Advancing through the lower leagues?

Hi.

I'm going to start a new game as a Blue Sqare North/South team, it's not the sort of game that i would start usually but this time i want a challenge. The problem is, i'm not very experienced when it comes to getting teams promoted at the bottom of the tiers, so what advice would you guys be able to give me?

When signing players, do you go overload and try to sign mostly a new team, or do you keep the majority of the team and just add one or two good players? Also, what tactics would you go about playing, simple like 4-4-2, or more advanced?

I'd like to try and get the team through each league in England and finish up in the Premier League eventually, so with my relative inexperience it could be a difficult challenge, because of this any advice would be appreciated..

Thanks.

Check Dafuge's career.

Have a good look through the free transfers and loans mate, also try and get a feeder club a few divisions higher than your team.

Sign free players and try to keep ypur wage budget down.

Keep a simple formation, remember that they arn't very clever when it comes to tatics.

Also get a feeder cllub, this is a must!!! You can get good youngsters on loan for free will getting paid some money every year.

I am doing a carear with Alfreton Town, trying to get them into the prem, and I am in my fourth season at the club, currently in the #BSN, and have got only two players from the original squad, one on loan. So building a whole different squad in a few seasons is somehting you might want to think about.

while a good parent club is great it is not the be all and end all over low league management, there are plenty of good frees if you spend enough time on them. I took 100s on trial each season till I was well advanced in the leagues.

Another thing to think about when you are signing frees is age as well. A good mix of experience in youth is helpful. Good youth players are excellent because they progress with you as you climb the leagues and if they are good enough you can sell them on to make money for the club as well.

Can't really add anything, just keep looking and scouting for your frees, get a couple of loans in from upper level clubs in areas you need, get a good striker if you can. I got Nathan Jarman from Grimsby when I was Fleetwood in the Blue Square Premier and he bagged the goals to get me all the way to the championship

It has kind of been said already but putting the time and effort into finding players is well worth it. In the lower leagues there are huge opportunities to sign players on free transfers who will improve your squad greatly. Get your scouts busy and try to take as many players as possible on trial.

Thanks alot guys, going to start my game now, probably the last one i'll have on this version of FM so hopefully it goes well. Thanks for the suggestions i'll take them on board!

As a keen LLM i would take onboard all the advice the guys here have given you....also, a goosd striker and solid goalkeeper are pretty much essential in my opinion to getting up and out of the lower levels. Lots of players out there so should be possible - just keep any eye on those finances as its hard to sell players for any decent money!

I also am starting up a game as a lower league team (Barwell) in the MFA. For me every midfielder needs to be able to pass and to have high work rates and teamwork. Surprisingly I have found quite a few good players that I am trying to sign, they just expect a high wage.

As a keen LLM i would take onboard all the advice the guys here have given you....also, a goosd striker and solid goalkeeper are pretty much essential in my opinion to getting up and out of the lower levels. Lots of players out there so should be possible - just keep any eye on those finances as its hard to sell players for any decent money!

*cough*

All joking aside & back to the OP just be prepared to invest some time in the save as progress can be slow but if you stick with it then the rewards are excellent.

i started the game as sunday footballer and without a club and went holiday till a club hires me. then worchester hired me and i had to sign free agents all the way from bluesquare to now championship. still yet to actually purchase a player. my stadium is still 4k and always without money. its still cool though, picked up lots of interesting players along the way.

you wana get some beechams for that cough! lol

Yeah the best career saves are the ones you persevere with. Its when you hire your regens as members of thr background staff that you know its going well!

Restart the game and load all players from Reunion

In FM10 I started as Mansfield boss and managed to haul them in to the Championship.

I found that signing young players who weren't ready for First Team Football was pretty pointless. As the training facilities are poor and the quality of the coaches you can attract aren't that good, most young players don't develop.

Getting four season long loans from Premiership / Championship teams is the easiest and cheapest way of strengthening your squad.

Getting a decent parent team is a good idea.

Also, there are plenty of freebies / cheap players knocking around. At the end of each season, I used to scour through the list of players released by Premiership and Championship sides for quality players. Even though most sign for someone else, even if just a couple come to you it ends up worth it.

I also found that teams who had placed a price tag of say $50k-$100k on their players, would often accept bids of $0 as they're just happy to get them off the payroll.