chsot68

Season 8 2031/2032: League 2 As suspected we were picked to finish last in League 2 this season after our playoff win last year. What was unsuspected was finishing 3rd and gaining automatic promotion to League 1! Our success relied heavily on our wonderful Academy-produced GK Antoni Murray-Jones. The 2-year-old keeper was a brick wall last year, and will be named captain in the coming season. His Golden Gloves season carried the side. We also had some great success in the FA Cup, making it all the way to the 5th Round after a 93rd minute winner in the 4th Round against Championship side Bolton. In the 5th Round we again went to Tottenham where we gave them a run for their money. At 1-1 in the 88th minute we pressed ahead in an attacking mentality searching for a winner, but got hit on the counter and gave up a third in stoppage time. The strategy in pressing for the winner was to avoid a replay, and it worked. Just not the way we hoped. We also had another decent intake, filling in depth in a couple key positions. We also sold another player for over $2m, which is fine because he was a Striker that couldn't score, and we landed what looks like a very good prospect in the intake to replace him. I'll try to get through the next season before I'm off on vacation for the first half of April, but it might be a little while until y'all hear from me. Thanks for reading! -R

2030/2031 Season 7: VNL Playoffs and FAT Final We were picked to finish just above the relegation zone for our first season in the National League, and got off to a pretty rocky start. But the October happened. We won all 6 of our matches that month enroute to a 15-match unbeaten run in all competitions, and by the New Year we were slumming with the big boys near the top of the table. Then after selling several million worth of sell-on clauses and some luck in the FA Cup draw that saw us progress to a 4th Round away match against Tottenham the board agreed to go professional at the end of the season. The boys played valiantly in London, managing a narrow 1-0 loss in a sign of good things to come in the capital city. As spring progressed we never really had a shot to win the league as Mansfield absolutely ran away with it. By March my eyes were on a home tie in the first round of the Playoffs, all the while the FAT Cup draw kept us at home against lower league opposition. We played well, eventually securing a spot in the FAT final against league winners Mansfield, all the while securing a 5th place finish in the league. The first round of the playoffs were against Woking, who we'd tied twice in league play. An absolutely heroic 7-save performance from our GK left the tie poised to go to Extra Time, but a 91st winner by our Star 17-year old winger sealed the win (more on him shortly). The Semi-Final saw us away to Dorking. The home team won each of our previous meetings during the year, and it took another special performance to see us through. Jay Fitzmartin, our longest serving player, team leader, captain, and only 1 of 2 original players left on the roster, carried us to a come-from-behind win in Extra Time with 2 fantastic goals. The tying goal, an absolute screamer from 27 yards (the match engine called it an OG, but it wasn't) followed by another goal in which he just willed the ball into the back of the net saw us take the tie and head back to London to face 7th place Colchester in the Final. And oh what a fortnight it turned out to be on our return to London and first visits to Wembley. The Playoff Final was poised on a knife's edge going into halftime, with neither team able to wrestle an advantage, but spurred on by a rousing team talk the boys absolutely ran away from Colchester in the 2nd half, led by our Star 17-year-old, follwed by a goal from our 16-year-old Striker, and finished off by a 20-year-old Mezzala. Are we ready? Probably not lol. But up we go anyway! A week later we faced Mansfield in the FAT final, who had been on a 2-week layoff after absolutely destroying the league for 108 points. We lost both matches to them during the season, preferring our usual balanced, possession approach. So, given that hopefully it will be our only shot at winning the tournament, and to buck our usual trend, we came out the gate pressing hard and attacking, firing out to a 2-goal lead by the 25th minute, both goals scored by 16-year old up and coming stars. We stayed attacking in search of a 3rd, but Mansfield roared back with two of their own by the break. We kept attacking to start the 2nd half, found a goal in the 51st minute, and shut up shop by dropping to a balanced mentality, dropping our line deep, regrouping, holding shape and doing our best to harass anyone who came close to the ball. Mansfield had some chances, but another 7-save performance by our 19-year old keeper saw out the famous win! In terms of infrastructure, we already upgraded training facilities once in the last year, with another upgrade along with a youth training facilities upgrade coming to completion within the next 8 weeks. We are upgrading the stadium with 1500 additional seats, and we will get another $2m boost to our bank balance when the sale of Perreira, the hot shot young winger, goes through in a few weeks. The sale to Ipswich also comes along with a 50% sell-on clause, a friendly, and another $500k of installments over the next year - by far our biggest sale ever, so far. The intake this year was also solid, with the addition of a stout new CB, a Professional young GK, and a new up and coming AP who is nearly ready to start rotating into the squad once he's trained in central midfield. This season also came along with my 2nd MOY award in as many years. So yeah. I expect a tough season ahead, but we only have to finish 22nd, which I'm hopeful to do. I'm worried about the financial implications if we don't, but that will be a problem for the future if it comes to pass. On to season 8! Thanks for reading! -R

2029/2030, Season 6: Promotion!!! We won the VNN!! This first promotion feels pretty good! The season included a 28-match unbeaten run. Things started looking a little dicey in March, but we pulled out 4 straight wins in April to drive the final nail. Won manager of the season, and our young Striker won POY. The youth intake was really good this year too. I'm excited about quite a few of the prospects. Finances are looking really solid as well after we sold a $365k sell-on clause. I'm hoping that after another one or two of those we can go professional. No facility upgrades recently, but we are turning out some really good prospects and I think going pro is a priority right now in order to compete in the VNL. Looking forward to checking in after the next season, our first in the VNL. I have good hopes we will stay up. Would hate to regress. Thanks for reading! -R

2028/2029, Season 5 Season 5 was oh so close to our first promotion. We finished 7, but had secured a playoff spot with one game remaining after a great 2nd half of the season. With very little hope of securing a home game for the first round (turns out we could have) and even longer odds for a bye week we rested some key players for the last match of the season, and lost 1-0 to the team (Halifax) we would turn around and beat 2-0 in the First Round with our rested squad. We then had an absolutely nail biting Semi-Final against Tamworth, eeking out a 0-0 draw to send it to penalties. Our keeper caught their first shot, and our guys came through and hit all 5 of their spot kicks to send us to Chorley for the Final. We split our in-season matches with them, but they overcame our tired squad to beat us 2-1. Thanks for reading. More as soon as I can.

2027/28, Season 4 Season 4 ended in disappointment. We once again ended up with more points than the previous season, but still fell in the table. However, the new GK has been a good addition to the side. We are also starting to add some good depth in defense as well. I ended this season with some hope that we will be able to rotate better next year to try to keep the squad fresh for the run in in March and April. We are also moving up the table in terms of the season predictions. All the way to 14th for the coming year! I've actually already played most of Season 5, and will post another update later today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed! -R

Are loan backs allowed?

2027\28 Season 4 is going pretty well. We are again challenging for the playoffs. This could be the year we make the cut. The year has also had some pretty great highs, and a few lows. First, the lowest bit is that we are going to lose our best player in the summer on a free transfer. He'd asked to be sold last spring, and we agreed a price, but were unable to move him. I was hopeful about resigning him because even though he didn't get sold his promise was showing green. However, a Trinidadian club has swooped in and signed him to a precontract. So to the youth team he goes while I get his replacement some game time. Totally a bummer. Now the good news. We made the FA Cup Third round! We got there by absolutely smashing League 1 Stockport at home 4-2, and it wasn't that close. The lads and fans really showed up for the occasion, and earned us a trip to Newcastle for the third round, and nearly a $1m payday. Of course they absolutely smashed us, but we did get a nice consolation goal scored by a newly emerging BBM. The tie with Newcastle also has our form on the ropes, but now that all the cup competitions are out of the way I am hoping for a strong finish to the season. Also along the way we've also fielded our first 11 full of newgens, and cashed in a future clause on Huws for nearly $1.8m, so even after committing $900k to training ground improvements we are sitting at nearly $2.5m in the bank! I've asked for youth facility upgrades as well, but the board hasn't come back on that yet. We also got our intake preview, and we may have a decent GK coming through! Fingers crossed. Will check in later. I've got a 3 day weekend this week so hope to make some good progress. Thanks for reading! -R

Season 3 ended just outside the playoffs again. We had an outside chance to make it the last day of the season with a win, but we drew and the other ties didn't go our way either. So while we finished a place lower than Season 2 we had 4 more points than last year. The Team of the Year is also starting to show a few younger players as well. Pinkard, White, Crichlow, Huws, Mahama, and Spencer are all youngsters that came in during the first 2 seasons. The youth intake this year also didn't have anyone over 2 stars, but also the overall quality of the squad has increased. Groves in particular looks useful so far in the Season 4 preseason. GK has also been the weakest area of our team for sure, but the lad we brought in this year looks to have some potential. And even if he doesn't develop to his full potential he is still almost as good as our current fellow, and he's 6'4" at 15 years old. The setup is improving nicely as well. We've also had our first couple of youngster sales. Quitongo forced his way out and I wasn't able to get anything other than the cash for him. However, the Huws deal came along with 50% of next sale (his value jumped to $800k-$1.8m! when he joined Stoke), and they agreed to a friendly next summer so even if his value drops we'll get a good gate from that fixture. Sommerville came in with a high star rating and decent potential, but didn't play very well so we offloaded him as well for a small fee and 25% of his next sale (although his value didn't increase too too much). One final note is that the Season 4 preview has us outside of the relegation zone for the first time in the save! Progress? Thank you for reading! -R

Season 2 ended just outside the playoffs. It was disappointing because we were in control of our own fate, but failed to win on the last day. Honestly I don't think this team was ready to go up, but it would have been nice to give it a go. For the team of the season Quintongo, Salisbury, White, and Crichlow were all additions from the first intake. So the team is starting to transition to the homegrown players. Also including transfer history for the first 2 seasons to comply with the rules of the challenge. Season 3 is starting out promising as well. Wil check in with the Intake Preview later. Thanks for reading! -R

My second season in charge is going really well, and the new youth intake is pretty great as well. 4 of the players are basically ready to step in immediately and get some minutes, but we are challenging for a spot in the playoffs and I don't want to overwhelm them too early. But then again, I'm not sure this team is ready to go up and stay in the VNL, so perhaps it's best to go ahead and start working them in immediately. Plus I think I'd prefer to spend one more season in the VNN and have them crush it with high ratings rather than to potentially struggle in the VNL and have lower ratings. Here are the stat blocks for the top 4 prospects of the group. Zeverona will need some position training to fit into the systems I prefer to run, but I'm very excited about Somerville's potential to step in immediately and make an impact as a 2-footed IF. I'll definitely be training him on the left as well to give him some more versatility. Spencer also looks like he could step in and take some minutes, but he'd be in place of our team leader and captain, but I'll definitely look to rotate him in as we finish the season. Huws also looks like he's ready for rotational minutes at DM, and his quality could allow me to switch back to my preferred 4-2-3-1 rather than the 4-3-3 we've been using this year. So, yeah. All in all the save is going pretty well so far. Wish I had more time to play, but I've been working extra to cover my boss who's been out on medical leave. Nice for the paycheck, but not so nice in terms of playing FM Thanks for reading! I welcome any advice. -R

So season 2 with FC United is off to a great start. We are currently in 4th place leading into the holiday season, and just had our Youth Intake Preview. We progressed to the 2nd round of the FA Cup for a 2nd year in a row, losing away to Wrexham 3-1. Already 4 players (Crichlow, White, Salisbury, and Quitongo) from our last intake are nailed-on regular starters, with another (along with 23/24 class player Flensborg) rotating in and getting plenty of playing time. I was hoping to push for the playoffs this year, and so far it's going quite well. I'm not sure if we're ready to take the step up, but we did beat Northampton (11th in the VNL) in the FAT Cup. We have another VNL opponent coming up in 4th round (Fylde, currently 16th), so another good showing could signal an ability to stay up if we do in fact get promoted. As for the preview, we could definitely use some support in the wide areas of defense. Definitely the top of the wish list. But all in all this promises to be another good one after the board has agreed to increase our coaching and recruitment again this year, as well as a facility upgrade last year. Oh, and finances are looking pretty good as well. All in all I'd say this is going well so far! Thanks for reading! -R

Got my first intake! And this kid Crichlow looks really good for the VNN. With those technicals I think I may retrain him as an ACM/APM. However, he did come into the team right away as a striker and scored a goal on his debut. Also went ahead and finished out the season. Finished comfortably above the relegation zone, 19 points clear. However, I am releasing the season's top goal scorer. He didn't ever train well, and was quite a pill when I offered feedback on his performances, even if it was positive. Otherwise everyone is re-signed for next year. But with dropping Gribbin we'll most likely require a formation change until Crichlow is up to speed as an ACM. We landed a few other good players in the intake as well. And we got a GK, albeit not very good. But half a gold star is better than a greyed out player. Additionally, the youngster from last season, Flensborg, sort of fell off towards the end of the year, but still had some good performances along the way to finish with our highest average rating and most MOM awards. He would have been top scorer if he'd have been on penalty duty instead of grumpy Gribbin. Definitely coach's player of the season. He will have some competition next season from a few of the new youngsters, but based on this year he'll be hard pressed to give up his spot on the field. So yeah. Season 1 for me was a success. Hopefully we can push on next year towards the playoffs. Time to work on tactics and all that for Season 2. Stay tuned! -R

Just got my first Youth Intake Preview exactly halfway through my first season. It looks pretty good in some key areas. I definitely need some midfield depth as a couple of the current players there are aging. I also need a backup striker because I only have 1 natural striker on the current roster, although the midfielder I've been training and playing up there is only 21 and performing well. Could also use some depth in attacking midfield as only 1 player is natural there, and he trains poorly and is a bit of a pill when I give him feedback, negative or positive. Hoping maybe I can retrain an incoming right winger into defense because my backup there is 35 and probably going to retire soon. And very much looking forward to having a young backup GK. It was nerve inducing to be without our only GK for 6 week earlier in the season. That said, the season is going quite well. We are solidly mid table, with a shout at the playoffs if form keeps up. I think we'll know by the end of December if we're in for a shot. Regardless, we are well clear of the drop so far, which is obviously the biggest challenge this first season. Going up would probably not be great this year anyway. We also had a big win in the first round of the FA Cup vs Reading. A gritty 1-0 smash and grab raid in our sold-out home ground. The success in the cup has left us in a pretty decent financial position, and the board has already agreed to upgrade some of our youth setup. So all in all, it's going well. Will check in when the intake comes through. Hoping for some gems to start building the squad around. Cheers! -R

A quick update. Was a busy week for me so haven't made much progress, but I hope to get most of this first season done tonight/tomorrow. Form has taken a turn for the better/stayed pretty decent despite our only GK being out for the last 5 weeks. He failed his first fitness test before the last match, but we were able to keep our winning run going. Dynamics are improving as well, perhaps because of the wins in the FA Cup against lower league sides. Any which way, though, I'm very glad to have 17 points from the first 11 matches, and think we are in a good position to stay up. I've got a decent rotation figured out, and because we're a 20-man squad everyone is getting good playing time. The brightest bit of the season so far is the emergence of a young Swedish winger from last year's youth class. Felix Flensborg is a gamer. The lad is all over the place, and when he's on the field we score goals. He's the joint 2nd top scorer in the league so far with 11 goal contributions from 11 appearances, and has the highest average rating to boot. He's up and down that wing, tracks back quite well, and just seems to be in the right place at the right time more than not. What's crazy is that his stats don't really hold up to the way he plays. On paper he's far from the top player on the team, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if I don't play him as much as I can right now. So yeah. Looking pretty decent so far. Will check in around the Youth Intake Preview in January. Cheers! -R

Thank you. I'm in my first season and my one and only GK got injured for 6 weeks

Just want to clarify a rule: Are we allowed to use greyed out players? I know we can't sign them, but unsure if I can use one. Thanks! -R

I started my save yesterday as FC United of Manchester. Here are the screencaps of my setup and such. I was a little wary of this particular save game due to there only being one 20 year-old 1 star GK on the roster, but the season got off to a pretty decent start with 8 points out of the first 5 games - above the 1 point per game ratio. But then the worst (inevitable?) happened, and my GK got injured - out for 5-6 weeks! I'm going to forge ahead and see what happens, but this may end up being a restart. Will keep the forum updated as it goes. Cheers! -R

Hello All! I am jumping on the train to try out this challenge, starting now! I'm going to go with England, because why not? Wish me luck!