Parmie
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Posts posted by Parmie
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Bradford City - Season Three (2023-2024)
Our second season in League One. With a successful consolidation last season, we bring in some real quality in transfers. Luka Racic from Brentford for free, Kion Etete to give us a a target forward option, Louie Barry returns on loan as hopefully our main goal scoring threat.
Season Review
Other than losing 2 games in a row in early September, we avoid losses and are very consistent, putting together long undefeated streaks. We're drawing too many games to be a meaningful threat to last season's playoff opponents Derby, who run away with the top spot. This leaves us in a season long battle with Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield for 2nd place and automatic promotion. In does come down to the final game of the season but all we need to do is draw given our superior goal difference. Nerves are steadied after a goalless 1st half when we score 2 early goals after the break, opponents Plymouth pull one back in the 82nd minute but we achieve a flattering result with 2 injury time goals to run out 4-1 winners and promotion!
Reliving 2015, we're drawn against Chelsea in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. We survive a barrage at Stamford Bridge 0-0 and are equally lucky to 'FM' them in the replay, scoring from 2 of our 3 shots while they squander chances to only get 1 in return. We get an easy 4th round tie to Shrewsbury before being dumped out by Sheffield United. We only get as far as the 2nd round of the Carabao, drawing Everton away and bravely going out 1-0.
Off the Pitch
As mentioned in the summary, transfer business was very good. Loans continuing to give us temporary depth while I aim to recruit players who can compete in League One with potential for the Championship and maybe beyond if we get lucky. I cash in on a few offers given our strength, and the £1m in gates from the Chelsea games keep us financially secure. As you can see, I begin to recruit for the Championship, finally spending some money on Aaron Pressley, who will fulfil the target forward role to a good level.
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Bradford City - Season Two (2022-2023)
Newly promoted to League One, an overview of the squad is that Cooke and Watt are always good lower league players well into Championship life, and Songo'o acceptable as my defensive midfielder. The forward line needs bolstering as does the left full back position, as I sold Staunton, we also need central defence depth.
Season Review:
Similar to the first season, we don't draw many matches, we have patches of bad form but are putting strings of wins together and we're constantly up in the top half of the table. Reading have been relegated and are just smashing through everyone although we did get a home win against them. The remaining automatic promotion slot becomes a four way race between us, Derby, Coventry and Ipswich. We're never in the driving seat, just trying to keep up and sneak in but we don't quite make it.
Coventry narrowly get automatically promoted, ourselves and Derby are drawn in the playoffs, our home leg comes first and it's a goal fest 3-3 all draw, unfortunately, they're stronger than us and see us off 2-1 in the second leg.
With recruitment focused on younger players with potential for potential future sales, it's a good season and bodes well for the next one.
We have a good Carabao Cup run, managing to make it as far as the quarter finals before Aston Villa end our challenge, We had a tough run of Harrogate, Burton, Fulham and Swansea to get that far. We were also decent in the FA Cup, not running up against anyone big to make it into the 4th round, losing away to Charlton. Papa John's is still something I throw in those needing fitness, and although we do slightly better, we still don't make it out of the group.
Off the Pitch
Two better cup runs give us a nice pool of money, and the board approves some training ground facilities, although at a cost of nearly £1m, much more than I was hoping for! We still have yet to make any meaningful transfer purchases, still getting in frees and now some loans from parent club Man City.
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New Save
Bradford City - Season One (2021-2022)
After the relative success of the first save, which abruptly came to an end due to my annoyance at the board for refusing requests with a big pile of money in the bank, I'm back with Bradford for a new save.
Tactic
In an attempt to make games more exciting, I've been trying out a narrow 4-3-3 in other saves and came up with one I think works well and depending on the quality of the players vs opposition, is either successful or hopelessly chaotic in games.
The aim is to hit on the counter, with the defence and midfielders try to lump it up to the target man who flicks it on or holds it up to involve the other two strikers. The advanced forward should be fast and the deep lying forward acting as our creator for when we might actually keep the ball. The complete wingbacks are the main wide outlets, with support from the mezzalas, The central midfielder on defend tries to give us a bit more cover if our counter is countered! The wingbacks and mezzalas are all told to hit the target man with crosses.
SpoilerSeason Review:
We exceeded my expectations, without much transfer movement, and having to play with the low quality forwards Bradford starts with, we have 3 little patches of draws and losses, but are otherwise steady and never under threat of not getting automatic promotion, the highlight a 7-0 smash of Scunthorpe in April (although 2 weeks before we'd lost 5-0 to Bristol Rovers).
Man City as is my tradition, became our senior affiliate, but we didn't utilise the relationship, no one really fitting into our tactic (who would have thought Pep didn't have long ball counter suitable youngsters).
We got as far as the 3rd round of the Carabao to respectably go out to Liverpool away 2-1. We lost every group match in the Papa John's as I fully rotate out for those games, and we get past Salford and Ipswich only to lose a 3rd round replay to Burton in the FA Cup.
Off the Pitch:
The cup runs keep finances stable, and with interest in Reece Staunton, I let him go to give us a financial boost, while targeting frees or potentially some use of Man City's U23s. The Target Forward role seems to tire out Andy Cook every game, so a rotation option for him is the January target. Welcome Tom Eaves.
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To put a conclusion to my original Bradford save, after 12 seasons and reaching the Premiership, the board had refused to increase the youth network for the 6th time and mostly in a fit of pique, I threatened to resign, they invited me to do so, and I did!
After a couple of months away from it, and developing a 3 striker formation at bigger teams, I thought I would try it back at Bradford in a new save. This time I'll try to align more to the board if we reach the prem again, so we'll see what happens.
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Bradford City: Season 8 2028/2029
Heading into the new season with a large transfer budget and increased albeit still small salary budget for the premiership, I'm expecting a few recruits in key areas will help us avoid relegation and consolidate.
To that end, I find Martin Kleine in Dortmund's second team waiting for his chance. He's a premiership level goalkeeper they'll let come on loan for £8k a week plus wages. While that signing is relatively straight forward, it's difficult to find good players who want to join us with reasonable prices at least domestically. So I try to find some players on the cusp of wonderkidhood. Mirko Nikolasevic £3.7m from Red Star, Huseyin Acar £8m from Galatasaray, £6m for Tariq Sejdiu, Ronny Betancourt is a monster right back £1.1m from Atletico Nacional. Deadline doesn't offer up much and I don't have a scout in the UK, so I sign a Chelsea reserve on loan in a bit of desperation Mohamed Ben Yahia and John Tolkin as emergency cover at left back, both of these loan signings are the lower end of their ranges and much worse than I had hoped.
The newgens:
Spoiler
Most of the squad who aren't good enough for the Premier League are still here, and are stubborn when it comes to leaving. Marcel Ruiz, who is worried about getting a new permit is keen to leave and goes to Tigres for £10.25m, Kitching and Philips head off on loans to the lower leagues but thats our only meaningful outward movement.
5 games into the league, we've had a 1-0 win against Burnley and a draw against Liverpool, with respectable losses to Wolves, Man Utd, but a bit of a hammering away to Arsenal. But it's a promising start. We pick up points here and there to hover above relegation, but then hit a 10 game losing streak into February, we pick up a couple of results but it's starting to look bad, and we've dropped into the relegation zone. The 7 games sees us win 2 and draw 3, but it's not enough, we're relegated with a game to go.
I tinkered a little with my 442 during these runs but nothing had a great effect, rallying team talks helped morale but didn't change results. An annoyance with the match engine I've had since FM20 is that it represents losses mainly through your players not doing what they're told or just being daft. We had several games with 5 or 6 yellows, players getting sent off, giving away penalties and so on.
30 points - 19th relegated from the premier league.
My job doesn't appear to be under threat at all, which is good but I feel like the pressure will be on to do well in the Championship, The players we've signed pretty much all have non-negotiable relegation release clauses, so we could lose several of them if they're as good as I thought they were.
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Bradford City: Season 7 (2027/2028)
During the previous season in January, we sign a young Brazilian centre back newgen - Milico, perhaps his U20 caps explain his permit eligibility, let go by BRB in Brazil's second division. Nick Theslof, our American scout has a vast range of knowledge across the Americas it seems to find these players. In addition Ben Nelson from Leicester was a bargain £230k. This give us 4 good centre backs in case of injuries and for rotation, as the Championship just has clusters of games throughout the schedule.
Marcel Ruiz had been signed by Inter, loaned back to Mexico for the entirety of his contract and we snap him up on a free. Although he's an attacking midfielder, I hope to develop him as a central midfielder to give us a more creative option to break down defensive teams, Dave Tredinnick, a newgen striker from Portland, also arrives for free and looks good as another creative forward option to Younghusband. I also pick up Erik Novotny another American striker newgen but a much more goal scoring threat and Jose Ricardo, a young Brazilian left back on loans for further depth.
To balance the books, and the reason for 2 centre back signings, Lamare Bogarde is signed by Reading for £8.5m, who seem to have piles of cash despite only returning to the Championship from League One this season.
I think the squad overall is looking good, we've had several players through their prime years and the younger ones developing nicely.
The season kicks off well, we win 13 of our first 16 games, and just 1 loss. We've had a couple of 3-2 thrillers but the defence settles down and we're usually getting a 2 or 3 goals ourselves. We're top of the table but Watford are nip and tuck with us, with several clubs also close behind. November to March sees less consistent form, we're drawing quite a few, losing a couple here and there. There isn't any obvious reason as there are no significant injuries, morale is good but every game, including the wins just seems a battle and I have to hammer or cajole the team constantly to eek out a performance. We drop from automatic promotion places into the playoffs spots.
April though, sees us sort our stuff out, and we head into the last game of the season neck and neck with Watford and Blackburn. Any one of us can either win the league or finish in the playoffs depending on how final results go, although we're in the weakest position in 3rd but just need either of them to draw to get at least runners up and go up automatically. We're at home to Millwall.
We blow away Millwall 4-0, at one point it looked like Watford were going to draw but they scrap past Huddersfield 2-1, while Blackburn smash Stoke 5-2 away. It's the playoffs for us.
I got mired in endless Championship playoffs in previous versions, so I'm not particularly hopeful. We're 8 points clear of 4th and got good results against all the other teams this season. We play Stoke away in the 1st leg. It's another struggle, Che Adams scores for them with the first shot of the game, then bags another and they're outplaying us, however, Wesley gets one back before half time. We look the better team in the 2nd half, but we give away a stupid penalty with the animation showing a defender suddenly decide to aggressively push their player in the back when he's facing away from goal, they score this but in the 86th minute, Frank Francis gets us another away goal back,
For the return leg, I do the old "no pressure" team talk. This does the trick with the performance, a much more comfortable and comprehensive result, Jason Younghusband gets an early goal, and then another mid way through the first half to settle us down. Jacob Davenport smashes one in during first half stoppage time and we're 3-0 up, ahead 2 on aggregate, with Stoke needing a miracle.....they don't get it, they get the odd chance and even one disallowed but we see the game out.
This means we're up against QPR in the final. Younghusband again pops up with an early goal, and gets another in the first half. QPR pull one back before half time. The 2nd half is tense but back and forth, my heart sinks when they get an equaliser on the 86th minute but the referee steps in and disallows it. The time runs out and we win, we're up!
87 points - 3rd (promoted via playoffs)
I'll post the screenshots of the team that got us here in a separate post as people seemed to like that for FM21.
But once again the off season presents us with the challenge of how to stay up. We've had a board takeover along the way, Simon Santiago, a businessman from Tavistock, which I assume is the small Devon town near Plymouth near where I am from, bought us and then floated us, without much change in finances. We do however, get a £33m transfer budget, but only £500k wage budget, which is a bit unbalanced but I'll think about that later as I start to think about how to strengthen.
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Bradford City: Season 6 (2026/2027)
Keeper issue is resolved. Jesse Joronen joins us from Brescia for £400k, he's an experienced international, a bit better than Mark Flekken. This leaves me trying to offload Flekken after 6 months with us, he doesn't want to go, and what bids are made for him, the board won't accept (£400-£450k). After some arguing, Flekken will go, however, a frustrating issue within FM is differing board reactions to identical requests, we try just about every response possible, they accept the simplest reconsider request to a Sheffield Wednesday bid of £400k, but decline an identical bid with the same plea from me, however, Flekken is nudged out of the door. Haris Ramic a young newgen from Dinamo, comes on a free transfer as backup.
I splash out £1m for Sepp van den Berg from Leeds, I needed centre back upgrades as priority, I've got money in the bank and he looks like decent premiership level. Vid Koderman has moved to Palace and joins as cover for left wingback, as does a newgen from Mainz for right wingback both on loans. I've upset both parent club Man City and Liverpool along the way with not playing players enough/in the right position, neither wants to loan me anyone, don't burn those bridges readers.
I keep everyone else who seems a good standard and feel confident once again of maybe even trying a playoff place challenge. 4 from 5 wins Augst to Mid-September is a good start. I rotate for the Carabao (Forest again!), go out which I am not fussed about, lose away to Preston, win at home to Barnsley to then go on a 6 game losing run. Recover with 2 wins, then another 7 without a win, It's the end of November and this is hovering around relegation form, tactically, we're conceding far too many, which is annoying given we're now stronger than we were.
Going into an international break, I decide to change tactics completely, Younghusband and Sieb are both decent at this level in different ways, and I've got good wide players. So I go to a 442, much more direct and faster. If I'm going to get the sack, at least it'll be entertaining. I lose the first game to Luton with it, draw the next two, 2 more wins, 2 losses and a draw. It's still inconsistent but the average points is better and we're heading up to mid-table safety. Then, the players seem to get more tactical familiarity and start forming partnerships which work, we win 13 of the last 20 games, and shoot up to the dizzy heights of the upper mid-table.
73 points - 8th.
The 442 does seem to produce promotion threatening form, we'll try to adjust the squad to suit it more, I recalled Frank Francis (academy newgen) from his loan at Mansfield on the last day of the January window to give us an option and he did well.
Finances have taken a big hit, van den Berg coming in was balanced out by Anto Babic leaving for £850k and cashing in on interest of a Championship level academy graduate. However, wages have crept up with extensions and we end up starting from £15m to ending the season on about half that. I had declined a £10.75m bid for Wesley at the start of the season thinking keeping the team together was more important with that cushion. Next season we're shopping in the bargain bucket again and potentially may have to let 1 or 2 go if we get big bids.
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Bradford City: Season 5 (2025/2026)
So, following on from my last post, transfers!
Things got interesting, I left out of my season 4 update that Richard Nartey had headed off the MLS at the beginning of April for £3.4m. It seemed like a decent deal with survival all but assured at that point. As I was planning new targets, Derby who had secured promotion, came in with £7m for Kik Pierie. He wanted to go and that was a lot of money. Nehamia Fernandez-Velez had his release clause of £8m activated by Sheffield United, who offered him back on a season loan with no wages, I'll take that.
I'm not idle trying to get players in while the money is rolling in, but I am still operating in bargain mode. Wesley (the one who was at SEP) was a free once we had room in the salary budget. Neco Williams, Liam Kitching and Jacob Davenport all look suitable for this level to upgrade us and arrive on domestic end of contract deals. The newgens are creeping in and 3 arrive on loan from Man City, although none of them are great, the Championship level players left in their U23s still refuse to join us.
With a swollen balance making the bank happy, I spend more money. Lamare Bogarde has been listed by Villa for £105k and joins us as a wide centre back. The scouting team pops up with a young Australian newgen who they think is already Championship level and could get to the Premiership, he's got a release clause of £1m, I thought if they're right, that's pretty good, and he's a False 9, he's also got English 2nd nationality so no permit issues to worry about.
Jason Younghusband
Spoiler
We embark on the season with a 1-0 away win at Bristol City even with a player sent off and then a Carabao 1st round win vs Rotherham. I think it looks promising to build on last season. That lasts until the next few games, where we start a draw and loss streak, punctuated with a couple of wins, to then go on another bad run. In January, we're still above but not clear of relegation, I decide the addition of the technical players like Wesley, and Younghusband no longer suit the slightly direct style, and I tweak the style to a shorter, slower passing game. We then go 9 games unbeaten including 2 rounds of the FA Cup, struggle more in March but rally towards the end to once again finish in midtable, albeit slightly worse than last season. Kitching, one of our major defensive signings had torn a calf muscle in December which didn't help things.
60 points - 15th.
January had seen our keeper Thomas McGill go to Derby for £4m as I was never convinced by him (and his Canadian team trips occasionally left me in the lurch) and I had thought a replacement would have been easy to find, I wasn't sure on him but we bought Mark Flekken for £200k who felt like a more finished article. I focused on providing Younghusband 1st team development rather than continue with Fernandez-Velez as he's no longer our player, but that left us light up front and Armindo Sieb was going to be let go by Bayern, I signed him for just £22k.
I feel like we've got good options in midfield and up front now, I think a push up the table with those players is likely if I can shore us up at the back, I need a top keeper for the division (but who?) and 2 centre backs (as we play with 3). The board isn't generous, and despite all the incoming funds, doesn't give us any room in the wage budget and £3.4m for transfers, which could be a lot for the Championship but also not much at all, lower league managers know what I mean.
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Bradford City: Season 4 (2024/2025)
So, with our first season in the Championship looming, I need to get busy recruiting.
I don't fully understand the work permit rules, as some uncapped players can get a permit. Such is the case with Janderson, a free signing from Brazil that someone in the scouting team seemed to become aware of. I also splash some cash for the first time, signing Anto Babic from Buducnost for £230k, a Montenegrin international. Kik Pierie was also picked up from Ajax, the premiership still provides free signings, Dominic Thompson (Brentford), McEachran (Chelsea), Mathurin (Spurs).
Our relationship with Man City and their players is getting to that pivoting point. Oscar Bobb, who developed well under us for 2 seasons, now worries to come to a team tipped for relegation, and they're wanting wages paid, which are huge for other Championship level players. I settle for Morgan Rogers and Gyabi.
Also on a bit of a whim, I utilise our increase scouting range over Europe to look at who some of the big continental clubs released (World-transfers-filter for countries and eyeball the player list). The scouts think Nehemia Fernandez-Velez is Championship level and could improve, his former PSG colleague Daouda Weidmann both get permits and join on frees too.
We're looking pretty strong, but QPR come in with £850k for Temenuzkhov, I feel like keeping a positive finance outlook is important, and if Fernandez-Velez is as good as the scouts thought, I can let him go.
The season is one of consolidation, despite 1 win and 3 losses to start off with, we steadily accrue points, my formation is never going to turn anyone into a 30 goal a season striker, but Fernandez-Velez does ok, with 8 goals and 6 assists as deep lying forward. The goals are pretty much spread around the midfield, only Morgan Rogers getting into double figures.
We finish on 62 points and 13th. There is nothing much to say about the cups, 1st round Carabao penalty shootout loss to Forest, and 3rd round FA Cup exit at the hands of money-bags Newcastle.
I decide to switch up my transfer policy, previously it was pretty much anyone with Championship potential, without much focus on current ability. Previous versions have taught me that selling on the way up helps progress if I don't get lost in just always recruiting prospects. So I start a shortlist purge of players that aren't currently at Championship level, leaving me with lists of players who are already at that level and would improve the first eleven, and prospects who might get as far as the Premiership (of which I haven't found many due to only scouting final year of contract players).
End of season prize/being in the Championship money of £5,28m comes in to give us a nice positive bank balance, and overall profit, I swiftly ask for more wage budget to ensure we can keep the players we want to and recruit better ones, the board, just as quickly, declines. Adam Phillips has been declining renewals of £9k/week, wanting much more like £13k which I can't afford, we may have some challenges implementing my new transfer policy!
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I have started my traditional Bradford City save, and am already in the 4th season. I'll do a quick summary to that point as details haven't been retained as to who I played where but I'll try from memory.
After multiple failed attempts (i.e. sacked before the end of the first season) with Bradford with various 4 defender formations, I tried a 5-3-2 wingback formation, and we've retained that since.
In season one (2021/2022), the line up and setup was something like this:
SpoilerGK (SK-Su):
O'Donnell
WCB (De)x2:
Staunton (left) Songo'o (right)
DC (Co):
O'Connor
WB (Su) x2:
Wilson-Esbrand - Man City parent club loan (left) Threlkeld (right)
MC-DLF (De):
Watt
MC-CM (Su):
Cooke
IF (At):
Eisa (left)
W (At):
Gilliead (right)
St-F9 (Su):
Lavery
The concept being that the false 9 drags opposition defenders out of position to be exploited by the wide attacking players. This formation also served to retain possession despite being set to slightly more direct.
We performed really well, although I suffered the recurring title run in jitters with no wins from seven games going into the final game against Carlisle need to do better than title rivals Bristol Rovers. We pulled it together and edged over the line with a 1-0 win, thanks an own goal by former Bradford player Kelvin Mellor.
Parent club Man City were very helpful, providing depth to the squad in January with Mbete, McDonald and Edozie all coming in on loans.
Season Two (2022/2023):
With promotion and slightly bigger budgets in mind, I head into the new season unable to resist the star power of Giovanni dos Santos, available for free but for a wapping £5k per week. However, he should be great as a False 9 that doesn't need any pace shouldn't he?
I've been scouting players in their last year of contract at premiership team U23s for all of the previous season, sensible signings are: Luke Dreher (Crystal Palace), Josh Pask (Coventry), Tom Allen (Newcastle), Thomas McGill (Brighton), Adam Phillips, Joel Mumbongo, and Richard Nartey all from Burnley. Gary Madine had been released by Blackpool and was more of a last minute backup for dos Santos signing. Man City provided us with Esbrand-Wilson and Mbete for another season, along with Oscar Bobb. James Norris with a wage paying loan from Liverpool arrived for right back rotation and we had a pretty strong squad. Once Stoke had finally decided to let Demeaco Duhaney go, he arrived in January on a free transfer.
We did well as a newly promoted side carrying on with the formation and tactic, making the play-offs in 6th. Having to face local rivals Huddersfield seemed to much to handle and we went out to them in a pretty dull 1-0 aggregate loss.
Season Three (2023/2024):
dos Santos hadn't been the roaring success I'd hoped, and was acceptable at best, most of last season's success coming from wide positions. So Giovanni headed off once more to Mexico on an end of contract deal. In last season's January window we already identified his replacement as Kun Temenuzkhov, who I'd signed in FM21 and seemed a good fit for the False 9 role and was now the main man up front.
Oscar Bobb and Mbete returned on loan again, with Charles Hagan, Jayden Richardson, Lewis Fiorini and Luke Badley-Morgan also loaning in. Our one permanent signing was Denver Hume. I can't play all the loans together, so Badley-Morgan, who was technically much worse than my scouting had viewed him to be, got a bit unhappy with his playing time.
However, we have a consistent season throughout, and we're at the top of the table for most of it. We even avoid the repetition of a bad run in, securing automatic promotion several games before the end of the season, and despite losing the final game 1-0 to Lincoln, we are promoted as Champions, beating Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's Derby by 3 points.
We head into a Championship season with lots of contracts running out of players who aren't good enough, half the first team being loans from a parent club, so it should be an interesting close season transfer window.
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Bradford City Season 10 (2029/2030):
I continue the evolution of the team, trying to rely less on loans and more on good young players from wherever we can get them. This is easier for some positions than others, my old-fashioned 4-4-2 with wingers doesn't have that many options without having to retrain someone from attacking wing positions, there being very few natural midfielder right/left players.
Man Utd and Ben MacKenzie agree for him to stay another season on loan which is great for the right wing. Pacheo on the left, seemed like he was going to come on, but another red card to make it 3 in the first 15 games convinces me he's not worth more patience.
Antonio Bianco, an attacking left back arrives from Anderlecht for £16.75m, Panagiotis Kotatis is a Greek left winger meant to replace Pacheo but only 18 years old, still costs is £10.25m from Olympiakos. Rounding off inward transfers is a right back from Everton they signed from River Plate 4 seasons ago and has although hasn't even been sent out on loan, is a big improvement for us.
Outbound transfers is a long list of loans and small transfers of younger players not up to the grade. Although Dusty Burke, our American right winger, attracts interest from Brentford and leaves for £5.75m.
League performance:
We actually ended up 1 point and 1 place worse off than last season. We lost the first 5 games of the season, Ben MacKenzie had damaged his knee cartilage against the Metropolitan Police in pre-season and then injured his knee cap for the U23s in his recovery phase, out for 8 weeks in total. We still miss any first teamer.
Ben's return sparked a reversal of 4 games winning. January was another poor month but we finished strong in March and April.
Highlight of the season was Samuel Madrigal, a £2m signing from Junior in Colombia, continuing our connection with that country. Samuel finished as the Premiership top scorer, winning the players' young player of the season and picking up the European Golden Shoe(!?),
As we've improved our cup form has regressed, FM loading on pressure and making it a real struggle for the bigger teams.
Youth Academy:
In our many seasons in the Championship, with the odd large fee received here and there, I pushed the board on facilities and we did get to exceptional academy coaching.
Anthony Selasi: reports look good but he's got a long way to go on technical and mental attributes to get into the team regularly. Loaned him to Cardiff who aren't playing him.
SpoilerNikola Babic: not sure how we got a Croatian/South African/English graduate come through while in the Championship but we did. He could be good enough for our creative forward role in the future. I'm going to keep him in and around the first team squad this season and see how he progresses.
Spoiler
Harry Allen: Potentially the most likely to become a first team regular. Strongest in the mental attributes, if we can get his technical ability up, the weaker physicals don't worry me that much.
Spoiler
Strangely the youth intakes haven't been as good when reaching the Premiership, I did switch to what I thought was an improved Head of Youth Development (better personality, preferred 4-4-2) but so far it's not worked out. Expectations can get too high with academies, potentially 3 players is a good return on investment.
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Bradford City Season 9 (2028/2029):
Thought I would post the team I used for our first Premiership season:
Goalkeeper and defenders:
Rafael Mejia: a free end of contract signing from Colombia.
Cameron Sharp: £350k from Chelsea, signed for centre back, has had to fill in at right back this season.
Achraf Dari: another end of contract signing, but a mature player with leadership skills that we needed.
Kim Sung-Jin: came in January to replace Rhys Bennett. Bargain buy for £1m from South Korean side Jeonbuk, Demanding in contract negotiations but worth it.
James Thomson: helped us secure promotion last season and still available from Arsenal for another season long loan.
SpoilerMidfielders:
Elliot Watt: Had already signed from Carlisle for an undisclosed fee for Bradford when I took over. Captain and club legend, was switched to box to box this season and still did a job.
Miguel Angel: was transfer listed by Derby following their relegation. Signed for only £7m to takeover the playmaker role from Watt.
Armando Pacheco: another one of the Colombian youths we signed, although he was a relatively expensive £700k. After 4 seasons, and improvements to facilities, staff and his mentoring group, is now showing signs of developing.
Ben MacKenzie: filling our other long term domestic loan spot was this Man Utd academy product. Too good/expensive for a permanent move, was a great loan signing.
SpoilerStrikers:
Rhian Brewster: I mentioned Rhian in a previous post, signed while we were in the Championship for a club record £2.9m at the time.
Santiago Mejia: Another Colombian but no relation to Rafael, Santiago had been signed by Arsenal and loaned out for the previous 3 seasons, he was transfer listed him for a reduced fee of £7.5m. Easy decision to fill the creative forward hole.
SpoilerLeague Performance:
This group of players helped us over achieve in the Premiership. Santiago Mejia picking up the young player of the year along the way. We had some memorable results with home wins over Man City and Liverpool, no sustained run of bad form, we were always safe from relegation, securing our place next season after only 32 games.
We lack any kind of depth for a Premiership team still, although we had a few injuries to key players, and any more than 1 or 2 missing was virtually a guaranteed loss, no one was out for longer than a few weeks, the supporting cast of the team mostly early 20s players who we couldn't help fulfil early promise.
With the big money rolling in, the board are asked to improve anything and everything that I can. Our academy is producing some potentially useful players, probably not good enough for a full Premiership team but I'll enjoy seeing what we can do with them.
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17 minutes ago, kingjericho said:
@Parmie still rocking the 442?
Oh yes. I've remained faithful to the formation but tweaked it from what we started off with. We go Cautious away and Balanced at home setup like this.
I'm 10th after 11 games in our 1st season in the premiership with this. The only real players left are Rhian Brewster, Elliot Watt and Achraf Dari (I do a customised database with the major teams from all regions loaded about 55,000 players).
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Bradford City Season 8 (2027/28):
Transfers:
Our reputation has been nudging up with each successive Championship season, and good youngsters, within reason, will be agreeable to loans. Beckles is a quality deep lying forward to partner Brewster. Thomson is a left back with excellent mental and physical attributes and I change my tactic slightly to left back attacking for extra support up front. Travis Clark, an American an Bayern is a decent right winger and will interchange with Dusty Burke, his compatriot we signed last season as a striker and have converted.
Bambo Diaby, one of my original signings who was banned for 18 months finally moved on after desiring a new challenge. I continued to try to clear out the wider squad of players who weren't up to standard, with mixed success, several going on loans. I'm not entirely comfortable loaning out both backup centre backs but I reason that TJ Eyoma is natural there and I have cover for right back.
League performance:
The impact of the loans coming in is obvious, we go 17 games without loss to kick the season off (losing in the 2nd round of the Carabao to Championship Burnley). Although as my chief scout retired and I recruited a new one with next opposition scouting, perhaps this upturn might even be helped by actually setting counter player instructions in games for the first time. The much improved form runs all the way to April, when again, the realistic prospect of getting automatic promotion kicks in and the squad start bottling games. We throw away a 5 point lead for 2nd place and face Hull in the playoffs.
We get a solid 2-0 win in the first leg followed by a 1-0 loss in the second to keep things interesting for the whole match. Portsmouth come from a first leg defeat to dispatch favourites Stoke.
The final is a back and forth encounter, Brewster gets a penalty save and I begin to suspect the worst. After the break we win another penalty and Beckles scores it with aplomb. We move to a countering mentality now we have the lead and there are several close calls before Dusty Burke makes it safe in the final minutes.
We have finally reached the holy land of the Premiership. This still doesn't impress the club enough to mark me as favoured, although Elliot Watt, with us since I took the reins and still bossing central midfield, is now a club legend. Callum Cooke, who has been Watt's central midfield partner throughout, and been at the club a year longer, still hasn't done enough for any recognition either.
I'm given a war chest of £36m and I look at my squad page thinking that only 2 or 3 players are actually good enough for a Premiership campaign.
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8 minutes ago, robterrace said:
How does Brewster look? Has he developed OK, or is he damaged goods?
He's looking good for the Championship, but since leaving Liverpool no one made him first choice so he's suffered a little, doing very well for me in my new season.
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Bradford City Season 7 (2026/27):
Transfers:
In the summer I make a decision, the important first team players are getting older and not producing enough results for us. I can't improve upon them without a clearout, and are they holding back the development of the youngsters I thought were going to overtake them? I embark on an attempted purge, Faupala, such a monster in leagues one and two, still getting 20 goals a season leaves us on a cut-price deal back to France, others like Joe Lumley, don't get bids other than loans. It seems that with over-performing and decent contracts, they aren't attractive to other clubs.
League Performance:
Transfers and league performance start to merge in this season, our youngsters still aren't giving a consistent run of good form, to the point where I feel like we'll start to be in danger if I carry on as I am. So I reverse my decision on youth focus and re-invest in Rhian Brewster, transfer-listed by Bristol City but far improved on anyone else we currently have. There isn't an immediate impact but we finish the season with 6 unbeaten.
My conclusion is, I must prioritise improving the 1st choice team, much as I did in the lower leagues. Youth development seems to be a luxury that can't be afforded, the investment required to improve youth to the point of replacing the need for older, ready made players, is unrealistic (unless you have a board that truly puts it first which will cost them millions and take years, which I don't have).
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Bradford City Season 6 (2025/26):
Transfers:
Still without a right winger, I go for the highest value loanee I can get, Joe Haigh from Fulham, without any other option, Cleary, who we had last season too rejoins to give some depth. I find myself concentrating on the 'promising' description, assuming that those players will develop rapidly and become better than their more mature positional counterparts.
Coming into the transfer window, based on the league performance, I start spending some money on players who are still young, but closer to first team readiness. I'm happy at the depth but not sure I have improved the current ability of the squad.
League performance:
It's another mid-table season. We have a few wins, look good and then have a bad few games. Most of the money from the sales of last season has gone on operating losses, so I feel like we're not making progress any longer, albeit continuing to exceed expectations by comfortably avoiding a relegation scrap. I am hoping that my youngsters develop into top Championship players as their scouting reports threatened they would be, but I wonder despite regular first team football, do we really have the quality of facilities and coaching staff that will make them realise that potential.
Coming into the next season, I am thinking about what I really need to do, we haven't had a loan from Man City for several seasons now as the players won't join us, so there doesn't seem a quick cheap fix to instant squad improvement....
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Bradford City Season 5 (2024-2025):
Transfers:
Right winger Simon Power left us after we couldn't agree a new contract, his wage demands being unreasonable for his ability, coming into a new season, we therefore had no natural right sided midfielders. The solution was Cleary and Shotton arriving on loan, both promising youngsters from premiership teams. Rhys Bennett, whom my scouts tell me has premiership potential, is snapped up after his release from Man Utd.
In my head I am building some kind of link between Colombia and Bradford. So another Colombian prospect joins to backup our keeper Joe Lumley. I feel comfortable coming into the new season that we've got a good first team and a number of (mostly Colombian) youngsters who should develop well. Disaster then strikes with Crystal Palace swooping in for a contract release on new work permitted Jhonnys Pitre, breaking my plan to bring on Pitre and Polo this season. I didn't notice it was only £850k and I am so annoyed I almost give up on the save there and then.
I calm down and replace Pitre with yes, another Colombian youngster, who looks like he can fit into the Advanced Forward role although he won't arrive until June next year. Bournemouth won't stop bidding for Belgian prospect Verschueran who also having just gained a permit was supposed to be our left winger this season, however, £5m cash with incentives seems like it will secure financial security for the foreseeable so cash in.
Having worked out my US knowledge is coming from head of Youth Development Stephen Glass, another free signing, Dragavon gets contract released by Leicester in January, I am more philosophical about this one, it's a lot of money and besides, he's not Colombian. This provides an excellent opportunity to active a release clause of our own to replace Dragavon by signing Antony Valencia, yes he's Colombian.
With these disruptive transfers occurring, I don't build on last season as I wanted to. I get more confidence we can be more tactically aggressive, moving up to a positive mentality, but this backfires and isn't successful, by the time I make the adjustment back, we're still firmly rooted in mid-table.
With a multi-million pound credit balance for the first time, I pressure the board into approving training and youth facility improvements. The academy is still producing one or two exciting graduates even without this though.
Board expectations and the bookies still have us as relegation contenders coming into the next season, but I know I need to sort out a permanent solution to right wing, and while Callum Cooke is still going strong as my only true box to box central midfielder, he's peaked and I just seem to struggle to find anyone who will takeover that role. There is also a gap in wide midfielders who are natural in midfield wide positions rather than attacking wide positions. I may need to think more creatively and convert someone with the right attributes.
I keep checking if I have any favoured status after winning 2 promotions, cup quarter and semi finals, and keeping us in the Championship, but it's hard crowd in Bradford, I have no special recognition yet. David Faupala, scoring 146 goals in 5 seasons doesn't merit any favoured status yet either.
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Just now, Fishlcfc_9 said:
How are people getting on with rotation/keeping players fit? I think with my Lincoln side the drop off from the first 11 is quite big. A bit like in real life, means I've ended up basically throwing the cups and heavily rotating (I was a bit annoyed when we did that against Liverpool in the League Cup)!
Certainly with the Papa John I fully rotate out but for the Carabao and FA Cups I treat them as important for financial reasons while in Leagues One or Two. Now I'm in the Championship, I'm going more the other way, promotion is tantalising the league games trump everything else, but at the same time, I can afford to have some depth.
Towards the end of the season I do see any positions where I've only got one real first teamer see issues with jadedness. I'm actively trying to recruit towards at least a 1st choice and prospect in each position so if nothing else, the prospect being rotated in is useful for their development, I've still not got that in place for two positions.
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Bradford City Season 4 (2023/2024):
Transfers.
Big news, we spent some money on a player. I signed scout Juan Echeverria who had been released by Man United, coming with full knowledge of both England and Colombia, I started seeing Colombian youngsters in my scout reports, despite being outside of our range, I took a punt on newgen striking duo Harrison Polo and Jhonnys Pitre, potentially a new advanced forward, deep lying forward combination for years to come. That's presuming work permit issues are resolved, Polo, with the cooler name, is granted one on signing, while Pitre, a Colombia U20 and on 4x the wage of Polo, isn't granted one, we'll see if we can loan him out and reapply. I'm also getting reports from the US, not sure why as we have no knowledge in North America, however, a 'promising' left back Jalen Dragavon is reported on, and gets a permit. The loans from Man City drying up after the players good enough to add 1st team value won't sign, and the remainder being below Championship level.
Reece Staunton, Bradford academy product, just wasn't get enough game time to meet his potential, so he left us to pursue more playing time at Wednesday, McNamara, a free signing from Man City the year before was a keeper with potential (up to Championship level according to coach reports) but still short of cash, and a new prospect through our academy arriving, I thought if Joe Lumley stays fit, we can let him go. At the end of the season Calum MacDonald went to Millwall for £450k as he was never getting in front of O'Connor, with Dragavon arriving, he can safely leave.
League form is a lot more consistent this season, all the established players have a good relationship with me which helps and we're nicely in midtable until February, when we start to put together some wins to get into the playoff spots, the end of February starts a string of 7 games without a win and we drop back out again. However, that is an improvement on last season so we're making progress. The only disappointment is David Faupala's relatively poor performance with only 19 goals this season, breaking a toe in November didn't help and loan signing Adam Idah got a couple more with 21.
I've been giving some game time to academy graduate Harvey Stares, who looks like a good prospect. Here he is along with the Colombians.
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Bradford City Season 3 (2022/2023):
Transfers: Things are starting to calm down with the turnover of players. I need a new creative forward alongside Faupala, as Will Keane almost left and isn't up to Championship level. Both left backs left on contract expiry which is a real priority too. I think we do well enough to secure enough quality to keep us safe. I've also got Man City's U23s to draw on still too.
Thomas O'Connor looks quality at this level at least.
As expected, the opposition are a lot tougher in the Championship, but we pick up wins enough in the first 6 weeks to keep us well clear of relegation. The season then follows in roughly 4-6 week cycles of doing well as we did in September-October, turning into runs of losses, at one point losing 6 straight games. February sees a recovery and we string together wins and draws stretching for 7 games which secures our survival.
I'm not quite sure what causes either the bad form or the turnaround other than recognising that star player Faupala isn't making an effective partnership with new signing Temenuzhkov, and I bring Keane back into the team.
Highlight of the campaign was coming back after 5 straight defeats to hit 8 again QPR away, Faupala bagging 7 of them on his own. Faupala almost singlehandedly keeps us up, scoring another 39 league goals, taking his tally to 106 league goals in the 3 seasons we've had him.
We managed to take a step further in the Carabao Cup, reaching the semi-final, hanging on for a 0-0 home drawn against Man Utd in the quarter-final to put them out on penalties. This saw us through to face their rivals City at Old Trafford and the 1-0 scoreline was a little flattering on us.
With Championship TV money rolling in, finances are improving and the board grant a £1.2m transfer budget for the season ahead, if I can get the right player, I might outlay some actual cashy for the first time. I've used loans for my left winger so that and potentially as good a centre back as I can get will be the summer targets to consolidate further.
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Bradford City Season 2 (2021-2022):
Transfers: we continue to keep the purse strings tight, despite the board offering up a £150k transfer kitty following the promotion to League One. In my view we just can't afford it, and there should still be plenty of free bargains to be had, plus we have parent club Man City to raid for loans. O'Donnell finally leaves along with a couple of the weaker signings from last year. Because he was available Will Keane was recruited in early June and doesn't show as a new season signing.
Expecting a season of consolidation, our early form is promising, August and September results are a couple of wins followed by a couple of losses, we're firmly in upper mid table. October then starts with an unbeaten run of 11 games, catapulting us into an automatic promotion spot. The loss that breaks the run is followed by another 8 games unbeaten, and even a title run seems to become realistic. As promotion and even winning the league becomes more mathematically likely, the pressure routines start to kick in and form begins to dip again as players struggle with the expectation.
Coming into the final game of the season it's another nail biter, if we match Preston's result we will be automatically promoted as runners up, Coventry being 7 points clear by then. We dominate the game against playoff hopefulls Walsall in every aspect other than the scoreline, losing 2-0, while the door is open for Preston, they can't cope with the pressure either and lose 5-1 away to Forest Green, again by goal difference, we have a second successive promotion.
Our first choice 11, staying with the 4-4-2 has become:
Despite a month injured, David Faupala bangs in another 30 league goals this season, with Will Keane helping as either his support or taking over the advanced role during David's injury, and bagging another 13 goals. Elliott Watt is also a star in the deeper midfield role, with a 90% pass success rate for the season, his 9 assists not quite reflecting how he fulfils the playmaker role by starting most of our attacking play.
We reach the quarter finals of the Carabao Cup, getting a relatively easy run to the 4th round where we smashed Championship side Derby 6-0 away before going out to Wolves at home. The financial boon of the run making financial losses not as bad as they otherwise would have.
Another promotion brings with it some problems, several players who aren't good enough for the Championship finishing their contracts which while convenient, means I need more recruits. Despite not spending any transfer funds and a strong cup run, we've closed the season with another big financial loss and we're £1.5m in the red, which means no money for a scouting package.
No scouting package doesn't seem a huge issue, the scouts spamming me with players they've found means I've got a chunky shortlist of anyone they've said has Championship potential and I hope the promotion gives us a better change of getting higher quality loans without wage costs from Man City. I definitely need a keeper, a left back and a striker with cover in each of those positions as a minimum.
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I'm kicking off a Bradford City save (well, since full game release I've kicked off 4 disasters with them before getting a successful 5th one going).
Perhaps it's replacing legend Stuart McCall and the effect that has on the squad in place, but results were woeful, the match engine showing as if players were ignoring tactics and just doing their own ineffective thing. Attempt 5's success I think is down to wholesale changes, which I don't like to do usually but there seemed no option.
Onto season 1 of what will be my save attempt:
After some scouting recruits aimed at increasing knowledge, I scoured free signings, I had the biggest turnover of playing staff I've ever undertaken.
The observant among readers will see Bambo Diaby, a fine performer for his first 4 games before I noticed a suspension, which I initially thought must have been due to yellows accrued, but it wasn't going away, it's actually a ban until 16th January 2022. Google informed me that he was released by Barnsley after a drugs test failure. Signed up to a massive £4.3k/week contract until 2023, a major chunk of wage budget will be poured down the drain. The highlight of the signings is Yanni Regasel, valued at £800k after signing.
My tactics (so called because of using this in FM20 to try to go unbeaten in the league with Arsenal (I managed 36 games before losing to Liverpool away)), is a flat 4-4-2. Despite the squad overhaul, O'Connor and Staunton became the central defence pairing (enforced because of Diaby's ban), with Cooke, Watt and Evans filling the central midfield and right winger positions.
The new signings slotting in at full backs (with a backup for each side) and up front, as well as the left winger position, with Alnwick coming in to displace O'Connell, who held the captaincy but with poor leadership skills, I suspected as another factor of issues with performances in the previous attempts.
We were still in a mess with the playing squad, wage cap restrictions on squad registration meant that even leaving out Diaby's wage, I couldn't register several of the other original players that I couldn't shift out.
Undoubted star of the season was David Faupala, 37 goals in the league campaign and 40 goals for the season. Gareth Evans chipping in with 12 goals from the right wing. League form was pretty steady until what FM seems to do in run-ins and ramps up the pressure to create bad performances. We staggered over the line of the 3rd playoff place, somewhat safely as coming into the last game of the season we had a massive goal difference advantage all but nailing on automatic promotion which we achieved.
None of the cups brought any meaningful runs, leaving us in a dire financial position of £1m in debt even with the incoming transfer funds, but our bank balance wasn't helped by being £14k/week over wage budget, most of the signings demanding higher contracts to come to us. On the plus side, Man City became our senior affiliate.
Our end of season team talk is not that well received, the squad split between expecting to avoid relegation and bravely fighting against it, neither faction entirely happy with my flip flop promise between the two.
We can release most of the remaining troublemakers at the end of this season. To survive next season I'm pretty confident, most of the players look like they are good league one players, we'll need to find a replacement for DLF Mistanski, at 35 he's declared retirement for 2022. We'll see what contract released players/Man City loaners we can take to see what we can do.
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7 hours ago, Neil Brock said:
We'd love to have a bigger staff with more resources, but the reality of the games market mean there are a lot of companies going after similar talent, which means it's hard to do everything we want to.
That's not a games industry issue, it's probably across all of IT/Software jobs as we have the same issues recruiting in cyber security. So anyone worried about robots taking all the jobs, train into software development.
Not that I've looked often but I've never seen any project management type roles advertised at SI, one of the glassdoor reviews explicitly says there isn't any, so there may well be an element of working smarter with what you have that's needed (isn't that an option in media interviews?) rather than just trying to get more people in. I'd have loved to try project managing an FM release but I've never had any interest living near London
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FM22: The English Football League thread
in Good Player & Team Guide
Posted
Bradford City - Season Four (2024-2025)
Our first season in the Championship. Time for consolidation and hopefully a stable financial position. Louie Barry keeps on returning, although his wages have gone up, he's suitable for the Championship and we're happy to have him for a 3rd season.
Season Review
With recruitment sorted, August bodes well for the season with 3 wins and a draw, despite going out to Port Vale in Carabao. The next two months are then win a game/lose a game but thats fine, we're well clear of relegation and in upper mid table. A bad November followed by a decent December brings us to January. I recruit one centre back in the window for depth, but without doing anything differently, we embark on a tremendous 2nd half of the season, only losing 2 games, we head up into the playoffs and then even into automatic promotion contention.
Running into the final game of the season Preston had over-taken us and were sitting in 2nd place but just on 1 point more than us. We were relying on an already relegated Coventry to pull something out of the bag while we stomped Reading 3-0. Preston took the lead but conceded in the 2nd half and couldn't finish Coventry off, they drew 1-1 and we are promoted to the Premiership.
Unexpected to say the least, perhaps also going out of the FA Cup early this season gave us the time between fixtures to always be at our best after January. When I keep getting questions about our possession stats, after the end of the season I can't help an evil genius style chuckle to myself. We don't need to keep the ball, just lump it forward and let the chaos ensue.
Off the Pitch
Quite a large turnover in players was planned for the Championship campaign, and the total in starts to see my recruitment for next season's Premiership. Our biggest signing to date in Valery comes in to give us a good right wing back for the first time. A good goalkeeper was also a priority and an agent pops up with a Peruvian, Patricio Alvarez, who is uncapped but still qualifies for a permit. I'm still cashing in on players where we have depth not expecting to be promoted and still seeking to keep finances strong.