[FM10] Yorkshire Boy Discovers A New World!

[PaUlHuNtInGtOnLuFcBoY]

Hello everybody . I have been inspired by CoachFlu's amazing Hoppin Around Europe career update thread, to create my own. Ok I know the titles a little cheesy, but its basically saying how I am discovering a new world in not only managing but also somewhere other than Yorkshire . So for the details:

Version: 10.0.03 Or something is it? The third patch anyway.

Database Size: Large

Leagues Loaded: German, Italian, English and Spanish, all down to their lowest levels and above.

Edits: I've downloaded an edit which has basically meant that it was as if I was starting the game in the 2010/2011 season. For example Leeds are in the N Power Championship.

Manager Experience: I have put that as automatic to make things realistic.

Job: That is coupled with me starting as unemployed!

I'm just posting this thread now so I have somewhere to put my updates once I finally organise my first one. I'm going to be posting mid-season updates, then season overview updates for every season I get through, however I'm not one of these fast players so my thread might be a little slow at times and I apologise for that.

My first update I will try get up tomorrow and that is a mid-season one for the first season.

Just as a little teaser I will tell you which team I am.... Worcester City in the Blue Square North

Hope you enjoy my updates !

[CoachFlu]

Thanks for the compliment.

Good luck!

[PaUlHuNtInGtOnLuFcBoY]

Where to start, where to start. Bare with my updates. I'm new to this lol...

Season 1

So basicallly for this Season I rushed ahead to get it finished so I'm going to be posting a whole load of big screenshots and I will try explain them as fully as possible.

Transfers

First Half

The black line on the In's section is merely splitting off the two sections of the season, so it is easy to compare and discuss. As you can see I needed some major re-building at the start of the season and it was an on going process throughout the first half of the 2009/2010 season. I figured out later that this was due to because I was getting bored with certain players easy, instead of giving them a chance and also sometimes I jumped the gun and signed a player-who wasn't neccesarily good enough-too quickly.

The pick of the bunch really from the first half would have to be Luke Duffy and coming in at a runners up spot, Robin Dawson. A pair of relatively unknown defenders came in on a free towards the start of the January transfer window and when combined together they created a solid partnership that rivalled even the top teams in the league. However Duffy was himself outstanding and he was never far from the spotlight when it came to those all important "hold what you have got" games.

On the other hand a real let down was Ross Dempster who looks to be a great prospect. I bought him in expecting a tally of goals, yet instead he puts in a performance every 5th game. Maybe I should have listened to the weaknesses my scout told me about him being inconsistant, however many of the decent players in this league that I choose to scout, seem to all have that listed as one of their weaknesses.

Second Half

Again I managed to boost my squad with one noticeable signing and it was in the much needed left-back area. Despite only being 19, I threw Pike in at the deep end with his debut soon after signing for me and he has never looked back since. He is a born leader and he is often mentioned as a player with great qualities in his many man of the match reviews. Certainly will be contending for Captain next season!

However, once again on the down side, my weak dealings far out-weigh my good ones and I was never going to achieve my goal of reaching the play-offs with players that were constantly putting in average performances. I was really dissapointed with Craig Jones, who I was really looking forward to seeing. To be fair to David Pilgrim he was signed near the end of the season and I was really thinking of next year for him, which is why he is only an average.

Results and League Table

So with six signings safely in the bag ready for the start of the new season (and a couple more being negotiated) I set off on my managerial career. Things weren't looking great after a shaky pre-season, which included only one win, however I thought that we were going to have a great season when we one our first match. After two games I was getting carried away, like I always do with the first matches and that meant I was always searching for a win in every game.

We went on a steady run from the Gloucester match to the Blyth match, of picking up points, whilst losing a fair few along the way, making for a nice even balance. This included a wins in the two cups we were competing in, one which was against a former top team in Chester.

Unfortunately from the Blyth match (who turned out to be eventual winners) we suffered a losing run of 7 matches, which did also include us being knocked out of both of the cups we had fought had to get through in. However this wasn't the end of the problem as we carried on a run of 12 matches without a win, earning ourselves a new league record in the process. My first achievement as a manager.

Just before Christmas I released why we had such mixed results and high scoring games. It was because-as I mentioned before-I sometimes stupidly went into every game expecting a win, meaning I would pile pressure on all the time meaning occasionally I would get caught on the break and lose a lot. Soon as I caught this factor out, I was good to go.

Thankfully the teams below us were losing points as well so for most of that rocky patch we managed to stay in a solid 17th position, whilst the board continued to be satisfied with my managing. My mood began picking up when we began winning again and then we hit another long patch of winning, losing, drawing, winning losing and drawing.

This constant cycle continued right til the end of the season and our highest unbeaten run only came to 4 in the end. However I did not focus much on the last 5 games as I was resigned to moving to Peterborough where I had been highly linked with. (Its funny because in those five games we maintained a 3 match unbeaten record) Upon declaring interest with the Peterborough job the chairman of their club stated how he would look no further than me once his current managers contract had run out.

Unfortunately nothing came of it and after scrambling around declaring interest in numerous amounts of insecure League 2 and 1 jobs I decided nothing was working, and the final blow was hit when I declared interest in the Peterborough job once again and my request was simply laughed off. A dismall season in my terms and one certainly for re-building on.

Que mass releases and incoming players!

[PaUlHuNtInGtOnLuFcBoY]

League Table

P.S. Forest Green only got deducted 10 points because they didn't finish in the relegation zone. Haha... I found that funny for some reason!

Awards and Stuff

Jake Meredith

Meredith was by far my best keeper... simply because he was the only keeper that played. I don't think I have ever achieved that before and it got really annoying when on the match analysis it constantly said that "Richard Mace will make his league debut for Worcester if he comes on today." The reason for this is that it was the only area that lacked any quality at all. Even Meredith himself wasn't up to the standards of the league, however somehow he managed to pull of some good performances.

Luke Duffy

As said before Duffy was one of the shining lights throughout a dull season and he certainly deserves his place as my best defender of the season, although he was hard pushed by Dawson and a certain Pike. But in the end his performances were far supreme and he saved us a lot of the time, diving into clearances and making last ditch challenges. I was quite proud as well that not one of my players was shown a red card this season and obviously that included Duffy who is clearly a real talent if he was able to pull off the sorts of tackles he did without committing fouls.

Lee Smyth

Another real talent in my squad was Smyth, who is one of those sorts of players who likes to pass the ball about, but isn't neccasarily a tackler. However this was ok as my system included one passer and one tackler in the middle of the park and Smyth played his part to perfection in most games. He created chances, he was always a threat and even the fans began passing comment of what a buy he was. (if I do say so myself) He has plently of time to improve as well and he will certainly feature next season, possibly even pushing for a role in the captaincy.

[PaUlHuNtInGtOnLuFcBoY]

Marco Adaggio

And last but not least Marco Adaggio, an Itallian striker who was the only one close in my squad to scoring a decent amount of goals. When he was on the ball the silky Italian was always dangerous and occasionally he pulled off the odd bullet. However it says a lot about my striking options, that Marco is my top striker, after scoring a mere 10 goals. Again he is on the young side and he will definitely feature next season in our push for promotion.

My 11

This was my pick of the squad that I thought performed the best and also who most frequently started for the team. I started off with a bland 4-4-2 but after being urged by my fans to try something new, I decided to play a little bit more to my squads strengths instead of being greedy and trying to play my way. This meant going to a more attacking formation of a 4-2-4, or rather a 4-4-2, with the wingers advanced a little to add more width and variety to our game. Overall the team I have picked there performed amazingly well in the short amount of time they were together, it was just a shame that the season started so badly, due to my bad choice of tactis and of course transfers.

Onto the proper awards...

First up, one I'm really happy with seen as thought I believe this guy was outstanding for us this season. I really do think the fans have made the right decision here. Stand up and be counted Mr...

Congratulations!

And now onto something a little more minor. My best eleven proper as I like to call it. (done on the ratings I think?)

A good pick there although a couple of the choices I do not agree with, like the left-back and the left-midfielder for that matter, although they were two problematic areas and Pike only came in towards the end of the season.

[PaUlHuNtInGtOnLuFcBoY]

Finally for this season: Other News...

And the World Cup specifically. Beaten by the old rivals again at yes, you guessed it the same again, although we did manage to score all of our penalties in the Quarters to get through? Weird. (I'm talking about England if you didn't know sorry!)

Onto next season . Hopefully I can push on and get promoted, then I'm thinking of jumping ship because the finances aren't all too great. Thankfully I seem to be attracting better players to the club and for the first time ever on any FM I have played on, I have finally got a good intake of youth players, with two promising youngsters. Bring on 2010/2011!

P.S. Sorry about all the images... Only just realised I can use links :L!

[DSYoungEsq]

It's nice to see someone struggling like you are to make it all work out right! I think it's much more realistic; the people who do so well right off the bat in my opinion have simply figured out how to "game" the software.

Worcester City's a tough go; they aren't even supposed to be in the sixth tier at all, since they shoud have been relegated last season. It's only by luck of circumstance that they got moved to the North instead and allowed to stay up. So keeping them out of the relegation zone was a good result! Kudos to you, and KUTGW!