How do they do that???

Quite often on here I read claims of people taking a conference side or lower to Premiership winners in consecutive seasons. My question is, "How do you do that"?

After starting the game with League Two side Shrewsbury Town I've had reasonable success or have I? What do you think? How does this compare to you?

1st season reached the play offs but lost in in the semi final

2nd season promoted to League One after finishing second

3rd season promoted to Championship via the play offs

4th season horribly relegaed to League One after a miserable season

5th and current season reached the play offs but lost in the semi final.

So after 5 seasons, I've only climbed one Division. The problem I find is attracting top players to your club either because they are not interested or because I cannot offer top wages. So how do others manage to achieve the success of taking a team all the way from non League to Premiership winners?

Before you taking anybodys negative or positive responses in, you should ask yourself 'what if this happened in real life'?

If you took over a real life time in league two and found yourself in the playoffs of leave one in five years time, do you think you'd have done a good job?

I wouldn't be asking for your resignation if I were your chairman, that's for sure.

i just guess it varies! ive never done it myself but i would guess that eventually as you slowly strenghten you will get to prem and CL winners... I think a lot of people take until about 2020 to start gettin to that level so i guess its just a slow building process! Others would have to confirm this though!

By cheating that's how. Don't believe anyone who claims to have done this in consecutive seasons without cheating because they're lying.

Even if it's just using Genie Scout to find the best players they will have cheated in some way. I know because I have taken a couple of teams from the BSN to the Premier League, and it takes time. But don't worry, it's much more fun when it's a struggle. When you finally do reach the Premier League it'll feel so much better knowing you worked hard to get there.

It takes a good few attempts to be honest in my experience. I've done the Dafuge Challenge on and off with 4 different teams so far on FM08, and learnt from each of them, and had varying levels of success. Loans have been the key mostly for me so far.

To be honest, my best game is the one I have so far with Halesowen, but I've not made it into Europe yet.

I never have the success some guys have like Steven above. Usually I'll spend between 3 and 5 seasons before getting promoted. Sometimes I'll go up the first or second season, but in FM08, I've had to work hard to get promotions. In FM07 and FM06 it was different, and I could go from BSS to Prem winners in 8-10 seasons. It takes a lot of effort and a lot of knowledge of how each module works in FM08 to get promoted every year, but it is possible

It takes a good few attempts to be honest in my experience. I've done the Dafuge Challenge on and off with 4 different teams so far on FM08, and learnt from each of them, and had varying levels of success. Loans have been the key mostly for me so far.

To be honest, my best game is the one I have so far with Halesowen, but I've not made it into Europe yet.

That's pretty impressive and looking at the progress it seems that surviving in your first season in the Championship (unlike me) was a key factor.

To be honest, when I got promoted from League One to the Championship, I had 4 outstanding loan players which I couldn't get when playing in the Championship. So in fact, I was actually weaker that season and got blown away!

Chopper is spot on. I'm not sure anyone can take a team from the conference or league two into the prem in consecutive seasons, without using the editor before they start and during their game. I think it is almost impossible to do.

I don't know about anyone else but I have found the two toughest divisions to get out of were the BSP and the Championship. I'm currently in the year 2019, and have established quite a strong Chippenham side there now, but it has taken me a great amount of time to get where I am.

I think the most pleasing thing about it is when you see your non-league side in some crazy fixture, which just would not occur in real life. For example, the opening fixture of my new stadium saw my brave Chippenham side square off against the Italian giants Inter! Class

It's all about the tactics, my friend. All about the tactics.

On both my 1st seasons in the Championship and Premiership, it took last day wins over other relegation candidates to stay up. Was a fight all the way. I'm normally along the same lines as Nep, taking at least 3 or 4 seasons at each level, although I do normally get out the Conference levels quite quickly due to good loans.

As the other guys have said, I don't see how people can get consecutive promotions all the way, as once you hit League 1 level, it gets very very hard.

Whether it be Genie Scout, FMM, or the old "save it and reload it when you get beat in a big game" trick, something is a bit fishy.

It's all about the tactics, my friend. All about the tactics.

No it isn't. There's so much more you have to concentrate on when trying to take a team from the bottom to the top without cheating.

Agree with what Chopper has said, to be honest i can't think of anything more unenjoyable than consecutive promotions from BSN/BSS straight to the Premiersh*t, there's far more fun to be had scrapping for survival with a minimal budget etc.

In FM08, I have taken AFC Wimbledon to the Championship Division several times - once or twice with promotions every year. All without cheating and within the rules of the Dafuge Challenge. The key is the first and second years - there are many players available on free transfers who supposedly have "no intention" of joining your team who will join. Several of these players become leading Championship stars and improve every year. The second key is loan signings. Get as many as you can. In general, you have to find your own players who might join your team, because your scouts will steer you away from most of the good players.

Taking a team like Wimbledon to the Premiership is much tougher - starting in about league 2 - you have to search for and buy youngsters who you think are capable of becoming Premiership players. Sometimes your supposedly top-rated scouts will tell you these players will only become good league 1 players, but they eventually may far exceed that. This will probably take many extra added years for these players to develop, and for your club to build up enough resources to put you on par with other teams.

I think its possible. At least I'm unwilling to claim I 'know' that someone is cheating if they do it. I've gotten close to straight promotions in FM08 with good loans and a bit of luck.

That said, I've grown to enjoy a slower process, mainly by focusing on youth and playing partnerships with the idea that I'd like to have players who've played most of their careers together as the core of the team. You can break down the goals and it seems much more satisfying:

Year:

1. Find out who must go and who can stay. Streamline the club's finances and staff. Build relationships with other clubs for loans, rivalries, etc.. Survive and get to know the league (if a new league).

2. Bring in as many hopeful prospects as possible, but don't be bashful about hiring mostly old guys to bolster the squad. Expand scouting knowledge. Build reputation and develop team consistency so you know what you can expect out of them.

3. Use decent funding to push for (perhaps a second if you were in good shape the 1st year) promotion. Or continue to develop the squad so that when you are promoted you'll have some cohesion in playing staff the next year.

4. Etc..

I've only tried LLM twice, once with Genoa (when they were in C1) and once with Vauxhall Motors. I got Genoa to Seria A and then got relagated because nobody would join me, eventually qualified for the UEFA Cup and signed the likes of Pazzini (who was about 28). That was good fun. Vauxhall Motors was a bit too easy at first, I won the BSN and BSP at the first time of asking and was in the playoffs of League 2 when I got bored.

The best I've ever done was to get Rochdale promoted to league 1 inside 3 seasons, then relegated the next, then promoted and finally relegated back to league 2 where we stayed the next season and I quit my post in a hail of spit and hair...

Braintree at the moment, came second last season but will struggle to stay in division this year

I've taken Notts Forest to the prem with 2 consecutive promotions (twice now) but thats not LLM or even that hard, I took Barnet to the prem in about 7 seasons and Rushden to the championship in 5 seasons. My most successful run was with Cherbourg who I got to 3rd in Ligue 1 in 6 seasons.

I don't like playing in the BSP or BSN/S because I find it harder to judge what a good player looks like (with Rushden I was lucky with loans).

Cheating. Either by looking up what all the best young players are, or reloading after they lose, or both

There are a lot of people on here who claim to be masters at FM and everything is oh so easy for them. They are tactical genius's, they can spot a 16 year old with a PA of -10 with ease. Take it all with a pinch of salt. It's a hard game and when playing properly it will likely take many seasons and a lot of struggling to get a conference side to the premiership

It will be the same with 09. You'll hear people claiming to of won the premiership with Hull on their first attempt

The problem is if you get promoted two seasons on the run, it would be incredibly difficult to stay in the league. I dont like cheating, I would rather take another ten years and do it my way than cheat. It's impossible (in my opnion) to go straight through the leagues. I do:

Promotion, avoid relagation, mid table, Promotion. For each league, means you have a much better chance of staying in the league above.

Despite the claims of cheating. It is possible but consecutive promotions even i find hard to believe after CCC...upto CCC its easy to get promoted.

I don't know about anyone else but I have found the two toughest divisions to get out of were the BSP and the Championship. I'm currently in the year 2019' date=' and have established quite a strong Chippenham side there now, but it has taken me a great amount of time to get where I am.[/quote']

I agree with this. When you go from the BSN/BSS to the BSP, there's a huge gap in resources between the top teams, who are usually professional clubs, and your club. Add the fact there are only two teams out of 24 getting promoted and four relegated, and it's a very tough league to get out of. Once out I usually fly through L2, both because of the format (three auto spots, another four playoff spots, only two teams relegated) and because if you build a strong team in the BSP the step up generally isn't that huge.

The Championship is tough simply because three top tier teams come down every season and the top teams have a lot more resources than the bottom few.

i believe that a lot of these people do what i call:

save and load: save before every game and load if you loose the game!

sad!!!

I've done it with york in FM07 and FM08 (gone C,L2,L1,C,P) - but it's mainly luck tbh... usually I manage to do the conference without too much hassle - just with the right loan players and a couple free signings, I concentrate solely on the league (ie, any cup matches likely to interfere are done at a slow pace and resting as many major players as possible without getting a really crap run in the cups, but I never manage to win them). usually I won't make any signings in january but I will be trying to poach players from jan1st onwards - i always go to estonia first but that's personal preference lol in 08 I managed to get two estonian guys (Marko Ratsep who was a game gen and Taijo Teniste who's real) who stayed with me through my heady champs league days - i signed them when they were 18/19ish and i was in l2.

Then come end of season I sell anyone I don't want for the next season (including reserves, i don't have a competitive reserve team until about 5 years into the prem cos i just don't have anyone in it before then, it's always u18s playing) and with that money get a few underpriced players - i think with my total after l2 two seasons in last year i got Lars Stubhaug from everton for about 150/200k, he stayed with me until my third season in the premiership when i spent ridiculous amounts of money on JP Carrizo. sold him for ~£3m to aston villa i think lol

Using that formula I usually make the Conference ok, struggle a lil with L2 (as it's essentially the same team), do ok in L1 then struggle again in championship.... my teams have about 2 year cycles can you tell? lol plus i always play to win, even if it looks impossible - tell them to do it for the fans, get angry if they lose and they always seem to play a lil better then - have high expectations... i also have specialised training schedules for each position to make each player fit better into my tactics and they all do masses of fitness training so that if all else fails i can throw them all behind the ball for 80 minutes til the other teams knackered then win in the last 10. I never play anyone with fitness under 90.

I don't use scout or anything like that but I find a good place to look is international teams and u21s. I always end up with a team of youth players cos, with a good set of coaches, it's the easiest and cheapest way to get a good side together that doesn't need too many changes over the season - ie you get one fairly good RB who's 18 with some good potential in l2 you can keep him to the premiership, concentrate on other areas. Int teams like Estonia, Latvia etc are good poaching grounds from L2 up.

Also I once free transferred my whole defence after a really bad match towards the end of a season (we were a point of being champions so it wasn't a *major* risk)... they'd had bad form and they got 'unh' because of my teamtalks but all the same that's probably not a good piece of advice... lol

ps, just to clarify i don't always win the leagues - i don't think to this date on one of these campaigns I've managed to take the championship, I always get 2nd or playoffs and it always takes 2 or 3 seasons to even get in the running for the premiership.

It will be the same with 09. You'll hear people claiming to of won the premiership with Hull on their first attempt

Hey, at the rate they're going Hull are going to get Hull the premiership on their first attempt!

Hey, at the rate they're going Hull are going to get Hull the premiership on their first attempt!

true!

haha unlucky arsenal 2-1!

mind you, saying that- they will probably beat bolton! lol

Best I've done is Oxford Conference to Premiership in seven years. I managed Conf to Championship straight and it took me 2 or 3 years to get out of the Champ. I then struggled very very hard to stay up in the prem and managed it on the last day of the season.

It's hard, especially with a BSN/S team as building the club to quickly can damage finances and infrustructure.

I have to agree that the Championship is the hardest division to get out of, took me 4 seasons with Bristol City after I took over them in League one and got promoted first season.

I find that of the 3 promotion places, two are always filled by teams that got relegated from the Premiership the previous year, that leaves everyone else fighting for the 3rd place.

Ironically, when I finally got into the premiership, I finished 3rd in my first season, only missing out on 2nd place by a point.

Edit, I have only ever managed straight promotions when i have been using scouting programs to select the best players, I doubt I could do it otherwise on 08 or 07.

The best way I do it:

1: Look at released players from 3 divions above you

2: Look for players with key stats in key areas. Crossing for wingers, finishing for strikers

3. Pace/Acceleration is *key* in the lower leagues

4. Get a good parent club

5. Keep an eye out for Regens at the start of each season. I have sold 3 unattached regens for £3m total.

Here is my history:

I think I will be stuck in the championship for a while. The promotions were done on the back of regenerated free transfers, with my only spending being on the back of sales. It is possible.

Best I've done is Oxford Conference to Premiership in seven years. I managed Conf to Championship straight and it took me 2 or 3 years to get out of the Champ. I then struggled very very hard to stay up in the prem and managed it on the last day of the season.

It's hard, especially with a BSN/S team as building the club to quickly can damage finances and infrustructure.

I was wondering about your last point when I started reading this thread. What is the situation like with your stadium when you gain promotions quickly? Isnt there minimum standards for teams entering the premiership when it comes to seating capacity?

Just seems like it would be hard to generate enough revenue to build a decent ground in that time, do you end up playing in front of 10,000 people in the prem for a couple of seasons?

I seem to remember back on cm3/ cm0102 or something like that the board automatically upgraded my 6,000 capacity ground and plunged me into debt when i was promoted.

I was wondering about your last point when I started reading this thread. What is the situation like with your stadium when you gain promotions quickly? Isnt there minimum standards for teams entering the premiership when it comes to seating capacity?

Just seems like it would be hard to generate enough revenue to build a decent ground in that time, do you end up playing in front of 10,000 people in the prem for a couple of seasons?

I seem to remember back on cm3/ cm0102 or something like that the board automatically upgraded my 6,000 capacity ground and plunged me into debt when i was promoted.

My board have just decided to build a new stadium in the championship at a cost of £14m over 2 seasons. My anual income is about £14m, so I'm having to sell off players to keep the club solvent. There are no restrictions though, unlike real life. I am still in my 3000 capacity (100 seater) stadium.

I was wondering about your last point when I started reading this thread. What is the situation like with your stadium when you gain promotions quickly? Isnt there minimum standards for teams entering the premiership when it comes to seating capacity?

Just seems like it would be hard to generate enough revenue to build a decent ground in that time, do you end up playing in front of 10,000 people in the prem for a couple of seasons?

I seem to remember back on cm3/ cm0102 or something like that the board automatically upgraded my 6,000 capacity ground and plunged me into debt when i was promoted.

It's not too bad with Oxford as they have a 12500 capcacity ground. In the prem I had the lowest average crowds after selling out my increased capacity at 15000 (approx) this is the biggest issue when you go up high, you can generate the gates to get the wages for good players. I scoured the Championship for good young talent and it worked.

However what the guy who played with Worksop said is good advice. However this could be seen as slighly unrealistic.

Just to show you what is available for free if you look around:

Signed for free sold for £2m and 50%

Free, my chairman sold him . Had him in league 1. Creative force.

Andy P replacement, not as good but free.

My reputation has gone down in m second season in the championship. 150-1 to win the title, where as year before I was 80-1. Still expected to finish 24th. Reputation rises very slow IMO.

My players see a move to league 1 as a step up

Maybe Reputation should be improved because look at Wigan 6 years ago they were Division 3 look how far they have come. They don't struggle signing some amazing players. I.e Amar Zaki

I don't know about Zaki being amazing, average, maybe even good, but not amazing.

I was wondering about your last point when I started reading this thread. What is the situation like with your stadium when you gain promotions quickly? Isnt there minimum standards for teams entering the premiership when it comes to seating capacity?

Just seems like it would be hard to generate enough revenue to build a decent ground in that time, do you end up playing in front of 10,000 people in the prem for a couple of seasons?

I seem to remember back on cm3/ cm0102 or something like that the board automatically upgraded my 6,000 capacity ground and plunged me into debt when i was promoted.

I have found with my Chippenham side that the board did not touch my stadium or facilities until I reached League 1. Then year on year they did expansions on my ground, resulting in me ground sharing with Bristol City for approx. 4 seasons on and off (usually play June until Jan/Feb/March at Ashton Gate, then the remainder of the season back at my improved ground). I didn't complain because Ashton Gate allowed me to cram in gates of 18,000+ whereas when I moved back to my ground I could only fit in around 8,000.

Then after my second season in the Premiership, the board announced they were building a new 25,000 seater stadium. What was even stranger was as soon as that was announced, another statement was realeased informing me that they were building a stadium expansion on top of that taking the capacity to 32,000. Whilst I'm incredibly happy with my new home, I'm left with three loans hanging over my clubs finances.

I also found that the board would not improve the youth facilities or training facilities until I was established in the Championship. Now my Chippenham side are years behind other clubs with regards to our youth production, and training ground!

Actually, you don't need genie scout or whatsoever to know who are the good players.

Too many experienced players out there giving so much tips that when you follow, you get decent players enough to get a good challenge.

http://football-managers.blogspot.com/ is one website where I have been frequenting, and he uses this player called Marius Niculae from some where.

And its amazing, so cheap, yet good enough for use.

So, concerning cheating to find out good players, I think its not necessary.

Moreover powerful loans could be gotten, especially when Arsenal is around. Their youngsters pack a punch.

So unless you are saying not even looking through for people's advices and just try out your own fresh, treating these tips from other players as 'cheating' then, I have been cheating all the way ever since I bought FM08.

My reputation has gone down in m second season in the championship. 150-1 to win the title, where as year before I was 80-1. Still expected to finish 24th. Reputation rises very slow IMO.

My players see a move to league 1 as a step up

Where can you see your odds to win the title?

Yup - very true - you just need to know who the right players are - I can make a list of about 10-20 players you can get on free transfer for the Dafuge Challenge that will get you to the League One and possibly the Championship in no time. If your team is a Blue Square Premier team, and you have players good enough for League 1 or 2 - you're most likely going to win regardless of tactic. It can be as simple as finding the right players.

Isn't reading up about good players to sign just the same as using Genie Scout, so you might not hink it's cheating, but it kinda is. Only saying, I couldn't care less how you play your game, but it takes the shine off consecutive promotions.

In my case, I found all the players through trial and error.

Isn't reading up about good players to sign just the same as using Genie Scout, so you might not hink it's cheating, but it kinda is. Only saying, I couldn't care less how you play your game, but it takes the shine off consecutive promotions.

Yes, it is cheating.

I guess you're right about taking the shine off consecutive promotions but it aint fun being in the dark about good players to me...

Just to ask, anybody here NEVER looked to threads pertaining to good players before? i mean, strictly...

Just to ask, anybody here NEVER looked to threads pertaining to good players before? i mean, strictly...

I wouldn't go looking for it, but i've been in threads and seen players mentioned. No big deal either way, I tend not to buy players with high PA and go for attributes only, most of the players mentioned here are only mentioned because of their PA.

Just to ask, anybody here NEVER looked to threads pertaining to good players before? i mean, strictly...

I've never!

I keep away from looking at anything like that as it would definitely spoil my enjoymet of the game. At the end of the day, that's half the fun finding quality players on your own isn't it?

Just to ask, anybody here NEVER looked to threads pertaining to good players before? i mean, strictly...

Oh yeah, I've done it on past versions of FM - mainly '05 & '06. But you soon realise that the feeling of achievement is soooo much better if you play wihout 'cheating' in any way.

So yes, I have done it. But my point is that it is not possible to get back to back promotions from the BSN/BSS to the Premier League without cheating in some way.

Okay i see, so the emphasis is 'back-to-back' promotions... because some posts here they are not showing strictly back to back promotion... with many staggering around the championship stage..

Ya... I too don't think progressing at this kind of fast rate is radically possible... its a quantum leap jump from championship to premier... maybe a few seasons in championship or league 1 i believe...