Daddy

2023/24 Season Review: Made the Promotion Group, which was expected at the break, but we did so one some mediocre form and that form continued after the break. We were never really outmatched, mostly losing one goal games if we lost. I wasn't expecting promotion but it didn't feel completely unattainable here. Was able to get a couple upgrades and a coach class, both good things. I forgot to capture the starting finances which looks to have been about 130K. The season ended just into the red and then sponsors kicked us to the 52K spot. This has me a bit concerned as there's no money in this league and there's not a ton of value in the players. This has me a bit concerned about getting many more upgrades. I'm asking away while we're in the black. Youth Intake: Overall pretty deep. There were no glaring holes, just a backup goalkeeper and Centerback and this accomplished that and overall strengthen the bench. 2024/25 Season Preview: I hate that sponsor and despite it being the team's real sponsor I'll be switching soon to something that flows better. Now it's about finding out what the club really is. Talent wise I do think we're better than the team that struggled. The goal is to stay up, but I want to see a push to go up.

2023/24 Midseason Review: So much local sports this weekend to watch so I'm playing a ton. I've been wanting to try a completely different formation and this team actually looked suited to try Wide Centerbacks. Preseason, great. First two matches, great. Next five, nope. 433 and things take off. The schedule picked up and I was basically getting messages after each match that half the team was jaded, but I needed them as backups so while I didn't start they still had to play most of the time. Form dropped as we reached the winter break losing four of the last seven (one was a cup match). All by one goal so I'm pretty optimistic coming out of the break we get things going again. After 30 matches the league splits in two groups of 8. Each team plays each other once. In the Top group the top two teams are promoted and 3rd and 4th face 5 & 6 from the upper division's group B for their spots. Group B has the bottom two automatically relegated and 5 & 6 playing for their spots. After explaining all that I am hopeful we finish in Group A and in the top 4. Intake Preview: We need depth at Keeper and Centerback. Glad to see them listed as A & B

Thank you! I never think to remove the background for the badge.

OK I'm pretty sure I've never tried Serbia before. Fairly decent facilities to start off made this an appealing club. From what I saw this is fairly close for the primary kit, including the main sponsor and no sleeve sponsor. I didn't really see a set second kit and the game has it as a primary white so I want to stick with that so I don't wind up where the game thinks it's a white kit and it's two teams in blue running around. I added black as a third color just to give something else instead of just blue and white. Not a ton is expected, the team has a fairly solid squad, but only one keeper. If the keeper gets a long term injury it'll be quite problematic. As with any first season I have no clue what to expect.

I'm always excited to see people trying Switzerland to see if it's just me who sucks lol

Well we never fixed the underperforming offense or defense and that's the end of this chapter. At least the Phillies won so I didn't have a terrible night! Going to look for a country that I haven't tried and that hasn't completed the challenge yet next.

I don't. I am fortunate enough to work from home so I have less travel time, and a job that I can take a quick 5 here or there and advance a few days. I've found FM to be the perfect game to play while watching sports, so I'm basically able to play a lot.

I loved Deportes Concepcion in Chile

2026/27 Midseason Review: Not going great. Which means the second half will catch fire and finish 11th. I have one player retiring and two older fringe players with ridiculous contract demands for what they give, so they've been transfer listed. One has already moved on. As a result I'm forcing the youth player issue a little more than planned. The big issues are underperforming our xG for goals by 4 and giving up a whopping 15 more than xG expected. I think I've talked myself here into not pulling out of this nose dive. Survival may be difficult. Intake Preview: Very promising. Just hoping for at least one player capable to stepping in and playing.

2025/26 Season Review: A Disappointing second half where we went from one point out of playoffs to 12th. There were a handful of injuries and the goals dried up. Wound up underperforming xG by 4 goals. Likely not enough to make up the difference but combined with the injuries on defense which led to more goals allowed we wilted as the season ended. Still, board and media expected relegation and that was never at risk. Nothing to report here. I was able to get an additional coach and physio though. Youth Intake: Some pretty good players at the top but no one comes in ready to play. 2026/27 Season Preview: Little bit of Dan Flashes appeal on the sleeves The race on legacy players aging and youth players developing is on. I'm just going to assume 11th place to be consistent with the first three season. If the Legacy players decline hard this year and the youth players don't step up it'll be lower. Should the Youth Players development take off then maybe we move forward.

Also check age and contract status of those players. I've had a few times where a bunch of players either retire or won't sign a new contract.

2025/26 Midseason Review: Doing about where I expected given I got rid of my keeper and went with a 16 year old two white star current ability. He's actually doing alright with a 6.93 average rating in 27 appearances. We're not getting crushed with goals allowed, upper mid most in league though. About the same for goal scored. Slight improvements to both would be a big help. Had a pretty long term injury to one of my better players, but as he gets back into game shape I'm hoping to close out the season in the top 7 and see about making a promotion push. Well the last few were almost all As and came out to be ok. Fewer As here, but I'm really just hoping for at least one player to come in ready to take a starting spot soon. No Youth player has taken a starting spot yet, but I have one player who I think is going to retire and three more who are now hitting early 30s. I don't want to be in position where they all retire and the drop off is massive.

2024/25 Season Review: A third of the way through the season we were in last place. I lead the "sack race" at 7-2 odds. We were underperforming our xG by 8.5 goals. Our keeper is one of the worst in the leagues. I made a few seemingly minor tactics adjustments and it was like a switch flipped. We about broke even xG for the season. The keeper still sucks (more on him later). Team goes on a tremendous run and wind up just missing the playoffs. So many missed chances so it stings a little. Not sure if this is a bug but I had several players I let go on free and it doesn't show up. Some guy got grumpy about something so I let him go. Not messing up my dynamics. Even though I hated him I needed to resign the keeper he was the best we had at the time, but he locked in a promise to improve training facilities. End of the season rolls around and there's no money so I can't do it. He gets whiney. I explain the board wouldn't do it. He said I need to be more persuasive. Dude persuaded his ass on out of here. Released on free. I was able to get coaching and recruitment boosted and at the end of the season received a notice the board boosted the level to 4. Finances obviously aren't great, but I don't see that changing much without a lucky cup run. Youth Intake: Meet our new keeper. I'm sure he'll be bad too being thrown into the fire. Y25C comes in as a nice backup option with a few positions. Otherwise a lot got cut and others have a ways to go development wise. 2025/26 Season Preview: I don't know why this design exists. Part of me thinks it was made just for me and this purpose. Maybe it wasn't smart to get rid of that keeper. I also had a player retire, but I had stopped using him most of the last half of the season. Once again we're going to have to league the league in scoring to do well, but with the strong run we went on I think we should be pushing for the playoffs.

2024/25 Midseason Review: I knew we'd give up goals, and we have. What I wasn't expecting was to not score goals. The last 5 have been undefeated so hopefully things are starting to turn around. Hopefully things keep progressing and I don't wind up as the first in the challenge to get sacked. Just hoping anyone comes in ready to play. Unrelated...Go Phillies!

2023-24 Season Review: Around the midpoint teams seemed to figure that our keeper is terrible (the guy I planned to play when I picked the team immediately retired and I was stuck with a guy that started with two white stars for current ability). We were top 5 in Goals scored but also in goals allowed. It's disappointing to have gone from 2nd and just out of 1st to mid table, but the goal was to not get relegated and we accomplished that. Nothing much here. a coaching course. After I captured this the season tickets came in and the finances were in the black. Youth Intake: With how strong the intake preview I was hoping for a little bit more. Our top intake player broke his ankle in preseason so hopefully he's not a total bust. 2024/25 Season Preview: Keeping the sponsors, but not keeping the stripes. The blue kits were used a lot so I'll keep updating them. I messed around a bunch trying out the low block tactics they supposedly improved. Full low block defense I couldn't get to work, but I was able to tinker enough to stop the bleeding last season while still scoring well enough. I'm going to need a lot of 3-2 type wins to have a shot at promotion. I suspect mid table.

Can't promise anything hasn't changed. Switzerland is tough to break through. Fun/frustrating challenge.

Regarding the Swiss leagues: I had two attempts in Switzerland for FM22 and one of them I was Rapperswil. The link broke when I got promoted. It is worded weird for sure though so I understand not taking the risk.

2023/24 Midseason Review: Got on a roll and reached as high as second but started on a poor run last five. Hopefully can get that turned around. Wasn't expecting to be this good to start, but I do want to make a run at promotion since, why not? Intake Preview: Really promising. We'll see what comes.

Ilkeston had an intriguing story to me. From what I had read this was the fourth or fifth club to try to take root in Ilkeston. Also not a club I've seen people trying so that added to my own interest. Profile and Facility data. The club only has one kit, but the game has that blue color kit. I managed to find the main and sleeve sponsors and used a cool site that removes background (Remove bg or something like that) to make it play nicer with kitbasher. For the first season I aimed to get as close to their actual kit as possible. The second season I'll go crazy but keeping the color scheme. Haven't tinkered with tactics but I have enough players to not have grey players so a good start.

Hard to argue with that logic. I instantly don't want to do scouting so I'll have a new save soon

I'm waiting for release as well. but is there really a reason to? Is there a history of bugs being fixed that wouldn't apply to a beta save?

2031/32 Season Review: This one was tough to take. 36 points, as captured above, was a record high for the automatic drop. It was enough points for 7th & 8th in some previous seasons. We finished really strong but the teams above us also went on a roll and we couldn't dig out of a little hole we had dug. A run of blowouts made the Goal Differential look worse than it really was. Still we gave up way too many goals. An additional pain point is a few players have relegation release clauses and I lost my best player for half of his normal release clause. A release clause met for a cool $6M which was timed well enough right after some facility upgrades completed early in the season so I asked and was approved for more. They completed in time so I was able to get two upgrades in training and Youth Facilities. Finally a Centerback! Real good base there for a 16 yr old. 2032/33 Season Preview: Not getting automatic promotion would be a failure to me. RE: Beta - Once beta comes out I'll kill this save and probably pick a League one team and see what I can do until full release. Once the day one patch comes out I'll start a new youth save in England. I'm determined to complete the challenge in England for FM23.

2030/31 Season Review: Staying alive again. Other than a few games we got hammered it really wasn't as bad as the stats look. Ultimately the same problems remain. We don't score enough and we give up too. Seems obvious but if we were just marginally better at both we would have been out of the playoffs. 10 one goal losses. Not helping matters is losing a top player due to a release clause. Another one out the door the day after the season rolled over. I was able to turn that money into upgrades that will finish up this season at least. Youth Intake: No immediate world beaters this time, but plenty of help in the system. 2031/32 Season Preview: Losing our top two forwards hurts, but they weren't really lighting up the scoresheet so how much does it suck? I don't know. Hopefully the training facilities and Youth Facilities upgrades that will complete early in the season will help. I suspect another season at the bottom of the table. Hopefully enough to stay out of automatic relegation. Edit: Forgot to add two wonderkids. Our first I think. One already left and I assume I won't have the other for too long.

2029/30 Season Review: An interesting season. I was expecting to get relegated outright and by mid-December I made the decision to sell off the three players that were leaving no matter what after the season for whatever I could get. My hope was if we did better than expected they might stay or at least help us stay up to get another season of money (the difference between the leagues is about 3 million). Relegation look inevitable so I sold them off. Then I noticed the players replacing them started stepping up, we got another great intake player as well, and in the end did enough to finish in 9th. From there we won the playoff to stay up. In addition to selling players that didn't want to stay I got rid of some roster bloat. A pay raise and another badge. No improvements to other facilities though. Youth Intake: Another nice player. Still lacking scoring though. A lot of playmakers though. Hopefully next year I get some help on Defense. 2030/31 Season Preview: Funny thing I failed to note above: Since I assumed I was going down I locked every player I wanted up to max length contract available. Now all the players I am not trying to get rid of are lock up until 6/30/33. This season may be a struggle, or maybe a step in the right direction. Regardless the players can whine all they want they're mine for three more years!

2028/29 Season Review: One of the things I noticed on my journeyman was different tactics that I had used in Ukraine but wasn't using here. The switch helped turn things up. I was getting annoyed about dropped points as I think if we played the way we did to close the whole season we run away with the league and I feel better about surviving in the top league. Nothing major here. I will be losing some players I don't want to this coming season though. Youth Intake: I had asked for some help scoring and I received! He made an instant impact. 5 goals and 5 assists in 9 appearances. He's a mercenary and I don't suspect I get to keep him long. 2029/30 Season Preview: Having the 3rd color as the opposite kit's primary as a pin stripe on the thick white stripes is a nice touch. Plus that pattern in the primary color stripes I love. One of the better ones if I do say so myself. I suspect the kits will be the highlight of the season. I already lost my starting keeper as his contract is up in a year and I was waiting for the promotion to extend and then bids came in and he wanted to leave. Had to get something to avoid leaving on a free. Two of my top three players are on their last year, refuse to sign, and there's no interest. Hopefully before Jan I can extend. The other of the three best players, well excluding the youth player, wants to resign, but for double the max I can offer. If I can't figure that out I'll have a tough decision. Sell for what I can for all three, or ride out in hopes of staying up and get better prize money. The second option is actually the smartest as last place is $2.5M and I don't think I'll get that from all three combined and I'm hoping for better. I think I just talked myself through the process.