erik45

Last round. It can't get more exciting and nervous than this. We are in the best position, but it can all change. We face Vauxhall, who are just outside the playoff positions. Leek Town faces Stalybridge who are seventh. Even Atherton has a chance of making it when they face Mossley who have already gained record points for a season.

March 2030. (Almost) perfect month! We just smashed everyone out of the park! Stalybridge game was totally different, because there was nothing going on. Both teams had two chances, they scored both and we didn't. Fagan 29a was at international duty for the last two games, Scott 27c was more than a good cover for him Table. We are in a playoff spot, I repeat, we are in a playoff spot! It is still very thight, but this is as good position as we've had this season. Upcoming fixtures. Difficult month, where we need to be our best to keep ourselves in the playoffs. First two games should be wins (emphasis on the word "should"), but after those we have three really difficult games. I have a feeling that after the Leek Town game we know if we will be in the playoffs or not.

Youth intake 2030. A strong, strong bunch of players. There are no real standout stars in the intake, but 12 players with 5-star PA and all but one player with more than one star CA. Here's a more detailed list of the players: As one might notice, we have a lot of players from Isle of Man (and many with Irish 2nd nationality)! I'm also very happy with unusual 2nd nationality of Saint Lucia! I might sign all the players, I still need to think twice about signing Chaplow 30o and Hallin 30p as they have low potential and bad personalities (fickle actually isn't so bad). My favourites might be Hussain 30a, Gibbons 30b, Adams 30c and Parillon 30e. These players might get some minutes already this season, but if we can keep our current players in the team and fit, I will prefer them as they've already played together.

Yeah, basically all the youth players have signed a pre-agreement that they sign a non-contract when they turn 17. Only the players with lower potential continue with the youth contract after that point. So far this season has been much easier than the last one when looking at the players we've lost. We lost couple of first team players during the summer, but after that it has been very quiet in the transfer market. Fingers crossed that it will stay that way!

February 2030. It went almost to plan. Mossley was strong, but not 4-1 strong. We were better than Atherton, but they scored two and we didn't. I was really happy with our 2nd XI winning Padiham convincingly! Table. The gap between us and the playoff spots is one point bigger than the month before. I think we still have a realistic chance of achieving playoff, but we need to be at our best form for the rest of the season. Transfer in! We re-signed a former youth product of our academy. Scott 27c played 35 league games for us in the DLF (su) role before moving to Vanarama North team Southport. I think we will lose our star player Fagan 29a at the end of the season, maybe Scott 27c can be the replacement? He started his second spell in the club with a bang, scoring a hat-trick in his first start. Player development. Fagan 29a is the best player in the team and now there's an indicator how much potential he actually has. One our coaches makes an educated guess that Fagan 29a can be Vanarama National League striker in the future. My gut feeling is that he is to going be a good signing for a League 2 side in the future. Upcoming fixtures. Six games, only two at home. Our home form is much better than our away form when comparing to other sides in the league. However, I still feel that the most difficult game is against Avro who are on the same points as us in the league.

January 2030. Hanley Town showed us that there are better teams than us in the league. The rest of the games we should've won, but managed to do that only twice. We are not scoring enough, although we are creating chances quite consistently. The highlight of the month was the away win at Kidsgrove, where our 2nd XI did their job really well! Table. At the end of last month, we were 3 points from playoff spots, now we are 5 points adrift. 16 games left, we need to find ways to win even games (and maybe even find ways to win games we really should be winning ) Average ratings. It is interesting that we are not scoring too many goals, but our three 1st XI strikers have the highest average ratings in the league. I understand it for Fagan 29a, as he has been both scoring and assisting a lot, but Reddy and Jones have been far more inconsistent. Goalkeeper trouble? Our 1st team goalkeeper is turning 17 next month. There hasn't been any offer yet and I have my fingers crossed that there will be no offers this spring. Our second choice has 1 star CA. Upcoming fixtures. We lost to Trafford earlier in the season and Mossley are leading the league, so it's a really tough start to the month. We still need ~2 points/game to keep our playoff dreams alive. Winning home games and getting something from the Workington is the plan!

December 2029. I'm happy with this month. It's funny that we are actually playing worse than before, but we are getting results. We robbed Leek Town and Vauxhall game was a really even game where we happened to score two goals in the first 25 mins. Table. The last two wins this month meant that we are getting closer to the playoff spots. Mossley and Nortwich seem to be in the league of their own (and we should be there as well, but we are not), but the rest of the pack is very even. Upcoming fixtures. The new decade starts with a game against Hanley Town, who have been a difficult opposition for us in the past. That's not actually what I'm worried about. I'm worried about the transfer window, I feel teams are more active during it, even though our players can be signed almost throughout the year.

Youth intake preview. This is the best intake preview we've had so far! As our previous intakes have been really, really good, I don't know if I can start to expect even better intake this time???

Appearance record. Centre-back Craig Moore is our record holder. That's not really interesting, but I wanted to show this, because on the same day something else happened... The previous record holder Tom Thorpe left the club only hour after it was informed that he is no longer the record holder for most appearances! He is actually a quite good manager for this level!

November 2029. After a disaster month, we stabilised our course. If looking at each individual games, we were dominating all the other games, but not the 5-1 win which was a very even context. Against Avro we created 4.10 xG which is amazing number in an away game. Tables. We are still some way off from playoff spots, but we are playing well at the moment, so we have every chance of getting there. A star is born. Ger Fagan 29a is having a storming start to his career! We have had some players from Bermuda, Montserrat and Gibraltar who have played in their national teams or youth teams, but Fagan 29a is our first youth prospect who have done that. He scored a penalty in his first game - and in his third! He will turn 17 in the summer and I'm certain we will lose him almost immediately after that. Maybe we can try to sell him at the end of the season when he is still 16 so we can get a sell-on clause? New contract. I tried to get a new contract two months ago with no luck. But now the board came to me and offered a two-year contract. I negotiated a +1 option after promotion. Upcoming fixtures. Busy, busy month. In the midweek games our 2nd XI will get their chance to show if some of them can challenge for the spot in the 1st XI. If we want to get to the playoff spots, we need to get close to 2 pts/game every month.

October 2029. No comments. I feel the game is messing with me right now. We are playing really well, but no reward. We demolished the league leaders Mossley, but somehow only got a draw from it. We've been putting up good numbers consistently, but at the moment luck is not on our side. Table. We are still in the top half, but we need to start to win games. As seen from the xG table snippet, we are the best team in the league when it comes to xPts. It doesn't mean anything as long as we don't actually gain the points. Player development. Ger Fagan 29a is already a leading player... for the league above us! Transfer in. We made a signing mid-season, wow! And not just any signing, but Luke Draper 27e who played over 50 games for us before moving to Radcliffe in Vanarama North. He didn't stay there for long, neither he did at his next team Prestwich Hays. I noticed Draper 27e being a free agent and was surprised when he was willing to negotiate a contract. He will be a rotational option for now. Upcoming fixtures. A very basic month, I like it. Four games on four Saturdays, that's the real stuff. If we can play as well as the xPts suggests we are playing, we should be able to challenge for the win in all the games.

September 2029. Out of the cups, but we are getting our groove on in the league! Three games where we won the game by three goals, that's just an amazing performance level. We got unlucky against Halesowen and our 2nd XI did what they could in the FA Trophy. Table. We are moving to the right direction. Awards. As we were so dominant in the league this month, it was not a surprise that we got the player of the month and the manager of the month awards. Contract. As I got the manager of the month award, I decided to try my luck and ask for a contract extension. Current contract is until the end of the season (with a +1 year promotion clause), but the board was not ready yet discuss a new deal. Finances. We are doing really well, I think this might be the month with largest profit so far! Upcoming fixtures. A busy month of five league games and the start of our league cup campaign. We are in a good form, but that's not a guarantee we are going to continue it. Mossley game will be the most difficult as they have won all the league games so far.

August 2029. Wins in the cups, losses in the league. I'm actually happy with this. Yes. we are in the relegation zone, but it feels like thing are starting to click again. In the last game of the month I used our 2nd XI for the first time - and it worked almost well The OGs have been in good form as both Robert Jones and Kian Reddy have been scoring a lot, as Fagan 29a has been providing good chances for them. Table. I'm not worried at the moment, I think we have a good chance of climbing up quite quickly when the cup games are over. Top players. As we have lost dozen(s) of good, young players from our academy, we are again in a position where real players are the best in our team. Fagan 29a is on his own league, but after that all the players with 3-3,5 CA are real players. Upcoming fixtures. Six games (and even more if we advance in the cups), unusually busy September. The 2nd XI will play at least the FA Trophy game, but if we get more mid-week games, the 2nd XI will get more playing time.

Pre-season friendlies. A very solid pre-season! Most of the opponents were a bit weaker than us, but the Guernsey game showed we still are capable of playing well against team on the same level as us. Season expectations. This doesn't look too rosy. These are worst odds we have had, but I'm optimistic we can get at least top half finish. It is funny that the player who just turned 16 a month ago is both the hot prospect and the key player. Seven new teams in our league, although we have faced some of them previously. Transfers. Stop the press, we made signings! Both of the players are quite bad, but we need bodies if we keep losing our players at the same pace as last season. Kirnon is a Monsterratian full-back and Martin is a young Gibraltarian striker, who will start with the U21 team. We lost five players in July, including our starting GK, and two CMs. Bailey left a big hole in our starting XI, but his replacement is quite okay (although just 16-years old). Tactics. I made some tweaks to our system. I think using wing-backs left us too vulnerable in some situation, so I changed them to full-backs and gave the midfielders more responsibility of using the wide spaces. It seem like it worked during the pre-season, but the real test is still to come. I insist on using 4-3-3- because I think that IRL it is difficult to get to work. Also, I try to use two different XIs for this season. The first XI for the more important games and second XI mostly for the midweek games (or if needed elsewhere). Upcoming fixtures. We start our season by facing a team from a division below us in the FA Cup before having three league games. Hanley Town were just above us in the final standings last season and the other two are new sides, so these games will give us a good picture where we stand in the league.

xG & xPts table. We were a bit poorer than expected goals & points, but not far away from that. Most teams score and concede more than they are expected to, but we were very, very close to the expected numbers. We were very close to the top in December, but after that we lost our form and never got it back. Team performance tracking. When looking at how we did this season compared to the seasons before this, we were worse. Actually, this was our worst season so far. Only 1,4 points/game, although in the cups we were alright. Board expectations. The board was not happy that we didn't finish in the top half, but there were no consequences. At the end of the season they decided to scrap almost all the objectives and focus on youth development. I'm happy with that! We just need to find the way to keep the youth for some time so we can develop them Finances. Financially very strong year, as it has been the trend throughout the save. I'm not planning to use any of the money, just waiting for the part-time contract option. Transfers. In the first picture are all the transfer that happened this season. We didn't sign anyone (as all the players willing to come to the Isle of Man were sh*t), but we lost so, so, so, so many players. Even after the season had ended, three players left the team. Of all the players who left, 11 players had an important role in the first team. Even if we get very good intakes, we just can't lose this many players each season. Award. Kian Reddy was the top scorer of the league. He scored 25 of his goals in the first half of the season, then everything fell apart (not Reddy's fault). I really hope he can find his form during the summer! New coach. Thorpe has the record of most appearances for FC Isle of Man. As he informed about his plans to retire, I decide to offer him a coach contract. He's a very good coach for this level and I was happy to see him accept such a low offer He has a good mentality, maybe some of the players learn something from him!

April 2029. Well, we were not awful and we ended our season on a positive note. The more experienced players carried us over the finish line. Final standings. In the end our four points from the last three games was not enough to finish in the top-half. Season review next!

March 2029. Disaster. Before the month we still had a chance of making it to the playoffs if we can get in form. But no. These games were mostly 50/50 games, but the luck is not on our side, not at all. Positives from this month are the goals from our new star striker Ger Fagan 29a. Table. We are a mid table side with a relegation form. Things need to change at the end of the season. Tactical desperation. As our 4-3-3 narrow system stopped bringing results, I tested something more boring for the last three games of the month. We got luckier, but the numbers behind the score got actually a bit worse. I will go back to the old system and re-think tactics in the summer. Record. As Fagan celebrated his debut by scoring two goals, he became the youngest goalscorer in the league and in the club. Hopefully this is one of the many records he will crush! Finances. I wanted to show this to bring some silver lining to this awful spring form. Even if we are not scoring and winning, we are still making nice profits every month. I think I will start saving up and maybe at some point I'm allowed to give part-time contracts to players. Upcoming fixtures. Three games left of this awful season. The board and the fans expect us to get a top-half finish, so we need some points from these games. The away game will be tricky, but I think we have a chance of winning the home games.

Youth intake 2029. We have new best player in our team! Loooooads of potential and quite a bit of current ability as well. I'm very happy with this, even if the personalities are not the best. All the players from England are from the Isle of Man, a bit weird, isn't it? My favourites from the intake are (obviously) Ger Fagan 29a, Juan C. Plunkett 29d and Sam Spooner 29f. Here are their profiles: If I have to make predictions, we will lose Fagan 29a in August 2031, Plunkett 29d in December 2030, but Spooner 29f might stay a bit longer if he's not the starting keeper by the time he turns 17. All this would obviously change, if we would get promoted and we could offer part-time contracts. Youth intake tracking. We have as many 5-star potential players and players with more than 1 star CA as we had last year, but when looking at my "key metrics" this year's intake is a bit better. Curiously, we are also getting our intake earlier. The sample size is still really small, but it is interesting because there hasn't been major changes in our reputation or league position. Youth candidate game. I just wanted to show this screenshot because I think this is some kind of bug. I hadn't signed any of the youth intake players, but somehow they didn't play for the youth candidate team. It seems this was the case also last year, but not the year before. Weird.

I have tried it with multiple players, but I see no difference as they might still leave. There are often more than 10 offers/week on our players and those don't stop even if I offer a new contract, so I just haven't bothered offering new contracts with most of the players. With key players, I have tried to offer new contracts. They might accept the new contract and then move to a new club when the next offer comes. So, I really need the promotion so I can offer part-time contracts, but now we are in this vicious cycle where we lose players who are capable of playing this level before they can achieve promotion with us. Maybe I need to focus on players with high loyalty..? I never had this kind of exodus before, and I've done multiple youth only saves in low-level divisions. I think another challenge is that things happen so quickly and unexpectedly. As we get offers all the time and most of those players reject, we really don't know when a player might leave. This season we lost 5 first team players between late July and early August. That just made everything really unbalanced for a month or two. Then we lost four more 1st team players in Jan-Feb. We can adjust, but just not that quickly.

February 2029. Oh... this is even worse than the previous month. We deserved to against Avro and get something from the Witton game, but luck is not on our side at the moment. Table. At the beginning of month, we were fourth. Now we are five points outside of the playoffs. Injury. Last month we lost our only target man Jones for two months, now we lost our best poacher. He hasn't been scoring that much this year, but we still need him to lead the line. More about losing players in the screenshots below: Transfers out. Two more players from the first XI leave us. Lonsdale 28b was not amazing, but did the job, but Jatta 28n had the best CA in the whole team. Nine (!!!!!) 1st team players lost in the last ~8 months. As I have made such a strict transfer policy, there just isn't any good quality players to fill the gaps. Let's hope youth intake will bring some light to this darkness. If someone has ideas how I could be able to offer part-time contracts to players, I'm all ears! Upcoming fixtures. If we want to get back to the playoff battle, we need to win most of the games. The first two are extremely difficult. Well, all these games are, it is very tricky month. I would put us favourites against Vauxhall and Stalybridge. I would be happy with 12 points, but I think we need to get more.

January 2029. Tough month. Kian Reddy lost his scoring boots and it felt like we've been relying on him too much. Table. We are still in playoff spots, but it is very tight. Few losses and we can be down to 10th, few wins and we might be 2nd in the league. Transfer out. Another first team player heading out... he is 7th 1st team player who decided to leave (and all of them have been our youth products). There really isn't anything I can do to this until we can offer proper part-time contracts. Upcoming fixtures. The pace we are losing players is really hurting us. With the team we had at the beginning of the season, we should've been favourites for all these games, but now... I don't know. We are still in the playoff spots, but our form is not good enough to keep us there. We need 9 points or more to stay there. We have a chance to win the home games and maybe get something from the away ones, so it is not impossible.

This is how the league's salary page looks like. I couldn't fit all the teams, but you get the picture. All the teams above us have at least one player with a part-time contract. Warrington Rylands and above are the teams that pay to most of their players. Stalybridge Celtic has been in this division for five years but somehow they still can have a wage budget of 1 m€+/year. They have seven players who earn more than 1000 €/week! I haven't tested what asking for professional status actually means. I think we are in a financial position where we should be capable of offering part-time contracts to our best players, but I don't know how I can ask for that. I don't want to end up in a situation where we need to offer contracts to all the players, we just can't afford it yet. Edit. No option for part-time contracts. And when asking about the board I can only ask for going from semi-pro to pro. I think we need to get better reputation/promoted so we can offer something.

Transfer out. Less than three weeks after turning 17, Gethin Jones 28e gets his first offer from a pro club... and he takes it. Harrogate Town are bottom of the League 2 and Jones 28e only got a youngster contract. I knew I would lose him at some point, but losing him so soon and with a deal that doesn't make too much sense to him... feels bad. Jones 28e had been really good in Target Man (At) position. There's only one possible replacement for him and it is 33-year old Robert Jones, who has started to decline. I think he will do an okay job, but this is a downgrade. Maybe youth intake will bring us a new target man??

December 2028. This is excellent! If we disregard the last game, I would say this was a perfect month. When we score, we score a lot, but when we struggle, we struggle really much. We were a bit lucky this month, we needed to rely on Kian Reddy's monster performances, he scored 10 goals this month! Table. We move up! But we are further away from the top, because Mossley's form is just something different at the moment. Take a look at their last two months in the league: Poacher. As Kian Reddy got his place in the starting XI back, he has been unstoppable! 10 goals this month, 27 in total, that is just crazy. If he stays healthy, he should be able to go for 40+ league goals! Upcoming fixtures. All the teams we face are on the bottom half of the table. This should be five winnable games, but sometimes we really have struggled against teams in the relegation battle.

Upgrade. We are not close to getting youth/training facility upgrades. so I got impatient and asked for an upgrade to our youth recruitment. After a short discussion the board agreed with me! This was just less than two weeks before the youth intake preview, I don't know if the upgrade already "counts" to this intake. Youth intake preview. More players to the attack and midfield, that's really good! Last season we had 4 A's and the rest C or worse. Now we have 3 A's, 1 B and then C's or worse.