erik45

September 2040. Can someone explain to me how we are doing so well??? I knew that team is good enough to play at this level (although my coaches didn't agree with me), but I wasn't waiting for this kind of unbeaten run! Yes, many of the teams we faced have struggled in the league so far, but this is still amazing! Table. 21 points after 10 games, I couldn't be happier! We've scored the most goals and our defence is playing quite well Injury. This might hurt us next month. At the of the month's last game Bremser 36c, our best left back, got injured and will the next month completely. On top of that, in the very next game the 2nd choice got injured and now we have no proper left backs left in the selection. Finances. Looks like the loss made in August was just a blimp, now we are back in positive. Not by much, but that is not to be expected at this level. Upcoming fixtures. We start the month by facing Radcliffe, who won the National North last season. It will be a difficult game, but we want to show them we are more ready than them for this level. At the cup we start our hopefully long run as we host Runcorn Town. They play three divisions below us, so it should be a walk in the park for us, but maybe I jinxed just by writing this

August 2040. It took us one game to get used to the new division, after that it was a very positive month! Even the Crawley game was very even, but they scored and we didn't. I really enjoyed the away game at Tranmere. Smith 40a scored a hat trick, but what I appreciated even more was Tranmere's tactics: two strikers who are both 197 cm tall (6'5 1/2), just crosses to them in the box. They scored two with that tactic before I realised I need to instruct our players to stop crosses. Table. Well, look at us! I will be happy as long as we keep some distance to the relegation zone Player of the Month. The young star showed why he was selected for the Media Dream Eleven. Six goals in four games is amazing for anyone, but Smith 40a is still only 16! Finances. It is not unusual for FC Isle of Man to make a little bit of loss in August before the income gets better as the season goes further. But I'm a bit worried about the amount of loss, over 30k€! The main reason for it is the youth setup. When our reputation went from 0,5 to 1 star, it increased the costs of the setup. The monthly costs have practically doubled from 30k€ to 60k€. Stadium expansion. Now our stadium is bigger than ever, capable of accommodating over 4000 spectators (the National League minimum being 4000 )! Our fanbase isn't that big yet, in the first game with the new capacity we had 2610 people at the stadium. Upcoming fixtures. A busy month, mostly against team that hasn't started the season well. I'm eagerly waiting to meet the real "Football Manager team" Wimbledon at the end of the month, before hosting "the greenest football club" Forest Green!

Falling giant? When I was looking when the transfer window closes in the PL, I noticed that there's a team in administration. And not just any team, but one of the Premier League greats, Liverpool! They start the season with -9 points. A team of their stature should get out of relegation places without major stress, but nothing is guaranteed. They won the league in 2025/2026, but after that they haven't done anything worth of mentioning, finishing 9th, 6th and 10th in the last three seasons. Liverpool were bought by Chinese (?) tycoon, but after five years the tycoon scaled down funding and withdrawing all the funding ten years after the takeover. The club has actually done quite a bit to stay out of administration, at least when it comes to player transfers. From the season 2035/2036 onwards, they've bought players for 428 m€ and sold players for 930 m€! Their first team is very small now, just 15 players in it, but they're still using 191 m€ for wages (Tottenham are the big spenders: 540 m€/a). The man who they decided to trust get them out of this tough situation is Thiago Motta, who took the job after resigning from Italy post after losing quarter-finals in the Euros. In the save, he hasn't done any miracles, but has had a very solid career. After leaving Bologna in 2028, he has managed West Ham, Manchester City, Aston Villa, and Italy NT winning... nothing Although my sympathies are with Liverpool, I would love to see them getting relegated - and playing the Merseyside derby in Championship! (Now that I checked their derby opponent: Everton are dead last in the Championship?!)

Season 2040/2041 preview. First year at the Vanarama National League, the highest step in the pyramid for FC Isle of Man so far! For me, this is a season the stabilise our progress and give space to some of the younger prospects. We've made steady progress (as can be seen from the screenshot below) and my aim is to be in promotion places in 3-4 years. Board expectations. They don't think we are ready for this level. I think if we get our playing style working at this level, we can aim for mid-table finish. I'm satisfied as long as we don't get relegated. Media predictions. We are expected to be one of the weaker sides in the league, but there are multiple teams with worse odds than us! This is the first time we play at a nation-wide division, so there will be loads of travelling! The new opponents I wait the most: AFC Wimbledon, Forest Green Rovers, and Barnet. Media Dream Eleven. Our youngest and best player is also in the Dream Eleven, of course he is! There's has been a lot of offers to buy Smith 40a, but his value is so low that I'm not entertaining offers right now. Most of the teams interested in him are from PL and CH, so he definitely has a lot of potential! I think we get to enjoy him only for this season, next summer he will certainly want to leave. 1st XI. I did some tactical changes last season and I felt those really worked, so we continue the same way this season. I just made some changes to players, our hottest prospects Broe 39a, Dingwall 39d and Smith 40a getting their well deserved spot in the 1st XI. 2nd XI. Last season's best goalscorer lost his place in the 1st XI to our wonderkid, but that's how it goes in saves were youth development is the most important thing. I would like to have more young players in this line-up, but most of the somewhat ready players are out on loan. I'm trying a new target man in Lowdes 40k, young but tall striker. Transfers out. When a Championship team comes calling AND the player decides it's time to go, there's not much to do. I hoped the player valuations would've gone up after the promotion (as our reputation went up), but no real change happened. That's why 30+ k€ was the maximum, but the sell-on clause is the real thing. So far, we gained 0 € from about 7-8 sell-on clauses, maybe it will work now?? We also got him for loan for this season, gives us time to adjust to the new situation. I don't think Mortimer 36a is going to be a good Championship keeper, but you never know what happens! Exactly the same story with Wilson 36b, with the exception that Burton is in League 1. He wanted to leave as soon as there were offers and this was the best of the bad offers. Loan back, friendly, and 50 % sell-on clause on profit. I think Wilson can have a proper career in League 1, but that might be his ceiling level. It is kind of stupid I sell my best players so early in their career, but I also think that's just how it goes in the real world. Good season for a young prospect in lower leagues = jumping up 1-2 leagues for the next season. Pre-season fixtures. Amazingly many wins considering we met three teams from League 1 and the reserves of the best team in Scotland (it needs to be mentioned Dundee United won the league last season for the second time in six seasons and also Greenock Morton has one win?! Rest of the championships were won by Celtic). Upcoming fixtures. We start our life at the new level against a tough opponent: Crawley Town has spent most of the time in League 2 and they are the third favourites to win the league now. What I'm waiting the most is the game against Barrow as it is the first time in our home stadium with the new full capacity!

Season 2039/2040 review. I needed to take some time after the playoff final before writing this review. The season was a success but what made it even more amazing was how we played in the playoffs! Just look at these results and how late we scored the winning goals. I think that both of our opponents had a bit better players, but our system tired them and in the end we found our ways to score. I'm relatively lazy when it comes to tactics or strategy. This time I kept it very single. The idea was clear: teams will get tired during the playoffs, so I need to rotate players just enough so we are fresh throughout the games and keep the tempo and the press high. I think it worked even better than I expected This is a bit about exploiting AI managers' difficulty of rotating players, but I don't think it is too unrealistic that a manager would use almost all the same players in all of their playoff games. Final league table. Best points tally for us, ever! We booked our place in the playoffs relatively early and were theoretically in the fight for the title until the last round! We scored the most goals and defence wasn't too bad. Very happy with all of this! xG Table. When looking at our xPts and real position, we got exactly what we deserved. As needed to fight for promotion, we were quite effiecient/lucky, overperforming both our xG and xPts. Team performance tracking. This was my 16th season as the manager and 4th promotion. I think that is relatively good pace and somewhat realistic as well. This was the 7th time we made to playoffs and third time we won, that's a good record! What I haven't noticed before is the fact this season is the very first season where our points per game is over 2. We have one our league only once, during my very first season, and even then we didn't have over 2 PPG. The best XI. This is the same as 1st XI (okay Band 32c played about half of the games). I really put effort to keep the best players fresh and it definitely payed off! Players by minutes. Here the 2,500 minutes seems to be the cut-off between 1st and 2nd XI. There wasn't too many players under 20 getting a lot of minutes. I think I need to do a soft reset on my 1st XI next season and put effort of finding places from the starting XI for our young talents. The young core of the team will be build around Wellenreuther 38b, Dingwall 39d, Broe 39a and maybe even Smith 40a, who's just too good for us. Players by goals. Having two players scoring 30 goals, that's a luxury! Gaul 35e and Dugdale 31c both have found a way to consistently find the net. They have more or less fulfilled their potential, but I think their current level is enough for the National League. Players by assists. Box to box midfielder and pressing forward being at the top of assist charts, I like it! Players by average rating. What made a clear difference from last season was our goalkeeper(s) finding a good form. I don't know why, but target man in my systems always gets the highest average rating. Why is that?? Dugdale 31c was just phenomenal, look at this: Finances. We made a nice small profit this season, the playoff ticket money giving a nice boost at the end of the season. Transfers. Just one transfer in (the 2nd one is a youth intake player who I decided to sign just before the trial ended), but a very important one. I think Mayman 28c brought more stability to our defence, which we really needed. He wasn't amazing, he was solid, and that was more than good enough for me. For the transfers out, there were a lot of loans, just one proper transfer. Our best player at that point, Dyer 37c left the team for 40k, friendly and 50 % of the profit of the next transfer. Selling him was a gamble, but I think it paid off. He didn't leave a huge hole in the team and he got to play in a better division - win-win! I expect that during the summer there will be more teams chasing our youth prospects. As Mayman 28c's contract at Morecambe was not being renewed, I took the chance to offer him one - and he accepted it! Contract extensions. As the promotion got confirmed, so did my contract extension! Also, I did sign some extensions for some of the key players in the team. Facility updates. We made our average attendance record, but to be able to play our games at the Isle of Man in the future as well, we need to increase our stadium's capacity. Fortunately it isn't too costly! It wasn't the only change in our facilities, we also got our youth facilities downgraded, and the board didn't want to pay for the new "improvement".

Vanarama North Playoff Final. This team is so, so, so resilient!!!! We won, we are getting promoted!!!!!!!! The game was in our hands for the full 90 minutes, but it wasn't an easy game. They scored in the first half with their only shot on target in the game... of course. But we levelled the game almost immediately and then we had the control for the rest of the game. We had couple of half chances in the second half but it looked like it was going to extra time. The referee gave five minutes of added time. Dugdale 31c received the ball at the edge of the box at 94:40, took one touch and blasted the ball to the back of the net at 94:42! Of course it had to be him, he's been so reliant throughout his career and this season has been his best so far! When the full time whistle came, a proper scream came out of me!

Playoff semifinal. Our game plan worked to perfection! As expected, their players were not as fresh as ours, so my plan was to keep the tempo high and relentlessly tire them as the game went on. The game was very even for the first 60 minutes and after that our plan started to reward us. First, a goal from a corner kick and then a penalty at the last minute of the added time to seal the deal! This reminded me of our first game of the season against them, does it look quite similar in terms of the score and the timing of the goals? Playoff final. Oof, I knew Boston was going to win their game. They needed extra time to do it and during it their star winger got injured and is out of this game. Still, they are slight favourites to win the final as they have home advantage and we have only one win from the six meetings we've had. I promise my team will leave everything to the field!

April 2040. What a way to end the regular season! Tight wins agains all, but we just couldn't keep Worksop's attack from punishing us. Also, our young star Smith 40a continued his great form. The highlight of the month was the amazing win by our 2nd XI against Radcliffe. It gave us a theoretical chance of winning the league in the last round! Did we do it? Table. In the end we fought bravely, but couldn't beat the top two in the table. Still, I'm very proud of the team and the fact we scored the most goals in the league! The third place also means we get a home advantage for our first playoff game. Youth league. Our U18s continued their dominant form, securing the title three rounds before the end. I just now noticed that our best goalscorer was McGeechan 39e, a full-back?! What happened there?? (Okay I checked and he took 17 penalties this season, scoring 15. That's a lot of penalties! ) Youth development. I think this is the only player I think about right now, but it is just so exciting to have player of this calibre. Now he's regarded as L2 level player Playoff semifinal. Chester have been very good this season, delivering great numbers, but not being as efficient/lucky as others. I think they might have a bit better player material than us, but I still think we are the favourites. Three things that support my reasoning: we won both of the games this season against them, we have home advantage, and their players are probably quite tired from their first playoff game on Wednesday.

March 2040. This is a brilliant month! Yes, there's one ugly loss, but even that one was a very even game where we created more chances than Fleetwood. We are scoring so much, I'm enjoying every moment! The highlight of the month was the debut of our new superstar Smith 40a, who scored a lovely goal from the edge of the box just minutes after coming off the bench. I tried to upload the goal, but Gyazo corrupted the file. Table. Look at us! We have a good chance of making it to the top three! Technically we still have a slim chance for the title, but I think we need to settle for the 3rd place. Records and passed objective! Most wins, most points and club vision objective passed three years ahead of schedule, nice! POTY Candidates. I think this is the first time we have four players in the POTY candidates. I think Dugdale 31c has a real chance of winning it, he's just been so good and is above everyone else in average rating. International call-up. Robertson 37l was part of the 1st XI in the beginning of season, but now is on the brink of being left out from the 2nd XI. So, the call-up is a big surprise, but I'm happy for him! Upcoming fixtures. Tricky fixtures both because of the opponents and the timing of the games. Mon - Fri - Mon - Sat, what a weird schedule. My plan is to gain three points from all the games but the one against Radcliffe. There our 2nd XI gets to show me why they deserve to be picked for the 1st XI next season.

Youth intake 2040. Say hello to Nicky Smith, the star of the intake! Or not just the intake, but the club as he is already the player with both highest current and potential ability! Rest of the intake isn't that bad either, but I can't focus on them too much as Smith is shining just too brightly. What makes Smith 40a even more special is the fact he's a local lad! His personality is not the best, but as his CA is so high, I'm not too worried. Also, two players with 5 star PA, that's very positive! A lot of players with 1 star in CA, also positive Nice amount of dual nationalities, my favourites being eng/ken and aus/gre. My wishes were: one fast striker and/or one tall striker. We got a fast one on our star, but we also got a tall one! Lowndes 40k is over 190cm and has perfectionist personality He doesn't have the highest PA, but I don't put too much emphasis on that right now. Here are my favourites from this bunch (Smith 40a excluded): Smith 40a. I wanted to have separate section for this guy. He's quick, he knows how to finish, has a bit of flair and technical skill, this is just amazing! His attacking mentals could be better, but there's time to develop those. He will be my starting advanced forward in the future, but how soon in the future, I don't know. He's way too good to be waiting in the U18s, but I don't want to overuse him when he's still so young. The most important task for me is to get him to sign a long, long, long contract with us when he turns 17. And I was not joking, he really is the best player in the team! He's much better than any of the strikers we have, so I will be tempted to use his abilities already this season. Edit. I gave him a part-time contract immediately, he signs for 2+2 years, let's gooooo!

February 2040. This was a tough month. Against Morecambe we created a lot of chances, but couldn't take them. They won this season's games against us with combined scoreline of 7-2. But on the other hand, we got so, so, so lucky against Blyth Spartans. They scored only once from over 3,0 xG and we sneaked a win in the 93rd minute It definitely shows that we were without our first choice goalie, but not all the blame can be put on that. This is an okay month, but not the month of a team that tries to get full home advantage for the playoffs. Table. We are still fourth, and my aim is to be 3rd (and I'm dreaming of getting to 2nd place, but that's too unrealistic). Weird message. Our player was disappointed that his goal was not allowed. Nothing weird about it. Except it was his own goal and it was disallowed because opponent player pushed him from the back. This is somewhat of a bug. Or maybe Bolton 37i is just so noble that he would've given the goal to the opponent. Upcoming fixtures. No opponents above 13th place this month, this really should be 6 wins out of 6. Also, it is time for youth intake!

January 2040. Hello new decade, I like you! Just ignore the Boston game. We decided to concede all the goals in one game, not the worst idea..? If I look at the xG only, I would think this was a draw, but somehow they scored with their first four shots. Other than that, this was a beautiful month. Solid playing throughout the team, no complaints! The Chester game gave us some headache because it was rescheduled two times before finding its place in the middle of the month, but in the end, we won it! Table. The top two has beaten us in the last two months, but rest of the games have been ours to win. Fifteen points between us and the 8th, I think it is safe to say we are playoff bound! Now the battle is about home advantages! Finances. I think this is the first time in the save that our income and expenses are very much in balance. So far we've made profit throughout the season. Potential milestone. This is one of the main reasons we are doing so well. Our 1st GK Mortimer 36a is doing well and not having too many off-days. It is just January and he's already close to breaking the previous record. This, of course, means he gets injured in the last game of the month... New contract. Our only real target man Dugdale 31c had just 6 months left of his contract and fortunately no teams had offered him to leave us for free. After the new contract he's the first player to earn 1k€+ per week. The reason I'm willing to pay the big bucks is his consistency. He just keeps on playing on a high level and won the club's POTY award five times! Just look at his stats: Upcoming fixtures. Morecambe, Winterton and Blyth all won the reverse fixture against us, so it's not going to be an easy month. We will be without our 1st choice GK, but the 2nd choice should be as good as the first, but he's just not that consistent.

December 2039. So close to a perfect month! In the Radcliffe game we took our few chances and scored two, but they took their only three chances and scored three. After that, a nervous win against Worksop before showing our class against tough Stalybridge and Avro sides. A very solid month! Table. Ten points between us and the teams outside the playoff zone, it's looking good! 14 points (but two games in hand) between us and Radcliffe at the top, I don't think we can close that gap. Loan transfer. There has been opportunities to loan back our old players, but so far it hasn't felt that those players could really help us. But this time it is different: a CB playing through his prime years, available for loan. I just could not skip this opportunity. What's weird is that we loan him from Morecambe (who are in the same division as us) and he's played almost all the games for them. Why would they loan him out?? He's had a real journeyman career, playing for 11 different teams! Upcoming fixtures. Bye bye 2030s, welcome 2040s! The last time we met King's Lynn Town, they won 5-0. This needs to be turned around! The games against Chester and Boston will be real tests for us!

Youth intake preview. Alright, this looks quite promising! Best players in the centre of the field, I like it! Also, three strikers, maybe one of them is big or fast? I know these previews don't mean much, but I can't help getting my hopes and expectations up by this.

November 2039. The FA Trophy game... let's just forget it Our 2nd XI decided that on that day only one goal is in use. If we ignore the cup game, this looks like an amazing month! It was almost perfect in the league, but we just couldn't squeeze a win against Hereford even if we created 4,4 xG against their 2,4. But the rest of the games were great! Especially the 4-0 wins against Rugby Town and Fleetwood Town, we just demolished them, gave them no chances. Table. Great form means we are solidifying our position in the promotion battle. I don't know if our team is good enough to fight for the title, but at least we still have a chance to get into the fight! Player scoring (finally). This guy is the first choice for PF (s) position... for now. I think it is time to check out alternative solutions Upcoming fixtures. Weird month as the Christmas time isn't that busy and we have a 1,5 week pause in the middle of the month?? It's also a difficult month as we face teams in positions 3rd, 13th, 12th (+ my rival), 7th and 2nd.

October 2039. In the league, it was really tight. Our 2nd XI really fought hard against Blyth Spartans, matching their xG exactly, but fell short. After that our 1st XI took two wins where we really demolished the opponent, but couldn't score more. Still, wins are wins. After that the 2nd XI got their 2nd chance, but could only get a draw against a relatively weak Scarborough side. In the cup we achieved my target for the 1st round as we glided past Retford, Gaul 35e scoring 4 goals?! He was selected as the player of the month in September and he's really continued his good form! We didn't get the best or worst draw as Mansfield are fighting against relegation in L2. They took their first two chances and then just parried our attacks one by one. We found the net in the 2nd half and had amazing pressure from that point onwards, but it just wasn't enough. I felt we deserved at least a draw, but I can't say we were totally robbed by the result. Table. 7 points from four games is just below my target of an average 2pts/game, but it's close enough I like that it is very tight at the top and there are no massive gaps anywhere in the table. My aim is to fortify our position in the playoff spots and maybe after start looking up at the top 2. xG table. I've said it multiple times in this thread that if we want to win the league at this level, we need to be both good and lucky. I think we are almost as good as I think we can be, but we are definitely not lucky enough. (Yes, I know deviation from xPts is not only about luck.) I feel we have the tools to be the best side in the league, and the time will tell if we can be lucky enough to make it closer to the top. Finances. The FA Cup run is over, so it's time to look at the finances. The cup games brought us about 200k€, nice! We still don't have the money for any big improvements, but I think this season is more about the promotion battle than development behind the scenes. Transfer rumour. Our 179 cm tall starting keeper is rumoured to clubs in CH and PL. The Birmingham manager Floribert N'Galula (who IRL just moved with Kompany from Burnley to Bayern) has been attending some of our games. I might be willing to sell Mortimer 36a, but his value is just way too low: 1-2k€?! I was able to get a new deal to him, but even that didn't affect his value. If a PL club wants my player, they need to pay somewhere north of 200k€ with friendly and a sell-on clause included in the deal. Potential star player? I took this screenshot on Broe 39a's 17th birthday. His physicals (minus stamina) are good for this level and his mentals and technicals are developing quite nicely. He's clearly a some kind of winger, but I want to make him a CM (a). His stamina and attacking mentals are low, but maybe his high attributes in speed, flair and team work will cover for his deficiencies. I will move him to the first team soon and start giving him minutes here and there. Upcoming fixtures. I think I need to re-think if I want to play my 2nd XI in the mid-week fixtures in November. My thinking is that the league is much more important than the FA Trophy, so I would be happy to use 2nd XI in the cup game. If I can rotate and rest my players properly, I might be able to play all the other games with 1st XI.

Having the national team coaching on top of managing club on a long-term save, that's really impressive! I still have some way to go for my longest save. I've usually continue my saves to 2050s or 2060s, which means I have only 1-2 saves per FM edition. In FM18 I had a youth only save with Aintree Villa and at the end of 17th season I was in League 2, so not that much further up. From there it took me only 9 seasons to win FA Cup and Europa League. I think it's also the only save where I've been relegated and kept my job (from PL to CH). So, I agree that it gets easier after getting promoted to EFL.

Wow, you've achieved amazing things with the team, bravo! I'm always happy to see people sharing their saves and stories! I don't think I'm ever going to win the EPL or any European trophy but I think it could be possible to make it to the Europe. It might take me 30-40 seasons, but fortunately there's still a lot of time before the next edition of FM!

I agree! What makes it even more impressive is the fact they are not tycoon-owned

September 2039. Great in the cup, a bit wobbly in the league. Chorley and Biggleswade are both smaller teams than us - and we showed them how much better we were. Neither of the teams had a chance. Now we are just one game away from my goal of getting to the proper first round of FA Cup! In the league the story wasn't that positive. Morecambe reminded us that we need to keep working and developing if we want to be the best team in the league. Winterton game was a very close to a defensive masterpiece by our 2nd XI, but in the 90th minute they broke the deadlock. After that a very convincing win against a sad Stafford side. In the last game of the month Southport almost came back to the game from 4-2 situation, but their red card in the 80th minute stopped their comeback. Table. 2 wins, 2 losses are not the numbers of a champion, but it is not catastrophic. As long as we are in the cup(s), our 2nd XI needs to deliver in the mid-week league games. That is going to be a challenge, but we are up for it! Finances. After two cup games and a player sale, our finances are looking stronger than in the last two seasons! About the player sale... Transfer out. I decided to gamble, once again. Selling a star player for the hope that some day the sell-on clause will bring us a jackpot. I think this is the eight player I've sold with this idea and none of them have brought us any substantial amount of money This transfer is not only about sell-on clause "betting", but the fact I feel it realistic to let Dyer 37a move. According to the reports, he's just too good for the team (National level star / good League 2 player). I agree that his attributes for this level are really good. BUT his performances aren't that great, Yes, he's still young and learning to play in the men's games, but he should be dominating in our team. And he definitely is not. I don't think my system supports his strengths, so maybe at some other team he gets to shine. Marine just got promoted to League 1 so this could be a really good move for our young star. He's only 18 years old, so he should have plenty of time to develop. International call-up. Long time no call-up! Our Gibraltarian back-up CB Turnbull got called up for the 2nd time in his career. The last time was six years ago He's done something right to catch the attention of the NT manager, but I don't know what as he hasn't played almost at all. Upcoming fixtures. Another kind draw in the cup, what is this?? I'm more than happy to take it! Also, another opponent we are yet to play against, bring it on! In the league we have relatively easier fixture list than in the first two months, but that's not a guarantee for points. The Tuesday away game against Blyth will be difficult for our 2nd XI. If we go through in the cup, the next game will probably move the Scarborough match to some other date.

August 2039. Four wins in a month sound pretty good, but on the other hand we also had 3 draws and 1 loss. On average, less than 2 pts/game, which I think is the minimum to keep ourselves close to the top. What is better compared to the end of last season is the amount of goals we concede per game. Only in the last two games we conceded twice in a game. We are not maybe the free-scoring team we have been every now and then, but I'm happier with clean sheet than with goals galore. The narrow win against Stalybridge Celtic was obviously the highlight of the month, but I was also very happy with the clean, although late, win against Chester. Table. 15 points from 8 games means we are showing us and rest of the league that we are ready for the promotion fight. Our playing is not feeling very spectacular at the moment, but I feel the floor of our performance level is a bit higher than before. New contract. As my contract was up at the end of the season, I thought it was wise to ask extension now. The board agreed and offered me two year contract. Upcoming fixtures. Away draw in the cup, but it's against Chorley who play in the league below us. I was sure we've met them multiple times, but FM tells me this will be our first meeting! My aim in the cup is to get to the proper 1st round and I think this draw gives us the possibility to get closer to my goal. In the league our abilities will be properly tested by Morecambe and Winterton, who both have wage budget of 1,2 m€+. After that it should be two easier games, especially the one against Stafford, who have only 1 point from the first eight games. This probably means they get their first win against us!

Thank you for the support! I've really enjoyed this save as this has been one of the hardest I've ever had. I've done multiple youth only, lower league saves and I can't remember ever been so "slow" with promotions But if and when we get promoted, it will feel so amazing!

Season preview. The board is starting to raise the bar for expectations. Slowly sure, but I like they demand more from me and the team. My contract is up at the end of the season, so there's pressure to deliver! (Okay, I just asked for an extension, let's see if they give one). My aim (once again) is playoffs and making it to the first round of FA Cup. Media prediction. We are predicted as 9th favourites for the title, but it very tight near the top. It seems like there are three favourites, I would like to be very close to them at the end of the season. Also, look at where our rivals Stalybridge are predicted to be?! They are not tycoon-owned anymore, but their wage budget is still bigger than ours. Our key player is Dyer 37a who is also in the Media Dream Eleven. He's already regarded as capable of playing in League 2. We will definitely lose him at some point. For some reason his valuation is extremely low? If we sold Lewys 34d last season for 100k, I think Dyer 37a should be at least the same, probably more as he is younger and better. Wellenreuther 38b is our hot prospect. He's promoted to be starting RB in our 1st XI. He's only 17 but I think he's ready to take his game to the next level. 1st XI. Some new faces here! As we lost starting LB and CB at the end of last season, some changes were necessary. Actually, only one player from the defensive line is the same as last season: Wilson 36b. I'm happy with my "new" FBs but the new CB Bolton 37i is bit of a wild card. Also, I felt our system wasn't clicking, so I made some minor changes. Mezzala is now box-to-box midfielder and strikers used to be AF (a) - DLF (s) - TM (a) and now are PF (s) - AF (a) - TM (a). 2nd XI. I tried get back closer to the original idea of my 2nd XI which is: it's all about the potential. The attacking line is not the youngest, but other than that, I'm quite happy with this. Not a lot of quality and changes are possible because of possible loans out, but I think this is an interesting XI. I really hope midfielders find their form quickly as there's not much CA in that part of the field Injury. Gilroy 38a was going to be one of the stars of 2nd XI. But this is not his season as he will be out minimum of 8 months. He will still be a future 1st XI CB, but this injury will definitely damage his development. Players leaving. 513 league games between these three. They were all unhappy and didn't want to renew. I would have liked to keep Codling 32j, the other two didn't have a major role anymore. But still, a lot of relatively experienced players left the team, hopefully it doesn't damage the balance of the team (if there is any ). Pre-season friendlies. Not too many wins, but it needs to be considered that the level of opponents was quite high. We got nice money from a "transfer friendly" against QPR. Our ex-player Rother 35a was unfortunately injured, so he wasn't playing against his old team. Upcoming fixtures. Busy, busy August. Five games for the 1st XI and 3 for the 2nd. Everybody needs to show they deserve their spot. The first two games are proper classics as we face Avro for the 17th time and Stalybridge for the 25th?! I'm a simple man: after August, I'm hoping to be in the playoff spots

Final league table. Stockport took the title and Scunthorpe went up with them, deservedly. It was fairly even battle at the top and I was certain that we would be part of the battle. But after gaining 25 points less than the winner and 13 less than the last team in playoffs, it is clear we didn't have the quality to do it. In the beginning it looked like we were ready for the fight, losing only two in the first 17 league games. But too many of those games were draws, and then we had some devastating months in the latter half of the season. On the positive side: only two teams scored more than us. Our defensive record was not good, but it wasn't a disaster either. The xG table tells a bit more about it: xG table. At this level, if we want to get promoted we need to play well AND get lucky (or overperform, potato/potatoe). Teams with +10< points in the xPts table get to the promotion battle, others do not. It is really not this simple, but it creates a narrative that is close enough to a more complex truth. We are creating enough chances, but are conceding too many - and we don't have the ability or luck to prevent opposition taking their chances. Competition tracking. This was our third - and worst - season in the Vanarama North. As seen by the xGD and xPts the data suggests we weren't that bad, but unfortunately those numbers have no meaning in the league table. This season was a flop for me as I felt we really had the chance to fight for the league trophy. On top of that we were bad in the cups as well - a good run in the FA Cup would have maybe given a little ray of hope to this season. Youth League. If the adults disappointed, the kids did not! It was the second season in a row they won their division! Many sides in the league have their professional team in League 1 or 2, so winning the league is not too small of an achievement! The best XI. The 1st XI = best XI, with one exception: Adams 30c took the place of Harris 34d, who was injured for couple of months in the autumn. We will lose at least two players from this XI as Lewis 34d's loan will end and Codling 32j decided to leave the team (more about his reasons later in this post). Best players of the season. Our target man Dugdale 31c dominates this table. He's been the top scorer 4 times, top assister 2 times, has had the highest average rating 6 times and been selected as POTY 5 times and Young Player of the Season 7 times(?!?!?!). The young player award is so funny, as he's going to be the fourth oldest player in the team at the beginning of the upcoming season. He's only 24, but I think there should be some limit how many times player can be considered "young". Players by minutes. The "seniors" of the team took the top 3 positions by minutes played, Codling 32j being the only who played over 3000 minutes. I think Lewis 34d should be there as well, but his numbers are a bit skewed by the fact that he left the team in January (but came back for loan straight away). Players by average ratings. There's not much interesting to see here other than the avg ratings of our two goalkeepers. Mortimer 36a had a bit of redemption arch in the spring, but Leigh 34a had the worst rating of all players who played for the first team. Players by goals. Four players getting 10+ goals. None scoring over 20 goals. The surprise player is Band 32c scoring 6 goals (+ 4 assists) with very limited minutes in the mezzala position. Players by assists. The actual top of the list should be Lewis 34d, who got 15 assists (8 before selling and loaning him back). Next season we will have new FBs (and maybe some changes in other positions as well) and I hope that will bring the assist numbers up. Finances. A nice, solid profit, although not as much as in the earlier seasons of the save. I need to think if I start saving up to possible change to pro status or try to sneak in more facility upgrades. Transfers. This was a "wild" season in transfers for us as for the first time in 8 years we signed someone who was not home grown! Lee was a solid back-up for the CB position, playing 18 games in total (10 starts). In the outgoing section the story of the season was the sell of Lewis 34d. He's now worth 350k-1m€ so I hope Bury will sell him as we have 40 % profit clause on him. But let's not get too hopeful as Bury just "betrayed" us with the release of Fagan 29a: He scored 106 goals in his 350 league games for the team in League 1 and 2, and at one point was their captain for multiple seasons. It's sad for him and for us, that he leaves as a free agent. No money for us Maybe this sell-on clause will be more profitable? I won't be selling it, I will hang on the clause (and my dreams of getting a jackpot ). Player leaving. This is a weird one. Codling 32j was unhappy about 2 seasons ago and I promised not to worry, we have plenty of promising players coming up the ranks. He hang on to that promise. I only use young players, but somehow it was not enough for him?! He's leaving the team after 150+ league apps for us. (The next screenshot is just to show what our coaches think of the youth situation). International call-up. Our (loan) player got a U21 call-up! And he scored in the 1st appearance for Wales U21s! Next season. I accepted the board's vision as it was as I think it is very difficult to get them to change anything. What's notable here is that they're getting more ambitious: we need reach playoffs...in 42/43 season I hope we do that much sooner!

April. In the previous post I was hopefully wondering, if we still could get some luck on our side...no way 2 points out of possible 12 is just miserable. All the games were relatively even apart from the game against King's Lynn, who we should've won comfortably. It just not very easy to win games if you keep conceding 2+ goals every game. Our goalies haven't been at their best at all, but it's just not them to blame. Conceding 7.57 xG in four games is just way too much. I would not like to change my tactic drastically, but I need to re-think my approach sooner or later. Table. Because our woeful end of the season, we slip all the way down to 11th... Season review next!