The Blackpool 10K Challenge

[allisiaa]

The Blackpool 10K Challenge.

Just wanted to quickly share a challenge I made for myself that probably would be fun for others as well, but I don't want to spend too much time with admin for such a challenge. Sorry if that is a problem for some of you, and please use this challenge as an inspiration to make a similar challenge laid out properly, or add to the challenge in the comments.

 I just will present the premises to you, and hope it gives you some inspiration to this kind of a save yourself.

Background:

When Blackpool got promoted to the Premier League against all odds for the 2010/11 season, the owner, Karl Oysten set a wage cap of 10K per week. 

He also said he refused to pay any agent fees. 

It is under these circumstances, and a few other, you now have to manage Blackpool under Oysten's restrictions to what they never achieved in real life:

To survive in the Premier League. Plus a few more I will present to you now:

Targets:

• Get promoted to Premier League
• Survive the first season in Premier League, and then become established.
• Repeat the proudest moment in Blackpool F.C's history and win the FA-cup again (won in 1952/53).
• After that...what is the most impressive achievement any of us can manage under the Oysten-restrictions?

Rules/Restrictions:

The restrictions are Oysten-inspired and is a combination of what is known and documented, and also research/estimates of other restrictions Holloway had to work under while trying to survive in the Premier League. Some known restrictions is simplyfied or adjusted to make it easy to follow/understand the rules:

• Max 10K a week for a player. Tip: Do not give players yearly wage rises, promotion wage rises etc.
• The appearance fees etc must not go over 10K either. It would be to big of a loophole to give 10K a week but 120K in apperance fees.
• The total wage budget must not be over 250K in total! (Holloway had about these conditions to work under)
• NO agent fees. 
• Maximum of £6 million transfer budget per season in the Premier League. This is roughly what Holloway was allowed to spend for Blackpool to prepare for the Premier League. This should not include any add ons* or monthly payments. *I have allowed myself up to 50% sell on fee as the only add on, but you can choose to just pay everything upfront without anything if you want to make it even harder.
• Loaning players is allowed, but the total cost of the loan (monthly fees) will have to be deducted from the transfer budget (The total loan fee is visable on the Loan offer screen in FM21 - don't know about FM22.)

I think that was it. Just ask if anything seems unclear. 

Oysten originally had other restrictions as well, such as bonus fees, but I have chosen to not over complicate the challenge. If it was too hard in 2010/11 it surely will be even more challenging in 21/21 with the money inflation. 

I'm playing this challenge on FM21 and have already gotten promoted from League One as the Champions, and currently placed 2nd in the Championship after 26 rounds. If this season end with promotion, I will truly face the brutal working conditions Oysten's Blackpool had to compete under.

Good luck!

[aldojags]

Ooft! Thats gna be difficult in the championship let alone the prem! Didnt realise blackpool had these restrictions when they were up, he nearly kept them as well they were unlucky that season!

[allisiaa]

So far, so good. And now the most challenging part.. Staying up and eventually win that FA-cup trophy.

 

Actually spent more in transfers in league one than preparing the team for the championship.

 

The last restriction I learned Oysten wanted was the "No agent fees" one. I only realized this after the promotion from League One, and therefore have a small fee that I have paid to agents.

 

This of course should have been 0 - as mentioned in the restrictions - but didn't want to restart for such an insignificant amount of money. 

So, here we go.

Premier League.

 

Edit: Seem as this challenge isn't as interesting as I thought. That's ok. 

Survived. 4 games to go, 11th place in the Premier League.

 

Will not be updating any further. Thanks to anyone who has read this far.

Edited April 7, 2022 by allisiaa

[jim owen]

On 01/04/2022 at 10:41, allisiaa said:

Will not be updating any further. Thanks to anyone who has read this far.

But i need to know if you manage to win the league with these conditions