HaylingZar

Anyone know why I can't request an upgrade to my Youth Facilities? It has been at the same level for 6 years now. I've been checking the board request every few weeks for the past 6 years and the option to request improvements has never appeared. We have over £300M in the bank so it can't be due to lack of funds.

Many thanks for your kind words @HanziZoloman. I started off when in the lower leagues with a standard 4-2-3-1 gegenpress, using very few tactical instructions. Now, I am using a 4-2-4 control possession tactic in easier games, and a 5-2-3 with similar tactical instructions for more difficult games. All of my formations use BPD as my defenders, DMs or VOLs as my midfielders, IFs on the wings, and AF striker role (with a PF as my second striker in the 4-2-4 formation. If I get a good CF I might try that as well).

Macclesfield FC - 2033-36 Seasons - Seasons 10-12 - Sky Bet Championship Season Update After being promoted to the championship in my 9th season, I would spend the next 3 seasons in the Championship. I've consolidated these 3 seasons into one post for brevity. Season 10 - 5th - Lost in Playoffs The first Championship season went very well. Although we couldn't do another back-to-back promotion we finished in 5th and just failed to get through the playoffs. We lost one of our key players in Hopkins as the transfer was taken out of my hands by the chairperson. Still, a hefty bit of cash to throw around at least! Interestingly, our wage structure remains a third of that of the next-lowest team. Given that league performance is usually closely correlated to wage budget, this is a good sign that we are overperforming! Youth Intake Another good Youth Intake this time with Okonkwo looking to be a potential future star in the defensive position. We always seem to get a lot of strikers and attacking midfielders so depth at the back is sorely needed. Key Player Last season's Hot Prospect becomes a key player for us. He has still got a lot of potential to improve as well. Season 11 - 3rd - Lost in Playofffs We improved on last year's placement but our record in playoffs is still poor. Perhaps the biggest talking point of the season was the sale of Jordan McCarten to Sunderland for a club-record £10.25M. Youth Intake We had another excellent Youth Intake with goalkeeper Irving looking to be a potential star. Key Player Our standout player this season was DM Densmore. He doesn't stand out in any one attribute but he is decently well-rounded and has the right vision to spot and pick out a pass. He would probably perform better as a CM, but I never use CMs this FM, preferring to play him as a DM alongside a more defensively-minded player. Hot Prospect Nigerian Centre-Back Stephen Okonkwo came through the Youth Intake last year and has the potential to be an excellent player for us. He started a lot of games this season, performing well. I hope we can just hang on to him! Season 12 - 2nd - Promoted! And we did it! After improving on our results last season we placed one position higher than the last, and in our third Championship season we were finally promoted to the Premier League. Although most of our squad is around the VNL to League 2 level, we do have a couple of Championship-tier players. Still, this will be our hardest test yet, as next season we will be playing in the strongest league in world football. This season started strongly and we performed well throughout the season, however, Coventry also had an incredible season and we set the unenviable record of highest points without winning the Championship title. Our final points tally was 94! Youth Intake Not quite as promising as the previous couple but with two decent-looking prospects I can't complain too much! Also, peep the Cypriot in the intake, I love having uncommon nationalities show up. While on the subject of youth players, check this one out - our first-ever player to be featured in the NXGN awards! He's gonna be great for us, I'm sure! Key Player Once again our key player goes to Polat, he's just so consistently great. He's easily our best player at this point. Note that I installed a new facepack so if you were following my earlier posts you'll have spotted that a lot of the players will have changed in their appearance. Hot Prospect Another from our 2034 Youth Intake - Irish midfielder Darren O'Shea. I'll definitely train him as a DM because I don't really use central midfielders. Transfers Squad, Club Info, Finances, League Tables and Manager Progress All in this imgur album as I hit the image cap! Summary After 3 years of graft in the championship, we are now moving into the premier league! This will be challenging and I have no delusion that we will immediately perform as well as we have in previous years nor that our success will be quick. I do have every faith in my squad to keep us up however, and hopefully after a number of years (or decades...) we will have established ourselves to such a level that we can consistently challenge for continental positions. Thanks all for reading, and I hope to update you again soon after my coming seasons.

Macclesfield FC - 2032-33 Season - Season 9 - Sky Bet League 1 (Tier 3) - 1st (Champions!) Season Update BACK-TO-BACK! YES! This team is just amazing. We're going to the bloody championship already! If you told me 3 seasons ago that we would win back-to-back promotions I would have told you that you were insane. But against all odds, we did it. We started the season about as well as expected, narrowly scraping a couple of wins, drawing a few games, and taking a loss or two. But our form picked up in earnest in October as we won 5 of 6 games. We were undefeated in November (sound familiar?) and then went on to have the best December we've ever had: Despite a taxing 7 league games, we were up to the challenge and emerged with 5 wins and 2 draws. Of course, all good things must come to an end, so as is traditional the January transfer window brought naught but tribulation. My old nemesis reared his ugly head... And despite a stellar first half of the season, this would cause our squad's morale to crater and we lost 4 of the next 7 games. Our form would slowly start to improve throughout the next month and despite a number of ineffectual team talks: We were able to battle to a couple of wins in February which would provide a much-needed morale boost. This would prove essential as we entered perhaps the most important game of the season when title challengers Millwall came to our place in a crucial 6-pointer at the end of February. The victor would cement their position in first place in the league table. We opened the scoring when Davies was left unmarked at the near post and volleyed home a corner in the 22nd minute, and he would contribute an assist just 3 minutes later with an incredible long-range pass to Stewart. The visitors didn't give up and brought one back at the 29-minute mark following a Set Piece situation. Reluctant to relinquish our advantage, Richardson took the ball into his feet with his back to goal. and hammered home our third on the half-turn. We were already beginning to celebrate when Millwall scored again, but it was too little too late for the visitors. We emerged the rightful winners of a hard-fought game and secured the top spot on the table. 5 draws in the next 7 put our position under question, but title challengers Milwall also had a spell of poor form towards the end of the season, losing 2 more games before we went into the penultimate game of the season. We knew that if we won both the final two games, or if Millwall failed to do so, we would be crowned champions. We began the match at home against 13th-placed Burton full of confidence, but nothing would separate the teams at half-time. We started to worry when the visitors were dubiously awarded a penalty in the 83rd minute, but a combination of nerves, the torrential rain, and our fans' jeers from behind the goal were enough to unsettle the taker and his effort was ultimately denied by the upright. With still nothing to separate the teams by the 90th minute, we held our breath as we went into extra time. The result was ultimately decided by a 93rd-minute corner, as Hopkins launched a ball towards the near post and it was calmly headed home by Davies. The full-time whistle blew, we checked the scores and saw that Millwall had been squarely beaten 3-1 by Barnsley. We were champions! Overall, the season went about as well as we could have hoped. I have every faith that we will give a good account of ourselves in the Championship next season, and use that solid foundation to build towards a promotion challenge in the years to come. Youth Candidates Another OK year for Youth with 2 good prospects coming through. John Gair will be retrained as a striker as I don't utilise CMs or CAMs in either of my main tactics. He has a professional personality so I have a lot of hope for his future. Key Player This was more of a year of general team accomplishments rather than individual performances, so I'd like to recognise our captain Rainford for the second time. He has incredible leadership ability at the age of 23 and will likely remain our captain for some years to come. He's also a great physical player who can outpace most players at this level. Hot Prospect Özkan Polat has broken through into the first team and made 50 senior appearances for the club already. He's a very consistent performer with great mental and physical attributes. He has very high potential so it will take some convincing to stop him from departing for another club in the future. With his emergence, I've been redeploying Davies to the right fullback position. Transfers Nothing really of note this year, don't think we sold anyone important really. Squad League Table Club Info No improvements to facilities this season, I imagine this will remain this way until we either reach the top flight or sell some players. Also noticed that I'm a club legend now, neat! Finances We're broke! The championship money can't come soon enough. Thanks all for reading and I hope to update you again soon after my next season.

Congrats for getting to the Prem, I am also playing Macclesfield although I don't think I will get there as early as 2039/40!

Good idea, I didn't think of that!

Macclesfield FC - 2031-32 Season - Season 8 - Sky Bet League 2 (Tier 4) - 1st (Champions!) Season Update Wow! What a season! After the tribulations of last season, I felt like we were sure to capitulate and spend the next few years hanging around League 2 as mid-table certainties, but we just proved anyone who doubted us wrong. We started the season on the wrong foot, experiencing yet more of the same issues - players crying about "lack of squad depth" causing poor morale once again. We took a couple of chance wins which helped float us around mid-table, but overall didn't look impressive. However, this changed in October when a couple of lucky wins boosted our morale just enough to go on a string of victories. Success begets success and we went on to win all but two games between then and the end of the year. Going into the new year period we were top of the table but some typical January form caused us to drop down just to second place. By resting our players we were able to shake off our jadedness and push on to the end of February. We were still second-placed but winning our next match would confirm promotion. We felt confident going in against bottom of the table York, and our confidence was raised further when Densmore scored an absolute rocket in the 9th minute. Hopkins followed it up with a nice header home from a cross just 3 minutes later, and though we were reduced to 10 men as Densmore was sent off for persistent fouling, we were able to hold strong and limit the opponents to a single goal, confirming our status as a League 1 team next season. We didn't stop there as title rivals Newport County dropped points in the penultimate match which we also won, putting us level on points going into the final game of the season, though we trailed on goal difference. The final game versus Exeter was a tough one, but when Defensive Midfielder McCarten curled home a lovely effort from outside the penalty area to put us 2-0 up, we were almost sure of the result. We conceded in the 88th minute as our keeper fumbled the ball but it was of no concern. We knew that anything short of a victory by promotion rivals Newport County would hand us the title, and the news came in - they had drawn on the final day! We were champions! While we dropped out early from all cup competitions to focus on the league, this seemed to have been the right decision. With the margins being so thin, one fewer goal in any number of matches could have been the difference-maker for the title. Youth Candidates This was an OK year for Youth, with a couple of decent-looking prospects but none ready for first-team minutes just yet. We still haven't improved our Youth system at all because our finances are in the mud. Hugo Rodrigues looks to be the most promising of the bunch. Key Player Am I allowed to highlight the same player twice? Well, I make the rules, so please welcome back Dave Richardson for his second appearance! What can I say about this kid that hasn't already been said? He's been in superb form for us this season yet again, even when he isn't scoring or making assists he's creating space and playing great passes for the team. There's a lot of interest in him from other clubs so it will take some effort to hang on to him. Hot Prospect Conor Hamilton is quickly becoming one of our best options up top, with 20 goal contributions in 28 starting appearances this season. His recent form has been nothing short of brilliant. He could become a key player for us. Transfers All good things must come to an end, and no matter what I said, Sivert Topper had his heart set on leaving. I agreed I'd only sell him for a high price, but unfortunately, the most I could negotiate with him was £900k - much lower than my valuation of him. In the end, he left to Ipswich for £900k +40% profit from next sale. Considering he is now worth £12-18M, that should be an extra £4.5-£7M assuming he is sold by Ipswich down the line, although we may sell the clause if we're not sure that it will be triggered. Squad I wouldn't call this squad League 1 Material, hell most of them are hardly League 2 material, but we gotta make the most of the situation and do our best to stay up. I am confident we will stay up although I doubt we will get promoted quickly. League Table Club Info The club completed a takeover although of course, we had no investment... I'm also working towards my continental Pro Licence now. Finances Probably the less said the better, at this rate we won't be upgrading any facilities until we reach the prem! Thanks all for reading, and I hope to update you again soon after my next season.

Thank you for your condolences! I am already part way through the next season and things are looking a lot brighter! New update coming soon...

Macclesfield FC - 2030-31 Season - Season 7 - Sky Bet League 2 (Tier 4) - 5th (Lost in Playoff Semi-Final) Season Update It seems like we have a habit of having a great season immediately following promotion. When we got first promoted into the national league we finished second place in our first season, although it took us 4 more years to get out of that league! This season, we continued that trend with a strong finish. I can only hope that it doesn't become a habit to spend 5 years in each league. Despite what looks like a great performance overall, I was devastatingly let down by the team when it mattered and endured one of the most frustrating experiences I've encountered in my time playing the game. At one point, I genuinely considered putting the game down and having a few weeks off. Still, I've learned a lot and will put these experiences towards a better season next time out. In the off-season, I worked on tinkering with my tactics and developed what felt like a strong playing style. With our club's professional status secured, I also put together some training plans for the upcoming season. After 6 seasons of being unable to train my players properly, this would turn out to be a godsend. I could now focus our training on the key areas for improvement and ensure players were sufficiently rested between matches. I attribute the majority of our subsequent success to this. We started the season decently enough, losing just one of the first 11 league games (although we drew most). Our form picked up in earnest around November (I feel like I say this a lot!) a month in which we won 4 and drew 1 game. This strong spell of form continued into the new year, and suddenly an unlikely promotion looked to be on the cards. As we approached the end of the January transfer window, we were second in the league table and had convincingly won our last 4 league games, including a 7-1 battering of Yeovil and a humbling of fellow promotion rivals Swindon. Our morale was high, everyone was pulling in the right direction, and with the momentum we had, it felt like almost a certainty that we would be playing in League 1 next year. Then, it happened. My captain - Rainford comes to me along with almost every single member of the first team. "Boss, we need to talk about the lack of sufficient quality squad depth in the goalkeeping department". He was right to an extent, our keeper wasn't technically a League 2-level player, more of a VNL keeper. But who cares, he's doing decently enough, we're outscoring the other teams, and we are riding high at the top of the league! Why come to me now? Of course, I couldn't promise to sign new keepers, so I said what was true - I'd like to give some time to youth prospects between the sticks and see how they develop. This did little to placate the troubled captain, and in one fell swoop, the entire squad's morale went from Perfect to Abysmal. I was crushed. We had been on course for a memorable promotion challenge, and with one minor issue, the entire squad became miserable. Of course, following this, we lost 7 of our remaining games (more than we had lost all season up to that point!), dropping us out of the automatic promotion spots and ensuring that we were playoff-bound instead. The misery continued as we lost 0-3 away in the first leg of the playoff semi-final, and subsequently lost 0-2 in the second leg, confirming our status as a League 2 side next season. Don't you just love player interactions? So that brings us to now. A promotion challenge that looked impossible at the start of the season, looked guaranteed halfway through the season, and felt snatched away from our fingertips so unfairly at the last minute. Anyway, enough moaning. Let's get into the fun stuff. Youth Candidates Another year with no improvements to our Youth system, so I'm not surprised that our intake is slightly worse than last year's. Only 2 good talents compared to 3 the year before (and 11 the year before that!) Polat has a good personality and looks like he could be a rotational option for Davies on the left fullback position, while Hopkins joins what feels like a dozen strikers in a battle for 2 spaces in the lineup. Key Player Last season's Hot Prospect becomes this season's key player as Stewart cements his position as our best striker. 31 goals in 46 is simply sublime. He also scored his first goals for his country! #ProudDadMoment Hot Prospect From our Youth Intake this year we get 16-year-old Welsh striker Hopkins, he's already made his mark on the team with 2 goals in his first 5 appearances. While he doesn't especially stand out attribute-wise, he is fairly well-rounded as a striker and has a lot of room to develop in future. He could be a solid rotational option on the bench for now. Transfers Fortunately didn't have to sell anyone this year. Squad I have a love-hate relationship with these guys. They bring me joy with their ridiculous 90+7 winners and misery with their pointless inane issues. League Table God I hate playoffs Club Info We finished some improvements to our training facilities started last season. We also started expanding the stadium. I got my Continental B licence and started on my A. Finances The financial situation is starting to look... Worrying at best. At least we've got 2 million quid lying around in the transfer budget... Thanks all for reading, and I hope to update you again soon after my next season.

Question: If I sell a player am I permitted to sell with the "Loan Back Until End Of Season" clause, or would that invalidate the challenge as it counts as a loan in?

Macclesfield FC - 2029-30 Season - Season 6 - VNL (Tier 5) - 1st (Champions!) Season Update What a season! After 5 years in the national league, we're finally going up to the football leagues. It's a dream come true. Now hopefully I can get us promoted in fewer seasons this time. We started the season incredibly strongly, winning most of our games in the first few months. We went unbeaten in September and November. By the time January came around we were beginning to get some injuries and fatigue was ramping up so we ended up suffering a poor spell of form, but this year we had sufficient squad depth to rally and come back from it, keeping us top of the table by goal difference alone as we entered the last month of the season. In April, we lost 0-2 to Grimsby and beat Fylde 4-1, meaning a victory against Worthing would give us the title. So of course we naturally lost 0-4 against Worthing, which meant our fate was in our hands as we approached the final game of the season. Barring our goal difference being overturned, we needed only a point against Hartlepool, a team I traditionally always seem to lose against! For this game, I decided to employ a defensive formation, maximum time wasting, you know the drill. Despite pre-game hopes of a 0-0 draw, we were up 2-0 in the 90th minute, and with both teams scoring once post-90 minutes, it was little more than a consolation goal for Hartlepool as we ended the game 3-1, winning us the league. It was only at this point that I got the news that promotion rivals Dorking had failed to win their final game of the season, meaning the result we got was irrelevant! My board was so impressed with our performance that I was offered a new contract just 3 minutes post-game. Outside of the league, we were progressing well in the cups, but the fixture congestion was just getting too much. Our players were constantly playing with low condition and getting injured. We took a graceful exit from the FA Cup in the 4th round against Premier League side West Brom and then ducked out of the FA Trophy versus Concorde. I was hoping to win the Trophy before we left the national leagues but I didn't want to be stretched so thin, so an exit was probably the best strategy. There will be plenty more trophies to win down the line, I'm sure. Next season will be a struggle, for sure. Most of my players are around the level of "Leading National League North/South Player", with our best players being "Good National League Player". I don't have anyone that's "Leading National League" or above. This will prove to be a challenge, but I'm confident in my squad and believe that we can battle to avoid relegation. National League truly is hell to get out of, so I'm determined to never come back here! Youth Candidates A fairly bad year for Youth, with only 3 potentially good players compared to 11 last year. No one that is ready to contribute to the first team yet, even from the bench. I'm worried that this is a sign of things to come, but we will see. Key Player I want to shout out Dave Richardson, he's been great for us this season on the right wing, although I wish we could develop his weaker foot a bit more as I like to play inside forwards. Hot Prospect We didn't get anyone good in our Youth Intake this year, but I'd like to draw attention to our young Gibraltarian striker Josh Stewart. He's performed very well for us this season, scoring 14 goals in 30 appearances, and has just recently made his first senior international cap for Gibraltar (the first player in my team to ever make a senior international cap!). His development is coming along very nicely. My favourite attributes of his are of course his rapid pace but also his great personality: 16 determination and 15 teamwork / leadership. He could easily become a strong candidate for captaincy down the line. Transfers We sold one youth player with a horrible personality, and released another who looked like he wasn't going to make it. Apart from that it's just loans and more loans. Squad I'm going to let a lot of the original squad go at the end of this season, so we will be left with just one actual player and the rest is newgens. This squad is going to find it tough in League 2, but I believe we can survive! League Table Promotion by winning the league feels amazing. I hate playoffs. Club Info We've made some investments into youth facilities and also improved our youth recruitment as it had dropped down a level. We are now a professional club so our players can actually train in the season! I also got my Continental C license which doubled my discipline attribute. I think it's because I chose "disciplinarian" as my management style at the beginning, didn't realise it made that big of an impact! Maybe this means my players will stop coming to me with pointless problems. Finances Finally, the finances are looking alright for now, although running a professional club can get expensive we should also be making a bit more money from playing in League 2 next season. Thanks all for reading, and I hope to update you again soon after my next season.

I use newgan as well. It works fine 90% of the time, it's only 10% of players where it will give the wrong ethnicity, for example my Ivorian player Abdoulaye Ouattara got a white face because he has English second nationality, I'm not sure if it manages correctly with mixed race / nationality players.

Macclesfield FC - 2028-29 Season - Season 5 - VNL (Tier 5) - 5th (Lost in Playoff Semi-Final) Season Update To be honest, this update may be brief. I'd almost finished typing out my post and my PC crashed, losing everything. I don't have the energy to type it all out again! In summary, a great season for us, with plenty of new youth prospects showing their worth. We performed well in the league and were narrowly beaten in the playoffs semi-final. We also performed well in the cup competitions, causing an upset in the FA cup by knocking out championship side Reading before losing to Premier league side West Ham. The FA Trophy went well as we finished in the semi-finals. Assuming we don't lose our best players to the many bigger clubs that are coming in for them over the summer, we may have a real shot at promotion next season. Youth Candidates This intake is really quite special. Check out Sivert Topper, with 3.5 stars Ability already. Key Player Key player goes to Elliott Davies for his consistently great performances this season. If we can keep him for this summer he'll remain as one of our best players next season. Hot Prospect I've never seen a Youth Intake player over 2.5 stars in my game before, so this is a proud moment. I mean look at his performances, I just know he's going to be great for us. Transfers Loan farm is ramping up... Squad I know I say this a lot, but this squad is getting better and better. League Table I'm proud of how we performed this year. That said, we couldn't match our Youth team's performance - they won every single game with a total GD of 139! Club Info Not much has changed here, my board doesn't seem to like my endless requests. They have agreed to upgrade the club's professional status at the end of the 2029-30 season though. Finances Well at least we're not in hideous amounts of debt for now, but the expenses are starting to add up! Thanks all for reading, and apologies for such a brief summary this season. I hope to update you again soon after my next season.

Congratulations!

Thank you! Yes do post yours as well!