looking forward to better facilities and the new stadium coming at the end of next season as well. We did get a couple of other upgrades happen. Data Analyst were upgraded twice, junior coaching and youth recruitment are to be upgraded. This years youth intake was decent, with Jack Branson being the top pick, and will look forward to hopefully seeing an improvement there next year. Scouting range where improved to continent, the few players i did try to get in, couldn't get permit however. Scouting knowledge is looking good.

Burnley decided to pay way too much for Sean Quigley with a record sale of 5.25kk. He enjoyed 9 appearances for the this season.

FM has blessed us with a new (atleast for me) feature yet again - with informing on players that they apparently also can get injured by being at home!

Noteworthy players of the season:

Alan Hayes GK - Bought for 6k from Cliftonville (and was recommended last season by a player) seems to become an interesting player for us.
Rasmus Mouritsen DC - Our finest product of all seasons youth intake is really starting to become the beast i had hoped for. Passing and tackling % of 82 in 34 appearances, and a great av. rating of 7.22 for a DC. Also got a great contract renewal.
Ian Manning DM - One of my favourite players, but think he is getting close to loosing his first choice option. Could use an improvement in midfield in general.
Riyad Mahrez IF - Performed well, but had hoped on greater impact. Looks good for another season.
Ricky Romain IF - Was sold in season 21/22 by board for 325K to Brentford. Released 2 years later without an appearance and naturally had to get him back in to see, if we can make a player of him.
Jason Beazeley IF/SC - was our overall best attacker and performed as expected.

Next seasons main aim besides the league, will be to try and thin the squad some and find midfield first team players.

Season              League              Position             FA Cup               Carabao Cup   EURO                 Checkatrade   FAT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25             Ch. Ship            6th                  6th round            Q.Final       NA                   NA            NA
2023/24             League One          1st                  3rd round            3rd round     NA                   Winner        NA
2022/23             League One          12th                 Semi Final           1st round     NA                   Semi Final    NA
2021/22             League Two          1st                  3rd round            2nd round     NA                   3rd round     NA
2020/21             Van. Nat.           1st                  4th round            NA            NA                   NA            Final
2019/20             Van. South          1st                  3rd round            NA            NA                   NA            2nd
2018/19             Van. South          2nd                  2nd round            NA            NA                   NA            Winner

 

[Warhawk]

Well, I'm in the Premier League.  Writeup to come later.

Nottingham Forest got relegated and they fired Ronaldo after less than 5 months on the job.  Lallana also got sacked by Luton who finished 24th in League 1 after 4 straight seasons in the top 8.

[QSF25]

Witton Albion 2019/2020

We reached playoffs but we were knocked out on the first round.

Decent position, we are getting close then. Hope next season we can get to play offs too or win it.

Season              League              Position             Cups               
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20             Van. North          7th                  
2018/19             Van. North          15th                  

 

[Faramir]

Our only midseason additon was another forward as injuries continued to mount among them. Ryan Pennery was brought on loan from Barnet and I wasn't expecting any great shakes- just another forward as I had to resort to playing a single forward setup in a couple of matches.

 

We played well for a good stretch to start the second half and then our defense completely collapsed from the beginning of March on as we yielded 25 goals in 10 matches and managed only 1 win and 1 draw against 8 losses to close out the season. Fortunately, we had accumulated enough points to pretty much ensure our survival against relegation and wound up in 16th place. Part of the problem was injuries to Deren Ibraham, but it was more due to extremely poor play from our centerbacks- especially Emmanual Omrore, who had been a rock for us up until this stretch.

 

Our offense continued to suffer as we finally got Jubril Adedji and Deccarey Sherriff back from injury, but lost Owen McCann- who really was our best player overall for the season- and then Zhenyu He to lengthy injuries. Our midfield play was very spotty and was also poor to finish out the season as we could pass the ball effectively. All in all I am happy we stayed up, but our poor finish showed we have some major adjustments to make during the summer. We do have a very young squad, so I am hopeful some of our issues were related to them needing to grow.

[Swindon69]

2024/24 Hereford FC

Championship

A quick mid -season review.

This season it's become painfully obvious that a reasonable number of my players are not good enough for this level - we've been far too inconsistent but are sitting in eighth. I'm going to have to have quite a clear out and the end of the season and rebuild - we're definitely not ready for promotion if our cup performances are anything to go by. At the end of next season we move into our new stadium (12k capacity).

 

[thomas_e]

A very dissapointing start to the pre season ahead of my first year in the Premier League.

We have 5 promotions in a row, getting straight from Vanarama South to the Premier League. Our "main kit sponsor" and "additional kit sponsor" deals were running out this season. I thought great, lets get some fresh revenue, we have had the same deal since League 2! 

What do I get? £228K a year, for a main sponsor for a Premier League team? What a joke...

[Swindon69]

I've just been offered £1 million for my first choice keeper - the cash would help but I don't know if I've got enough time to replace him, decision, decisions. In the end I accepted the £1.5 million.

[dkouv]

King’s Lynn dafuge Challenge
 

Season 5 – 2022/23 – League 1

Ah, League 1 – the purgatory of the English footballing pyramid, out of the LLM nether regions but without the big clubs of the top two leagues. Let’s see how we did in our first season here.

Transfers: Some absolutely bonkers offers for my decent-good, but not great players, and I buckled and sold two center mids right at the end of the window. A mad scramble for signings followed, which wasn’t that successful, so I ended up with quite a few loan players again. I resisted in January and largely kept the squad together. I actually tried to buy a few players rather than signing everyone on a free, but the clubs were asking for silly money, so no success there.

League: An awesome season. We were as dominant as in League 2, but against better teams – guess the gulf in quality wasn’t that large given that another promoted team, Bristol Rovers, qualified for the playoffs. A comfortable first place with 106 points, ad that after instant-resulting and losing the last several games.

FA Cup: Finally, an away tie to one of the PL’s big boys, Man City. We had to beat EPL stoke to get there, and almost knocked out City too, missing a penalty in a narrow 1-0 loss.

Carabao Cup: a good run beating Championship teams left, right and center before going out to ManU in Round 4. Seems like they shared gate receipts with us, surely this is a bug?

Checkatrade: Out In the North QF to Bolton, on penalties.

Best players: Again a newly signed striker Ashley Pope shone with 51 goals and 31 assists. But he wasn’t signed on loan, so I’m keen to see how he fares in the Championship next season. Regan Slater was a great signing in midfield, while Jeremy Munier – a youngster released by Man City – unexpectedly became a regular in defense.

Facilities: upgraded everything apart from youth facilities and stadium, and another training + youth upgrade is on the way

I am curious to see how our squad holds up in the Championship – I feel like I’m exhausting the “released by a British club” transfer option, but with hard Brexit I can’t sign any non UK-and-Irish players either, so recruitment is tough at the moment. I’ve upped my scouting range but not sure if it’s worth trying to get some players from the continent next season.

Season  |  League   | Pos.  |  FA Cup  | FA Trophy |  CL      |   EL       |  Top scorer        |  Top assists        |    Top rating        | Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |  Van Nth  |  5    |  R3      |  R1       |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Abioye (36)       |  Limb (17)          |    Limb (7.4)        | Lost in play-off final
2019/20 |  Van Nth  |  1    |  R3      |  won      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Obiero (34)       |  Hmami (18)         |    Doughty (7.8)     | Promoted
2020/21 |  Van Nat  |  1    |  R4      |  R4       |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Keaveny (48)      |  Keaveny (25)       |    Keaveny (7.9)     | Promoted
2021/22 |  League 2 |  1    |  R3      |  n/a      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Pashen (31)       |  Keaveny (18)       |    McDonagh (7.9)    | Promoted
2022/23 |  League 1 |  1    |  R4      |  n/a      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Pope (51)         |  Pope (31)          |    Pope (8.1)        | Promoted

Season  |  Finances  | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      | Coaching     |   Recruitment  | Stadium
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |   £82k     |  Poor          |  Poor           | Adequate     |   Limited      | 8200 
2019/20 |   £392k    |  Basic         |  Poor           | Average      |   Limited      | 8200 
2020/21 |   £447k    |  Below Average |  Basic          | Average      |   Basic        | 5700
2022/23 |   £1.5m    |  Adequate      |  Basic          | Adequate     |   Average      | 5700

 

[tremor]

Tooting & Mitcham United 2018-19 Season Overview

Much better and more successful season than my first attempt, promoted at the first time of asking, and in some style too. Went all out attack from the get-go and although we had a few wobbles and frustrating parts of the season we topped the league and were crowned champions with 5 games to go.

Personal:

Only managed to persuade the board to send me on one coaching badge, but for some reason they were happy to send everyone else on one... go figure. Not sure why i'm ranking up in GK training either as i'm not involved in that training at all.

Players:

3 stood out... all free signings although i've lost canavan and saunders in the off season, wouldn't resign even though Saunders was my top scorer and player of the season. Shame to lose Canavan too... his hair always made me smile

Finances:

Totally skint, up in the VNL with 14k wage budget and the club making a huge loss... this is the biggest threat for us this season. Really need a big cup run this year as the board had to inject a lot of cash last year even though i managed to keep within my budget.

Next season:

Desperately try to stabalise the club and not get relegated.

[QSF25]

En 3/12/2017 a las 4:58, DazRTaylor dijo:

Even though I am done with FM18, I read this thread every season.  I always attempt it but I lack the patience to carry it out.

That said, during my reloads from 24 June 2018 to 25 June 2018, I have had a number of "rare" sides receive promotion and I have saved these games and am making this post to share these save files with you all.  Please note, as @dafugestates in the OP, you will need to retire the Holiday Man manager and start your own.  The save files are ready to play and the in game date is 25 June 2018.  I have highlighted in bold, those teams I consider "rare".

Save One - Kettering Town, Billericay Town, Merthyr Town, Stalybridge Celtic, Dorking Wanderers, Altrincham.

Save Two - Kettering Town, Billericay Town, Kings Langley, Margate, Altrincham, Grantham Town.

Save Three - Tooting & Mitcham United, Billericay Town, Kettering Town, Basingstoke Town, Altrincham, Ashton United.

Save Four - Billericay Town, St. Ives Town, Bishop's Stortford, Altrincham, Dulwich Hamlet, Buxton.

Save Five - Kettering Town, Shaw Lane, Dulwich Hamlet, Tonbridge Angels, Hereford FC, Stalybridge Celtic

Save Six - Kettering Town, Mickleover Sports, Merthyr Town, Billericay Town, Lowestoft Town, Ashton United.

Save Seven - Billericay Town, Brightlingsea Regent, Kettering Town, Gosport Borough, Ashton United, Stalybridge Celtic.

Are these saves modified? im a bit skeptical about Dorking poping up with such a low rep.

[Warhawk]

Lancaster City

Sky Bet Championship 2023-2024

Year-End Update

Calendar

    

Competitions

Sky Bet Championship

This was our first season without any loaned players.  We made 6 acquisitions of consequence to the senior squad, all during the summer.  The offseason began when we arranged for two transfers to occur at the start of the transfer window, the first being Kola Okoro, a Nigerian right back who began his career as a star for the Enugu Rangers before joining Southampton for three years, which he spent in their youth system, only making 3 senior appearances but developing quite well.  He cost us $325k, less than Southampton paid for him.  The other acquisition we made at the opening of the transfer window, for $100k, was right midfielder Ryan Glover, originally with Bournemouth but most recently off a solid season with Barnet after spending a couple years in Sweden.  Our other acquisitions were on free transfers, beginning with central defender Harry Philby on July 1st.  We would be his 8th stint with 7 different teams (as he had returned to his original squad, Reading, for a season as well), most recently with Coventry.  On the 9th we would add another central defender, Kerr Waddell, who has spent all 8 of his years as a professional with Dundee, and had been solid despite inconsistent playing time with them.  Okoro, Philby, and Waddell would be key in our defensive revamp this season, as our defenders required the most upgrading when moving to Championship.  Also on the 9th we signed 19 year old striker Michael Boyd, formerly of Ballymena, a high potential player who could start right away, and on the 15th we signed 18 year old Phil Hoddle, another striker formerly with Chelsea, to be our first backup and rotational player behind Gillespie and Boyd.  We would only make two notable outgoing transfers during the season, with Arran Baucutt going to Barnsley on June 9th (he had asked for a new contract and his level of play did not merit it), and the aforementioned Hoddle moving to Swansea at the January deadline for $3.5 million (he would be replaced by James Young, who I had out on loan for the first half of the season).

Preseason went well with only two hiccups, a 3-2 loss at Bolton and a 2-1 loss at Bradford City, both matches where we out-shot our opponents and squandered second half leads.  In our first match, at Aston Villa, we were dominated, getting out-shot 22-3 and being lucky to only lose 1-0.  I was not optimistic about our chances in the league at this point, but I decided, instead of playing the defensive/counter type style which I assumed would be necessary for us to be competitive at this level, to go back to what had worked for me last season and in the preseason, a more aggressive attacking style.  Thus began the first of our two significant winning streaks, as we rattled off 7 wins in a row, moving us into first place at 7-0-1, which included an easy 3-1 victory over eventual 2nd place West Ham, a 4-0 drubbing of eventual 7th place QPR, a somewhat fortuitous 3-0 win over eventual playoff squad Brighton, and a 2-1 comeback victory over Wolves after conceding an own goal in just the 3rd minute.  Our goal scoring cooled off slightly over the next two months, but we still managed a 5-4-1 record in that span, and though we fell back to second place twice, we regained it in our next match each time.  This span included a 3-2 victory against Wigan where we found ourselves down 1-0 and then 2-1, and an odd 2-2 draw against Bristol City where both their goals and one of ours were scored on penalties.  It was after that match we went on our second winning streak of the season, which put us in a commanding position in the standings, once again winning 7 straight.  Strangely, each was by just one goal, and while 3 were comeback victories from a goal deficit, the other 4 all began with us taking a 2-0 lead and holding on to win 2-1.  While our form was a bit spottier from January on, and we lost 2 of our next 3 matches after that streak 3-1, with the lead we had built we could largely coast to promotion.  We would go 11-4-6 down the stretch.  It was ultimately our defense that fell apart a bit toward the end of the season, as we allowed multiple goals in 7 of our last 11 matches, something we had only done 8 times in our previous 35.  Despite our poor defensive form, we were still lethal on the offensive end, as evidenced by the fact that we scored multiple goals in 10 of those 11 matches down the stretch.  As the teams trailing us could really only seem to get together enough of a winning run to keep taking the second spot in the standings from each other before hitting a poor stretch, we didn't really have to sweat much, and our lead did not drop below 5 points as we locked up a playoff spot in early April, then clinched both promotion and the top spot with several games to spare, making us 2023-2024 Sky Bet Championship Champions.

Final Table

FA Cup

After a season where we made a run to at least the semifinals in all 3 cups, this season was a very different story.  There is unfortunately not much to tell, as we found ourselves in Old Trafford in just the 3rd round, losing 2-0 to Manchester United in a game which they absolutely dominated.

Carabao Cup

The Carabao Cup was a bit better than the FA Cup, but we still didn't come close to our success last season.  We kicked things off with a thorough 6-0 demolition of Mansfield, a squad which spent most of their season in the League 2 cellar, and only managed to avoid relegation with a win in their final league match (coincidentally, they won that match 6-0).  Following this, we came back from a 1-0 and 2-1 deficit against Wolves to win 3-2, just 3 days before we would come back to beat them in league play as well.  In the third round we were forced to play at Arsenal, and though we managed to hold firm to take a 1-0 lead into the half, we ended up falling apart late and lost 4-2.

Squad & Awards

We heavily relied on the goalscoring prowess of our two starting strikers, Ronnie Gillespie and Michael Boyd.  Boyd scored 27 goals in the league, tied for the best, among 29 overall, while Gillespie was 6th in the league with 21 goals, among 24 overall.  Boyd was also 3rd in minutes per goal, with Gillespie 13th.  No other player had double-digit goals, though Hoddle had 9 before he left in January, and Duffle and Iles had 6 and 5 respectively from the central midfield spot.  Gillespie broke his own club record with 18 assists, besting his mark last year by 1, while Boyd, Duffy, and Glover contributed 9, and Okoro had 8 from the right back position.  6 different midfielders plus Stimson all had at least 6 assists as well.  Savvas Mourgos led the team in average rating, with Gillespie close behind him.  We had 4 players in the top 17 in the league in average rating - Gillespie (3rd), Boyd (7th), Philby (11th), and Iles (17th).  Gillespie only had 6 Player of the Match awards this season, 8 fewer than last season, and he and Boyd just cracked the top 20 with 5 each in the league.  Gillespie and Glover were both in the top 5 in key passes, with Iles in the top 10, and Gillespie was tied for 2nd in chances created.  Gillespie and Boyd were both in the top 5 in shots taken, with Boyd second in shots on target.  On the defensive end, Philby and Waddell each ended up in the top 20 in tackles per game, key tackles (Philby was 2nd), key headers (Waddell was 8th), and interceptions.  Nick Hayes, though having only a middling 10 clean sheets, allowed the 4th fewest goals, playing in every match for us.

As a team, we scored the 2nd most goals with 94 (and the most if you don't count playoff goals, Norwich scored 100 of which 7 were in the playoff, which they won).  We conceded only the 8th fewest goals with 60 due to our poor defensive form down the stretch, and conceding just 3 fewer goals would have put us in 5th.  Our possession was pretty middling and our passing poor, but we completed the second most crosses and scored the second most goals from corners with 12, also adding 10 from free kicks, and were top 6 in both shots on target and shots on target ratio.  On defense we only allowed 10 goals from set pieces and were top 5 in tackles won ratio (and fouls, actually).

Again a solid looking youth intake with several players in that 4-star range, a striker named Scott Hargreaves looks like the most talented but a defender named Chris Atkinson looks like the most likely to develop into something useful with good personality attributes.

Our players (and myself as well) received a variety of awards, listed below.

Fans' & Manager's Player of the Season: Ronnie Gillespie

Fans' Signing of the Season: Harry Philby

Manager's Signing of the Season: Michael Boyd

Fans' & Manager's Young Player of the Season: Ronnie Gillespie

Sky Bet Championship Player of the Year: Ronnie Gillespie

EFL Young Player of the Year: Ronnie Gillespie

Sky Bet Championship Players' Select: Ronnie Gillespie, Michael Boyd, Ryan Glover, Kerr Waddell, Harry Philby, Kola Okoro

October Player of the Month: Ronnie Gillespie

Runner-Up for Player of the Month (Ronnie Gillespie, February)

Third Place for Player of the Month (Michael Boyd, September; Harry Philby, October)

August Young Player of the Month: Michael Boyd

September Young Player of the Month: Michael Boyd

December Young Player of the Month: Jake Iles

February Young Player of the Month: Ronnie Gillespie

March Young Player of the Month: Michael Boyd

Runner-Up for Young Player of the Month (Jake Iles, November; Michael Boyd, January)

Third Place for Young Player of the Month (Ronnie Gillespie, October & December; Phil Hoddle, November)

Manager of the Month (December)

Runner-Up for Manager of the Month (September)

Third Place for Manager of the Month (March)

Manager of the Season

 

State of the Club

From a financial perspective, the club had a loss of approximately $4.16 million last season.  Being in the Championship our TV revenue went up from approximately $1 million to over $3.8 million, but whereas last season we had nearly $4 million in prize money, this season we had only about $70k.  Our season ticket revenue doubled to about $1.8 million. We have again been given an increased payroll budget and transfer budget, currently at approximately $550k per week and $22.5 million, respectively.

With our promotion to the Premier League, our previous stadium expansion plans have been scrapped, and we are currently working on an upgrade to a 12,500 all-seat capacity which will be finished in late February, costing roughly $18 million and financed via a bank loan.  In the meantime we will be sharing Turf Moor with Burnley.

I finished studying for my Continental Pro license.

Our average attendance for the season was 4,989, lowest in the league but just 11 below our 5,000 capacity.  We had 22 sellouts.  We played in front of a crowd of over 50,000 in our Carabao Cup loss at Arsenal, and nearly 75,000 in our FA Cup loss at Manchester United.

My goals for the upcoming season are as follows:

• Avoid Relegation
• Reach the FA Cup 5th Round
• Reach the third round of the Carabao Cup

 

Season	 League				Finish  	Achievements
2018-19	 Vanarama North			7th     	Playoffs
2019-20	 Vanarama North			1st     	Champions; FA Trophy Finalist
2020-21	 Vanarama National		1st     	Champions; FA Trophy Winners
2021-22  Sky Bet League Two		1st     	Champions; Checkatrade Trophy Winners
2022-23  Sky Bet League One		2nd     	Promotion; Checkatrade Trophy Semifinalist; Carabao Cup Semifinalist; FA Cup Finalist
2023-24  Sky Bet Championship    	1st		Champions

[Warhawk]

Biggest acquisition of the offseason so far, paid Dortmund what'll end up being $5.75 million out of my $22 million or so transfer budget, and a contract at $44k per week, for this guy, Reinhold Schneider, 21 year old Austrian who Dortmund bought a year ago for over $7 million then only played in 5 league games even though he played pretty well in them.

Only knock on him in my coach's reports is that he can't jump.  90% fan satisfaction the the transfer, 100% board satisfaction.

[13-gigi]

En ‎09‎/‎12‎/‎2017 a las 12:57, Swindon69 dijo:

Hereford FC

2023/24 - League 1 1st

Well an interesting season - I had a fairly large clear out with the departing players having accumulate over 800 appearances and scoring over 150 goals between them. We started off fairly poorly and it looked like my initial expectation of a bottom half of the table finish was looking about right as we won five drew 1 and lost four of our opening ten games. At this point I tweaked things and from that point lost five of the remaining thirty six winning twenty four of them. The title was only secured on the penultimate round of games. The overall financial position of the club is a bit iffy because when I signed a player I hadn't picked up on the 35% wage rise on promotion and it was only when I was checking out some details I noticed that the effect of that over two seasons was that he was on £10k a week! I also turned down a bid of £650k for my goalkeeper as the offer came in at the last minute on deadline day.

Aims for next season - don't get relegated.

The four players I primarily used up front scored 80 goals between them this season with Harvey Bradbury getting 29.

FA Cup - 5th round

I had my first cup run this season which included beating Arsenal 3-1 at home in the 4th round. I then travelled to Manchester City in the 5th round and suffered a creditable 1-3 defeat, at least the money improved my financial position.

Carabao Cup - 2nd round

Not much to say here as I got beaten 1-2 at home by West Brom in the second round.

Checkatrade Trophy - Winners

I made it through to the Final with a few decent results - I played Man Utd u23 (hah) in the final, going behind in the 3rd minute I pulled 2-1 ahead, at this point I was awarded a penalty which we missed. Wih the clock showing 90 mins I conceded the equaliser to it has to be said a good finish by the £67 million pound 28 year old Portuguese International (88 caps 65 goals) Andre Silva. So on to the penalty shootout with Hereford going first. Flitcroft took the first penalty and I think NASA are still looking for the ball  - the shootout went on quite a while but my young fullback Sanders netted the winner.

My top scorer overall for the season was Harvey Bradbury with thirtynine

The highest average rating was Felix Nmecha with 7.42

I am now a club legend.

End of season club awards

Congrats on your achievement @Swindon69

Looking forward to your maiden season in Championship

 

[Thebaker]

Well done on promotion @Swindon69

[thomas_e]

 

Season review 2022-2023

 

My fifth season with Billericay, 2022-2023 season, and our first in the Championship. After four straight promotions we were able to keep our progression and got promoted straight to the Premier League. 5 straight promotions, what lies ahead in the Premier League?

Season overview

Sky Bet Championship

A long pre season where I spent a lot of time thoroughly looking for new talent. Some good players indeed, especially on loan, where I got some good youngsters from top PL clubs. Renewing the contracts of key players like Sambou and Dilrouson was important, as well as signing last years loanee Masterson on a free transfer, which gave my defence a boost, being able to bring in another loanee in that position.

We startet the season really well with wins over Sunderland (A) and Fulham (H) and the team cohesion was surprisingly strong even though I'd brought in a lot of new players. To be fair, we never looked back after our good start. We lost 2-3 against Ipswich away, but then we didn't loose again until May, recording only two losses in the league. 35 wins, 9 draws and 2 losses gave me 114 points and a goal difference of +63. 

Cups

We made it to the 4th round in the Carabao Cup, beating Charlton, Watford and Swindon. We got West Brom in the 4th round, but lost 1-3 at home in a very poor game. 

In the FA Cup we got Arsenal away in the third round. A crushing 1-5 loss at the Emirates, and our cup runs ended premature.. 

 

Key Players

 

Finances and transfer history

 

Next season

I was really surprised that the season ended as well as it did. Only a couple of weeks before the start of the season I was nervous about going down, we were probably lacking 5-6 first team starters. Luckily we got the players that we needed in the end, but I fear that will be tougher in the Premier League, as our finances are so far behind the other teams it will be tough to attract players on the salaries I can offer. As i said in an earlier post here we have around £350k in total sponsorship revenue our first season in the Premier League, and these are deals that were signed after our promotion! 

As I understand the rules we can only bring in two players from the UK on loan, and after Brexit we will struggle to get international players on loan. 

I probably have to bring in 10-12 players. Lets see how we do, our main goal is obviously to survive! 

 

Season  |        League         | Position  |      FA Cup     | Checkatrade Trophy | Carabao Cup |     
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018-19 |  Vanarama South       |    1st    |     4th round   |      1st round     |             |
2019-20 |  Vanarama National    |    1st    |     3rd round   |      2nd round     |             |
2020-21 |  Sky Bet League Two   |    1st    |     3rd round   |      2nd round     |  1st Round  |
2021-22 |  Sky Bet League One   |    1st    |     3rd round   |      3rd round     |  3rd Round  | 
2021-22 |  Sky Bet Championship |    1st    |     3rd round   |                    |  4th Round  | 

 

 

[Swindon69]

From wonderkid at Real Madrid to to 23rd in the Championship.