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

[Motlhen]

Starting from the 11th tier in England, my aim is to be as successful as possible by using only players born in Enfield.

Why Enfield?
   1. It's my hometown.
   2. There are 8* eligible clubs to help us on the way.
   3. It's one of the biggest City's in the country without a big team.

 

Clubs in Enfield

Edited July 11 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Competition Tiers

The highest level that an Enfield club currently plays at is the 7th tier:

7th Tier
Enfield Town

8th Tier
Enfield FC

9th Tier
Cockfosters

10th Tier
Brimsdown
Enfield Borough

11th Tier
Bush Hill Rangers
Cockfosters Reserves*
Hinton

12th Tier
OIR FC**
 

*Cockfosters Reserves play two tiers below their main team.
**OIR FC are a Somalian club based in Enfield. They only recruit Somali-born players and therefore are not eligible for the challenge.

Therefore we have 7 teams that will be likely to produce youngsters born in Enfield each season, and 8 potential teams to manage (if we include Cockfosters Reserves).

 

[EDIT]

Actually it seems that Enfield FC are producing youngsters without a place of birth. 

Therefore we have 6 teams that will be likely to produce youngsters born in Enfield each season, and 7 potential teams to manage (if we include Cockfosters Reserves).

Edited July 11 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Club

I'll be managing Bush Hill Rangers. They play in the 11th tier, in the same league as both Hinton & Cockfosters Reserves (other Enfield-based clubs). Our club's financial situation is precarious, but we're a completely amateur club, so no player or staff member is being paid (including myself). We share a decent-sized ground, but sadly it's not in Enfield. We are a club with a minimal reputation so during the first few years emphasis will be placed on improving the youth setup as I think that will be a quicker pathway to finding better Enfield-born players than increasing our reputation to attract current Enfield-born players.

Edited July 12 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Manager

Jenna Schillaci {wiki] [short video of her talking in the lead up to the North London derby in 2019]

Schillaci joined Tottenham in the regional divisions and spent a year with the team before moving to QPR and then on to her local club Enfield Town. Eight years on from her initial spell with Spurs, she returned and was part of the team that gained 3 promotions and lifted 8 trophies over the next 11 years, including captaining the side as they won promotion to the WSL for the first time. Overall she amassed over 200 games for Tottenham and is bringing a wealth of playing experience to the club.
 

Edited July 12 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Staff

There were no other staff at the club when I arrived and even through a thorough search and numerous offers, I could only find one other Enfield-born staff member to join the backroom team. As a result, Lew has been assigned the Assistant Manager role, but will also do our scouting, press conferences, training etc.

Edited July 12 by Motlhen

[leobiazzi]

This one is going to be cool, good luck!

[Motlhen]

Squad

The first thing we had to do was to let go of all of the non-Enfield-born players. Thankfully it didn't cost us anything to terminate these 9 amateur contracts and I could concentrate on the 25 remaining Enfield-born players. Between myself and Ass Man Lew, we picked our first and second XI. There's a few players we need to retrain into positions that will suit them better, but we're also looking at where and how we can improve the squad in the transfer market too. This season we'll be looking to create a solid 22-man squad to keep in rotation and fight for starting spots. As we're amateur, if anyone does start attracting interest from elsewhere, we don't have much power to stop them leaving, so we will need to make sure that we have some sort of quality in depth (although quality might not be the right word down in the 11th tier ).

Edited July 12 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Skin

I've adapted the skin colours to the quality levels down in level 11. Any time we gain promotion, I'll increase all of these figures by 1 (or make a decision based on how our players profiles are looking). Any other potential enhancements or different skin recommendations are welcome

[Muttley84]

I could swear there was another guy here doing the exact same thing with Enfield players - or it might be you in another older thread (FM23 maybe?) and my memory is messing up haha. Anyways, very interesting concept, curious if you last long enough to see if enough players are available for Premier League level. Will be following, good luck!

[Motlhen]

1 hour ago, Muttley84 said:

I could swear there was another guy here doing the exact same thing with Enfield players - or it might be you in another older thread (FM23 maybe?) and my memory is messing up haha. Anyways, very interesting concept, curious if you last long enough to see if enough players are available for Premier League level. Will be following, good luck!

Hey mate, you're right, it was me!

I loved that save in the last edition and played a lot further than I wrote up on the forums. I'm hoping to keep up with both this edition so hopefully we will both be able to see some Enfield players at Premier League level  

[Motlhen]

After Muttley84's post, I thought now would be a good time to look at the 3 best players from Enfield.

1. Jake Livermore is arguably the most famous player from Enfield, and with his £10M move from West Brom to Hull in 2016, I think he is the most expensive Enfield-born football player still playing. He also holds the record for the most England caps for an Enfield-born player with 7.
2. Josh Onomah is another player who has made numerous appearances in the Premier League, but he's currently a free agent after departing Championship Preston last season.
3. Roy Chipolina is the Enfield-born player with the most international caps. The Gibraltarian international has racked up 68 caps and has spent the entirety of his club career playing in the Gibraltarian leagues.
    

 

 

 

 

Edited July 13 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

The 3 biggest prospects from Enfield

1. Ethan Nwaneri has an exciting future ahead of him as the 16 year old has already made his Premier League debut for Arsenal.
2. Alfie Dorrington is a young centre-back touted for big things at Tottenham.
3. Jeriel Dorsett is a bit older at 21, but he's already featured prominently in League 2 and more recently in the Scottish Premier League for Kilmarnock.
    

 

 

[Motlhen]

3 best staff from Enfield

1. Ryan Mason became the interim head coach at Tottenham last season after spending a lot of his career with the club. He suffered an infamous on-pitch medical incident that shortened his playing career but has sprouted great potential in such a young coach. He also holds the record for the most expensive Enfieldian transfer with his £12.5M move from Spurs to Hull.
2. Steve Morison played in all of the top 7 tiers of English football as well as being capped 20 times for Wales. He's now working his 3rd managerial post at Sutton United.
3. Mikele Leigertwood is not only Reading's U18 manager, but has also managed his National team Antigua & Barbuda for the past 2 years too.

 

 

 

 

[Motlhen]

Now that we've seen the best, let's look at what we've got.

Bush Hill Rangers Best 3* Players

*4 players: I added one extra as these four players have a four-star rating or higher. Albeit our assistant manager's opinion isn't one I'll be relying on too often to pick the team, this showcases our club's best players against the best players the city has produced (shown a few posts earlier). We have a long way to go and a lot of work to do in the transfer market.

[Motlhen]

Pre-Season

The 11th tier has 1 promotion spot and 3 relegation spots and we are predicted dead last and adrift from the other teams. This looks like a tough league to get out of. The other two Enfield-based teams are the first and second favourites for the league. 

 

 

We played some friendlies and made some transfers and as the new players arrived our performances and results markedly improved. We've brought in 14 players, including FIVE players from both Hinton (our league's favourites for promotion) and Brimsdown (favourites for relegation in the tier above). Our activity in the transfer market means we are no longer favourites for relegation, but we're still in a mix of a dozen unfavoured teams in the division. 

 

 

Squad

That leaves our squad looking like this as we approach the first league game. Our first and second XI contain only half of our new signings as the rest did not improve the focus group, but were brought in as emergency backups for if any of our players leave mid-season. As all of our players are amateur, that means that they could leave at any time for free, but it also means that it doesn't cost anything to have more players than we need too.

[Motlhen]

Brothers

The first of our players I want to introduce are the Thrower brothers. Left winger Sam was with us from the start when I joined the club and his older brother Josiah was brought in not long afterwards to play on the opposite wing. [Full disclosure, they were not brothers until I used the in-game editor to update their favoured personnel. Throughout this save I will be using the in-game editor for such aesthetic reasons, to increase immersion, but never to look at attributes, PA, CA etc).

Edited July 24 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Sept 2023

In our first 5 matches we scored 4 penalties and 1 free-kick with only one goal (in our 4th match) scored from open play. We have played against the other two Enfield-based clubs in our division and as they were the top 2 favourites for the league, two wins in those two games is a very positive sign.

 

 

Goalkeeper

Goalkeeper Robyn Williams was the best rated player at the club when I joined. However, my first signing was Isaac Fordjour who I chose to be our number one for the start of the season. He immediately showed me that was the right call with two big penalty saves in the game against Hinton, the club we signed him from! 

Edited July 13 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Youth Improvements

The board accepted my second round of requests for Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment improvements. This is the first step in the direction we need to go to generate better quality Enfield-born players and I will ask the board to continue these improvements every chance I get.

[Motlhen]

Transfer Out

I was wary of having no control over losing players. Once a bigger club is interested or any sort of money is offered, there's nothing stopping our players from walking out the door (and fair enough). The first to do so was our starting left back (and player with the best name at the club) Charlie Carley.

[Motlhen]

Oct 2023

We're in one cup this season, the Aubrey cup. I believe that this is a regional cup between teams in the 11th and 12th tiers. We're in the Hertfordshire Senior County League Premier Division and we played Evergreen who play in the Hertfordshire Senior County League Division One. After a rotated side got us through to the next round, we'll be facing Harpenden Town Under 21s, who also play in the Hertfordshire Senior County League Division One, but that game doesn't happen until February so we will have the league to concentrate on for a while.

In the league games this month, we scored our 5th penalty after 6 matches before our 7th game opened up into a goal fest! We came out on top in a 9-goal thriller and we are up in third, making it an Enfield 1-2-3 in the league as both Hinton & Cockfosters Reserves, who we've already beaten this season, occupy the two spots above us.

 

 

Under-Performance

The final player I brought in before the start of the season instantly became our best-rated player at the club. In this case, I agreed with my assistant and stuck Sam Byles straight in the centre of our defence. After a few games there, he wasn't having the impact I was hoping for, so I moved him out to right full back, which I believe is his best position. But still after 7 games, he hasn't put in the level of performance we would hope from any first team starter, let alone the supposed best player at the club. I'm hoping he can turn things around soon otherwise he'll be replaced in the starting lineup.

[Motlhen]

Transfer Out

One of our starting centre-backs George Collins has left to drop down a level to tier 12. Each time a player leaves, I promote a player from the group of backups we have in the under 21's, plus I am also on the constant lookout to see if any other Enfield-born players are interested to join.

[Motlhen]

Nov 2023

Including the 5-4 win at the end of last month, we went on a run of conceding 15 goals in 3 games. This coincided with the defensive departures of Carley & Collins as the players that replaced them clearly weren't ready for the first team action. I'll try to adapt to more rotation between the first and second XI to ensure that we are slightly more prepared for any more sudden departures. I was happy that we managed to end the month with a win, and despite all the goals conceded, we're sitting in 2nd place with a goal difference of zero.

 

 

Top Performers

Matt Newton has been our best player, playing as a box-to-box midfielder. He's scored some incredible long-range strikes and cropped up with assists too. Ben Nichols has also been performing well playing as our attacking midfielder, behind Shayne Phillips (who was our backup striker at the start of the season before Robert Goulding got injured in pre-season) and he's stepped up to the plate and has kept his starting spot despite Goulding coming back from injury. 

[Motlhen]

Youth Intake Preview

We need our intakes to be good, and we need the best players from our intakes to be from Enfield. Anyone who is not born in Enfield will be released immediately. I'll try to keep track of all of the players we produce throughout the save and will try to avoid anything that will make us more likely to have players come through the intake born elsewhere (eg. foreign affiliates). We are a long way off of that now though. Now, we need stronger backups and I am hoping we get at least one Enfield-born academy product at first team level.

[Motlhen]

Dec 2023

We started the month with yet another goal fest. This time round Thrower's 95th & 96th minute goals won it for us! We lost twice this month, but considering these games were against 3rd & 5th in the league, I don't think I can be too disappointed. I am thrilled to have finished the month and the year with two back-to-back clean sheets and 4 points ahead of 3rd place. The new year also marks the halfway point in the league and we have a 10-point gap between us and Hinton. We're still the only team to have beaten them this season and if they manage to keep up this form, there's no catching them. I am hoping that we can push on and be in a position to capitalise on any blip in form they have.

Edited July 24 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Finances

According to this graph, we started with a huge negative balance in May. Sponsorship worth £135k plugged that hole before I took over and we have been teetering just above a zero balance ever since. I am not sure we can expect such a big sponsorship payment year-on-year, so I will concentrate on monitoring the finances from June onwards.

We've made over £1k on 3 categories (Fund Raising, Match Day Income & Gate Receipts). If we get promoted, I would expect the latter 2 of these to increase. As you progress up the tiers, the locality decreases, meaning that if we do get promoted, we will likely be paying more for Travel Costs. Hopefully we can draw big enough crowds to mitigate this increase.

We've spent over £1k on 5 categories (Other, Scouting Costs, Ground Maintenance, Tax, Non-Football Costs). I can immediately save us money by reducing our scouting. But we don't have any control over the others (afaik). Despite already improving our Youth Recruitment and Youth Coaching, we haven't spent any considerable amount on the Youth Setup, so I'm very keen to push for more improvements as soon as possible.

Edited July 16 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Transfer In

We've signed a very well-rounded attacker (for our level), he's fast and strong, has decent (6+) attributes across all of the relevant technicals. The only issue is he is tiny (162cm = 5'3") and has a jumping reach of 1. I think his best position is as a diminutive winger on the left side and I'm hoping he can immediately contribute to the goals.

[Motlhen]

Jan 2024

A couple of disappointing results at the start of the year, despite our new signing getting off the mark in his debut after 2 minutes. Hinton look like they are going to run away with the title after extending their lead at the top to 11 and knocking us down to 3rd in the process.

Edited July 24 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Loans In

Since taking over I've been making the odd, sporadic loan offers to anyone who might be available to us. It's only now in February that we have had a couple of successful offers. Joining us is Angel, a third member of the Thrower family, as well as Whitney from two other Enfield teams.

[Motlhen]

Feb 2024

A month of draws, with one win and one loss (which was a also a draw). The cup loss was hard to take as we got a very early red card and I feel we would've been able to get through to the next round easily if we didn't have the man disadvantage.

 

 

The board aren't too happy about the cup loss. They want us to finish in the top 4 in the league, so now there is a much higher emphasis on making sure we do just that!

[Motlhen]

Non-Contracts

It looks like we are about to lose the best of the Thrower family. Josiah has had interest for a while, but over the past few days he's been bombarded with offers and I don't expect him to be around for much longer. This is the reality we are likely to face when any player performs well and we are still an amateur club. If we push for semi-professional status too early, we could end up in financial difficulty. If we stay amateur for too long, the quality of player moving into our starting XI will keep decreasing. The quicker we get up the leagues, the less risk there will be involved in turning semi-pro so next season we have to aim for the one automatic promotion spot!

Edited July 18 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Transfer Out

Sure enough, Thrower leaves his brother (and cousin?) behind and becomes the first of the signings I made whilst in charge of Bush Hill to also depart.

 

[Motlhen]

Youth Intake

12 from the 16 youth players were from Enfield, including the top 4 by current ability, which is great news! The non-Enfield born players have immediately been released.
Below I have shown that I have renamed each of the players with the BH0Xy where X is the intake number and y is the position in the list. I have also renamed the players that we released so that I can keep track of their progress away from our club.

*Gardner was signed to an amateur contract, but as I'm posting this I realised he's from not from Enfield, so he's been released - not sure how I missed that first time round.

[Motlhen]

Youth Intake breaking into the 1st & 2nd XI

After evaluating all of the youth intake, I was very surprised to think that my favourite two players were the two centre-backs rated the worst from the intake by my assistant. These two will be immediately starting the last few games of the season as I rate them higher than any of the centre-backs that we still currently have at the club.

 

 

The only other player going straight into the starting XI is Blake. He looks like a great asset on the wing and will also be taking all of our corners and free-kicks.

 

 

These are the other players from the intake that will be part of the squad.

Edited July 19 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

The rest of the intake:

[Motlhen]

Mar 2024

With our new additions, we have managed the longest winning streak of the season. This gives me more confidence going into next season that we can push for the title and promotion, after Hinton ran away with the title this year.

[Motlhen]

Apr 2024

Our winning run continued with two huge wins. Our biggest margin of victory previously was 3 goals, so to win two games by 5 goals, with 7 of the 10 goals being scored by players from the recent youth intake, means we finish the season very strong. Despite our unbeaten run, we could only manage a draw on the final day of the season, meaning we slipped back to 3rd place.

[Motlhen]

Other Enfield Clubs 2023/24 Season

Halfway through the season, Enfield Town looked like they could push towards new heights for an Enfield-based team, but they couldn't mount a promotion challenge and fell to mid table, where most of the Enfield teams finished this season. Hinton won promotion to level 10 and Brimsdown were relegated to level 11, meaning we will have the same number of teams at each tier as we did last season.

Level 7

Enfield Town 8th

 

Level 8

Enfield FC 12th

 

Level 9

Cockfosters 9th

 

Level 10

Enfield Borough 19th
Brimsdown 21st (Relegated)

 

Level 11

Hinton 1st (Promoted)
Bush Hill Rangers 3rd
Cockfosters Reserves 12th

[Motlhen]

Off Field Improvements

The board surprised me by announcing they wanted to build a new stadium in Enfield. I am delighted to be relocating from Ware back to where we belong, but do wonder how we are going to fund this. On the Club Info page, I found that they are looking to build a 1,272 seater stadium, which is ever so slightly bigger than our largest home attendance last season of 38. This size stadium should prove useful if we continually rise through the leagues, but if we end up stagnating in a division for a few years, or even get relegated, I can see the financial side of a new stadium build catching up with us. However, this is all speculation for now as I do not know how much it will cost us.

Before I knew about the new stadium plans, I requested for both youth coaching and youth recruitment improvements. Both were accepted and I am currently very happy with Mick Sampson (Chairperson).

 

 

During pre-season, I also asked and was granted permission to start training for my first coaching licence, our under-18's got invited into a youth league and we got the news that we had doubled the number of season ticket holders from last season! All of this progress has to be matched with improved performances on the pitch and a push for promotion this season.

[Motlhen]

I want to keep track of any landmarks made by Enfield-born players and staff over the course of this save. Each season I will add an unemployed manager to the save to be able to look at international caps, transfers, new staff appointments etc. This will not let me see any of the players attributes and when I am done I will revert to a previous save file as if the unemployed manager never existed.

 

Enfield Player Overview

International Caps

I've created a list of all of the Enfield-born International players that I can find.

Chipolina managed another 5 caps for Gibraltar aged 41 before retiring from football to become a coach. He holds the record for the most caps by an Enfield-born player and it is not a record that will be broken for a long, long time! Currently, he also holds the record for the most goals scored

 

Name	Nation	Years	Total Caps	Caps in 2023/24	Total Goals	Goals in 2023/24	Youth Caps	Youth Caps in 2023/24	Youth Goals	Youth Goals in 2023/24
Roy Chipolina	GIB	2013 - 2024	73	+5	5
Andre Boucaud	TRI	2004 - 2021	48		2
Corrin Brooks-Meade	MSR	2015 - 2023	21
Steve Morison	WAL	2010 - 2012	20		1
Neil Kilkenny	AUS	2006 - 2012	15				10
Daniel Phillips	TRI	2021 - Present	14	+7
Jazzi Barnum-Bobb	VIN	2022 - Present	13	+9
Mikele Leigertwood	ATG	2008 - 2012	11		1
Reece Beckles-Richards	ATG	2015 - Present	9	+8	1	+1
Hector Kyprianou	CYP	2023 - Present	8	+8			3		1
Jeriel Dorsett	MSR	2023 - Present	8	+8
Jake Livermore	ENG	2012 - 2017	7
Dean Morgan	MSR	2014 - Present	6	+3
Reiss Greenidge	GUY	2021 - Present	4	+3
Kevin Stewart	JAM	2022 - Present	4	+2
Scott Sutter	SWI	2012	2				2
Elliott Charles	GRE	2011	2
Joe O'Cearuill	ROI	2007	2
Nathan Smith	JAM	2011 - 2012	2
Jack Roles	CYP	2018 - Present	1	+1			6		1
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
Sean Shields	NIR	2013					2
Alfie Dorrington	ENG	2023 - Present					1	+1
Total			272	+54	10	+1	90	+1	19	0

 

 

 

Monetary Transfers

I've created a list of the historical transfer fees for Enfield-born players where the fee was disclosed.

The only recent transfer of note was made by Hector Kyprianou. He transferred for £450k last season and £1.3M at the start of this season to jump up from League 2 to League 1 and now the Championship. 

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
Michael Duberry	1999	Chelsea	→	Leeds	£4,500,000
Henri Lansbury	2017	Nottingham Forest	→	Aston Villa	£3,500,000
Hector Kyprianou	2023	Peterborough Utd	→	Sunderland	£1,300,000
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
Neil Etheridge	2020	Cardiff	→	Birmingham	£600,000
Mikele Leigertwood	2006	Crystal Palace	→	Sheffield United	£600,000
Steve Sedgley	1997	Ipswich	→	Wolves	£500,000
Hector Kyprianou	2022	Leyton Orient	→	Peterborough Utd	£450,000
Mikele Leigertwood	2004	Wimbledon	→	Crystal Palace	£155,000
Neil Kilkenny	2008	Birmingham	→	Leeds	£150,000
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
Josh Davison	2022	Charlton	→	AFC Wimbledon	£75,000
Martin Grainger	1993	Colchester United	→	Brentford	£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
Jack Roles	2023	Woking	→	Crawley	£20,000
Scott Neilson	2008	Ware	→	Cambridge	£20,000
Glen Southam	2004	Bishops Stortford	→	Dagenham & Redbridge	£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
Nathaniel Knight-Percival	2010	Histon	→	Wrexham	£5,000
Alan Connell	2005	Bournemouth	→	Torquay	£5,000
Steve Phillips	1977	Northampton	→	Brentford	£5,000
Gary Bennett	2000	Sudbury	→	Chelmsford City	£3,000

 

 

Free Transfers

These are a pick of the other free transfers that happened over the course of the first season.

Ben Watt from Norwich to Waterford (Ireland).
Dillon Barnes from Haringey to Mount Pleasant FC (Jamaica).
Josh Onomah was picked up by Sheffield Wednesday as a free agent.
Kevin Stewart was picked up by Portmore United (Jamaica) as a free agent.
Richard Bryan was picked up by Lincoln as a free agent.

Edited July 21 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Enfield Staff Overview

Managers

There are 6 managers from Enfield. Chapman has the longest tenure by over 12 years and counting. Mehmet Ali's salary rose from £2k to £4.6k and he is the highest paid manager, but there are 2 Enfield-born members of staff paid more than him and they are both coaches at Tottenham, Ryan Mason (£12kp/w) & Matt Wells (£8kp/w).

Name	Qualification	Team	Tenure	Contract Type	Wage
Danny Chapman	National B Licence	Harlow	12 years, 61 days	Part Time	N/A
Seanan Winser	-	Bedford Albion	331 days	Part Time	N/A
Mehmet Ali	Continental Pro Licence	Leyton Orient	254 days	Full Time	£4,600 p/w
John Ross	National C Licence	FC Peterborough	183 days	Amateur	N/A
John Mackie	National A Licence	Hucknall Town	156 days	Part Time	£300 p/w
Steve Morison	Continental Pro Licence	Sutton Utd	53 days	Part Time	£900 p/w

 

Edited July 21 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Ethan Nwaneri has shown incredible promise for a 17 year old winning both the U18 Premier League Newcomer of the Season as well as the UEFA Youth League Top Talent. He's now made 2 appearances in the past 2 seasons for Arsenal's first team and will definitely be one to keep a keen eye on, especially with the media comparing him to Martin Odegaard!

Edited July 21 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Staff Departure

Another Enfield-born person has become a manager, but it is not good news for us. Our Assistant/Scout/only other member of staff at the club has been poached by Minehead (tier 12). It is very important for me to find some new staff members to get quick second opinions, do scouting, training etc. 

[Motlhen]

Interview Offers

Over the summer I have received interview offers from the following 3 clubs, including a team 2 tiers above where we are now! 

Club	Tier
New Milton Town	11
AFC Uckfield Town	10
Long Melford	9

[Motlhen]

Staff Addition

After spending the whole of last season continually attempting to add more staff members to our backroom without success, I thought we might be without an assistant manager for a long time after Lew left. But luckily, we have managed to land Ryan Charles, who will be a player, scout AND assistant manager. He's 34 years old and comes in as the best player in the squad! (So we won't look too long at his staff attributes).

[Motlhen]

Transfer Out

After signing Sam Byles the day before our first competitive fixture last season, he has left pretty much as soon as the season was over. I thought he could be one of the best players at the club, but in truth, I never knew which position to play him and wherever I did play him, he played mediocre at best. 

 

 

Transfer Out

We made good use of loans last season and Mallinson has come in to our second XI to provide backup to the two youth players (Schofield & Edgerley) who will be starting games for us this season. Hopefully we can continue to look into the loan market to improve our squad depth.

[Motlhen]

Pre-Season (& First Match)

We flew through pre-season with one (big) blip and continued our goalscoring form into the first game of the league season with new signing / assistant / scout Charles breaking the record for most goals scored in a league match on his debut!

 

 

Our squad has improved massively since this time last season and that is reflected in the pre-season odds. Our first & second XI is currently this group of 22 players. We are very top-heavy in terms of where our star ratings are, but I have faith that the 3 youth prospects in our back 4 are up to the task this season and can help us push for the one promotion spot into the 10th tier.

Edited July 22 by Motlhen

[Motlhen]

Transfer & Loan In

We've signed two more forwards. Morgan is 40 and has some great technicals. Smith is 17 and is more a physical presence. I expect neither will be around for more than this season, but I hope they will be able to help push us to promotion.

 

[Motlhen]

Transfer In

Chris Arthur joined us as a big improvement at left back. After joining, he almost immediately was receptive to an altered contract offer to also take up coaching and scouting responsibilities. The board also agreed to further his impressive coaching qualifications and we now have the best coaching and scouting teams across the leagues at the eleventh tier.

 

 

Interestingly, I actually knew Chris Arthur in real life! I was born in the same room as his brother, our parents became friends and we went to the same primary & secondary school. Great to have him as a strong member of our backroom staff and I'll be making an extra effort to make sure we keep hold of him as long as possible.

[Motlhen]

Sep 2024

We're unbeaten after the first 6 games and playing some good football too!

[Motlhen]

Our old Ass Man

Lew was my first assistant manager (& scout). He left to become manager of Minehead in the tier below (12) but things have not gone very well for him, lasting only 12 games and not managing a single win in his 157-day tenure. I would welcome him back with open arms (purely because we only have 3 members of staff, including me), but as with everyone else on my staff shortlist, he is not interested in moving (back) to Bush Hill.