Sheyra
-
Posts
20 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Articles
FAQs
Online Manual
Support: Blocks
Support: Games
Bug Tracker
SIGames Manual (beta)
Profiles
Posts posted by Sheyra
-
-
Stafford Rangers - End of Season 2022/23
Previous Update | Overview | Table | Squad | Facilities | Finances | Manager | Club Vision | Transfers
An amazing season to remember, as we not only managed to bring the FA Trophy home, but earned promotion after a hard fought playoff run following a 4th place finish in the table. The team is definitely playing far above expectations, with the media predicting a 24th place finish at the start of the season, but defenses at this level continue to find themselves unable to cope with the talent of our strikers. I don't expect this to continue as we move into League Two, but then, I didn't expect any kind of success at all for the last two seasons either, so who knows?
The team is going professional following our promotion to League Two, along with upgrades to our youth level (4 now) and our youth and senior facilities (basic now, from poor). Our top three players are all young and refusing to sign new contracts, and while they all have at least 2 years on their contracts left, having them stuck on part-time hurts a lot since I'm positive they have a lot of potential to still develop.
Our youth intake was nothing to write home about. Our HoYD predicted a second golden generation in a row, and it's not awful, though 'golden generation' might be taking it a bit too far. We've got a decent looking goalkeeper (though we seem to get one of those every year) and a solid looking attacking midfielder that might see some playtime, along with a Model Citizen striker that hopefully has the potential to improve his poor starting attributes.
Key Players
Jody O'Connor y23g, ST: Feels a bit odd to list O'Connor above Arber, as the latter is definitely a better player, but O'Connor absolutely dominated during cup play this season, averaging a 8.11 rating across 6 (1) appearances. He scored 8 goals and got 4 assists as well as 4 PoMs in those same cup games, and probably would have done even more for us if he hadn't missed 2 months due to broken ribs right in the middle of his hot streak in January. He was back in time for the final though, where he scored 2 goals and earned PoM on a 9.1 rating, so I think he's bounced back pretty well!
Declan Arber, ST: Arber started the season a bit slow, scoring 3 goals in his first 8 matches, before suddenly remembering how to score and putting on an absolute clinic for the league and winning top goalscorer and player of the year for the second straight year. He ended up making 55 (1) appearances for us this year, scoring 37 with 8 assists, so he was absolutely one of keys to success.
Robbie Fraser y21b, RB: Fraser is probably the best player on the team attribute wise, and is our first international call up as he was called up on three separate occasions for the Scotland U19s. He actually missed a lot of playing time because of this, as he came back jaded and in need of a week or two off each time, but it helped his development out quite a bit nonetheless.
Top Prospects
Steve Hunter y21a, MC: Steve Hunter actually made 35 appearances for us last season, so I'm not 100% sure if he should really be called a 'prospect' anymore, but he's definitely one of our better players. As we're lacking leadership candidates, he's actually our vice captain, and will likely be taking over the captaincy in the next couple of years or so, as our current captain is already 32.
Don Elvins y22a, GK: Our top prospect from last year has developed pretty well over the season, and is almost as good as our current starting keeper. The coaches predict he has a 5 star potential though, and our current keeper is 30 years old, so if Elvins isn't starting by the 2025 season I'll be very surprised.
Andy Munro y23a, AMC: Andy Munro looks to be a solid prospect for the midfield, and looks to be a pretty good option for a playmaker if he can improve his vision and passing some. He might see some playtime as soon as this coming season depending on what formation I end up going with.
5 -
Well, I wasn't expecting this in just our third season.
1 -
On 17/07/2017 at 08:00, Seb Wassell said:
Another piece of information on this one for you. Your youth staff will also slightly influence the PA of your 'best' or extreme newgens. All of your youth staff act in this way, but the HoYD's impact is twice that of other youth coaches. This will not affect every newgen nor the average newgen but rather only the "star" or "freak" newgens that may occasionally come through the system. It is also important to note that this is only one part of a larger equation when it comes to star/freak newgen PA.
Just reading through some of that thread you linked, @Brother Ben, and I found this quote from Seb that you might find interesting. Given that it's just 'one part', and that your other youth coaches do contribute as well, it's probably worth focusing on HoYD personality before attributes regardless, but it's definitely good to keep attributes in mind too, based on this.
0 -
3 minutes ago, Brother Ben said:
There is a lot of misinformation going around, check this thread. Shows how confused people are, the best quote is 3 posts in from boxtobox
The info you're quoting is from 2017, and the whole youth development process was revamped this year. The info in the current training thread does mention that the HoYD can influence newgen ability and style. This info's also been pasted on the first post of this thread. I still assume the personality is more important overall, but it doesn't matter how professional your player is if he has no potential, so I'd still recommend making sure your HoYD has at least some attributes.
0 -
5 minutes ago, Brother Ben said:
None of the things highlighted effect youth intake, the only visual indicator that effects intake is his personality.
To my understanding, this is untrue. HoYD personality is definitely one of the most important factors for your intake, but his attributes do factor in as well.
Check out https://fmguido.com/guide-optimize-youth-intake-fm/ for more info on this stuff, it's pretty useful. That's where I got my info anyways.
0 -
7 hours ago, Fastbasher said:
I've had a 'Model Citizen' as my HOYD for the last two youth intakes and both were rubbish. His abilities are no good, I got him for personality alone.
Could the poor ability scores be bringing down the usefulness of the best personality type?
He also has no interest in taking coaching badges. I might have to look for another one.
The HoYD's personality can influence the personalities of your youth intake, but his Working with Youngsters and Judging Player Ability/Potential affect their attributes, so I'd definitely recommend getting a new HoYD. Hurts to lose a good personality HoYD but it's not worth being stuck with a 5 in two of his key attributes in my opinion.
0 -
Stafford Rangers - End of Season 2021/22
Previous Update | Overview | Table | Squad | Facilities | Finances | Manager | Club Vision | Transfers | Next Update
This was a very solid season for our first season up in the Vanarama National, as we finished in 6th and were never really in danger of dropping out of the playoff spots for the majority of the year. We ended up getting knocked out of the playoffs during the semi-finals, and it's honestly a bit of a relief as the team isn't really for League football. Still, with the board agreeing to upgrade both our senior and youth training facilities, and with a number of our younger players developing into key players for our first team squad, things are definitely looking like they're on the up and up. The board is also planning on building a new stadium apparently, due to maintenance costs, though their planned stadium is actually going to have fewer seats compared to our current one, so I'm not sure how that's going to work out for us.
The tactic could probably use some work, as while we were the #1 goal scoring team in the division, we also gave up way too many goals, far more than any other team in the top half of the table. We created a ton of chances that we just couldn't put away (one on one bug still happening it seems), and we're probably pressing/tackling a bit too much as we also fouled way more than any other team by a large margin. The suspensions combined with a handful of short term injuries during the second half of the season definitely led to some issues with squad selection during a few games.
Key Players
Declan Arber, ST: Arber was definitely the standout player this year for us as part of our deadly duo up front, scoring 31 goals across all competitions and winning Top Goalscorer of the Year. He's probably too good for this level of play at this point, but he's secured to a long term contract so he's not going anywhere for at least a few more years.
Jake Charles, ST: The other half of our deadly duo, Charles scored 25 goals across all competitions this year and looked pretty good doing it. He does look a bit outclassed at times against some of the top teams in the division, but I don't expect him to start declining any time soon, so we should continue to see a lot of goal scoring from him for the next few years.
Alex-Ray Harvey, CM/DM: The team captain, Harvey, led the team from the center of the pitch throughout the year and played the most minutes outside of the goalkeeper and Arber. He led the team in assists as well with 10. While Harvey's probably not the best midfielder in the league, his relatively high work rate and stamina definitely helped him to boss around the midfield, especially in the second half of games.
Hot Prospects
Steve Treadwell, CB/LB: A young player that started on the team in our U18s when I took over the club, and a very good one. He played a lot of first team football as a centerback this season, and is definitely our best defensive player on the team at the moment, with a lot of talent to grow into. Looking forward to seeing what he can do as he continues to improve.
Robbie Fraser y21b, RB/CB: Playing in 30 competitive matches before the age of 18 was probably asking a lot of Fraser, and he picked up a couple of short term injuries in the second half of the year that ended up costing him about a month of training time as a result. However, he's definitely our best fullback at the moment, and I expect he'll continue to develop as this next season progresses.
Steve Hunter, y21a, CM/DM: While Hunter didn't play in that many games this season for the senior squad, mentoring did get his personality up to Fairly Professional from Light Hearted, which should help his long term development quite a bit. With two of our top three midfielders past 30 years old already, Hunter is pretty likely to see more playing time as the year goes on as he'll continue to improve while they start to decline.
1 -
Stafford Rangers - Youth Intake 2021/22
Previous Update | Youth Intake Forecast | Next Update
So, my HoYD says that this intake has the potential to be a 'golden generation', and it's not terrible, but I think he probably needs to have his glasses checked. There are probably two standout players in terms of scouted potential, neither of whom has a good personality, though some mentoring might help with that. It sort of amazes me that the forecasted intake didn't even mention that we had a potentially amazing goalkeeper coming through though, even if his personality does kind of suck.
Anyways, I've tagged about ten players from this batch, but I'll highlight my personal top 3 picks.
Don Elvins y22a, GK: So Don Elvins has to go at the top, as if his potential is really as high as it's being reported, he's pretty likely to be taking over the starting job from my current keeper in the next couple of years. My scout already says he's operating at the Vanarama North/South level, whereas my current keeper is a 'good' player for most Vanarama North/South sides, so he's almost on par with my starter already. His unambitious personality won't do his development any favors though, but it'll perhaps make him more likely to stay on the team longer too.
Jonathan Bradford, y22b, CB/DM: Bradford here has the makings for a solid centerback for the team, and his attributes also make him look like a decent defensive midfielder for us as well, if needed. Still, a casual personality is awful, as it indicates that he has very poor professionalism, and we can see his determination is quite low too. I'll be trying to get him mentored up ASAP to be able to make use of him, but we'll see how that goes.
Harry Reece y22e, LB/RB: Reece is my E tag, but I think he's got more potential to actually help the team compared to by C and D tags, as we could use some more depth at fullback, and this two footed player should be able to help us out in that regard. He also has an okay personality, so he shouldn't need too much hand holding to actually get him to develop.
2 -
Curious if anyone has seen this behavior before. Just signed one of my 17 year old youngsters to a new contract that will start at the end of this season (I'm still in preseason so that's a ways away), and bizarrely ever since then I keep getting 'offers' for the player worth $0 from various teams every so often. It's ultimately harmless since they're worthless offers but I don't recall seeing this sort of thing in previous editions of the game so I was just wondering if it's just some weird bug on my install or if other people are seeing it too.
0 -
Stafford Rangers - End of Season 2020/21
Previous Update | Overview | Table | Squad | Facilities | Finances | Club Vision | Transfers | Next Update
Promoted! What a season this was. We saw a dip in form heading into the new year as we finally picked up our first losses in the league, only to pick our form right back up and hover right around 3rd for the latter third of the season. The team then went on a rampage, winning all of our last 8 games including against the 1st place team at home, securing us the title and promotion by 1 point on the final game of the season.
Next year is going to be rough as we were already predicted to be relegated from the Vanarama North this season, and our youth intake isn't going to significantly help out with replacing our aging first team or the loss of one of top strikers as he is refusing to sign a contract and will no doubt be leaving on a free before the start of next season. Still, if we can keep ourselves up long enough to get a couple more youth intakes, we should be able to stabilize ourselves and maybe look ahead to breaking into the League.
Also, I seem to have accidentally influenced our club culture due to my tactic from this season, but I'm pretty sure we're going to need to play more conservatively next year in order to have a chance. Still, we'll give it a shot just to see what happens.
Key Players
Jake Charles, ST: I can't praise this guy enough for his performances this season. He topped the leaderboards in goals scored and average rating across the entire division, and at the age of 25 we can expect him to continue performing at a high level for several years yet.
Lucas Burnett, ST: Our number two striker this season, and if he was willing to stick around, he'd easily be the best striker on the team next year. Alas, he's too ambitious for our lowly selves to offer a contract to, so we'll be wishing him the best of luck wherever he ends up next year as he'll be leaving us on a free.
Declan Arber, ST: Yes, another striker on our key players list. Arber was our number two striker for the early part of the year, until Burnett's development took him a bit past Arber, but he's still a solid player for us and will be for years to come, should he be willing to continue playing for us. A bit of a surprise that he signed back up for us, as up until the last five games or so in the season, he too was also not interested in signing for a team of our caliber. We'll be glad to have him next year.
Alex-Ray Harvey, DM/MC: The team's vice captain, and future captain for next year. He acted as the defensive anchor for the team at midfield, and got himself a few assists along with some long range goals when the opportunities presented themselves. He just turned 30 so he's likely going to decline soon, but he was a key piece for us this year.
Youth Intake
The youth intake this year was considered excellent by our HoYD, but in my opinion it was fairly middling. There's one standout player at fullback and a few coverage options, including at goalkeeper which we desperately needed, so I'm certainly not going to complain, but we'll need to get some better intakes in the future if we want to play League football.
Steve Hunter y21a, DM/MC: The highest potential player in the intake according to the list. Hunter should definitely play some first team football sooner rather than later, but he really needs to get his technical skills up. I'll most likely be playing him as a defensive midfielder if I don't change formations, but his marking and tackling are subpar to say the least, so he'll need some work.
Robbie Fraser y21b, DR: Now here's the player I'm most excited about. We really needed a fullback, especially at right back, and Fraser is good enough to join the first team straight away. He's already got solid defensive skills for his age and a stellar work rate, not to mention a great personality, so he should be improving in leaps and bounds as long as he doesn't get hurt. I like to use my fullbacks offensively, so I'd like to see his crossing and passing skills improve, but he's no worse than our other fullbacks in that regard already.
Adam Keates y21c, AMR/ST: Not too sure about this guy yet. He's got the potential to be a speedy threat on the right flank or up front, but his game is lacking in a number of key areas. He's got sky high determination though, so I'd like to see how he develops. Might end up being a good player for us in the future if he can fix some of the holes in his game.
1 -
Stafford Rangers - Midseason 2020/21
Previous Update | Squad | Table | Schedule | Job Security | Next Update
Wanted to provide a midseason update at the start of the new year. It's been a very interesting season so far, as the squad has consistently proven media predictions wrong (especially given we were predicted to finish dead last in the league this year!). We started out with 4 draws before our form really picked up, and we went on an absolute tear in the league, winning 13 of our next 21 games and drawing the rest. We finally picked up our first loss of the season in the league after losing at home 3-1 in the first round of the FA trophy, which seems to have finally ruined this great form of ours as we've lost 2 in the league in a row now since. Morale is still pretty good though, and the board considers our job 'untouchable' at the moment with an A+ rating, so as long as we don't absolutely tank the remainder of the season we should be good. We're already past the 50 point mark as well, so even if we fail to pick up any points for the rest of the season we've probably got a good chance at staying up, though I'd love a chance at the playoffs.
That being said, losing those 2 games definitely hurt. We were only 3 or fewer points out of first place for the entire month of November so I was hoping a bit that our astounding form would somehow let us take first, but alas it's not to be. As you can see from the league leaders in stats though from my table link above, our top 2 strikers are absolutely dominating opposing defenses, with Jake Charles leading the league in both average rating and goals scored, and young phenom Lucas Burnett in 2nd for average rating. We're also way ahead in terms of total chances created (27 ahead of the next team!), but as most of those chances are over the top and the current match engine has a clear issue with converting one on ones, we're still struggling to score consistently from game to game. Though we're still second in goals, so maybe I shouldn't complain too much, especially given our lack of talent at both center back and full back. I'm pretty sure we would have conceded twice as many goals as we have if it wasn't for one on ones being stopped so easily, though we'd probably score twice as many too.
Our predicted youth intake looks to be excellent according to my HoYD, but it looks like the only standout player is predicted to be a central midfielder. We've settled into a 4-4-2 with 2 DMs instead of CMs, so he'll probably need to be retrained into either a DM or a winger. I'm seriously hoping for a decent backup goalkeeper as we only have the one at the moment, though he's reasonably talented, and some defensive players at either center back or full back would be very much welcomed. While our youth level is 0 and our youth facilities are poor, Stafford actually starts out with good youth recruitment and adequate academy coaching, so I'm hoping for some high potential recruits even if they don't start out strong.
0 -
Alright, finally have some time for some FM, so time to give this challenge another whirl. Last year was pretty fun.
Stafford Rangers - Preseason 2020/21
Overview | Facilities | Finances | Next Update
Meet the new manager of the newly promoted Stafford Rangers, Reese Blakeslee. While inexperienced, he is quite confident in leading the team to stay out of the relegation zone this year, and his long term aspirations are second to none!
Both the club and the media have little faith in Stafford's ability to stay up, and this season will likely be a difficult battle against the odds. The squad is quite decent however, though several key members are beginning to show signs of regressing due to age.
Meet the Team
Jake Charles, ST: The best striker on a team blessed with talent upfront. Jake Charles will have a lot of competition for his starting spot thanks to the team possessing 2 very talented young strikers, but he is only 24 himself and still likely has room to grow. A well rounded striker who is dangerous on his feet at this level of play.
Luke Jones, CB: The aging captain of the Rangers. His solid ability at the back is beginning to be eroded due to his deteriorating speed, exacerbated by a long term injury that saw him miss much of last season. Likely only has one more good season in him, but should prove to be useful for the coming year.
Danny Burns, CB: The younger part of our CB pair at the back. While a bit less talented compared to Luke Jones, his much better speed should help with faster threats, and he will likely continue to improve throughout the year.
Lucas Burnett, ST: An incredible young talent at striker. At only 17 years old, he's already more than good enough to be in competition for top player on the team. Will likely see his playing time a bit limited during the first half of the year until he turns 18 in January, as match time will provide him more benefits once he is 18 and jadedness can be a real problem with playing the younger players too much. Still, it's unlikely we'll be able to keep a hold of Burnett for too long as his talent is too much for this division, so I'm hoping we'll get a decent transfer offer for him before the end of the season, as I imagine he won't resign and I would hate to lose him on a free.
Steve Treadwell, CB: Another great young talent on the team, this one at the back. Treadwell will be getting first team minutes throughout the year as fourth option at CB. His low strength will hopefully increase as he ages, and he could very likely take the starting role from Luke Jones sometime next season if the team stays up.
The team also has a pretty decent midfield (that I won't be linking atm in the interest of actually getting some playtime in), but lacks depth at fullback and keeper. In particular, an injury to our starting goalkeeper leaves us choosing between a gray player or an absolutely awful youth 'prospect' that is likely worse than a gray player in most areas. Our wingers are mostly of the AML/AMR variety, but with the team's depth at striker we'll be running the classic 4-4-2 this year to take advantage of our talent upfront. Some overpaid players at winger will likely be let go at the end of the year if we get a decent youth intake (one of them is a 3.5 star player but has some terrible PPMs that make him not worth his cost). Overall I'm looking forward to a good first season, though if our first intake is poor we may struggle, as 4 of our starters and 1 backup are already in their 30s.
4 -
Bishop's Stortford
2022-2023 Season
Table | Transfers | Finances | Facilities | First Team
We missed out on playoffs by 1 point, drawing our final game prevented us from moving up into 7th and making playoffs. The team performed pretty inconsistently this year, and I ended up making a number of tactical changes throughout the year to try to get our form back, but it never really clicked. This was likely due to our absolutely horrid discipline, as we broke the league record for yellow/red cards in January, and had 25 more yellow cards than the next team down by the end of the season. This resulted in a lot of suspensions, some of which were for multiple games, and really left us a bit thin, especially at midfield where we already have little depth. Overall it was another good season, but it really feels like we're just spinning our wheels at the moment. The team has improved quite a bit since the first season but we finished in the same position as we did year one.
Key Player
Osadebe ST/AMC, age 24: Our captain Chinedu Osadebe was our key player again this year, winning the Player of the Season award and maintaining the highest average rating on the team at 7.22. This is a significant drop from last year (he averaged 7.50 last year) but given our overall inconsistent performances this year it's really not a surprise and isn't really a reflection on him. He missed out on top goal scorer by 1 goal.
This year's youth intake is another 'golden generation' supposedly; it does look pretty decent, so we might be seeing a benefit from our improved junior coaching. We again really don't need more high end goalkeepers, but Ives 04e is as good as our current second string goalkeeper, and the coaches think he's got the potential to be much better than our all star keeper Groves 00b. I'm on the fence about bringing him up immediately since our backup goalkeeper doesn't see a lot of playing time given how good Groves 00b is, but I might bring him up for cup games.
Both Marriott 04a and Moss 03f are as good as our current second stringers at their respective positions for the first team. Moss 03f in particular is likely to come up right away as I'm planning on dropping the AM from the formation due to our poor depth at midfield and going to a 5-2-2-1 WB next year, and he's definitely good enough to get some playing time if we're playing 3 CBs.
0 -
Bishop's Stortford
2021-2022 Season
Table | Transfers | Finances | Facilities | First Team
We ended up getting moved to the Vanarama North this year. What started out as a strong run in the league led us to another playoff spot with us finishing in 5th. We changed back to a 5-2-3 WB this year to help shore us up defensively, and while our goal difference improved slightly compared to last year, our away form held us back significantly. I'm likely going to switch back to our 4-2-3-1 from last year as our defense has improved a bit and that formation gave us a lot more wins on the road, which we could use. We ended up losing 3-1 in our first playoff game at home regardless, mostly due to terrible finishing - 4 clear cut chances and 3 half chances and only converting one of them is pretty painful to watch.
While the league felt a bit like we were treading water this year, the FA cup gave us plenty to get excited about. The team went on a bit of a dream run, making it all the way up to the Third Round before getting knocked out by Walsall. The Second Round Replay against Barnet away was probably one of the most exciting games I've seen in FM to date. With the team down 4-2, we lose Renee-Pringle to a broken collarbone in the 78th minute, leaving us at 10 men and down 4-2. Pearson 01a immediately scores 2 in the next 3 minutes and Groves makes a miracle save in injury time to put us through to extra team, where a solid team effort wins us through to penalties. The first 9 penalty takers on each side score, before Groves 00b makes another spectacular diving save to stop a ball going in just off his left post. Westcott then secures our comeback win his shot, putting us through on penalties. This run was amazing for the team financially as well, making us more this year then we spent on upgrading the youth facilities. Due to this influx of cash I've also asked the board to upgrade our youth recruitment, which they've agreed to do.
We ended up transferring our top youth player Pearson 01a off to Blackburn in the Championship for a pittance in the winter, but we secured a 50% sell on clause which will hopefully make the team some cash in a few years. Losing him definitely hurt our chances to move up the table, but our backup striker Ronto stepped up immediately, scoring three hat tricks in three straight games and solidifying his spot in the first team for the rest of the season. I've opted not to renew his contract however, as he's going to be 29 next season and he's asking for more than he's honestly worth, especially as we'll be switching back to a one striker top and we've got some promising youth candidates with some potential that I'd rather start there. Probably the loss that I didn't expect and hurts most, however, is losing our right full-back Renee-Pringle. He's been having a bit of a pout all year due to us lacking depth at midfield, and is refusing to sign a contract since he's 'unhappy' despite his morale sitting pretty high all year. We've got some young players that can fill his role but he's been a pretty important player for us so it'll be hard to replace him.
Key Player
Osadebe ST/AMC, age 23: Our captain Chinedu Osadebe now holds the team record for all-time assists and led the league in average rating with a 7.50 total for the team. He was absolutely phenomenal for us in the FA cup, and his 18 goals and 13 assists on 27 (10) appearances in the league definitely helped us out a lot this year. He'll be moving back to AMC most likely next year as we're fairly limited in that position and we have a lot of young strikers who are ready for first team play.
Not much to talk about this year with the youth intake. It's still a 'golden generation' according to our Head of Youth Development, but we didn't really need another goalkeeper. There are at least a few players in there that will likely compete for first team slots in a year or two, but no standouts this year.
0 -
Bishop's Stortford
2020-2021 Season
Table | Transfers | Finances | Facilities | First Team
What started out as a rough season thanks to some injury and suspension concerns giving us a run of poor form through the first two months of play turned into a promotion run as we shot up the table, solidifying in a 4th place finish and playoff qualification. Not too bad for a team the media predicted to finish dead last again. Going into the playoffs on a 10 game undefeated run and off an 8-2 thrashing of East Thurrock, the squad was riding perfect morale and managed to sweep through Kingstonian in the first round, only to lose a hard fought game against Maidenhead 3-2 in the second round. We had a very strong offense to thank for our run this year, scoring 120 goals (a new record for our division), yet we still weren't top of the league in goal difference due to a slow, leaky back 4. I'll probably be switching back to a back 5 next year to help with some of the defensive miscues we suffered this year; we can afford to lose a bit of offense honestly.
With finances continuing to look quite good and with untouchable status thanks to winning Head Coach of the Season for the second year in a row, Little Jimmy has gotten a request approved by the board to expand the youth facilities for next year. While our intakes haven't been bad at all, this will hopefully allow us to jump up to the next level more quickly. In other news, the board is still looking for a location to build the new stadium announced last year, so the cost of that project is still up in the air.
Key Players
Pearson 01a ST, age 17: It wouldn't be out of the question to call this the year of David Pearson. He scored an astounding 40 goals in 36 (4) appearances in the league with an average rating of 7.55. This performance was enough to net him both Top Goalscorer and Player of the Season awards. It's hard to emphasize just how devastating Pearson was in the latter half of the year; his acceleration and pace allowed him to just put any team with a higher defensive line to the torch. Unfortunately, he's refusing to sign a professional contract with Bishop's Stortford as we're not good enough for his 'ambitions'. I'm not really surprised as the trainers have been saying he 'needs more challenges' since the moment we signed him, but we've got him for one more year, so hopefully we'll make the best of it.
Thomas MC, age 22: Jack Thomas is definitely not the best player on the team, but he's the best central midfielder we've got, and while he's not really up to the standard that we'd like to see, he had a great year nonetheless. Averaging a 7.38 across 38 (4) appearances and netting himself 7 goals and 11 assists in the process, Thomas was the anchor of the midfield throughout the year and posed a dangerous threat coming in late to the box during attacks.
Olusanya AMR, age 23: Toyosi Olusanya primarily played on our right wing this year, cutting inside and acting as a dangerous threat together with our star right back Renee-Pringle. Olusanya's superior pace and acceleration allowed him to get into space and both get crosses into the box or receive them himself. He still has plenty of room to improve, so I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do over the next couple of years as he enters his prime.
Goodman 02d DC, age 16: Goodman is probably the best player in our youth intake, as we really need a centerback and he's already about as good as the first team players. His pace isn't going to make us any slower, though it's certainly not an improvement, and he's lacking strength, but physicals have a way of going up quickly in young players, and I'm hoping that'll be the case here.
Mcdonald 02a DR, age 16: Mcdonald has a lot of potential, but unfortunately we're going to be switching over to using wingbacks again next year, which will hurt him somewhat as WBR is not his natural position. He's lacking the pace that I'd really like to see from a wingback as well. but his work rate is solid. Still, we're pretty flooded at this position at the moment, so he might not be seeing first team football soon.
Johnson 02e, DLR, age 15: Johnson's a lot like Mcdonald, but he can play left fullback which is a huge weakness on our team. He needs some time to retrain as WBL which will limit his usefulness for a while, but if he can pick up the position and maybe a bit more pace he's got the natural fitness and work rate to make it work. His Mercenary personality is pretty worrying though, especially since I don't really have any good mentoring opportunities on the team at the moment.
0 -
Bishop's Stortford
2019-2020 Season
Table | Transfers | Finances | Facilities | First Team
A season where the media predicted us to finish dead last in the division finished with us barely missing playoffs, as we dropped 2 points in our last game of the season in a 2-2 draw against East Thurrock and finished 8th, behind 6th and 7th place by 1 point. Given the complete lack of depth in this squad and the terrible defensive players we've got, this was a really impressive result. We only had one goalkeeper and one left back on the roster until youth intake, and the left back can only play wingback, forcing us to play 5 at the back. With the strength of the team being upfront, I opted to play an aggressive 5-2-3 WB formation, and it definitely led to some rather exciting games. Defensively the team struggled against any team that had their fullbacks overlap for crosses, so hopefully we'll be able to tighten up next season. Additionally we also led the league in fouls and yellow cards by a large margin; this poor discipline cost us a couple of games due to penalties and send offs, including in the final game of the season.
Regardless, I'm quite thrilled with the overall result. What I had predicted would be a struggle to avoid relegation turned into a playoff bid with a team that really isn't ready for the Vanarama National as we struggled against the top teams in the Vanarama South for most of the season. The other head coaches seem to agree that we made quite the run, as Little Jimmy won the Head Coach of the Season award despite the team missing playoffs.
In an intriguing bit of post-season news, the board has announced that they are going to build a new stadium due to the cost of keeping the current one maintained. The club did make a huge profit this season on account of spending only around 25% of the payroll budget all year, but while we did have a few games postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, I'm not entirely convinced that this is the direction we should be moving. I'd much rather improve on our poor youth facilities, but with the club likely to invest quite a bit of its current capital into the new stadium I've opted to not request upgraded youth facilities despite my current untouchable status.
Key Players
Osadebe ST, age 21: Osadebe plays as the center of our trio of strikers upfront. He had an absolutely stellar year for us, scoring 27 goals in 42 appearances. His strong anticipation, decision making, and decent pace and acceleration for this level of play made him a threat over the top all season. His mediocre finishing cost him a number of goals in one on one situations, however.
Westcott MC, age 23: Westcott is part of our central midfield duo, switching between Box to Box and Ballwinning roles as needed. While he isn't the best player on the squad, our midfield is fairly weak overall, and his average rating of just over 7 shows he had a stellar year for us despite his below average ability.
Charles AML/ST age 27: Charles typically plays as the left striker in our upfront trio. While his natural position is as an AML, he played spectacularly for us upfront, averaging over a 7.1 throughout the season and getting himself 13 goals and 11 assists in 28 (3) league appearances.
Youth Intake
I forgot to get a screenshot of the youth players before I signed them all on contract, but I did get one of our Under 18s at the end of the season. Our Head of Youth Development called them a 'golden generation', and we really needed it. There are a number of strong players that have already been pulled up to the first team squad, and two have already earned starting spots. I'll list out all the players I moved up to the senior squad as they aren't on the Under 18s screenshot.
Pearson 01a, ST, age 16: This guy is absolutely phenomenal for our level. He's already rated as highly CA wise as our star striker Osadebe, and he just turned 16 at the end of the season. He played 9 (1) games for the first team right out of the youth intake and averaged a 7.11 with 4 goals and 3 assists, which is amazing for a player his age. Given his small size, I'm hoping that Pearson can develop that pace of his and become a deadly threat over the top over the next few seasons.
Walker 01e, DC, age 15: Walker's debut was at the same time as Pearson's, and set a record for youngest player to ever debut in the Vanarama South. We really needed another DC as, playing 3 at the back, we've been giving a lot of playtime to the 4 players on the squad that can actually play the position. We ran into some injury problems almost right after Walker showed up, and his presence helped us out a lot at the back.
Brooks 01b, ST, age 15: Brooks is another solid striker prospect, though not on the same level as Pearson currently. We brought him on a number of times as a substitute, but he likely needs a bit more time playing for the U18s before he's ready for first team football.
Ainsley 01j, MC, age 16: Ainsley plays equally well at AMC and MC, which is good because we aren't using AMCs at the moment. He likely won't see much first team time yet, but talent wise he's around our 4th best midfielder, which means he'll come in when we're having issues with injuries or match congestion. His natural fitness and work rate make him a good candidate for a box to box midfielder once he develops a bit more.
We also have Milbourne 01k who will be our backup GK, but our starting GK is only 18 and is pretty good, so I don't know how much playing time he'll see right now.
2 -
@XaW Wow, congrats on the back to back promotions, mate!
1 -
Alright, time to give this challenge a go this year. Wish me luck!
Meet the new coach of Bishop's Stortford, Little Jimmy. Can he lead the side to playoff glory? Probably not this year, according to the bookies, who put the team at as 1-5 favorites for relegation, but Little Jimmy is determined to show them that his hometown team has what it takes to stay up in the Vanarama National League South. Bishop's Stortford has a decent stadium for its size, but it's overall facilities are rather lacking compared to others in the division, especially the youth team. While disappointing, Little Jimmy knows that if he can prove himself, he should be able to convince the board to improve the facilities in order to improve the youth team intake moving forward.
1
The FM20 Youth Academy Challenge
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments
Posted
I'm definitely hoping Steve Hunter will continue to improve! He's got pretty good mentals for his age, so as long as he can stay healthy he should end up being pretty solid for us at midfield over the next several seasons. The coaches do seem to think he's injury prone though, so that's a bit concerning if true.
Also, tough luck just barely missing promotion again. Hopefully season #10 in your division will get you up.