[FM09] Nantwich Town - Bigger than Crewe

Nantwich Town were formed in 1884 as Nantwich FC. Now they are known as Nantwich Town FC and play at Jackson Avenue in FM which is the wrong ground as in the 07-08 season the club moved to the new £3.75 million Weaver Stadium.

I started this game on patch 9.3.0 and the edit I made was to place Nantwich Town into the BSN as they are two leagues under the BSN so would never become playable. I loaded all leagues from England and the top two from Italy and Spain with a large database and all players from Reunion thanks to the advice of Arsenal_2111 who posted about there being some wicked free players from Reunion.

The first season in the BSN we started by signing as many players from Reunion as possible so we ended up with 10 Frenchmen in the first season. We made two loan signings from our parent club Crewe.

The first season was a breeze thanks to the Reunion lads and mainly our strikers Dave Whittaker despite having terrible stats went on to outshine all the new signings and bagged 34 goals along with Willy Roberts 33 goals this was the main reason we cruised to the league title.

Fans Player of the Season - Jim Albancourt - CB bagged lots of goals from corners and the fans loved him.

Highest Average Rating - Jim Albancourt 7.63

Most Assists - Djamil Gangate - 34 Bagged lots of assists from open play and quite a few from different set pieces.

My Player of the Season - Dave Whittaker - This lad outshone everyone and scored crucial goals even with terrible stats.

FA Cup - Great run as we took the scalps of league clubs Chester beating them 4-0 and Leyton Orient 3-0 in the following round, then we got a money draw away to West Brom we went 1-0 up but lost 5-1 to a far superior side. This match made us around 200k so it was pretty good in the end.

FA Trophy - Winners beating Tamworth 2-1

Conference League Cup - Winners 3-2 over Blue Square Premier Team Torquay, Whittaker bagging the winner in extra time.

Overall a great season that was beyond anything I thought we woudl achieve.

Acidburn getting in on the action! Well done for a great opening post and good luck for Nantwich!!

*Not happy with the title*

KUTGW though AB.

We needed to strengthen for our challenge to get back to back promotions. So we signed Colin Daniel and Chris McGready on free transfers from Crewe and these players ability is far higher than Blue Square Premier. We also splashed some cash aswell spending 9k on Michael Proctor and paying him 1.5k a week the first player in the history of Nantwich to earn more than £500 per week.

We once again were easily promoted but the huge 9k transfer we paid for Proctor was a disaster he failed to impress and finished the season with 6 goals in 39 games. Willy Robert also banged in 25 goals but Dave Whittaker the star of last season was out of his depth and could only manage 2 in 16.

Fans Player of the Season - Jim Albancourt - Once again the fans loved the goals that the CB banged in from corners for us.

Highest Average Rating - Jim Albancourt 7.41

Most Assists - Djamil Gangate - 26 Not as many as last season but still set up alot of goals and scored a few for us aswell.

My Player of the Season - Willy Robert - He was the only consistent striker we had scoring a goals every other game.

FA Cup - We were hoping for another money draw at some point but we went out int he first round 2-1 against Cheltenham.

FA Trophy - Out in the 2nd round by getting absolutely pasted by Lettering 4-1.

Conference League Cup - Lost to Mansfield in the quarter finals.

Overall it was a good season but could have been better, we achieve our main aim of getting promoted but I was extremely disappointed in our performance in all the cup competitions, oh well league one here we come.

*Not happy with the title*

KUTGW though AB.

Its a bit weird that I called it that as I am a Crewe fan aswell lol.

Acidburn getting in on the action! Well done for a great opening post and good luck for Nantwich!!

I got plenty of seasons already done its just a case of writing out the updates.

Thanks for the interest guys.

Pitty we already know you're 6th in the prem.

This was history in the making as Nantwich Town became a league club for the first time in their 100 plus years as a football team. We had built up a decent bank balance mainly thanks to the FA Cup run in the first season our balance was 500k and we were given 220k to spend. The squad needed to be improved a lot if we were to try for our third back to back promotion. So we didnt hold back and went out and spent 200k of the 220k we had to spend.

Main signings were Kroupi a brilliant regen(who you will hear alot more from as my career goes on)Tom Carrick a promising looking player from Bohemians and the amazing Billy Jones from Morecombe after we missed out on him last season. With a 17 rating for freekicks and 15 for corners surely this guy could deliver in our league adventure.

We finished 2nd to get us a 3rd back to back promotion in the end we achieved our goal of promotion but finished a long way behind Darlington, in my opinion we didnt score enough goals and let in too many but at the end of the day we won promotion to see us play our parent club Crewe next season.

Fans Player of the Season - Billy Jones - Fans loved Billys debut season where he bagged 17 assists and 13 goals with an average rating of 7.23.

Highest Average Rating - Romarinho - The young striker scored 20 goals in 33 games in his first season in English football following his 16k move.

Most Assists - Billy Jones 17.

My Player of the Season - Billy Jones - Added a touch of class from set pieces and score vital freekicks and pentalties. Without him I think it would have been a case of playoffs than automatic promotion.

FA Cup - 3rd Round exit at the hands of QPR as they beat us 2-1 at home, I was confident that we might be able to beat them as we were at home and get a big money away draw in the next round.

League Cup - More disappointing than the FA Cup as the first league cup in clubs history ended in disaster as we went out 2-1 in the first round away to Bradford.

Overall - Promotion was the main aim and the performances of Romarinho and Billy Jones made it a great season were we played some nice football but next season we would have to improve. Cup performances for the second season running were a bit disappointing.

Excellent posts AcidBurn Congratulations on the 3 consecutive promotions Some nice signings too...from Reunion!?!?

Transfers for the first season in League One were needed and we managed to strengthen quite well we bought in Ben Burgess who was a big slow targetman who was great in the air. He was made the highest paid player in the history of the club on 3.5k a week. He disappointed scoring only 7 goals in 30 odd games.

First time in league one and we missed out on promotion losing in the playoff finals on pentalties to Northampton. Was gutted after the defeat and felt like reloading but saved it so I had no option but to have another go at League One.

In Jan Irineu was unhappy at his club and for some reason no one else bid for the player he had no option but to come and sign for us. We also bagged the free transfer of Manucho the two gave us a new look front line Irineu got 29 goals in 25 games and Manucho got 22 in 27. If we had started the season with this striker pairing I think promotion would have happened.

Fans Player of the Season - Igor Kroupi the young regen impressed grabbing a few goals from corners and playing solid in defence getting a high tackles per game ratio.

Highest Average Rating - Kroupi with a 7.21

Most Assists - Billy Jones with 22.

My Player of the Season - Irineu would have to win it for me arrived in Jan and scored more than a goal a game. Next season we have the ultimate striker force to hopefully fire us to the prem.

FA Cup - Disappointment out in the first round 1-0 at home against Walsall.

League Cup - Beat Oldham 2-0 in the first round but then suffered a 4-3 defeat against Ipswich in the 2nd round.

Overall - Good season paired with extreme disappointment at going out 4-3 and losing in the playoff final was terrible especially on penalties.

Guys, from now on only two season updates. Thx.

What do you mean?

The rules state that the start of the thread must have 2 seasons ready not every post.

Acid Burn - They're some fantastic first seasons you had there. Unlucky on missing out on promotion in League 2 in your first season. I couldn't help but laugh at the fact you signed some players from a club called "Tampon" though.

Great posts Acid Burn.

Tampon made me laugh.

Never heard of Nantwich tbh.

We didnt really need that much more quality to push us up to the championship, Antonio Adan had been released and no one took any interest in him I was shocked when he agreed to sign. I was hoping that placing M'voto infront of him along with Kroupi we could maybe stop shipping in the goals that cost us last season. Along with Manucho and Irineu upfront surely this season was ours.

League was alot closer than it looks as we only started to pull away in the last 8 or so games. Another promotion took us to the big league now the championship was calling. Irineu and Manucho had great season along with a young regen called Bilic signed on a free from Zagreb this lad will go on to great things.

Fans Player of the Season - Irineu due to him still bagging over a goal a game for the club.

Highest Average Rating - Irineu 7.77.

Most Assists - Josip Bilic - Still only young and in his 2nd full season he got 29 assists many of them setting up Irineu and Manucho.

My Player of the Season - Got to be Irineu with 71 goals in 60 games this guy is clearly prem standard playing in league one.

FA Cup - Great run we got all the way to the 6th round and got a huge draw Arsenal away they beat us 3-1 once again we scored first but their superior talent shone through. This game alone earned the club 900k from gate reciepts.

League Cup - 2nd Round exit 1-0 at home to Portsmouth, we were unlucky not to at least draw but Portsmouth took their chance and we didnt.

Overall - Great cup run earning loads of cash for the team to spend in the championship. Promotion was great once again we made it up and no will enjoy a run one league from the Prem.

Excellent posts AcidBurn Congratulations on the 3 consecutive promotions Some nice signings too...from Reunion!?!?

Yeah Reunion is a small Island in the indian ocean, its a french territory so all players from their have France as a second nationality. They are quality for the English lower league and are all free.

Acid Burn - They're some fantastic first seasons you had there. Unlucky on missing out on promotion in League 2 in your first season. I couldn't help but laugh at the fact you signed some players from a club called "Tampon" though.

Yeah I was laughing like a little girl and had the missus telling me it wasnt that funny, still makes me smile now.

Great posts Acid Burn.

Tampon made me laugh.

Never heard of Nantwich tbh.

They are my local team about 12 miles from where I live which will be another place you wouldnt have heard of lol. Most people wont have heard of Nantwich due to them being 2 leagues below the playable teams on FM.

We took on the championship now and got a bit of quality for the side. Bringing in Mendy and Gibbs for the fullback positions, it was very annoying that Manucho wouldnt sign a new contract so after 50 goals in 71 games he left for free.

Despite some big clubs in the championship Irineu and Brandy lead us to the promised land of the Premiership. I was shocked we managed to get so far and was looking forward to the prem being a bit worried about getting pasted week in week out.

Fans Player of the Season - Irineu again his partnership with Febian Brandy fired us to the prem with him bagging 46 goals in 46 games.

Higest Average Rating - Irineu 7.68.

Most Assists - Josip Bilic with 23

My Player of the Season - Hard to decide the goals of Irineu were great but Bilic is developing very fast so I call it a draw.

FA Cup - Out in the 3rd round after a replay 2-1 against Sheff United.

League Cup - Out in the 2nd round 2-0 against Newcastle.

Overall - Another top season and the premiership awaits the mighty Nantwich Town. Irineu and Bilic have had us playing our best football ever with Mendy and Gibbs ruling the wings we played some flashy stuff to get promoted.

I know everyone knew I would get to the prem but I wanted to get all them updates done and dusted as I couldnt remember alot from them. Now the prem adventure begins, where we reach 6th in the first couple of weeks as the screenshots show but then its all downhill after that.

To correct you AB - Nantwich are in the leagues immediately below the Blue Square N/S. I noticed that Crewe were relegated during your first season in League 1. Good start to your career though.

My mistake lol.

I want to try and get Crewe as a feeder club so if I establish myself in the prem I can send my youngsters to them.

So we embarked on our first ever Premier league season with an aging Pavlyuchenko upfront with Guiza as backup. The season started okay and at the time of the screenshots as you can see we were in 6th place in the league after only a couple of games, then it all went down hill we went through a period of not winning for around 12 games towards the end of the season.

We were also informed by the board that they were spending most of our bank balance on improving the stadium and adding another 12k worth of seats to Jackson Avenue. This wouldnt be completed for 8 months so for the time being we moved into the place we would call home for the next few months Stoke's Brittania Stadium. During our time there I wish we never left as we attracted enough fans to fill our new 13.5k stadium one and half times over.

By the time the last day of the season rolled around we found ourselves 2 points ahead of Wigan we had the luck of the draw facing Leeds at our own ground, we wong 2-0 to secure another season in the prem but our win didnt matter as Wigan lost anyway.

Fans Player of the Season - Victor Irineu again his debut season in the prem he only scored 13 in 30 but spent alot of time injured.

Higest Average Rating - Irineu 7.08.

Most Assists - Bilic with 9.

My Player Of the Season - Hard to pick on I suppose Irineu would win due to scoring a few goals that got us wins.

FA Cup and League Cup - Went out int he 3rd Round of both in FA Cup a 3-1 loss to Portsmouth and a 3-1 loss to Wigan in the league cup.

Overall - As you can tell by the lack of anyone on a decent rating and the lack of a goal scorer and assist maker this season was terrible in a way but in another it was great as we secured Prem status for one more season.

Second Prem Season

Mid table obscurity for the next season was just what the doctor orders we made a couple of huge signings bringing Willians Santana for an incredible £13 million along with Michael Johnson for £5 million.

The cup runs were awful with a 3rd round loss 1-0 at home against Leicester and a 3-1 defeat away to Arsenal.

Fans Player of the Season - Igor Kroupi solid displays in defence along with a few goals earned the fans respect.

Higest Average Rating - Josip Bilic 7.31

Most Assists - Josip Bilic with 14

My Player Of the Season - Josip Bilic the young Croatian CM was brilliant.

Overall - We were solid in the league and made a couple of good signings with the money we had. Getting another crack at the prem will be wicked.

Tried to bring in more class to up our performance and establish ourselves as a premier league force. James Smith was a talented looking regen DC hoping that him and Subotic could form a good CB pairing. Nilmar although 32 was brought as backup for Irineu, Piatti is a classy AML and now we switched our tactic from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 he would work well with him at AML and Wilshere at AMR.

The team performed well and we went 1 higher than last season finishing 9th.

FA Cup - Lost in the 4th round 2-1 against West Brom.

League Cup - We lost int he semi-finals to Arsenal a 0-0 draw at home and then we went down 3-0 away but fought back to 3-2 but couldnt get the last goal to put us through.

Fans Player of the Season - Michael Johnson enjoyed his second season at the club getting 6 goals and 6 assists in 28 games with an average of 7.28, not that impressive but all his goals were vital to us and he averaged alot of tackles and high pass completion.

Higest Average Rating - Bilic 7.38

Most Assists - Bilic with 14

My Player Of the Season - I would go with Bilic as he had an awesome season and I was suprised that the fans went with Johnson instead.

Overall - Happy to stay in the prem again and 9th is wicked.

Well this is as far as I have got and these are the transfers that will feature in my ongoing updates, I will post some screenshots of the team and regen players if anyone is interested in seeing who is in my starting 11.

GK - Asenjo - http://img7.imageshack.us/i/asenjoa.jpg/

LB - Kieran Gibbs - http://img268.imageshack.us/i/dlgibbs.jpg/

RB - Pablo Nino - http://img268.imageshack.us/i/drnino.jpg/

CB - Igor Kroupi - http://img3.imageshack.us/i/igorkroupi.jpg/

CB - Marc Burgess - http://img7.imageshack.us/i/marcburgess.jpg/

DM - Josip Bilic - http://img10.imageshack.us/i/dmcbilic.jpg/

CM - Michael Johnson - http://img18.imageshack.us/i/cmmichaeljohnson.jpg/

CM - Gerlach - http://img10.imageshack.us/i/gerlachw.jpg/

AMR - Jack Wilshere - http://img197.imageshack.us/i/wilshere.jpg/

AML - Willians - http://img197.imageshack.us/i/willians.jpg/

ST - Victor Irineu - http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/8119/irineu.jpg

Thats the starting 11, Bilic came second in World player of the year last season despite playing for a midtable club that won nothing. I think it will be tough to hold onto him unless I can get a great finish in this upcoming season, there is also strong interest in Gerlach. Due to a lack of buying power I have to give youth a chance and Bilic has made 257 appearances for Nantwich and Kroupi has 261. If they are good enough I will play them but holding onto them could be tough.

Irineu has got 194 goals in 224 games as a Nantwich player if only he was 10 years younger lol.

So any predictions on where I can take my club this season, I feel we can finish in the top 10 again I am aiming for 8th as its one better than last season although a european place would be even better.

5th.

Bilic is crazy BTW

I started this game on patch 9.3.0 and the edit I made was to place Nantwich Town into the BSN as they are two leagues under the BSN so would never become playable. I loaded all leagues from England and the top two from Italy and Spain with a large database and all players from Reunion thanks to the advice of Arsenal_2111 who posted about there being some wicked free players from Reunion.

You're welcome

You're welcome

Stop basking in praise and find us more countries to exploit

Best result in the history of Nantwich Town, not sure how we managed to create 5 clear cut chances against Man Utd, they are not the team they used to be but its still a great result. Only the 2nd match of the season aswell.

5th.

Bilic is crazy BTW

My faith in you is justified

I really hope so european football would be great.

There some big money being spent now at Nantwich Town That Victor Irineu looks class! Some good progress being made too in your league campaign's

Just had to sell Billy Jones for £2.2 million and Nytanga for 500k as we were £1.6 million in debt. There is interest from some big clubs in Wilshere and Gerlach but no one is willing to offer the £25 million I want for each of them. Thanks for the replies guys.

This thread is a perfect example of what this forum should be about Well played AB, few more screenshots would be nice.

Cheers Elrithral, I am planning more screenshots for this seasons update its alot easier now I have caught up with myself. It annoys me that I can get the screenshots of the matches from previous seasons otherwise I could have updated the cup games as I went along.

What size DB are you using? If it's large you should be able to view every match you've played, I play on small and it has a cut off of about 8 months previous.

I got large database but cant view anything from 2 seasons ago which is what annoys me. I just wish it saved them for a few seasons.

Hmmmm, I was told that it went as far back as you had played. Sorry about that, well you're upto date now anyway

How did Frank Lampard go? I noticed you brought him but he is not in your starting 11 and you havn't sold him. KUTGW AcidBurn, this is brilliant.

Lampard was 38 when I got him I wanted to see what he was like as a coach but his stats werent up to it, he was only on 1.5k a week so it was worth the risk.

January 2018 Update

As the year of 2017 comes to a close we enter a new year and we sit 4th in the premier league table. The good points were some of the results beating Man Utd 6-0 at Old Trafford is a brilliant results as is the 6-3 pasting of Bolton scoring 6 twice in one season away from Jackson Avenue shows the progress we are making. Of course each season brings some bad results and the fact that we only scored one single goal over a 5 match period was starting to worry me.

The league cup has seen our young star Josip Bilic really shine as he scored important goals to guide us into the semi-final. I do not like playing Man City though and am not confident of going through to the final.

The History Of Josip Bilic - A Man Destined For World Glory

As you can see from the screenshot Josip Bilic is currently having the best season of his career and at 26 years of age is probably hitting his peak. The player was signed as a young teenager by Nantwich when the team was in the English League One, he made his debut straight away and impressed enough in the friendlies to force his way into the first team. Even at this tender young age he played 57 games and has never looked back.

After finishing 3rd in the 2014/15 season European Midfielder of the year then in 2015/16 he finished 2nd surely this year would be his time? In 2015/16 he was voted by his fellow professionals as the English Player of the Year.

This season was his best as he beat Fabregas to claim the Eurpean Midfielder of the Year award. This more than made up for last season where he came second to Cristiano Ronaldo in World Player of the Year. This year also saw Bilic named alongside some big names in the World Team of the Year.

To be named alonside such names as Fabregas, Saivet, Mata and Leo Messi was a great achievement for a CM playing his football at a club who's ground holds only 13,000 fans and the team itself have never finished above 9th. The question is can Nantwich Town hold onto a player who on his own is valued at just under what half the whole club would cost. Rumours of a rift between Bilic and his manager Acid Burn are floating around several media outlets, despite all his success the player has not once come out and thanked his manager the man who took him from obscurity in the Zagreb U-19's to the heights of the Premier League.

The big question is about Josip Bilics contract as at the end of the season he will only have one year left to run, will champions league football be enough to keep hold of the player as a player of his standard deserves to be playing at the highest level. Will Acid Burn want him to commit or will he look to cash in on Nantwich Towns prize asset? Surely a man who has guided a team from the depths of English football cannot take the risk of losing a near £30 million player for free?

Only time will tell and the fans will surely want the player to stay as will Nantwich Town club legend Acid Burn. Guess we will have to wait to find out.

I would like to make it clear to everyone that any opinions good or bad, along with any advice and general discussion, any screenshots you want to and any conversation about my game and anything in it are extremely welcome.

Your doing my predicition proud Acid

So far although alot of lucky results, could do with a few more class players, I hope you are right.

On a side note AcidBurn could you check where Norwich City are? Am anxious to know. btw I got scrennie of my tactic up on United Kingdom journey

EDIT: Josip Bilic hasn't played against England recently I hope

Bilic has played England twice 1-1 draw the first time and the second time England beat Croatia 3-2.

On a side note Irineu has declared that he would play for England if he was called up.

Norwich!!!! League 1. Seems we can't escape the reality wherever we go

Norwich!!!! League 1. Seems we can't escape the reality wherever we go

lol, I thought you would say something like that.

Thinking of bringing in this guy for next season unless I can get him on loan now.

Thinking of bringing in this guy for next season unless I can get him on loan now.

I'm surprised the picture doesn't have 'targetman' stamped across his forehead.

Good work so far. If you want to discuss how to write a history of your star player as mentioned in the discussion thread, drop me a PM.

Looking good mate, and good updates too, one of the few careeer threads that's written in a format I can read easily and get a feel for.

As the premier league table shows we achieved our best ever finish with a superb 6th place, through the course of the season we had alot of lucky results and wins that we didnt really deserve. It was the hardest season in the way that I couldnt decide what tactic to use at times the 4-3-3 worked extremely well then we would get patches of not winning for 5 games so we played a mixture of 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 with AMR and AML. Overall though it was a fantastic season with some great wins and some good free flowing football. At times the front three of Irineu, Wilshere and Piatti or Willians played brilliantly.

Not much I can really say about the cup runs apart from I hate Man City now. In the 13ish games my managing career has put me against them we have failed to win any, I thought after the draw away in the league cup 1st leg we might have been able to pick up a suprise home win but we didnt.

Fans Player of the Season - Victor Irineu for the 6th straight season he was named as our top scorer 4 goals at Old Trafford in real life would have ensured him of winning fans player of the year at any club.

Highest Average Rating - Victor Irineu 7.33

Most Assists - Josip Bilic matching Irineus constant scoring Bilic grabbed 22 assists for the 6th straight season

My Player Of the Season - Got to go with Irineu although Bilic as usual was outstanding Piatti now aged 29 also scored some important great goals.

Annoying Moments of the Season

Too many players wanting to leave despite our success in the league Gerlach one of the young star DMCs in the entire footballing world was saying he wanted to leave ever couple of weeks, he was shipped out for £20 million and £10 million after one international appearance for Germany along with 50 percent sell on. He went to Napoli.

Jack Wilshere also showed no loyalty and accepted praise from anyone AC Milan bid so I said £40 million and they offered £30 million straight up and 50 percent sell on.

Positives From the Season

The biggest one is obviously the fact that we will be in the Europa League and playing against some good european sides, this is a trophy that I have never won with any club on FM09 ever.

Bilic also picked up the players player of the year again but the biggest news was that our star player signed a new long term contract with the club taking him to 60k a week for the next 5 years.

Wilshere leaving might be a bad thing but it means that we will get to bed in a young exciting prospect who the assman thinks has the potential to be a leading prem star and to be better than Wilshere was at AMR. He is still young but will get quite alot of games this season ont he wing hopefully he can replace Wilshere but if not we do still have the excellent Willians who is more than capable of playing on either wing.

With Gerlach gone who will go on to be a world class star it could be time for Davids he is lacking in a few areas but last season he played 22 games and averaged 6.99. I think this guy can go on to be brilliant and the assman and various other coaching staff believe he has the potential to be better than Bilic although I cant see that.

Next season we will be aiming to bring in 2 FBs at least one of them will be experienced and at least one more striker will be needed as Anier doesnt have what it takes and Nilmar is too old. Irineu needs some help in scoring and over the next 3 or 4 years will need replacing.

We have begun our summer spending after being given a budget of £35 million we put some of the money towards increasing the wage budget and were left with around £25 million. We signed this 16 year old regen for £6.5 million I found him in the Spainish U-19s and thought that he was worth a punt on. Seems to have most of the right stats so he will hopefully replace Irineu who the assman thinks he has the potential to be alot better than although Irineu is a legend.

bit slow.

I was only one place off but Europe, well done