[FM24] Born & Bred: Rising from Tier 11 only signing players born from one city

[Motlhen]

Feb 2027

We got the results we desperately needed this month. Not conceding in 3 (including the last game of last month) combined with some other players getting on the scoresheet in Hamilton's long absence from the goals means we're back in contention with the bottom of the pack of teams going up to mid-table. Hamilton did eventually get a goal against Tower Hamlets and I'm hoping he'll be back in form for the business end to the season.

[Motlhen]

Youth Intake 2027

2024 (12 of 16 from Enfield)
2025 (9 of 16 from Enfield)
2026 (8 of 16 from Enfield)
2027 (13 of 16 from Enfield) - a huge improvement here!
Thank you @Jimbokav1971 for the suggestion to reduce youth recruitment, to increase the number of local players. I've only managed to ask the board once so far, but it's made a big difference to this seasons numbers!

Bullivant & Pesce are my standouts purely because they are more than decent and play in positions that we really needed to improve! Ruth is a lsight improvement on current first choice GK Tim Slade and Westwood & Humphreys will have to battle it out with our current wingers Maton & Griffin.

 

Here is how the new youth intake compares with our current squad (by star rating), look out for "BH04" to identify the new intake.

 

Top Prospect:

[Motlhen]

Next 6:

[Motlhen]

Final 6:

[Motlhen]

Previous Intakes - Non-Enfield Players - Where are they now?
These are the players from previous intakes we had to release instead of signing. Currently I cannot see their attributes due to attribute-masking, but I am going to begin scouting all of our ex-players so that we can see them in the future.

2024 (12 of 16 from Enfield) 
Of 4 non-Enfield players, only one remains playing. I accidentally signed Gardner in the first season, releasing him a few days after as he was only on an amateur contract. 

 

2025 (9 of 16 from Enfield) 
Of 7 non-Enfield players, only two remain playing. Fortune seems like he could be a decent keeper for tier 11 Chester Nomads and McMurtie is playing and scoring in an unplayable league (below tier 12).

 

2026 (8 of 16 from Enfield) 
Of 8 non-Enfield players, only one remains playing. Jones is playing well in level 10 at 17 years old!

[Motlhen]

Mar 2027

The new youth intake helped us to a massive 3-2 win over league-leaders Wembley but ultimately we are still facing the same problem of inconsistency. It's early days for the new signings and I am already looking ahead to what we can do differently next season, that is, if the board allow me to still be here...

Edited August 28 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

13 hours ago, shd34_216_42 said:

Mouse over the "has accepted reduced responsibilities for a while" text, that will give you more detail (hopefully).

Thanks for the tip - but unfortunately it doesn't give me much more info:

 

Because of your comment, I did play around a bit more on the promises screen and realised that the reason there are two promises:

...is because one is listed under 'Board' and one is listed under 'Players'...

I don't think this makes things any clearer, but it feels like a clue as to what could have changed 

[Motlhen]

Apr 2027

The board have changed their tune somewhat! We finished the season with a 3-game unbeaten streak and managed to climb to 14th and they are now happy that we are an established team at this level. I haven't been looking up the table much at all, but at the end of the season I did and when I realised that there was only 8 points separating us from 6th, it shows how tightly contested this league is!

[Motlhen]

Staff In

To my complete surprise, we have managed to land an incredible new staff member! Cockfosters supporter Kirk is our new Scout / DoF. He would make an incredible manager or set piece coach but preferred to join us for a steal of £50pw (the max I'm allowing for other staff whilst I am on £60pw).

[Motlhen]

Records

Both the overall goal and appearance records were broken this season, but both by players who will be leaving the club this summer. Carter has announced he will retire at the end of the season and Hamilton won't agree to sign a new contract because he's unhappy about our depth in goal (currently our strongest position ). They've both been incredible for the club and will be sorely missed.

 

 

[Motlhen]

Transfers In

Farr came through our 2nd youth intake and had an incredible season with us before leaving for lowly KLSC. He scored 19 goals from segundo volante (as well as penalty duty) and we missed his presence in the side this season. With Hamilton on the verge of leaving, and no strong backup strikers ready to replace him, I am delighted to have battled to bring back a proven goal scorer (albeit in a different position - could he become our striker?) I have almost doubled the self-imposed wage restriction (from £25pw to £45pw) to make this deal happen!

 

 

Hayden-Smith is another player I have been tracking for a while. He's played as high as the 6th tier in England as well as in Cyprus & Austria but had always demanded an absurdly high wage. Trial after trial has paid off as I have managed to agree a reasonable contract with him as we have so many youth players coming through in his position, he will have to hit the ground running to feature prominently.

 

 

Valuation

I believe that Hamilton was valued at around £10k prior to running down his contract and we've had a few other players get valuations below that mark, so to see Hayden-Smith come in with a one-year deal on such low wages and be valued so highly is surprising (& also exciting!) If there is any interest, I will be looking to take full advantage of it.

[Motlhen]

New Stadium

We've moved back to Enfield into our brand new stadium! We have 328 seats and a current capacity of 1,315 with scope to expand up to 2,637.

There's £456k of the original £575k remaining to pay over the next 8 years so there is even more pressure to get up the leagues as quickly as possible to increase the number of fans coming to watch us. Unfortunately our debt has worried the board away from making any other improvements to our youth coaching or facilities which could stifle our progress. 

[Motlhen]

Expectations

Next season I'm expected to reach the playoffs and repair the club's financial damage. Unless we see bumper crowds all season I don't know how I can plug the half a million hole that the board have created. For now I'm doing as much as I can do, with the long-term benefit of the club in mind, such as cutting back on youth recruitment (saving money whilst more likely generating more local players, win-win!)

[Motlhen]

New Contracts!

I was certain we were going to lose our record top goalscorer Hamilton and record appearance maker Carter over the summer but they've both surprised me by agreeing to new deals! I got a message saying Carter was retiring at the end of the season and he wouldn't reconsider his decision despite me asking him to. But what I didn't realise was that he retired from professional football (and we are semi-pro). He's never played professional football in his life, so it is pretty funny he felt the need to retire, but it does mean that we have him in the squad for another season (but need to keep in mind that we won't be able to keep hold of him if we do turn the club pro). Hamilton on the other hand, finally accepted that we had adequate depth at goalkeeper, with Ruth coming in from the latest youth intake, and he also slashed his salary expectations from £100pw down to £40pw (still a pay rise from £25pw).

 

[Motlhen]

Other Enfield Clubs 2026/27 Season

Tier 7

Enfield Town with another unremarkable season.

History
8th, 17th, 17th, 16th

 

 

Tier 8

Enfield FC's finished mid-table again, but it is their highest position so far.

History
12th, 14th, 12th, 10th

 

 

Hinton's incredible surge up the leagues has come to a halt. The manager who got their first 2 promotions moved on halfway through last season and the manager who came in continued their record of 1st place finishes, but they had a rough start to this season and he was fired. The current manager managed to climb up to a respectable 8th, even flirting with the promotion places at one point.

History
1st, 1st, 1st, 8th

 

 

Tier 9

Cockfosters broke their playoff curse, gaining promotion via the playoffs at the 3rd time of asking!

History
9th, 5th, 3rd, 4th

 

 

Cockfosters Playoffs

2024/25

 

2025/26

 

2026/27

Edited September 5 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

..continued..

Tier 9

Us!

History
3rd, 1st, 3rd, 14th

 

 

Tier 10

Enfield Borough barely survived this season. They matched their position from last season, but the division they were in last season had 21 teams and this season's had 17 so they were a lot worse and have to improve to expect to stay at this level.

History
19th, 11th, 15th, 15th

 

 

Tier 11

Brimsdown & Cockfosters Reserves played in the same division as each other this season. Brimsdown started poorly but recovered to a solid mid-table spot, whereas Cockfosters Reserves started strong and occupied the only promotion spot until gameweek 12 before dropping down to 3rd and not being able to make the ground back up.

History (Cockfosters Reserves)
12th, 10th, 10th, 3rd

 

History (Brimsdown)
21st, 7th, 11th, 9th

[Motlhen]

Top 10 Most Valuable Players by Year

Key (per year)
Largest Value
Biggest Increase
Biggest Decrease
New Entry into top 10

Name	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027
Ethan Nwaneri	£35,000,000	£37,000,000	£39,000,000	£32,000,000	£91,000,000
Alfie Dorrington	£10,000,000	£13,500,000	£28,000,000	£40,000,000	£75,000,000
Hector Kyprianou	£1,800,000	£3,500,000	£5,000,000	£8,600,000	£3,000,000
Daniel Phillips	£300,000	£475,000	£240,000	£350,000	£1,800,000
Ben Watt	£18,000	£425,000	£650,000	£650,000	£850,000
James Wiles			£700,000	£450,000	£800,000
Paul Appiah	£50,000	£0	£190,000	£375,000	£275,000
Francesco Ancora	£20,000	£70,000	£120,000	£85,000	£230,000
Andronicos Georgiou	£0	£0	£0	£0	£120,000
Callum Stead	£45,000	£80,000	£85,000	£0	£100,000
Tola Showunmi	£160,000	£180,000	£210,000	£210,000	£80,000
Josh Davison	£180,000	£140,000	£0	£60,000	£45,000
Luca Gunter	£275,000	£240,000	£0	£425,000	£22,000
Josh Onomah	£0	£6,200,000	£9,200,000	£3,100,000	£0
Rio Cardines	£475,000	£950,000	£850,000	£275,000	£0
Jeriel Dorsett	£500,000	£425,000	£275,000	£190,000	£0
Jake Livermore	£750,000	£0	£16,000	£2,000

 

Nwaneri is back on top of the list after a huge £59M increase in valuation. He's been rewarded with a new 4-year contract at Arsenal after a breakout season where he got a goal as well as finally making more than one appearance in the Premier League, before half a season's worth of good performances on loan at Middlesborough in the Championship as they finished 12th.

 

 

Dorrington has also had a big increase in valuation, rising by £35M, after his 2nd season-long loan spell at Celtic. He & they have won a 2nd consecutive domestic treble!

 

 

Kyprianou is still in 3rd place on the list despite having the biggest drop in valuation (-£5.6M) this year. He dropped down to League One and was a regular for Watford who missed out on bouncing back into the Championship by losing on penalties in the playoff final to Bristol City.

[Motlhen]

Top 10 Highest Paid Players by Year

Key (per year)
Largest Value
Biggest Increase
Biggest Decrease
New Entry into top 10

Name	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027
Ethan Nwaneri	£220	£1,000	£18,250	£20,000	£65,000
Alfie Dorrington	£1,000	£8,500	£20,500	£52,000	£54,000
Hector Kyprianou	£3,500	£8,250	£16,750	£16,750	£16,750
Ben Watt	£600	£1,100	£825	£850	£4,100
Rio Cardines	£220	£3,900	£4,000	£4,200	£2,900
James Wiles			£220	£220	£2,400
Paul Appiah	£750	£0	£300	£2,000	£2,000
Daniel Phillips	£1,000	£1,600	£1,200	£1,700	£1,600
Luca Gunter	£3,500	£3,500	£0	£1,500	£1,600
Francesco Ancora	£30	£120	£300	£600	£1,500
Tola Showunmi	£450	£1,200	£1,200	£1,200	£1,200
Jeriel Dorsett	£1,200	£775	£775	£950	£950
Josh Davison	£1,800	£2,200	£0	£975	£675
Josh Onomah	£0	£23,500	£29,500	£29,500	£0
Jack Roles	£1,200	£850	£850	£1,800	£0
Joe Kizzi	£1,000	£775	£775	£1,600	£0
Dillon Barnes	£0	£1,600	£0	£1,300	£0
Jake Livermore	£15,000	£0	£1,300	£1,300
Deniz Mehmet	£950	£950	£950	£0
Kevin Stewart	£0	£2,100
Jonathan Obika	£1,500

 

Nwaneri's new contract helped his valuation massively as he moves to top of the list of wages for the first time! Josh Onomah fell out of favour at Sheffield Wednesday last season and went out on loan to Blackpool in L1. This season he remained out of favour at Sheffield Wednesday, didn't manage to go out on loan and was released at the end of his contract. Nearing the end of his career, he surely still has enough quality to be picked up by a decent team for the coming season.

 

 

2 of the 3 new additions to the top 10 list this season were James Wiles from both Leicester & England U18s (I have no scouting knowledge of him so can't show his attributes screen) and Francesco Ancora who has been playing consistently for Airdrie in the Scottish 2nd & 3rd tier for the past 4 seasons and he is still only 19 years old!

 

[Motlhen]

Monetary Transfers

Ben Watt transferred from Waterford to Sligo Rovers for £145,000 in 2025 which was the 23rd most expensive Enfield-born player transfer at the time and he has now moved again. Sligo Rovers have made a £305,000 profit on him as he moves to the Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership for £450,000, which is the joint-19th most expensive an Enfield-born player has been transferred for.

 

 

Name	Year	From		To	Fee
Ryan Mason	2016	Tottenham Hotspur	→	Hull	£12,500,000
Jake Livermore	2017	Hull	→	West Brom	£10,000,000
Jake Livermore	2014	Tottenham Hotspur	→	Hull	£7,000,000
Josh Onomah	2019	Tottenham Hotspur	→	Fulham	£5,000,000
Michael Duberry	1999	Chelsea	→	Leeds	£4,500,000
Henri Lansbury	2017	Nottingham Forest	→	Aston Villa	£3,500,000
Steve Morison	2011	Milwall	→	Norwich	£2,800,000
Hector Kyprianou	2023	Peterborough Utd	→	Sunderland	£1,500,000
Mikele Leigertwood	2011	QPR	→	Reading	£1,100,000
Henri Lansbury	2012	West Ham	→	Nottingham Forest	£1,000,000
Jay Simpson	2010	Arsenal	→	Hull	£1,000,000
Steve Sedgley	1994	Tottenham Hotspur	→	Ipswich	£1,000,000
Mikele Leigertwood	2007	Sheffield United	→	QPR	£900,000
Michael Duberry	2007	Stoke	→	Reading	£800,000
Steve Sedgley	1989	Coventry	→	Tottenham Hotspur	£750,000
Mikele Leigertwood	2006	Crystal Palace	→	Sheffield United	£600,000
Neil Etheridge	2020	Cardiff	→	Birmingham	£600,000
Steve Sedgley	1997	Ipswich	→	Wolves	£500,000
Ben Watt	2027	Sligo Rovers	→	Motherwell	£450,000
Hector Kyprianou	2022	Leyton Orient	→	Peterborough Utd	£450,000
Daniel Phillips	2026	St Johnstone	→	Hearts	£160,000
Mikele Leigertwood	2004	Wimbledon	→	Crystal Palace	£155,000
Neil Kilkenny	2008	Birmingham	→	Leeds	£150,000
Steve Morison	2015	Leeds	→	Milwall	£150,000
Ben Watt	2025	Waterford	→	Sligo Rovers	£145,000
Greg Heald	1997	Peterborough	→	Barnet	£135,000
Keith Bertschin	1977	Ipswich	→	Birmingham	£135,000
Steve Morison	2009	Stevenage	→	Milwall	£130,000
Alan Connell	2011	Grimsby	→	Swindon	£115,000
Jack Roles	2026	Crawley	→	TNS	£94,000
Josh Davison	2022	Charlton	→	AFC Wimbledon	£75,000
Martin Grainger	1993	Colchester United	→	Brentord	£60,000
Roger Gibbins	1978	Norwich	→	New England Tea Men	£60,000
Steve Phillips	1980	Brentford	→	Northampton	£40,000
Greg Heald	1994	Enfield	→	Peterborough	£35,000
Glen Southam	2004	Bishops Stortford	→	Dagenham & Redbridge	£20,000
Jack Roles	2023	Woking	→	Crawley	£20,000
Scott Neilson	2008	Ware	→	Cambridge	£20,000
Scott Neilson	2010	Bradford City	→	Crawley Town	£15,000
Jack Chisholm	1949	Sheffield United	→	Plymouth	£12,000
Roger Gibbins	1989	Torquay	→	Newport County	£10,000
Greg Heald	2003	Barnet	→	Leyton Orient	£9,000
Alan Connell	2005	Bournemouth	→	Torquay	£5,000
Nathaniel Knight-Percival	2010	Histon	→	Wrexham	£5,000
Steve Phillips	1977	Northampton	→	Brentford	£5,000
Gary Bennett	2000	Sudbury	→	Chelmsford City	£3,000

[Motlhen]

Internationals

Defensive midfielder Daniel Phillips has broken the record for the most international goals scored by an Enfield-born player with his 7 goals in 43 appearances for Trinidad & Tobago! Barnum-Bobb got another 3 goals for St Vincent as Hector Kyprianou registered the most international appearances over the past year with 10 for Cyprus. Alfie Dorrington got another senior cap for England and totted up another 4 for their U21s to take his total up above Henry Lansbury's record to 17.

 

Name	Nation	Years	Total Caps	Caps in 2026/27	Total Goals	Goals in 2026/27	Youth Caps	Youth Caps in 2026/27	Youth Goals	Youth Goals in 2026/27
Roy Chipolina	GIB	2013 - 2024	73		5
Andre Boucaud	TRI	2004 - 2021	48		2
Daniel Phillips	TRI	2021 - Present	43	+7	7	+2
Jazzi Barnum-Bobb	VIN	2022 - Present	40	+8	5	+3
Jeriel Dorsett	MSR	2023 - Present	35	+8
Hector Kyprianou	CYP	2023 - Present	34	+10			3		1
Reece Beckles-Richards	ATG	2015 - Present	26	+3	4
Corrin Brooks-Meade	MSR	2015 - 2023	21
Steve Morison	WAL	2010 - 2012	20		1
Reiss Greenidge	GUY	2021 - Present	16	+1	1
Neil Kilkenny	AUS	2006 - 2012	15				10
Mikele Leigertwood	ATG	2008 - 2012	11		1
Jake Livermore	ENG	2012 - 2017	7
Dean Morgan	MSR	2014 - 2024	6
Kevin Stewart	JAM	2022 - 2024	4
Alfie Dorrington	ENG	2023 - Present	3	+1			17	+4
Jack Roles	CYP	2018 - Present	3	+2			6		1
Scott Sutter	SWI	2012	2				2
Elliott Charles	GRE	2011	2
Joe O'Cearuill	ROI	2007	2
Nathan Smith	JAM	2011 - 2012	2
Dillon Barnes	JAM	2021 - Present	1
Ryan Mason	ENG	2015	1
Henri Lansbury	ENG	2009 - 2013					16		5
Keith Bertschin	ENG	1975 - 1978					13		7
Steve Sedgley	ENG	1987 - 1989					11		2
Josh Onomah	ENG	2016 - 2018					8		2
Michael Duberry	ENG	1996 - 1997					5		1
Cian Hughton	IRE	2009 - 2010					5
Danny Hill	ENG	1995					4
Harry Kyprianou	CYP	2018					4
Chris Paul	NIR	2018					3
Sean Shields	NIR	2013					2
Ethan Nwaneri	ENG	2025 - Present					2
Total			415	40	26	5	111	4	19	0

 

 

Year-by-Year Progress

Year	Total Caps	Total Goals	Youth Caps	Youth Goals
2024	54	1	1	0
2025	53	5	6	0
2026	42	6	8	0
2027	40	5	4	0
Total	189	17	19	0

Edited August 30 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Neil Etheridge

At the start of this save, I used this list of Enfield-born footballers to collate the names of all of the Enfield-born players. Then I would search for them in-game and if they had Place of Birth = Enfield, I added them to my shortlist. One player who escaped my attention til now (I noticed him on the list of Monetary Transfers above) was Neil Etheridge, a name I'm very familiar with from his time at Cardiff in the Premier League.

Looking within the game, I can see why he escaped my attention til now, as his Place of Birth = Fleet. But according to all of the sources I can find online, he was born in Enfield Town and went on to start playing football at primary school in Fleet (which might explain the mix up in-game.)

In-game, Etheridge played two more seasons as 2nd choice goalkeeper at Birmingham in the Championship before retiring. But he also is a Philippine international starting the save with 73 caps and he went on to hit 100 caps before hanging up his boots, taking him past Chipolina's record as the holder of the Most International Caps made by an Enfield-born player!

 

 

Name	Nation	Years	Total Caps	Caps in 2026/27	Total Goals	Goals in 2026/27	Youth Caps	Youth Caps in 2026/27	Youth Goals	Youth Goals in 2026/27
Neil Etheridge	PHI	2008 - 2026	100
Roy Chipolina	GIB	2013 - 2024	73		5
Andre Boucaud	TRI	2004 - 2021	48		2
Daniel Phillips	TRI	2021 - Present	43	7	7	2
Jazzi Barnum-Bobb	VIN	2022 - Present	40	8	5	3
Jeriel Dorsett	MSR	2023 - Present	35	8
Hector Kyprianou	CYP	2023 - Present	34	10			3		1
Reece Beckles-Richards	ATG	2015 - Present	26	3	4
Corrin Brooks-Meade	MSR	2015 - 2023	21
Steve Morison	WAL	2010 - 2012	20		1
Reiss Greenidge	GUY	2021 - Present	16	1	1
Neil Kilkenny	AUS	2006 - 2012	15				10
Mikele Leigertwood	ATG	2008 - 2012	11		1
Jake Livermore	ENG	2012 - 2017	7
Dean Morgan	MSR	2014 - 2024	6
Kevin Stewart	JAM	2022 - 2024	4
Alfie Dorrington	ENG	2023 - Present	3	1			17	4
Jack Roles	CYP	2018 - Present	3	2			6		1
Scott Sutter	SWI	2012	2				2
Elliott Charles	GRE	2011	2
Joe O'Cearuill	ROI	2007	2
Nathan Smith	JAM	2011 - 2012	2
Dillon Barnes	JAM	2021 - Present	1
Ryan Mason	ENG	2015	1
Henri Lansbury	ENG	2009 - 2013					16		5
Keith Bertschin	ENG	1975 - 1978					13		7
Steve Sedgley	ENG	1987 - 1989					11		2
Josh Onomah	ENG	2016 - 2018					8		2
Michael Duberry	ENG	1996 - 1997					5		1
Cian Hughton	IRE	2009 - 2010					5
Danny Hill	ENG	1995					4
Harry Kyprianou	CYP	2018					4
Chris Paul	NIR	2018					3
Sean Shields	NIR	2013					2
Ethan Nwaneri	ENG	2025 - Present					2
Total			515	40	26	5	111	4	19	0

 

 

Year-by-Year Progress

Year	Total Caps	Total Goals	Youth Caps	Youth Goals
2024	61	1	1	0
2025	63	5	6	0
2026	52	6	8	0
2027	40	5	4	0
Total	216	17	19	0

[Motlhen]

Top 10 Highest Paid Staff by Year

Mikele Leigertwood has been on this list in the past, but I had only been including his club wage (£800 - £925 p/w) and not including his national wage (£2,000 p/w). Including both sees him rise up to 3rd on the list. Steve Morison has retired after his phenomenally fast fall from grace (Sutton -> Sacked -> Sutton Utd -> Sacked). I am surprised that Ryan Mason & Mehmet Ali have both not picked up jobs and hope that they will again this season. That leaves Matt Wells still coaching at Tottenham (contracted til 2029) top of the list with Fulham's U18 coach Gary Sawyer getting a decent 50% pay rise!

Key (per year)
Largest Value
Biggest Increase
Biggest Decrease
New Entry into top 10

Name	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027
Matt Wells	£8,000	£8,000	£8,000	£8,000	£8,000
Alan Connell	£3,000	£3,000	£3,000	£3,000	£3,300
Mikele Leigertwood	£2,800	£2,825	£2,825	£2,925	£2,925
Stuart Douglas	£2,000	£2,000	£2,000	£2,000	£2,000
Cheye Jude	£0	£0	£0	£1,800	£1,800
Gary Sawyer	£300	£425	£875	£1,000	£1,500
Danny Talbot	£1,500	£1,500	£1,700	£1,200	£1,400
Piero Mingoia	£600	£650	£700	£775	£850
Jonathan Obika		£600	£600	£625	£625
Henri Lansbury	£0	£425	£425	£425	£425
Hakan Hayrettin	£500	£190	£190	£190	£0
Ryan Mason	£12,000	£12,000	£12,000	£0	£0
Mehmet Ali	£2,000	£4,600	£4,600	£0	£0
Steve Morison	£3,000	£900	£0	£0

 

[Motlhen]

International Manager

Mikele Leigertwood's Antigua & Barbuda came in 2nd place in their Nations League group for a 3rd time in a row and for a 2nd time in a row they also lost out on penalties in the Gold Cup playoffs.

[Motlhen]

Club Managers

Danny Chapman has been relegated in his 16th season with Harlow Town. He's had 3 promotions and now 2 relegations in his time with the club.

 

 

We've seen 3x new managers from Enfield this season, including our old left-back/scout/coach Chris Arthur who took charge at Whickham in January but couldn't save them from relegation.

[Motlhen]

Back to Bush Hill Rangers.

2027/28 Season Preview

At the end of last season we managed to tie our top goal scorer Hamilton to a new contract & managed to re-sign Gary Farr, who's goals from midfield were sorely missed last season. We added a brilliant new intake and another decent winger in Hayden-Smith to what is looking like a very strong squad. Over the summer, there were no new signings and we only saw unwanted players leave or go out on loan despite being absolutely bombarded with £0 offers for all of our best players. The only player who we received a monetary offer for was our star player Clarke and it's safe to say it was no where near big enough to consider.

 

 

The board expect us to reach the playoffs this season and we are predicted 3rd. We have to improve massively on last season to get close to those pre-season expectations!

[Motlhen]

Staff In

Billy Bricknell, formerly of Enfield Town, joins us as our Chief Scout!

[Motlhen]

First Day at Our New Stadium

As our first competitive fixture of the season was away, our first day at our new stadium would be our FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round tie against Welwyn. Unfortunately for us, the away game in the league was against Tower Hamlets who had also just moved into their own stadium, which is 8.5x bigger than ours. This made our move seem rather underwhelming, but at least we can say we sold out our stadium 

 

 

The squad is ready for the new season:

[Motlhen]

Jul 2027

We succumbed to a late winner against Tower Hamlets in front of over 10k fans, then filled our stadium to claim a last minute winner in a feisty FA Cup tie! Tower Hamlets are predicted 2nd in the league and we've now gone farther in the FA Cup than ever before, so I'm seeing this as a positive start. We've broken our attendance and gate receipt records and I'll be keeping an eye on how much more money our new stadium is generating us.

[Motlhen]

Staff In

Initially I wasn't going to sign Pogue as he is not an improvement on anyone we already have, but then I noticed that he doesn't mind being a Physio! We haven't had a physio at the club at all yet and it seems rare to find any Enfield-born physios, so despite not being great I am happier to have a physio than not have one so we welcome Pogue in as our U18s manager (but really he's here to be a physio).

[Motlhen]

Aug 2027

Two wins on the bounce put us in a great position, but then we stopped scoring. Our home tie in the FA Cup wasn't helped by having centre-back Gutzmore in goal for 80 minutes! They scored with one of their 2 shots on target in a game we really should have put to bed, and then we were unlucky to go out on penalties in the replay. Two more games followed with so many chances falling our way, but no clinical striker to finish them!

[Motlhen]

Striker Problems

These are our strikers, how would you use them?

 

Decent Acceleration and good Finishing.

 

Winger with no pace or finishing.

 

Clearly not a striker.

 

Not featured.

 

These are the players from Enfield who can play as a striker (that our scouts know about). I've come close to signing Ndefo on a couple of occasions but he's gone to clubs paying him a higher wage. Greenidge currently won't accept a trial offer and wants way too much (£500+p/w) to join. Beyond that, the next best available strikers are not improvements on our squad and so we are a bit stuck. My fingers are crossed for a superstar striker in the next intake!

[Motlhen]

The other strikers at the club (should I be considering these guys?!)

 

 

[Motlhen]

Sep 2027

Well, wow. Our scoring has definitely improved. Players from all over the park have been chipping in with goals as we hit 7 and then 5 in the two cup games. We're up to 5th and I hope we can cling on to the last playoff position.

[Motlhen]

Nominal Bid

Jake Clarke has had another tiny bid come in for him. I am intrigued by how far a Percentage of Next Sale could take us, but I think the club we were selling to would have to have a much higher reputation than Warrington. Either way, £675 is a joke and no where near what I would consider, even if the PoNS was 50%.

[Motlhen]

Staff Bid

Technically, this is the highest bid we've had for anyone so far and it is for our HoYD / Coach Conteh. He is way too good for us, He played for us 13 times before taking up the staff role permanently, and I think him having me as one his favoured personnel helped massively in convincing him to stay!

[Motlhen]

Transfer In

After mentioning that we had come close to signing striker Ndefo on a couple of occasions, we managed to land our man this month! He comes in as a much needed alternative to Hamilton who has been in very patchy form the past 2 seasons. 

[Motlhen]

Oct 2027

We scored 5 goals two games in a row against bottom-of-the-leage Reading (with Ndefo getting a goal on his debut) and tier 10 Holyport. We should never have lost against Ascot (who we recently scored 5 against in the cup) and Edgware were too good for us and went top with the 3 points.

 

 

Things are looking a lot better than this time last year. We're pushing for the playoffs and both the board and supporters are happy with everything we're doing (apart from the finances...) I have 187 days of less responsibilities and still have no idea what the board are doing instead of me 

[Motlhen]

First Youth Intake (BH01)

We have lost a few of the players from our first intake recently, most notably centre-back Edgerley who was still around the first team squad. He was kicking up a fuss about first team football every couple of weeks until I promised to let him leave. He left for free with a(n ambitious) 50% of next sale clause stuck in there. He was only getting bids from amateur teams so I never expect this to turn into anything valuable, it was more of an experiment to see if the board will still negotiate some sort of buyout fee for us.

 

 

These are the other players from our first intake that have moved on from the club, including top prospect BH01a Blake.

 

[Motlhen]

..continued..

 

[Motlhen]

Transfer In

Well, we no longer have a striker problem! We've managed to sign Greenidge as a 2nd marked improvement to our depth up front, who knows maybe I'll even play two up front?!

Edited September 6 by Motlhen

[ryanlion28]

I love the detail you're putting into this save, really unique and important for the narrative

 

Billy Bricknell as a Chief Scout as well! He was a serious bagsman at Isthmian Premier League level. One of them players who was just a complete finisher and not much else. You wouldn't see him get involved for 70 minutes then he'd pop up with a brace. When you posted his history his numbers are pretty impressive for most seasons!

[Motlhen]

5 hours ago, ryanlion28 said:

I love the detail you're putting into this save, really unique and important for the narrative

 

Billy Bricknell as a Chief Scout as well! He was a serious bagsman at Isthmian Premier League level. One of them players who was just a complete finisher and not much else. You wouldn't see him get involved for 70 minutes then he'd pop up with a brace. When you posted his history his numbers are pretty impressive for most seasons!

Thanks! I'm loving it too

Yeah, he scored everywhere he went! He also had a pretty good rate of assists for his time at Enfield Town too:

Enfield Town P38 G21 A16
 

Some sources even had his goal ratio higher than a goal per game!

[Motlhen]

Nov 2027

We've dropped off again and we're losing touch with the playoff spots and out of the FA Vase. Disappointing after a couple of big wins to start the month had me thinking we might start hitting some consistent form. When we win, we win big. But our league form has been patchy.

 

League Form:

[Motlhen]

After another drab draw, Bricknell and the scouting team called an emergency recruitment meeting:

 

 

And I also found out the board have scrapped our 5-year plan and are looking to sell the club.

[Motlhen]

Dec 2027

A great end to the year as we have finally hit some consistent form. Hamilton got injured for 6 weeks and Ndefo has claimed the spot up front ahead of Greenidge. Over the past few months I've been tinkering tactically, but I finally think I've got something that works with our squad. 

[Motlhen]

Transfer Interest

Jake Clarke has gone from strength to strength and it's not going unnoticed by teams in divisions way higher than us. He's played 120 games for us now and is still only 19 years old. There's active interest from the likes of Bury, Torquay or Welsh Premier league side Penybont and even a couple of League 2 teams are sniffing around.

 

It could be a long winter transfer window...

[Motlhen]

Game Setup

I didn't share this at the start of the save, but I am running quite a few playable leagues. The interest from Penybont for our 9th tier defender is the exact kind of transfer interaction I think I've missed out on in saves where I've limited the leagues loaded. This will also give me more opportunity to follow Enfield-born players/staff in more detail when they travel abroad.

 

This does come at a cost of a slightly slower game - especially because of the number of leagues down as far as Level 12 in England. I started with Level 12 loaded, but removed it once all of the Enfield clubs were clear of relegation (from the 11th tier) after the first 2 seasons. A few seasons on from that decision and both Brimsdown & Cockfosters Reserves are still down in the 11th tier and in serious danger of relegation this season. I don't want to lose any Enfield-based clubs out of the database, but I definitely don't want to add Level 12 back in to the game and that leaves me with one option: save them myself.

If either club sacks their manager (Cockfosters will have to sack their manager for me to be able to take over Cockfosters Reserves), I will add in a 2nd manager who will attempt to save the them (also using only Enfield-born players & staff) and build up their facilities and attempt to rise up the leagues too. The only difference will be that this manager's career will be speed-run: all things delegated and Instant Result for matches. The focus will still be on Bush Hill Rangers.

They've both begun a bounce-back in form in recent weeks, so hopefully they can save themselves, but I'm ready for plan B!

[Motlhen]

Humphreys has been key to our turnaround in form! He went a bit under the radar in the intake last year as we have a strong selelction of wingers in the squad, but he is having a phenomenal season for us and is in top form!

[Motlhen]

Transfer Window

There were no ins or outs in the January transfer window, but we are receiveing a lot of offers for our players. Jake Clarke still remains the only player to receive monetary bids, and after singling them out in an earlier post, Penybont have come knocking. They increased their bid from £825 +40% of next sale to £9,700 +40 of next sale. I would only be interested in selling our key man for a fee that would secure the clubs future financially - maybe around the £250k mark?

[Motlhen]

Jan 2028

Despite losing a close game to top-of-the-league Tower Hamlets, we've continued our good form, including smashing 6 against Molesey in the cup! There is now 7 points between us and 6th and only 6 points between us and 1st place. We couldn't make a late title challenge could we?