FM10: Stockport County FC - Its Forever Being Beautiful...

Stockport County Football Club

Stockport County Football Club, founded in 1883, are a football club from Stockport, Cheshire, England, currently plying their trade in Football League One. Initially formed as Heaton Norris Rovers, the club changed its name to Stockport County in 1900. They joined the Football League in 1900, playing their first ever game in pink shirts against Leicester Fosse, and have not dropped out of it since 1905. The club's nickname is The Hatters, although it is not commonly used and the club's supporters simply refer to them as County. The club's most successful period was in the 1990's when two of County's most successful manager's, Danny Bergara and Dave Jones were in charge, an a third, Jim Gannon, played under them. Gannon played in all four '90s Wembley cup finals however all four were unsuccessful trips to the capital, losing to Peterborough, arch rivals Burnley, and twice to Port Vale. Gannon returned to the national stadium in 2008 as manager, when County beat Rochdale 3-2 to make it fifth time lucky. Financial problems caused County to sell all their assets including their Edgeley Park stadium, and numerous key players before they finally went into adminstration on April 30th 2009. County have spent the summer of 2009 in administration, just a year after gaining promotion to League One through the play off system under former manager Jim Gannon. Only two players, Michael Rose and Paul Turnbull, have survived from the side that beat Rochdale 2-0 at Wembley on May 26th 2008.

The club has been bought by former Manchester City star Jim Melrose and his consortium, and the squad list for 2009-10 looks as follows:

1. Owain Fon Williams

2. Johnny Mullins

3. Michael Rose

4. Paul Turnbull

5. Liam Bridcutt (on loan from Chelsea until January)

6. Michael Raynes ©

7. James Vincent

8. Greg Tansey

9. Peter Thompson

10. Carl Baker

11. Oli Johnson

12. The Blue and White Army

13. Paul Gerrard

14. Adam Griffin

15. David Poole

16. Matty Mainwaring

17. Danny Pilkington

18. Andy Halls

19. Declan Edwards

20. Gianluca Havern

21. Craig Roberts

22. Danny Rowe

23. Lloyd Rigby

24. Nicholas Bignall (on loan from Reading until January)

Staff:

Chairman - Jim Melrose

Manager - Gary Ablett

Assistant Manager - Hughie MacAuley

Fitness Coach - Steve Jones

First Team Coach - Craig Madden

First Team Coach - Andy May

Coach - Richard Landon

Goalkeeping Coach - Paul Gerrard

Transfer Budget - £10,000

Wage Budget - £12,422

Expectations - Attempt to avoid relegation

Squad summary:

GK: Owain Fon Williams is the obvious choice, Paul Gerrard will provide backup until he retires, which at age 36, shouldn't take too long

DL: Michael Rose is first choice left back, left winger Adam Griffin is capable of covering

DR: Johnny Mullins is a class act at right full back, young defender Andy Halls and midfielder James Vincent provide backup

DC: Michael Raynes captains the side from here, but a new DC is required, as Gianluca Havern is not up to the task of partnering him

DMC: Liam Bridcutt is one of the best players at the club, and will run the show as an anchor man

MC: Paul Turnbull, Greg Tansey, James Vincent and, when fit again, Matty Mainwaring, can slot in here.

AMC: Carl Baker is the best player at the club, and should get a good few goals from an AMC Trequartista position.

AML: Danny Pilkington will get in here, if you choose to use wingers, with Danny Rowe as cover

AMR: David Poole is the best player in this position, Baker can cover here, but with much less effect than at AMC

ST: Oli Johnson is the best striker at the club, and should get a few goals, with Nicholas Bignall and Peter Thompson battling to partner him

Recommended Line-Up:

...........................Fon Williams

Mullins...........Raynes............Havern/New DC..........Rose

..............................Bridcutt

...................Turnbull..........Tansey

...........................Baker

...................Johnson..........Thompson

Post reserved for future use

yay Stockport County shame we only get 10-20k as transfer budget :(

Thats alot more than we have in real life!!

Thats alot more than we have in real life!!

Exactly. I'm surprised we have any tbh:eek:

Data seems good. Perhaps Baker could do with an upgrade and 'Pistol' Pete with a downgrade

Hey all

I choose Stockport cause i think its a challenge and here's my pre-season and first 13 matches of season

PLAYERS IN:

Jacek Moryc - free transfer

Lescure Amaud - free transfer

Glombard Luigi - free transfer

Kevin Tunani - from Ware - free

Godwin Antwi - free transfer

Corry Evans - Man U - Loan - 100% wages paid

Players OUT

Michael Raynes for 160k to Peterborough

Finances

I'm currently 900 pounds over the budget :/

Changed my whole tansfer budget to wages

I made a good amount of money from pre-season frendlies

So far (4th October) my finances state a 1.2mil season profit but thats probably going to change for the worst

Pre Season:

Lost vs Tottenham 0:5

Lost vs Man City 0:3

Lost vs Celtic 1:4

Won vs Hibernian 3:0

Draw vs Scunthrope 1:1

Lost vs Rangers 0:3

Season:

League Cup 1st Round Won vs Lincoln 2:1

League Cup 2nd round lost vs Bolton 0:4

CCL1:

Away games:

Won vs Oldham 3:1

Lost vs Brighton 0:2

Lost vs Leeds 0:3

Won vs Yeovil 1:0

Won vs Huddersfield 3:2

Home games:

Lost vs Bristol Rovers 0:4

Lost vs Carlsile 2:3

Lost vs Bolton 0:4

Draw vs Southampton 1:1

Won vs Leyton Orient 4:0

Draw vs Hartlepool 1:1

Lost vs Southend 0:1

CCL1 SUMMARY: P11W4D2L5 For15 Ag18 points 14 Place 12th

AVG ATT : 7000

Thoughts:

I have to say im doing a lot better then i thought especially the 4:0 win over leyton orient is impressive

I am worried with how little budget i have as i never played a club without a lot of money before

anyway im going to post again when i get to january

There is a County career in the careers forum here:

http://www.community.sigames.com/showthread.php?p=4142148

And also the FMH SOMS

And also the FMH SOMS

Of Course:thup:

Ill get round to carrying on with that soon.

Started as Stockport game yesterday, got £0 and £0 for wages on 10.03 to avoid relegation ha ha...

Brought in a number of loans and, in Jan after 27 matches played I find myself 8th, 4 away from 6th place (play offs ofcourse) and 17 ahead of the relegation zone. I was aiming to avoid relegation then try and slowly build so to be so far above it at this stage is brilliant. Hope to stay consistant and Play-offs? given my start I'm still hoping...

Team is:

GK: Fon-Williams

LB: Sadler (Loan, Watford)

CB: Huntington

CB: Swailes

RB: Mullins

LM: Cairney (Loan, Hull)

CM: Spearing (Loan, Liverpool)

CM: Turnbull

RM: Davies (Signed on a free, my only full time signing in season 1)

CF: Subotic (Loan, Portsmouth)

CF: Thompson

But in reality that team has very rarely been together due to injuries which I have had horrible luck with. Havern despite his poor stats has been pretty good when required while Ibehre has been good Vincent as well. Eastmond is also here on loan but is only on the bench! James was on loan from Man Utd earlier in the season but his loan expired same with Dwayne Samuels from WBA who was my RB (I had Mullins with Huntington at CB for a while)

So I'm very happy and hope to improve in the summer. Have most of this teams squad tied down to contracts for next season and so a couple of improvements is my aim!

Started as Stockport game yesterday, got £0 and £0 for wages on 10.03 to avoid relegation ha ha...

Brought in a number of loans and, in Jan after 27 matches played I find myself 8th, 4 away from 6th place (play offs ofcourse) and 17 ahead of the relegation zone. I was aiming to avoid relegation then try and slowly build so to be so far above it at this stage is brilliant. Hope to stay consistant and Play-offs? given my start I'm still hoping...

Team is:

GK: Fon-Williams

LB: Sadler (Loan, Watford)

CB: Huntington

CB: Swailes

RB: Mullins

LM: Cairney (Loan, Hull)

CM: Spearing (Loan, Liverpool)

CM: Turnbull

RM: Davies (Signed on a free, my only full time signing in season 1)

CF: Subotic (Loan, Portsmouth)

CF: Thompson

But in reality that team has very rarely been together due to injuries which I have had horrible luck with. Havern despite his poor stats has been pretty good when required while Ibehre has been good Vincent as well. Eastmond is also here on loan but is only on the bench! James was on loan from Man Utd earlier in the season but his loan expired same with Dwayne Samuels from WBA who was my RB (I had Mullins with Huntington at CB for a while)

So I'm very happy and hope to improve in the summer. Have most of this teams squad tied down to contracts for next season and so a couple of improvements is my aim!

Well done mate. Good luck in the future. I'd say get Mulls back at RB, where he's much better. Is Swailes playing? Oh, and Thompson in the team ahead of Jabo!

Ended in 9th missing out on the play offs but finishing respectably. My balance is now over £1.5M

I got a nice 6K more wages for season two (new budget is 21K) and £100K for Transfers. That was for a safe mid-table finish which was my min expectation (Quite the change from last seasons attempt to avoid relegation)

Anyway, pre-season of season two saw me release Havern, Partridge, Gerrard, Poole, Griffin, Edwards, Tansey and I loaned out Rowe to relegated Tranmere.

I am still £2K under my wage budget with over £1.5M in the bank despite signing...

Adam Bogdan (Loan, cover for Williams)

Ebou Sillah - Free

CHRIS IWELUMO - Free, earning £2,100 per week not sure how I managed to get him on those wages after his wolves contract expired.

Julian Bennett - Free from Notts Forrest

OMAR KOROMA - obviously another free, from Portsmouth earning £2,200 per week. Again not sure how I got this guy...

Florent Cuvelier - Loan

Gavin Hoyte - Loan

Michael Potts - Loan

Meaning we now line up like this when full strength:

GK: Fon Williams

LB: Bennett

CB: Huntington

CB: Swailes

RB: Mullins

LM: Sillah

CM: Cuvelier

CM: Potts

RM: Davies

CF: Iwelumo

CF: Koroma

Subs being Thompson (Got 23 goals in 40 apps last season) Hoyte, Rose, Pilkington, Turnbull, Bogdan and Mainwaring

So I'm pretty pleased looking at it. Looked to replace my loans with full time players but it wasn't really possible in all areas however we now have full-time strikers and CM is the only position we're lacking with Turnbull and Spearing being replaced by Potts and Cuevlier for this season.