Droylsden Dilemma - help required

Ok, so after 9 seasons of hard work I had finally managed to get Droylsden promoted from the Blue Square North to the Championship - I was still in a tiny stadium (5,200 up from a 3,000 seater stadium at the start of the game) with very low wage and transfer budgets and therefore I was expecting to get a hammering by a lot of teams and scrape a position just above the relegation zone, before starting a period of steady building with an aim for a push on promotion to the Premier League within 3-4 seasons.

The first game of the season was home to Cardiff City who were one of the favourites for promotion and miraculously I tore them to pieces, winning a very comfortable 4-0!! I tried to avoid getting over excited and put this down to the fact that I was an unknown quantity and Cardiff had under-estimated me. By mid season though I was comfortably in the top half of the table and concerns over relegation were well out of the window, and the freedom that this gave to my players really allowed them to express themselves and we went on a great run of form. Therefore on the last day of the season, there I was sitting in the play off positions with the top 6 clubs separated by only 2 points - the Championship has never seen such a tight finish to the league - I needed 2 of the 4 clubs above me to drop points, whilst I won the final game to be promoted automatically! Eventually, depite scraping a respectable 2-1 win away to Bristol City I was eventually pipped at the post by (you guessed it) Cardiff City who came from a goal down to win 3-1 at home versus Derby to take that final auto promotion slot.

So, into the Play-off's and after a strong 2-2 away draw at Elland Road against Leeds, I manage a comfortable 2-0 at home with my top goalscorer (and the Championship's top goalscorer of all time with 34 goals in the season) getting a brace. The final was much tighter and I was pegged back after getting an early lead by Nottingham Forest and I was getting my team ready for extra time and penalties by warming up my penalty expert from the bench. 91st minute came and my left winger fired a wild cross high over the box..........only for my star right midfielder to pull away from his marker, head it straight back across the goal mouth to nestle in the top corner. GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL! Wild celebrations ensued as the reality of Premiership football sank into the minds of the team and the fans, but the professionalism and hard working attitude that I had drilled into the team stayed true and we closed down for the remaining 4 minutes of extra time. We had won and we were going up!

So now, exactly a month after our famous victory, the reality of the challenge facing us has dawned on me. The chairman has had to saddle the club with £9m of debt to fund improvements to the stadium in order to comply with league rules which will also increase the capacity to circa 13,000. For the 7 months that the work will take we will ground share with Wigan at the DW stadium..... I am desperately trying to find players who are willing to play for me, but with my wage budget I'm really struggling to bring anybody in (bear in mind that my top player is only on £5k per week and I'm already stretching my wage budget)

.........and then the bombshell hits, I've just been phoned by Mr. Sadri Sener, chairman of Trabzonspor offering me the managerial position. They finised 2nd in the Turkish Premier Division last season and are desperately pushing for their 1st league title in 35 years. There is also the prospect of Champions League football. It is a very good offer, compared with the prospect of a real struggle back in the Premiership.

So here is my dilemma, do I stick with the club that has given me such fantastic opportunities over the last 9 years, through what is going to be a long slog of a season, probably culminating in relegation and several years of yo-yoing between the leagues whilst the financial status of the club is stabilised to the extent that I can actually start to challenge........... or do I jump ship, desert the fans and my players, many of whom I've cultivated from Youth team rejects into good players, to move to a huge club with a realistic chance of trophies within the next few years, which will catapult my career and reputation onto the European stage?

I really can't decide, so I need your help - do I STAY or do I GO?

I've called a press conference for 17:00 today, so your advice before then would be greatly appreciated........

Great story, great post. What a difficult decision to make! All I'll say is, if you jump ship, you will live your life thinking "What if?"

What if you'd stayed? How well would... COULD you have done in the Premiership with Droylsden? You'll never know.......

Stay at Droylsden and keep building your team. Maybe another miracle will happen?

Great story, great post. What a difficult decision to make! All I'll say is, if you jump ship, you will live your life thinking "What if?"

What if you'd stayed? How well would... COULD you have done in the Premiership with Droylsden? You'll never know.......

This! I would not be able to leave to a bigger club in your situation, in my current save I have turned down job offers from Real, Barca, Inter and Bayern to name a few because I just could not face walking away from Walsall. However difficult I think you should at least give it a go with Droylsden, if it doesn't work out other jobs will always become available.

Stay 110%

So many times ive made the mistake of jumping ships in similar situations and lived to regret not staying and seeing some other manager take the team i built down the divisions or in some cases building on the success i had and taking them where i always planned too. Judging by your story i'd guess your stock is at its highest so far but if you keep them up it would be higher and maybe a better club might want you.

Choice is yours, if all else fails Flip a coin

Stay and see if the board will grant you a new stadium.

Easy question. Off course you stay at Droylsdon. Should you fail and get the sack there still will be other clubs out there willing to hire you. Clubs with better rep, better economy, better players and as such easier to manage. But you'll never get your Droylsdon job back if you leave.

If you fancy managing Trabzonspor then start a new save.

After spending so long with Droylsden and finally getting them all the way to the Premier League, personally I'd stay.

That said though, after guiding AFC Telford from the BSN to League One (back to back promotions), I received an offer from Central Coast Mariners in the Australian A-League. I often have Australia loaded, but hadn't managed there. Finances getting ever more difficult, star players wanting to leave... pretty much made my mind up and I left.

I went to Australia, dominated the A-League and then got bored. The league itself was pretty easy, but after a season or so I wished I'd stayed and continued my journey with AFC Telford.

All I can say is if you haven't already, hire as many scouts as you can and scour the globe for the most promising newgen talent. Get them to your club before others are sniffing around. You'll save money on wages and fees, plus when they inevitably attract interest, you can sell one or two on for huge profits.

Stick with it... you'll do ok.

You can press save as when you get a job offer like this and then you have 2 saves, if it doesn't work out at Droylsden, you can load the other game and try it out with Trabzonspor.

DROYLSDEN PRESS CONFERENCE, DW STADIUM - 25TH JUNE 2019 17:04

Excuse me all, if I could have your attention, I would like to thank you all for joining this hastily arranged press conference this afternoon at our temporary home in the DW Stadium.

I will be making a brief statement after which there will not be any opportunity to ask questions.

It has been brought to my attention this afternoon, that reports in the media were starting to link me with the vacant manager's seat at Trabzonspor in Turkey. I would like to take this opportunity to dispell any concerns that the loyal Droylsden fans might have that there is any truth in these rumours. I remain fully dedicated to Droylsden football club and am entirely focussed on our pre-season preparations for what I'm certain will be a challenging and exciting season in the top flight of English football - what I hope will be the first of many!

We have a long road ahead of us this season and both I and the chairman Dave Pace are realistic about the challenges ahead of us as a football club in order to be able to compete at this level on an ongoing basis; these rumours and false stories will only serve to disrupt the fans, players and staff at this club as we prepare for those challenges.

No questions thank you, I look forward to seeing you all for our first fixture against Man City at the Man City Stadium on 17th August.

Good choice

lol, I love how you refer to Trabzonspor's job offer as rumours and false stories

As someone who has just taken Farnborough from the BSS to just missing out on the play offs to the Premier League, the idea of leaving after all that hard work couldn't even enter my head. Well done on making the PL, though! Glad you made the right choice.

Grrrr, Droylsden just beat my Tamworth side at my own home... curses.

Got to stay with Droylsden mate, just think of the parachute payments even if you do get relegated. Plus you will have a nicer stadium.

You could do a split save if you wanted to check out life in turkey.

Oh and nice work

Droylsden all the way. Great read by the way Finances will be super tight (I expect you're already massively in debt because of the lack of gate receipts you're getting) but you're right to stick with it. Give us an update of how your prem season is going!

Don't forget to make some extra cash by arranging as many pre season friendlies against top opposition at home as you can. Field a youth team if you have to if your 1st team is tired. You'll be surprised at how much cash you can make.