theBlackPrince

Boly went to Toulouse and yeh, I was pleased to get something back for him. Injuries are high so far so lets hope I have enough cover as a few more players will leave in January. Montiel is the star man so far, what a player he has been. The formation I use without a right sided winger which gives him the whole flank to bomb down is working wonders and he just keeps putting in huge performances! £8,500,000 will be a bargain if he will sign!

October and November 2023 Update We continue to do better than expected in the League but are fighting injuries and players not happy about their playing time. There will be more changes in the January Transfer Window with a few younger players from South America coming in on small fee's. Once we know who may be leaving and what money we have, we may be able to bring another bigger name in! Montiel is proving to be a huge asset which we tried to make his loan deal permanent but he doesn't see Forest as a long term option, yet!

August and September 2023 Could not have gone any better if we had tried and already flying in the league. Expect the form to drop off but survival is the aim this year and bring players along who are new to the squad. Wedid sell Willy Boly for £4,000,000 to help raise some fund as he would be out of contract at the end of the season. We did bring in one more signing, on loan as below. Rollheiser is a cheap option both on wages and a future fee and can play all the attacking midfielder options. There is an option to buy if he plays well.

Thank you, the graphics do take a while but hope fully they are enjoyed as something a little different. I've started to play some of the top teams now so expect to slide down some as the season progresses.

We have had one player come in, one for the future. Doesn't quite follow any of the patterns being a young Norwegian. My scout (who found him, I wasn't looking in Norway and not sure why he was) gave him a star potential, I bought him then released that scout may not be the best judge, lesson learnt! Still, for £1,500,000 total package and Premier League quality still, we wont lose money! Hopefully can continue to grow and develop for a while I was not planning another game update so soon, but when this happens, I had to share!

I've seen that tactic but I'm trying to use my own this time around! I enjoy all out centre mid players in real life so I'm trying to use them all in my save. Barco was signed by an Italian team really early in my save, I had a chance for De Gea but decided to keep the two at the club for the year! Its good to have one more "current team" save and one more "lots of changes" to have totally different saves and stories! I did sent Origi back from his loan also

3rd in the first season, bloody hell lad! That's remarkable, not sure I'll even crack the top half! How did you line up? Yates is a player, always will be! Hard to get into the line-up with the other players brought in now but will always be a Forest legend!

2023/24 Season - Game 1 - Brighton vs Nottingham Forest I wanted to enjoy the first game, it was gone midnight last night but I really wanted to get a least the first game done and graphics ready so I can try and progress a little more today. What a cracking first game it was for the Forest Faithful, some lovely passing movement and we really seemed to dominate the play. A few tweaks may be needed for the formation as I seemed to have players on top of each other at times, but we will play with that over the next few months to see what works. We will spend time looking over the data once we have a decent sample to compare to the other clubs and players (and once I've worked out more graphics for it).

Walking to promotion, but I know you'll be wanting that first place trophy still!!

Congratulations on the slightly fortuitous promotion, but they all count! Fitting that Yuri was there to help get you over the line. Big squad rebuild coming?

Finally time to start to set the scene on here for Forest. A large squad to start the game with with many incoming players to the squad this summer, not quite the 30 of last summer. There are a few small moves that can be done to reduce the wage budget slightly and put a few million in the bank, but not loads to go after new signings. Here is my first team squad for the first season. There may be some more options in the January transfer window to sell players and make changes but I'm happy with the squad and playing with the real team for the season.

First Team Squad As promised, here is the first team squad we are moving forward with this season. As we have a large number of players out on loan with no recall options, we will probably need to trim some from the 1st team and out on loan down to save money and help build for the future. Overall, really happy with the squad from what it was last year and almost every position is strong and has cover, despite us already seeing several injuries before the season starts. Really excited by some of the prospects who can learn and develop with this team for years to come.

Pre-Season It would be hard to move players on with not much interest in the likes of Boly and McKenna, hopefully they can get some gametime and gain the exposure needed. We freed up some wages and we could have kept Horvath, but we took the money when offered. There is a small amount in the pot, but no signings currently to strength the squad but apart from up front, we are more then covered with the signings made by the club! The pre-season results were extremely pleasing, especially trying to put together a formation that suits. I wanted to try and make it slightly different from the standard 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 Still making a few changes and sure we will get a real test of it in the Premier League shortly and make some more changes. Up next, the playing squad!

Looking forward to seeing how you go about this Nottingham Forest save compared to mine! The finances will be interesting that is for sure for us both, hopefully they are widely wrong but we shall see. Haven't got through many weeks so far in pre-season but I'll post up some team stuff in here once I get my final squad sorted!

Just catching up but Mansfield should have a squad that can complete this year, which is showing after 20 games. Certainly is a large gap between the top few clubs starting to show which should aid promotion if you can keep up the good form!

That is how to start a save and show intent for the rest of the season! Will take a few months to see who will be challenging you at the top but pleasing to be finding the net often!

I'm glad we got less than 24 hours before the Nottingham/Notts reared it head Nottingham only will do! Was a great win against your Villa, really showed some intent. Know we will be fine this year! Thank you, hopefully I can do this one proud! Just re-looking at graphics which takes forever for me to decide!

Day 1 - Meet the Manager - Steve Cooper The main, man, Super Cooper continues in the game as he does in real life. Making his attributes and info as close to real life as possible, it seems only fitting to give him the opportunity to continue the adventure he started at the bottom of the Championship. He seems to be loved by staff and players alike and the Greek has stood beside his manager and backed him with a healthy kitty for the past two seasons. Not just in the game but in real life, Super Cooper is the man to lead the charge moving forward as Forest look to start to thrive in the Premier League. With 34 players at the club in the "first team squad" and another 16 out on loan, trimming the squad down is the first job. With 4 players wanted and another 6 on the transfer list, that would be a good place to start. There are a few players we will struggle to move on, especially the king of collecting a wage, Harry Arter, and we may lose a little money if we decide to part ways with Orel Mangala a season after he arrived. With 2 keepers ahead of him, Ethan Horvath may be cheap enough to keep if we can get a new deal signed. Scott McKenna might be the only one who we could look to keep, if he will sign a new deal. We have other options at the team now who may offer a better long term solution but we cannot lose both him and Willy Boly at this time without brining in cover. This will be hard to do with a £0 transfer budget currently so a few players leaving may be needed to be able to bring some players in.

As a big fan of the 4-4-2 I love the look of the tactic. Defiantly interested to see if it gets used and how it performs as I haven't personally had much luck in developing one lately. Cracking start to the season, can't argue with that despite losing Sala.... Maybe that is a not so bad thing with such a Diva personality!

Good luck with Malaga, perfect choice in FM24 with their fall from Europe to the third tier and the struggles along the way! Looking forward to seeing them work their way back up!

[FM24] Nottingham Forest - Oh mist rolling in from the Trent, my desire, Is always to be here. You can't talk about Nottingham Forest without certain things springing to mind. "Brian Clough", "Peter Taylor", "Double European Champions" and "The Trent" are often what is spoken about. For much of the clubs history, which dates back to 1865 (Just a couple of years behind Trent neighbours Notts County in 1862) there are large periods spent outside the top flight, including most recently from 1999 to securing promotion back to the Premier League via the Playoffs for the 2022-23 season. Brain Clough and Peter Taylor masterminded the greatest period for the club in the late 70's and early 80's with back-to-back European Cups, one of only eight clubs and one of only two English clubs to achieve this. (Real Madrid, Ajax, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Liverpool, Inter Milan and AC Milan). This would include a spell with a First Division Title, 4 League Cup Victories, 2 European Cups, 1 European Super Cup and a Charity Shield. The only thing missing was a FA Cup victory which was stopped by Tottenham beating Forest in 1991-92. The World Famous City Ground On the banks of the River Trent sits the City Ground, home to Nottingham Forest since 1898. At the start of every game the Mull of Kintyre rings out around the ground an genuinely is spine tingling to be apart of. The song has been a Forest anthem ever since the glory days when the Reds were champions of Europe. Made famous by Paul McCartney and Wings, the song was released in late 1977 before being adopted by the Forest faithful. Reds supporters changed the lyrics as the mist often rolled in from the Trent, and included a range of words about their travels up and down the country. Having been released that season, it became the Forest chorus and has stuck ever since. The City Ground is an old school English ground and in places, it is old. It is not a modern bowl stadium and that adds to the charm and carrying the atmosphere around the ground. The walk to the ground over Trent Bridge is one every fan should do at some point on a warm summers day. Planning permission to re-develop the Peter Taylor Stand has been granted, but it seems there are still a few stumbling blocks before further enhancement and growth can happen. Returning to the Premier League Last year there was 30 arrivals to try and stay in the Premier League after what felt like 100 season's out of the top flight. The scatter gun approach to signings proved to be good, bad and ugly, but it was enough, Forest survived and a 16th place finish. Coming to the 2023/24 season and the signings have continued, not quite to the same level as the previous season but there has definitely been a theme to the signings (more to come on that later). The City Ground was a fortress with 8 wins, 6 draws and just 5 loses for 30 of the 38 points which was the difference maker for survival. No-one really fancied coming to play here, taking wins over 3 of the top 6 in Liverpool, Brighton and Arsenal. The away form, total opposite with 1 win. Often playing without the ball and relying on lightening fast counter attack, will the second season mean Forest have the quality to control the game more? Will they be able to dictate the tempo and continue to make the City Ground a Fortress? With a large (read too large) 33ish man squad with another 15+ out on loan, finding the 25 may leave some players upset they missed out. However, selling players may be tricky with many on longer term deals and only just into them. Transfer Policy Looking at the (many) transfers, there seems to be 4 themes emerging. Well, with the sale of talented Youth Academy player Brennan Johnson to Tottenham for £47,500,000, the Youth Academy policy does seem to be lacking with very little else due to break into the first team anytime soon. That leaves us with buying players who have played in the English Leagues (Premier mainly) for Home Grown purposes, South American Pipeline (Mainly on the early 20's side) and bringing proven players from the top 5 European Leagues who can play now. Many from the latest category are also representing African Nations internationally. So, with the images below, this is the 4 policies I will be trying to continue when looking for players moving forward. It does give a wide focus to search for players! With big spending comes money problems. There is nothing left in the kitty to spend on anyone and the projection's for the club are horrendous. On projection to be £60,000,000 in debt by the end of the first season and around £150,000,000 in debt by the end of the third season. This does mean we may have to balance the books and sell some promising players if a great bid (like Brennan Johnson) comes in. A large chunk of that will be £1,686,474 a week in wages, if we can reduce that we may be able to minimise the huge loses. My focus for the Save The first focus is to keep surviving in the Premier League before working on breaking into Europe. The squad is deep and with a few players who can really drive us forward in the next 5 years. Realistic aim would be to be in Europe after 3 seasons. Starting in the Premier League is not the great challenge from what some do on here from lower leagues to glory, but I still feel the challenge will be a fun one and to be fully involved. Aims are as below: Continue to survive then thrive in the League and Europe. Bring a European Cup win back to Nottingham, bonus points to repeat the Brian Clough Back-to-Back Champions of Europe. Improve the youth facilities and start to produce world class talent once more. Balance the books, -£150,000,000 after 3 seasons is not a position to be in. Continue to work to the transfer policy set to keep building the club. Expand the City Ground ready for the future in Europe. The game may make us move away I do fear to increase capacity. Find our club DNA and put that at the front of everything we do. Spend time to develop the tactics, I'm not usually good at this so need to learn and develop this for the team. Make many, many Clough references!

Berwick Rangers - That English Team in Scotland Youth Academy Challenge With the full release only days away, it's time to finally complete the Youth Academy Challenge. The team for the challenge, with a little twist as always, is the English team playing in the Scottish League, Berwick Rangers. Based in the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Berwick Rangers (along with local neighbours Tweedmouth Rangers) play their football in the Scottish League System. Until 2018-2019 Berwick were a regular fixture in League Two before relegation has doomed them to the lower leagues ever since. The greatest history of note for the The Borderer's came in 1967 when a record crowd of 13,365 witnessed a 1-0 victory over Rangers in the Scottish Cup, a shock for the ages. A Scottish League Two winning campaign in the 1978-79 season saw the clubs most successful period with 2 East of Scotland Shield wins in 1980-81 and 1983-84. Plans for the save Complete the FM24 Youth Academy Challenge from the Challenge section of the forum. This would be only the second Scottish save to do so if successful. I've been playing around with graphics rather than my usual excel based posts previously. I hope to keep everything looking great and functional and still be able to get all the info across. I will probably still track stats on excel and find a way to bring into different graphics. Interested to see, as Berwick is English and will produce English youth players, how this will change during the save and as we get further in will it continue to be more English player led, will the Scots fight back or will we have talent from much further afield? I've posted the first 3 pages of "Issue 1" for the Berwick Rangers save. The rest I have made in principle ready for the full release and any changes that will come (different team relegated, different players retained etc.). I have this is a PDF also but looks far too large so may have to lower the quality or limit to 4 pages per issue to be able to attach moving forward!

What a season!! From that ugly sale with Jackson Thomas to walking the league in proper style! Youth Intake looks very, meh!

Determined to have a longer term Athletic Club save this year so just working on some graphics ready for the full release last week and putting a story together. Feel I can put more work into a save like this due to players staying for much longer!