dafuge's FM10 challenge

[SnakeXe]

Good season kaNovi, reckon automatic promotion is a possibility next year? Didn't get on well with the playoffs in League One, think my record was P4 W1 D0 L3

[kaNovi]

I hope so, i havent won a playoff yet in FM 10 so im hoping i can get automatic promotion.. I have made a couple of nice signings and are currently in a playoffspot with 12 games played!

Nice season summary poul hehe, gl next year..

[SnakeXe]

I hope so, i havent won a playoff yet in FM 10 so im hoping i can get automatic promotion.. I have made a couple of nice signings and are currently in a playoffspot with 12 games played!

Nice season summary poul hehe, gl next year..

At the half way point this season I have half the number of points that were required for a playoff spot last year, but am sitting 10th... so I hope that we can keep it up whilst the rest of the league don't!

[Bartman]

OMG! This is simply incredible. For the 5th consecutive (Technically 6th for FC United) I've been promoted. We finished in 5th place in the Championship, making it to the Final by the grit of my teeth. There it just went crazy. Peterborough we faced, just take a look.
Play-Off Final

Season Summary coming later

EDIT: New Stadium due for the end of next season. But what a fail the "Marginson Arena" surely I'm more worthy of the stadium name than some ex-manager who couldn't even take FC United to Blue Square North!

[Annihilator666]

Congrats Bartman...

[thezogsageordie]

Impressive Bartman!

[thenamesfang]

Ah I'm there now do I need to submit the intervening seasons, or is it okay that I just did the latest?

By the way, anything more than a couple is several - therefore 3 is several

It records the best season you've ever had, which is usually the latest season for most people =) Nah, for my purposes there's no need to submit the intervening ones. Doesn't add much value. Season updates on the forum are definitely more important!

[Peregrine]

After seeing how people have been succeeding with their Merthyr saves, and being unable to play with either Truro or Durham, I'm tempted to start again with Oxford City, bizarrely in the BSN. I wasn't able to get very far with Merthyr due to university work and I found myself particularly disheartened when a crash dump in the 89th minute cost me a likely first victory of the season away at Lewes!

Finding their logo isn't particularly difficult... Can anyone tell me how to patch that into my save please?

[foost]

Bartman; how the hell did you manage to sign Arnautovic... damn

[sheeshy]

and being unable to play with either Truro or Durham,

You mean they never come up?!

[looking busy]

Looking Busy's King's Lynn Season 3 - Blue Square North Champions!!!

Not got the screenshots yet as i'm at work but I've got out of the Blue Square North.

Champions confirmed on the final day thanks to a 1-1 draw with Altringham. I should have made it a lot easier for myself. I was 4 points clear with two games to go and a 14 goal lead on the GD. I finished both games draws, 2-2 away at FC United after being 2-1 in the 84th minute, and 1-1 against Alty after going 1 up. I had the comfort of knowning that Droyslden were never going to overturn a 14 goal difference in 2 games, so that was basically another point, but we did limp over the line somewhat. Nerves, injuries and suspensions didn't help. But that's done with. I've got my first success with King's Lynn. Blue Square North Champions. I've never managed a lower league club before, in all my years of playing Champ Man and FM, so i actually think this is my best acheivement so far.

It was desperately needed as we are nearly £250k in debt. Towards the end of the season the board stumped up £45k to get us out of financially insecure back to 'okay'

Will post the screenshots sometime over the weekend. But bring on the Premiership (Blue Square anyway)

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Over the past few days I've had not much time to play FM which really destroys your enthusiasm for continuing a game started ages ago thats only 2 months into the season hence, I have restarted as manager of Cambridge City. I have plenty of time this weekend so I hope I can get a couple of seasons done. As a taster we currently sit top (like most of us regulars do) with a clear lead of 10 points after 13 games. 12 wins and a draw is seeing us dominate.

Our FA Cup run has been excellent so far including a 3-0 win away to Wrexham of the BS Premier. However we've just been held to a 1-1 draw in the 1st Round at home to non-league Dartford.

Must be the Daffy influence eh?

[JonnyCurrie]

Dartford - Coca Cola League Two - 2014/15

Predicted: 15th
Finished: 2nd

League Table
Graph

Kinda like last season we started off poorly (although not as bad) and then made a mad run for it in the closing part of the season. In the end we probably should have won the title but I'll not cry over that.

Cups were left virtually as nothing more but distractions - even FA Cup took a back seat.

Transfers Actually booted a lot of my players out around Jan/Feb out of sheer frustration at poor performances. In the end it might have just been the thing we needed. Fitzharris was sold, as was a lot of first-teamers.

Squad Young, French and Scottish.

Finances Terrible once again.

Key Men

Anthony Baptiste Good French keeper picked up on a free - looks like he could be the business.
Fourtier Another good season from him.
James Keatings Got his fair share of goals and generally kept up good performances all season.
Reynald Viennet French Winger with pace and a good assist quota.
Xavier Munier My star striker. Composure personified. Got my most amount of goals ever for a single player for Dartford.



Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2010/11   Blue Square South        4th         Promoted Via Play-Offs
2011/12   Blue Square Premier      5th         Defeated in Play-Off Semi-Final
2012/13   Blue Square Premier      1st         Promoted as Champions
2013/14   Coca Cola League Two     10th        n/a 
2014/15   Coca Cola League Two     2nd         Promoted

Next Season

I'm expected a long, tough season. Hopefully the finances can get in better shape and we can survive. I have three strikers coming in with 'leading league one player' labels, so here's hoping they can hit the ground running.

[hassebasse80]

Quickest hat-trick so far from one of my players


Match

[dafuge]

Our FA Cup run has been excellent so far including a 3-0 win away to Wrexham of the BS Premier. However we've just been held to a 1-1 draw in the 1st Round at home to non-league Dartford.

Must be the Daffy influence eh?

I'm still managing them in spirit

[Thebaker]

I'm still managing them in spirit

Are you sure you're not managing them IRL as they are doing very nicely

[dafuge]

Are you sure you're not managing them IRL as they are doing very nicely

I got 94 points in the 09/10 season, it will be interesting to see how many they really get

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Well I'm off all weekend so I am hopeful of actually getting a full season report up.

The League is being walked with ease and there still remains the possibility of an unbeaten League season. It's amazing the quality of player you can sign if you look hard enough. Finally did for Dartford on penalties in the replay away. But the big story is:

FA Cup - 3rd Round
Cambridge City 1-0 Sheffield Utd

Not bad for a BSN side. Reward 4th round tie away to either Millwall or Cardiff??? Gee Thanx guys.

[kaNovi]

ahead 1-0 after 80minutes against Premier League no 2. Arsenal in the FA Cup 5th round. Im in league one. Guess the result

[hamilton162]

ahead 1-0 after 80minutes against Premier League no 2. Arsenal in the FA Cup 5th round. Im in league one. Guess the result

3-1 Arsenal?

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Bound to be 3-1.

FA Cup - 4th Round
Millwall 0-2 Cambridge City!!!

After being dominated by Sheff Utd in the last Round we were surprisingly the better side against Millwall. A BSN side in the 5th Round!

[stokes_83]

Boston Utd - Blue Square North - 2011/12

Final Position - 3rd (Promoted through playoff!)
Predicted Finish - 9th

Final League Table
Positions Graph

My second season at the helm of Boston Utd came with big expectations from within the organization. Although we were only predicted to finish 9th, I had big desire to earn promotion, both because I felt our club was good enough to league and because I really didn't want to go through a third year in the bottom tier. The team was very consistent throughout the year and we nearly won the league outright, but settled for a playoff birth which ended with Boston Utd winning promotion. The final game was a nail biter however thanks to Robert Dale heading home in the 106th minute we are on to the Blue Square Premier league! I really haven't play the Dafuge challenge in too much depth over th eyars, however this is the 1st time I have ever won promotion out of the BSS/BSN leagues (in probably 5 attempts) so I am very happy.

Top Transfer News

Robert Dale (In) - The veteran striker was signed on a free from Blyth. He has good all around skills and a history of being a fairly consistent scorer at this level.
Michael Donald (In) - This is another player signed from Blyth on a free. My #1 goal in the transfer market was to upgrade the center of the defence, and Michael Donald was my best signing at this spot. Although I didn't get as much of an upgrade as I had desired, he provided me with another decent option at CB.
Steven McDonnell (In) - Coming over from Celtic on a free in late July, McDonnell has ability and talent like no other in the squad. He is easily one of the best players in my team and in the league. A great signing for the organization.

Cup Results
FA Cup - Knocked out in 4th Round Qualifying
FA Trophy - Knocked out in 2nd Round by a good Histon club.

General Information
Confidence
Finances
Transfers
Squad
Overall Stats

Top 5 performers of the season:

Robert Dale - (Avg rating 7.15) An amazing season for the new signing. 38 goals total, and led the BSN with 32 goals.
Chris Wood - (Avg rating 7.04) A steady influence at RB had a very strong and consistent season.
Michael Donald -(Avg rating 7.02) The new signing at DC exceeded expectations and quickly establshed himself as a regular first choice at DC.
Ricky Holmes - (Avg rating 7.01) The star right winger tied the BSN record for assists in a season with 18, and nearly won player of the year in the Blue Square North division.
Steven McDonnell - (Avg rating 7.01) Finished 2nd in the league in pass completion and 1st in the league in tackles with 3.12/game.

Top 3 Prospects:

Andy Doyle
Chimaobi Peters
Liam Cross

Outlook for 2012/13 Season in the Blue Square Premier Division:
Well there will be lots of off-season tasks for me to improve the squad and build a club that is capable of competing at the higher level. I would satisified with avoiding relegation and building around a few strong players for future years.

Career Overview

Boston Utd
Season        Division                    Position                 Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11       Blue Square North           9th
2011/12       Blue Square North           3rd                   Promoted (through playoff)

[Drewski]

Drewski. Boston United. 2019/2020. Premier League

I made it my goal to make sure that we didn't get relegated this season, and to help me reach that goal the board gave me £19m to spend on players, needless to say, it paid off as we survived with 3 games to go, the final table, even though we survived I can't help but wonder what would have happened if we had continued our good form from the start of the season, we did start well but fell away and got caught in the relegation dogfight for the majority of the season.

Squad - new squad for this season, there were only a few players that pleased me with their performances of the duration of the season; Akinfeev - that's right, you read that correctly, Igor Akinfeev, one of Europe's best goalies in his prime at 33, cost me a measly £800k after his contract was expiring, so I thought what the hell, put in a bid and he accepted, just thinking that if I had him a bit sooner then we could have been a few places higher than we finished, he put in some brilliant performances during the time he was in goal, I could not ask for anything else from him; Sanchez - my one reliable defender, never put a foot wrong and when he was on form then the team played quite well as well, I say quite well because the 6 in front of him were poor; Souza - came with a £6.75m price tag, doesn't look that special, but he's still young and I'm certain he will come good within the next few years or so, 3 goals in the league is a bit disappointing but hopefully this will improve once he plays a bit more next season.

Transfers - the usual, players in, rubbish out/released.

Finances

Aims for next season:

Stay up.
Improve squad.
Get someone who will score goals.

[roseboy64]

Second consecutive league win. Boston Utd are in League Two. Update later.

[SnakeXe]

Season 11 - SnakeXe's Merthyr Tydfil

Coca-Cola Championship - 6th, Play-Off Winners (Table)
FA Cup - 3rd Round (lost v Stoke)
League Cup - Quarter Final (lost v Leeds)

Transfers

And Merthyr are in the Premier League!!!

A great run-in to the end of the season, sneaking in to the play-off spots over the last couple of games, and we carried it on with a great away win at Crystal Palace in the semi-final when down to 10 men to take us to the final, and an incredible last minute winner in the final from top-scorer and general hero of the season Javier Montes

Aside from the league, we had a great run to the quarter final of the League Cup, losing slightly unluckily away at Leeds. Another board takeover occurred, we're now owned by the fans... although I could have sworn the takeover I had way back in the BSS was by a fans consortium

Finances were bad, slipping to debts of over £2m before the board took out a loan to cover it - which is payable until 2046! Slightly worried about how we're going to afford a new stadium as well - we definitely need it, as Penydarren Park only seats 1500 (up to 10,000 unseated) and can't be redeveloped. On the plus side, I'm a legend at the club so the new stadium may well be named after me when it comes

Edit: Oh 10,000 seats is okay I guess, but 8 months to complete it?! It'll be January before we can fit more than 1500 in the ground!

Season    League                  Position  Achievements                  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11   Blue Square South       1st       Blue Square South Champions, Promoted
2011/12   Blue Square Premier     1st       Blue Square Premier Champions, Promoted
2012/13   Coca-Cola League Two    4th       Play-Off Winners, Promoted
2013/14   Coca-Cola League One    6th       Play-Off Semi-Finalists
2014/15   Coca-Cola League One    4th       Play-Off Semi-Finalists
2015/16   Coca-Cola League One    17th      Johnstone's Paint Trophy Winners
2016/17   Coca-Cola League One    2nd       Promoted
2017/18   Coca-Cola Championship  18th      None
2018/19   Coca-Cola Championship  21st      None
2019/20   Coca-Cola Championship  9th       None
2020/21   Coca-Cola Championship  6th       Play-Off Winners, Promoted

Previous Season Reports:
Season 1 - 2010/11
Season 2 - 2011/12
Season 3 - 2012/13
Season 4 - 2013/14
Season 5 - 2014/15
Season 6 - 2015/16
Season 7 - 2016/17
Season 8 - 2017/18
Season 9 - 2018/19
Season 10 - 2019/20

[SnakeXe]

Can someone just confirm that the Premier League TV money doesn't come in as one lump sum? Otherwise I've just found a seeeeriously annoying bug!

[Scab]

It does not come as one lump sum.

[SnakeXe]

It does not come as one lump sum.

Thank god

[dlnwba86]

Bit dissappointed to see in real life King's Lynn are no more. Wound up a few days ago so probably won't be part of this challenge next year. We'll have to carry on the name for this season at least!!

[Annihilator666]

Annihilator666 - Guiseley - Season 11/12 - Blue Square North

Table - League Table | Position Graph
Squad - Guiseley Squad
Transfers - Transfers Summary
Finances - Finance Summary
Other Info - Club Information | Manager Information
Top Scorer - Nadir Ciftci
Records - Overall Records | Season Records
Best Eleven - Overall | Season
Competition History - Past League Positions | Full Competitions History

A fantastic season for Guiseley. Once I hit the top of the league I never looked back and ended up becoming champions comfortably.

However, my finances are a shambles and for the first time I'm gonna have to bring in a few loan signings to fill out the squad. I hate doing this as I prefer signing my own players and seeing them develop, but oh well. Hopefully I can get a nice run in the FA Cup this season and rake in some gate receipts somewhere.

Aims for next season:

-- Survive in BSP.
-- Fix the financial situation!

[roseboy64]

Boston United - Season 2 - Blue Square Premier - 2011/2012

Media Prediction - 23rd
Final Position - 1st
FA Cup - 3rd Round
FA Trophy - First Round

League Table
Position Graph
Transfers
Finances
Manager Profile
Manager Personal

So started off the season with some mediocre performances but ended up in the top half soon enough. Managed to pick up some long unbeaten runs and cement myself there for the rest of the season. Was in the promotion places for the smiddle of the season and managed to claim first in the season run in. Had a few blips here and there with losses I shouldn't have had but squeaked through with a last day win. Mansfield were on top for most of the season and rightfully they got promoted after a bit of shoddy form saw me overtake them.

In the cups I surpassed expectations and managed to get to the 3rd round of the FA Cup. Got beaten by Liverpool though so fair enough and it was an away tie so that was handy for the coffers and put me well out of the red. In the FA Trophy I only managed one round. Probably for the best of my league ambitions though as the rest of the contenders were still involved in the end.

Made a lot less signings than usual. Had made some new signings before the season though. Managed to get a pretty good AM and got in some nice loan signings. Already bought one for next season and may be getting the other but squad's already had some players brought in. Finally managed a Man Utd loan, a striker, and he looks like he'll be great for this season.

Looking for consolidation and some cup runs. Maybe a promotion place if I'm lucky.

Awards
Manager of Season
Team of Season

League               Season    Finished  Notes
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blue Square North    10/11       1st    Champions
Blue Square Premier  11/12       1st    Champions

[Drewski]

Also have a certain Andre-Pierre Gignac in my side, much needed experience

[kaNovi]

Hamilton and steph, you are correct, lol

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Nice promotion snake.

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Update: -

FA Cup - 5th Round
Cambridge City (BSN) 3-3 Wolverhampton Wanderers (EPL)

Emotions swung one way then the other in this one. Trailing 2-1 with 3 minutes to go Colin Heath hammered home an equaliser from close range that looked to have taken the tie to a replay at Molyneux but them in the last minute former Man U striker Heath hit in a 20 yard free-kick. The ref said 2 minutes of time added on however, our celebrations must have gone on for an hour and a half as Wolves equalised after 90+4 minutes!!!

Gutted!

[kaNovi]

Well done on promotions Snake, Annihilator, Stokes and Roseboy..

[dafuge]

Update: -

FA Cup - 5th Round
Cambridge City (BSN) 3-3 Wolverhampton Wanderers (EPL)

Emotions swung one way then the other in this one. Trailing 2-1 with 3 minutes to go Colin Heath hammered home an equaliser from close range that looked to have taken the tie to a replay at Molyneux but them in the last minute former Man U striker Heath hit in a 20 yard free-kick. The ref said 2 minutes of time added on however, our celebrations must have gone on for an hour and a half as Wolves equalised after 90+4 minutes!!!

Gutted!

That should do wonders for your finances though, should set you up nicely for the next couple of years.

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

That should do wonders for your finances though, should set you up nicely for the next couple of years.

Indeed this cup run has netted me approximately £750k. Mainly through TV money.

No excuse for not rising through the Divisions now.

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

FA Cup - 5th Round Replay
Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Cambridge City

Outplayed and outclassed but it was good whilst it lasted.

The League is virtually won already and we still have an FA Trophy Semi-Final tie with Mansfield to come. Have to say this is my best ever lowest league performance in all my CM/FM years especially only getting my 1st defeat on Feb 23rd! Season summary coming soon.

[dafuge]

My first big milestone

and what a way to celebrate it

[SnakeXe]

Cheers for the congrats on promotion

Trying to work out who will and won't do the biz at Premier League level is becoming a bit of a headache

[Cardiomolester]

After relegation last season, we are once again champions of the BSN

[SnakeXe]

Just resigned my best youth team product who'd left 3 seasons ago for a bigger club... we passed him as his team went down

[dafuge]

Tooting & Mitcham United FC - Coca-Cola Championship - 2018/19

After the playoff defeat last season we had to pick ourselves up and have another go.

League Table
League Positions Graph

We made the playoffs comfortably but just couldn't keep up with the leading pack.

Playoff semi leg 1 - can't really complain with this result, with Benny back from suspension for the second leg we stand a decent chance of reaching the final.

Playoff semi leg 2 - a great free kick set up a relatively easy victory.

Playoff final - we hit them on the break and snatched an early goal and after that the game died out. Southampton were surprisingly unadventurous and barely threatened our goal.


FA Cup - once again we had a great run and found ourselves at Wembley once again in the semi final but Newcastle beat us easily.

Carling Cup - the usual early exit to a better team.


Transfers - we made huge profits this year as a lot of our better players were allowed to leave with younger players brought in to replace them.

Squad - the size of the squad has been trimmed and a couple of English players have been brought in.


Key Player Profiles:

Ander Casado - a potential future star who had a great first season at the club.

Benny Schonewille - once again he had a great goalscoring record from midfield.

Alfredo Mesa - I sold my star of last season (Milan Pesa) to bring in this talented defender.

Hamza Recker - this was his first proper season as a first team player and he looks like a quality player.

Dariusz Kryszak - once again my backup striker proved he was worthy of a place in the team. His contract is up at the end of the season and he is looking to smash my highest wage, so he might be let go soon.

Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2010/11   Blue Square South        5th         Promoted via playoffs
2011/12   Blue Square Premier      8th
2012/13   Blue Square Premier      2nd         Promoted via playoffs, FA Trophy finalists
2013/14   Coca-Cola League 2       6th         Lost in playoff final
2014/15   Coca-Cola League 2       1st         Promoted as champions
2015/16   Coca-Cola League 1       4th         Promoted via playoffs, JPT finalists
2016/17   Coca-Cola Championship   9th
2017/18   Coca-Cola Championship   6th         Lost in playoff semi
2018/19   Coca-Cola Championship   4th         Promoted via playoffs

Next Season

Now is when things get interesting as we test ourselves out in the top flight. Although the squad is possibly good enough to compete, there is a lot of work to do. My finances are good with £20m in the bank so I am going to have to make sure we bring in quality players as early as possible.

I'm interested to see what happens with my stadium, at the moment it holds 8000 and cannot be expanded so I think there is a chance of a new stadium.

And here it is, nothing fancy but at least it is an improvement.

[iacovone]

Good season dafuge, I've been following from afar your Tooting exploits. Ander Casado could go on to be quite special

[dafuge]

Good season dafuge, I've been following from afar your Tooting exploits. Ander Casado could go on to be quite special

I hope so. My coaches rate him as a good PL player so hopefully he can handle the step up.

[Annihilator666]

Good job dafuge.

[spankie]

Sutton United - League 2 2012/2013

This season was a little strange. The last two seasons were fairly straightforward and we won the league with a few games to spare. This time however it was very much tighter at the top and anyone could beat anyone.
Things weren't helped with the first real winter drop in team form in this save game. I suspect that losing Victor Palsson to injury during that time didn't help matters and possibly was one of the main causes.

At the end of the season things were so tight at the top of the league that even a draw could drop you 2 or 3 places.
With one game left to play we were top by 2 points but with a worse goal difference and had to go away to Northampton. Torquay were at home against Macclesfield. So we needed a win to guarantee us the title, a draw meant that we needed Torguay fail to win.
I believe that my team were mentally already off on their holidays as we conceeded a goal each half and I was a little shocked to see that Torquay only drew 0-0.
Here's the table with 2 points separating champions and the first play off spot
Here's the Sutton United squad


Championship side Reading knocked us out of the League Cup in the first round.
The JPT saw us knock out League 1 side Gillingham in the first round but their fellow L1 side MK Dons knocked us out the following round 2-0.

The FA Cup however was a very big bonus for us.
In the second round we knocked out League 1 fliers Swindon 3-1 with a Cowan-Hall hattrick
The third round we went to Championship side Watford and played weel enough to get a replay after a 2-2 draw
The replay saw us play even beeter and romped home 4-1 again thanks to a Cowan-Hall hattrick
The fourth round saw the first visit to Gander Green Lane of a Premier League team in a competative match with West Brom coming to town. The Baggies going down to 10 men early on was a help to us and we managed to scrape a goal with our only shot on target. When the Baggies had a second man sent off I thought that the game was our's, but we conceeded a silly free kick late in injury time near our box and they floated in the ball that beat all of our defender and we ended up drawing 1-1 to get another replay. That replay was more of the same with the Baggies runnign the match and winning by a single own goal

Still after that adventure our finances are in rude health with at one point over £1M in the bank, but at the end of the season it dropped down to £764k
Still the board agreed to a facility upgrade costing £450k, but won't touch the youth facilities and said that the council won't allow the statium to be upgraded.

Like a lot of us managers I transferred out a lot of dead wood. The biggest casualty was last season's top scorer Richard Logan as he dropped from 4 stars to barely 2 stars and really struggled in the very few games I played him in.

I've also signed a couple of regens that broke into the first team.
Steve Cleaver is a versatile fullback who was released by Man City. he does dive into tackles and that did lead to his red card.
Dean Cronin was also released by Man City. I hope that I'll keep him for a while as I can see him being captain in a year or 2. For the most part he was oustanding and was requently mentioned in commentary as being immense in the air.
The "real" players I signed included Francis laurent who did very well as deep lying forward. I had hoped that he would get more then 15 goals, but his huge 21 assists more then made up for it.
Victor Palsson was my biggest signing this season. He played the defensive midfielder rols very well.
This season Paris Cowan-Hall came into his own with a huge 32 goals in 39 starts with 11 goals in 7 cup games to boot. He really benefitted from Laurent's build up play.


Next Season
My aim is to stay in League 2. I have the feeling that the gulf between L1 and L2 is very much bigger then L2 and BSP.
The board have actually given me a transfer fund of £120k, which I've since boosted with a player sale or 2. I still have a couple more players I need to ship out.
I've made 3 signings for the first team already including a pair for French regens and Plymouth's Liam head and another 2 who will be involved on the fringe of the first team, including yet another Man City reject.
I've already got my eye on a player to spend the whole transfer fund on, he's a 5 star regen keeper at L2 Tranmere, but they don't want to sell him. I think that I may have to do a Harry to get him

Season          League                     Position        Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2010/11        Blue Square South        1st         Promoted as champions.
2011/12        Blue Square Premier      1st         Promoted as champions, FA trophy winners
2012/13        League Two               1st         Promoted as champions.

Edit:
I've managed to sign the keeper, Ian Barrat is only 17 and it took all my transfer fun, including a wage adjustment and a lot of clauses including £240k over 4 years and £50k after promotion. But he'll be worth it and could be sold for a lot of money.
Now I've got 3 keepers I needs to sell

[Aario]

Team of the week

[roseboy64]

BTW anyone else has a John Morling in there game?

[gargle]

omg.. just won promotion from league1 on a goal at 119:20!

Chippenham 3 - Huddersfield 2

[Cardiomolester]

2012/13 - Hendon - Blue Square North

After last season's relegation (I thought about embarrassment but that's not the word, because it wasn't really), I had hoped we would be able to bounce back well enough. The media seemed to think we wouldn't though.

Media Prediction: 7th
League Finish: 1st
League Graph

We never left the play-offs and once again, top spot was something we never let go of. As well as this, we only lost one match amongst the whole season and broke the 100 point mark.

Transfers

FA Cup
FA Trophy

The combined sale of Bagshaw (who was utterly shyte) and good runs in the cups meant our finances were back in black.. for all of 3 months and we're 20 grand in the red currently..

Squad

Key Player Profiles

Przemyslaw Kazimierczak

The Pole in goal was absolutely phenominal and far too good for the BSN in my opinion. My point is proved by the fact that his goals conceded and clean sheets were equal at 31! Excellent season.

Mansour Assoumani

Another great season from the stopper in defence. The Comoros international missed very little games and was solid at the back - he even scored goals when he could.

Gordon Dick

The centre back was great now that we're back in the Conference league and was a rock alongside Assoumani and even scored a memorable hat-trick in one match.. I'd also like to point out none of those were headers!

Nick Main

The centre midfielder was excellent this year and managed to get up in amongst the scorers. 12 goals and 9 assists capped off a great season.

Luca Santonicito

The Italian was superb as this year's playmaker and contributed highly in both assists and goals in what was an excellent season all round at the club.

Craig McShea

Craig was not as prolific as previous seasons but still scored 24 and laid on a further 11 to ensure we did well this year. However, a lone striker role is now used and we really need a target man. This is something which Craig isn't so this may be his last season..

Career Overview

Season      League                   Position        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2010/11    Blue Square North          1st            BSN Champions
2011/12    Blue Square Premier       23rd             Relegated
2012/13    Blue Square North          1st            BSN Champions

[gargle]

Gargra - Chippenham Town - Coca-Cola league 1 - 2013/2014

Was expecting to spend atleast two seasons here but my scouts found some truly amazing players for me. just hope they can keep up next season.

League Table - Still in shock at my placing

Transfers

Finances - It's looking up this season. Wonder how next gonna go.

Squad

Key Players:

Troy Brown - King of the defence this year too

Nathaniel Wedderburn - followed up last season with a decent performance in this league too. beeing my most important midfielder.

Pablo Blasco - Best player i've got so far. Still love my scout for this one.

Supersub of the year:

Henrik Ojamaa

Season      League                   Position    Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11    Blue Square South           4th         Promotion(Playoff)
2011/12    Blue Sqaure Premier         3rd         Promotion(Playoff), FA Trophy
2012/13    Coca-Cola League 2          3rd         Promotion
2013/14    Coca-Cola League 1          4th         Promotion(Playoff), Johnstone's Paint Trophy

Next season
Beeing a small team gotta catch up to me sooner or later. I guess this is the season. Just hope we can avoid relegation

[Smithers]

After nearly 2 weeks off, I'm ready to return to Oxford City, currently 3rd in the BSP after 23 games.

[SnakeXe]

Good job bouncing straight back up Cardio, I hope I don't have to do the same - Merthyr's debut season in the Premier League is proving a tricky job!

Edit: Great job gargle, just spotted your update! The Championship was a huge step up for me, and I spent 4 seasons in League One, so if you can compete I'll be impressed

[dafuge]

A significant moment for me, my first wonderkid:

Josh O'Donnell

Amazingly, Arsenal released him in 2018 so he was an absolute steal.

[zebanumut]

Dafuge here i go mate.This will be my first challenge ever.I managed lower league teams before but not that low .Just started a new game and pressed go on holiday till 24th June.Holiday Man name:First Man Last Man(very creative)
Loaded top players from continent with large db.

Lets see how it goes.Its gonna be damn hard

[Annihilator666]

Annihilator666 - Guiseley - Season 12/13 - Blue Square Premier

Table - League Table | Position Graph
Squad - Guiseley Squad
Transfers - Transfers Summary
Finances - Finance Summary
Other Info - Club Information | Manager Information
Top Scorer - Guillem Bauzá
Records - Overall Records | Season Records
Best Eleven - Overall | Season
Competition History - Past League Positions | Full Competitions History

A decent first season in the Blue Square Premier during which I really didn't encounter many problems, except financially. Towards the end of the season I was pushing for the final playoff spot, but a win on the final day didn't matter as Darlington also won and therefore sneaked into the playoffs.

For the first time, I had a decent run in the FA Cup, making it to the second round. Didn't get any big draws on the way there though, and was knocked out by Gateshead infront of 350 spectators...

There was a board takeover during the season too, but no investments were forthcoming. Instead, the new board took out a £300k loan to bring the balance back into the black though it didn't stay that way for very long.

Aims for next season:

-- Push for a playoff spot
-- Cup run to alleviate the financial pressures

[Rattlesnake_85]

Well I decided to give the challenge another go

Say hi to the new manager of Bradford PA:
http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...ileseason1.jpg

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Cambridge City - Blue Square North - 2010/11

Media Prediction was 19th but I wanted promotion even if it meant via the play-offs.

League Table

As it turns out we had an outstanding season. Now usually like a lot of us I can eventually plough through the Leagues and eventually complete the challenge however, this season was definitely beyond anyone's wildest dreams. Our defence was outstanding and we remained unbeaten during the season although there were one or two scary moments.

Player stats

We may scored an awful lot of goals but we failed to get the top scorer in the Division. However, Fuller's 28 assists was clearly the best as was his 9 MOM awards.

FA Cup

An excellent run in the FA Cup which brought us in a fortune (mainly through TV money) finally ended in a 2-1 loss away to Wolves in a 5th Round Replay. We nearly didn't get there though as the mighty Dartford took us to a replay at their ground in the 2nd Round and we scraped through on penalties. For excitement how about this game in a 3rd Round Replay?

FA Trophy

No real problems here. Considering our League form it was no surprise that we suprisingly won the FA Trophy (if you know what I mean). We almost slipped up in the Semi-Final 2nd leg at home to Mansfield though as we trailed 2-0 and scored 3 late goals. In the Final we easily defeated Wrexham 4-1 (having already won 3-0 away to the Blue Square Premier side in the 4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup.

Squad

Not too bad for the Conference North and although we did not have enough strength in depth in my view our 1st XI were certainly excellent. We spent nothing at all to bring in players because we had no transfer budget but surprisingly at this level its not too difficult to bring in real quality on full time contracts.

Player Profiles

GK James Gilpin - (age 20) - 27 clean sheets last season in the league. 38 clean sheets overall shows why I signed him from Burton Albion on a free and why he took over in goal from about game 7.

DR Matt Haniver - (age 29) - Only got to play in 23 games last season in the league and clearly needs replacing. He's a bit too old for my kind of squad and certainly not fit enough although he did chip in with 9 assists in the league.

DL James Krause (age 24) - A good solid season but wasn't really pushed by anyone to keep his place. He will be pushed next season.

DC David Theobald (age 32) - A good solid season but just like Haniver is too old and too unfit to be in an SMSL squad. We released him at the end of the season and he has now joined Alfreton Town who won promotion from our Division via the play-offs.

DC Ollie Rowe (age 20) - A good season for this youngster I brought in on a free from Brighton. Don't think he's quite good enough to keep his place this coming season though.

MC Stephen Smith (age 24) - 8 goals and 9 assists in the league. Won't keep his place next season though as Falkingham is better and 2 more MCs have since been signed who are also better. Should be a useful squad player for now though if the fixtures start to pile up again.

MC Josh Falkingham (age 20) - 4 goals and 4 assists in 21 league games for this youngster signed on a free from Leeds. Should be one of 3 quality MCs next season.

AMR Rob Nightingale (age 30) - Excellent season for the vice captain. He managed 11 goals and 18 assists last season. No real threat to his position yet and that needs to be addressed.

AML Ashley Fuller (age 24) - Was the only player fit enough to play all 42 league games last season managing 14 goals and a whopping 28 assists. Overall he managed 59 apps, 19 goals, 34 assists and 11 MOMs. During the season he picked up a massive ONE yellow card. Funny thing is I don't actually rate him and he needs replacing but can you argue with stats like that???

SC Colin Heath (age 27) - The goals came a plenty due mainly to an ex-Man Utd strikeforce that was at the club before I arrived. 23 League goals in just 30 league games was enough to be our top scorer however, with our very attack-minded formation when the games pile-up a lot of rotation is need (well unless you are Ashley Fuller).

SC Ramon Calliste (age 25) - The 2nd part of the ex-Man Utd strikeforce notched up 19 goals in 27 league games. Not quite as good a player as Heath and due to new signing Vasilev he may sit on the bench a lot more this season.

Late season signings

DL Thomas Lyskov (age 19) - Signed from Reading on a free. Will certainly give Krausse a good run for that left back spot and has even more potential. An added bonus is that he's very quick indeed.

DC Calum Butcher (age 20) - Signed from Spurs on a free. All the right physical attributes for the position.

SC Radoslav Vasilev (age 20) - Another free signing from Reading. So good that 6 goals and 2 assists in just 4 games got him into our top 16 of the season. Definitely our number one striker for the coming season.

DR Georg Grasser (age 20) - Signed from West Ham on a free. Will be first choice right back next season.

Finances

TV money from the FA Cup run means that for the forseeable future we have no money worries. The board decided to improve both youth and training facilities as well as give me a transfer budget of £300k.

Loyalty is everything

For the 1st time in about 7 years of playing FM/CM I was actually offered a job! Sadly for them I turned it down.

Season   League              Position    Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11  Blue Square North   1st         Champions, Promoted, FA Cup 5th Round, FA Trophy Winners

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Hmm! If anyone knows why "code" isn't working properly let me know please.

[Cardiomolester]

Season      League          Position                        Achievements
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11  Blue Square North   1st     Champions, Promoted, FA Cup 5th Round, FA Trophy Winners

c+p that, just use the basic font and sizes.

[SnakeXe]

Great season SMSL, think you've just about taken all the records I set with Merthyr there!

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

Cheers Cardio and Snake. At the moment I am "into" this game. I haven't really been "into" an FM game since 2007. So lets hope I can keep it going.

[Cardiomolester]

btw SMSL, I screwed up the headings first time so have fixed it to include position if you wanna include that

[SnakeXe]

Cheers Cardio and Snake. At the moment I am "into" this game. I haven't really been "into" an FM game since 2007. So lets hope I can keep it going.

I know what you mean, I don't really feel like I got into any of my FM09 games, and only a couple of my FM08 saves. I'm really into this one though, hopefully that's indicative of FM10 in general

Edit: Guess who my parent club used to be

[DanGLiverpool]

BTW anyone else has a John Morling in there game?

Yep, my assistant manager. Seeing as I don't watch games, he does a good job for me in winning games, but can be a bit harsh sometimes which leads to unhappy players.

[hassebasse80]

Hassebasse Merthyr Tydfil 2020-2021 League One

A great first season in league one saw me finish second, being the highest scoring team in the league. After spending six seasons in league two, I've had a lot of time to perfect my tactics, this payed off in the end

League Table

Transfers

Squad

My best performer was my penalty taker and target for corner kicks Woodward, scoring an incredibly 18 goals as a dc, 10 of them on penalties. He's been with me for quite some time now, not sure how he'll perform in the championship

Other great performers were my amc/st Connolly and my lone striker White


Aims for the new season:
Since I'm broke, keep hold of my current players, surviving in the ccc
Get a good cup run, got to the 5th rounf of the FA cup this year

[SirToby]

After loads of reloads: Maidstone United!

[Aario]

Amazingly, Arsenal released him in 2018 so he was an absolute steal.

Well he is English................

[Aario]

BTW anyone else has a John Morling in there game?

Yep, my assistant manager. Seeing as I don't watch games, he does a good job for me in winning games, but can be a bit harsh sometimes which leads to unhappy players.

Unemployed Ass Man in my save - wasn't interested in a contract with Hucknall

Why do you ask?

[Aario]

Not seen this before - nice touch

He had had a "sit" for the last month or so and the goals and performances had dried up so hopefully he can start playing well again now.

[Aario]

Not seen this before - nice touch

He had had a "sit" for the last month or so and the goals and performances had dried up so hopefully he can start playing well again now.

Sorry for multiple posts but - that didn't take long

Edit - anyone know what I have done wrong in that screenshot?

[DanGLiverpool]

My right winger feels insecure at the moment, gave me a small chuckle

[kaNovi]

exciting season here..

[Smithers]

I love conceding 4 and still winning - that's probably the best match I've had on this game yet.

Incidentally that's Gareth Evans' 2nd hat-trick in a week

In fact Evans is even more Super than Kyle Wilson - 12 goals in 7 games now!

[monkeywool]

This is my first time as LLM, not to mention doing this challenge, so be gentle with me.

I managed to get my closest local team to come up first time of asking, so I am now the proud manager of part time outfit Nantwich Town.

Profile

I'll do a squad review shortly after I get to grips with my team and staff.

[spankie]

BTW anyone else has a John Morling in there game?

He's into the second season as my ass man. He's not a good coach but he's been pretty good with his advice so far.

[SnakeXe]

15 games into our maiden Premier League season and Merthyr are sitting pretty in 10th!

The step-up from The Championship really isn't that significant I don't think... most of my team are the same that finished 6th in that league last season, only added a new left back, centre back and striker. Certainly compared to the gulf between The Championship and League One, it's been quite easy so far...

*awaits inevitable nosedive*

Edit: I've got the next Cashley apparently... don't know whether that's supposed to be a good thing?

[DanGLiverpool]

Random, got my 3rd game in 4 days, including now 2 in 2 days, without there really being any fixture congestion, don't think I've had a game postponed all season.

Full set of League 1 fixtures for both days as well, near the end of the season, could have spread it out a bit more. Players will be understandably knackered, tempted to rest a few.

[PaulHartman71]

15 games into our maiden Premier League season and Merthyr are sitting pretty in 10th!

The step-up from The Championship really isn't that significant I don't think... most of my team are the same that finished 6th in that league last season, only added a new left back, centre back and striker. Certainly compared to the gulf between The Championship and League One, it's been quite easy so far...

*awaits inevitable nosedive*

Edit: I've got the next Cashley apparently... don't know whether that's supposed to be a good thing?

you've now cursed yourself to have a Hull City-esque debut season

[monkeywool]

So, as far as it stands with my Nantwich guys, I seem to have a couple of half decent players in the reserves and u18s side. One u18 player has over 10 in all his physical stats, with a bit of nurturing and patience he might become a decent centre back. His mental and technical stats are not that good, but he physically is perfect, so who knows. I need an overhaul of the first team though, time to get involved in the free transfers after I get some staff in.

[DanGLiverpool]

FFS, worked out why I have this fixture congestion, Easter is 12th April in 2020 according to Wikipedia, so I play Easter Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. That sucks :/

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

The good thing about the Blue Square Premier is that there is no cup involvement whatsoever until FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round meaning injuries are few and far between and we're streaking ahead in the League again. Arch rivals Histon and Cambridge United have already been dispatched and we got Histon in the FA Cup to come too.

[DanGLiverpool]

Played a second string at home to second place Palace and won 4-1

[DanGLiverpool]

Got a player coming in who is worth £1.7 million for free, because Sheffield United need to reduce the wage bill. Has Premiership potential as well

[monkeywool]

What a difference a couple of bargain buys make to your title odds.

My board gave me the job in the hope I would stave off relegation, I sign two football league released players who the fans thought were a masterstroke, and now the odds come out for the league and we are apparently 6-1 contenders for the title.

The pressure is on now for the start of the season.

[Bartman]

FC United - Coca-Cola Championship - Season 2014/2015

This was simply unbelievable, for the fifth successive season, I was promoted. This season was crazy with many ups and downs, but getting the results were it counts was what it took. We finished in 5th place, but it was only at the end of the season when we actually were in with a chance for the play-offs, always sitting around 8th/9th for much of the season.

League Table
Play-Off Semi-Final Leg 1
An unlucky match at home, with Leeds bagging a goal in the ninetieth minute. Things didn’t look too good.
Play-Off Semi-Final Leg 2
Tremendous play from my boys ensured our place in the Final. Two extra-time goals from Jermaine Pennant and Guillem Bauza gave us victory.
Play-Off Final
Talk about leaving the Championship in style. A tremendous hattrick from Artaunovic granted us a place in the Premiership next season, fantastic.

Our FA Cup run was again very good this season, although we didn’t do nearly as well as last season, we reached the 6th round, playing Man City, the team who defeated us in the Final last season. We showed massive improvements against them, going from a very heavy defeat to a 1-1 draw at home. However in the replay we were defeated 3-1.
We had a decent run in the Europa League, which certainly pleased me and brought some money in. We got past the qualification rounds and made it to the group stages, but we unluckily were eliminated, finishing just short in third.

FA Cup
EURO Cup
League Cup

My signings were absolutely pivotal, with all bar 3 being free transfers. The most important signing was most definitely Marko Artaunovic, he signed in November and played in the league 34 games, scoring 24 times with an average rating of 7.20. He is the first man I have signed who I feel truly could put Craig McShea out of the team. The only man who I really spent money on was David, for 2million, and he proved to be worth it, dominating in the attacking midfielder position. Perhaps my most important signing was new goalkeeper Mihaylov. He saved us many times and kept us in games we looked sure to be losing, a true great.

Transfers

Despite not having a proper starting spot throughout the season, Craig McShea nearly always featured on the bench and often got on, also starting in many matches. Despite not being quite the star man as he has proven to be over the past five years, he was still pivotal in getting promotion. Overall he made 38 appearances and got 12 goals, for a player who started in the Blue Square North, this is some great stats in the Championship. I am confident that my man McShea can still play a large part in the team for the season to come, and if not I am sure he would move to a Championship club for quite a large sum of money.

Aims for Next Season:
As long as we stay in the Premier League, I do not care where we finish.

Season      League                   Position    Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11    Blue Square North           1st         Promotion, BSN Champions
2011/12    Blue Square Premier         2nd         Promoted
2012/13    Coca-Cola League 2          6th         Promoted, play-off winners
2013/14    Coca-Cola League 1          1st         Promoted, League 1 Champions
2014/15    Coca-Cola Championship      5th         Promoted, play-off winners

[dafuge]

This should be fun

[Aario]

What a difference a couple of bargain buys make to your title odds.

My board gave me the job in the hope I would stave off relegation, I sign two football league released players who the fans thought were a masterstroke, and now the odds come out for the league and we are apparently 6-1 contenders for the title.

The pressure is on now for the start of the season.

A lot of us seem to have been given short odds at the start of the first season - think it may be a bit of a bug as if you are anything like me you will described as (pre-season) relegation candidates for most of the season however well you are doing.

[Thebaker]

£400K is obviously a special number for my chairman, so far this season i've had 3 bids over this figure for players and 3 times the chairman has intervened to sell the player .
I'm in feb now and a 3rd season of midtable obscurity in L1 is looming.

[dafuge]

Wonderkid #2

[DanGLiverpool]

Last season feeder club Bromley finished 18th in the League. This season I loan them full Namibian international Rick Plummer (3 caps aged 22), and they get promoted through the playoffs. Went to the game myself as well

[Thebaker]

Wonderkid #2

he really looks a great player already, if he improves much he will be unstoppable

[monkeywool]

Gutted, won the first 3 games of the season then lost to Ilkeston 2-0. Then my game crashed while saving and now my game is corrupted, so have to start again.

[Bartman]

Not a good start in the Premiership, sitting 19th with 2 points from 15 haha, oh well. Funnily enough my two points come from games against Man City and Arsenal in high scoring draws which we deserved to win.

EDIT - Make that 20th after a heavy 3-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea.

[Stephanie McMahon\'s Secret Lover]

So much for good long run in the FA Cup like last season. We've been drawn away to Liverpool in the 3rd Round. Meanwhile the League is just as straight forward as last season.

[SnakeXe]

Wonderkid #2

Wow he looks incredible!

Not a good start in the Premiership, sitting 19th with 2 points from 15 haha, oh well. Funnily enough my two points come from games against Man City and Arsenal in high scoring draws which we deserved to win.

EDIT - Make that 20th after a heavy 3-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea.

Well you had to hit a brick wall at some point I'm sure you'll turn it around and stay up though.

My fixtures this season are a bit weird, we have 8 or 9 ridiculously hard ones followed by 8 or 9 really easy ones - I'm in the second set of ridiculously hard games at the moment, providing I can get through them with morale intact and still in touch with the top half, I think finishing there is a realistic aim

[Aario]

Wonderkid #2

yeah - not bad..........

[Blackmama]

This might end sooner than I thought