dafuge's FM10 challenge

[SnakeXe]

...unlike Dafuge, moaning about losing the occasional final

This game is so frustrating! My side looks decent at the moment but every game is a struggle, and most of them I end up losing

I don't know about you but every cup final defeat hurts for me! The one against Man City in the Champions League final to end a run of 7 consecutive wins was genuinely gutting.

[GreyedOutMan]

Wahoo!!! Get in! 24 hours to spend some of it on some real quality.

[GreyedOutMan]

Ok, thats my season done!

Premiership here we come, scraped through via the play-offs, but hey i won't moan!

I'll be doing a report later, but am keen to progress through to build on my squad.

I don't know about you but every cup final defeat hurts for me! The one against Man City in the Champions League final to end a run of 7 consecutive wins was genuinely gutting.

Yes, but it happens. I think with his 75% winning record in finals, he has little to moan about!

[GreyedOutMan]

1 point from 5 games after six from the first three. It looked so promising...but it looks like being the first step backwards we've had this season

[dafuge]

Yes, but it happens. I think with his 75% winning record in finals, he has little to moan about!

I guess it is just the memory of the early finals. I lost my first four cup finals before finally winning the FA Cup. I then lost two more, including the Champions League.

[Blackmama]

Black Mama will be back in proper lower league management. I'm holidaying right now and looking forward to picking the future CL winners.

I haven't had a proper career game on FM10 yet for some reason - how is the game running after 20 odd seasons. Any problems with newgens or some other defects??

[dafuge]

I haven't had a proper career game on FM10 yet for some reason - how is the game running after 20 odd seasons. Any problems with newgens or some other defects??

I'm in 2055 and I haven't noticed any long term issues, things look in pretty good shape.

[Äktsjon Männ]

Truro City - Blue Square South - 2010/2011 - Champions

Blue Square South

Table

Graph

Transfers

Season summary

A very good start put us top of the table early on until injuries started hitting the spine of the team. A few additional free signings helped us get back on track though and despite patchy mid-season form we managed to keep ourselves at the top throughout the winter. Spring saw our form drop even further but luckily for us not a single team below us managed to put in a consistent run to really threaten us. Chelmsford City were by far the best team in the second half of the season which saw them climb from mid table up to second, but they were never close enough to really challenge for the title. We only won 3 of our last 10 but the championship was still decided with 3 games to go.

FA Cup

[size=3]
[size=2]2nd Qualifying Round          Farnborough - Truro City          1:3
3rd Qualifying Round          Tiverton - Truro City             0:0
3rd Qualifying Round (rep)    Truro City - Tiverton             2:0
4th Qualifying Round          Margate - Truro City              1:1
4th Qualifying Round (rep)    Truro City - Margate              3:0       
1st Round                     Truro City - AFC Wimbledon        1:0
2nd Round                     Southend - Truro City             0:4   [/size]     [/size]

Three consecutive away draws saw two lower division teams take us to a replay which actually helped us a lot financially. A very good cup run.

FA Trophy

3rd Qualifying Round       Truro City - Dartford        0:1

A disappointing first round exit but FA Trophy was never really a priority.

Best player

Nick Main. The Scottish midfielder recorded a staggering 23 assists along with 4 goals and an average rating of 7.83 - a no contest really. Had he not been injured for two months he could've probably hit 30 assists in this league. Unsurprisingly voted the best player in the division.

Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11   Blue Square South        1st         Promoted as Champions

Next Season Expectations

Hoping to challenge for another promotion. Need to cut down on the monthly losses as well - despite being more than £2k p\w under wage budget we could have flirted with bankruptcy without the FA Cup run, so this is definitely something that needs attention.

[GreyedOutMan]

Like your skin, mate - any chance of a link?

[Äktsjon Männ]

It's Neue2 with a few modifications - stole the attribute colors from someone on these forums and replaced the morale icons.

[GreyedOutMan]

Can you upload the updated skin (i.e. with your modifications) to filefront and post a link here? I love the skin as it looks there - morale icons and attribute colours were the things that drew me to it!

[Äktsjon Männ]

Sent a PM.

[GreyedOutMan]

Sent a PM.

Was it David Cameron or Gordon Brown? (sorry couldnt resist!)

[GreyedOutMan]

Getting close to a point where I want to give up. This is utterly pathetic.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

OK will bear that in mind. Though not sure how I can "concentrate on cup runs" - the thing is you come up against a decent side and usually I get tonked. Frankly, as soon as I draw anyone in the Championship or above (or even L1 really), I write off that cup for the season....

Am now scouting both Ireland and France :-)

Whilst I do concentrate on the things that are important for the role (e.g. strength and tackling for DCs), Im also trying to bear in mind that I need players who are decent all-rounders too. How much should I weight key attributes? If I find a defender who is ridiculously slow and generally unfit but a fantastic tackler, is he likely to do the biz?

With the cups I tend to play my second string in them, to give them experience and to rest my first XI apart from the rare times I make the cup a priority.

With the players it depends on what you can find, you aren't likely to find that many all rounders but you may be able to find a crap player who by chance has his high attributes in the right places - for example passing according to the game isn't important for a Winger.

For a Centre-Back you want Jumping, Positioning, Tackling and Marking whilst Heading, Strength, Determination and Concentration would be nice if you can get it.

Full-Backs depend on how you deploy them, if they defend only you want centre-back attributes with some speed, if you want them to get forward they need to be able to pass, cross, dribble and have speed and stamina.

Wingers want Speed, Crossing and Dribbling, possibly passing, OTB, shooting.

In midfield and upfront it depends on what roles you are using.

[GreyedOutMan]

This is crazy! Talk about a step backwards! Looks like we might get relegated....and i have no idea why!

[GreyedOutMan]

:O just realised I am several coaches down and theres no coaching at all in some key areas! Could this explain the lack of form completely or is it just a minor factor in it?

[SOStriker]

Bradford Park Avenue - Blue Square North - 2010/11 Season Review

Targets

I believe I promised a top half finish, which gave me a very generous wage budget of £6k. More importantly being able to offer upto £575 p/w to players meant that I could attract some real gems to the club if I moved quickly.

My personal aim was to try and scrape a play-off place in the league, though being the first season I had no idea what kind of chance I had of doing this. I also knew I'd be hemoraging money with the wages I was allowed, so I was hoping for some good cup runs to help offset my exspenses.

League Review

After playing 7 away friendlies purely for money in the pre-season I was feeling confident with my team, but 7 games into the league my form was shakey (2W/2D/3L) and I couldn't find a formation I was happy with. I reverted back to a standard 4-4-2 going into the game against Stalybridge (having not much confidence in my team for the rest of the season) when out of the blue I DESTROYED them 7-0, with Keatings, after being very quiet before the game, bagging 5 goals himself and earning a perfect 10.0 rating.

After that result I played 2 more league games & 2 FA Cup games (2W/2L overall) so decided to switch from the 4-4-2 and settled on a 4-3-2-1 with a ML, MC & MR, and 2 AMCs behind a lone striker. This proved a revelation as I went onto make a 22 game unbeaten run and 19 league games unbeaten run, a BSN record. The major irony of the story being that the team who stopped my unstoppable run was Stalybridge, the same team I had beat 7-0 at the beginning of the season. They beat me 1-0, so I guess they had the last laugh.

Regardless, the run had put me sitting comfortable at the top of the table but just before it ended, I picked up three 6-8 week injuries to key players in a single day, and afterwards I began to get more injuries to key players which made the end of the season a real headache (at this point I loaned in 2 wingers as my wingers were picking up injuries).

Although I was sitting comfortably at the top of the table and was unlikely to be caught at this point, I found it a real struggle to notch up those handful of vital points I needed to win the league. At one point I only needed 6 points from 7 games to clinch it. However it wasn't until the 39th game of the season that Bradford PA could be declared champions, after a 1-1 draw with Cambridge City.

League Table

Honestly I had not really expected to be challenging for 1st, but to run away with it the way I did was beyond magical, especially after the start I had. The 19 league games unbeaten run played a huge factor, but it also helped that the other title contenders didn't rack up nearly as many points as they should have.

FA Cup

After beating Harrogate in the 2nd Qualifying round I went up against Gainsborough, who I failed to notice had the best defensive record in the BSN at the time and were masters at scraping 1-0 or 2-0 results. This is exactly what they did to me as I just failed to really threaten their goal and they beat me 1-0. Gutted to go out so early, but in retrospect it allowed me to focus more on the league.

FA Trophy

1st game was against Gainsborough which allowed me to get revenge after they knocked me out of the FA Cup, and I promptly beat them 2-0. I then went on to beat Eastbourne boro (BSS) and Altrincham (BSP) before facing Mansfield away in the 2nd Round. Mansfield at the time were 3rd in the BSP, and I knew it'd be a tough game with the injuries I had picked up. I had Vermooten (My #1 DC) injured early on in the game, and it went downhill from there as I lost 2-1. I gave as good as I got though so I wasn't too down-hearted, I was more annnoyed by my best defender being out injured for the rest of the season.

Squad - Part 1 Part 2

Too large for it's own good really, but plenty of capable young talent. I know I'll have to trim some of the fat in the off-season if I want to sign any new talent, I'm just not sure how much fat to trim.

Transfers - Part 1 Part 2

I knew starting out I'd have to sign pretty much a whole knew squad so that's exactly what I did. I firstly took full advantage of Celtic & Ranger's youths being released and ended up with 13(!) scottish players (including 3 GKs) signed by the end of pre-season. I didn't stop there though and had my scouts working hard to find some real belters. I had signed 20 player's total by the end of Pre-Season, and knew I had a larger squad than I wanted. Interestingly though I had pretty much no backup wingers as I had originally intended to not really bother with wingers for my main formation, but that would come to haunt me later on when I was getting so many injuries. After Pre-Season I also signed a backup D/M C and then bought David Haggerty from Rotherham for £2.5k a month after that. In the second half of the season I signed a left winger, and a right winger both on loans to cover my injuries.

Key Player Profiles

Grant Adam (GK) - I knew he was good, but 21 clean sheets in 41 league starts alone proved vital to my team's success.

Joshue Vermooten (DC) - Like Adams, when I saw his attributes I knew he'd be worth signing. He was an solid in defense, and has been my #1 DC throughout.

David Haggerty (DC) - Recommended by my staff during the early stages of the season I decided to buy him for the bargain sum of £2.5K and he instantly became my #2 DC, he and Vermooten made a superb defensive partnership.

Robbie Crawford (MC) - He was suprisingly consistent in the lone MC role and played it very well, giving one or two players I'd expected to be better at the role a run for their money.

James Keatings (AM/FC) - King Keatings eventually came into his own and became the standout player of the season, being our top scorer, 24 goals in all. Not bad for an AMC positioned player.

Dylan McGeouch (AM/FC) - He partnered Keatings in the AMC roles and was the second highest goal scorer next to the King, so I'm not complaining. Based on his attributes though I'm hoping he'll have an even better 2nd season if he stays.

Christiano Kisuka (ST) - While not an out & out goal scorer like I would have liked, he has been instrumental, put in alot of consistently good performances, and has been my #1 choice striker. He's attracting some interest though, and valued at 90K I'm half hoping I'll sell him for a tidy sum and bring in someone who can bang in the goals.

Career Overview

Season    League                   Position    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11   Blue Square North        1st         Promoted as Champions

It's been a great season but now I have to look ahead. Going into the BSP my finances don't look great and I have a large squad of players. I'm not sure how many new signings I'll make as my squad seems to have alot of good players as it is, and there's really not much room in the squad to start going crazy on free transfers.

Honestly I don't know what to expect from here and so we'll see how the off-season unfolds.

[TacticalGenius]

League              Season    Finished  Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blue Square North    10/11       1st    Champions
Blue Square Premier  11/12       1st    Champions, FA Trophy Winners
League Two           12/13       3rd    Automatic Promotion
League One           13/14       5th    JPT Winners, Promoted
Championship         14/15       4th    Promoted
Premiership          15/16       14th
Premiership          16/17       8th
Premiership          17/18       1st    Champions, FA Cup winners, Community Shield winners
Premiership          18/19       1st    Champions, FA Cup winners, Carling Cup winners, UCL 1/4 finalists

Now a Legend at FC United, and a 'World Class' manager

Treble

History

[Thebaker]

:O just realised I am several coaches down and theres no coaching at all in some key areas! Could this explain the lack of form completely or is it just a minor factor in it?

Well i would imagine your players attributes will be actually decreasing all the time so it wouldn't help and often their morale suffers from either too much or too little training.

Personally i rarely sign players based on attributes, i only go from my scouts (and at L2 you should be able to find some 20/20 ones) reports and sign players who have the current ability or potential ability to play a league or 2 higher.

[midgetram]

A statement to the rest of the league perhaps...

[Äktsjon Männ]

Personally i rarely sign players based on attributes, i only go from my scouts (and at L2 you should be able to find some 20/20 ones) reports and sign players who have the current ability or potential ability to play a league or 2 higher.

What's the benefit of that though? The players are what their attributes show, CA and PA have no effect on how they play. Especially regens, you get plenty of poor players with terribly unbalanced attributes who will be world beaters according to your scouts.

[GreyedOutMan]

Well i would imagine your players attributes will be actually decreasing all the time so it wouldn't help and often their morale suffers from either too much or too little training.

Personally i rarely sign players based on attributes, i only go from my scouts (and at L2 you should be able to find some 20/20 ones) reports and sign players who have the current ability or potential ability to play a league or 2 higher.

Problem is, i just got someone who my scouts thought could end up being a leading L1 midfielder, and he arrived at the club and my coaches didnt agree - they dont think he'll ever be good enough for L2 even...

[GreyedOutMan]

What's the benefit of that though? The players are what their attributes show, CA and PA have no effect on how they play. Especially regens, you get plenty of poor players with terribly unbalanced attributes who will be world beaters according to your scouts.

Have to admit, that tallies with my take on it. I tend to take a long hard look at every player my scouts show me, and check their attributes. If they look good enough, I'll take them - otherwise, I take their advice with a huge pinch of salt. Even then, I tend to get some serious duffers.

[GreyedOutMan]

Make that I tend to get ONLY duffers, at least since I got to League Two. Is this about the hardest level to get decent players? Anyone who is really good enough for the league is too expensive and/or wont want to come to the club, and anyone who will come just doesnt do the trick...

[Beerish]

I have to say, signing centre backs who are dominant in the air has always worked better for me than ones with great marking stats, but that's probably more to do with my tactic; soaking up pressure by forcing direct play and hitting teams on the break (which can often come from defensice clearances)

[Beerish]

Make that I tend to get ONLY duffers, at least since I got to League Two. Is this about the hardest level to get decent players? Anyone who is really good enough for the league is too expensive and/or wont want to come to the club, and anyone who will come just doesnt do the trick...

It depends. If you rise too quickly without establishing a bit of the club's infrastructure (what I call the bends) then you eventually get brought back down to earth. like michaelmurray said, League 2 is pretty much ideal to build yourself up; there's much less risk involved.

[GreyedOutMan]

OK so what would you recommend next season? I've overstretched the finances this season and I'm in debt. Hopefully parachute payments from other clubs will cover some of that, combined with TV deals, but I will probably need to cost-cut. What would be your strategy this season if, as seems likely, we avoid relegation fairly easily but probably in 20th/21st place?

[GreyedOutMan]

Boreham Wood FC – Coca Cola League Two - 2014/15

We had to push on this year. 7 points off the playoffs in 2014, it was now a realistic target. Automatic promotion was probably not really on the cards, and even to get into the playoffs would require strengthening, but perhaps not a complete overhaul. The target was 70 points, which on the basis of the last few years, would give me about a 50% chance of making the playoffs.

League Table

League Positions Graph

The first time we’ve gone backwards since I took over. This was a ridiculously frustrating season – I’d almost say disastrous, and I worry that we have completely stagnated. We started really well and it looked like a playoff place was possible. After a major windfall from a sell-on clause, I had money to burn, and though I didn’t spend anything like all of it, all three of the players I paid money for were hopeless. And more to the point, all the other players underperformed all season. We just couldn’t find any form at all – when the wins did come they were isolated. I don’t think my sanity can bear more than another couple of seasons at this level, maximum! I fear, though, that I might have to bear it, or possibly worse. This side just doesn’t look up to it.

The e.on FA Cup – a kind draw in round one followed by an unwinnable match in round 2. Is it me or is it almost impossible to beat a Championship or Premiership side in this challenge? Before you get there, that is... I get the feeling that unless I draw a League Two or perhaps a lower League One side, the game is either a walkover or completely impossible.

The Carling Cup – again...

The Johnstone’s Paint Trophy – this was just unlucky, really. These things happen.

Transfers – as mentioned, there was a sell-on clause windfall which is why there was a small transfer outlay towards the end of the August transfer window, but there was not a single success story in any of these transfers this season, free or otherwise. That makes things difficult. After January, I sent my scouts out to try to find some decent talent and though I fear most of them were probably no-hopers, I might find one or two turn into really decent players, particularly Ali Karasu and Rafael Jan.

Squad – just two regulars averaging over 7 – its clearly not good enough. Fourteen other players played under 5 hours of football over the season in a year when my team changed so often I lost track purely because of poor performance after poor performance after poor performance. This squad will look very different next year. The two main strikers will probably stay though I have a feeling Robins wont be a first choice. No-one else can be guaranteed to be at the club next year. I need a clearout.

Key Player Profiles:

Peter Parnaby – Another good season from Parnaby. Problem is that we wont be able to hold onto him if we don’t improve fast.

Jamie Robins – unlike last season, he didn’t get many goals, but his performances were better than anyone else other than the star, Parnaby. Quite an achievement to become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer. I rather think Parnaby will overtake him though.

Zoltan Harsanyi – really frustrating this season, he blew very hot and very cold. His five man of the match awards but relatively low Av. Rating shows that. When he was good, he was very good, but he wasn’t good often enough.

Matty Mainwaring – not sure why his average rating was so low as he was very good very often. More consistent than most – if we had 11 like him, we’d be doing OK.

Luke Baker – by my reckoning, Baker had at least eight different central defensive partners, which can’t make things easy. He was the only consistent defensive player I had this season. We’ll need to fix that next year.

Records Broken this Season:

Lowest Attendance: 673 – v. Newport Co, JPT, 21.11.14

Highest Transfer Fee Received: £200,000 from Brentford for Chris Burns

Worst Discipline: Mark Hooper – 12y 1r (26 apps)

Cumulative Records (by current players):

BROKEN:

Most League Goals for Boreham Wood: Jamie Robins – now extended to 60

Career Overview

[size=2]Season    League                   Position    Points Total   Achievements
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11   Blue Square South          1st            92        Promoted as Champions
2011/12   Blue Square Premier        5th            83        Promoted as Playoff Winners
2012/13   Coca Cola League 2        20th            53        -
2013/14   Coca Cola League 2        15th            60        - 
2014/15   Coca Cola League 2        20th            50        -[/size]

Next Season

Needless to say this was a really frustrating season. My plan is to have a fire sale of a large number of underperforming players and try to build up a team around a few core players who have played well, whilst also cutting the wage budget and getting out of the red. Will be sending out all my scouts to search far and wide (i.e. France, Scotland and England!) for the best talent they can find but will only be signing the absolute best. Hopefully I will find enough quality to turn things around.

[Thebaker]

Problem is, i just got someone who my scouts thought could end up being a leading L1 midfielder, and he arrived at the club and my coaches didnt agree - they dont think he'll ever be good enough for L2 even...

One thing i've noticed is that my scouts have higher judging attributes and are generally right far more than my coaches, my coaches are pretty quick to write players off especially if they are not playing a lot of games.

I've signed players who 3 20/20 scouts call a leading prem player, all 15 coaches think he is decent prem, coaches seem to need to see a player getting games regularly for a while before they are able to make a very accurate judgement.

As for attributes, i've had a lot of players with great attributes play really poorly (see my last update for Franks and Probst) and others with seamingly ordinary attributes play far better like my best player Aslan.

In my opinion the hidden attributes and mental attributes play a huge role in whether a player consistantly plays well.

Edit: Your problems could be caused by 1 or 2 players affecting squad morale, if you could identify them and get rid of them.

Could also be that the squad character is not right, not the right personality to bounce back from defeat especially a few in a row.

[Blackmama]

Black Mama - Boston Utd - 2010/2011 BSS

I've taken the hotseat in Boston Utd. Finances look ok with 50k in the bank and a stadium with a max att. 6.000 (I wish )

Signed everone remotely interested from Rangers & Celtic. Connor Fairley (gk), Nick Main (mc), Robbie Crawford (mc), Kyle Mcausland (ST).

Still in desperate need of proper defensive players - so still looking for decent talent.

Bookies fancies ud for promotion somehow - hate to dissapoint them

[Almondo]

Black Mama - Boston Utd - 2010/2011 BSS

I've taken the hotseat in Boston Utd. Finances look ok with 50k in the bank and a stadium with a max att. 6.000 (I wish )

Signed everone remotely interested from Rangers & Celtic. Connor Fairley (gk), Nick Main (mc), Robbie Crawford (mc), Kyle Mcausland (ST).

Still in desperate need of proper defensive players - so still looking for decent talent.

Bookies fancies ud for promotion somehow - hate to dissapoint them

Welcome to the land of the Pilgrims. Hopefully you'll climb the leagues quicker than I did.

[Blackmama]

Welcome to the land of the Pilgrims.

I love that name - with GOD on our side how can we fail?

[TacticalGenius]

FC United, Premier League, 2019/20

CHALLENGE COMPLETE!!!

Have now won 3 consecutive EPL titles, 3 consecutive FA Cups and just added a 2-0 win over Glenn Hoddle's Zenit side in the UCL final!

Still a long way to go to overhaul ManUre, so I'll carry on playing

Premiership Table

Champions League

History

League               Season      Pos.   Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blue Square North    10/11       1st    Champions
Blue Square Premier  11/12       1st    Champions, FA Trophy Winners
League Two           12/13       3rd    Automatic Promotion
League One           13/14       5th    JPT Winners, Promoted
Championship         14/15       4th    Promoted
Premiership          15/16       14th
Premiership          16/17       8th
Premiership          17/18       1st    Champions, FA Cup winners, Community Shield winners
Premiership          18/19       1st    Champions, FA Cup winners, Carling Cup winners, UCL 1/4 finalists
Premiership          19/20       1st    Champions, UCL winners, FA Cup winners, Community Shield winners

[GreyedOutMan]

What is your skin mate? Getting really bored of the default skin but cant find any others that suit my playing style, but that one might...

Congrats by the way.

[TacticalGenius]

What is your skin mate? Getting really bored of the default skin but cant find any others that suit my playing style, but that one might...

Congrats by the way.

Thanks... It's an edited Neue2. Background 'borrowed' from the Hydro skin, custom attribute colours.

[GreyedOutMan]

Could you PM me with a download link for the edited skin? Upload it to filefront for me?

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Nantwich Town – Premier League 2026/27 – Season 17

After having won the Premier League Title last season and having lost the Champions League Final to Real Madrid in extra time the goal was to win the Champions League this season whilst trying to retain the Premier League Title.

The Board's expectations were for a top four finish, the bookies made us third favourites to win the league, whilst the Media Predicted a top 6 finish.

We also became the 19th Richest Club in the World, having the second highest average ticket prices and third most expensive season tickets didn't hurt our rise.

Transfers - I again raided Scotland and England for various promising youngsters, youngster Jordan Charles was finally signed from Ipswich after two years of chasing him - Ipswich had been demanding over £11m for him but after they failed to regain promotion to the Premier League £5m was enough to get him, whilst my final two January signings were signed after I was randomly linked in the press to them both, I scouted them and they both turned out to have potential and were quickly signed.

Player Sales saw me raise £40m as I sold off various squad players, including centre-back Bristow and Keeper Dolan.

The season itself didn't get off to the best of starts as we lost to Arsenal in the Community Shield.

Premier League - We got off to a promising start in the league winning three of our first four games 1-0, however my 4-1-3-2 formation wasn't proving effective any longer as we were now the favourites the other times were playing defensive against us and whilst my formation was strong defensively we just couldn't break times down due to a lack of width so a new formation was required - however the problem was finding one that could get us goals without costing us at the back, so I switched back to 4-4-2 but then had to work out which roles worked and who to play, it also didn't help that I had several players out injured.

The change to 4-4-2 didn't get off to the best of starts as we threw away a 3-0 lead at Home to Leicester to draw 3-3, we then lost 4-3 to Liverpool due to a last minute after spending half the match with 10 men after Eduardo was sent off after moaning about a penalty not being given, a defeat to Man City and a 3-3 draw to Spurs left us mid-table and well out of any title race, however a 5-0 win over Burnley with Zelaia scoring four times and a hat-trick from Costa in a 3-0 win over Notts County pulled us up the table but draws to Peterbrough, Everton and Newcastle and defeat to Coventry this left us in 6th place at the half-way stage having already dropped as many points as in the whole of last season.

At the turn of the year our form changed as we claimed nine wins in a row to lift us right back into the title race; we went to Old Trafford and beat a poor Utd side 3-0 before thrashing Arsenal 5-0 at home thanks to a hat-trick from Zelaia, a last minute goal from Costa saw us beat Bolton 3-2, we destroyed Aston Villa 7-1, Liverpool 4-2 and a 5-2 win at Chelsea saw us climb to the top of the league (whilst keeping Chelsea bottom) although with a game in hand on City and Arsenal.

Our run was finally ended with a shock 1-1 draw to Leciester as my side started to get nervous, however a 3-0 win over Man City with my second string thanks to goals from my centre-backs returned us to the top of the table on goal difference, though Arsenal still had a game in hand.

Victories over Spurs, Peterbrough and Burnley saw us pull six points clear of Man City with three games left, however Arsenal were just two points behind with two games in hand and a poor draw to Notts County didn't help our chances, but Arsenal could only draw at Villa, but we again shot ourselves in the foot with a 0-0 draw against Newcastle, whilst Arsenal lost to Liverpool leaving us two points clear with two games left, but Arsenal still had a game in hand and Man City were now only four points behind us, in the second to last weekend we all won our games 1-0, which ended City's hopes and with Arsenal only able to draw 1-1 to Fulham in their game in hand destiny was in our own hands as we were one point clear going into the final day and a win would allow us to retain the Premier League Title, going into the last game I had a couple of injury problems and was forced to play right back Cledson on the right wing, however it proved to be a great decision as he scored twice in the first ten minutes as we beat Coventry 6-1 and retained the Premier League Title.

Table - At the half way stage our title hopes really did look over but we finished the season unbeaten in 19 games as the change to 4-4-2 made us a lot more deadly in front of goal as we scored 20 more goals than anyone else.

Whilst at the botton of the table Man Utd and Chelsea were both relegated - Chelsea wasn't a shock as they'd been struggling for the last few seasons (ever since they signed my Keeper) and were rock-bottom for most of the season it would have been a shock if they survived. However Utd going down was a shock - in the five years previous to me winning the title they'd been a top three side and won the two title before me, but last season Steve Bruce retired and they hired Hristo Stoichkov to replace him but fired him at the end of November and hired ex-Lyon Manager Claude Puel to replace him (which was a shock as he'd been fired at both Fulham and Chelsea after nine months) and went into free fall claiming just two wins and five draws under Puel whilst he spent a game record £43m on an Italian DM, so the most expensive player in the world is now a Championship player.

Retaining the Premier League didn't impress the board however the fans now deem me a Nantwich Legend, whilst Striker Zelaia becomes a fans favourite.

Champions League - Despite reaching the final last season and climbing upto 33rd in the Rankings we were still third seeds in the group draw and we got an even harder group this time around as we drew Barcelona, Roma and Dinamo - so more trips Spain and Italy, whilst we again travel to Croatia to face Dinamo.

The bookies again gave us no chance making Barcelona and Real Madrid favourites again, in our opening game we faced Roma at home and a penalty from Pedro Leite was enough to win a close game, in the second game we travelled to Barcelona and a fine defence performance along with another penalty from Pedro Leite saw us win 1-0, in the third and fourth games against Dinamo we switched to 4-4-2 and smashed them 4-0 away and 5-0 at home which ensured our qualification, in our fifth game a second string fell 2-1 to Roma, whilst in our final game we threw away a 2-0 lead but a 2-2 draw was enough to ensure we finished top of the group.

In the Knockout Round I shouldn't have been surprised when we were given yet another trip to Spain this time to face Sevilla and despite a nervous performance in Spain we managed to come away with a 1-1 draw, this allowed us to relax and take our time in the second leg where two late goals from my Wingers Eduardo and Glaucio was enough to send us through where we'd face Barcelona who knocked out AC Milan in the last round.

The first leg against Barcelona proved to be an equal game with both of our keepers on fine form, however the ref seemed determined to book everyone on the pitch and feeling a red card was coming I put my players on easy tackling and thus it was Barcelona who were reduced to 10 men, and with space opening up we punished Barcelona as French Striker Frank Schmidt came off the bench to give us a 1-0 win with his 50th goal for Nantwich, with a slender lead a draw in the Nou Camp would do, but Barcelona were significantly weakened due to injuries and suspensions and when Pedro Leite opened the scoring with another penalty there was only going to be one winner especially when Barcelona were again reduced to 10 men and second half goals from Zelaia and Schmidt settled the tie and set up a Semi-Final with Real Madrid. We were then hit with some bad news as my right winger Eduardo broke his leg in the Barcelona game and would be out for six months.

The Semi-Final First Leg didn't get off to the best of starts as before we'd even got started we were 2-0 down and despite having most of the possession we just couldn't take our chances even when Madrid were yet again reduced to 10 men.

In the Second Leg we got off to the best possible start as Pedro Leite smashed home yet another penalty to put us back in the time, but despite being on top we just couldn't find the all important second goal and yet again our European Adventure ended with Real Madrid, who retained the trophy with a 3-0 win over Man City at City's ground.

FA Cup - we found ourselves with an easy run to the Final this season dispatching Cardiff, Bury and Wolves before we thrashed Middlesbrough 7-0 in the Quarters and beat Watford 3-1 in the Semi-Final, we would be appearing in our second FA Cup Final and were favourites to beat Everton, however we just didn't turn up as Everton comfortably won 2-0

Overview - The Carling Cup didn't exactly go well as we lost to West Ham in our first game.

Squad - With 4-1-3-2 not proving effective enough I switched to Controling Balanced 4-4-2 and in the end settled on deploying two centre-backs on defend, two supporting full-backs, two attacking wingers, a defensive deep lying playmaker and a box-to-box midfielder in the middle with a deep lying and advanced forward both on attack up front.

Tana Kodalak had another solid season in goal claiming Third Place in European Keeper of the Year and was named in the Premier League Select, whilst Argentine Youngster Silivo Martin provided cover this season.

At full back Pedro Leite was as solid as ever and chipped in with five pens, providing cover was Brazilian Wonderkid Cledson who had an excellent season and was even drafted in at right wing due to injuries. On the Left Airam Barba also had a solid season and after getting a British Passport was quickly capped by England, though his understudy Ricardo Jimenez Garcia was pushing him hard until injury ended his season early which gave Scottish Youngster Scott Dalziel a chance to impress.

So whilst we are strong at full-back the centre of defence is now starting to be a problem whilst Ian Thomas is proving to be a solid player finding him a partner is proving a problem, Captain Erwin Bauwens struggled against the better sides this season, so Russian Sergey Kalashnikov has now taken his place, however cover is the problem, my young centre-backs just don't seem to be developing, and whilst Italian Fabiano D'Angelo had a good season none of my other promising centre-backs are any where near the first team.

In midfield with the change to 4-4-2 Brazilian Wonderkid Eduardo moved over to the Right Wing and did well until injury ended his season, however I soon realised that right wing was one of my weaker positions, as Ian Nelson isn't fast enough whilst James Ramsay was also injured, on the left I don't have any problems as Dario was just as effective out on the wing and was named Fans Player of the Year for the first time, providing cover was the equaly impressive Brazilian Glaucio who is another one of my Wonderkids and he was named English Young Player of the Year.

In the Centre of Midfield Ricardo Sousa was deployed as my Deep-Lying Playmaker once he recovered from injury and he had a solid season taking over from Adam Rains who decided to join Bayern rather than sign a new contract, though I didn't mind him going as I have several promising youngsters waiting to take over including a 17yo wonderkid.

Deployed as my Box-to-box Midfielder was Frenchman Jerome Muraccioli who adapted to his new role rather well, providing cover was new signing Jordan Charles who made a good start .

Upfront Inaki Zelaia was in excellent form after his Deep-lying role was made more attacking he started scoring goals for fun in the league finishing second top scorer, however he didn't get have the best of times in Europe and with all of my players the goals dried up when he got to 20, covering him was promising Serbian Striker Igor Pejic who did well after a slow start.

Deployed in the Advanced Forward role was Antonio Costa who was in good form getting goals and assists, covering him was Frank Schmidt who excelled in the new role having his best season since his debut season and his good form gets him a new contract.

Best XI - Interesting, the change in formation and rotation seems to have messed it up.

Overall XI - Costa, Eduardo and Kodalak all make the Overall XI

Manager Profile - I was offered a new contract at the start of the season, whilst Portugal were the first National side to offer me a job (that I had to turn down) I also won Manager of the Year.

Finances - are not great £50m worth of prize money kept us out of the red and with the ground now being unexpandable I'm not likely to be going on any spending spree's anytime soon.

So the goal for next season is to again try and win the Champions League hopefully we'll go somewhere other than Spain next season and hopefully avoid Real Madrid.

Career Overview

Season          League                League Finish     Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11        Blue Square North         1st              Promoted - Champions
2011/12        Blue Square Premier       3rd              Promoted - Play-offs
2012/13        League Two                8th
2013/14        League Two                11th
2014/15        League Two                15th
2015/16        League Two                3rd              Promoted
2016/17        League One                1st              Promoted - Champions
2017/18        Championship              15th
2018/19        Championship              3rd              Promoted - Play-offs
2019/20        Premier League            20th             Relegated
2020/21        Championship              9th
2021/22        Championship              1st             Promoted - Champions
2022/23        Premier League            9th             
2023/24        Premier League            8th             League Cup Winners
2024/25        Premier League            2nd             League Cup & FA Cup Winners
2025/26        Premier League            1st             Champions League Runners-up
2026/27        Premier League            1st             FA Cup Runners-up

[TacticalGenius]

Epic update... you have too much time mate

[m1234566778]

Did some reloading in an attempt to get into a save and got Kendal. Gonna give this another go with the mint cake boys!

[Jaffa]

Stick with it, it ****es me off at times, but it's very rewarding !

[GreyedOutMan]

4th season in L2 now and I cant win a single game. It's terrible!

[Jaffa]

Well, CCC 2018-19 I'm currently in 3rd place, 2 games to go and 4 points off automatic promotion. The twist to the tale...I play QPR who are 1st (by a good clear margin) away and then followed by Burnley who are second at home. If I could nick 2 wins in these games I've got a chance of going up automatically. I just need Southampton to take something from Burnley in their penultimate game.

Heres hoping.

EDIT: I drew with QPR 1-1, but my result is irrelevant as Burnley pulled off a 1-0 win at home to Southampton..Oh well playoffs it is, just need to win this last game to place as high as I can as that draw put me down into 4th, very tight table at the top, 6th place finish is only 2 points below so I need a result vs Burnley!

[Jaffa]

Rather than edit that post again, I lost at home to Burnley 1-2, literally the last kick of the game and they score

Hence..I finished 6th and now have to face Ipswich in the playoffs. Not a prospect I'm enthusiastic about as they have steamrolled me twice in the league already this season.

EDIT: Unbelievable, I made it, beat West Brom 3-1 in extra time in the final. I was down to 10 men when Natan Sansara my left back got his marching orders early in the second half with the game at 1-1. I decided to gamble and left two up top anyway, paid off with Anichebe scoring 2 in extra time after a switch to a more direct style, to give me a 3-1 victory. Brilliant!!

I'll almost certainly get relegated from the Premiership...but hell, I dont give a rats ass!!

[GreyedOutMan]

Right. Spurs in the Champions League, the Tories looking likely to be in government. Now I can escape reality. Oh no! Boreham Wood look likely to drop out of the Football League at the first hurdle. Anyone want to give me some help to try to avert that catastrophe?

[Jaffa]

To be honest GOM, we cant help you. You keep asking but well, we cant play the game for you mate. Tips we can provide, even tactics, but its the decisions you make that define a win or a loss. Only you can do that.

[GreyedOutMan]

True....its so frustrating, this challenge.

[Beerish]

Oxford City - Season 2018/19 - Coca Cola Championship

Pre-Season, and all the hopes and expectations therein

7 in 7 for Karakas, but our peformances suggested my tactics needed some refinement - Santiago running us very close and Macclesfield beating us.

Transfers

Tomas Hubocan became my record signing and only second ever purchased player, but completely unjustified his price tag and the years (years!) I'd spent trying to scout him and sign him. I don't know what it is, but decent centre backs are so hard to find on this version of FM. Barile was a mammoth coup because his mental stats are some of the best I've ever seen for a 24 year old. O'Toole, Rose, Reynaldo, Crossan and Ellis were all signed as backup but ended up commanding first team spots. Jose Javier made me a very nice 250k profit despite being my 2nd choice right back, and all my other signings contributed very little. I shipped out some players who were too old before the season began, and managed to collect some very tidy fees in January that helped keep our finances fairly stable.

The Season!

Despite a tough opening fixture at home to recently relegated Burnley, our mysteriously brilliant opening day form allowed me a measure of warranted confidence - Reynaldo scored on his debut in a very narrow 1-0 win. We built on this with another result at the Madjeski Stadium, Reynaldo carrying on his impressive early goalscoring form with an effort in a 2-1 win. The two 1-1 draws that followed against Sheffield United and especially bottom club Swansea were frustrating, but our slack 1-0 loss at home to Cardiff seemed to provoke the side into making Oxford City Stadium a fortress; we were to lose there only 5 times all season. The Cardiff loss was frustrating, but was incomparable to our next three games; we were royally tonked three times. Notts County 4-1, Crystal Palace 3-1, and cruellest of all, 5-1 at Ipswich. The 451 tactic was being compromised, but I risked keeping the same shape at home to perennial relegation battlers Watford.

It paid off. Reynaldo and Crossan each got braces inside 25 minutes, and we should have won by far more. London Road was proving a tough venue to travel to and choked once again in a 2-0 defeat. Our turnaround from 2-0 down to earn a draw at Stoke was fantastic, but it was Sod's Law that we should play so well at home to Plymouth and get the same number of points; I could see unconverted wins were going to cost us dear this season. Bizarrely, we managed to score 4 goals within 25 minutes once again at home to Bristol City but as we always do, took our foot of the gas and gave them two easy goals to make it a nervy ending.

There was to be no repeat of our heroics at Bolton from last season as we crashed 3-1; but once again we blasted in 4 goals at home and thankfully this time, without reply. Oguzhan Karakas scored his first hat-trick for the club and in doing so brought his tally to 7 goals in the last 5 games. He added another at Brighton, and Reynaldo's late winner gave us 3 wonderfully unexpected points. Huddersfield were another team that tended to do us no favours on their patch and this was proven again as their strike force dominated us and lashed in 3 goals to our 0. Next up was the televised game at home to Middlesborough and we finally managed to break our telly curse with a superb 3-2 win that saw us take the lead 3 times. Unfortunately our next two games didn't generate the same level of drama as we lost 1-0 at Milwall before we had the same result in our favour at home to Norwich; a team who seem to be allergic to good games of football.

A good performance at Leicester merited a draw, but it seemed half of our players got injured in that game and would miss the crucial home game against Birmingham...so naturally those players who filled in for them starred off the bench as we came back to win 2-1. I decided to keep faith with the same line-up, and they rewarded me with a good draw at Burnley, who would only lose once at Turf Moor all season. Consecutive wins against Reading and Scunthorpe saw Kroonstrom, Crossan and Karakas all continue their good goalscoring form. Two more points were squandered in a bore draw over Swansea before we reverted back to '1-0 Karakas' ways against Sheffield United - I hate to think where we'd be in the CCC without him, so integral he is to our play. A good win at Cardiff was bettered by a win at home to the always impressive Notts County. A rare blip saw us go down at Crystal Palace, but we responded magnificently to beat league leaders Ipswich at home 2-1 and edge out Watford 1-0 at Vicarage Road. This proved to be the last game Karakas would score in until the end of the season. Considering this was the 2nd of February, our next run of games shouldn't come as too much of a surprise...bear in mind at this point we were in the play-offs by 2 points.

We just couldn't buy a win. Super keepers, poor refereeing decisions, inexplicable one-on-one misses - everything that could go against us did, and I saw our play-off spot fall out of our grasp as we squandered a point here, sometimes even 3...a strong win with a weakened side at home to Brighton offered a glimpse of hope, but this proved to be our only win as the curtain call of the season approached. Our fringe players showed how it should be done by sending Scunthorpe down with a great 2-0 win on the last day of the season, Karakas finally ending his 15 hour drought and Wedderburn getting his first in about two years. The result was bittersweet, because I hated taking responsibility for sending Scunthorpe down, even if it's only in the game...an agonising season was brought to a halt in the best and the worst way.

Final League Table

I love how tight the Championship is in the game, it's just like real life.

Positions Graph

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Stats

All of Joao Lemos' goal attempts would have been part of my corner routine (for which he scored 7 two seasons ago). Some of those at crucial times in the season and I might have been laughing.

Squad (End Of Season)

The number of settled first teamers once again expanded, but Elokobi will be gone by next season and difficult to replace; I can easily see some regression next season if we're not careful.

Finances (End Of Season)

Steady growth, though I fear we may become too reliant on player sales and cup runs.

FA Cup

After playing them in the League Cup, Stevenage were something of a formality, even with a second string team. A fellow Championship team at home tends to be a tense affair and our 4th round match was no exception, looking for all the world to be heading for a replay until Robbie 'Hero' Crossan popped up with a winner. Chelsea away showed me how far I am from completing the challenge; it was like shooting practice for them, and we only managed one decent chance in the whole game.

League Cup

After several humiliating cup defeats in recent years, we bossed Stevenage but required extra time goals from Reynaldo and Crossan to edge through. Stockport put up brave resistance but faltered in the latter stages of the second half, and we were then drawn at home to Notts Forest, a Premiership team whose comeback from 3-0 down in the Cup two years previously still rankled me. Reynaldo gave us an early lead, but after a period of sustained pressure they won a penalty which Daniel Sturridge...blasted wide! This seemed to change the whole shape of the game, and shortly afterwards Forest's Pontius Wentebloom was sent off and from the resulting free-kick a fine move saw Robbie Crossan smash home what proved to be the winner. The next round saw us drawn at home to QPR, recently promoted to the Premier League, but they nullified us quite brilliantly and added some late goals to gloss the scoreline a little.

Key Players

Danny Rose

Had a blistering start to the season, then had a terrible form, and met a happy compromise towards the end. As our only specialist left winger, we were lucky he steered clear of injuries.

Robbie Crossan

Greatest sub ever. Skillful, fearless, and quick as lightning, he scored goals for fun off the bench and when he started as well. It's almost unfortunate we operate with a lone striker...

Oguzhan Karakas

...and here he is. I didn't think he could get much better, but he broke his goalscoring records and seemed to bring others into play much more; his relationship with the next bloke flourished greatly.

Reynaldo

Fans' player of the year, which isn't surprising given the embarassing abundance of skill he possesses. Operating in the hole, he caused opposition defences nightmares. He would have off games sometimes, but that was generally caused through a lack in supply.

Sander Kroonstrom

Came into the team after an injury to Jacopo Barile and never looked back. Scored a few goals and provided some assists from set pieces, and was the model of consistency as he held his own in the side despite my previous doubts.

Season    League                   Position       Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11   Blue Square North            2nd         Promoted via play-offs
2011/12   Blue Square Premier          11th           -
2012/13   Blue Square Premier          3rd         Promoted via play-offs
2013/14   Coca Cola League 2           7th         Promoted via play-offs
2014/15   Coca Cola League 1           16th           -
2015/16   Coca Cola League 1           2nd         Promoted
2016/17   Coca Cola Championship       13th           -
2017/18   Coca Cola Championship       13th           -
2018/19   Coca Cola Championship       11th           -

Next Season

Avoid a slippery slope. I think a play-off place is beyond our grasp simply because the other teams are improving quicker than we can, but I just don't know where our next promotion push is going to come from.

[Jaffa]

Nice update Beerish. Keep plugging away, my promotion to the premiership was TOTALLY unexpected, so you never know.

[TacticalGenius]

my promotion to the premiership was TOTALLY unexpected

As was mine. Made the playoffs on the last day of the season.