CMU Chips Posted January 6, 2021 Share Posted January 6, 2021 Season 13 - Championship - 4th (lost in playoff final - penalties) We didn't get any better but most teams were worse. Last year we were 7th on 75 points, this year 4th on 76. We made the playoff final; a fairly boring affair until our injured RM came on in extra time and got a straight red almost immediately. No one scored and we went to penalties, we had 2 missed penalties and that was it. Our leading assist man will be departing this summer. He had another good year, but the straight red in the final (his 7th straight red in 202 games) and his increased wage demands mean it's time to move on. We are also letting one of our most frequently used CBs depart. I'm considering a tactical change again this summer but it will depend on who is available for us to sign. If we ever do get promoted I'll post a full squad update, for now here are the usual things League Table - Squad Stats - Transfers - Year League Position Cups Training Youth Junior Recruitment Attendance (Cap) Badges Transfers (In-Out) Top Scorer Most Assists Av. Rating Clean Sheets May balance Total wages 2033/2034 Championship 4th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Average Good Exceptional Average 5896 (5905) Continental Pro 5 - 2 (+£559k) Scott Wilson - 26 (26) Jeremy Myers - 11 (12) Scott Wilson - 7.21 (44) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 20 (20) £2.68m £91k p/w 2032/2033 Championship 7th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Adequate Average Exceptional Adequate 5398 (5405) Continental Pro 10 - 6 (+£9.25m) Ash Moseley - 36 (36) Scott Wilson - 15 (15) Ash Moseley - 7.40 (42) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 7 (7) £1.59m £73k p/w 2031/2032 Championship 11th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Adequate Average Exceptional Adequate 5399 (5405) Continental Pro 6 - 9 (+£550k) Ash Moseley - 27 (28) Scott Wilson - 11 (12) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 7.24 (46) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 7 (7) £2.54m £69k p/w 2030/2031 Championship 10th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Adequate Average Exceptional Adequate 5399 (5405) Continental Pro 10 - 6 (+£231k) Pat Daws - 27 (27) Scott Wilson - 14 (14) Scott Wilson - 7.31 (34) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 12 (12) £1.88m £74k p/w 2029/2030 Championship 14th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Below Average Below Average Good Adequate 5345 (5405) Continental Pro 12 -5 (£240k) Pat Daws - 34 (34) Jeremy Myers - 12 (12) Pat Daws - 7.33 (44) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 8 (8) £350k £66k p/w 2028/2029 League One 4th FA - 1st round, Carabao - 1st round Basic Basic Adequate Adequate 4900 (5405) Continental Pro 10 - 3 (+£1.5m+) Harry Warwick - 25 (25) Scott Wilson - 10 (10) Harry Warwick - 7.34 (43) Gavin Mullins - 17 (17) £635k £33.3k p/w 2027/2028 League Two 2nd FA - 2nd round, Carabao - 2nd round Basic Basic Average Adequate 3055 (5405) Continental A 13 - 9 (+£327k) Scott Wilson - 29 (29) Harry Warwick - 11 (11) Harry Warwick - 7.28 (48) Luke Bell - 14 (15) £247k £21.3k p/w 2026/2027 Vanarama National 1st FA - 1st round, FAT - 4th round Basic Basic Average Adequate 1935 (4155) Continental A 11 - 5 (+£14.5k) Scott Wilson - 42 (44) Harry Warwick - 16 (16) Scott Wilson - 7.44 (48) Luke Bell - 17 (17) £284k £14.8k p/w 2025/2026 Vanarama National 6th FA - 4th qual., FAT - Quarter Final Basic Basic Average Adequate 1721 (4155) Continental A 17 - 8 (+£9.5k) Harry Warwick - 40 (44) Scott Wilson - 16 (17) Harry Warwick - 7.34 (52) Tom Smith - 14 (14) £220k £11.6k p/w 2024/2025 Vanarama National 14th FA - 3rd round, FAT - 4th round Basic Basic Adequate Adequate 1871 (4500) Continental A 14 -2 (£10.25k) Harry Warwick - 32 (38) I don't know, this is bugged Jamie Harrop - 7.34 (38) Tom Smith - 12 (14) £200k £9.2k p/w 2023/2024 Vanarama South 1st FA - 3rd round, FAT - 2nd round Basic Poor Average Adequate 1200 (4500) Continental B 6 - 5 (£0) Harry Warwick - 44 (48) Charles Sagoe - 15 (17) Harry Warwick - 7.41 (50) Tom Smith - 19 (23) £88k £7.4k p/w 2022/2023 Vanarama South 5th FA - 2nd round, FAT - 4th round Basic Poor Average Adequate 1310 (4500) Continental C 15 - 6 (+£26k) Connor Hall - 15 (Powell - 23) Jesse Starkey - 11 (12) Aarran Racine - 7.49 (44) Tiernan Parker - 5 (5) £138k £6.2k p/w 2021/2022 Vanarama South 7th FA - 1st round, FAT - 3rd round Basic Poor Average Adequate 1123 (4500) National B 14 - 4 (£0) Euan Pollock - 26 (34) Jesse Starkey - 10 (11) Aarran Racine - 7.48 (51) Tiernan Parker - 20 (23) £14k £5.1k p/w Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crowy Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 MANAGER PROFILE | SEASON PREVIEW So I had a good attempt at The Ultimate FM Challenge last year, due to working nights and only getting 1/2 nights off a week I'm looking at a quicker paced challenge this year. I've decided to go with Grantham Town and let's see how it goes... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 Scarborough Athletic Season Review 2023-24 Another really good season, had a few issues with injuries but we seemed to be able to plug gaps with some free transfers and a couple of good loanees towards the end of the season. It definitely feels like this years FM is very much all about high energy 442... almost like an oldschool throwback. It seems that we came out of the blocks like a house on fire and people just couldn't handle the relentless attacking nature of our play, although i did find it weird that the board questioned my tactics in a mid-season review and asked that i play more defensive and direct football... i ignored them and we won the league comfortably. A few of the new signings i picked up free in the summer should make the transition to league 1 but i will need to really sieve that free market again in the summer, good players defiitely seeming harder to come by now and our relative size is making that more of an issue... finding that players don't want to come on loan even though their clubs are happy to. Either way... things in a very good/stable place and looking up.... young squad developing, young staff also developing... ship shape for the seadogs! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 7, 2021 Author Share Posted January 7, 2021 Met Police - Premier League - 2034/35 After qualifying for the Champions League again, we were setting our sights on doing it again and possibly winning a domestic cup. League Table - once again, our late season form saw us creep un into 3rd. UEFA Super Cup - it's just a friendly, but winning this felt huge. League Cup - this was the cup I thought we could win, but Man City had other ideas. FA Cup - a real shock here as we threw away a penalty shootout. UEFA Champions League - we had some flashes of brilliance, the final being one of those. Squad - we are maybe a bit weak on strikers, but the squad is fantastic. Transfers - just three replacements, but one of them was an expensive striker. Finances - the Champions League win has made a huge difference. Key Player Profiles: Miguel Luís - not the most amazing season, but still our top scorer. Juan Flores - right wing was a problem position for us, now it's our strongest. Vagner Gabriel - one of a number of great centre backs. Career Overview: Season League Position Achievements ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2021/22 National League South 14th 2022/23 National League South 1st Promoted as champions 2023/24 National League 14th 2024/25 National League 7th 2025/26 National League 2nd Promoted via playoffs 2026/27 League Two 7th Promoted via playoffs 2027/28 League One 6th 2028/29 League One 1st Promoted as champions 2029/30 Championship 2nd Promoted 2030/31 Premier League 14th 2031/32 Premier League 7th 2032/33 Premier League 4th 2033/34 Premier League 5th Europa League winners 2034/35 Premier League 3rd League cup finalists, Champions League winners Next Season: I really think we could challenge for the title, but I'm not sure my squad rotation policy is getting the best out of our players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adineen98 Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 Back with Scarborough Athletic again Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 (edited) Scarborough Athletic Season Review 2024-25 All in all a great year, I find that the standard of leagues 1 and 2 are often very similar, so with a few extra additions to our squad we were able to just continue straight onwards, we had a big wobble in the middle of the Autumn, lots of draws and a few loses but managed to hit the front again by Christmas. We had a couple of our best players poached over the January transfer window which was a blessing in disguise, it put over a million in the bank and we managed to replace them with similar (maybe a bit better even...) players for a fraction of the price which allowed me to secure longer term contracts for some of our really key players with the extra funds. This kept our morale high and i think encouraged us to round out the season by winning the league with a record points hall and getting ourselves promoted to the championship... We didn't do nearly as well in the cups this year which meant the funds raised were a lot lower... it was particularly gutting to go out in the first round of the FA cup to Yeovil from the VNL, although i think that having a lighter playing schedule really helped in that mid-season crush of games. Looking at the teams we are competing with next season I think we'll be lucky to stay up and it will be a real test of character for the lads, we've got a really young team too which i guess is what comes when you pick up all of the youth scraps that are cast off by the prem sides. I'm hoping that this policy can keep us up this year and continue to provide us with a very healthy positive transfer budget where we are always making more than we spend which allows us to offer bigger wages to entice better free transfers and keep our best players. I'm still really concerned that the board won't negotiate on their preferred tactical philosophy... they are still insisting that i play defensive, counterattacking, direct football which is really frustrating when we have had successive promotions from the VNN up to the Championship in consecutive seasons playing a gegenpress, hightempo, shortpassing, attacking system that is clearly working really well. I'm hoping that when things become sticky this season that isn't held against me. Try as i might, they won't budge on it, to the point that they suggested that they might remove me from my post if i didn't agree to it. (This seems a LOT less flexible this year, maybe it's just Scarborough but i haven't been able to change a single thing at a single club vision meeting which strikes me as really odd/unrealistic) This also strikes me as weird, that I didn't win manager of the season, instead it went to the Wycombe boss who got his side promoted via the play-offs... maybe that's just me being a bad loser. Edited January 8, 2021 by tremor 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 I've just seen that "Kyle Wison" has scored for Linlithgo Rose this afternoon. Unfortunately he is not the same Kyle Wilson better known as "Super Kyle", by users of this thread many moons ago. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dons Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 Needham MarketPremier League Season 33/34 Squad - Table - Transfers - Finances - Profile - Injuries - Accolades - Financial Overview - Data Report - Moments to Remember - Season to Remember - Financial Report - Club Info Scouting knowledge - PRM Profits - PRM Wages - PRM Wages Turnover - PRM Youth Development - World Development - PRM Commercial Income - PRM Matchday Income - PRM Transfers Spend Third season in the PRM saw us finishing as champions, closely followed by Man City. Our goal difference was only beaten by Liverpool, who amazed an amazing 101. The suprise of the season was Man Utd, who finished 9th. Despite their poor position, they ended up being our boogey team. 2nd last game of the season, we got revenge on Man Utd, as a 1-0 game had us at advantage on pts vs Man City. On the final game, we could take the title with a draw. We played Everton at home and beat them 3-0, finishing 3 pts ahead of Man City. Swayed some way off our usual 4-5-1 and played most of the season 4-2-4. This resulted in some high scoring games, and also some games where we let too many goals in, but with the current squad it would be wasteful not playing with 4 up front. The cups were great. The FA was the most disappointing, where we lost to Man Utd 1-0 in the 5th round at home. The game before we played Liverpool in the Carabao Final, where we also lost 1-0. In the EURO we managed to overcome some great opponents including PSG who we beat 2-1 away and drew 4-4 at home. We played Dortmund in the Semi Final and repeated the Qtr Final as we beat them 1-0 away and drew 0-0 at home. The Final had us play Rangers, which was a 6-2 walkover. 13 seasons into the game, and we could lift our first cup trophy. We also ended up with 8 players in the EURO best 11. A few of the former greatest were leaving this season. Juan Pablo da Silva went to Villa for 19,5mill + fees. Damian Hazeldine went to Man Utd for 19,5mill + potential 10,5mill. Jerrome Champion went to Leicester for 14,5mill + fees and finally Emmanuel Bello to Watford for 14,75mill. On club level we are seeing an expansion to the stadium, which will let us have 31,198 spectators. We have been granted an improved youth rating, increasing us to 2, as well as increased youth recruitment. The 11 best pick on positions for the season: GK - Joel Freeman. Needless to say, still a star in my book. Won the Golden Glove. DR - Grant Kindlan. 9 assists as FB. DC - Lawrence Lawal. Recently capped as English National. DC - Victor Lindenberg. Also had his first cap for Brazil. DL - Matthew Carter. Been playing both as FBL/FBR. Versatile and also capped at national level. MC - Niko Badelj. 21 years old and 25 caps. Doesn't seem like he will improve further, but great on the midfield. MC - Don Hussain. New signing from Celtic for 31.5mill. 2 caps for Scotland this season. With his stats, he is our own Pirlo. Have great hopes for this one. IFR - Daniel Ellis. Had quite a few injuries this season. Contributed with 4 goals and 9 assists in the league. IFL - Valdir. Future world star player. 11 goals and 12 assists in the league. By far our best midfielder. Offered him a new contract, which was rejected by his agent. Valdir sacked his agent and signed a contract. Loved it. SC - Owen Kelly. Should become a national next season. Didn't have the best of seasons. 10 goals and 5 assists in the league. Rejected a 118mill bid from Dortmund. SC - Tony Ellis. Our star striker. Won his first national debut this season. Only 16 goals in the league, but 18 in cups and a total of 10 assists. He won EURO Cup Player of the Season. IFR/SC - Louis Marques. Became our wonder youth player and had an amazing run in the cups. A total of 22 goals and 17 assists. He won EURO Cup Golden Boot, just ahead of Tony Ellis. Season League Position Ch.Leag Eu.Leag FA Cup Car. Cup PJT FAT 33-34 PRM 1st * Winner 5th rnd Final * * 32-33 PRM 6th * * Final S.Final * * 31-32 PRM 12th * * 5th rnd 4th rnd * * 30-31 CH 1st * * S.Final Q.Final * * 29-30 CH 6th * * 4th rnd 4th rnd * * 28-29 CH 10th * * 5th rnd 4th rnd * * 27-28 L1 1st * * 5th rnd 2nd rnd S.Final * 26-27 L1 3rd * * 4th rnd 2nd rnd 2nd rnd * 25-26 L2 1st * * 5th rnd 2nd rnd Q.Final * 24-25 L2 5th * * 2nd rnd 2nd rnd Final * 23-24 VN 1st * * 2nd rnd * * Final 22-23 VN 10th * * 3rd rnd * * S.Final 21-22 VNN 3rd * * 1st rnd * * Q.Final Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dons Posted January 9, 2021 Share Posted January 9, 2021 This quickly became too interesting. After several years of potential takeovers, it became a reality. Paul Scally was ready to step down. 2 different investors, with Tony Bloom and Dominic Connor as potential chairmen. Bloom stating, he would replace the manager and Connor favouring the current manager. Tony Bloom won the bid... Luckily, he decided not to replace me.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 So I am back again, and for that I can only apologise. I'm here to burden you with yet more updates as I desperately seek a long term save, preferably with some elements of success thrown in. I had vowed to take a hiatus, but rather than ditch the game, I have returned and with a new lease of life. Having put the game aside, I decided instead to have a look into my approach and see what I could potentially change in order to gain some improvements. I did briefly stop playing the game, but instead shifted focus on to talking to other members and reading some guides into management at this level. I read a superb article from @Rashidi which is well worth a read for anybody struggling, and also had some great conversations with @Faramir. As a result I decided to jump back into this challenge, but with a new approach. I decided to take charge of Warrington Town, a team I had played as in a previous version which I didn't post on here. The article I read on player attributes completely changed my early work after taking over. A number of the inherited players I had ditched previously, but having assessed them all in a more in depth manner I decided that actually they would prove useful to my style of play. I wanted to play in a cautious manner, and having read the guide on tactical setup felt I had found a decent way to start. I chose a 4-1-4-1 formation, with a holding midfielder sitting in between a flat back four and a flat midfield four. The lone striker would be isolated, but I felt as long as I had a couple of hard working wide midfielders, and a creative type in the centre then we should be able to create enough opportunities for him. My style was centred around solid defensive work, with the idea of quick counter attacking football. My hope was that we could force our opponents out wide, and then comfortably deal with any crosses or long balls into the box. We would then attack on the counter, and hopefully nick the wins required to be successful. The change in approach also meant I could afford to restrict my transfer activity somewhat. When I looked at the team in more depth than I did on my previous attempt I realised there were actually a number of decent players already on the books. For that reason I was able to avoid going wild in the transfer market, and strengthen the squad with quality over quantity. This would enable me to keep the wage budget under control, thus benefiting the club on the financial side of things. Something extremely important over the longevity of this save. I have actually played through the majority of my first season in charge, but haven't yet managed to compile an update. I will wait for the end of the campaign and then return with an in depth review of how we got on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Warrington Town FC: Takeover Report So as previously mentioned, my team of choice was Warrington Town FC, based in a town more famous for it's rugby league team than it's football. The club was founded in 1949 under the name Stockton Heath, and adopted it's current name back in 1961. The club nickname is The Wire. They play their home matches at Cantilever Park which has a capacity of 2,000 with 350 seats. In game promotion puts the club in the Conference North for the very first time, although back in the 2017/18 season they were just moments away from it. Having finished the season in a club record high position of 3rd in the Northern Premier League they qualified for the play-offs. Having won the play-offs they had to compete in a one off super play-off after the formation of a new division. Leading Kings Lynn with moments to go they conceded a penalty, forcing the game into extra-time. Eventually they lost out 2-3 to miss out on promotion. In the 2014/15 season the club went a club record to reach the Second Round of the FA Cup. They completed a giant killing 1-0 victory over Exeter of League Two in the First Round to book a second round tie away at Gateshead. In front of the BT Sport cameras they missed out though, and lost 0-2. The furthest progress in the FA Trophy came back during the 1992/93 season where they managed to go all the way to the Quarter Finals before being eliminated. My arrival at the club sparked a flurry of activity as I looked to shape the side both on and off of the field. First up was to bring in my staffing team, and I did that within a couple of days of taking the reigns. Former Lincoln and Tamworth man Paul Green came in, and formed our coaching team alongside the recently retired Warrington keeper Jamie Speare. In a surprise move I made former Crawley Town managing director Kelly Derham my assistant manager. A new scout and physio also arrived. As mentioned in my previous update, there were a number of players I inherited who would be important components within our squad. Despite of that though, I did plan on entering the transfer market. A weekly wage budget of £5,500 was big enough, but I didn't really want to spend near to that. For that reason I decided to shift on centre back Evan Gumbs. His £650 per week wages weren't sitting well with me, and we cleared them by selling him on to Wrexham in a deal that also brought us a £2,500 transfer fee. Frustratingly as the season rolled around we lost left back Matthew Taylor to Brackley Town too. He was a player I had planned in using, but he didn't have a contract with us and chose to leave the club. Arrival wise there were a number, although all of them very positive for us indeed. Defensively we needed centre backs, and we brought in two very good ones. Former Huddersfield youngster Nassim Kherbouche and former Bolton man D'Neal Richards were both picked up, and both look impressive. I wanted two centre backs who can impose themselves in the air, and I managed it with these two. Our midfield actually didn't look too bad, although 39-year old Michael Rose would definitely need some help to see him through the season. For that reason we picked up 19-year old defensive midfielder Liam Lightfoot on a free transfer from Carlisle as a ready made replacement. Lacking a little creativity we brought in the hard working Brad Binns on a free transfer after he had been released by Barnsley. We lacked goalscoring prowess though, and so moved to bring in two new faces to help in that regard. Winger Corey McKeown came in after his release by Chorley, and youngster Ryan Viggars signed to play as our lone striker. We need to avoid injuries in both of those areas, but if we can keep them fit then they should both pick up a number of goals for us. I didn't like the look of Charlie Albinson as being our number one goalkeeper, although we kept him at the club as backup on a non-contract agreement. 18-year old Oscar Kelly came in to be our new first choice, after he was released in the summer by Liverpool. At his age he has a lot to learn, but has a lot of promise there as well. Despite bringing in seven new players to the club we were still comfortably below the allocated weekly budget, and the sale of Gumbs offset the bulk of it to the level it was upon my arrival here. With my slightly different approach I felt confident we could go into the season with a positive mindset. Pre-season results had seen us snatch a couple of unlikely victories, and I really felt like we were in a good place. The summer arrivals seemed to blend in well with the squad, and we actually played some really nice football. I didn't expect miracles during the league campaign, but I had confidence that we could put any fears of relegation aside and look to assert ourselves. For me stage one of this journey was to rubber stamp my style on the club, and as the season kicked off I felt like I had managed to do it really successfully. Hopefully we could enjoy the campaign clear of relegation worries, and aim for a solid mid-table season to start my era. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 @goonergezbest of luck, I'm really hoping you can make it a success Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Warrington Town FC: 2021/22 Review My first season at Cantilever Park has drawn to a close, and its time to fill you all in on how my new approach to management transpired on the field. Would my different focuses on the game change my teams fortunes on the field? Here is a quick review on how the first season on my new journey went. After bringing in seven new faces upon arrival, there was a big level of intrigue in how my side would get on. A new season in a new league, as I took charge of Warrington Town in the Conference North for the very first time in their history. We started the season really well, picking up 2-0 victories over Leamington Town and Farsley Celtic to open up. A third win in a row at home to Kettering Town gave us the perfect start, even as we conceded the first goal of my era. We continued to play solidly, until we hit a bad point at the end of September. A run of three straight defeats hurt us and dropped us down the table, as I looked for a recovery from my side. I definitely got one. Four wins and six draws saw us string together an unbeaten run that moved us back up into the play-off places. Unfortunately that run couldn't last forever though, and we then suffered another disappointing run as we lost five of our next six matches as the year turned to 2022. Hunting a recovery, I made moves now into the transfer market to try and solve our issues. In my pre-season report I had noted how Matthew Taylor had left for Brackley which was disappointing as I had pinpointed him as my first choice in that position. That meant Matt Regan would step into that position, probably the only position on the pitch that I worried about. In the end I was right to feel that way. He had featured regularly up until this point, churning in poor performance after poor performances on a regular basis. We got away with it, and so he stayed, until this dip in form. 19-year old left back Tom Midgley came in to replace Regan, and I also opted to bring in some experience up font too. 31-year old Scott Boden was signed on a free transfer after his release by Chesterfield. I wasn't hunting a replacement for Viggars, more some depth during the long stretch towards the end of the season. The new arrivals prompted a quick fix to our problems, and initially results improved. We sat comfortably in the to half of the table throughout the rest of the campaign. We strung together little runs of good form, but mixed in some runs of poor form as well. Consistently proved our problem, and in the end we narrowly missed out on a spot in the play-off places. A run of just one victory in our last nine matches hurt us, although a number of them ended in draws. A 9th placed finish is a pretty good effort though, and it pleased me to see my managerial style result in such a positive campaign. Defensively we weren't perfect, but summer arrival Oscar Kelly did impress in goal. He kept 12 clean sheets, but did concede 53 goals over the season. The full back positions were a disappointment, and even January arrival Tom Midgley let us down in the left back position. Midfield was a positive for us, with inherited player Callum Grogan impressing. The 24-year old chipped in with 8 goals and 7 assists from the centre of the park. Scoring goals wasn't an issue for us, mainly down to the performances of our strikers. Ryan Viggars popped up with 15 goals, and our other mid-season arrival also impressed. Experienced Scott Boden chipped in with 12 goals in his 25 appearances, a valuable addition to our squad. The FA Cup turned out to be a disappointment for us, although we did match the ambitions of the board. We disappointingly threw the lead away twice away at Leiston in the Second Qualifying round, to draw 2-2 and require a replay. The replay was a better performance, as first half goals from Craig Carney and Brad Binns put us through 2-0. A bumper crowd of 1,348 watched us play host to York City, but we were absolutely torn apart for ninety minutes and crashed out to a 0-3 score line. The FA Trophy was more successful for us though. We produced a superb extra time performance in the Second Round, and saw off Chorley Town 4-1 to advance. Next up was Conference National side Solihull Moors. A disappointing start saw us fall two goals behind, but we fought back to clinch a 2-2 draw and pick up a replay. Away from home we stuck in there and were rewarded. An 81st minute goal from Scott Boden giving us a 1-0 win. Another National side in Woking awaited, and a 1-1 draw away gave us a replay for a spot in the Quarter Finals. For the second time in the competition we fell two goals behind, but unfortunately we couldn't pull it back this time. Corey McKeown scored early in the second period, but we couldn't find a second and lost out 1-2. I am left really pleased with how my first season in charge here went, and feel that my new approach and style to management has been rewarded. To finish 9th in our first season at this level is very positive, and give us plenty of hopes for the future. If we can make some positive moves in the summer market I am confident that we can make this season the start of a long term adventure. Defensively we were pretty solid, and for that reason I have handed out two new contracts. Young centre backs Nassim Kherbouche and D'Neal Richards formed a superb partnership for us, and both of them have put pen to paper on new contracts to stay with us for next season. Hopefully I can find new full backs for us that will help us to concede fewer goals. If we can do that then I am confident that we can improve more and finish even higher up the league table. The board have delayed a required 1,000 capacity expansion to Cantilever Park. I'm hoping we can get a nice run in the FA Cup next season, which will help to fund that. Financially we have around £100,000 in the bank, and even with projected losses over the next season we aren't expected to plummet into financial insecurity. That's very important to me in order to keep this club as a long term plan. The board have increased our weekly wage budget too, although I don't plan to spend that much. We've got a number of inherited players contracts expiring, which will clear a lot of room on our wage bill. In fact the only player I inherited who will probably get a new deal is Callum Grogan after an impressive campaign. I'm keen to stick to my new approach, and so this summer could prove hugely important. I want us to show progress next season, and with clever use of the transfer market I am confident we can do just that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 7 minutes ago, dafuge said: @goonergezbest of luck, I'm really hoping you can make it a success Thanks man I really appreciate that. I don't expect to finish the challenge, but I just love playing this style of save. Something about it just sucks me in from the get go. I'd be happy with playing 20+ seasons and just making it into the Football League. To me that would be a fantastic achievement. In short I am just not very good at this game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 10, 2021 Author Share Posted January 10, 2021 Met Police - Premier League - 2035/36 The Champions League win has put is right up there with the best in Europe, so we were looking to repeat that success back in England. League Table - we looked set to go unbeaten, until a third of my squad missed a month for the Olympic qualifiers. UEFA Super Cup - we retained the cup with a narrow win. League Cup - for the second year in a row, we were losing finalists. FA Cup - we lost out on penalties fairly early on. UEFA Champions League - Barcelona got their revenge with the same scoreline that won it for us last season. Squad - there's a bit of room for improvement, but this is an excellent squad. Transfers - I replaced most of strikers. Finances - a decent profit, but the wages are starting to shoot up. Key Player Profiles: José Alexandre - the new striker was our top scorer. Mats Vandamme - our most valuable player. Birol Al - not a planned signing, but I had to jump at the chance to sign an elite level player. Career Overview: Season League Position Achievements ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2021/22 National League South 14th 2022/23 National League South 1st Promoted as champions 2023/24 National League 14th 2024/25 National League 7th 2025/26 National League 2nd Promoted via playoffs 2026/27 League Two 7th Promoted via playoffs 2027/28 League One 6th 2028/29 League One 1st Promoted as champions 2029/30 Championship 2nd Promoted 2030/31 Premier League 14th 2031/32 Premier League 7th 2032/33 Premier League 4th 2033/34 Premier League 5th Europa League winners 2034/35 Premier League 3rd League Cup finalists, Champions League winners 2035/36 Premier League 1st League Cup and Champions League finalists Next Season: I'm still waiting for that domestic trophy, the current squad should really be capable of winning something. Challenge complete! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 Warrington Town FC: 2022/23 Season Preview A solid first season in charge here leaves us chasing improvement, with a busy summer sure to take place. I was delighted with our 9th placed finish last time around, and hit the summer confident we could make additions to improve this time around. A busy summer began off the field as I looked to make changes to our backroom staff. Coach Paul Green signed a new deal, but I allowed my assistant Kelly Derham to depart. She was replaced by former Hinckley United and Gainsborough player Dominic Roma. Experienced heads Michael Rose and Mark Roberts both retired from playing for us, although Rose was offered and signed a contract to stay on as a first team coach. Another piece of news to come out of the summer was the board agreed to allow to me to train for my first coaching badge, exciting times. Goalkeeper Oscar Kelly and midfielder Callum Grogan both signed new contracts to stay with the club, but a large number were allowed to leave at the end of their deals here. Striker Ryan Viggars wouldn't discuss terms on a new deal, and we also allowed regular right winger Jack Mackreth to depart, trimming £700 of our weekly wage bill. Fringe squad players James Baillie, Tom Midgley and Matt Regan also all departed. Backup goalkeeper Charlie Albinson also ended his non-contract agreement with us, and moved to League Two side Wycombe Wanderers after they suffered back-to-back relegations. Arrival wise I planned to keep my focus on hard working players who were good off of the ball. Two new full backs were priorities, as was a holding midfielder, a winger and a new striker. We had lost Viggars and also allowed the contract of Scott Boden to expire. We did keep him at the club though, hoping to add another option around him. The full back positions proved difficult to fill, with my focus on solid off the ball quality difficult to find. Left back was the first one I did find though, bringing in an experienced head. 30-year old Jamie Reckford arriving at the club shortly after his release from Wrexham of the Conference National. We had to give him a role of part time scout as well, but I was happy with that to bring in his quality. He really ticked every box for me. We also added some quality in the right full back position as well. 21-year old Josh Ward arrived shortly before the season started after he was released earlier in the summer by Hull City. I'm hoping that having experience on both sides of our defence will help us produce more consistently solid performances defensively over the coming campaign. 31-year old Nick Arnold was also picked up, mainly due to his versatility to play on either side of defence. He was released by Northampton Town in the summer, and should provide adequate cover. The defensive midfield position was filled with a really exciting talent as we signed someone released by Leeds United. 18-year old Scottish midfielder Jeremiah Chilokoa-Mullen was snapped up and looks a really promising talent. His work rate impressed me, although we will need to work on his abilities off of the ball. Hopefully he can help our defence though and ensure we are more difficult to break down. Our most exciting signing was probably to fill a gap on the right wing though. I am extremely excited by the arrival of Verma, and cannot wait to see him play for us. The youngster looks a real talent, and I have a feeling he will perform much better than Mackreth did in that role last time around. Hopefully he can chip in with a few goals for us too, as that's an area we lacked in on the right flank last year. The rest of my focus was on adding some depth to our squad, especially in the midfield area. 21-year old central midfielder Keenan Patten was snapped up on a free transfer from Leamington Town, and we also added 18-year old Sam Braybrooke on a free after his release from Leicester City. I spent the whole summer chasing a backup striker for Scott Boden, and didn't have much success. In the end we snapped up 19-year old Jake Shepherd after his release from Barnsley. I don't expect him to make waves, but he should provide adequate cover. I'm excited to get underway, and feel we have strengthened our squad in all of the right areas. The summer proved much tougher than I thought, but we managed to pick up what we needed. We're not fancied by many, with a prediction of 20th place being thrown our way. The board merely want us to avoid the drop again, but I feel we can do much better than that. I'd like progress on last season, and want a mid-table finish as an absolute minimum. Hopefully we can continue to impress and surprise everybody with our progress. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 10, 2021 Share Posted January 10, 2021 @dafuge Congrats mate, great work! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrPoods Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 Trying to set up the DB for this. I can’t really make out the screenshot for the feeder leagues. Would adding “all players based in England” work? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 28 minutes ago, DrPoods said: Trying to set up the DB for this. I can’t really make out the screenshot for the feeder leagues. Would adding “all players based in England” work? Need to load players from Isthmian Premier, Northern Premier, Northern Central Premier Division and Southern Premier I believe. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 Warrington Town FC: 2022/23 Review If my first season in charge was a successful one, my second certainly wasn't. We endured a difficult campaign, in which fighting against relegation turned out to be our only priority. Our 9th placed finish of last season was light years away from this campaign, as we narrowly avoided relegation and I narrowly avoided losing my job. In all honesty we just never really got going. It was a season of long runs without a win, and we never strung together any form. In fact we only won 12 league matches all campaign, and on only two occasions did we manage to win back to back games. It wasn't so much a case of long runs of losses, we just couldn't win games. Defensively we performed superbly, which sounds ridiculous for a side that finished so close to dropping out of the division. Oscar Kelly nearly doubled his clean sheet tally on last season, with a total of 21. He conceded just 43 goals which is ridiculous for a finishing position as low as we were. Central defenders D'Neal Richards and Nassim Kherbouche were yet again sensational, but once more the full back positions were woeful. Both will be replaced again this summer. Scoring goals was just a huge issue for us. The departure of Ryan Viggars seemed to really hurt us, and nobody popped up regularly enough to endanger our league position. In fact Emmanuel Amissah was our top league scorer with just 4, and he was only signed midway through February. This is something which simply has to improve if we are to progress next season. The FA Cup saw us perform much better than last season, and in the end we were unlucky to suffer elimination when we did. We comfortably saw off Leiston and Farsley Celtic (5-1 and 1-0) at home to book a Fourth Qualifying Round tie against Wrexham of the league above. A superb defensive display saw us cling on for a 0-0 draw all the way through 90 minutes and extra time. The lottery of a penalty shoot out wasn't kind though, and we lost out after Nassim Kherbouche stepped up and smashed his attempt against the post. In the FA Trophy we entered and exited after a disappointing 0-2 defeat away at York City of our division. Nothing seemed to go right for us this season, and there is some real hard work left to be done. The summer will be extremely busy as I look to try and restore us to somewhere near what we showed last season. There are not many members of our squad who are considered by me to be good enough, and so there will be a lot of changes. Goalkeeper Oscar Kelly and central defender Nassim Kherbouche have both signed new one year deals with us though. Disappointingly I think we're going to lose D'Neal Richards at the heart of our defence though, as he won't even consider the possibility of discussing a new deal. In midfield we need more creativity, and we desperately need some goals. We snapped up two strikers over the season, on top of Scott Boden and summer arrival Jack Sherlock. None of them impressed enough, and all will be allowed to depart. Thankfully off of the field the club is in really good shape. Financially our bank balance has increased, and even projected losses don't look to be a problem over the next couple of years. This means that there is money in the wage budget to enable us to complete a fair bit of activity. Yet again two new full backs are a priority, as is a real out and out goal scorer. Defensively I am so proud of my team, and if we can add regular goals into this team then we should be able to enjoy a much better campaign next time around. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stormtochampion Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 1 hour ago, DrPoods said: Trying to set up the DB for this. I can’t really make out the screenshot for the feeder leagues. Would adding “all players based in England” work? Northern Premier League Premier Division, Southern Football League Central Division, Southern Football League South Division and Isthmian League Premier Division (level 7, 22 teams each, running in parallel): The champions in each division are automatically promoted. Based on wikipedia Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 Warrington Town FC: 2023/24 Season Preview I'm two years through my journey with this football club, and both of them ended with differing emotions for me. A 9th placed finish to open my career was followed by a narrow avoidance of relegation, leaving me to explore an array of emotions so far. I'm still confident in our abilities as a side though, and was more than ready to hit the summer transfer market in order to return us to better times. Last season was disappointing, but we live to fight another day at this level and that is the main positive to take. I anticipated a busy summer, and I certainly was not wrong as there was a flurry of news from both on and off of the field. The first piece of news is that we will no longer be playing our home matches at Cantilever Park. Last summer the board delayed a required expansion for our level, and this time around they decided to move home instead of complete the works. We're now paying £12,000 per season to play at the 7,500 capacity Hilton Park in Leigh. There are 2,750 seats in there giving us a big opportunity on cup tie days to gain some more money. I'm disappointed to move out of our home, but hopefully the move can prove beneficial. Especially as rent of just £12,000 per year is nothing to painful. There were also a number of complaints about our coaching team from the players last season, so I moved to add a new coach to the team. 42-year old former Leeds United and Manchester United man Alan Smith came in, and is a sure fire improvement on our existing staff. I'm excited to see what his arrival will bring for us in the longer term. The board kept expectations the same as the past couple of years, keen for us purely to avoid relegation again. They kept my weekly wage budget the same, which was absolutely fine with me. I'm keen to keep conducting my business in an orderly fashion and within budget. Contract expirations saw a large number of players depart the club, as I looked to reinvigorate our squad. The most important news was that we did eventually manage to keep key central defender D'Neal Richards at the club though. He had spent the latter part of last season refusing to discuss terms with us, but in the end we did manage to convince him to sign on with us for another season. Regular players from last season in Josh Ward, Corey McKeown, James Huntley and Nick Arnold all departed. We freed so much room on our bill by allowing Scott Boden, Jamie Proctor, Callum Grogan, Brad Binns, Jamie Reckford, Jack Sherlock and Alex Boddington all to leave as well. This left our squad small, but financially we had plenty of room left to bring in new faces. The priority positions for us were obvious really. Someone to score goals was vital, and we needed new full backs as we seem to every summer. Other than that we just needed to add some depth to the squad after allowing so many players to leave the football club. Our first business was to bring in 21-year old left winger Stephen Keller in from relegated Leamington Town. He was a player I had been tracking for a long time, and the relegation made it possible for us to complete the deal. Another player I had looked at for a while was right winger Saul Bearwish. The 18-year old was released at the end of his contract with Bristol Rovers and so we made the move to bring him in. 18-year old centre back Calum Morgan signed from the same city, as we snapped him up after his release from Bristol City. He can also play on either side of defence, and that versatility could prove really important. The full back positions looked hard to fill, and in the end we only really managed to fill one of them. Left back Matty Waters signed a bumper £500 per week contract here to join us on a free transfer from Gloucester City. He can play on the right but is predominantly a left back, which pleases me greatly. Hopefully he can pay back his big contract and deliver really consistent performances for us. My main priority was to find a goal scorer though, to solve our problems from last season. A huge number of players were given trials with the club, and eventually we found two players to fit the bill. First up was 21-year old Douglas James-Taylor who was released by Chester City after their promotion from the Conference North. He'd scored 41 league goals in 93 appearances for them over the past couple of seasons, and looks a really promising talent. Alongside him we added a player of serious quality, albeit on a massive contract. 22-year old Rumarn Burrell joined after his release by Middlesbrough of the Championship. We had to offer him a £700 per week contract with a £300 appearance fee meaning he is earning huge money. Hopefully he can justify that money with a huge goal tally, something I am confident he can do. Our final piece of business was on a creative central midfielder released by Doncaster Rovers. 22-year old Brendan O'Brian was signed and looks like he possesses the quality to be a real creative influence at this level for us. A busy but strong summer draws to a close, with my belief in my squad at a real high. We've added some significant quality to our ranks, and also managed to get rid of a number of players who simply hadn't impressed. I'm a little apprehensive on some of the wages we've handed out, but hopefully performances will pay back some of the money. We're not predicted to make huge waves, but I am confident on significant improvement from last season. If we can push onwards towards the top half then I will be left a very happy manager. Last season was a real blip in my eyes, and this set of players shouldn't ever be considering the possibility of being relegated. Hopefully we can enjoy a much more successful season fighting it out at a much higher position in the league table. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMU Chips Posted January 11, 2021 Share Posted January 11, 2021 (edited) Season 14 - Championship - 2nd The breakthrough finally happened. Over the summer I made the decision to change tactically; our direct 4-4-2 would only be used in away games while we played an attacking 4-2-3-1 at home. The fans were displeased about the lack of directness, but who cares. The new tactic finally unlocked the ability of Scott Armstrong, who I will feature later. He is a technically brilliant player who was really being wasted last year; this year he broke the Championship assists record. We hovered near the top all year, though it looked like we might not make it to the auto-promotion spots. It ended very close. There can be no bigger result than the one we got on matchweek 41. In matchweek 38 we won 5-0 against Fulham and we followed up by hosting Colchester, who went down in last with a -60 GD. We contributed 6 to that in a demolition which saw us with an outside shot at the auto-spots. The problem was that we needed to catch two of Wolves, Watford, and Villa. In matchweek 40 we won a simple 5-2 against Milwall while Villa beat Watford. The table looked like this: Had Watford won that game and stayed 7 clear, things would've been much different. Our matchweek 41 and 42 games were Watford away and Villa away. Our chances at the auto-spots were nearly back in our hands, but I expected to lose both games. Instead, we got a miracle in the first: Spoiler Scott Wilson, who has been with us all the way up the leagues nabbed a brace and a huge result saw us just 1 point and some goal difference away from promotion. We would unsurprisingly lose the next game to Villa, making things difficult again. All we could do was win out and hope for some help. We held up our end, winning 2-1, 2-1 and 4-2 in the next 3 games. At the same time Villa collapsed, losing three in a row as we easily jumped them in the table. Watford struggled to score, with a 0-0, 1-0, 0-0 meaning we were level on points going into the final day. We had an advantage in goal difference, but Watford went 2-0 up in the first 10 minutes. Reading had a player sent off 3 minutes in, but we couldn't find a breakthrough until just before half. We ended up shooting 46 times and scoring 4 as we sealed promotion. Things would only get worse for Watford as they crashed out in the playoff semifinal. Villa recovered from their poor form and will be coming up with us and Wolves. Here's where we stand going into the Premier League: Spoiler GK - Thimothee Lo-Tutala - £66k (Notts Co) - 258 apps, 7.20 average rating. My scouts found him just before our first Championship campaign and he was brilliant in goal ever since. Sadly he will not be back as he wanted wages exceeding our maximum in January and the MLS got to him. Had promotion been secured, we could've extended him. John Baker - Free (Newcastle) - 9 apps, 6.99 average rating. The downside of having a fantastic #1 is that the backup doesn't get to do much. 3 years as a backup didn't see much action, and likewise didn't develop. He'll be leaving on a free this summer. Kevin Kiely - Academy - 0 apps. Kiely may move into the backup role after spending the last 2 seasons on loan, but I would prefer to loan him out for development. As of now, one of two goalkeepers on the books; the other is also an academy product. RB - Troy Everitt - Free (Aston Villa) - 179 apps, 6.78 average rating. Settled in as first-choice RB this year after being shifted all around the defense since we acquired him. We don't rely on our defenders for anything other than defense, so he's yet to score and only has 8 assists but has been solid in his duties. Mentally equipped for the Prem but I worry about his lack of physicality. Francisco Whitfield - Free (LA Galaxy) - 19 apps, 6.59 average rating. Signed this year to pressure Everitt for a starting role, but he was nowhere near good enough. Doubtful that he will play next year, will be looking to loan him to League One or the Championship. CB - Michael Hughes - Free (Burnley) - 80 apps, 6 goals, 7.06 average rating. I signed a number of center backs during my time in the Championship, but Hughes has been the best. Our only player in the Championship Players' Select this year. Keston Julien - £61k (Oxford) - 30 apps, 2 goals, 7.17 average rating. A new acquisition before this season, he actually had a higher average rating than Hughes but missed time due to injuries. Worse mentally than Hughes, he may end up as a bench player if I can find a cheap starting CB option. Daniel Williams - Free (QPR) - 45 apps, 6.78 average rating. Started last season but wasn't good enough. Stuck as a bench option this season and is transfer listed. Unlikely to return. LB - António Lopes - £450k (Strasbourg) - 34 apps, 6.92 average rating. The club record transfer. The defense was a concern, so I went after Lopes aggressively. His first season was great; 6.92 for a defender who has 0 goals and 3 assists must mean he was doing his job quite well. May be good enough for the Premier League (time will tell), but currently no plans to replace him. Asa Gutteridge - Free (Everton) - 180 apps, 6.77 average rating. Been with us since our first season in the Championship, but I felt we finally needed a change. He probably won't make the bench in the Premier League, unless I can't find a better backup option to Lopes. CM - Gert Seppik - Free (Chelsea) - 115 apps, 11 goals, 12 assists, 6.74 average rating. The average rating is misleading here; Seppik is most likely our second best player. Just signed a 5-year extension making him our highest-paid player. This season he thrived, despite playing in a defensive role in our midfield he had 7 goals and 8 assists averaging 7.01. Felix Akande - Free (Numantia) - 30 apps, 2 goals, 5 assists, 6.72 average rating. His time with us will likely be limited to just those 30 appearances. I needed a backup, so I paid him more per week than I'd like. He wasn't very good, and somehow my last two face additions have missed him so he is currently the only first-team player with a default newgen face. Will be trying to cash in on his inflated value. Kieran Coker - Academy - 38 apps, 6.57 average rating. Sad to see him go, he was our first promising looking academy prospect, but he hardly developed at all. Cyrus Norton - Free (Man Utd) - 11 apps, 6.51 average rating. Wanted a defensive minded CM. He was bad, Seppik was good. Contract expires after 3 years; did not play a single match this season. RM/RW - Lawrence Croston - Free (Liverpool) - 36 apps, 9 goals, 15 assists, 7.14 average rating. When I decided to play RW at home this year, I decided to sign Croston as a backup. Incredibly quick with decent technicals and no mentals, he quickly played himself into a starting role left open with the departure of Jeremy Myers over the summer. Was brilliant this year, but may struggle in the Prem with every player being physically imposing. Greg Wilson - £94k (Gillingham) - 128 apps, 15 goals, 28 assists, 6.81 average rating. Initially supposed to be our primary RM this year, he still made 20 appearances from the bench at both RM and CM. He may or may not stay; he's currently listed as an important player. If he accepts being dropped to fringe he will stay, otherwise I will need to find someone to buy. Michael Smith - Free (Southampton) - 42 apps, 2 goals, 8 assists, 6.69 average rating. Never got going; had a bad first season, didn't play well off the bench in his second season, and was only used once this season. LM/LW - Salvador - Free (Man City) - 38 apps, 14 goals, 8 assists, 7.22 average rating. City didn't think enough of him to keep him. He's not good enough for them, but definitely is for us. At 22, I'm hoping he can develop his technicals a bit, but he's already our highest value player at £21.5m Stephen Castro - Free (Arsenal) - 53 apps, 7 goals, 10 assists, 6.84 average rating. American players love signing for me, but he wanted too much as a backup and will be heading to the MLS over the summer. AMC - Scott Armstrong - Free (Bournemouth) - 84 apps, 15 goals, 33 assists, 7.03 average rating. Only one man on our team can play this role; it was designed for him in the new tactic. Under it he thrived, with 9 goals and 29 assists this year and a 7.38 average rating in the league. After a wasted first year, he's shown why Bournemouth paid £3.8m to steal him from City's U19s. I want to keep him, but Premier League teams are already circling. ST - Scott Wilson - Free (Arsenal) - 497 apps, 291 goals, 122 assists, 7.23 average rating. Even though he is no longer our best player, he has to be first on this list. Club leader in appearances in goals; his first year with us was our final year in the Vanarama South. No longer bangs in 42 goals in a season like he did in non-league, but he still scored 17 in 32 last year. He will have a testimonial this summer against the team who let him slip from their academy. He'll (hopefully) get to 500 appearances and 300 goals this year. Isaac Beck - Free (West Brom) - 33 apps, 21 goals, 5 assists, 7.21 average rating. Took him a while to get going, 0 goals in his first 8 appearances but after that found his form. Ash Moseley - Free (Everton) - 181 apps, 122 goals, 38 assists, 7.24 average rating. Splits his time between ST and RW. Ended the year sidelined with a torn hamstring, which hopefully will not affect his speed when he returns. Year League Position Cups Training Youth Junior Recruitment Attendance (Cap) Badges Transfers (In-Out) Top Scorer Most Assists Av. Rating Clean Sheets May balance Total wages 2034/2035 Championship 2nd FA - 4th round, Carabao - 2nd round Good Good Exceptional Average 5863 (5905) Continental Pro 7 - 14 (+£1.3m) Isaac Beck - 21 (22) Scott Armstrong - 29 (29) Scott Armstrong - 7.35 (45) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 13 (13) £4.25m £96k p/w 2033/2034 Championship 4th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Average Good Exceptional Average 5896 (5905) Continental Pro 5 - 2 (+£559k) Scott Wilson - 26 (26) Jeremy Myers - 11 (12) Scott Wilson - 7.21 (44) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 20 (20) £2.68m £91k p/w 2032/2033 Championship 7th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Adequate Average Exceptional Adequate 5398 (5405) Continental Pro 10 - 6 (+£9.25m) Ash Moseley - 36 (36) Scott Wilson - 15 (15) Ash Moseley - 7.40 (42) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 7 (7) £1.59m £73k p/w 2031/2032 Championship 11th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Adequate Average Exceptional Adequate 5399 (5405) Continental Pro 6 - 9 (+£550k) Ash Moseley - 27 (28) Scott Wilson - 11 (12) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 7.24 (46) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 7 (7) £2.54m £69k p/w 2030/2031 Championship 10th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Adequate Average Exceptional Adequate 5399 (5405) Continental Pro 10 - 6 (+£231k) Pat Daws - 27 (27) Scott Wilson - 14 (14) Scott Wilson - 7.31 (34) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 12 (12) £1.88m £74k p/w 2029/2030 Championship 14th FA - 3rd round, Carabao - 1st round Below Average Below Average Good Adequate 5345 (5405) Continental Pro 12 -5 (£240k) Pat Daws - 34 (34) Jeremy Myers - 12 (12) Pat Daws - 7.33 (44) Thimothee Lo-Tutala - 8 (8) £350k £66k p/w 2028/2029 League One 4th FA - 1st round, Carabao - 1st round Basic Basic Adequate Adequate 4900 (5405) Continental Pro 10 - 3 (+£1.5m+) Harry Warwick - 25 (25) Scott Wilson - 10 (10) Harry Warwick - 7.34 (43) Gavin Mullins - 17 (17) £635k £33.3k p/w 2027/2028 League Two 2nd FA - 2nd round, Carabao - 2nd round Basic Basic Average Adequate 3055 (5405) Continental A 13 - 9 (+£327k) Scott Wilson - 29 (29) Harry Warwick - 11 (11) Harry Warwick - 7.28 (48) Luke Bell - 14 (15) £247k £21.3k p/w 2026/2027 Vanarama National 1st FA - 1st round, FAT - 4th round Basic Basic Average Adequate 1935 (4155) Continental A 11 - 5 (+£14.5k) Scott Wilson - 42 (44) Harry Warwick - 16 (16) Scott Wilson - 7.44 (48) Luke Bell - 17 (17) £284k £14.8k p/w 2025/2026 Vanarama National 6th FA - 4th qual., FAT - Quarter Final Basic Basic Average Adequate 1721 (4155) Continental A 17 - 8 (+£9.5k) Harry Warwick - 40 (44) Scott Wilson - 16 (17) Harry Warwick - 7.34 (52) Tom Smith - 14 (14) £220k £11.6k p/w 2024/2025 Vanarama National 14th FA - 3rd round, FAT - 4th round Basic Basic Adequate Adequate 1871 (4500) Continental A 14 -2 (£10.25k) Harry Warwick - 32 (38) I don't know, this is bugged Jamie Harrop - 7.34 (38) Tom Smith - 12 (14) £200k £9.2k p/w 2023/2024 Vanarama South 1st FA - 3rd round, FAT - 2nd round Basic Poor Average Adequate 1200 (4500) Continental B 6 - 5 (£0) Harry Warwick - 44 (48) Charles Sagoe - 15 (17) Harry Warwick - 7.41 (50) Tom Smith - 19 (23) £88k £7.4k p/w 2022/2023 Vanarama South 5th FA - 2nd round, FAT - 4th round Basic Poor Average Adequate 1310 (4500) Continental C 15 - 6 (+£26k) Connor Hall - 15 (Powell - 23) Jesse Starkey - 11 (12) Aarran Racine - 7.49 (44) Tiernan Parker - 5 (5) £138k £6.2k p/w 2021/2022 Vanarama South 7th FA - 1st round, FAT - 3rd round Basic Poor Average Adequate 1123 (4500) National B 14 - 4 (£0) Euan Pollock - 26 (34) Jesse Starkey - 10 (11) Aarran Racine - 7.48 (51) Tiernan Parker - 20 (23) £14k £5.1k p/w Edited January 11, 2021 by CMU Chips Accidentally posted while in progress lol Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Superowl90 Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Well well well, Another year another promotion. My best start to this challenge to date if memory serves. We were midtable for the first third of the year which i was more than happy with as our first year as a professional club. I made one tactical change that worked miracles. We play 3-5-2 WBs but instead of a flat 3 in midfield i dropped one back to a DM position and it transformed our team into a counter attacking powerhouse. Our XG almost doubled on average than before this change. Not much else to talk about. Did nothing in the cup competitions but managed 3rd to go up automatically. We even had a chance of 1st for a wee while but couldn't keep up the pace. We had a chance off 1st in the last game of the year but would have had to beat our opponents to the tune of 15 goals !!! I'm hoping to make some solid signings in Midfield and WB, hell everywhere apart from GK. If we don't then i don't think we are long for League One. Year Division Final Position Trophies Personal Awards 2021-22 Vanarama National League North 1st (Champions) National League North Winners Manager Of The Year 2022-23 Vanarama National League 6th (Play-OffChampions) National League Play Off Winners, F.A Trophy Runners Up N/A 2023-24 League Two 3rd ( Automatic Promotion 3rd Place League Two Trophy N/A Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 12, 2021 Share Posted January 12, 2021 Warrington Town FC: 2023/24 Review My third season in charge has come to an end, and we were looking to bounce back from a really poor 18th placed finish last season. We had enjoyed a busy summer, but looked to have brought in some real quality to our squad. Last season we had real issues scoring goals, but I had hoped we had solved that problem this time around. A safe mid-table finish was my aim, progressing significantly on last time around. Hoping to hit the ground running, we didn't scoring just once in our first four matches. A solitary draw the only point we had to show for our early efforts. We didn't taste a victory until the fifth match of the campaign, in a match where everything seemed to click. Rumarn Burrell and Douglas James-Taylor both on the scoresheet in a 4-1 demolition of Basford. I hoped this would prove the catalyst for our season to kick off, but it didn't. That victory was our only one in our first twelve league matches. We weren't being beaten, but we weren't able to turn draws into victories. We sat one place outside the relegation zone, and looked to be facing another season of struggle within the division. At this stage I decided to tweak our system a little, in the hope it would spring a run of good form. A second holding midfielder was added to sturdy up the defence, and a second striker was placed up top. I hoped this would shore up our somewhat leaky defence, but also give us a bit more creativity in front of goal. Hoping the two strikers would give us more of a threat on the break in front of a solid defensive unit. The early signs were good, and we breezed through November and the early stages of December winning and climbing up the table. This all came to an end during the festive period however. A run of three straight defeats, including a painful 2-3 at home to bitter rivals Curzon Ashton saw us drop back out of the play-off places. Once the new year had hit we just suffered severe inconsistency. Relegation didn't seem an issue, but we were never capable of winning enough games to push back towards those illustrious play-off spots. In the end we had to settle for a strong position safely in mid-table. It could've been a lot better for us, but at least we comfortably achieved my pre-season targets I suppose. Not a bad season at all, and a significant step forward after the disappointment of last year. We conceded a lot more goals this time around, but thankfully scored a fair few more as well. The full backs were once again disappointing, and to be honest I need to find more creative wingers for the team. I don't think we're too far off defensively, but we are still lacking goals in different areas of the pitch. Something I will have to address over the summer. The cup competitions didn't bare much fruit for us again this season, although we came within a whisker of reaching the First Round proper of the FA Cup. We comfortably saw off Bromsgrove Sporting 3-0 away, and then survived an early scare to beat Atherton Colleries 3-1 at home in the Third Qualification round. Conference National side Stockport County visited us, and we did well to take a 1-1 draw and a replay, clinging on well at the death. In the replay we performed admirably at the back, rescuing a 1-1 draw to take the game into extra-time. We dug deep, but conceded in first half stoppage time and lost out 1-2. Just fifteen minutes short of the main stages of the competition. In the FA Trophy we suffered elimination at the first hurdle, largely due to the 5th minute red card picked up from Owen Dodgson. We fell two goals behind, and despite a late rally we fell short after Rumarn Burrell had pulled one back. I'm pretty pleased with how we performed this season, and it feels a little like a restart at this stage now. Two solid seasons have sandwiched a really poor one, and the hard work starts from here now. I've managed to tie down the core players within our side to new contracts already, with focus having shifted onto strengthening for next season. Goalkeeper Oscar Kelly was first to sign, yet again impressing for us. Both central defenders Nassim Kherbouche and D'Neal Richards have signed new deals, as has impressive winger Spencer Keller. He enjoyed a really promising campaign after his arrival from Leamington Town, and really made the left wing position his own. The big doubt going into the summer is the future of striker Rumarn Burrell. He proved to be well worth the expensive contract we gave him, but looks unlikely to stay with us. He see's himself playing at a much higher level than this, and I cannot say I am surprised. I'll do my best to keep hold of him, although if he leaves will move to give his understudy Douglas James-Taylor a new deal here instead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 13, 2021 Share Posted January 13, 2021 Needham Market- Season 9 (2029-30) 3rd Season Premier Summer signings I was most pleased to land the player I have wanted for several seasons as we leapt at the opportunity to add 26 year old SC Tyrese Omotoye when Crystal Palace transfer listed him. He cost 10.75 Million, but I count him a bargain as I know that he will work well in our attacking system (one of my favorite players from FM 20). He has been bounced around to three clubs after Norwich and only at West Brom in Championship did they even give him much of an opportunity. Their loss is our gain. Our big gamble is a pricey one as we paid the 44 Million release fee to land 19 year old Welsh Wonderkid DLC Connor Thomas from relegated Derby. Thomas is the kind of Centerback that a club like ours can't land without going out on a limb like this one. The painful part is the 120 Million release fee that I couldn't avoid. Thomas already has 18 Caps and was a solid starter in the Premier as an 18 year old. Thomas looks like a brilliant player to me, so we will make use of him for as long as we can. He will pair with Kenneth Opoku as our main starters. I signed 27 year old Xavier Mbuyamba from Feyenoord on free transfer long ago- after January 1st and within the six months of expiration. The plan for the Belgian Centerback was to pair with Opoku as the main starters, but that has been altered with the addition of Thomas. Now, Mbuyamba will be the main depth with Luke McMahon for our starters. We also added depth at Rightback as we paid Leicester 2 Million for 20 year old Kevin Rooney. Rooney could become better than our current starter Ross Mackenzie, but for now he will work as a squad player- supplanting loanee Juan Antonio Gutierrez. Marcus ap Dafydd may not be happy, but we loaned 21 year old Spanish phenom Emilio from Manchester City for the season. Emilio is markedly better than ap Dafydd, so will likely be the main starter. Jordan Harvey is likely the most unhappy as he will not get a spot on the Champs League roster. Another depth signing was 28 year old GK Archie Mair who we cost 350K from Norwich. Mair represents an improvement on Will Jaaskelainen as the backup keeper behind Donald Stewart. Another future prospect joining us is 19 year old Dan Riddell from Birmingham for his 1.2 Million release fee. Riddell wants to be loaned out this season, which I am happy to do as we will have more playing time for him after this season. He is a very promising player who my scouts liked a lot. He will join Hull on loan. A very late addition was 28 year old Welsh Rightback/Rightwing Neco Williams. Williams may only be a squad player for us, but he adds perfectly to our depth with his ability down the right side. Despite the fact we landed Riddell, I paid Gremio 4.3 Million for 18 year old Brazilian Leftback Silvio Jose. Jose is a very fast, nimble player who could really blossom into a fine starter. Jose will join our promising Icelandic Centerback Ivar Breki Palsson at Preston North End, where Palsson will remain on loan after helping getting Preston promoted to League 1 last season. Leaving us was James Maxwell, whose poor performance at Leftback had both the Board and the fans commenting and he found the stands his normal role for the 2nd half of last season. He moved on to Ipswich for 200K (mostly happy to get his salary off our books). Also off the books is Rightback Frankie Whelan who was hurt a lot and didn't contribute much last season. He joined Sunderland for 25OK. Two more departures are Will Jaskelainen (for 350K to Cardiff) and Brad Hills (to Millwall for 190K). ***** Needham Market- Season 9 (2029-30) 3rd Season Premier Post-Transfer update It has been a frustrating season to this point. Our January was a series of one-goal losses in consecutive matches to Man City- Arsenal- Liverpool that has dropped us from 4th in the table to 6th. The injury bug has been bad this season as Alberto Hernandez has been out all season with a damaged knee, Gerard Mooney has only played 7 matches due to a series of injuries and at times our midfield and forwards have been decimated by series of injuries. Given that, we probably should be happy we are at least 6th. I was forced to recall loanee Jason Knight just to get more depth in the midfield for our heavy slate of matches. On top of that is the point of player's unhappiness at their respective playing times. The unhappiness is normal, but dealing with it during an string of injuries is difficult. Our additions at the transfer deadline have been 18 year old MC Liam Hercules from Leeds for 1.5 Million and MC Barrie Cartwright from Fulham for 5.5 Million (with another 2 Million in clauses). Hercules is a player my scouts have loved for awhile now and we will see if we can develop the promising youngster into an impact midfielder. Cartwright started at Liverpool and has kicked around a bit, but we have been scouting him since he was at Liverpool and the 5.5 Million is actually a modest price for his addtion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 13, 2021 Share Posted January 13, 2021 Needham Market- Season 9 (2029-30) 3rd Season Premier We celebrated a strong run-up to the final three matches of the season and then fell flat with two draws and a final match loss to Leicester that dropped us from 2nd in EPL to a final position of 3rd behind champion Chelsea and Arsenal. Our trip to the Champions Cup Final against Barcelona was memorable. We finished a strong 2nd to Paris SG in a group that also featured Valencia and weak sister Feyenoord. Our first knockout was Inter and we defeated them 3-2 at Needham Market Stadium. It looked like they were going to broom us out on away goals after an 89th minute strike put them ahead 2-1. Declan Thomson became a legend in Needham Market when he scored the tying goal in the dying moments on a mistake by Inter's veteran keeper and we moved on the 5-4 aggregate win. We were stuck in the Italian bracket in the Quarter-finals as we faced Juventus (Zebre). We battled them to hard fought 2-2 draw in Italy, but few gave us a chance as we traveled home for the 2nd leg. It was a brilliant backline effort as Matt Hanley scored two and Tyrese Omotoye added another in our 3-0 win that gave us a 5-2 aggregate win. The Semi-finals found us with a familiar foe as Chelsea had knocked out Paris SG. The first leg saw us with a late 2-1 lead until done in by a familiar nemesis as Ilaix Moriba equalized in injury time. We had finally defeated Chelsea on the road earlier in the season (the first time we had beaten them) and we repeated our offensive explosion this time as a hat-trick by Tyrese Omotoye and another by Kurt Brooks carried us into the final with a 4-1 win and 6-3 aggregate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 13, 2021 Share Posted January 13, 2021 Warrington Town FC: 2024/25 Season Preview The beginning of my fourth season at the helm of this club has rolled around, and I have just about enough time to squeeze in an update on how the summer went. We enjoyed a pretty decent season last time around, but it really felt like this summer was important. We've managed to consolidate in this division, but it feels like now is the time to be a little more ambitious. The board certainly think so, and they want us to push forwards and finish in mid-table. I certainly agree with them. The board opted to keep the weekly wage budget at the same level as last year, which meant there was plenty of room to manoeuvre in regards to new signings. I planned on clearing a chunk off of the current bill too, allowing a number of contracts to expire within our ranks. Disappointing full backs Lewis Young and Owen Dodgson were always leaving, as was striker Rumarn Burrell and his astronomical wages. Fringe players Brendan O'Brien, Saul Bearwish and Emmanuel Amissah were also released. The toughest decision for me was winger Jai Verma, but in the end I decided to let him leave and hunt around for a more consistent performer on the right hand side of our midfield. Left back Matty Waters was packed away on a season long loan deal to Eastleigh as well, his wage being majority covered by them. He turned out to be a really poor signing, and my decision to offer him a big contract for two seasons hurt our budget hard. Yet again my priority positions were the full backs, with all of our existing options having departed. I've had no luck in those positions so far, but hopefully I have picked up a couple of better options this time around. 23-year old Reiss McNally will be our right back option, signing after his release from Solihull Moors. On the left hand side we snapped 25-year old Alex Brown from bitter rivals Curzon Ashton. They both look like good players, and i am hoping they are the answer to our problems in those positions. My replacement for Jai Verma is 20-year old Kyle Crossley after he left Newcastle United. He looks like a really promising talent, and it won't take much for him to become an upgrade for us on the right wing. 19-year old Davy Casey (released by Chesterfield) and 23-year old Ben Friel (let go by Grimsby Town) both join to bolster our central midfield options. So to does 19-year old Nigel Raynes. I have tracked the youngster for a couple of years now, and he enjoyed a short loan deal with us at the end of last season. He scored a goal in seven appearances, and we moved quickly to bring him back in. He joins on a season long loan deal this time, from Chester. Finally we added 18-year old centre back David Lawrence (released by Burnley) and 18-year old striker Elliott Dutton (released by West Brom) to add some depth to our small squad. We've done really well in the summer market, and go into the season with a squad I have confidence in. I tried to take recruitment more seriously this time, focusing on not handing out huge contracts to anybody. The deal for Matty Waters has really scarred me, and meant everything was a lot more thought out. I'm confident in our abilities to comfortably make a mid-table spot our own, although would like for us to push a little higher than that. I don't think we're ready for promotion just yet, but it would be nice to push on towards those play-off places and maybe give ourselves a shot. It won't be easy, but I am keen for my side to upset the odds somewhat and what better way to start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 13, 2021 Share Posted January 13, 2021 Not really sure what is going on, i'm up in the championship a year or 2 earlier than i anticipated, with a bunch of league 1 at best players, i figured i'd continue with the crazy high press and intensity attacking strategy i've been using since i started and absolutely storming it. I keep expecting to come unstuck and somehow rescuing things... all of my draws have been from losing positions, snatching the crucial goal right at the end and when i finally did lose, next game i came back with a 10-1 away win at a mid-table team... is everyone just totally under-estimating me, or is something really off with the new updated ME? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) urgh... the takeover saga... 3 months and still no closer Edited January 14, 2021 by tremor Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 This can't be right... 3 games in 4 days Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Needham Market- Season 10 (2030-31) 4th Season Premier With all the injuries we had last season, I decided heads will roll. Our entire set of Fitness coaches got the sack, as well as our Head Physio. The training program we used all last season didn't differ from the one before, so whether it was luck or not- I needed a new crew of staff. I am losing Xavier Mbuyamba, who was signed on free last summer after I accepted a 22 Million bid from RB Salzburg just after the mid-winter transfer window. Mbuyamba hadn't established himself at that point and was unhappy, but he got a lot happier as he earned a starting spot when Opoku went down with injury and never gave it up on our run to the Champions Cup. The 22 Million for a free signing that my staff now considers a fringe player was a good sum. We also sold Fullback Jordan Harvey for 3 Million to Reading. Harvey earned very little playing time and was excess to needs. The biggest new addition of the summer was the free transfer signing of Elite Centerback Chris Mepham from Tottenham. Mepham is 32 and is the first player I have signed over 30 in the entire time managing Needham Market. Besides being a terrific Centerback, Mepham is a starter on the Wales National side- alongside his new Needham Market partner- Connor Thomas. They should be very good together in our backline. Now that we have a Continental reputation, we were able to make a pair of splashy signings as Brazilian Wonderkids Willian Bubniak and Gilson Lopes Paranhos joined us. Bubniak, a 20 year old Rightback, came on a 25.5 Million release fee. Paranhos, a 19 year old Winger, has played mostly on the left side, but will move to the Rightwing role for us. As expected both are blazing fast and they will be joined by countryman Leftback Silvio Jose as the 19 year old moves into a regular playing role after being on loan last season- replacing Emilio who Manchester City declined to discuss a continuing loan for. Another addition that will likely raise eyebrows was the 4.5 Million purchase of GK Marko Vidanovic from Red Star. Vidanovic is a 20 year old Wonderkid who is already better than our starting keeper Donald Stewart. We will see how it goes, but I do expect Vidanovic to become my number 1 choice- despite the affinity I feel for Stewart, who has been a solid keeper for us. I had been scouting 19 year old Italian Wonderkid Luca Francavilla for three seasons. His 35 Million Release Fee at Sturm Graz was close to expiring, so now was the time to make the move for him. He has fantastic talent and will pair with Tyrese Omotoye up front for us. We have a wealth of good young forwards and it is likely Kurt Brooks will be unhappy with the reduction in playing time, but we will see how it goes. A modest signing fee of 75K brought us 18 year old Czech Wonderkid Jan Zelenka. Zelenka wanted to be loaned for a season, so we found a home for him at Millwall where he will be a regular starter. It is the season of Wonderkids for us with the addition of 18 year old Colombian MC Camilo Rueda, who we beat out Arsenal and Paris SG to sign for a modest 1.5 Million. Rueda is already a Premier talent and will pair with fellow Wonderkid Matias Colombini (I was correct in assuming he would develop into one) as our starting center mids. A free signing that was a nice bonus is the addition of 18 year old Spanish SC Christian Martinez. Martinez joins us from Atletico Madrid and though not able to break into their side, has a nice future here. Leaving us is 19 year old Uruguayan AMC Alvaro Pirez. As I expected, he didn't quite fit into how we play and I was pleased to get 16 Million after signing him on free as he moves to RB Salzburg. Also on the move is Shayne McKeown. For the second time in his career, I have sold him for 6 Million as AA Gent was willing to give us that much. I had hoped McKeown would take the next step and take over our DLP role, but he never showed he had Premier level ability. Lewis Miller will be moving on to CSKA Moscow as they paid us 7 Million for him. Miller never really found a regular starting role and was pleased to move on for a chance at starting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faramir Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 @tremor I have had this happen once in my save. I was fortunate that one of the three matches got cancelled due to waterlogged pitch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 16 minutes ago, Faramir said: @tremor I have had this happen once in my save. I was fortunate that one of the three matches got cancelled due to waterlogged pitch. I had to do all of them, it's crippled my squads fitness and caused a couple of injuries and i drew 2 and lost 1, hoping that it doesn't also hammer the morale... praying that this isn't the start of a big slide... although tbh i wasn't expecting to even be in the top half of the table, let alone challenging for promotion this season... so everything is a bonus now that i'm safe Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Warrington Town FC: 2024/25 Review My fourth season at the helm of this club has drawn to a close, and it was yet another season of the same. We strung some decent form together, but we're left frustrated and ended up having to settle for a disappointing finish within the mid-table realms. We started well enough, winning our first three matches with a 2-1 score line and looking genuinely strong. That was about as good as it got for us though. Our form dropped off quickly, and we slipped alarmingly down the league table. We seemed to be able to win some games, but could never string together enough form to get anything going. A tactical shift to a back three seemed to help a little, initially at least. My irritation and annoyance at our poor performances at full back seeing me shift us to a 3-1-4-2 formation. This seemed to shore us up defensively (minus humiliating 0-4 defeats to Gateshead and FC United of Manchester) although it did limit us in scoring. In fact goals were a problem for us all season in the league, with Douglas James-Taylor and Elliott Dutton both disappointing. They managed just 9 and 4 respectively, and will both be replaced in the summer. Defensively we weren't too bad. My initial fears that playing a back three would see us over exposed, never really happened and so we weren't actually too bad. D'Neal Richards and Nassim Kherbouche were yet again good, and goalkeeper Oscar Kelly saved us time after time. Even right back Reiss McNally seemed to perform better when I used him in the centre of our back line rather than at right back where he was utterly woeful. I'm still on the fence as to whether to offer him a new deal though. One positive from our season was in the cup competitions though, and in particular the FA Trophy. We played smash and grab football to beat two teams from the Conference National and the team who at the time were leading our division, all away from home.We started with a superb 2-0 win away at Guiseley, before going better to beat FC Halifax by the same score line. Away at Torquay United in the next round we were completely outplayed, before a goal from Douglas James-Taylor gave us a surprising but impressive 1-0 victory. We were eliminated one round short of the Quarter Finals though, losing 2-4 away at more Conference National opposition. We provided scares for Hartlepool United, but in the end they proved just too much for us. In the FA Cup we once again managed to get to the final round of qualifying before losing out to Conference National opposition, as always seems to be the way. A selection of fringe players smashed through an away tie to Bamber Bridge 6-0, before a stronger selection beat Scarborough Athletic 4-0, also away from home. We drew FC Halifax in the next round, and did well to draw 1-1 away and pick up a replay. We put in a resilient performance to take a 0-0 draw into extra-time, before running out of puff and losing out 0-2. A frustrating campaign draws to a close, and I am left pondering as to what we need to do. I'm beginning to grow frustrated at a lack of progress, and am desperate for us to become more than just a perennial mid-table side. The most frustrating thing is that at spells we can produce some really good stuff. At times we can win three or four games and play perfectly to our system. The problem is that when we come unstuck we just can't bounce back, hence losing as many games as we win. At least the efforts we put in during the cup competitions can give us a little pride. We performed really well, and I am proud of our efforts. We just need to find a way to perform well on a much more consistent basis during the league season. I said last season that it had felt like a new start for us, and now this season feels pivotal. Four mid-table finishes is nothing to be ashamed of, but it is now time to start showing some progress. It's going to be a busy summer as I look to build a squad capable of performing much better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 (edited) Ok, I am having a lot of fun playing youth only challenges but sometimes I need a break from it. I am bored with my FC United save, having got to the Premier League, so am starting over. I have got a rare club come up. Well, I haven't seen them anyway. So here we go! Club Introduction Beaconsfield Town The Manager This is me. Personal Coaching Data Season Reputation Qualifications Att Def Fit GkD GkH GkS Tac Tec Men WWY Ada Det PlK YoK LoD MaM Mot ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At start Minimal (0.25*) None 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 4 1 1 1 Club Facilities Season Training Facilities Youth Facilities Youth Level Corporate Facilities Junior Coaching Youth Recruitment Club Reputation ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Start Poor Poor 0 Adequate Fairly basic Average Local (0.50*) Season Record Season Played Won Drawn Lost Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Overall Career Record After Season Played Won Drawn Lost Goals For Goals Against Goal Difference Time At Club --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trophy Haul Season Competition Won -------------------------- Trophy Cabinet League Titles ------------- Cup Competition Victories ------------------------- Career Overview Season Champions League Europa League Europa Conference League League Position F.A. Cup League Cup Achievements ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Record Number of Appearances (Players From The Academy Only) Season Player Cumulative Number of Appearances --------------------------------------------------------------------- Record Goal Scorer (Players From The Academy Only) Season Player Cumulative Number of Goals --------------------------------------------------------------- Record Number of Assists (Players From The Academy Only) Season Player Cumulative Number of Assists ----------------------------------------------------------------- Record Number of Clean Sheets (Players From The Academy Only) Season Player Cumulative Number of Clean Sheets ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited January 22, 2021 by DazRTaylor 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Warrington Town: 2025/26 Season Preview Four seasons of mediocrity so far, and it felt like this summer had to be a successful one for us. A poor campaign last season saw me shift our tactical focus and it did seem to improve our performances. We moved to three at the back, and it seemed to really help us defensively. We struggled a bit for goals, but that's something I wanted to sort out over the summer transfer window. I anticipated a really big summer in regards to activity, with a host of players being informed they could leave and be replaced. We needed some quality across the pitch, and I wanted to trim some of the dead wood out of our squad. The summer began with me putting pen to paper on a new one year contract with the club, and board expectations merely to avoid relegation. I want a little more than that this season, but I can understand why they are a little apprehensive. Off the field I made a change to my backroom team, allowing assistant manager Dominic Roma to leave at the end of his deal after three years with the club. He was replaced by Coalville FC under-23s manager Wojciech Cygal. I have high hopes for a more successful period with the Polish here as my number two. I decided not to offer out many new contracts this summer, which saw a host of first team regulars depart the football club. James Patten, Ben Friel, Shay Braybrooke and Liam Lightfoot all departed from regular first team spots. Strikers Douglas James-Taylor and Elliott Dutton were both allowed to leave, as were full backs Alex Brown and Ben McNally. Matty Waters returned from his loan with Eastleigh, before leaving the club as well. Our tactical shift came about due to my complete lack of confidence in my abilities to find decent full backs. Our central defensive partnership of D'Neal Richards and Nassim Kherbouche had always proven successful, but I just couldn't find anyone capable of performing solidly enough in either full back position. For that reason I decided to stick with the idea of playing three centre backs, but would move to put two holding midfielders in front of them to shore us up even more. A flat four would play across midfield, with a loan striker in charge of scoring our goals. I still aimed to play quick counter attacking football, forcing our opponents wide and then dealing with the crosses when they came into our box. This changed my aims for the summer, as I would avoid looking for full backs, and instead be looking for more options in central defence, midfield as well as a couple of goal scorers. We really need to put the ball in the net more often if we want to enjoy any measures of success. We didn't go absolutely crazy baring in mind how many players departed, but we did bring in eight new players. In the centre of defence I moved quickly to sign 18-year old Irishman Stephen Reilly after his release by Manchester City. He will slot in nicely alongside Kherbouche and Richards at the heart of our defence. In front of that we needed a holding midfielder to arrive as I shifted to playing two of them. We picked up 19-year old Tom South after his release by Huddersfield Town.I wasn't happy with the creativity offered from midfield last season either, and we brought in two new options to help in that department. 22-year old Malaki Black is the better one, picked up after his release by Grimsby Town. The other one was 22-year old Louie Clarkson who was released by Rochdale. To further strengthen our ranks we also completed a deal to extend the loan deal of Nigel Raynes from Chester for another season. Our first arrival of the summer was for the right wing position as an option. 18-year old Pascal Finster was picked up on a free transfer after his release by Leeds United. Goals is where our problems have really stemmed from over the last couple of years, so in to the club came three new strikers. 18-year old David Hogan arrived from Blackburn Rovers, but I am more excited by Rob Brain. Spoiler We snapped him up quickly after his release by Leeds United, and I have really high hopes for him. If he can put the ball in the net on a regular basis it would really help us out. For the first time I feel that we actually have a very good striker within our ranks. Finally we added young American Kevin Kupiec after his release by Sheffield Wednesday. The 18-year old joins to offer some backup to our squad. We've added some good players, most of them young and with plenty of room to develop. The club still doesn't possess a good enough reputation to attract ready made stars, which is frustrating. Especially as on a financial footing the club is in pretty good shape. We've got a little over £100,000 sat in the bank, and if we could put together another cup run we will be on sound footing for a while. Results wise we have to improve our league standing this season. I'm fed up of finishing in mid-table each season, with nothing to play for midway through the campaign. I am hoping that my shift in tactics can help, and feel a lot more confident without having to sign or name any full backs. Hopefully we can find the net on a more regular basis and push on towards a top-half finish at the least. I believe in the players, now they just need to step up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 Good to see you back in here @DazRTaylor and I look forward to seeing your progress. Bet you you'll manage promotion before I do! Your team definitely seem a rare one. I must've done several hundred reloads and they've never come up for me. I did manage to get Hayes & Yeading during my last batch though, and that'll most certainly be my next team of choice for this challenge. Still many I haven't seen yet though. I also want to try a Cray Wanderers save, but I haven't seen them yet. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 hour ago, goonergez said: Good to see you back in here @DazRTaylor and I look forward to seeing your progress. Bet you you'll manage promotion before I do! Your team definitely seem a rare one. I must've done several hundred reloads and they've never come up for me. I did manage to get Hayes & Yeading during my last batch though, and that'll most certainly be my next team of choice for this challenge. Still many I haven't seen yet though. I also want to try a Cray Wanderers save, but I haven't seen them yet. Thank you though it won't happen. My first sacking of 2021. Played ten, lost nine, drew one. I couldn't sign many players and those I already had are not good enough. Sigh. Maybe I will try FC United again. I am already in the Premier League with them so hopefully I will get my love back for the save. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abaddon879 Posted January 14, 2021 Share Posted January 14, 2021 1 hour ago, DazRTaylor said: Thank you though it won't happen. My first sacking of 2021. Played ten, lost nine, drew one. I couldn't sign many players and those I already had are not good enough. Sigh. Maybe I will try FC United again. I am already in the Premier League with them so hopefully I will get my love back for the save. Shame it didn't work out. They were the team I had originally been hoping for as they are the closest team to where I live, but they were just a little too low reputation, and after 150+ reloads I gave up trying and finally settled for Farnborough. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 I've got today off on furlough, so that leaves me a long weekend to try and get something going on this game. I've got plans for a few other saves, Brentford, Bristol City and my beloved Arsenal being the main ones. For now I plan one final attempt at this challenge before shelving it. I've been reloading desperately since the Arsenal game kicked off last night hoping for Cray Wanderers to come up. I'll give it another hour or so before returning to a team I have attempted before. Sorry @dafuge but I think I am going to have to try and replicate your workings with the Met Police. I'm hoping that my new ideals and tactical stylings can bring some success somewhere. Surely it can. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 18 hours ago, DazRTaylor said: Thank you though it won't happen. My first sacking of 2021. Played ten, lost nine, drew one. I couldn't sign many players and those I already had are not good enough. Sigh. Maybe I will try FC United again. I am already in the Premier League with them so hopefully I will get my love back for the save. @DazRTaylor would you mind sharing the base save with them? I'm interested in trying this with someone of that level... glutton for punishment Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 9 minutes ago, tremor said: @DazRTaylor would you mind sharing the base save with them? I'm interested in trying this with someone of that level... glutton for punishment Sorry mate, I deleted it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
goonergez Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 I’m still reloading and I still haven’t had Cray Wanderers pop up yet!!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connor Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 (edited) Hi Guys Really looking forward to this and joining in with the challenge! A one club save is what I enjoy most, so something to really get my teeth into Hornchurch are the team I have chosen, probably the most local to me of all the promoted clubs and colours matched the Sunday league team I played for, back in the day. Am a slow player (it might now take me a day or so to click continue!!!) but will be back with what I hope will be a successful first update Edited January 15, 2021 by Connor Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koennn Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 Hi everyone, Loved reading all your updates until now and hats off to dafuge who has already completed the challenge! I did this challenge once a long time ago and thought I would participate again this year. Really looking forward to it! I'm a slow player, so please bear with me. I'm going to start the challenge with Folkestone. The squad seems dreadful, but we'll see how it goes. Here's the screenshot from the 25th of June Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 15, 2021 Author Share Posted January 15, 2021 5 hours ago, goonergez said: Sorry @dafuge but I think I am going to have to try and replicate your workings with the Met Police. I'm hoping that my new ideals and tactical stylings can bring some success somewhere. Surely it can. Nothing wrong with that, it would be great to see more people managing the Met! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 15, 2021 Share Posted January 15, 2021 @dafuge if I get sacked, can I take over a newly promoted team with the sacked manager ( if they'll hire me) or do I need to start from scratch with a fresh manager? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dafuge Posted January 15, 2021 Author Share Posted January 15, 2021 15 minutes ago, tremor said: @dafuge if I get sacked, can I take over a newly promoted team with the sacked manager ( if they'll hire me) or do I need to start from scratch with a fresh manager? On 11/11/2020 at 18:06, dafuge said: If you get sacked, you can either take over a newly promoted club that satisfies the original criteria (check the club's league history), or just start again. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tremor Posted January 16, 2021 Share Posted January 16, 2021 Scarborough Athletic 2025-26 Season Review Well it's been a decent year again, swashbuckling attacking 442 and 4312 still seem to be the way forward, we had some pretty big defeats because I effectively refused to play defensive football but we also had some massive wins... I don't think I have ever put 10 past a team in the same league as me before but we beat Luton 10-1 mid season... We eventually got promoted, although for a while it looked like we might slip into the play-offs and drift away... the Christmas period coupled with a very small squad and some big injuries to key players put it all in doubt and made me have to tinker with the formation. But eventually we found some form again and managed to scrape through and get promoted in 2nd place... I am expecting us to come straight back down but I'm hoping that the financial boost will allow for us to invest in the club infrastructure and put the building blocks in place for a stable future. This was very much the big sticky patch, IMHO started by the ridiciulous 3 games in 4 days, caused loads of injuries and fatigued my key players well into January Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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