[FM20] Dundalk FC

[Cuomo10]

I usually tend to start a save where I start unemployed and build from there but Ive changed my dynamic for FM20.

Welcome to my Dundalk FC journey!

They have dominated domestically winning 5 of the last 7 League titles and also secured a spot in the Europa League Group stages a couple of seasons ago.

My aim is simple; continue to dominate domestically and become a threat in Europe. Im not placing any restrictions on who I can bring in and want freedom with this save.

Please Note: I began this save around 3 game weeks ago

 

Clubs Vision which is clear that I need to win the league. As they won the league last season, we will be enjoying CL football later in the season and although I not expecting too much in terms of progression, financially it will be great and enable me to improve our youth set up and training facilities in good time.

 

This is the tactic that I will be using. There will be some adaption over time with positional roles but this is my foundation.

 

Here is my squad. A little light in the middle so added Oakley-Boothe from Tottenham on loan but need another DM and might try to bring another striker in. Plenty of options at the back and outwide so good competition for places.

 

 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Good luck Cuomo.

[Cuomo10]

Pre Season went as well as expected and all of the squad are match fit and ready for the season

Ive brought in 2 players on loan, both centre mids. 

Jack Clarke from Villa comes in. He's an Irish lad and will fit into the system well

 

Tashan Oakley-Boothe also arrives to bolster our central midfielders

 

On to the season...

[Cuomo10]

2 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Good luck Cuomo.

Cheers, Nobby

[Cuomo10]

The first 2 months have been played and its been a positive start. Unbeaten in 9 games with 7 wins and 8 clean sheets. We should have picked up more than 1 point in the 2 0-0 draws as we dominated both games

Despite our unbeaten run we're currently 3rd but will go top if we win our game in hand

We picked up our first piece for silverware by beating Cork in the President's Cup, 3-0

Our starting 11 have been playing well, in particularly the defenders and DM who are all averaging over 7.00. McEleney looks a good player and his 5 goal return from playing on the right wing is pleasing as is the performances of Georgie Kelly up front. The 2 loanees are yet to find their feet fully. Oakley-Boothe has feature more due to Clarke picking up a couple of minor injuries already. 

[Cuomo10]

A total of 8 games in April - a busy month!

6 of the 8 games were away from home and we remain unbeaten, scoring freely and keeping it tightish at the back. We are dominating possession and creating a lot of chances.

The 1-0 win over Shamrock was key as it meant we leapfrogged them into 1st place

Patrick Hoban had a great month bagging 8 goals in 7 starts, and McEleney continues to impress adding a further 3 goals and 4 assists in his last 7 games. There has been quite a few solid performers throughout the squad and the depth is evident looking at the spread of appearances. 

One thing is for sure and we're bleeding money at the minute. The wage bill is almost £90k a month with most of the month spent on the road, no real revenue has come in. I am not in any rush to trim the squad down but there are a couple of players who arent quite cutting it.

From a youth perspective, there isnt any one noteworthy and im looking forward to the youth intake later in the season with the hope of a decent prospect or 2 coming through.

Edited November 19, 2019 by Cuomo10
Added information

[Cuomo10]

We entered into May securing 2 awards; Manager of the Month and Player of the Month (McEleney came 2nd)

 

Another solid month where we remain unbeaten. We let slip a 2-0 lead against Waterford but bounced back in with 2 wins against Shamrock in 2 different cup competitions. We followed this up with 4 wins in the league

We have stretched our lead at the top to 6 points and a big 15 points clear of 3rd place.

McEleney has been excellent from the right wing. 13 goals and 6 assists in 20 games; he's also the leagues top scorer. 

 

[Cuomo10]

Not a bad draw considering some of the teams that were about

Still a few weeks away until the first leg with Valletta

[Cuomo10]

Just 3 competitive games in June so I organised a couple of friendlies too. We experienced our first loss of the season in the Leinster Senior Cup Final against St Pats. We were comfortable with a 1-0 lead but 5 minutes of craziness led to us conceding 2 goals from goalkeeping errors. 

We were victorious in our 2 league games, including a 3-1 win against our closest rivals, Shamrock. We are now 12 points clear at the top.

McEleney continues to be our star player but Dean Jarvis has put in some good performances recently and also collected the goal of the month award for May; I also retained the Manager of the Month award too.

I spent some time reviewing the squads contracts, although we are within our wage budget, we are spending too much on wages (£100k per month for players and staff) versus gate receipts and other income. I like to keep control of this and despite the income that will be coming in from the European Competitions, I dont want to rely on this to balance the books as I want to use this elsewhere in the club to develop our Youth setup and facilities. 

Ive set 3 players for release at the end of the season which will free up around £8k a month and Ive renegotiated some contracts with players that I am keeping and managed to reduce the wages by a further £4k a month.

Staff will be reviewed at the end of the season to cut some costs as well.

The new Youth Intake preview is a great new feature given you some insight of the players who will be appearing during the intake. Will be interesting to see how this compares on the day.

[Cuomo10]

Hit a bug which is really disappointing. Having played in the First Qualifying round, we did not receive any prize/appearance money. Ive looked through the rules section in the competiton details and prize money only begins at the Group Stages, which is incorrect. I have checked the rules for the Europa League and prize money is given from the preliminary rounds.

I located a thread for this in the forums but as yet it does not seem that a fix is in place.

This is a massive issue and unfortunatley will effect progression. I dont know any way around this other than taking over at another club, who have money, and selling a player who is surplus to requirements. So frustrating

Has anyone else encountered this issue in their save?

 

[Cuomo10]

July started with my 3rd Manager of the Month award on the bounce, but also coincided with back to back defeats in the league.

We followed up the Cup Final loss to St Pats with another loss against St Pats in the league; our first loss in the league. It didnt take long to notch our second which came against Waterford in our very next league match.

Despite these 2 losses, it was a successful, but also frustrating month. Successful due to the 12-0 aggregate win over Valletta, and a 2-0 aggregate victory over APOEL (we've got FC Copenhagen in the next round) but frustrating due to not receiving the prize money for the appearances in the 2 rounds! This is a massive issue with a save like this as this money is key to progressing and developing the club. Suppose im glad to have found this out during the first season rather than having invested more time to have experienced the same conclusion. I suppose there is a work around, but I dont like it...

Anyway.

Shamrock have managed to pull 3 points back on us meaning our lead at the top is 9 points - still healthy.

Im very happy with performances from virtually all of the squad. It really has been a team effort so far as 15 of the 17 players on view below have featured in at least 20 games this season. Hoban bagged 5 goals this month, all in the CL whilst Duffy and Kelly bagged 3 apiece.

Jarvis has caught McEleney up in the highest Av Rating race with both at 7.36

We picked up a couple of injuries in defence through the end of last month and this month so I decided to bolster the defence with Marc Guehi from Chelsea

[Cuomo10]

Drama over...

[Cuomo10]

We continued to dominate domestically and reached the League Cup Final after beating Waterford 5-2. Our CL run came to an end after defeat to FC Copenhagen who proved to be too strong for us. We gained entry into the 4th Qual Rnd of the Europa League and thanks to a 3-0 first leg win at home, ensured we progressed to the Group Stages!

After worrying about the prize money situation, we've generated almost £4m through prize money, TV money and gate receipts which has helped massively.

We've maintained our 9 point lead over Shamrock but we also have a game in hand

We're in Group A along with Sevilla, Gent and Torino. A tough group but it always was going to be. 

The strong performances continue throughout the squad and we're going to need it as the fixtures are becomming more congested and the starting 11 is being heavily rotated to keep as many players fresh and match sharp as possible.

My Youth Intake will be appearing soon and im looking forward to see who my HoYD brings in...

[Cuomo10]

We beat Bray in extra time to secure the League Cup and are also in the Semi's of the Senior Challenge Cup. We were 1-0 down when we got a player sent off after 18 mins against Sevilla and a tough task was made even tougher where eventually lost 4-0. 

2 draws and a win in the league means that our lead at the top has been reduced to 5 points but we still have a game in hand. 

 

Mixed reactions with the Youth Intake. Jake Moore looks a decent prospect and there are a couple of others who may reach a steady standard. Interesting to see a lad from Gibraltar in my intake. Not quite sharing the same opinion of an excellent intake from what was pre-advised

 

Squad details below and still performing well despite some poorer performances in the last 5 games.

[Cuomo10]

Champions! Very happy to have won the league, Shamrock ended the season very strongly but we managed to keep 4 points between us.

I decided to complete the rest of the season to post the final update. October started badly with 3 losses and despite losing to Shamrock in the league, we won our other 3 games. There was a lot of rotating to be done as fixtures were close together and needed to keep all of the squad as fresh as possible. We collected 4 trophies this season and finished runner up in another.

We experienced some positive results in the Europa League; a late Torino winner at home stopped us from picking up a point and we collected 4 points from the 2 games against Gent, including a 4-1 win in Belgium.

 

I collected the Manager of the Year accolade but maybe suprisingly, none of my players collected any of the individual awards. We did however have 6 players in the Team of the Season. McCarey GK, Boyle and Cleary DC, Murray and McEleney in Midfield and Hoban up front.

Due to our European adventures, our finances are in a healthy position. It also helped that for our home ties in the Europa League, we played them at the Aviva Stadium and this contributed to an extra £600k 

With the extra funds we've increased our Junior Coaching (Youth Coaching was already at an Excellent standard)

 

Some performances decreased towards the end of the season, maybe the number of fixtures took its toll and the high levels were difficult to maintain. Now I have a batter understanding of what could potentially come fixture wise if we have a successful European campaign, strength in depth is key. A couple of players will be leaving and I have my eye on a few players that I am wanting to bring in to add some extra qualty and competiton for places.

I will also be blooding a couple of the youngsters next season, none more than Jake Moore who bagged 9 in 6 U19 games since coming through the Intake

 

[Cuomo10]

Pre Season 2020

Next season's vision, more of the same required.

A straight forward pre season. Plenty of goals, tight at the back and all of the squad match fit and ready to go

4 players arrive and 2 depart, 1 of which is on loan. 

We're light in midfield so we have brought Jack Clarke back on loan until the Summer transfer window as his contract is expiring at Villa. I intend to try and make this permanent

17 year old Jamie Hamilton joins us from...Hamilton. A good DC prospect and will get a fair bit of game time this season

Leif Davis has been brought in on loan from Leeds and will offer a very good option at LB as both Jarvis and Massey have declined ability wise

Christoffer Mafoumbi joins on loan from Blackpool and will claim the starting GK spot this season. He too is out of contract in the summer and it was cheaper to loan him than buy at this stage. Another one that I intend to sign permanently when his contract is up

 

I have added another formation to work along side the 4-1-2-3. I am also running a 4-2-3-1 due to the lack of DM/MC options and we have good wingers and AMC. It mirrors the approach of the 4-1-2-3 just more attacking with the DM being moved up to AMC.#

A couple of the players that I was targetting in central positions either cost too much or wanted a high wage. I will continue to spend time scouting the right players I want for my central roles. Another DM is required and may look to loan rather than buy if the right deal isnt available.

[Cuomo10]

Feb & Mar 2020

We retained the Presidents Cup and made a strong start to the league season by winning 6 and drawing 1. The 11-1 win against Maynooth in the Leinster Senior Cup was our record win but was quickly forgotten when we were knocked out against Shelbourne who are bottom of the league with 1 point...

Early victories against Shamrock and Bohemians put us 3 points clear with a game in hand at this early stage.

A lot of strong performances so far with Michael Duffy starting the season on fire with 6 goals and 2 assists in 6 games. Jamie Hamilton looks to be a very good signing with some good performances so far and McEleney is picking up from where he was last season

[Cuomo10]

April & May 2020

It was a poor start to April as we lost to Waterford 2-1 in the league, but we bounced back by going 14 unbeaten and 12 wins coming from those 14 wins.

We've opened up an 11 point lead at the top

Duffy has been our strongest players so far this season with 10 goals and 9 assists in 17 games. Benson has been quality as well from midfield and has bagged 9 in 22.

Jake Moore (YP1A) has been getting his share of the action up front. He is progressing really well and my coaches continue to rave on about his development. Ive got high hopes for hs future

 

Just 1 competitive game in June so will arrange a couple of friendlies. Im also eyeing up a couple of players who are out of contract soon who will add depth and quality to the squad.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Cuomo10
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[Nobby_McDonald]

Going very well Cuomo.

[Cuomo10]

Cheers Nobby

[Cuomo10]

June & July 2020

Just the one competitive game in June and that was a 3-0 league win. I arranged some friendlies to keep the squad match fit. We started July with a 1-0 loss against 3rd placed Shamrock but we had excellent performances and results in the CL qualifiers. 8-0 on aggregate against KuPS and a 9-1 aggregate win against Red, including a 6-1 away win. We face Celtic in the next round so will be interesting to see how get on against them.

We also drew 0-0 against St Pats in the league which has meant that our lead at the top is now 6 points. Bohemians have been in good form and it is they that we face in our next game

Benson has been immense this season, 28 games and 14 goals. MIchael Duffy has also been in fine form this with 12 goals and 14 assists in 24. Jake Moore is developing well and has 5 in 10 starts, and 30 in 22 for the U19's. Patrick Hobans contract is coming to an end, and Moore may be my main striker next season with Kelly in support.

Jack Clarke was initially only on a 6 month loan as his contract was expiring, I was targetting him on a free but Villa offered him another year so we had to loan him on a fresh deal, for 12 months this time. Mafoumbi makes his move official to the club and we signed young CB Connor Johnson from Wolves on a free. We also brought in Glenn Whelan who despite being 36 and only being able to walk, still has a fair bit to offer

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by Cuomo10
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