Anyone else choose a team from the conference and work their way to the top?

Hi, just out of interest, did anyone choose a lower league team and take them into top flight?

I chose Forest Green Rovers and managed to get them into the UEFA Cup. I am currently in season 2015.

Look out for a player called "Ade Green" he is the Mutts Nuts!

Hi, just out of interest, did anyone choose a lower league team and take them into top flight?

I chose Forest Green Rovers and managed to get them into the UEFA Cup. I am currently in season 2015.

Look out for a player called "Ade Green" he is the Mutts Nuts!

I'm in the championship so far with York and will hopefully get promoted this season. Been hard with their terrible transfer budget though! I know a few people on here have got various conference teams to the top though.

Just won League Two with York having won the League Cup, FA Cup, LDV Vans Trophy and in the Quarters of the UEFA Cup. However, I used the Sugar Daddy cheat to get a transfer budget of £150 million and bought loads of young south americans.

My Squad is M Barbosa, V Valdes, G Cabral, E Garay, L Gioda, Gonzalo, Felipe, Marcelo, O Diaz, Leumir, P Ledesma, J Mascherano, Tales, P Barrientos, F Ismael Rodriguez, F Gabriel, Jussie, Kerlon, Lucas, J Obi Mikel, Francismar, Diego, J Sosa, Fred, V Iaquinta, F Llorente, W Renteria.

Currently played 120, won 102, drawn 15, lost 3, scored 270, conceded 44, Leagues 1, Cups 4.

I have beaten Chelsea and Liverpool in 2nd season for League Cup and in FA Cup. Knocked out Boavista in UEFA Cup and well on the way to the Final.

Thats cheating man, but theres a good team there! F Ismael Rodriguez is a sick player, look out for Ade Green 2, they link up so well together.

lol Marc, I cant believe what happened today! My friend was playing football manager on my PSP and he saved over my game save. Now i lost all of my hard work and effort!

Not all bad i suppose, it gives me an excuse to play it even more to catch up with where i was!

Yep Hereford gt into the UEFA cup in the second season in the prem and reached the semis aint that bad.

i won the treble with york in 2015 and then resigned and took charge of stevenage and am now trying to get them to the top and win the treble!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Quote from Marc: <<I take a conference side from bottom to top standing in each of SI's products prior to their release in nearly all versions of our products - simply because its obviously important for this to be possible>>

Why is it important for this to be possible Marc? It's not obvious to me. To my mind, creating a realistic football universe (if that is an aim of FM) should - in this day and age more than ever - entail making it impossible to do this. Or extreeeemely close to impossible. So close that you shouldn't be able to casually do it in testing for every FM product without fail.

Anyone agree? Disagree strongly?

(Actually, on further thought, perhaps it should be impossible for some clubs but not others...)

I took Forest Green Rovers into the UEFA Cup by winning the FA Cup as a League One side.

Of course, we're in the Premiership now (we lost the UEFA Cup semi final to Manchester United).

Those South Americans I bought are turd though, so I'll stick with my European folk who got me this far.

Agree and disagree.

I think you have to have a decent bank of players and it won't happen overnight unless you have someone bankrolling you (a la Wigan)

Preston are a good example, Won the then Third Division in 1996 and are challenging for promotion to the Premiership 10 years later.

Southend are another, although I believe Southend did it the best way in finding a non-league star and making him better.

I think it is certainly hard to get a team of minnows like the mighty Stevenage to somewhere like the Championship, simply as it takes consolidation and building, but not impossible

But it doesn't go so well when we sell our best striker (who was desperate for a League club) to a Conference NORTH club!!

George Boyd is our diamond. He could quite easily slot into a Championship side. We do have an excellent youth policy, but I'm concerned at our turnover at the striker/goalkeeper turnover.

I remember being at Broadhall for Alan Julian's first game between the posts and they hadn't even fully taken Andy Woodman's name off the back of his jersey. FFS!

Some interesting comments.

I knew people would mention Wimbledon or Wigan. The Dons did it in are when money and/or big gates were far less important than they are now. Wigan are bankrolled by a 'sugar daddy'. Preston and Brighton are irrelevant to talk about, in my view, as they have been in the league forever. I'm talking about non-league sides, that have never been in the league and built significant history and support.

The issue, to me, is that the likes of Stevenage won't ever get gates that can sustain a push into the Premiership. It's sugar-daddy or nothing for clubs like that to get into the top flight.

Besides which, it's clear that FMH teams aren't just getting into the Premiership and then struggling. They're getting there and winning the Champions League!

I don't discount non-league teams as redundant. I support one not a million miles from you, which was a couple of games from being in the Premiership not so long ago.

But I don't see any of the current Conference sides being in the Premiership in the next decade, do you? I'm not saying it should be impossible in the game, but it seems from these boards that people are achieving it quite frequently - and not just achieving it, but succeeding at that level too.

We'll have to disagree on Stevenage's chances of filling a 20,000 seater stadium. I don't envisage people abandoning Cambridge to go and watch them (Cambridge based people who want to watch premiership football already commute to Tottenham on the whole), nor many Londoners eschewing any of their top flight clubs to travel out to Hertfordshire.

It's not impossible of course... Wigan managed to get 15-22000 people at the JJB once they hit the top flight. But would Wigan have got there without Dave Whelan's patronage? No.

Similarly, could Stevenage get 15-20000 gates in the Championship, in order to have significant money coming in without a sugar-daddy chairman? I strongly doubt it. Their gates in another successful Conference season weren't even particularly impressive.

I guess I have come to see that yes, it's important that it's possible in the game to go from Conference to Prem. But I don't think it should be so easy that you are able to nonchalantly talk of doing it in testing for every release, or that this board should have numerous people who've done it a month after the game came out.

May I point out this thread marc?

http://community.sigames.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4892031102/m/9462076222

Getting a conference club into the Premiership is one thing, and yes it should be 'possible' in the game. But surely it shouldn't be so 'possible' that in that thread alone you have six people who did it in just four or five seasons? Not to mention then going on to do well in the Premiership.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Marc Vaughan:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">

I think it is certainly hard to get a team of minnows like the mighty Stevenage to somewhere like the Championship, simply as it takes consolidation and building, but not impossible </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I actually think that Stevenage irl with a little luck would have a good shot at building a 'dynasty' (so to speak ) ...

They've got a good youth policy and with a little luck and the right coaching staff in the lower levels they could groom a side which could take them up the league levels fairly easily.

The location of the team is well placed to attract support as the team grows imho and so over time anything could happen.

Bringing Brighton back into things again - we raised a huge amount of cash when we sold Gareth Barry despite him not having ever played a senior game for the club. If Stevenage could groom similar players or better still hold onto a small core of them then they could easily rise to the Championship imho (remember Brighton while in the Championship have had a fair few of the same players who at one stage were nearly relegated from the league, a LOT of the difference in the lower levels if organisation, training and having those one or two players who are a little bit 'special' imho).

(I live just up the road from Stevenage if you wondered about why I know a little about the club and their youth policy etc. ..) </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Correct me if I'm wrong,but wasn't it Stevenage who were denied a place in the Football League because their ground didn't measure up to League requirements?.Wouldn't it have been interesting to see how far they would have reached if they'd been successful with their application back then.However,on the downside anyone remember Maidstone? - and to a lesser degree,Colne Dynamos?

I took Halifax Town to premiership. Got promoted every year, except in the championship (took me 2 years); first year in premiership I finished high enough to play in the eurocup. This is my first team (also my first fm; don't play it on the PC), I don't use the unlockables, and I didn't use too much foreigners either, so...

One big fat annoying thing is that I sometimes can't buy players 'cause the clubs don't release them, even when I triple the price. That and the fact that I get a message from time to time saying my offer for a totally crap player that I absolutely don't want is accepted.

I took halifax up to the prem! It took four seasons, won all the titles on the way but not the prem. won the uefa cup once, super cup once, and now the vase its my tenth season in charge and possibly my last. I have been trying to unlock the hidden cheats, but still to no avail!!!!!

I took over Woking and I'm doing very well.

First Season picked up the last playoff place and lost in the shootout in the playoff final to aldershot.

Season two i won the conference with 106 points and season after also got promoted to league one which I've just started with 1 win and 1 loss.

Players I've got who have been brilliant:

Bruno Value (5k from Porto)

James James (12k from Colchester)

Terry Unsworth (Free)

Helder Barbosa (8k Porto) who tried to buy him back for 800k after making international appearance(and scoring) whilst Woking were in League Two.

Shane Paul (Free from AVilla) who has been my top scorer for 3 seasons.