Dong21

Thanks @Jogo Bonito, appreciate the message and glad to be back here. I’ve now played through pre-season so plenty to update on soon.

That is great to hear! He will definitely get game time this season with my intended formation including a back five.

Save Setup Eagle-eyed followers of this developing story will have noticed that I am commencing this career in the summer of 2022, with Estrela da Amadora in the Liga Portugal, which replicates their real life current standing but is not where you would normally find them if you commence a save on FM23. I therefore thought I would provide some information on how I set this challenge up, before I get started. I downloaded FMInsider's data update which had all 2022/23 promotions and relegations applied, meaning that Estrela were promoted as required. Some early window transfers had been made as part of this update, others missed, but I decided it was nothing material enough to stop me proceeding. I loaded up a test save and was disappointed to find the welcome message was not from Patrice Evra and instead was from the former owner. I therefore downloaded the FM editor, created Evra as he was not on the database, giving him the exact same profile as Estrela's former owner and installed him in their place. I removed any other board members to ensure that all communication would be with the man who is the catalyst for this save. I made no changes to Estrela's finances as I wanted to keep this as a big challenge. I believe if I went to manage Estrela in FM24, when the game is available, I will likely have more funds to spend in season one but I am at peace with that! Knowing the stature of the club and the budget likely available I set up the save with a vast number of leagues playable. I added the top four tiers in Portugal, Spain and England, the top two tiers in France, German, Italy, Spain and Scotland and the top divisions of an additional 13 European nations. I am well aware that Portuguese clubs have a rich history of recruiting players from the South American continent, therefore I made all available leagues in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Peru and Uruaguay view-only. The Estrela starting squad contains seven Brazilians and only six Portuguese players. With this save setup, I can continue to build my squad in a similar manner, should I so wish. Finally, to broaden the availability of players, and (somewhat self-servingly with a long-term thought process) the variety of clubs who may be interested in buying the club's players, I also added China, Mexico, U.S.A, Russia and Ukraine as view only leagues. One disappointment was that I had understood the data update I had downloaded would eliminate the winter break for the 2022 World Cup, however sadly this has not been the case. This means we have a month long break in December. I selected the start date to be pre-season 2022 for the Liga Portugal season, meaning that the save commenced on 04 July, 2022.

Glad to hear the save is not lost! Another month of great form and congrats on making it through to the Champions League quarter finals. Liverpool will be tough opponents, but stranger things have happened. Good luck amigo.

Well, I have just gone through the process of sacking eight staff members and hiring 19 new additions, so that might tell you something about how good I thought they were! (Full update on staffing enhancements will follow another day.) That said, I was lucky to inherit a good assistant manager who's services I have retained. So the star rating displayed above in my squad assessment have stayed the same, as they come from my right hand man. I like your optimism and your insight is valued! I'm aware there is a big gulf in quality between the 'big three' and the smaller teams, what I will soon find out is what is the quality gap between this Estrela squad and the rest of the field. Agreed, the finances are a concern. My objective is to survive by any means necessary this season. Rebuild the squad in my own image next summer. Sign players on longer contracts and with a younger age profile. Sell and reinvest to build the clubs finances and grow organically. All sounds so simple when written like that... Let's see if it plays out that way!

Starting Squad Assessment With the ink barely dry on my Estrela da Amadora contract, it was time to get to work on analysing the squad available to me. With a non-existent transfer budget and an available wage budget of only £3.5k p/w and near-to-no players available to sell, this season will likely see me having to primarily use the resources that are already available to me. It is therefore imperative for me to have a good understanding of the capability of the players at the club. Goalkeepers I was pleased to discover that goalkeeping is not an area of concern, with two solid and experienced options to choose from going into the season. Brigido looks to be quite poor in terms of handling and throwing, however otherwise he has good attributes to be our first choice stopper. Filipe has spent his entire career, bar one solitary season, as a number two and that is the role he will play this season for Estrela despite maybe being a more well-rounded player. Right Backs Miguel Lopes is the only player at the club who I had heard of prior to taking the helm. The period I recall him from is roughly ten years ago when he spent time at Sporting Lisbon and Lyon. More recently he spent several years in the Turkish Super League. He is one of only two players who has been at the club longer than a few weeks. As he is our highest earner and past the peak of his powers, I will be keen to move him on in the not-too-distant future. But for now I will value his experience as one of the only players with European top division pedigree. Although probably not as solid in a season where we will likely need to defend for our lives, I am excited to have wing back Hevertton as an alternative option. Hevertton has more pace, acceleration and the ability to dribble and cross. Importantly, at the age of 21, he has the potential to develop and grow. Left Backs Left back is undoubtedly our most position with the most quality. Mansur is the best player at the club and his understudy Reis is considered the team's fifth best player. If we play a formation with wingers, there is the potential to play Reis ahead of Mansur so they both can feature. I was chuffed to discover that Mansur had an option to extend his contract by a season, so I took that option immediately and extended his deal to the summer of 2024, even before I had seen him kick a ball. I think he has the attributes to contribute positively to both our defence and our attacking prowess. Mansur is the only player at the club that my staff rate as a "decent Liga Portugal player". The seven players they rate 3.5 stars are just deemed "good Liga Portugal II players". This puts into context the challenge that lies ahead. Centre Backs Kialonga Gaspar is our stand out central defender. The Angolan is determined, aggressive, with strong heading and tacking ability. The other four options are all young and fairly similar in ability. No-nonsense Feratovic looks like the best prospect of the group. Although there is depth in this position, this will be a priority transfer focus area for me and I will be looking to add experience and quality to the spine of the team. Recruiting here is especially important as I am minded to play a five man defence, given our underdog status in the league and our need to play cautious football. Ball winning midfielder and club captain Rui Correia (previewed below) is in fact probably our second best centre back on paper. He may well player there, if he is not needed to anchor the midfield. Centre Midfielders Whether we play 5-1-2-2 or 4-1-2-2-1 (the formations I have already got the team to work on practicing), I am near certain that the system will feature a ball winning midfielder sitting in front of the defence. The reason is twofold; (1) we are a much inferior team playing in a league with great attacking talent, so our defence will need all the cover it can get, and (2) I have a relative abundance of defensive midfield options. My staff consider Latyr Fall to be a defensive midfielder, but I have taken stock of his pace, acceleration and work rate and think he might be better placed to serve as a box-to-box midfielder. The defensive midfield spot will be for Aloisio and Correira to fight over. Meanwhile we have four decent options for what will likely be two central midfield positions. Despite how resourced we are in this area, I will still be scouring the market for anyone (potentially a loanee, given our circumstances) who can take us to the next level as I think with so many players focused on defending we are going to need some magic in midfield to get the ball to our strikers and to give us a chance of scoring in games. Wingers We do not have much quantity, when it comes to quality on the wing. The best of the bunch is Leo Jaba, who is on loan from a Brazilian Serie D team. Jaba could well be the key to unlocking tight games as he possesses great dribbling, first touch and technique. Vice captain Salomao has good technical ability but is physically limited, likely due to a long career mainly spread across the second tiers of Spain and Portugal. The rest of the wing options at my disposal are extremely raw and would frankly be considered risks if I had to start them regularly in the Liga Portugal. That said, young Capita has determination '20' so maybe he'll prove me wrong! My options seem to be to either convert Reis to a left winger and sign an additional right winger, or switch to a formation that doesn't include wingers. Strikers The big area of concern. There is neither depth nor quality when it comes to strikers at Estrela. Ronaldo looks industrious and has decent physical and mental attributes , so could likely be tasked with working hard all match long running the channels, but he does not look to be a finisher. For context, he scored one goal in 33 second division appearances in the season prior. My number one priority this transfer window is to find a goalscorer. If I don't, this tough challenge may well be impossible. Realistically we need two or maybe even three forwards, especially as Graca is nowhere near ready for the Liga Portugal. As mentioned in my opening post, every single player except two (who happen to be in their mid-30s and on high wages, so likely hard to move on) are on one year deals and have recently joined the club. Therefore there is near-to-no possibility of moving the majority of these players onwards this summer. I'm excited by the challenge of working with what I have got, and will hopefully work some transfer magic to add a few gems to the mix. To find them, I am going to need to be creative.

Thanks for checking out my post @SixPointer!

Thanks, it’s good to be back @warlock! I’ve recently got a new laptop which is much quicker than my last (six years old, lagged a lot) so I’m confident I’ll be able to post regularly and my work / travel should be quieter over the next few months. I have also been following along with the recent career stories from yourself, @Jogo Bonito and @SixPointer, etc., which I have really enjoyed and increased the itch for me to return and start telling my own FM story!

Thanks @Ronaldo Beckham - appreciate your interest in this save! I'm motivated by the challenge and also the interesting narrative with Evra taking over a relatively unknown club. I've also never managed in Portugal before, despite it being a country close to my heart. Most of my childhood holidays were in Portugal and earlier this year I visited Lisbon and loved the city. Will definitely go back, perhaps even to watch an Estrela game! Thanks @Reiver. Most of what you have mentioned is covered in my intro post above, but I didn't mention the former club's Portuguese Cup win so good to call that out. This would of course be a long-term goal (if I manage to survive that long!), but perhaps I can bring a trophy to the current incarnation of Estrela da Amadora!

C.F. Estrela da Amadora - "I Love This Game!" Up until June 2023, C.F Estrela da Amadora, a team based in the north west of Lisbon and only formed in 2020, was not a club on many football fans radars. That soon changed, for two reasons. Firstly, on 02 June the charismatic former-Manchester United full-back turned social media star Patrice Evra announced on his Instagram account that he was the new owner of the club. He later confirmed that he is the majority owner and that the purchase price was estimated to be €5m. The second event that made the headlines, just nine days later, was the shock promotion of Estrela from Liga Portugal II into the Liga Portugal. Given the club's short history, it is not surprising to say that this was to be the club's first time in the top flight. Estrela finished 3rd in the league, therefore qualifying for a relegation/promotion play-off against Liga Portugal mainstay Maritimo. It was a two-legged affair with both sides winning a match 2-1. The play-off went to penalties and Estrela achieved the the seemingly impossible by winning the shootout 3-2 , thus ending Maritimo's 38 year stay in the top division. At the same time as this historic match was taking place, Evra was competing (and winning) in Soccer Aid and so had to check his phone in the dressing room to find out the result - where more celebrations ensued! Evra later said of the promotion "It's chaos. We weren't ready for that!". On 28 June, Patrice appeared on The Drop In (The Football Ramble podcast) where he spoke about his surprise at Estrela's promotion, but also his passion and excitement to be involved in the project. Evra later revealed that following promotion the club is now valued at around €40m (eight times his investment, just a month earlier) and that a Premier League club had offered to buy the club to form part of their network of teams. Evra though, has no intention of going anywhere. He "loves this game!" and loves the challenge of owning the smallest team in Liga Portugal. This is where I come in. Those who have followed my writing on these Forums in prior years will know, I also love a challenge. Especially when it involves building a club from the ground up. That is why I have chosen to accept Patrice Evra's offer to become the new manager of C.F Estrela da Amadora, on a two year contract. The Challenge Ahead There is one objective, and one objective only, for our first season: survive by any means necessary. Survival will be a big challenge for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was a genuine surprise that the team achieved promotion and therefore the squad at my disposal is that of a mid-table Liga Portugal II team (a full squad assessment will follow soon). Secondly, I have been handed only a £43k transfer budget to transform this team into being Liga Portugal ready, with only a further £3.5k per week available for player wages. Of the starting squad, 32 of the players have just arrived and are on one-year deals and therefore cannot be sold to generate a transfer budget. Only two players have been at the club for longer, both a year each. Finally, the facilities are poor. Corporate, training and youth facilities are all considered average, and junior coaching is classed as adequate. The only positive in this field is that our youth recruitment is seen as above average - some hope for the future of this project. It should not come as a surprise that the facilities at Estrela are limited, when you look at it's history. Clube de Futbol Estrela da Amadora operated in the lower divisions of Portuguese football, between it's formation in 1932 and it's bankruptcy in 2011. Supporters formed Clube Desportivo Estrela in the same year their club went bankrupt and in 2018 they became a professional club. In 2020 they merged with Club Sintra Football, who were in the third division. This merger allowed Estrela to commence their journey from Liga Portugal III. They gained promotion to Liga II at their first attempt, after finishing second in the league. Their first season in the second tier they achieved a consolatory 14th place finish, before pulling off their shock promotion the following year. Here is hoping for more shocks in the suburbs of Lisbon!

I’m traveling quite a lot with work over the next two months, so indefinite leave for now sadly - I am missing playing! Hopefully in the summer I’ll be able to get a save started.

Belated congratulations on qualifying for the Champions League and the two cup runs @warlock! More importantly, great to see the strong start in the CL and in the PL once again. I was pleasantly surprised to see you managed to retain Toney over the summer. This is my first time on the Forum since the start of Jan (I haven’t even played any FM since then), but now I’ve caught up on your thread I will try and continue to follow along!

I’m not sure I’d have the patience to manage at that level, but I hope you enjoy the ride @warlock!

And the same to you too mate! Who are you currently managing, out of interest? I haven’t seen any updates from you lately - unless it’s in a corner of the Forums I’ve not spotted yet. I now have FM23 and have been playing around a bit with a United save just as a bit of fun until an idea for new challenge occurs to me.

Finally. Finally. Finally. New Year. New Owner. The moment I've been waiting for what feels like an eternity. After more failed takeovers than fingers on a set of hands. After never realising this dream in FM21. Oldham Athletic have managed to rid themselves of Abdallah Lemsagam and his cronies. A local businessman has come to the rescue, mirroring what happened in real life during the summer of 2022 for the Latics. Anyone who has been following on with this journey knows that this is the thing I wanted the most from this managerial career. Albeit it was always something outside of my control. Perhaps the success on the pitch made the club more attractive to purchase? I like to think that was the case. Our transfer budget was immediately increased from £35k to £170k meaning, if I wish to play on with this career, I have funds to pad out my relatively threadbare squad in the upcoming January transfer window. I immediately converted our new transfer budget into wage budget (leaving £30k left), giving me a wage budget of £4.75k per week to play with in the free agent market. Interestingly, our financial position is clearly still not perfect, as the club rejected my request to increase the percentage retained in my budget from transfer revenue. One of the ongoing bug bears with Lemsagam during my three year tenure as Oldham manager has been his refusal to send any member of staff on a coaching course. Something that costs relatively little and clearly could have a tangible difference. Flat no, every time. So I thought I'd test the water with my new boss, Olly Sale. Hallelujah! The new era begins with self-improvement and progress supported. Then, feeling full of excitement, I decided to push things even further. I asked our brand new owner whether we could improve the club's crumbling youth facilities and training facilities. Without hesitation Sale sanctioned a £2.15m spend on our facilities. Unprecedented at Oldham - probably the first proactive spend in these areas in 30 years! What was satisfying to see was the reason given; our current run of form leading to a season of overachievement.

Congrats on the promotion! Satisfying that Mullin got to the magic number of 50 goals across all competitions. I look forward to seeing how you get on with rebuilding the squad for life in the Championship. Glad to hear it. All good here as well thanks. I'm yet to take the plunge and purchase FM23 as I am still enjoying a career on FM22 (Oldham), however I am sure I will do very soon into the new year!

No updates for a month and then four in one day! When Frank Rothwell recently bought Oldham Athletic IRL he said about the club: I have returned Oldham to League One, the division they spent over 20 years in before Abdallah Lemsagam's disastrous reign plummeted them down to the National League. Now the aim is to make us competitive at the top of this league. July 2024 Pre-season went as well as it could, six victories and one draw (against our parent team who are currently in the Championship). You'll see names of scorers above who were 'the ones that got away' - the players we had on trial, attempted to sign, but were rejected by them. Going into the new season we sold 4,250 season tickets, a big uplift on the last campaign. Just before the season started Couto was ruled out for a month with pulled knee ligaments. I had been debating whether to start him or James, so that at least took that decision out of my hands. August 2024 Our start to life in League One was pretty much how I expected it to go - a mixed bag (one win, two draws, one loss). Points on the board is always a positive when you step up a division. New striker Appéré could not have had a better debut when he scored four in one game against Barrow in the League Cup. We won again in the next round, this time against Tranmere and the star of that night was young midfielder Vaughan. September 2024 We kicked off our Papa John's Trophy campaign with disappointment. My second string side were sloppy, giving the ball away a lot and a draw was a fair result, this was then followed by a penalty shootout in which all three of our penalties were saved (at least they didn't hit them over the bar I guess... - too soon?). This was soon forgotten however, as we then went on a win of three high-scoring victories. The media tried to tell me that the Huddersfield game was a derby - if the fans really feel that way then they would have been happy with the result. All three of Simpsons goals were set up by McGhee. Our League Cup run unsurprisingly came to an end when we were drawn against United at Old Trafford. We took the lead with a beauty of a strike from Lindsay, of all people, and for a moment I thought a memorable upset could be on the cards. They were ultimately too strong though, evidenced by the powerful Alexander Isak scoring a brace. I was worried this result would derail our good form but I was pleased to see us be the better team with more chances against Sunderland. Obviously it was frustrating to then lose, but it wasn't a panic situation. Centre back Katongo won the League's Young Player of the Month award. The other positive this month was the board finally relented and changed transfer policy so that I receive 60% of transfer revenue in my budget going forward. October 2024 What happened next in October was completely unexpected. After a draw against, then, league leaders Plymouth we went on a run of six wins in a row where we scored at least three goals each match. In the build up to the Forest Green game Jno-Baptiste announced his intention to explore other options when his contract expires at the end of the season and then fractured his lower leg ruling him out for at least three months, and this still didn't dampen our spirits. Against Wigan we were winning 2-1 when Couto got sent off for a bad tackle. We switched to 4-4-1 and went defensive which somehow played to our advantage and we scored late on, on the counter attack. By contrast, we had great fortune against Derby. They had a player sent off in just three minutes. We missed a penalty in the 12th minute but our numbers were too much and we were able to romp to victory. To my shock, the Derby game took us top of the League One table. Finally, the Shrewsbury win was enjoyable as youngster Badby managed to get a goal from the bench. For this month O'Reilly was named Young Player of the Month and I received the Managers' accolade. I did not envisage our season would start so well. I think looking at our squad, I would expect us to drop down the table, but either way we should end up more successful than we, the club or the media expected (I hope!).

Ten signings sounds like a lot, but compared to the last two summers this was relatively quiet! It also means I have started the season with my smallest squad yet. I am not overly concerned, as I usually finish seasons with several players who ended up being redundant as the season played out - I just tend to plan for all occasions (primarily, injury crisis') normally. Here is a summary of the players at my disposal, as at the end of the transfer window: Goalkeepers As a result of balancing the books to ensure we had players in all positions, we go into this season weaker in the goalkeeping department than last season in League Two. Last campaign we had two 'keepers capable of being first choice, this time around I would be worried if anything happened to Turner. Crellin should be okay for cup competition. If there had been affordable yet quality options available, this is a position I would have liked to strengthen. Centre Backs One of our strongest areas of the squad. Whichever two were to play, I would be feeling comfortable. Hockenhull is clearly the standout defender, which was evidenced by the array of accolades he received at the end of the prior season. Clarke is club captain as he demonstrates great leadership on and off the pitch. Full Backs Harry Clarke serves as both a centre back and right back option in my squad. Ideally I would have signed another right back or centre back but I could not find someone suitable who would join the club. In Ng, Clarke, Couto and James I have four quality full backs. Central Midfielders I believe that my first choice central midfield partnership, Longstaff and Lindsay, is a top tier League One pairing or perhaps even Championship level. Thompson is an extremely capable alternative and in Haysman and Vaughan I have two young players with bags of potential. Vaughan is rated by my staff as 2 star, which suggests a decline since prior updates. I do not think this is the case however, instead I think it is just reflective of the overall improvement of my squad's quality. Wingers Compared to the last two seasons, we are definitely lighter on the wings. We simply don't have the finances to afford third choice options on both flanks. Jno-Baptiste is my first choice right winger, after finishing last season strongly, and his deputy is Dodoo. On the left wing my first choice is Whittingham and his understudy is fellow loanee Leonard. I spent a lot of the transfer window trying to acquire a marquee winger to add quality to the group, but all the options I looked at went elsewhere. To pad out the squad I have had to promote youngsters Badby and Lewis-Balogun. Central Attacking Midfielders McGhee and O'Reilly are two players who I am extremely fond of. I am hoping they will take the step up to League One football in their strides. Due to the lack of depth on the wings, you may well see one of these two operating there to get more talent on the pitch. Strikers This is definitely the least amount of strikers I've ever started a season with. We play just one up front, but still this is light. Simpson is first choice but Appéré will be right there waiting to take his place if he does not perform. If we are to have a good season, these two will both need to be firing. I am pleased with the quality contained in my squad and like that many of the players are ones I have nurtured over the last two seasons. The concern is of course our lack of depth due to financial constraints. Staying injury free is the most important thing for us. Despite us only just being promoted, I am optimistically targeting a top half finish. Fortuitously the board only expect us to avoid relegation.

With the same unwanted owner and the same financial predicament, we were starting life in a new division but no transfer or wage budget to use to improve the playing squad. Like in the season before, I was aware that to make any signings I was going to have to sell, so the first thing I did was ask the owner if we could increase the percentage of transfer revenue that I retain, but he promptly rejected this keeping it at just 20%. I was therefore going to have to get creative with my signings. My summer transfer activity can once again be broken down into key phases: Recruitment Phase 1 - Squad Depth Through Loans In an ideal world I would not need to loan any players, but in our situation this is the most cost effective way to build depth into my squad. Firstly I reached out to our 'unofficial parent club' Man City who last season were happy to send us a batch of their young players for no cost. We renewed the season-long loans of left winger Matthew Whittingham and centre back Jadel Katongo, both of whom were important players in last season's promotion winning side. Attacking midfielder Nico O'Reilly spent the first six months of last season on loan with us, this time Man City agreed we could have him for the whole campaign, with us only covering 20% of his £3k per week wages. Next up I turned to our official parent club, Blackburn Rovers. Last season we didn't end up taking anyone from them (unsurprisingly their academy isn't quite as good as City's) but we were more desperate this time around with event less budget to spend. We therefore decided to bring in two of their available players to bulk out our squad, with the major benefit being that we don't need to contribute to their wages. The arrivals were centre back Ashley Phillips and left sided forward Harry Leonard. Both are young players who have the potential to improve if I end up giving them playing time. Recruitment Phase 2 - Sell Anyone Who's Not Essential As is often the case when I am managing in the lower leagues or at clubs with limited budgets, I took a good number of free agents on trial to cast my eye over them. The majority were interested in signing and would improve our squad - the issue was though, we didn't have any budget to sign them. I therefore looked at my squad to see who I could sell to (a) create wage budget and (b) generate transfer revenue I could convert into further wage budget. As you can see above, I managed to raise £550k, of which I only saw a small proportion of. Kigbu and McNulty came to me to say they were looking for new opportunities and so were the first to be placed on the transfer list. Law had decent value considering his limited contributions last season, so again I was happy to accept a bid. Stevenson was a class act, particularly adept at corners, however central midfield was where I feel we have the most depth so I decided to cash in. My staff spent last season telling me that Garratt was my best 'keeper, but I preferred Turner. I therefore offered him out and to my surprise Man Utd and Liverpool were listed as interested in the 29 year old. In the end though it was Charlton who secured him. Gunter was my long-term project in goal, but when a bid of over £100k came in for him unprompted, I just had to take the money. In addition to all the sales, we also loaned out a number of young players for experience. This also made minor reductions to our wage bill. The most notable outgoing was Junior Luamba who I was keen to get more minutes at League Two level. Recruitment Phase 3 - Add Quality Now first of all it is probably worth acknowledging the vast number of rejections I received from players, once we had a small amount of budget to offer them contracts. Players who were on trial with us, were happy to negotiate and had no interest in them from other clubs would all instantly receive an offer from another club the second I offered them a deal. In quite a few instances players chose teams in lower divisions or offers of less money, which was quite perplexing. The biggest example being Josh Cosgrove who I offered the role of first team player, for him to then chose to go to Accrington instead in the division below, same squad status but for half the money I offered! It was not all doom and gloom though, we did manage to secure some new faces. First to arrive on a permanent contract was Reece James (not that one!) who had just departed Cardiff City. The full back provides be another quality option on the left side of defence. After selling both Garratt and Gunter near the end of the transfer window, I needed a back up goalkeeper or we were one injury away from a crisis. The best I could find on the free agent market was Billy Crellin. He is at least competent and, thanks to his age, has potential resale value. At the start of pre-season I took Joe Dodoo on trial and I must admit he was not a priority to sign. He was on trial for four weeks and due to a limited number of options, played on the right wing in a lot of pre-season matches. To my surprise, he was one of our star performers during this period. As we were struggling to sign our primary targets, I decided to sign up Dodoo to add more depth to my squad. Although listed as a striker, I see him as my second choice right winger. The screenshot shows his attributes declining, but don't read too much into that as he has played well so far this season (more on that in a future update). I was happy with Longstaff and Thompson as my first choice central midfield pairing, but when I stumbled across Jamie Lindsay I could not resist making a move. Lindsay is now by far the best defensive midfielder at the club. He had spent the last two seasons as first choice CM for Kilmarnock in the Scottish Championship. There were so many centre forwards who rejected us. I knew I wanted Simpson to continue as my first choice forward, he had earned the right after a stellar campaign, but I also knew I needed a quality alternate. It was looking like we were going to be short in this area, until I decided to splash out and sign striker Louis Appéré on a free from Northampton. On £2.8k per week he is our highest earner by a distance (Lindsay is second on £2k) but I am comfortable with this as we had room in the budget and the alternative was to start the season with just one striker. He is an expensive sub, but I am expecting him to contribute to our success with goals.

Paul Mullin has been an excellent signing with that goal return! Good to see updates from you again on these forums @Jogo Bonito - hope all is well with you

After a bit of consideration, I decided to play on with Oldham for a bit longer. I'm enjoying this too much to stop just now! I tend to offer staff short-term contracts as when their deals come close to expiry it acts as a reminder for me to survey the options available to me external to the club, and bring in new faces if better options are available. It is also a fairly low risk approach as I find staff are usually pretty content to renew their deals, even if you leave this until the day their old deal expires, whilst you are looking at alternatives. Having just secured promotion to League One, I had a feeling better quality staff would be interested in moving to Boundary Park. Richard Thomas was a very good coach, however I decided to release him when it became apparent that Mike Garrity was interested in joining us. Garrity is simply top class in nearly all elements of coaching and brings pedigree to the club, with five years at Liverpool on his CV. Garrity is a coach I have worked with in other managerial careers, at clubs bigger than Oldham. The other new addition to the first team coaching group is Goalkeeping Coach Rob Burch. He replaces Mel Gwinnett, who only arrived one year ago, but who had to move on as Burch is a level above in talent. Burch's previous roles have been at Premier League clubs, so this can be considered another coup. At Under-18s level, the international experience Ashley Williams provided to my youngsters was comfortably replaced by my new U18s Assistant Manager Emmerson Boyce. Boyce replaced prior AM John McKeown and Williams was directly replaced by new Coach Neil Danns. Ronny Rosenthal and Khaled Badra have both been trusted lieutenants to me in the scouting department as we've climbed up the divisions, however it was time to move forward in a different direction. My new Chief Scout, Nicky Law, joins us from Burnley where he spent six years. The Lancashire side have a pretty good reputation for finding hidden gems, so I'm excited to see how Law supports my recruitment efforts. Joining him, following eight years at Manchester United, is fellow scout Kei Tamura. Perhaps a left-field choice as his expertise is Japanese talent, I'm willing to believe his skills are transferable and he will be able to help find me talent closer to home. Physio Calum Green replaces Ryan Wilkie in our medical department. When we were in the National League and League Two I felt I couldn't justify hiring a Director of Football. I like to make most of the decisions at the club, so effectively the role is just another scout as I sometimes ask my Director of Football for player recommendations. Now were are in League One I decided I could afford this luxury. Johnny Miller has very good scouting ability and his wages are lower than similar rated scouts. Perhaps most important of all, his handlebar moustache is a sight to behold! One man was not replaced. My trusted right-hand-man, Terry McPhillips, was rewarded for his loyalty after rejecting a move to Hull with a two year contract extension.

I second what @Jogo Bonito has said and will keep an eye out for where you end up managing @warlock

Interesting idea for a save! Enjoying following your updates. I’m surprised you went for Hart as first choice ‘keeper ahead of Henderson? That said, it doesn’t seem to be causing you any issues. All going very well

With promotion in the bag, my attention once again turns to enhancing my squad so that it is capable of surviving and perhaps even thriving in League One. I advised the squad in the end of season team meeting that we would be bringing in new faces to assist us, and the group reacted positively. That said, before I begin to review the transfer options available to me, it is important to first reflect back on the performances of my squad over the season concluded. So let's take a look at how my players got on in the 2023/24 season: Goalkeepers For the second season in a row, Jake Turner was our first team goalkeeper. Second choice stopper Ben Garratt still played over 20 games though as he featured in most cup competitions and also came into the first team for league matches when I had felt that Turner had messed up the game prior. In most instances though, Turner would swiftly return to being my number one shortly after. In my eyes both 'keepers are very even in quality and this is supported by their similar proportions of goals conceded against games played. Going into League One next season, if I can find a goalkeeper who is a significant step up from Turner and Garratt, then I will certainly be open to recruiting. Young Luca Gunter sadly did not get any first team opportunities this season. I will look to loan him out next campaign so he can attempt to begin fulfilling his potential. Full Backs As indicated by his 7.35 average match rating, Harry Clarke had a terrific season. His biggest asset is his versatility; for the first half of the season he job shared the right back position with veteran full back Jordan Spence and then in the second half of the season, after the arrival of Perry Ng, he transitioned to centre back and formed a great partnership with the ever-present Ben Hockenhull. Clarke assumed club captaincy mid-season and has thrived in this role, recently rising to the status of 'team leader' within the squad. At the end of the season three players separately came to me to say they weren't sure they were cut out for this club and in each instance Clarke stepped in and was able to cease any issue. Clarke was voted League Two's signing of the season (with Ng one of the four runners up). Ng has been great since joining. My staff rate him as the best player at the club and I was particularly impressed with his 5 assists in just half a season. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do in a full season. 20 year old Benny Couto had a stellar campaign. He played more matches than he did when we were in the National League and you can see him improving every week. He marauds down the left flank and contributed 7 assists this season in this role. Tomas Galvez was one of several Man City loanees brought in on the cheap to bulk out the squad. Every time Galvez played he did well. I would be surprised if he makes it at Man City but I think he has a very good career ahead of him. Centre Backs There is so much to say about Ben Hockenhull. He had the highest average match rating of any player (nearly 7.5), he had the most Player of the Match awards (6) and the most passes completed per 90 minutes (71). Unsurprisingly he was named our Fans Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season. Externally, he won League Two's Player of the Year and was named in the league's Team of the Season. Three star-rated Jadel Katongo partnered Hockenhull for the first half of the season and did really well in this role. He was ousted in the second half of the season when I wanted to fit both Ng and Clarke in the side, prioritising the development of our contracted players over loanees. Ash Kigbu was merely a backup this season, but whenever called upon he delivered for us. Central Midfield We were over-stocked in central midfield and the two main victims of this were Bobby Carroll and Tom Carroll (on loan for the second half of the season). Neither could get any game time and both have been set for release this summer. I have perhaps wasted the chance to develop Bobby, however it had to be done as I simply had better options available. It could be argued that my midfield signings have also limited the game time of youngsters Harry Vaughan and Khalon Haysman, however on reflection they both featured in near 30 games each which is a good level of experience for a pair of 20 year olds. Ben Stevenson was the top assistor of the season, with nine. He proved to be terrific at corners and this would have been where most of his assists came from. Mid-season signings Louis Thompson and Matty Longstaff both excelled. They both fit the mould of the roles I like to play in central midfield; ball winning midfielder and mezzala respectively, better than any of the players I had at the club prior to their arrivals. Central Attacking Midfield The above image should really feature Nico O'Reilly who was with us until January and played 27 times at CAM and got 5 goals and 6 assists. Dion McGhee could not live up to his first season in which he set up or scored a staggering 34 goals. That said he still had a good season, considering he had stepped up a league level. His goals, assists and average rating were still respectable. Being only 23 years old, he still has room to develop further. Wingers Matthew Whittingham was the City loanee who made the biggest contribution to our campaign. Although still quite raw, the young winger had several standout games and I was pleased with his 6 goals and 6 assists. Whittingham was first choice at left wing, although as you can see from the way appearances are shared around, Ben Lloyd (who did sometimes also play CM) and Jason Law did often deputise. First choice on the right wing was Francis Jno-Baptiste (FJB), although injuries stopped him playing as much as I would have liked. As such Junior Luamba or Dion McGhee would often have to fill in. We had a rare scenario whereby we had a lot more left footers than right footers, which is why McGhee would sometimes fill in due to his versatility. FJB scored one more goal than the season before, and in a lot less games. After he scored 4 against Bradford I tried to offer him a new two year contract, he wanted silly money and talks broke down. As the season progressed I was able to secure a one year extension with him on similar terms to what he was on. After some thought, I also decided recently to give Luamba a one year deal prior to expiry. On paper he is nothing special but so often he does well on the pitch, plus he is homegrown, so I decided to give him the new deal. Strikers There was a question mark over Connor Simpson at the start of the season. Could he score goals in League Two like he could in the National League? Simpson confirmed emphatically, scoring 2 more than the season prior, being named in the league's Team of the Season and finishing up the division's Top Goalscorer of the Season. Like Joe Duffy before him, Jay Stansfield never really got a sniff. He ended up filling in on the right week many times more than he played up front. Considering he only made one start, Bobby Duncan did well to get three goals across the season. He needs to be loaned out to develop or moved on. Marc McNulty was somewhat of a flop and I'll definitely be looking to get him off the books. Renewals Given our financial predicament and the boards indication that there will be no money available for transfers this summer, I decided to explore the possibility of renewing Katongo and Whittingham's loans. To my delight, City were happy to loan them, they were happy to come back and best of all City didn't expect us to cover a penny of their wages this time. I therefore moved exceedingly quickly to tie up their loan renewals. I also thought it would be prudent to renew the contracts of our best players. This means they are more likely to stay at the club, or if they are to be poached then we should get more for them when they have more years on their contracts. Five key players, who all had one year left on their deals, signed new three year contracts; Clarke (£1.6k per week), Hockenhull (£1.5k p/w), Couto (£1.2k p/w), Haysman (£1.3k p/w) and Vaughan (£1.3k p/w). Also, youngsters Cookson and Moore got new two and one year deals, respectively. I also tried to renew McGhee's deal but talks broke down over the fact I wanted him to sign a three year deal and he only wanted two. I am confident that we will be able to resume talks within the next few months and he will sign a renewal of some form. The best bit about renewing Clarke and Hockenhull's contracts was that I was able to remove minimum fee release clauses that, prior to this, had left us vulnerable to them being poached for a bargain.

Thanks @warlock I am undecided to be honest! This is the first year I can remember where I haven't bought the game in advance and played the beta. Its a combination of (1) I'm still really enjoying this Oldham save and it would feel like a shame to end it after putting so much time and effort into it and (2) I haven't really heard rave reviews about FM23 - nothing negative per say, just that not much has changed and therefore I haven't been inspired to buy it and put down FM22. I'm sure I'll make a decision on whether to continue or make the jump to the new game some time this week. Yes that's been my experience in previous years as a lower league manager, not a huge leap between League One and League Two and then a big jump when you get to the Championship. The challenge will be that the board has already advised that budgets will remain the same (remember, they stayed the same when I went from the National League to League Two) and there are some properly big clubs at this level (the likes of Sunderland, Sheff Wed, Hull, Derby and Ipswich), which wasn't the case in League Two. I'm really hoping for that takeover as (1) I'm sick of reading Abdallah Lemsagam's name, (2) it will be great narrative for the story I'm telling here and (3) it should hopefully wipe the debts and put us on a sound financial footing. Its worth noting, I don't want a tycoon takeover as I don't like when a challenge is easy - just a reasonable budget to compete at League One level.