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Re-Signing Ruben Ruben Medine played 27 times for us on an amateur contract before being lured away by North Warnborough. He's back with us for the rest of the season on loan and we've managed to get him without having to pay his wages.

Youth Intake Preview We are getting a lot of defenders this season, but my priority is a decent striker as it is looking ever-likely that will be losing Hamilton at the end of the season (because he wants £100pw and I'm not willing to budge over our £25pw self-imposed limit) as well as Monks (our backup striker who barely features, even from the bench) who is retiring.

Oct & Nov 2026 We only had 2 games each month and managed to get another win in the league and we're into the QF of the league's cup too, but we're not in any rhythm right now. December is packed with 9 games and will be pivotal to our season as we are battling to stay away from what I am thankful is only one relegation spot.

Sep 2026 Our rough start to the season continues as we're out of 2 of the 3 cups and only have one win in the league. I've been tinkering with the tactics trying to get something to work and the only win this month came in a game where we went down to 9 men and managed to hold on with this formation below. We've loaned out a few players as I am trying to get our finances back to 'Okay' rather then 'Insecure'. We have the lowest annual salary in the league, so maybe it's unsurprising that we're struggling?

Transfer In We've managed to re-sign Fordjour who was our main GK for the first 2 seasons. He is much better than any of our other backups and it's great to have him back after he never really made it after his move to Chard Town. Wages Our wage expenditure has been creeping up and up since we turned semi-pro despite me limiting contracts for players to a maximum of £25p/w. We're close to £700p/w overall now and some of the players I signed to paid contracts are not featuring for the first team so it makes sense to try to loan these players out to reduce our wage bill as much as we can.

Jul & Aug 2026 We drew our opening 3 games, it was a massive shame to go out of the FA Cup on penalties but we couldn't hold on to our lead in both the away and home fixture, the latter of which we broke our gate reciept record for. It's been a tough start to life in the 9th tier, 2 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses. --- Something a little concerning is that the fans kicked up a fuss about us not achieving a top half finish. We were only 3 games into the season at the time AND we were in the top half of the table!? Hopefully this doesn't have any adverse affects on the game! \

Season 4 Preview We're playing in the 9th tier for the first time which means we are also playing in the FA Cup too! We have been drawn away against Berkhamsted in one of 3 cups we'll feature in this season. Despite the lack of transfers, we're predicted off of the bottom of the table, but as usual, my expectations are higher than where we are predicted to finish.

Transfer In The only signing we made over the summer was a backup right back. There's a big gap between the players coming through the youth intake and those we can attract in the transfer market so I've stuck with the squad that got us promoted plus the brilliant new intake and I am hoping that it is enough to compete again this season. Transfers Out The departure of Gary Farr is still hurting. We lost another couple of potential squad players too. Medine is more of a loss than Dadson.

Interview Offers Over the past 3 seasons I've had 14 interview offers, surprisingly as high as the 5th tier. The only jobs I'm interested in are Enfield clubs, so there's been no problem declining these. Date Club Tier 2024-06-06 New Milton Town 11 2024-07-01 AFC Uckfield Town 10 2024-07-01 Long Melford 9 2024-09-18 Charnock Richard 9 2024-10-13 Racing Club Warwick 8 2024-10-14 Fleet Town 9 2024-10-30 1874 Northwich 8 2024-12-08 Cinderford Town 9 2025-10-20 Biggleswade Town 7 2025-10-23 Ashton United 7 2025-10-27 Concord Rangers 7 2025-12-04 Ebbsfleet United 6 2026-03-12 Maidenhead United 5 2026-07-02 Kidderminster Harriers 6

Club Managers Mehmet Ali finished 6th in League One in his first season as Leyton Orient manager but with the club lingering close to relegation midway through his 2nd season, he lost his job due to poor performance in the league. Danny Chapman has been in charge of Harlow Town for over 5000 days (14+ years) now and he has just managed back-to-back promotions taking the club from tier 10 to tier 8 so I think the only risk of him leaving is him being poached by a bigger club. My old Assistant Manager Lew can't keep a job! He's had 3 managerial roles at 3 different clubs getting sacked twice by Minehead & Tisbury Utd and most recently relegated with Welling Park who have kept him as manager for the upcoming season, but I suspect he might not last long again. John Ross could actually be worse than Lew. He's lost 4 jobs in 3 seasons and hasn't last longer than a year in any of them! Seanan Wisner has done well at Bedford Albion achieving a promotion and two more promotion pushes, falling just short the past two season of going up into Tier 10. Alex Pratley was poached from his job at Feckenham by UoB and achieved a reasonable mid-table finish. Remi Hoey & Tambeson Saka are two regen managers from Enfield plying there trade in the 10th tier.

You're right! They lost on opening day to Torquay (crazy to think those two teams are playing at the same level now). They got their first win in tier 6 against Weston Super Mare but yesterday they got sent for 6 by Slough Town so it looks like it could be a big challenge for FM25.

International Manager Mikele Leigertwood finished 2nd in the 2nd Round of World Cup Qualifiers, but finished 3rd in the 3rd round in a tough group. This year he has a good chance of success in the Nations League with a relatively easy group. (All whilst balancing his national responsibilities with being Reading's U18 Manager). ...

Top 10 Highest Paid Staff by Year Ryan Mason (previously 1st) has left his position as coach at Tottenham leaving his ex-colleague Matt Wells (also a coach at Spurs) top of the list. Bournemouth's U21 Manager and Physio take up 2nd and 3rd spot respectively, whilst Cheye Jude is a regen loan manager at Sunderland. Key (per year) Largest Value Biggest Increase Biggest Decrease New Entry into top 10 Name 2023 2024 2025 2026 Matt Wells £8,000 £8,000 £8,000 £8,000 Alan Connell £3,000 £3,000 £3,000 £3,000 Stuart Douglas £2,000 £2,000 £2,000 £2,000 Cheye Jude £0 £0 £0 £1,800 Danny Talbot £1,500 £1,500 £1,700 £1,200 Gary Sawyer £300 £425 £875 £1,000 Mikele Leigertwood £800 £825 £825 £925 Piero Mingoia £600 £650 £700 £775 Jonathan Obika £600 £600 £625 Henri Lansbury £0 £425 £425 £425 Hakan Hayrettin £500 £190 £190 £190 Ryan Mason £12,000 £12,000 £12,000 £0 Mehmet Ali £2,000 £4,600 £4,600 £0 Steve Morison £3,000 £900 £0 £0

Internationals Both Daniel Phillips & Jeriel Dorsett got 10 caps each, with a strong group of 5 players pushing into their number of caps up. Phillips could yet catch Boucaud for 2nd place on the all-time list! Alfie Dorrington broke into the England setup featuring twice for the first team as well as 6 times for the youth squad alongside Nwaneri who managed to get his first 2 youth caps. Reiss Greenidge also got his first international goal. Name Nation Years Total Caps Caps in 2025/26 Total Goals Goals in 2025/26 Youth Caps Youth Caps in 2025/26 Youth Goals Youth Goals in 2025/26 Roy Chipolina GIB 2013 - 2024 73 5 Andre Boucaud TRI 2004 - 2021 48 2 Daniel Phillips TRI 2021 - Present 36 +10 5 +3 Jazzi Barnum-Bobb VIN 2022 - Present 32 +9 2 +1 Jeriel Dorsett MSR 2023 - Present 27 +10 Hector Kyprianou CYP 2023 - Present 24 +8 3 1 Reece Beckles-Richards ATG 2015 - Present 23 +6 4 +1 Corrin Brooks-Meade MSR 2015 - 2023 21 Steve Morison WAL 2010 - 2012 20 1 Reiss Greenidge GUY 2021 - Present 15 +5 1 +1 Neil Kilkenny AUS 2006 - 2012 15 10 Mikele Leigertwood ATG 2008 - 2012 11 1 Jake Livermore ENG 2012 - 2017 7 Dean Morgan MSR 2014 - 2024 6 Kevin Stewart JAM 2022 - 2024 4 Alfie Dorrington ENG 2023 - Present 2 +2 13 +6 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 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 Ethan Nwaneri ENG 2025 - Present 2 +2 Total 375 +42 21 +6 104 +8 19 0 Year-by-Year Progress Overall the number of caps has dropped year-on-year. Chipolina's retirement could solely be to blame for that - but I'm hoping the number pick up over the next few seasons. Year Total Caps Total Goals Youth Caps Youth Goals 2024 +54 +1 +1 0 2025 +53 +5 +6 0 2026 +42 +6 +8 0 Total 149 12 15 0

Monetary Transfers Daniel Phillips came runner up in the Scottish Cup in the same season he was relegated with St Johnstone. Hearts paid £160k for him to return to the Scottish Premier League where he helped Hearts to a strong 5th place finish and ended up in their Season XI despite a poor average rating of 6.58. Jack Roles was bought for £94k (rising to £110k) by TNS and won a domestic treble with them in his first season (if you count the SPFL Trophy as a domestic competition?) He was also shortlisted for player of the season and is another Cypriot international from Enfield to keep an eye on. Name Year From To Fee Ryan Mason 2016 Tottenham Hotspur → Hull £12,500,000 Jake Livermore 2017 Hull → West Brom £10,000,000 Jake Livermore 2014 Tottenham Hotspur → Hull £7,000,000 Josh Onomah 2019 Tottenham Hotspur → Fulham £5,000,000 Michael Duberry 1999 Chelsea → Leeds £4,500,000 Henri Lansbury 2017 Nottingham Forest → Aston Villa £3,500,000 Steve Morison 2011 Milwall → Norwich £2,800,000 Hector Kyprianou 2023 Peterborough Utd → Sunderland £1,500,000 Mikele Leigertwood 2011 QPR → Reading £1,100,000 Henri Lansbury 2012 West Ham → Nottingham Forest £1,000,000 Jay Simpson 2010 Arsenal → Hull £1,000,000 Steve Sedgley 1994 Tottenham Hotspur → Ipswich £1,000,000 Mikele Leigertwood 2007 Sheffield United → QPR £900,000 Michael Duberry 2007 Stoke → Reading £800,000 Steve Sedgley 1989 Coventry → Tottenham Hotspur £750,000 Mikele Leigertwood 2006 Crystal Palace → Sheffield United £600,000 Neil Etheridge 2020 Cardiff → Birmingham £600,000 Steve Sedgley 1997 Ipswich → Wolves £500,000 Hector Kyprianou 2022 Leyton Orient → Peterborough Utd £450,000 Daniel Phillips 2026 St Johnstone → Hearts £160,000 Mikele Leigertwood 2004 Wimbledon → Crystal Palace £155,000 Neil Kilkenny 2008 Birmingham → Leeds £150,000 Steve Morison 2015 Leeds → Milwall £150,000 Ben Watt 2025 Waterford → Sligo Rovers £145,000 Greg Heald 1997 Peterborough → Barnet £135,000 Keith Bertschin 1977 Ipswich → Birmingham £135,000 Steve Morison 2009 Stevenage → Milwall £130,000 Alan Connell 2011 Grimsby → Swindon £115,000 Jack Roles 2026 Crawley → TNS £94,000 Josh Davison 2022 Charlton → AFC Wimbledon £75,000 Martin Grainger 1993 Colchester United → Brentord £60,000 Roger Gibbins 1978 Norwich → New England Tea Men £60,000 Steve Phillips 1980 Brentford → Northampton £40,000 Greg Heald 1994 Enfield → Peterborough £35,000 Glen Southam 2004 Bishops Stortford → Dagenham & Redbridge £20,000 Jack Roles 2023 Woking → Crawley £20,000 Scott Neilson 2008 Ware → Cambridge £20,000 Scott Neilson 2010 Bradford City → Crawley Town £15,000 Jack Chisholm 1949 Sheffield United → Plymouth £12,000 Roger Gibbins 1989 Torquay → Newport County £10,000 Greg Heald 2003 Barnet → Leyton Orient £9,000 Alan Connell 2005 Bournemouth → Torquay £5,000 Nathaniel Knight-Percival 2010 Histon → Wrexham £5,000 Steve Phillips 1977 Northampton → Brentford £5,000 Gary Bennett 2000 Sudbury → Chelmsford City £3,000

Top 10* Highest Paid Players by Year *Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I am writing "Top 10" and then showing a list of 18 players which might be confusing without an explanation: If you were in the top 10 in any year you remain in the list. I.e. Obika was 5th in the top 10 highest paid players in 2023 but has since retired (hence the blanks). He remains in the list for comparison: 5th place in the list over the past four years has been paid £1,500, £3,500, £4,000 & now £4,200 p/w. Key (per year) Largest Value Biggest Increase Biggest Decrease New Entry into top 10 Name 2023 2024 2025 2026^ Alfie Dorrington £1,000 £8,500 £20,500 £52,000 Josh Onomah £0 £23,500 £29,500 £29,500 Ethan Nwaneri £220 £1,000 £18,250 £20,000 Hector Kyprianou £3,500 £8,250 £16,750 £16,750 Rio Cardines £220 £3,900 £4,000 £4,200 Paul Appiah £750 £0 £300 £2,000 Jack Roles £1,200 £850 £850 £1,800 Daniel Phillips £1,000 £1,600 £1,200 £1,700 Joe Kizzi £1,000 £775 £775 £1,600 Luca Gunter £3,500 £3,500 £0 £1,500 Jake Livermore £15,000 £0 £1,300 £1,300 Dillon Barnes £0 £1,600 £0 £1,300 Tola Showunmi £450 £1,200 £1,200 £1,200 Josh Davison £1,800 £2,200 £0 £975 Jeriel Dorsett £1,200 £775 £775 £950 Deniz Mehmet £950 £950 £950 £0 Kevin Stewart £0 £2,100 Jonathan Obika £1,500 Dorrington's valuation will have been helped out massively by a new contract over-doubling his previous wage. 2nd place is Josh Onomah who has gone from yo-yo-ing between the Championship and the Premier League, to yo-yo-ing between League One (where he played last season and the 2nd half of this season) and the Championship (where he played two seasons ago and the first half of this season).

Top 10 Most Valuable Players by Year Key (per year) Largest Value Biggest Increase Biggest Decrease New Entry into top 10 Name 2023 2024 2025 2026^ Alfie Dorrington £10,000,000 £13,500,000 £28,000,000 £40,000,000 Ethan Nwaneri £35,000,000 £37,000,000 £39,000,000 £32,000,000 Hector Kyprianou £1,800,000 £3,500,000 £5,000,000 £8,600,000 Josh Onomah £0 £6,200,000 £9,200,000 £3,100,000 Ben Watt £18,000 £425,000 £650,000 £650,000 James Wiles £700,000 £450,000 Luca Gunter £275,000 £240,000 £0 £425,000 Paul Appiah £50,000 £0 £190,000 £375,000 Daniel Phillips £300,000 £475,000 £240,000 £350,000 Rio Cardines £475,000 £950,000 £850,000 £275,000 Tola Showunmi £160,000 £180,000 £210,000 £210,000 Jeriel Dorsett £500,000 £425,000 £275,000 £190,000 Josh Davison £180,000 £140,000 £0 £60,000 Jake Livermore £750,000 £0 £16,000 £0 Alfie Dorrington's value jumped up by £12M and he has become the most valuable Enfield-born player. Tottenham loaned his out to Celtic where he won a domestic treble and got all the way to the Champions League Quarter Finals before Celtic were knocked out by Liverpool. I didn't notice this last season, but he also won the U21 Euros which will have helped him on his way to his first full England cap this year. The future is bright for Dorrington! Ethan Nwaneri's price tag dropped by £7M after he made one single appearance in the league for Arsenal for the fourth consecutive season. He has won a flurry of personal awards (U18 FA CUP Talent of the Season, UEFA Youth League Top Talent) and youth competitions (UEFA Youth League, FA Youth Cup), but really needs to be playing more first team football to not stifle his development. Hector Kyprianou's valuation has been steadily increasing over the past 3 years. The 24 year old Cypriot has been playing well for Sunderland in the Championship as they missed out on promotion via the playoffs this season. He's come a long way from his National League days at Leyton Orient!

Other Enfield Clubs 2025/26 Season Tier 7 For a 2nd season in a row Enfield Town finished 17th, narrowly escaping relegation! Tier 8 Enfield FC 12th Tier 9 Hinton 1st Promoted Hinton have been promoted as Champions for a THIRD season in a row. They are storming up the league and I wonder when they will hit a ceiling?! Also Tier 9 (but a different league) Cockfosters lost out in another playoff final. Last season they climbed up the table to finish 5th, this season they dropped out of the automatic promotion spots with 1 game to go and agonisingly fave another season in the 9th tier. Next year? Tier 10 Bush Hill Rangers 3rd Promoted (via the playoffs) Enfield Borough 15th Tier 11 Brimsdown 11th Cockfosters Reserves 10th Overall since the start of the save we have seen one relegation (Brimsdown) and 5x promotions (3x Hinton, 2x Bush Hill Rangers) for Enfield-based clubs.

Youth Recruitment Reduction Following @Jimbokav1971's advice, I'm going to start to reduce our youth recruitment. This should reduce the number of non-Enfield-born players coming through our intake. A full emphasis will be placed on maxing out our Junior Coaching and if we ever have enough money in the bank, we'll look to improve our Youth Facilities too. At some point in this save, I'll be playing with more than one manager - as we will want to produce as many top Enfield-born prospects as possible - so it makes sense to be in charge of the clubs that produce these players. As I understand, there is a pool of players each year and they all get assigned to a club on the day of the youth intake preview (which players come to your club is determined by youth recruitment). These players then come through your youth intake with a certain CA (determined by the level of youth coaching). I'm looking to understand how we can do 2 things: 1. Increase the volume of players coming from Enfield 2. Increase the quality of players coming from Enfield I am not sure that number one is possible (two clubs might fight for the same players from the same pool), but number two should be possible by increasing youth coaching (at as many Enfield-based clubs as possible).

Your comment made me realise that I'd made a mistake! I was looking at overall attendance both home and away rather than looking at home games only (which would be affected less by the reputation of the opposition.) Thanks @Muttley84! Home Attendances (2023 - 2026) Our average home attendance has gone up slightly (or is pretty much the same) as last season. Income I can't split the below by home or away, and these numbers include the cup games too, but our match day income & gate receipts are our 2nd and 3rd highest source of income. Without our sponsorship money we would be well into the negative and I am uncertain whether our big money deals will get renewed when they run out, which is why I am keeping a close eye on how much we can increase the number of fans coming to see us. Hopefully another promotion will have helped! Especially as we are more likely to be playing slightly higher reputation teams this season.

Attendances (2023 - 2026) Our average attendance in the league dropped from last season and I am left guessing as to why? We're in a higher division so I assume it would go up. We're moving into a new stadium after this season coming so I hope that it'll increase at some point. In the cups we managed to go a lot further so our overall average attendance has increased year-by-year

Player Development We've seen some of our players improve, but none more so than Jack Clarke. His mental attributes have been flying up and he is key to keep hold of over the next few years.

Bids In We've started to receive a lot of offers for our players - all have been offers of zero, so all have been rejected! Monetary Bid We did also receive our first monetary bid too. Hamilton was our top scorer last season, but with 12 months on his contract and wanting over £100pw for a new contract, I accepted the offer to ensure we didn't lose him for nothing. But Sheringham only offered Hamilton the same wage he's on with us, so he has rejected the contract and stayed! Transfer Out My favourite, and one of key players, Farr has decided to leave. He initially signed a youth contract with an amateur contract lined up from the day he turned 17. Once he turned 17 (two months ago), he was never interested in entering talks for a new contract and as soon as KLSC came in, I had a terrible feeling he would leave and he has. The only positive I see is that he has joined KLSC on an amateur contract, meaning at some point we may be able to entice him to come back to the club as he will be sorely missed in our midfield.

Season 3 We finished 3rd, got promoted and were the biggest overachievers in the cup. The 3 standouts in the squad were Farr, Hamilton & Clarke who also featured the most over the course of the season.

Promotion! After a tetchy semi-final, we went into the final fired up and it was 4-0 by half time, which is how it stayed! We broke our gate receipt and attendance records and have seen a good chunk of the squad have their contracts extended because of our promotion.