mpm2342

Ya, I tend to do just above 8 for praise and below 6 for warning so it isn't as much "work". If things are rolling I won't bother at all

Crewe United 2041 Season Update Season 17 Update: Another successful season where we finished 3rd. Getting closer to Glentoran, but a ways to go to catch Linfield who dominate the league. Got enough money in Europe to basically break even for the season. Now it's just patience and luck to wait for the squad to improve/results to go our way and make it to the league phase of Europa to get money to spend on the facilities, Transfers: Youth Candidates: The streak is alive and well with another "golden generation" that is 17 in a row, every season so far. Some good potentials, but nobody to slot into the senior squad, so I am going to try putting them all in the u18 squad and see how they develop. Fair lack of ambition in this intake, with some work to do on the better players. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. This was the season for a nice improvement from Graham who was out on loan and developed enough to step into the lineup. Still managing to hold onto most of the good players, likely because they are still National league level and not on the radar of the bigger English teams, yet... The squad rating improve 0.6 rating points again this past season. Our second 11 is almost the same rating as the first 11 which will help a lot with all the matches we have to deal with. Bingo No Update

Crewe United 2040 Season Update Season 16 Update: Another successful season where we finished 3rd comfortably. Got off to a shaky start and had me worried for a while, but then got on a roll in the middle and end of the season. Europe prize money is now essential for the club as we are losing a lot every month. There is no domestic revenue to speak of as we only sell out 2,000 seats at home for two clubs. I estimate we need about £800K to cover a season, so no more facilities upgrades until we can advance further in Europe and build up a cushion, Transfers: Youth Candidates: The streak is alive and well with another "golden generation" that is 16 in a row, every season so far with one youth player who will make the squad day one - McKinney Quite a mix of personalities this intake, but the good players are workable. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Nice improvement from Breen who was out on loan and developed enough to step into the lineup. Patterson complained last season that he wanted to play with better players/team, so we agreed that he would be sold if a team offered £235K. Funny enough last season I was worried it would happen, but now Still has developed to be essentially the same rating, so I would really like it to happen ... lol. Won't sell him though because depth is always good. Some shuffling of the depth chart in other places due to growth. The squad rating improve 0.6 rating points, slower growth, but a definite closing of the gap to the backups and youth, so the squad is much more sustainable at this level now. Bingo Couple of squares I missed that were completed earlier

If you can't stop them, don't let them have the ball Very nice season to go straight back up. Season 180 ... what does your coach look like now? are they 200 years old , or does the game force a replacement?

Time to schedule a friendly, play all of your most aggressive players with get stuck in and mark him tightly, just to rough him up a bit ... not that we hold grudges or are spiteful or anything

Crewe United 2039 Season Update Season 15 Update: Turning professional paid off with some very nice squad development which I will highlight in a bit. We made it to the 4th round in Europa Conference league bringing in almost 2 million in prize money. I immediately asked for a training facilities upgrade which was granted to the tune of £1.8 million taking away most of the bankroll. We have a small stadium and minimal domestic revenue, so went red until the end of the season when the cups and championship rounds got us back positive. We still cannot hire a set piece coach - no applicants for 14 months now... since I am stubborn, I will keep it running to see how long this will last. I usually like to only hire coaches through advertising, but in this case, I went to staff search and tried to offer a contract to every. single. coach. that came up in the set piece coach search and they all wanted more than I could pay them,... so onward we wait. League was good as we are scoring more and letting in less (good plan eh?) and are now competitive with the upper echelon of the premiership. Won the playoffs to get back to Europe once again. I think I will stop asking for training upgrades until we can build the bank balance up and the youth facilities get a few upgrades - assuming they are cheaper. Transfers: Youth Candidates: The streak is alive and well with another "golden generation" that is 15 in a row, every season so far.... must be the clean living in the middle of the sheep pastures. Nice to see 5 star potentials, none who will make the first team straight away, but some good material to work with in this intake. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Starting developing players paid off and the squad as a whole is stronger. Millar had another great year of development as did the two FBs Johnston and Patterson. I am going to highlight a few of the rocketship developments this past season. First up is Pat Haughey who is going to get retrained to play CB. He was not on the radar coming into the season and was loaned out to Tobermore UTD (training facilities = 4) where he improve 5.8 rating points ... Love it!!! Next up is our right FB, Rodney Patterson who developed 6.1 rating points - for context, we were 6.2 rating points behind the Premiership target entering the season - he closed the gap for his position in one season. Our other superstar player is Zach Millar who jumped 6.3 rating points after improving 3.5 the season before. Hopefully the above players have another season or two of growth in them as the squad as a whole is still about 15 rating points away from competing at the top levels of the champions league (rating of about 70), so lots of growth still needed. Bingo Millar was the player of the year, so check that one off the bingo board

Congrats @Shankly84!!! Well done!

Crewe United 2038 Season Update Season 14 Update: Finished 3rd this season getting a place straight away to Europe. We also convinced the board to turn professional which created a lot of work signing players and staff to new contracts. Still can't offer a decent wage to staff, so not doing so well on that front, but I expect in a few seasons, we should be able to get better staff. Got all the facilities boosted with the training facilities getting in the range to make a difference in player development. Had a great year scoring goals with Gawne topping the league for goals and then he gets demoted to the reserve squad because there are better options now... I feel for him, but not too much. Transfers: Youth Candidates: Forgot to take a snapshot of the actual intake email, but we got another message about a golden generation. I included the scholars announcement as that is a far back as I can see in the inbox. . Stuart Annett is an exceptional talent and will start right away. Decent mix of personalities. Already mentoring Annett from Temperamental to Balanced and will keep going on that front. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Starting developing players paid off and the squad as a whole is stronger. Flynn is going to move to striker taking over for Gawne because Miller developed a lot last season where Gawne and Flynn did not. . The squad rating grew by 2.1 points heading into this season which was really nice to see. Bingo A few more squares completed, most notably the top goal scorer.

Crewe United 2037 Season Update Season 13 Update: Finished 5th again this season with it being a little more comfortable this season. We once again won the playoff to get to Europe, beating Glentoran on penalties. We got a boost in our training facilities from last season's European money and another boost at the end of the season that is in progress. Transfers: Youth Candidates: Still rolling on the streak of golden generations. We are getting very good players into the system such that the team now has enough potential to do very well if we can find a way to get some growth. We did get some decent growth last season for a couple of players, so hopefully a sign of things to come.. Decent personalities and some good potential. No immediate starters and one, McMurty, who we didn't sign. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Sousa is leaving because he wants to go somewhere for more challenge, so I sold him to a lower division Portuguese team for a sell on percentage so he wouldn't play against me and he is now on a lower reputation team in a lower reputation league ... head shake! Ruddy developed very well as the starting GK. We have a few younger players with higher potential who will be starting this season - Kerr, Lindsay, Arthurs. That will set back the squad rating a bit, but hopefully pay off in the long run with our better facilities now. The squad rating dropped by 0.6 points heading into this season because Sousa left and we are starting higher potential players now. Anticipate the rating resuming the steady crawl upwards next season - hopefully a bit faster. Bingo No update

Gibraltar was a lot of fun. I did a save with Lions and stopped after they won the Champions league, but before the build the nation part. Stopped mostly because I really wanted to try the youth only save. The Gibraltar save was even more fun and more challenging when the game enforced the rule of having 4 home grown players on the pitch at all times. FM only enforces having 4 in the lineup, but not on the pitch. When players are in Gibraltar for 3 years (I think my memory is right) they can take citizenship and then a year or two later, they can play for the national team.

Wow! I have never seen that before! What does your training facilities rating say in club info?

Crewe United 2036 Season Update Season 12 Update: Finished 5th this season with it coming down to the wire with Ballymena United and then went on a two game win streak at exactly the right time to qualify for Europe. I am hoping that can generate a bit of money to get the board moving on some training upgrades so we can take advantage of the great youth intakes we have been having. Our bank balance keeps growing but the board still thinks we have a financial situation and will not improve the facilities and I cannot offer coaches or HOYD any meaningful salary, in fact it is considerably less than I could offer the first season. Transfers: Youth Candidates: Still rolling on the streak of golden generations. We are getting very good players into the system such that the team now has enough potential to do very well if we can find a way to get some growth. I am starting to push more players out on loan to see if that helps, since the teams willing to loan the players are good enough now to help. Nice distribution of personalities this intake with a future GK in Griffin and Midfielder in Kerr. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Nice improvement from Sousa who is now making noise that he wants to go somewhere for more challenge. I am hoping to keep him for at least this season. Williamson has become too expensive and has limitations, so it is time to hand it over to the two young kids. Ruddy grew nicely last season and outplayed Williamson, so will be the primary starter. The squad rating grew by 0.8 points this past season resuming the steady crawl upwards. Bingo Added one as Gawne scored 30 goals in league play this season.

I started with a spreadsheet created by Jenna at the FFM: https://theffm.co.uk/football-manager-spreadsheet/ I have implemented my own rating system and a lot of other sheets and calculations as well which I would be happy to share, but it is very rough and quite manual as it is not made for others to use. The rating system is out of 100, so if a player has 20 in all relevant attributes, they would score 100%, 10 in the attributes 50% and so on. If you search for @WhiteCat33 he has posted a similar spreadsheet with different calculations, but his is more polished than mine for sure. I have incorporated some of his stuff into mine as well - the hidden attributes and youth nations.

Crewe United 2035 Season Update Season 11 Update: Finished 7th this season. Had a good start and then a really poor middle that dropped us down to 9th at one point. We are firmly in the mix with the middle 5 through 9 teams with 4 teams separating from the pack at the top this go around. No cup wins this season, but did better in most of them. Our balance is still growing but not enough to give the board confidence in our financial situation. Transfers: Youth Candidates: Don't seem to have missed our HOYD, will see if that changes after a few seasons without one. Maintained our perfect record of "golden generation" Lindsay, Sheppard and Miller are good enough to get match time and training with the senior squad. Not starters, but want to try and develop them. Happy with the personalities in this group and will try and develop the better ones to eventually give a mentoring base in the first team. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Nice improvement from the CBs but not much anywhere else. No change in the overall squad rating. I was hoping that rotating the squad would help development and it did for one season, but last season, it didn't help at all. I suspect it is down to the training facilities etc. but I have not figured out how to get the most out of what we have. We have 2 positions that are good for the league and have to hope for some development elsewhere (or intakes) Bingo No update.

Amazing job Scarp! it was fun to follow this journey.

Crewe United 2034 Season Update Season 10 Update: Cracked the top half this season and were more competitive with the top 5 teams. Still a ways to go, but getting closer to sneaking a Europe competition place. Making the top 6 gives a shot at a playoff between 3-6 where two wins and you get in, so can always get lucky before the team is really ready. Won the Mid Ulster Cup again this season giving us nice price money along with the 6th place money has put our balance in good shape. The board still won't agree to anything due to our financial situation and I can't resign most of the coaches because I can't offer them enough wages. I think it is because we moved to quickly on the youth coaching and recruitment, but our projections don't show us losing too much money... oh well, plug along and hope that opens up. Transfers: Youth Candidates: Maintained our perfect record of "golden generation" for this save. Our HOYD left the club and I cannot afford any, literally any, of the HOYD on the market and get no response to adverts. It is not too bad as our assistant manager has a professional personality and is stepping into the intake role. Sousa is a day 1 starter at CB and Ruddy and Todd will be on the senior squad and get playing time in the 2nd rotation. Decent mix of personalities this time around. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Going to work Flynn in at AP and also use a 2 forward setup with Gawne as Poacher. Saw some reasonable jumps in rating last season, so rotating two squads must have helped keep them fresh for training. Hopefully the trend continues. The squad jumped up 1.1 rating points heading into the upcoming season. We are closing in on the Championship target and about 3-5 rating points away from being competitive with the top 5 professional teams in the league. Bingo No update.

Yes, sometimes the board has no interest in further improvements. That can change over time, or if you get a a takeover.

Congrats! Great accomplishment.

Crewe United 2033 Season Update Season 9 Update: Similar result finishing in 8th. The training facility upgrade came through and the board agreed to upgrade youth recruitment right after the prize money came in for the Mid-Ulster Cup and they agreed to upgrade junior coaching instead of giving me an extension, so we got a few boosts this past season.. Won the Mid Ulster Cup this season giving us ~75K prize. Transfers: Youth Candidates: Maintained our perfect record of "golden generation" for this save. Nobody who will crack the first team, but some who will hopefully develop. Mixed bag of personalities, with a few to build off. Added Asia via Turkey, Sweden and Macedonia this intake Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Sharvin did not retire and is back for another season, which is awesome since he is the determination mentor. Going to switch up the tactic a bit this season.and move the wingers up. Going to also try out a true 4-4-2 to take advantage of a really good Poacher. If that works well, it might become the base tactic by the end of the season. The squad improved again by a tiny bit (0.4 rating points). The team is not developing well at all. Going to try a 2 squad rotation this season as we have solid depth behind the starters and see if that will help not get them too tired. Bingo Got a few more squares with the Cup win and Stitt passing games and goals milestones.

Crewe United 2031 Season Update Season 8 Update: Second season in the premiership was better as we got off to a good start and stayed clear of the relegation battle for most of the season. It will be a while before I expect to challenge the professional teams at the top of the table. No facilities improvements last season, although I did get the board to agree to a training upgrade right after the 8th place prize money hit the bank. That is going to cost us £160K, so likely the last one for a while until we can make some more money. We scored more goals, but also allowed more goals. The scoring is getting on par with what we need, but not the defence, that definitely needs work. Transfers: Youth Candidates: This is probably the best intake yet, which is fantastic since we are 8 for 8 in the "golden generation" for this save. Southworth will start on the wing and Flynn will start at AF. We are starting to get players in with decent technicals which will really help. Mixed bag of personalities, but fortunately, the best 4 (with ratings highlighted in green) have decent personalities. A few more English players and Irish second nationality Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Sharvin is retiring, so the AP position is open this season. Stitt just keeps on playing well, so will definitely get some playtime there. Southwell will train as a right winger. Overall, the squad improved again by a little bit (0.7 rating points) inching our way closer to the NI Champ target. I am hoping the small improvement in training facilities will help us get a bit more growth from some of the youngsters. The current squad has enough potential to be the best in NI, but not with the facilities and coaching we have. Bingo No updates

Crewe United 2030 Season Update Season 7 Update: First season in the premiership and we are severely outclassed at this level. I was hoping to hold on and not get relegated. It literally went right down to the wire with us finishing 2nd bottom in the league and going into relegation playoffs: In the relegation playofffs, we won the first leg away by 3-2 and that was needed as we squeaked by the playoffs on away goals with a return loss at home. One more season at least in the premiership should help with finances as we get a lot more fans out to the games. OPur bank balance is now £141K, not enough for the board to agree to any facilities as they still whine about the financial situation ... hopefully the extra season will at least get us the first improvement on training facilities . Transfers: Youth Candidates: Another good intake with a couple of players who will start for us: McCullough and McQuillan A few fairly professional personalities and the top two players McCullough and McQuinllan do not have horrible personalities, so I am happy with that. Overall the intake mix is still poor and the all time tells a sad story. Our HOYD is professional, level-headed, 17 working with youngsters and 11 determination, so pretty decent. I managed to sign him straight away when the save started and he has brought some great intakes, so overall happy.... just don't like the big tall red bars Nothing to note on the nation front, a few more English players this time around. Brian Stitt is still holding onto top spot on the youth leader boards. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Sharvin is heading back to play AP again as McQuillan takes over. Our midfield is definitely the strength and depth of the squad now - may have to try a 3 midfield tactic to get them all on the field. The squad is improved, but as I indicated in the opening, we are a long way away from premiership level, A guideline I use from history is that once the squad is within 5 rating points or so, we can be very competitive and win at that level. This squad just surpassed the Intermediate level and is 5.4 rating points below the championship target. So we are a very good championship level team. In Northern Ireland, there is a large gap of 7 rating points between the top (Premiership) division and the next one down (Championship), that makes this a tough jump. (similar to England where the gap is 7.4 rating points). We have to hope for a few weak teams to allow us to stay up until we can grow. The only position even close is DLP, more reason to maybe try out 3 midfielders. Bingo No updates

Crewe United 2029 Season Update Season 6 Update: We won the league in a very tight battle and achieve promotion to the NI Premiership. Hopefully we can begin a long run in the top division. Once again we did not get any facilities upgrades, but that will happen once we can start to make some money. The club reputation stayed at 1 star, but moved up to National. Transfers: Youth Candidates: Another good intake with a number of players who can be in the rotation lineup for the first team Elliott, Millar and Higgins will get some 1st team play time - target 15-20 games along with some mentoring to try and improve their ambition. Weir could develop very nicely with high ratings in the three key attributes. Overall, the intake has a poor mix of personalities, so now that we are in the top division, it is likely time to start looking to replace our HOYD. He is a professional, but the intakes are indicating a lack of ambition. Not much interesting in the nations of the youth - added Portugal as a secondary nation is the "highlight" The core group of youth from the 2024 intake still dominate the leaderboard. Brady will likely get passed in the upcoming season. Squad Update: Here is how the squad is rated heading into next season. Delaney is retiring which will open up playing time for Szymczak. The squad only improved 0.2 overall heading into the upcoming season. Mostly due to Delaney retiring, but also because a couple of players declined forcing a bit of shuffling in the starting 11. With the updated target now the NI Premiership, we are a long way away from it and will have a tough time staying up this coming season. Bingo Two more turned green.

Happy to hear that and love the charts and ratings you are doing. One of the bonuses I find from doing the analysis etc. is that I start to grow attached to the players and their growth journeys which immerses me more into the saves.

Welcome to the data and stats rabbit hole, may you have better luck climbing out of it than I

It is hard enough to tell what the potential is, let alone actually realizing it. So many factors that I like to let the data trends tell me who to care about. I have a sheet in my workbook that looks at progression by position and role that gives me a view on how the players progress. Here is an example of the CM in the BWM (S) role. It shows me the last 5 years based on the year I put in a different cell in the sheet. From this example you can see how Daniel Quinn is progressing quite nicely picking up 8 rating points in the 5 years. I had very high hopes for Zoran with the big jump, but then he didn't follow it up. Almost all the youth players show 5 star potential because the team isn't very good, the training facilites are at 2, so suck pretty bad and I have fairly good coaches. This view lets me see the youngsters coming in that are competent in the position - most of them are not cut out for the BWM role, so Quinn and Brady are the guys with hope still there for Zoran. I have the squad view that shows me role score without worrying about role competency so I can see if there is anyone worth retraining and for BWM, it looks like Brown is a good candidate for retraining, especially since he is not highly ranked in other positions / roles. The competency is a toggle in that spreadsheet and I use it to plan the first team etc. I get a lot of enjoyment playing around with the spreadsheets and data - have way too much time on my hands