Coxie84

(FM24) Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ – Part 3 Welcome back! We are now on Part 2 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last chapter, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to ‘The Regionnaire Challenge‘, then here is a link to the introduction. Having left you at the end of January ’24 with us at the top of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One by only one point. This post will cover February '24, March '24, league table and also see the start of the vultures circling for our players. Before we get into it, here is a quick reminder of the restrictions that have been opposed upon me as Peacock manager. I can only sign players that were born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. February '24... Before I start getting into the games, I am going to mention that being this far down the footballing pyramid players will come and go. If your performing well like we are at the moment then, Jesus clubs starting circling around your players will vultures and I have managed to go until Feb before they have. The first to be looked at was Worcester-born winger, Seb Thompson, a former Liverpool youth, who played 11 times, scored 4 and assisted 7 was snapped up by Fleet Spurs. Oh, one point he had 100 offers from different clubs and that's the most I have ever seen too. Goals, goals, goals were seen at the Garden Walk Stadium in the tie against Saltley Stallions, well, 13 of them with Wolverhampton-born midfielder Ryan Grosvenor scored four goals in this victory. We dropped points for the second time in the league as we drew against Dudley Sports and we actually had to come back from behind twice. Was that a sign that our unbeaten run may end? Of course not, as Ryan Grosvenor was on hand with his scoring boots on in the 5-0 win over Sikh Hunters. We make it 23 matches unbeaten in the league and remain in 1st place following a 3-2 win against Tipton Town. March '24... Yet again, we smash bottom of the league Wyrley United 6-2, but during that match Birmingham-born defender Jamie Chisholm suffered a broken lower leg and could be out for up to 10 months. He had only featured about a handful of times for the Peacocks, however we don't pay any wages for these players as we are an amateur club so I will pop him into the reserves and wait until he's fit again. At this point of time, I had 11 players all being headhunted by other teams and the only thing I could do is try and make them stay by offering them an amateur contract with the promise we get promoted again next season as that we can't offer wages. However, we lost two first choice players as they departed us. The first to go was Matt Coton, our number 1 goalkeeper who had played in every single match so far in the league and one of our main forwards Charlie Manners who had scored 21 times in 23 matches as they joined the likes of Ludlow Town Colts and London Tigers respectively. There are still a few players being chased by other clubs at the moment but fingers crossed I don't lose anymore. It was that time again in the league when it's 1st v 2nd who both are performing well above expected and chasing that one promotion place. So, we welcomed Bromyard Town to the Garden Walk and it was so nearly our first defeat of the season, I kid you not...Before Charlie Manners depart he scored two goals in this game before we somehow went three two down and it wasn't until the 95th minute, Ryan Grosvenor tap home to seal us a point to keep the unbeaten run alive. The very next game, newly signed Luke Keen, a 34 year old Tamworth-born forward scores a hat-trick on his debut as well as Jayden Allamby-John getting a three assists to make it 25 so far this season. Yes, Jayden is another player I am trying to hold on to. West Midlands (Regional) League Division One... We have opened up a three point gap between us and 2nd place Bromyard Town, but with four games to go its still to early to get the promotion banners out... Final Words… All updates on this series will be posted on here, also on the Sports Interactive Community page & in the FM Library Discord channel… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback, questions and don’t forget to subscribe and hit the like button. All previous FM blogs can be found here and you can follow me over on X here.

West Midlands (Regional) League Division One… We are 1st in the league, however we are still being hunted down by Bromyard Town as they are only one point behind us in the league following their defeat to us in December.

January '24... We return back to the top of the league following a 6-1 win over Pelsall Villa and then remained there for the rest of the month too. Our unbeaten streak continued to 19 games following victories over the likes of Wellington Amateurs who played like a bunch of lol, Stourport u21s and then finally Bustleholme. Also, 19 is the magic number at the Garden Walk as Jayden Allamby-John has that in assists so far in the league.

Welcome back! We are now on Part 2 of ‘Born & Bred’ FM24 blog series. If you missed the last chapter, please catch up here or if you’re completely new to 'The Regionnaire Challenge', then here is a link to the introduction. Having left you at the end of November '23 with us at the top of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One only by goal difference. This post will cover December '23, January '24 results and some off the pitch news. Before we get into it, here is a quick reminder of the restrictions that have been opposed upon me as Peacock manager. I can only sign players that were born/raised in the West Midlands. Basically the same concept as Athletic Club de Bilbao, where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. December '23... It was the battle for 1st place as that we played 2nd place Bromyard Town with us only being on top by a better goal difference ahead of this fixture. However, we defeated the Town by 2-0 to notch up our 10th straight win and go ahead by three points. The next match, Birmingham born Jayden Allamby-John added to his assists tally with two more assists in the 4-1 win over rivals Wrens Nest. A final score of 7-0 was deserved as the Peacocks bullied Warstones Wanderers with Jayden Allamby-John scored a brace this time and making it 12 straight wins in a row. But wait, Gornal drop off the top of the table after drawing 1-1 against Gornal Colts....Yes, you read it right, we dropped points but still remain unbeaten in 13, following that draw. However, back to winning ways days later by beating FC Darlaston at the Garden Walk 4-1. Yes, my guy and former Walsall player Jayden Allamby-John scored twice. We end the year off by beating the divisions worst defence Dudley Athletic by 3-0, but remain in 2nd place in the league and remain 15 games unbeaten.

However, if you are following on here then it's just a recap of so far that's happened. But any reaction with my WordPress site is muchly appreciated. 🚨NEW BLOG POST🚨 Born & Bred ‘The Regionnaire Challenge’ - Part 1 is out now... Blog includes; - Preseason - Sept - Nov '23 Also, a link to the prologue for information about this challenge... All likes & RTs appreciated #FM24 #WeNotMe 🦚 https://coxiefm.wordpress.com/2024/03/25/fm24-born-bred-the-regionnaire-challenge-part-1/

It's fun playing as your local side!! Also, having this twist makes it more fun...

Sedgley me!! I was Black Country Rangers previously before I was blogging saves in 2018. Got a signed shirt and even played for there over 35s. I have got a set of kits for the save I will post later but having them redone.

Glad to see you're going strong. It's amazing how many views you've got since doing it on here and interaction too...you defo play it v quick my friend

I live in Sedgley that's why I went for Gornal...Otherwise I think I would have gone up a league maybe and played as Cadbury Athletic...

November '23... The Peacocks continued their good run of form and notched up nine straight wins and now have moved into 1st place in the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One. What a mouth full saying that every single time, lol. We saw another hat-trick this month by Solihull born Charlie Manners in the 7-2 victory over Dudley Sports who are probably the second closest side to me as they play on the college grounds in Dudley. It was in the script but Tipton Town were the first side in this series to score first in the league but we finally found our scoring boots and won 3-1 before ending the month with a 4-0 win against rock bottom side Wyrley United. Birmingham born Jayden Allamby-John getting three assists in that match and now his tally is at 14 assists in nine appearances. Charlie Manners and Shilo Waldo both have 11 goals each. West Midlands (Regional) League Division One... It's still early days but we have managed to move above Bromyard Town but only by goal difference with both sides looking at that single promotion place into the next league.

Cheers buddy. I thought about it for a while now. I enjoyed MaddFM Northern Boys but I fancied going down the footballing pyramid and starting off with a club with no players to ease my way into it.

ctober '23... Only two games were played in this month and both finishing with the Peacocks hitting both clubs for six without reply. Solihull born Charlie Manners got the first hat-trick of the league season in the win over Saltley Stallions. In the other 6-0 win over the Sikh Hunters, Birmingham born Jayden Allamby-John got four assists in this match and now has nine assists in the league. Shilo Waldo got himself a brace in that victory and is the clubs top goal scorer with eight goals. However, we remain in second place in the league on goal difference behind Bromyard Town by three goals.

September '23... Goals galore as we start of the league season with four wins out of four including some massive win's. But, it doesn't mean that the Peacocks are top of the table though. Bromyard Town who also won four games in a row are on top by a two goal difference as it's still early days but with only one place to play for then all them goals will have to count later on it the season. Two Birmingham born players that led the charts in goals scored and assists in the month of September. Shilo Waldo has scored six goals in three appearances and Jayden Allamby-John (former Saddlers youth player) has got three goals and four assists in four appearances.

Has it been tough in the Champions League?

Preseason '23 Has not even started yet and we are getting injuries already... Maybe, not signing players that might be prone to injuries next time but this time I needed to get players into the Garden Walk... But for now, I turn my attention to preseason games... The hunters were hunted as the Peacocks came back from behind to win our first preseason game 2-1. We blew the Dynamos of Cannock away in a 4-0 win before the KING scored a hat-trick that melted the chocolate man. The final game of preseason we won 6-0.

As long as the players are born in the West Midlands region then it's all good. It will be a slog, that's why I decided to go this lowdown for that reason...Thank you for being the first to comment! much appreciated.

So I have started to assemble the squad to stay in the rules of the challenge... *Probably didn't need to add the club they started at but still good to see where they have come from... Name Age Position Place of Birth Club Started at Joe Brown 23 DEF Nuneaton Nuneaton Boro Jamie Chisholm 22 DEF Birmingham Mansfield Town Rhys Thompson 30 DEF Stoke-on-Trent Leek Jayden Allamby-John 20 MID Birmingham Walsall Regan Upton 26 DEF Burton-upon-Trent Burton Albion Lewys McCafferty 18 DEF Coventry Coventry City Seb Thompson 20 MID Worcester Liverpool Charlie Manners 18 FOR Solihull Coventry Will Byers 23 DEF Stafford Stone OA Aidan Jeynes 22 GK Birmingham Tamworth Matt Coton 29 GK Sutton Coldfield Aston Villa James Harrison 23 FOR Burton-upon-Trent Burton Albion Owen Bennett 21 DEF Birmingham Aston Villa Lewis Hayden 29 MID Solihull Solihull Moors Riley Davoile 22 DEF Coventry Gresley Harry Jackson 21 FOR Nuneaton Nuneaton Boro Jamie Smith 27 DEF Worcester Worcester City Ryan Grosvenor 21 MID Wolverhampton Shrewsbury Town Sufyan Zia 25 DEF Birmingham Bilston Town Lewis Redding 21 MID Shrewsbury Shrewsbury Town Ben Stokes 25 MID Coventry Tamworth Devon King 19 FOR Nuneaton Nuneaton Boro Shilo Waldo 19 MID Birmingham West Brom

Prologue.... The Football Manager Regional Challenge... First, I have to say it's not a challenge that I have come up with but it was MaddFM. He came up the idea on FM22, when he took over The Toon Army, pre-Saudi owned and turned them into a North-East only side. To be known as 'The Football Manager Regional Challenge' (England) aka "The Regionnaire Save". What it is that you take a club of your choice and implement the regional/local squad and transfer policy, meaning you can only sign players that were born/raised within that region where the club is located. So, all players and staff had to be born and in the North-East of England. Basically the same as the well-known Athletic Club de Bilbao setup in Northern Spain where only players with Basque nationality are permitted to sign and play for the club. There is more information on The Football Manager Regional Challenge over on his webpage regarding this challenge. The concept evolved slightly (again, by MaddFM) for his AC Milan save, where as well as players born within 50km of the San Siro being eligible, players who came through the academy at clubs within this catchment area were also eligible. What this does is alleviate an issue in FM where a lot of academy players in nations which are less well researched are given ‘Unknown’ for a place of birth. 'Born & Bred'... Ever since I read the first blog of Northern Boys the thought of doing a Regionnaire save has appealed to me, but at the time I held off as I wanted to do it with a lower league side. As someone who has played FM for 15+ years, and often plays the same way, it seemed a great way to freshen things up. There was West Midlands region filter available, which I took as a baseline as that were not all places on there. However, It didn't take me long to updated and now there is up to 70-ish places of Birth on it. Before, starting any news series/challenge I did run two tests with the player search tab. The first test was with Man City and the second test with the non-league club in tier 11, I am going to play as. The Premier club had over 1300 players and Gornal Athletic returned over 200 players. This is likely due to scouting and probably a lot more players would like to play at the Emptihad instead of the Garden Walk Stadium. But still 200 players is still a good number to start with. As for staff, I will just bring in who I can at the moment but will try and stick to that part of the challenge at a later date. The list below is the places of birth in the West Midlands area. The Club... Gornal Athletic FC, a tier 11 non-league, who in fact are the closet non-league football club to my doorstep, only being 1.5 miles away. The football club are based in Lower Gornal, Dudley, in the West Midlands, England. They are currently members of the West Midlands (Regional) League Division One and play at the Garden Walk Stadium. The club were established in 1945 under the name Lower Gornal Athletic and joined the Worcestershire Combination. They finished bottom of the league back in 1954–55 season. In 1963, the club transferred to the West Midlands (Regional) League, although their reserve team at the time remained in Division Two of the Worcestershire Combination. When the West Midlands (Regional) League gained a second division in 1965 and the club became members of the Premier Division. In 1972, the club were renamed Gornal Athletic. Although they finished bottom of the Premier Division in 1978–79 season, they avoided being relegated. However, the 1979–80 season saw them finish second-from-bottom of the division, resulting in relegation to Division One. The club were Division One runners-up in 1983–84 season, and after finishing as runners-up again in 1993–94, they were promoted back to the Premier Division. Gornal Athletic finished bottom of the Premier Division in 2002–03 season and were relegated to Division One South. However, they won that division at the first attempt, earning an immediate promotion back to the Premier Division. They went on to finish second in the Premier Division in 2005–06 season. The club were Premier Division champions in 2011–12 season and were promoted to the Midland Alliance. However, they were relegated back to the West Midlands (Regional) League Premier Division at the end of the 2013–14 season. In 2016–17 season, they finished bottom of the Premier Division and were relegated to Division One. In the 2019-20 season was abandoned and we all know why... Last time I went down to the Garden Walk was not to watch 'The Peacocks' play it was a club called Black Country Rangers who at the time shared the ground with them in the 2018-19 season. I did manage that club on FM18 and I saw them beat Pershore 6-1 that day and also got a cheeky signed shirt from the club too. I actually went on the play two or three games for their over 35 Sunday league team before COVID messed up our lives for a short while. CoxieFM Signs… I have arrived at The Garden Walk Stadium for the first time as the new Peacocks manager and the board only give me a one year deal. Hopefully I can earn a new contract midseason or otherwise this will be a quick save, lol…I start the series off with No badges and Sunday league footballing experience. The media predicts us to finish 3rd and our fierce rivals are Dudley Town. The challenge starts now as that I have 60 days before the season starts, that's excluding preseason fixtures and have no players in our squads.

Can't wait to see how this pans out

Love the title name, love the series

Is this the same GK whos on loan for like three seasons?

(FM23) ST IVES TOWN FC: ‘SAINTS ARE COMING’ #0 Posted on 1 Jul 2023 by CoxieFM A FOOTBALL MANAGER STORY WELCOME TO QUATTRO-TECH WESTWOOD ROAD… Hello and welcome to the prologue to ‘THE SAINTS ARE COMING’. I will be starting this series off in the Tier 7 of the English football pyramid and hopefully be able to get this club into the football league and maybe one day hear the sounds of the Champions League music being played at Quattro-Tech Westwood Road. WHY ST IVES TOWN FC… As a few of you might know or if your new to my blogs then welcome back/welcome FM fans, may know that I work away with my job in the week and one of the nearest nonleague sides to me is the Saints, roughly 3miles in fact. So, with the preseason for the 2023/24 campaign just around the corner, I thought why not start a new series with them, so I downloaded the lower league database by DanFMDatabases for this new series. Advertisements REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY I will be visiting the Quattro-Tech at the start of July when preseason kicks off, I think the first match at home is on the 3rd, so see you Saints fans there… CLUB HISTORY… All Information is from St Ives Town webpage, but here a little snip of it… EARLY DAYS… St Ives Town FC was formed on Thursday 15th September 1887. About 40 people met at the Unicorn Hotel to “consider the desirability of forming a football club”. It was unanimously decided to form a club, to be called St Ives Town FC under Association Rules. The membership subscription decided upon was 3 Shillings & Sixpence including an entrance fee of 1 Shilling to be paid in advance. The kit was chosen to be black with a white star. The club rose to success by the turn of the century, collecting both Huntingdonshire Senior and Junior Cups in 1901. The Senior Cup was won again in 1912 but the club’s most successful era was the twenties. The Cambridgeshire League was won on three successive occasions from 1923 to 1925, there were Hunts Senior Cup successes in 1923 and 1926 with the Scott-Gatty Cup won in 1923 and 1924. Honours continued to be won in the thirties with the Senior Cup (1930), Scott-Gatty Cup (1932) and Peterborough League championship (1938) all won. In 1949 the Saints joined the far-flung Central Amateur League, However 12 months later the club decided to move into the much more local UCL 2nd Division. The team struggled and two years later they rejoined the Peterborough League. The Scott-Gatty Cup was won in 1961 but league fortunes plummeted as the Saints slid down to the Peterborough League 3rd Division. They won that division in 1978 and then won speedy promotions in the following years. This culminated with a Division One title earning a Premier Division place in 1982. Three years later St Ives moved back into the UCL. Huntingdonshire Senior Cup successes were recorded in 1982, 1987 and 1988 while the revival of the Premier Cup saw the Saints reach the first final in 1989, losing 3-0 to Cambridge United. They also reached the Premier Cup final in 1997 and 1998, losing 5-4 to Potton and 2-1 to Biggleswade Town respectively. Advertisements REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY After finishing next to bottom in Division One in 2002, St Ives enjoyed improved fortunes under the management of Warren Everdell and Jez Hall. A memorable 2004-05 campaign saw the Saints finish third in Division One to win promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history. MODERN HISTORY… In the last five season’s. In 2017/18 Turned out to be a tough season for the Ives with the team eventually finishing twenty second and only being saved from the drop by the reorganization of the Leagues. Early exits from the FA Cup and Trophy only added to the team’s difficulties as on to many occasions they failed to turn promising displays into points. On a happier note the Ladies side of the Club continued their fantastic run of success with the first team winning the Cambridgeshire Womens Premier League to win themselves promotion into the Eastern Womens Regional League In 2018/19 The Ives surprise a few as they enjoyed their most successful season ever finishing thirteenth in a very competitive Southern League Premier Division Central. League success was topped off with a best ever run in the FA Cup which culminated in a trip to the once mighty York City in third qualifying round. The Ladies success continued as the marched on to the Premier Division of Eastern Region Women’s League one step from the National Leagues. In 2019/20 & 2020/21 Turned into a season’s that did not exist after the Coronavirus pandemic lead to early curtailments of both of them. In 2021/22 A season that started poorly for the Ives and saw them skirting the relegation zone for long periods picked up dramatically after Ricky was joined by ex Banbury manager Mike Ford as a joint manager in November. An excellent run of results post Christmas ultimately saw the Ives finish a very respectable 14th. Early exits from FA Cup and FA Trophy both at the hands of old rivals Needham Market simply highlighted the early season problems Advertisements REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY Ricky has recruited well in the summer and with Jim Freeman stepping up to joint assistant manager alongside ex Welwyn Garden City and Baldock boss Adam Fisher the coming season promises much. COXIEFM SIGNS… I have arrived at QUATTRO-TECH WESTWOOD ROAD for the first time as the new Saints manager and the board only give me a one year deal. Hopefully I can earn a new contract midseason or otherwise this will be a quick save, lol… I start the series off with National C license and Sunday league footballing experience. The media predicts us to finish 21st out of the 22 sides in the Southern League Premier Central. Also, at least I start the series off with an assistant manager in my staff to help me out with training. SQUAD… Advertisements REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY I have 16 players on the Saints books at the start of the season which ain’t bad considering it’s a tier 7 club on the FM23 database. I have seen other clubs in this same tier have only 5-8 players so I am impressed as always with this downloadable database, cheers Dan. Some good players in key area too, but on first look no GKs on the books so that will have to be my first signing. However, will need to retrain some players in the SS role as I like to play with three of them. *I signed Fernando Bell-Toxtle from league rivals Royston on a season long loan as that he is also on the squads books for the 2023/24 so he has joined a season early. Looking on the clubs webpage and also wiki page I have noted down the following players below that have graced the pitch in St Ives during the season of 22/23, so I am keep an eye out to see if I can bring any of them in. So if any Saints players or fans are reading this, bare with me… I defo want to get James Dadge in as I saw on youtube that he saved three penalties in the shootout for the cup. TWO GOALIE IN… Advertisements REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY Signed two goalkeepers in for the upcoming season. First through the door was Lewis Moat, who was released from local side Peterborough Sports but he has became the back up as I managed to bring on a goalkeeper who had been released by Peterborough United which I thought was a real coup in Josh Allen. TACTIC… Loving this tactic from @MurphFM, so I thought I’d try it in the nonleague. What’s the worst that could happened, lol… PRESEASON… Advertisements REPORT THIS ADPRIVACY During preseason, we played four and won four against local teams around us in comfortable victories. I have driven past Godmanchester and Huntingdon Town stadiums, in fact Huntingdon are the closest to where I work, however I didn’t want to start in tier 10 this time. I don’t know where Huntingdon United play but I’ll find out and the witches, which is a cool name for Warboys Town. FINAL WORDS… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback and questions and don’t forget to check out all the other blogs on here and you can follow me on Twitter here. See you next time and thank you for reading…

(FM23) A Youth Only Challenge: Chacarita Juniors – End of Season ’22 Posted on 8 Jun 2023 by CoxieFM ‘A YOUTH ONLY CHALLENGE‘ is all about focusing on your club’s youth development, with an emphasis on producing homegrown talents. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Home of CHACARITA JUNIORS a storied football club infamous for having never won Primera División in their history. Can they finally defy all odds by using youth only and go on to win the top división and then the Champions League… LAST EPISODE: (FM23) A Youth Only Challenge: Chacarita Juniors – Midseason ’22 PREMERA DIVISION JUNE ’22 The first game of this month was covered in the previous update but it was a simple 1-0 win. However, the next match saw us return back to the top of the league thanks to two late goals from Maritato and Caro Torres in the 2-0 victory over San Telmo and made it five wins in a row. The away match against Patronato saw seven goals as both GK’s were having bad days, well can include the defenders too in that sentence. Old man Blanco scored a brace with the another two goals coming from Alderete in the 4-3 win. JULY ’22 A busy and unbeaten month of July followed as we looked to cement top spot in the league with two wins and three draws. Alanda got the winner in the 1-0 victory over Agropecuario Argentino. Then three draws in a row with two of them ending with 0-0 draws over Quilmes and Deportivo Maipú with nothing to report really a part from a sending off in the Quilmes and you’ll find out the player lower down in PLAYER WATCH. Astina got our goal and rescued the draw against Racing (CB). Somehow, with ten men with manage to beat Alte. Brown 1-0 with Valentin ‘MR CADBURY’ Chocobar with the only goal in this match. AUGUST ’22 It was errors galore and a match Chaco For Ever to forget as we beat them 5-0 in front of their home support. Enzo Hoyos got his first hat-trick of the season with Blanco getting the other two goals. Plus it’s always nice to see a club vision objective being completed during the season too. The winning run continued in the next two matches beating Alvarado and Brown (Adrogue) 1-0 and 2-0 respectively before after 15 games or so without defeat, it was Ferro Carril Oeste who beat us 2-1 in front of our home fans and it was our fourth defeat and final defeat of the season. SEPTEMBER ’22 However, in that defeat we still managed to reach the playoffs…Two seasons ahead of schedule set by the board. We were held to a 2 all draw against managerless Guillermo Brown (PM) in a game we should have put to bed, however we paid the price and were pegged back to level it. Gimnasia (Mendoza), Tristan Suarez and Estudiantes were all no match for us as we beat the three clubs mentioned 3-0, 1-0 and 3-0 respectively By doing this, this happened with three games to go… OCTOBER ’22 The Undertakers newly crowned CHAMPIONS of the league were not finished as that we still had three league games remaining and so I decided to rotate players with the reserves and u20s and drop the five or six loan players we had so I could make the decision for next season who I needed to promote into the first team squad. I was surprised as I thought we would have dropped points in the final three games, however we won all three and found some new faces for new season too. Polizzotto bagged a brace on his first 90 minutes in the 4-1 win over Nueva Chicago and Palacios and Loaysa scoring too. Polizzotto scored another brace in the very next match against All Boys in the 3-1 win. Then, finally another new starter up front Ezequiel Diaz scored a brace in the 4-1 won to end the season unbeaten in seven games. LEAGUE TABLE CHAMPIONS for the first time in our history and in my first season in charge. The other team that got promoted were Quilmes via the playoff system. Fifteen point gap between us and second place at the end of the season, when at the midseason point we were second only by goal difference. However, I do think we may struggle next season, maybe!! PLAYER WATCH RICARDO BLANCO | AM The old man of the squad and this seasons top goal scorer and also had the most assists during this first season. In 32 appearances, he got 11 goals and 10 assists. Not bad return for a 32 year old, who is in his prime. But will he be able to cut it in the top flight of Argentinean football next season? ENZO HOYOS | AM Hoyos is ten years younger than Blanco and he was the club’s second top goal scorer and assist maker this season and has featured in the previous blogs. Huge potential, will look to tie him down in the off season because with a four and half star potential, I feel the club might come knocking. This season 8 goals and 7 assists. MARTíN POLIZZOTTO | FWD This 19 year youngster featured during the season and made two sub appearance, however he did start the last two games up front once the season was ours and he scored four times in two games which impressed me that much he had to feature in this section. Four and half star potential and breakthrough prospect and one to keep an eye on for the future. DAVID VALLEJOS | DM This 15 year old youth player was in this season’s youth intake and he has the potential to be five star rated. Vallejos was the best of the best and hoping next season get might get the odd game or two. New contract in the off season and a release clause. Need to make money and invest into the youth setup here in Buenos Aires. Oh, yeah I nearly forgot about this bit as well, so glad I saved it. Young David here become the youngest player ever at 15 years and 285 days and had a debut to forget too…He must be in the Guinness book of records for youngest send off too? IN OTHER NEWS The team’s got that winning feeling as the u20s squad won the u20 Division B title by a point with MARTíN POLIZZOTTO notching 19 goals. END OF SEASON REVIEW The standard part of the blog, feel free to scroll and enjoy my friends. 1 / 8 FINAL WORDS If you have got this far down in the blog, then thank you and brace yourself for some massive news below… This is the 330th blog, so thank you for your support since May 2020. But this will be my final blog that I’ll be doing on FM23…I might return for FM24 or I might not return and if that’s the case, my blogging days are over… I’ll still be in the FM Library discord channel… My WordPress site will still be active so people can take a look around… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback and questions and don’t forget to check out all the other blogs on here and you can follow me on Twitter here. See you next time and thank you for reading…

(FM23) A Youth Only Challenge: Chacarita Juniors – Midseason ’22 Posted on 7 Jun 2023 by CoxieFM ‘A YOUTH ONLY CHALLENGE‘ is all about focusing on your club’s youth development, with an emphasis on producing homegrown talents. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Home of CHACARITA JUNIORS a storied football club infamous for having never won Primera División in their history. Can they finally defy all odds by using youth only and go on to win the top división and then the Champions League… LAST EPISODE: (FM23) A Youth Only Challenge: Chacarita Juniors – Preseason ’22 MIDSEASON ’22 In this midseason update covers 19 games in all competitions, 18 in Primera Nacional and our Copa Argentina 5th round match and without further ado, let’s crack on… *Apologies, it is slightly rushed due to work commitments but please still enjoy as the end of season will be better and a banger!!! * FEB – MAR ’22 The season campaign started very well, which saw The Undertakers go on a ten game unbeaten streak in the league and climb to the top of the división for a while at least. Our first game ended in a 1-0 win over Def.de Belgrano and saw us set a new team record for youngest player ever at 16 years and 81 days. Then days later to set another new record, this was set by none other than Mr Cadbury himself Valentin Chocobar who grabbed his first goal for the club by scoring in the 2-1 win over Deportivo Morón with a thunderous strike within the 18 yard box. Already, setting records within the first two games of this series using youth players, buzzing FMers. The wins kept coming for the rest of the month of February with victories over Atlético de Rafaela and Club Atlético Güemes 2-0 and 1-0 respectively. Back to back 4-1 victories over clubs like Villa Dálmine and Gimnasia y Tiro started the month of March before beating Estudiantes de Río Cuarto 2-0 to make it seven wins in a row, damn I don’t think I have had a better start then this on FM23 so far. However, it was Deportivo Riestra who held their own against us and stopped us winning our eighth game in a row, but we didn’t lose but drew 0-0. To be fair, neither side wanted to score…Also, got my first Manager of the Month award during this period too. APR – MAY ’22 We went on to make it ten games without defeat in the Primera Nacional with cheeky 1-0 win over San Martín de Tucumán and then 1-1 draw at home against Defensores Unidos. However, it was fellow Buenos Aires rival Club Atlético Aldosivi, who stopped us in our tracks to hand us our first defeat of the season by beating us 1-0. We were poor in this game and we had better chances but you don’t score you don’t win, simples. We took a break from league action to jump into the 5th round of the Copa Argentina and faced last seasons Primera Nacional winners Tigre and we got battered like a fish. I’m definitely more of a battered sausage and small chips guy, with a side of mushy peas!! We returned to the Primera Nacional and faced fierce rivals Atlanta. Basically this is the only game that matters to the board and the supporters is to beat the Bohemians and The Undertakers buried them 2-0 and the fans were singing my name afterwards. We remained in first place in the league too. However, the next two games saw us lose back to back for the first time this season losing to the likes of Independiente Rivadavia and Deportivo Madryn but we will forget about it because it was soon forgotten as we went on to win the next four league games and the highlight was the 5-0 win against Flandria as Blanco scored four of the five goals. But, going slightly back to the back to back defeat, did however see us drop into second place in the league. LEAGUE TABLE Only in second on goal difference and it’s massive, lol…One goal separates 1st and 2nd, both level on points. Massive 18 games to play for and then I do believe the league splits if you don’t win the league. Maybe, I should look into this or we will find out together… YOUTH INTAKE Wow, I think this is the best intake of youth I have had, well fact it is for defo. I did sign the four players below, I believe there was another one or two more players that were in the top talent bracket and snapped them up too. PLAYER WATCH Back again, with player watch which featured in the last episode and two feature again and there a new player below too. Federico Losas | GK He has been class so far this season and kept 10 clean sheets in 19 games and only conceded 16 goals. If I can keep Losas I think he will remain our number one for years to come. I will likely renew is contract during the next update and add a release clause. How much should I set it by…. Enzo Hoyos | AM Played a key role in some of the matches and scored twice and assisted three times and has the potential to reach four an half stars. Ricardo Blanco | AM New kid on the block, I mean feature or more like old man of the squad. Blanco is currently the oldest player in our squad and has got 7 goals, six assists in 17 games so far this season. He hit four goals in one match and has been excellent so far this season for The Undertakers. FINAL WORDS After the game against our fierce rivals, the South American lads started a game of bean bag keepy uppies in the corner of the dressing room just for fun. In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback and questions and don’t forget to check out all the other blogs on here and you can follow me on Twitter here. See you next time and thank you for reading…

(FM23) A Youth Only Challenge: Chacarita Juniors – Preseason ’22 Posted on 4 Jun 2023 by CoxieFM ‘A Youth Only Challenge‘ is all about focusing on your club’s youth development, with an emphasis on producing homegrown talents. Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. Home of Chacarita Juniors a storied football club infamous for having never won Primera División in their history. Can they finally defy all odds by using youth only and go on to win the top división and then the Champions League… Last episode: (FM23) A Youth Only Challenge: Chacarita Juniors – Intro PRESEASON ’22 Hola mis amigos Y bienvenido a mi blog… So, we start this series off in January 22 and it’s not a bad start to life in Buenos Aires during preseason window as we go unbeaten in the four games played with two wins and two draws. To be honest, on my previous saves/series so far on FM23, I normally play the strongest XI during this period, however doing this type of challenge and having to rely on youth players, I did rotate heavily between players for each of the four fixtures to try most of the squads out and there were a few of them that did impress me and have moved into the first team from the reserves and U20s squads. I did however try not to rely on the loan players as much during the preseason as I know at the end of the season, they will be back at their parent clubs. But they might have to play a key role in the upcoming season, if we want to establish ourselves in the league with the board wanting us to finish mid-table. Media predication is 22nd out of 38 club, yes 38 clubs in the second tier of this great footballing nation. PLAYER WATCH I’ll post a little bit about some of the players that I have came cross during preseason who if I can keep around may have a big part to play in the first few seasons. Otherwise these blogs will be a little thin on the ground due not not being able to use transfer or loan markets. I’ll highlighting my four top prospects… Also, to note, I was looking in the U20s squad and saw two of my youth players on youth contracts as being wanted by another club. Both were being tracked/wanted by River Plate and to be honest both had four star potential so I got them both signed on new deals and added £1M release clauses on both of them. Federico Losas | GK Our first choice GK, has youth on his side and five star potential too and hopefully none of the big clubs like Boca or River come knocking to soon. Was expecting my first team GK to be mid 30s like my previous saves, It reminds me of Carl Rushworth who was on loan at Walsall a couple of season ago. Great potential too. Anyway, back to Losas, some room for improvement but looks solid. Nicolás Chávez | LB Defo, first on the team sheet and another youthful player with five star potential. This club has a few good players and hopefully make some money of some of them in the near future so I can invest into the youth and training facilities. There is another LB, at the club who is on par and could come in if I lose my first choice. That is Facundo Regiroli, who is 17 and back up to Chávez. Enzo Hoyos | AM I think I have hit the jackpot here with some of these five star potentials at this club. I’m hoping their are more in the squad that will develop like Hoyos as I play a style of tactic that requires three AM in the shadow striker role. He’s got some good attributes but there still room for improvement and hopefully can get some goals for us during this upcoming season. Valentín Chocobar | AM This lad had to feature with a name like this and he has already impressed me during preseason by getting his name on the scoresheet. Hopefully Mr Cadbury doesn’t melt under pressure. Plus as well, I’d recently visited Cadbury’s World in Bournville too. I feel as the series goes on I will more and more use the preseason blog to show off players in detail. FINAL WORDS Yes I have packed enough red meat for the series in South America, like the Argentina World Cup squad did for Qatar, thank you very much and I’ll just sit quietly in the corner minding his own business adding crushed chills to my avocado toast. Also, it’s always nice when you get a DM on Twitter saying that they have also watched @FM LLaMa which featured the Undertakers in and they also are doing a save with them. Also, shout-out to Eric Ely, who done the third kit for this club. Will do a picture of it in the next blog… In the meantime, please feel free to leave a comment with any feedback and questions and don’t forget to check out all the other blogs on here and you can follow me on Twitter here. See you next time and thank you for reading…