[[FM22-Derby County] Why manage the Rams? How are you getting on?]

Season 2

The new owner put £10M into the running costs of the club and gave me £10M to spend. £10M!!! Needless to say, I did what anyone would do and requested improvements to the youth facilities, youth recruitment and youth coaching. The board agree on all fronts. Superb. Last years' youth intake was good, including two 4-5* prospects in a CM called Hugh Hall an Irish right back named Lee Felix. More of the same this year would be very welcome.

Allsop has agreed a free transfer to the MLS and Gunnarsson has finished his loan, so a GK is high on my list of priorities. I bring in my big money signing for this year as a whopping £1.5M is spent on Newcastle's Karl Darlow. I actually tried a double swoop for him and Freddie Woodman for another 300k, but sadly Woodman chose Brighton over us. Speaking of Newcastle players rejecting us, my huge disappointment this year was missing out on Sean Longstaff after his contract expired. He chose Bournemouth over us and I was gutted, he'd have been a perfect BBM for us. As it is, we settled for bringing in Dewsbury-Hall on loan from Leicester instead. 

Curtis Davies had also agree a free to the MLS, and with Phillips and Cresswell being loanees and Stearman coming to the end of his contract, I'm in dire need of CB's, too. There's a leadership void with Jagielka and Davies both leaving, so my first CB will also be my new captain - 110k Grant Hanley from Norwich. I then extend Nat Phillips loan for a year, and snap up Kortney Hause and Jake Clarke-Salter on free transfers. Centre backs sorted. With a need to cut back on loanees, I let Cresswell return to Leeds, as well as letting Bidwell return to Swansea and bring in Chima Okoroji for 400k from Sandhausen as a replacement LB. 

I desperately wanted to keep hold of Balogun for another year, but he wasn't interested. I manage to bring in another loanee to replace him - Fabio Silva from Wolves - and I extend Delap for another year to rotate. 

With those two plus Dewsbury-Hall and Phillips, I have room for one more loanee. I browse the market and one man catches my eye. We don't NEED an upgrade at RB, infact Nathan Byrne was one of my best performers last year, but Jayden Bogle is interested in coming back to Derby on loan and I'm a big fan. I go for it. Ebosele leaves on loan and Bogle comes in. Welcome home. 

To complete our business, Patrick Roberts joins on a free to compete with Sibley for the RW role, and, finally, I spend 700k on a back up keeper because I can lol. Andrew Fisher joins from MK Dons. 

The board want mid table but I think we can aim a little higher than that, if the new signings bed in well. The season starts...poorly. A 1-1 draw against newly-promoted Sunderland isn't the worst start ever, but we follow that up with a penalty loss in the first round of the league cup against Oldham, and a 1-0 loss against Norwich.

In August and September, however, we fly. A single loss and a single draw are the only blemishes to our record, as we climb to 1st in the table. Fabio Silva helps himself to 7 goals in 10 games as Lawrence and Sibley (finally) begin to contribute consistently. Bogle and Byrne take turns trading ratings of 8+ on the regular at right back. Karl Darlow is a revelation, his highlight being a 9.0 rating in our 2-1 triumph over Sheffield United. Hanley and Hause are regularly shutting out opposition strikers and even manage to grab a goal each during this time, too. Things are looking good.

Then comes October. And it's pretty sucky. A loss against promotion favourites Brentford kicks things off, with the only goal of the game coming in the 96th minute. Followed by a loss against Reading through a penalty and then a worrying battering by Luton Town. One team meeting later sees us end the slump with wins against QPR and Birmingham, but we've already slid down to 5th. The Championship is relentless lol. I schedule some friendlies for during the winter World Cup, and I notice no other Championship teams appear to be doing the same. Could the extra sharpness give us an edge when we return to action in December? I'm hoping so! Especially after we follow up our two wins with a loss against Cardiff. 

We kick things off on our return by throwing away a 2-0 lead at Peterborough to draw 2-2. Not the edge I had hoped for. Things pick up from there, though. as Patrick Roberts, who started very slow without a goal or assist in his first 9 games, scores 5 in the next 5 games and we kick off another unbeaten run. We do surrender another 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 with Forest, but that's the only blot on the record for the rest of the month. Next month is even better, We win 4 league games on the spin, knock Hull out of the FA Cup to book a 4th round tie with Peterborough, and survive a battering at West Brom to hold on for an undeserved 0-0. We sit 2nd in the table, 3 points behind Brentford, and I have to say I am ecstatic with how things are going. I was expecting at least one more year in the championship but, if we can keep this up, who knows?! 

 

Darlow top for most clean sheets, my centre back pairing 2nd and 3rd in average rating and Fabio Silva 3rd on the scoring charts. You love to see it. Side note - Bidwell also top for yellow cards so, I'm glad I let him go back and didn't look to extend the loan lol. 

As you can see from the fixture list above, that's where our story ends for now, but I'll keep you guys updated as I go from here if you're interested!

Youth intake looks good this year, too

[[FM22-Derby County] Why manage the Rams? How are you getting on?]

Hello all

 

It's been a blast reading all of your Derby stories which inspired me to start my own Derby save a couple of weeks ago. I started making all of the suggested changed in the pre game editor, so Rooney is my AM and everything else lines up with real life. First window disabled. Here's the story so far!

With the first window disabled and being in administration, there's not much for us to do besides prepare and play games. I eventually settle on a possession based 4-3-3, All 3 GKs look decent, but with Marshall being 36 I left Allsop and Roos battle it out during pre season and Allsop impresses. Byrne and Buchanan will be my full backs and Curtis Davies will be partnered by Stearman or Jagielka, as they both have a preference to play right sided centre back. In midfield, Max Bird will sit infront of the back 4 in a Half Back role, with Shinnie playing a BWM or BBM role, and Morrison as a Mezzala (A). Sibley on the right, Lawrence on the left. Up front we're weak - Stretton and Baldock are the only options going into the season, with Kazim-Richards being both injured and 407 years old. 

 

Opening day of the season we're at home to Huddersfield and we play well until the 78th minute, when Jordan Brown comes off the bench to get a straight red. This wouldn't be the last time either, and Brown will find himself on the transfer list after repeating his party trick of coming off the bench to get a red card against Milwall in November. Regardless, we hold out for a 0-0 with Huddersfield. -20 points. 

We beat Oldham in the league cup and, following 3 wins on the bounce against Peterborough, Hull and Middlesbrough, I'm starting to feel like Pep. This football managing lark is easy. -11 points. 

 

Then reality strikes. A Lewis Grabban double sends us crashing out of the league cup to rivals Nottm Forest, then, following consecutive 0-0 draws against Forest (again) and Birmingham, we get smashed 4-1 by West Brom.  At this point, Stretton and Baldock have a whopping 1 goal each from our first 7 league games and we sit at -9 points. Oh, and did I mention that Ravel Morrison had his foot broken in the cup game against Forest? Yep. That's 3 months on the side-lines.

Morrison had been surprisingly consistent for me up until now, and was a big reason for a lot of our points. Losing him was a blow. Sibley, on the other hand, had been absolutely useless on the right, despite me expecting him to be our star man. For that reason, I thought I'd repurpose Sibley as our Mezzala while Morrison was out. Spoiler alert - he was still terrible. 

 

We managed a 1-0 win against Stoke in our next outing, but follow that up with a run of 5 winless games (D2 L3). Somewhat impressively, we manage to do the exact same over the next 6 games - winning the first and then drawing 2 and losing 3 of the following 5. I don't really want to keep this pattern up lol. Following a 6-1 battering at the hands of Fulham in a game which we finished with 8 men due to red cards, the last game of November is against QPR and we win 2-1, in keeping with the strange cycle, and taking our point tally to 4. We're still a long way from safety and I desperately want to get to January and try and make some loan signings. 

A minor miracle occurs! We break the cycle and follow up our victory over QPR with another win, this time over Bristol City. Great! Then we lose 4 in a row. Great! Ravel Morrison also throws a hissy fit after I bollock the team following the loss against Blackpool, meaning he's on the transfer list now, too. 

There's light at the end of the tunnel, though. I's January and we're out of administration.  I still have budgets of £0, but I've already got some sales lined up, and have been working on loaning out youth to raise funds for wages. 

Roos was my 1st choice GK, but for 20k a week in wages I could bring in 4 loanees, so he had to go. Kazim-Richards was always injured and Marshall was 3rd choice. Jagielka wanted an 18 month deal and I couldn't commit to that, so I let him go to Poland. Wasn't trying to sell young Plange, but for 550k plus 50% of his next sale, I thought it worth the gamble. With the money raised from sales (of which I could keep 20%) plus what I'd saved on wages, I went mental on loanees. 

Balogun being the bell of the ball, in come 8 loanees, 1 permeant signing and, back from the medical room at last, Bielik is ready to take his place as the DLP lynchpin in front of my back 4. I reshuffle Bird and Shinnie together as my CM pairing and install Bielik behind them. Balogun comes in as my new striker, with Liam Delap returning to Derby on loan as a rotational option. Gunnarsson replaces Allsop, Bate and Forshaw give us some much needed cover in midfield while Cresswell and Nat Phillips replace Jagielka and Cashin, who goes out on loan after providing solid cover for six months. My wingers have all struggled, so I'm hoping Kayky brings a bit of creative to the wide areas, and Bidwell is an adequate replacement for Forsyth, who Cardiff paid 85k for.

"But can't you only have 5 loaness in your squad on match days?" Don't care. Need points. I'll make it work somehow. 

"But why so many players from Leeds, a rival?! I'm a Ram and I hate that"" I did what I had to do lol. Cresswell and Bate were both unhappy with the lack of playing time by the time the season was over any way. And Forshaw is just a back up for Bielik. Hopefully that makes you less offended lol  

Despite my reservations, I also extend Tom Lawrence's deal on a whopping 30k a week, despite him producing next to nothing so far. I don't want him going on a free. 

The balancing act pays off, and the loaness make a huge difference. Delap scores on his debut. Then Balogun scored on his debut, and the following 2 games. Lawrence starts producing goals and assists. The points begin to rise and we slowly lift ourselves of the foot of the table. After losing 11 league games before January, we lose only 4 following January and we survive. Great escape complete.