FM10: Preston North End FC - The Invincibles Mark II?

HISTORY

In the past Preston were famously successful, being the first winners of "The Double" in English football. In 1888-89 Preston became the only team to go throughout an entire season unbeaten in both the league and FA Cup — only Arsenal F.C., in 2003-04, have managed to have an unbeaten season in any league division since, with the Gunners also achieving the feat in the top flight (although Arsenal played 38 games to Preston's 22). PNE were league champions again the following season, and have not won the title since. Their last major trophy was an FA Cup triumph in 1938.

Preston North End, as first winners of the Football League, have the right to wear their home kit at all times. This right is shared with two other clubs: Notts County (as the first registered club in the football league), and Reading (for being 'the royal club').[clarification needed] In recent years however, all three clubs have adapted to using a change shirt due to the extra financial reward this brings.[citation needed]

Preston were relegated to the Second Division (currently the Football League Championship) in 1961 and have not played in the top division since. They did reach the FA Cup final in 1964, but lost to West Ham United.

Bobby Charlton, an England World Cup winner from 1966, was appointed Preston manager in 1973, but was unable to stop them from sliding into the Third Division in his first season and left after two years in charge. A brief respite in 1978 saw them win promotion back to the Second Division, but they went down after three seasons and in 1985 fell into the Fourth Division for the first time in their history.

In 1986, Preston finished second from bottom in the Fourth Division and only avoided dropping into the Football Conference because the other Football League members voted in favour of the division's bottom four teams retaining their senior status.

The arrival of new manager John McGrath saw Preston win promotion to the Third Division a year later, and they were still at this level when McGrath left in 1990. Veteran player Les Chapman took over as manager, but left in October 1992 to be replaced by John Beck. The 38-year-old Beck had only recently been sacked by Cambridge United, where he had achieved two successive promotions and come within a whisker of attaining a unique third. Beck was unable to save Preston from relegation from the first season of the new Division Two. He endured a Division Three playoff final failure before quitting in 1994 to be replaced by his assistant Gary Peters

Peters guided Preston to Division Three title glory in his first full season as manager, and quit in February 1998 to be replaced by 34-year-old defender David Moyes. Preston quickly developed into Division Two promotion contenders under Moyes, reaching the 1998-99 playoffs (losing to Gillingham in the semi-finals before finally being promoted as champions a year later.

Preston began the new millennium by winning promotion from Division 2 in the 1999-2000 season as champions. They almost made it two promotions a row in 2001, but lost 3-0 to Bolton in the Division One playoff final.

Moyes left for Everton in March 2002, and his assistant Kelham O'Hanlon took over for the remainder of the season. Preston narrowly missed out on the play-offs and in the summer former Scottish national coach Craig Brown took over as manager. Preston were little more than a mid-table side during Brown's tenure, though they were never in any real danger of being relegated. He left in August 2004 to be succeeded by his assistant Billy Davies.

Davies guided Preston to the Championship playoff final in his first season as manager, but they lost to West Ham United. They reached the playoffs again the following year, this time losing in the semi-finals, to Leeds United. Davies then moved to Derby and was replaced by Carlisle boss Paul Simpson, who took over Davies's team and initially carried on where Davies left off. Preston spent much of the 2006-07 season in the automatic promotion or playoff places, however from March 2007 the club slid rapidly down the league. This happened even after holding on to David Nugent in the transfer window and Simpson being allowed to bring in a number of loan signings. The club failed to make the end-of-season play-offs, despite a 1-0 victory over Birmingham City at Deepdale on the final day of the season. They finished the season in seventh place.

Chart showing the progress of Preston North End through the English football league system from the inaugural season in 1888–89 to 2007–08 when Preston North End came 15th in the League Championship

On 11 July 2007 David Nugent, the first Preston player to win an England cap for 50 years, left the club to join Portsmouth for a reported transfer fee of £6,000,000. Although the club lost only one key player (David Nugent) and brought in several players including Darren Carter, Kevin Nicholls and Karl Hawley, to reshape the team they did not recover from their poor run of form. In August 2007, Simpson banned the playing of Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love, a song which had been a popular part of the pre-match music at Deepdale for over ten years, stating, "I don't know whose idea this song is at the start, because it seems to put everyone in a bit of a depression. We have to make sure we get something which the players respond to and go out and perform and the fans respond to as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we are losing games because of that song. But we have to do whatever we can to generate an atmosphere", a move which angered some Preston fans. After a bad start to the 2007-08 season which saw the club pick up just three wins, Paul Simpson was sacked as manager on 13 November.

On 20 November, Everton's assistant manager Alan Irvine was appointed as Preston's new manager on a three-and-a-half year deal, and he achieved his first objective as manager by achieving Preston's survival in 15th place. The following season he lead Preston to 6th in the Championship after a good run of form towards the end of the season, qualifying for the playoffs. They lost 2-1 on aggregate to Sheffield United after a 1-1 draw at Deepdale was followed by a 1-0 loss at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane.

FOOTBALL MANAGER INFO

Nation: England

Year Founded: 1881

Status: Professional

Reputation: National

Chairman Status: Loves the Club

Legends: Sir Tom Finney, Bill Shankly, Alan Kelly Snr

Icons: David Nugent, Paul McKenna, David Moyes, Graham Alexander, Sean Gregan

Favoured Personnel: Mark Rankine, Matt Hill, Mick Rathbone

Fierce Rivals: Blackpool, Burnley

Other Rivals: Leeds, Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton

Finances: Secure

Average Ticket Price: £22.00

Average Season Ticket Price: £380.00

Season Ticket Holders: 10,000

Estimated Value: £11.25 Million (Loan debt: £5M)

Continental Competition: None

Media Prediction: 7th

Squad Personality: Determined

Kits:

SQUAD AND COACHES

Manager: Alan Irvine

Chairman: Derek Shaw

Assistant Manager: Robert Kelly

Coach: Billy Barr

GK Coach: Andy Rhodes

Youth Coach: Nick Harrison

Youth Coach: Jamie Hoyland

Youth Coach: Darren Finch

Youth Coach: Dean Ramsdale

Physio: John Guy

Physio: Matt Radcliffe

Scout: Jim McCluskie

Scout: Russ Richardson

BOLD = natural position; Italics = can play there.

Goalkeeper - Andrew Lonergan, Wayne Henderson

Right-Back - Michael Hart, Billy Jones, Eddie Nolan

Left-Back - Callum Davidson, Ross Wallace

Centre-Back - Eddie Nolan, Youl Mawene, Liam Chilvers, Neill Collins, Michael Hart, Billy Jones

Right-Midfield - Chris Sedgwick, Danny Mayor, Barry Nicholson, Paul Parry

Left-Midfield - Ross Wallace, Paul Parry, Darren Carter

Centre-Midfield - Veliche Shumulikoski, Barry Nicholson, Darren Carter, Richard Chaplow, Billy Jones

Striker - Neil Mellor, Chris Brown, Jon Parkin, Stephen Elliott, Paul Parry

As you can see, we have a very small squad. There is interest in a few players at the start, which i'll go over in the next section.

POSSIBLE SALES

Preston are a selling club. Alexander, Nugent, Macken; all names we've had to sell because of money worries. A budget of £1,200,000 is not good, and with interest in players like Wallace, bids of a sizeable amount would be accepted by me. These are the players who are normally wanted at the start of the game.

Andrew Lonergan - Wanted By: Barcelona - £1.2M - £2M

Billy Jones - Wanted By: QPR, Reading, West Ham - £1.2M - £3M

Liam Chilvers - Wanted By: Ipswich, Newcastle - £275k - £550k

Callum Davidson - Wanted By: Coventry, Hull, QPR - £475k - £1.2M

Ross Wallace - Wanted By: Birmingham, Burnley, Sheff Utd, Stoke - £100k - £1M

Chris Sedgwick - Wanted By: Leicester, Newcastle, Peterborough, Scunthorpe - £325k - £600k

This is just on my game, it may be different on yours. I've seen Wallace offloaded for £1,000,000 on games with other teams, but I can't get it with me.

POSSIBLE SIGNINGS

Transfers are all dependant on your budget. At the start of the game, PNE are spending £73,985 on wages. These are the budgets you can have depending on what expectation you choose.

Top-half Finish: Transfer Budget £1.2M - Wage Budget £87k

Promotion: £1.3M (TB), 90k (WB)

Title Challenge: £1.5M (TB), £91k (WB)

Winner: £1.6M (TB), 94k (WB)

IF you sell Jones, Wallace and Davidson, the budget can soar up to around £5 Million, depending on your dealings.

GOALKEEPERS - Asmir Begovic (Portsmouth) £1,100,000; Tom Heaton (Man Utd) Loan

RIGHT-BACKS - Dan Gosling (Everton) Loan; Brian Wilson (Bristol City) £110k

LEFT-BACKS - Matt Hill (Wolves) £1.3M/Loan; Jamie McAllister (Bristol City) £275k

CENTRE-BACKS - Wes Morgan (Nottingham Forest) £240k; Clint Hill (Crystal Palace); £275k

RIGHT-MIDFIELDERS - Junior Stanislas (West Ham Utd) Loan; Andy Van Der Meyde (Free Agent)

LEFT-MIDFIELDERS - Jamie Mackie (Plymouth) £240k; Bradley Johnson (Leeds) £170k

CENTRE-MIDFIELDERS - Anderson Silva (Barnsley) £550k; James Perch (Nottingham Forest) 275k

STRIKERS - Marlon Harewood (Aston Villa) Loan; Henri Camara (Free Agent)

*These are just players I found in the filter, but look like they would be greatin the Championship and at PNE. Look at the transfer rumours to see who you are linked with, and decide if you want to bid or not.

FORMATION

For me, a flat 4-4-2 is the way to go. Short and fluid passing is my game too, and against the lower teams, I have an attacking philosophy, whilst against the likes of West Brom, I play on the counter.

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That's all from me for now. If you choose to take on PNE in the future, try to use this thread as a little guide. It may not be the most detailed, but i've tried my hardest to include most things that are needed.

Very good one.

Thanks. I accidentaly submitted it WAY too early before. :|

Nice OP.

Added to the links thread.

Thanks guys. Hopefully some other people can take PNE on.

EDIT: Posted twice. :/

Nice post, like that Sales bit

Just wanted to post a few screenshots of my progress. At the beginning of September ATM.

SQUAD

TABLE

TRANSFERS

I'm guessing the fact that Lonergan went to Barcelona means he's more accurately rated this year. He is by far the best goalkeeper in the Championship. Weird that Nolan isn't listed as a left back or Parry as a natural right midfielder given that they're the positions they usually occupy for the one and only North End.

I'm guessing the fact that Lonergan went to Barcelona means he's more accurately rated this year. He is by far the best goalkeeper in the Championship. Weird that Nolan isn't listed as a left back or Parry as a natural right midfielder given that they're the positions they usually occupy for the one and only North End.

Well a few Championship 'keeper's were wanted by big European clubs, but Lonergan is better this year than last.

Big European clubs buying terrible goal keepers have been confirmed by SI as a bug, but will be fixed for release day

Wow... I can't believe you got that much for Lonergan. I listed him and couldn't get more than about $400k offered. I unlisted him and patched things up.

I wouldn't sell Ross Wallace until well established in the EPL. And you list Billy Jones as a potential sale, but I think you'd be crazy to let him go. He's very very versatile, young and tough as nails. He's also English, which is a big consideration. I also disagree with the sale of Callum Davidson. Yeah, he's getting old but he's a fine captain and very solid still. Performs very consistently for me, and always has a good mental game.

I'm also surprised at the amount you got for Parkin! I think he's the best of the strikers that come with the team, but it would be hard to turn down that price.

Edit: Just noticed you sold Sedgwick, too. I think he's plenty solid to keep around until the EPL. Slow, but a good all-around performer.

ATTENTION: Anybody got any screenshots of PNE on their games. Would liek to see how they are getting on in the future

Probably not as far in the future as you wanted but me and my mate are playing a network game, I am Preston, he is Reading and we are currently on boxing day of our second season. We both finished lower to mid-table in our first seasons and now are both flirting with the playoffs.

When I joined the club I felt we had a lot of average Championship players so there have been quite a few ins and outs over the first season and a half.

Top 5 Recommendations:

Julien Toudic has scored 40 goals in 63 apps - bought for £75k, now valued at £3.2m. Hamed Namouchi has come into his own in the second season with 4 goals and 7 assists in 19 apps from the left wing - got him for free, now valued at £3.1m. Grant McCann is a top quality CCC midfielder but has been dogged by injuries since arriving. In the time he has played he has scored nine goals and is a great playmaker for around £700k. Solvi Ottesen cost me £1m but is a Premier League defender playing in a CCC defence. Finally, 18 year old Sergio Canales has massive potential and I've been playing him a lot from the bench. He could turn out to be very good.

Original PNE players:

I retained Wayne Henderson, Billy Jones, Eddie Nolan, Ross Wallace and Chris Brown. I had the worse defensive record in the league last season so took the money for Billy Jones and dropped Hendersen and Nolan. Wallace and Brown are squad players.

I'll post again when I get into my third season

Adriano Basso isn't terrible, he's amazing. It's happened to me as well, Peter Enckleman, people normally want Larrieu as well.

Im currently in pre-season 2013-2014 having just won my first premier league title. Here is a run down of how i have achieved that and which players i have bought and sold so far. Ill do this in parts as its quite a few seasons

2009-2010

My first season in the Championship i finished as league winners big thanks to Amr Zaki who bagged me 20 goals in 30 apps. I managed to off load a number of players to enable me to build a title winning side. Other key players in my first season were

Ross Wallace - 42 app - 7 gls - 23 assists - av rating - 7.22

Tom de mul - 30 app - 4gls - 14 assists - av rating - 7.06

Glauber - 42 app - 5 gls - av rating - 7.19

transfers 2009-2010

final league standings

2010-2011

Into my second season and after some great bits of transter dealings i finished a respectable 10th my goals again coming from Zaki who bagged me 23 goals in 37 apps. Found a couple of regens with the best being my striker rojas who didnt hit it off like id have hoped. Other key players in my second season were.

Lautaro Acosta - 34 apps - 3 gls - 8 assists - av rating - 7.01

Sergiy Kryvstov - 29 apps - 1 gl - av rating - 7.02

Octavio Rojas - 18 apps - 9 gls - 2 assists - av rating - 7.02

transfers 2010-2011

final league standings

more seasons to follow

This is my second part of my current game.

2011-2012

I finaly broke into the top 4 and champions league football the next season. This is the season that i really started to believe that i had created something good at north end. Big players were now joining me and the team on the whole were getting av ratings of 7+. Rojas my regen from last season hit top form with 22 goals in 37 apps and was supported well with Kleber who got 9 in 25 apps. My midfield was performing well with Ross Wallace the pick of the bunch with 3 goals, 14 assists and av rating of 7.19. But best of all my defence was awesome Otamendi, kryvtsov, and Mancienne being solid for me all season. Over all every player did there part when called upon it seemed who ever played fitted in nicely. Again i brough in some nice regens who should become class in a few seasons

transfers 2011-2012

final league standings

2012-2013 ( finally preston win the premiership title)

This is it the season it finally happened after years of slummping in the lower divisions preston are champions of england.

Not many players were needed as the squad was fantastic the year before but certain areas were i need of improvement for the champions league. Firstly a new keeper and i found him in Benaglio for 7m of wolfsburg and with 14 clean sheets in 34 games it was a great signing. Next i wanted my defence to be tighter so brought in Renan for 17.5m and David Luiz for 7.5m both of them did there part for me in what was the best defence in the prem with just 25 goals conceded.

Again Rojas was in fine form 22 in 45 and kleber 11 in 30. Goals also came form Luis suarez 7 in 26, Olexandr Aliev 10 in 45, and Jo 6 in 15. Again just like last season every body did there part when called upon players just slipped in when needed.

I managed to get to the first knockout round in the champions league were after beating juventus 2-0 at home i was beaten 3-0 away but was happy just being there playing against the big boys from around europe.

transfers 2012-2013

final league standings

So thats my history so far and now its time to defend my league title. I have some good players signing in the summer on frees and cant wait to get stuck in and hopefuly do better in the champions league.

cant get into a game for long ,but im starting with preston for my last game on 10.2 should be fun .updates will follow

1st season gary hooper from scunthorpe is a must buy goalmachine and at 1.3 mill a steal

Anyone know of a really good consistent goalmachine who may be useful if i get promoted? I need one real bad!!

what season are you in mate? And what patch are you using?

2nd now, latest patch