Farnborough Town - The rise and rise

[kencomanbee]

Hello

I started a game as Farnborough Town.

I initially didn't have any set goals in mind of what I wanted to achieve apart form putting in a shift as a lower league manager and seeing how far I could go.

Well I have not enjoyed a game more than this one in all the FM and CM series.

I knew I had budget problems but I knew in the first 3 seasons or so I wouldn't have to worry about signing anyone.

I quickly became obsessed with my clubs finances and decided to emulate Arsene Wenger. I constantly dove into my youth team, picking any half decent youth regen and playing them in the first team and building them up to great effect.

The skrill south and skrill premier were no match for me a couple of nice loans and my young squad saw me fly into league football in 2 successive promotions followed by a promotion via a late floury into the playoffs in league 2 and a penalty win in the final saw me into league 1 .

I decided I would only attempt to consolidate my position in this league, cash in on my youth players and the ones I had bought all for healthy profits ( one lad I bought on a free sold for over 3 mil after a long negotiation process.

I bought through some more youth signed some loan players and raided the market for players who had been released by premier league clubs.

players such as saville and billy Clifford joined after being released form Chelsea.

I stayed put in league 1 placing 11th -

I decided I would go for promotion in this season. Keeping the majority of the squad together whilst selling my Turkish born right back regen for a cool 2.5 mil and once again selling my top scorer Ashely fletcher for a 1.5.

With the accountants happy and deciding it be a good idea to increase the capacity of my woeful stadium I went on with the same routine of utilising the loan market and a few young free transfers. The backbone of my squad still only 19 but most have been with me since the start but most importantly still having the quality to be successful. I won promotion convincingly the loan players being the difference coupled with my realisation that despite the fact that I have moderate training facilities ( I upgraded where I could ) I seemed to have some very very good players in my side judging by scouts from Liverpool and United stalking my games every week.

Championship time.

Sold my top scorer AGAIN bought some free transfers in 3 of them from Benfica kept hold of my 2 wonderkids that initially had asked for moves and decided to consolidate.

I didn’t spend any money- once again utilising the loan market all the while monitoring the clubs finance and the depth of my youth team. The moment I get a notification a “promising player” is turning professional they are shipped out on loan and monitored on a game by game basis.

Now here is the surprise. Im in the playoffs, with SIX GAMES TO GO surely I do not have the squad or infastcutre to play in the premier league ?

SO what next for me ? If I don’t gain promotion then I will have to sell pretty much my whole team to make ends meat, despite my stringent penny pinching my club loses money and just about breaks even every year.

Do I stay on ? I know I will have to rebuild but this will leave me with the real possibility of relegation, there isn’t the players coming through the youth system any more so I will have to rely on foreign free transfers which as a whole has gone against my philosophy.

What if I get promotion ? to the premier league

Do I continue not spending for a year and attempt to consolidate and sticking to my principles OR do I finally open the now dusty moth eaten cheque book and go for a surprising season .

What do I do ?

[kencomanbee]

Ok So I made the playoffs I needed at least 4 points from the last 2 games to secure the spot. A rather uncomfortable away win at Burnley and a last minute equalizer against bottom side Pompey put me into an unexpected playoff semi final

Next up it was Burnley again at home

Early doors a Burnley defender felled my CF as he was through on goal outside the area.

RED CARD - I cant believe my luck, not only that but my wonderkid Gareth Laslett ( the regen who the prem teams are looking at ) curls in a freekick for his 10th goal of the season.

A scrappy first half ensued and even with 10 men the away side were knocking at my door.

Paddy power park was clearly nervous

2nd half kicks of and we are on the attack Laslett again instrumental as he cuts a ball back from wide for my top goalscorer Akpom to blast home

2-0 and the paddy power park is in dream land, Burnley are flaggin but know one goal turns the tie on its head.

And they get one

A mix up between keeper and Centre half allows their forward to bang home for 12 yards and the game is back on.

Burnley continued to attack and came close again soon after.

I make a few subs and decided to throw kakuta in on the left wing, kakuta has had a good season and has re invented himself at Farnborough this season after years of getting nowhere at various clubs he joined Farnbrough town with a point to prove which he has,

With mins to go Kakuta and his pace get him past their right back, he flings in a ball towards Akpom who heads against the post but the ball comes back out to Ricky cunnington ( another Regen ) who buries the rebound

3-1 and we leave the game feeling within touching distance of Wembley.

We travel to turf moore a few days later

I make some changes and go with a more combatative team rather than pace and flair.

We start Poorly however and with 5 mins Burnely are a goal up and the tie is very much back on. Burnely attack pretty much the whole first half but we managed to get in at half time with the tie still in our hands.

I decide the best form of defence is attack, I again introduce Kakuta and send in Santiago Trellez for Akpom who has been poor, Trellez is a Colombian who has been indifferent for me this season but has scored some important goals.

10 mins to go, and Burnley still pressing until my midfielders intercept the ball and quickly play it out wide to kakuta who runs at the defence, cuts inside and GOAL.

ITS OVER we are in the final, could we do the impossible.

the final puts us against Fulham a team narrowly missing out on automatic promotion.

My side are well rested and I decide to play my best available squad with one expectation - Gael Kakuta I feel he deserves a start considering he made the difference in both legs.

The game is a cagey affair, Fulham look dangerous, but as do we and on the stroke of half time Akpom speeds through the defence to score his 18th goal of the season.

1- 0 up at half time at Wembley

Team talk is to praise the guys, no one has given us a chance here and we are 45 mins away from Premier league football, guaranteed security for Farnborough town and a new dawn for the club .

This feeling is short lived as Fulham pretty much straight away score 1- 1

Its still cagey for the rest of the game.

Fulham going close a few times but my defence holds strong

with 15 mins to go I make some changes, nothing major just like for like subs to freshen the side up and we go and get a corner.

the ball whipped in and kane stone ( another regen been playing first team since he was 16 ) heads home from 3 yards.

unbelievable scenes

Farnborough town are a premier league club.

[kencomanbee]

So the Start Of the Premier leagues season With Farnborough Town has commenced

A few things to note.

Paddy Power park is currently a 5000 seater stadium. Which is in no way sustainable for a Premier League club.

Planning Permission has been agreed and Farnbrough Town will move into a Brand New 17000 seater Stadium ( The Farnbrough Stadium )

The Revenue and the windfall of becoming a PL club is the most noticeable difference and things have never been so rosy Financially

My Board have given me their expectations to attempt to avoid relegation and sustain our PL status this will be a tough ask this season

The Board have offered up a transfer kitty of £20m and my wage budget has almost doubled.

I have decided that I will continue with my philosophy of previous years, don’t spend, make use of loans and keep the core of the team.

This on paper seems like a big risk considering, but my goal being financial sustainability I feel this is the way forward. I have at my disposal a great core of young players who now want to stay with me I feel that their qualities are such that I can avoid relegation with very little money spent.

Howeverm, there were a few players that I was not confident in.

Kakuta and Akpom although serving me well I felt there were better options, both players I bought on a free so was agood time to cash in.

I sold Akpom to Charlton ( who are in the PL ) for 4.5m I probably could have got a little more but hey profit is profit.

I sold Kakuta to Sunderland ( in the championship ) for 2.3m a player who showed so much promise earlu in his career is just not Premier league Standard .

You may also Remember me mentioning Kane Stone, A regen who has been a corner stone of my defence sicne he was 16 and has improved vastly now 21 is an England u21 and a player who shows promise. This was certainly the case when Swansea came in and offere 8m for his services. I negotiated a 30% sell on fee as well and agreed to let him go.

£14.8m in profit, the most In Farnborough Town history is good business whichever way you think about it.

I had offers for Gareth Laslett ( the other regen who seems to be destined for great things ) but since he asked if he could stay y I slapped a 20m price tag on him which deterred any offers. I expect him to shine this season and by the end I would hope he would receive a an England Call up.

Now players in.

I decided to only strengthen in places where I had lost people

I replaced Kakuta with Jordan Ibe, he is younger and was released by Liverpool at the end of the previous season so I got him for free, a definite ugrade.

I replaced Akpom With Ciro Immobile and Italian striker released from Torino who averaged 13 goals a season in seria a in his last 4 seasons, I felt this was a bargain and with realistic wage demands he would provide me with experience at 28.

I bought in an Italian left back Favalli who was released from fiorentina ehs 24 and a former Italy Under 21.

I also recalled young striker Jordan Neighbour who was on loan at Leicester at 18 he scored 16 goals in the previous season and he seems another player who will shine from the now famous Farnborough youth system.

How will I fair.

[borobadger]

A couple of screenshots would be nice, easier to follow than a load of text

[kencomanbee]

yeah I think I will upload some tonight to chronicle the rise

[Nobby_McDonald]

Farnborough Town ceased to exist in 2007. The present club, Farnborough were founded out of their demise.