FM15 - The Sky Bet Football League thread

[Jogo Bonito]

Cheers lewis. I'm very happy to be so far out of the drop zone - even with the inevitable slips to come, we should be safely surviving. I believe we can't fail with Mason. Upon signing his value became £6m, and with that minimum release clause of £4m we are in a strong position. He's such a big financial asset though, it will be hard to justify keeping him until the end of his contract in 2019. I'm actually amazed that he agreed to come here and on those wages, but I guess after seven months out of the game, he was desperate. The agent fee and bonus clauses are quite low, but to me they are massive!

Hope the move went well with you, and that you're soon hooked up with internet. I haven't played FM 'online' for years - as I only go online to Steam for game updates. At Championship level, I reckon Bolton and Blackpool must be the toughest challenges. In the Sky Bet leagues overall, I reckon Exeter was the hardest one to pick because of their low reputation, lack of finances etc. It probably hasn't been as hard as I imagined it might be, but I think I have probably done a fairly good job in charge. With Bolton, you have some pull, can sell or offload assets, and you're only one good season away from Premier League football. It's only my opinion, but a mid-level crisis club in the 2nd tier must be much easier than a small crisis club in the 4th that has no reputation? Exeter is not the only one to pick, the likes of Accrington might be on a par - but our finances were worse so that swayed it for me.

[lewis999]

The move so far has gone quite well thanks. To my question thinking about it like that you're right. Especially about the Premier League thing. Their finances are dire but they have some good players so a play-off win at the least will pull you out of the debt almost straight away. League Two it is then. Gonna wait for the final update to play as Barnsley properly because my last save felt unrealistically easy and I don't like that hence the original question.

Hoping a few of the players have had a downgrade, more so in hidden stats like consistency because we can outplay Bristol City (When they were unbeaten in like October) and lose a last minute lead to draw and then lose and play badly against lower teams. So infuriating.

[itsonlyjk]

@Jogo - Cheers for the response. Unfortunately i wasn't able to attract the ones you mentioned, both wages and club status were against me. I let Doyle, Donnelly and another lad i had Vastsuk go and brought in Craig Wighton on loan from Spurs, Daniel Lewis on loan from West Ham, Wes Burns and Sam Baldock on free transfers. I'm going to see how i get on with them and i'll update soon!

[Jogo Bonito]

@Jogo - Cheers for the response. Unfortunately i wasn't able to attract the ones you mentioned, both wages and club status were against me. I let Doyle, Donnelly and another lad i had Vastsuk go and brought in Craig Wighton on loan from Spurs, Daniel Lewis on loan from West Ham, Wes Burns and Sam Baldock on free transfers. I'm going to see how i get on with them and i'll update soon!

Ah, sorry none of them were any good. I've never managed Wighton but one of the guys on the forum liked him enough to sign him at a top European club, so he might be a shining star. Burns could do OK judging from my time with him at Bristol City, where he progressed reasonably well despite limited chances. I'd imagine the pick of that bunch might be Baldock, he has a pedigree but not sure how that translates in to FM performances. Good luck.

@lewis: Nice one, moving house is a big thing. League 2 isn't the only place for a challenge, and equal fun can be had at Championship clubs, but the biggest/longest tests will surely come from L2. I hope you find somebody there to capture your interest, before your next effort with Barnsley. By the way, remembering who helped make your Barnsley team so good, I was amazed to see Dele Alli go to Stoke from MK Dons in January 2017 for only £550k (not that we could afford him). Even the £2m that you paid was a good deal, so Stoke have bagged a bargain in my game.

[lewis999]

@Joga - Yeah I also had a look at Blackpool but i'm not sure that would be too challenging compared to the finances at Bolton. I can leave my Barnsley save until April/May if I find a team that, like you say, captures my interest. Gonna have a proper look tomorrow after Barnsley disappoint me.

[MichaelBrown]

If you really want a challenge, move to Bolton a few seasons in. They would've sold their best assets and the debt will be destroying the club, I once took over them on FM14 and they were having to pay £2m a month in debt repayments.

[smplfc123]

Great Update Jogo

I've been busy with work this past week, but I have a few days off next week, so i'll be looking to resurrect my League 2 challenge

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks smp, I will look forward to seeing you and lewis back in L2 at some point.

[Jogo Bonito]

My Exeter season 3 update should follow today/tomorrow.

I notice that a player on a hat-trick doesn't get automatically assigned a penalty now. There I was, at home in the last game of the season, 3-2 down with 90 minutes on the clock, and a player was on for it, and still on the pitch - but my usual penalty taker was given it. I paused quickly to re-sort the order of takers...but he was already running up to take it and it was too late. For the record, the penalty was scored and we grabbed a 3-3 draw. It was quite dramatic apart from that, as the two dropped points put our opponents out of the play-offs (and no, we didn't make the play-offs either).

One other thing. I was invited to play a pre-season friendly a year or two back as a testimonial for James Coppinger of Doncaster (he played at Exeter previously). I have a player who has now been at our club for 11 years (2006-2017) and two more years under contract. Has anybody ever had a testimonial for one of their players in FM? There doesn't seem an option to request from the board, so not sure if it's possible? If so, is it just down to luck?

[profii]

I'm sure you can do it if you manually arrange a friendly

[Jogo Bonito]

I'm sure you can do it if you manually arrange a friendly

Ah, thanks. I will check that option out

[MichaelBrown]

Ah, thanks. I will check that option out

It's in the right hand column, underneath the date/type etc.

[Gizmo7]

I notice that a player on a hat-trick doesn't get automatically assigned a penalty now. There I was, at home in the last game of the season, 3-2 down with 90 minutes on the clock, and a player was on for it, and still on the pitch - but my usual penalty taker was given it. I paused quickly to re-sort the order of takers...but he was already running up to take it and it was too late. For the record, the penalty was scored and we grabbed a 3-3 draw. It was quite dramatic apart from that, as the two dropped points put our opponents out of the play-offs (and no, we didn't make the play-offs either).

I think that's the most realistic outcome in this scenario though? You're 3-2 down so need so score this penalty, hence your 'proper' penalty taker takes it. If you were, perhaps, 3-0 up and win a penalty, maybe your player with 2 goals would have taken it, as there's less pressure to score, so it doesn't matter if he misses. This happens in real life too, so it may still be the case depending on what the score is

[Jogo Bonito]

MB/profii: Thanks for the info, I found the exact place on the right page now. Unfortunately the option of arranging it was greyed out, which is a shame as it was pre-season and the player (Liam Sercombe) has Liverpool as a favoured club (supporter). I really hoped I could get them down to Devon for him, but as it could only have been a 'normal' friendly, I arranged a game with Arsenal instead. I will go back to Liverpool with a proposal if I am ever able to suggest a testimonial for him - I wonder if the board have to 'agree' to it before you can make such an invitation.

Gizmo: Yeah, if I had prepared better I may have been in time to change it. I just wanted the option really, but I will know next time. Agree with your reasoning on it making sense, perhaps giving the option to change is the best solution. For the record, it prevented my player (who hadn't been able to force his way in to the team ahead of my main striker throughout the season), from bagging a second hat-trick of the month. He still won L1 Player of the Month though, which made up for the fact that my main striker - who was leading the L1 scoring charts until missing the final game with injury - was pipped at the post for that award when Mason Bennett of Sheff Utd grabbed a final day hat-trick to finish top of the pile.

* All of this makes it sound like we were brilliant this season. Wait for my update to see how and why that wasn't the case

[MichaelBrown]

Didn't have time for a January update, so I'll just update my position in the league/cups and show the reason why:

12th March:

League: 4th

Capital One: Semi Final (4-0 agg to Chelsea)

FA Cup: 6th Round (replay Leicester)

I'll show my signings for this season in a big update at the end. But, however, this guy has to be shown. I paid a million for him last season and due to a injury to Jordan Slew, I decided to experiment and use him as a DLF (a) rather than a trequartista. Here's the results:

His record so far is astonishing. By far my best player.

EDIT: I'm still unsure why the screenshots are a bit fuzzy? Any help?

[Gizmo7]

Quick update with life at Notts County

So after my last update, just a few posts up, things have been going terrible for us. Recent injuries to Zeli Ismail (5-6 weeks) and George Green (2 weeks) have helped contribute to 4 losses in our next 5 games. We've only dropped 1 place to 18th, but the board aren't happy with this recent form, so called a meeting about my future... *gulp*

They wanted to know the reason for this poor form, so I said it was because we've been unlucky with injuries, to which they weren't having any of it, so I said look, give me a month and things will look better, trust me. So they've agreed to this. 30 days to save my job. Here are my fixtures over the next month:

I feel up to the challenge - come on you Magpies!

[Jogo Bonito]

It’s time for my end of season 3 update at Exeter, and the story starts from February 2017. We had managed to climb in to a very respectable 8th place in the league by the end of January, after stringing some good results together at the turn of the year. Whilst survival remained my only aim, we were beginning to look capable of a much better finish…

1. Performance update

It’s fair to say that we failed to keep that momentum going after February, and quickly slipped back down the table. It was very tight from the top six to the relegation zone for the most part, but we never really threatened to be in contention or looked in danger of a relegation scrap. Whilst injuries were still evident, I can't use them as an excuse - particularly in the second half of the season. We generally had enough in the squad to cope, and could name a team and bench that was strong enough to compete on most occasions.

For some reason though, it didn’t really hold together, and although we usually managed to find scoring quite easy, we had issues at the other end keeping them out. I’m delighted at the overall GD and clearly the number of goals scored was impressive, but the alarming amount of goals conceded was as much as I would normally expect to let in during two seasons, not just one.

Picking out just a few of those fixtures, I'd say the win at Carlisle in mid-March was massive for us - at the time we were dropping like a lead balloon. Some kind of April Fools joke was clearly played against Swindon, although having been 3-1 down early on, it was probably one of our better days overall! And finally, on the last day we picked up a point from a 90th minute penalty against MK Dons (with Nicols robbed of his second hat-trick opportunity of the month when Yusuff stepped up to fire home). The two dropped points saw the visitors fall out of the play-off spots, which must have been awful for them and their stone cows on the hillside. Nicols disappointment that he wasn't handed the vital spot-kick or match ball was partially eased as he was still named as Player of the Month for April in League 1 anyway.

In summary, it was a decent return to the third tier for us, and I'm more than satisfied with the final position. Below are the results from February to April, and the seasonal performance graph showing how we finished in our rightful place, safely in mid-table of League 1...

Interestingly, Gillingham were promoted via the play-offs - after snatching the League 2 title ahead of us only a year before - thus clinching back-to-back promotions. What made it more special for them was the fact that they only grabbed a play-off spot at all on the last day because of our 90th minute penalty equaliser against MK Dons.

2. Team update

I had very good returns from most of my key attacking players. Andre Gray really came on in leaps and bounds as the season developed, and was particularly effective as a lone striker (poacher) in my 433 formation with wingers. Unfortunately he missed the last game of the season with injury, and unlikely events saw Mason Bennett (Sheff Utd) score a hat-trick to steal the League 1 top scorer award from him. My frequently-used lone striker tactic rather unfairly limited pitch time available to both Adeoye Yusuff and Tom Nichols, who both managed decent enough goal totals in comparison to their minutes of action. Their situation was something I took in to account at the end of the season when I reverted to 442 again in order to keep them more involved. Ross Allen has served me well until now, but found minutes hard to get due to our better options, and youngster Chris Regis was drafted in to the first team squad on the final day of the season as I have high hopes of him for the future.

The two loan wingers were very productive for us – Kieron Morris yet again in terms of goals and assists, and Omar Rowe in particular with his assists. This even saw David Wheeler pushed out of the side at times, which wasn’t something I had even contemplated in the previous two seasons. Freddie Sears wasn’t able to get as many chances as I would have liked - and suffered a long-term injury to make matters worse - but is still a valuable member of the squad.

In midfield, Matt Grimes managed more assists than ever before, despite having to play a deeper and more traditional role in the centre of the park. In recognition of his added influence, he was actually voted by the fans as their Player of the Season (breaking the cycle of Liam Sercombe, who had won the previous two years). Ryan Mason and Ted Bishop were quietly effective in the middle, perhaps limited somewhat by the roles they were asked to perform. Jimmy Keohane and Andy Robinson had less minutes this time around as we had some real strength ahead of them in those central positions.

Individually, the defenders seemed to be fine. Michael Chambers was excellent in the centre, captain Scot Bennett was his solid but unspectacular self, and even Anthony Stewart had reasonable ratings when he could make the team. Christian Ribeiro was again sound at right-back, whilst on the left, Danny Potts always seemed to play better than his ratings suggest. The defensive understudies (Ben McLaughlin and Jordan Moore-Taylor) were reliable when called upon and even the goalkeepers (Christy Pym and Joe Day) didn’t appear to be doing badly. However, for reasons I have not yet worked out, the collective unit just wasn’t quite right – something I need to address for next season.

Here are the player stats for the season, across all competitions…

3. Looking ahead to next season (2017/2018)

The board have given me a very reasonable budget for next season, although again I don’t plan to spend much cash, if any at all. The club made a tidy profit for the third year running, so is in good shape financially now. We’re currently spending about £25k p/w on player wages, which is well under the £40k p/w set aside by the board. I’m not planning to dip in to the market for players commanding fees, but obviously we have the resources there if an astute deal can be pulled off. I’m also not planning to bring anybody else in that gets anywhere near the wages of my two ‘marquee’ players (Mason and Grimes).

In terms of contracts, despite me giving Day a solid block of starts towards the end of the season, he wasn’t willing to open talks over a new deal. That’s a real shame, as he was progressing well and had been a good free transfer for the club. However, as it clearly wasn’t going to happen, I managed to attract a bid of £6k plus 20% future profit from Aston Villa, just before his contract ended. He was reluctantly allowed to complete his move away and becomes the only player in my time here that I have lost against my wishes. Quite remarkably, he also becomes the first player to bring any transfer income in to the club since my stint here started.

Jeff Henderson was also free to leave at the end of this season, but I somehow managed to get a deal struck with Ebbsfleet just before his contract finished. Needless to say there was no fee involved, but we would now get 20% of any future profit for him. Billy Bodin is also going to leave on 30th June, as I think he won’t ever become an important player here now, and he deserves the opportunity to play some games somewhere else.

On the positive front, I have already signed both Morris (after three successful seasons on loan with me) and Chambers on free transfers for next season, as their deals at Walsall and Crystal Palace respectively come to an end. I’ve also renewed the loans of Bishop and Potts for another season, after their clubs triggered extension clauses on them both. Sadly, that prevented me from picking them up on free transfers too, but they should make good contributions again.

In truth, the Bishop deal was a little surprising, as Ipswich (along with Derby again) have been relegated and end up in League 1 with us for the new term. In respect of Potts, I made a club record offer (don't laugh) to purchase him (£85k plus 20% of any future profit) which was accepted by West Ham – but we couldn’t meet his wage demands. Instead, I have decided to keep him on loan until I can overcome that, and this way we are only paying 20% of his wages anyway. The other loan player of last season was Rowe, who is also now out of contract at Southampton – but wants way more in wages than I am prepared to give him. We’ll have to see how that pans out.

I'm buoyed that we now have only two loan players, compared to five of last season, so that's a really progressive situation. The reduced amount of cup-tied players might help us do better in the various cup competitions too. However, at this moment in time I'd say the squad is probably two or three players light - especially given our three years of injury woes. For that reason, I definitely want another permanent left-back to compete with Potts, and I wouldn’t mind a commanding central defender (possibly left-sided) that might help shore up the defence. Finally, I wouldn’t mind a left-footed winger that can operate on both flanks – exactly like Rowe had done last season. I have my targets, but won’t pay more than I feel is reasonable for any of these options as it’s more about the right blend, depth of squad and value for money than any act of desperation or necessity.

I was a little disappointed that the average attendances only rose slightly last year, despite the promotion. With the kind of goal-crazy games we usually served up, we might have expected more than something around 5100 (the previous year average in League 2 was over 4900). I'm hoping the people of Devon turn off their tractors, hose down their wellies, cancel their cream teas, and amble down to St. James Park more often next season.

I’m just about to launch our pre-season friendlies, with the usual mixture of non-league and local opposition, plus a couple of more testing home friendlies to follow. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to arrange a testimonial match just yet (against Liverpool) for the long-serving Sercombe, but hopefully we can get that done at some point in the future.

* Gizmo, good luck. That's all a bit tense, but I really hope you keep your job and survive in League 1. Hopefully the Notts County board will keep the faith, and you can look to do better next season.

[Stfc mason]

Not updated for a while, been particularly busy and I have advanced very little in my save will try and update very soon.

[smplfc123]

JOGO Again, a great update mate Good solid finish which sets you a good base to build on!

Really impressed by the goals you managed to get out of Gray too.

Good luck for next season

[Jogo Bonito]

Stfc mason: No problem, will look forward to your update when it's the right time. Good luck!

smp: Thanks a lot - and yes a decent finish even if it was up and down. As you know me well by now, you can only imagine how I feel about conceding so many goals this season! Gray really finished strongly - the first half of the season was OK, but nothing special. After the new year he was really consistent though. His contract expires again in 2018 so hopefully he performs well enough to remain a key asset but not too well that we can't afford to keep him beyond that. Any nearer to picking your next team yet mate?

[Jogo Bonito]

Decision time at Exeter over my choice of winger. Unfortunately Omar Rowe went to Millwall on a free transfer as they were happy to pay him £4k p/w, about three times as much as I would offer him.

I have a choice of Demetri Mitchell (free), Sam McQueen (£10k) or Kadeem Harris (loan) and 'delayed' a decision on all three last night so I can take time to consider it more. Mitchell was released by Man Utd, is left-footed and has pace and flair - but isn't the hardest working. McQueen is still at Southampton where he has been schooled, and is really solid in every department but doesn't have breath-taking pace or any other amazingly outstanding attributes. Harris is only available on loan from Cardiff, and I would prefer not to go down that route, but has pace and work ethic, and overall probably the best stats of the three.

I already have Morris as first choice on the left, and Wheeler for the right (although stronger on his right foot, he can also play on the left), plus Sears who is more of a right-sided attacker than central striker for me. Ideally I wanted another left-footer, but one who can play either side (ala Rowe last year). I really can't decide which of the three is best, as I'm convinced that all of them would be a worthwhile addition.

I've been able to bring in my extra left-back now, on a free transfer. I had two on trial - Charlie Taylor and Joseph Mills, who had been released from Leeds and Oldham respectively. In truth I wasn't really trialling them, we just needed to try and open them up to reducing their wage demands. Both performed well in their two weeks with us, but I went for the cheaper and younger option with Taylor.

I'm half tempted to take Mills too and cancel the loan of Potts, as I really don't like having loans when I can have my 'own' men. However his stats are better than those of Mills, and he is younger too. Also, after two seasons on loan with us already, he does bring continuity - which I really value. I'm sure that a third year would see us through to picking him up on a free next season anyway, so should probably stick with him now.

Meanwhile, I have had great success extending player contracts in pre-season, and even those that I thought might prove tricky/expensive have been willing to stay on very similar terms.

There were some cracking unattached players this summer that have been on my shortlist for a few years now, but where I couldn't really see a way to fit them in at the expense of others, I just had to turn a blind eye to their availability. A couple were former players of Exeter, and probably now too old/expensive for my tastes (Scott Golbourne and Dean Moxey), but quite a few of the others would have fitted in to my philosophy of young British players that could be developed at a club like ours (the likes of Benik Afobe, Dominic Solanke, Craig Tanner to name just some of them).

[lewis999]

Joga - Demetri Mitchell by all accounts (reading through the United thread) has good potential.

http://i58.tinypic.com/2dvos4g.png

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks for the pic, he looks nothing like that in 2017 of my game - but has great pace and flair. I just looked at the last two pages of the Man Utd thread and hadn't seen anybody mention him - it was all about 'Hollywood' players which I found really quite boring. I guess that's just me, as it's been three years since I last managed in the top flight of England (briefly with Newcastle).

[fyrefuze]

I too would recommend Demetri Mitchell, so many saves around I have seen at this level the one and only important stat is pace. Afobe, Gnabry are beasts at this level.

[smplfc123]

JOGO

I am trying, but I can't seem to find a team/club that attracts me.

I'm stuck in that horrible place where you really don't know who to go.

[Jogo Bonito]

Mitchell has been released on a free transfer from Man Utd, not having made one appearance for any club since 2014.

McQueen is available for £10k from Southampton, and would be the latest in the long line of ex-Saints players and staff at Exeter.

Harris was a former Wycombe prospect, alongside my defender Anthony Stewart, and is available on loan for 20% of his Cardiff wages (£450 p/w to Exeter).

[Jogo Bonito]

smp: Sometimes it works like that, although I usually have too many that I want to be, rather than too few. Funnily enough, Exeter was never even a consideration for me until I got to the point of actually selecting my L2 team. It surprised me how much I got in to it here.

Maybe a smaller team in L1 might be worth a look? You can try and replicate my epic Coventry story of FM13, but I really like the look of Walsall on the last official patch (not sure how it looks on your update).

When I was going through L2 teams before, and mentioned Plymouth amongst them, I forgot to mention that you also get 10% of any future profit on Joe Mason, who often looks to leave Cardiff. The more I think about it, they or Newport (as you're either Welsh, or from there) would seem to be good options for you. Or go back to Exeter and just dump Clinton...

[fyrefuze]

@smp - off topic but why not have a look at Dundee utd (SPL) or Hearts (Scottish Championship)??

Jogo pls excuse me.

[Jogo Bonito]

@fyrefuze - not a problem at all. I also play in other leagues/countries between Sky Bet saves, to break the pattern and come back fresh.

P.S. Thanks for your second endorsement of Mitchell, I've got two game days left before I have to make that final decision - complicated further by the fact that Kenneth McEvoy (Tottenham) is also available for loan and can offer similar qualities to the other three. The way my pre-season is going so far (having made some small tactical tweaks to try and make us more solid defensively), I really have a feeling we are going to be in for a good season. Pre-season optimism is great isn't it...the truth might be very different!

[Stfc mason]

10 games in our first season in the Championship and its been very good, 9th place is above what I expected considering our start but I feel the performances merit our position, the 3-2 loss against Burnley was truly unjust but the 2-0 defeat at Watford was disappointing as we were never in the game. Also pleased with the capital one cup run and we have a winnable tie at home to Birmingham in the 4th round. In terms of top scorers Adam Campbell leads the way with 7 and Jon Obika and Andy Williams have scored 5 each.

Of course there is no easy games in this league but the next few fixtures are less tough than Leeds,Norwich, Bournemouth, Stoke, Watford and Burnley

[Jogo Bonito]

A very solid start there Stfc mason, and it must give you good hope for a successful season.

I know there are a few looking for new clubs (and Gizmo slowly working on Notts County), but how is everyone else getting on - like the Sheff Utd boys, and FjollFan at Crewe? And fenlander, if you're still going with Swindon?

[Jogo Bonito]

Exeter City: Season 2017/2018 preview

I'm going to try to keep this short, as it's time to kick-off season 4 with Exeter.

Pre-season Transfers

In: Ted Bishop (Ipswich, loan extension), Danny Potts (West Ham, loan extension), Michael Chambers (Crystal Palace, free), Kieron Morris (Walsall, free), Charlie Taylor (unattached), Demetri Mitchell (unattached).

* Bishop will spend a second season on loan, Potts will begin his third year on loan, Chambers joins permanently after one year on loan, Morris joins permanently after three years on loan, Taylor arrives after being released by Leeds at the end of a loan spell with Port Vale, and Mitchell was released by Man Utd having not played a single league match yet in his career.

Out: Jeff Henderson (Ebbsfleet, free), Joe Day (Aston Villa, £6k), Billy Bodin (released), Mustafa Rehemi (released), Frank Rosenwald (released), Daniel Hayfield (released).

* Henderson leaves after two seasons with us (20% profit clause added), Day leaves after two seasons with us (20% profit clause added), Bodin is released after three seasons with us, and the other three were in the U18 squad when I arrived but have not made enough progress to be kept on any longer.

Pre-season results

We had a really impressive run in our friendlies, and after tweaking a couple of things to tighten up our leaky defence, it's good to see that so far it hasn't stopped the flow of goals. I've used 442 in all matches, and just added 'use tighter marking' and 'be more disciplined' to the four team instructions that have been in force since I took the job.

Obviously I continued to pick local and non-league clubs for the majority of these matches, but the results were still very positive. We also beat decent European opposition in Lokeren and EA Guingamp again. The comfortable victory over Arsenal was unexpected as they had lots of their top stars playing (Ozil, Sanchez etc). The defeat to Leicester was a bit unlucky as they scored two late goals, the winner being a penalty. More bizarre was their 451 formation, featuring Fernandinho (the Man City defensive midfielder) as a very effective lone striker - he scored both the goals, and actually looks really good in that role!!!

Contracts

I've renewed all key player contracts until at least 2019, and plenty now run to 2020. Nearly all of them have trigger clauses too, so we are really well protected for another two or three years. There are only two players (Robinson and Allen) in my 25-man first team squad, and one semi-useful U21 player (Jay) who will be out of contract at the end of this season, and it's quite possible I'll be happy to see all three depart by then anyway.

2017/2018 squad list: Christy Pym (22), James Hamon (23), Christian Ribeiro (27), Ben McLaughlin (22), Danny Potts (23, loan), Charlie Taylor (23), Scot Bennett (26, captain), Anthony Stewart (24), Jordan Moore-Taylor (23), Michael Chambers (23), Andy Robinson (24), Matt Grimes (22), Liam Sercombe (27), Jimmy Keohane (26), Ted Bishop (21, loan), Ryan Mason (26), David Wheeler (26), Kieron Morris (23), Demetri Mitchell (20), Freddie Sears (27), Tom Nichols (23), Ross Allen (30), Adeoye Yusuff (23), Andre Gray (26), Chris Regis (20).

[FjollFan]

A very solid start there Stfc mason, and it must give you good hope for a successful season.

I know there are a few looking for new clubs (and Gizmo slowly working on Notts County), but how is everyone else getting on - like the Sheff Utd boys, and FjollFan at Crewe? And fenlander, if you're still going with Swindon?

I haven't had much time to play except yesterday when I made some progress. Currently sitting in March and have dropped out off the playoff spots after injuries and really bad form. Although I can't be sad if we miss play offs since we are in no way prepared for PL, heck we are probably one of the worst teams in the Championship just looking at players.

Bigger update will follow tomorrow I think or at the latest by Saturday.

Nice win over Arsenal Jogo

[Jogo Bonito]

No problem FjollFan, good to know you're still on it with Crewe - hopefully you can turn that form around soon enough. I agree that promotion now wouldn't be the best thing really, better to build it up properly so you're ready if that time comes.

Thanks, yes the Arsenal win was really good, we actually dominated them. I only made it through August - and it hasn't gone quite as well as pre-season!

I was checking my squad, and I'm quite pleased that entering my 4th season we have 10 of the original players making my squad of 25, plus 12 of the original U21/U18 players in my U21 pool - not that many of that second group will ever be good enough to make the first team.

[Gizmo7]

@ Stfc mason - interesting that you decided to arrange a Friendly match in the International break, do you have many international players? That could be a reason why Watford were fresher than you and why you were never really in that game?

I should have an update about my Notts County game later on today if I get the chance.

[MichaelBrown]

I'm fourth in the league, but results are faltering. I linked my main player in a screenshot about five up and I've made a few permanent additions (like Aaron-Taylor Sinclair). Also, my cup run has been a lifesaver, the money has kept me in constant profit throughout the season.

I'll do a proper update by Sunday.

[Gizmo7]

I remember having Aaron Taylor-Sinclair at Norwich on FM14, turned out to be a very solid Premier League left-back. Didn't know he's now at Wigan in real life now though.

[MichaelBrown]

He's kicked Blair Adams out of the side, possibly due to the fact that he is more attack based. My formations are a 4-4-2, a narrow diamond and a 3-2-2-1-2 so wing backs/full backs are incredibly important for me.

On the other side I have Geraldes who was a free transfer. He's quality to be honest.

[Jogo Bonito]

Michael, your player linked earlier certainly has delivered (sorry it looks like I failed to comment on that post) - but I guess you expected that for the £1m outlay! One day I am going to shatter the Exeter transfer record (currently £65k for Tony Kellow - also our club record goalscorer - from Blackpool in 1980). Taylor-Sinclair has been a very good low-risk LB for a few years now, along with the guy West Ham just agreed to sign (Stephen Hendrie). The only trouble for lower rep clubs on Taylor-Sinclair now is the wages are fairly good at Wigan - so although he is usually available for sale or loan, not every club can afford to grab him (we couldn't).

Gizmo, I hadn't noticed that Stfc mason had arranged a friendly in the international break, that was interesting to see. My teams normally need every break they can get to try and heal the wounded and fatigued amongst them!

[Gizmo7]

He's kicked Blair Adams out of the side, possibly due to the fact that he is more attack based. My formations are a 4-4-2, a narrow diamond and a 3-2-2-1-2 so wing backs/full backs are incredibly important for me.

On the other side I have Geraldes who was a free transfer. He's quality to be honest.

Blair Adams is terrible for me, he's supposed to be one of our top players too Michael Hoganson has replaced him as first choice LB now for us.

Gizmo, I hadn't noticed that Stfc mason had arranged a friendly in the international break, that was interesting to see. My teams normally need every break they can get to try and heal the wounded and fatigued amongst them!

That's the same with me! That's what got me thinking that could be a possible reason his team weren't up to scratch in their next match against Watford.

[Stfc mason]

@Gizmo & Jogo- I have about 3-4 internationals who didn't play the friendly and 2 of them started the Watford game. I normally don't do friendly's during international breaks but my team lost the last 2 league games so I decided to install some confidence and thought it would keep the sharpness up. I also purposely arranged it for the Friday before so my team still had 8 days to recover. It's a choice I mostly likely won't make again:D

[Jogo Bonito]

@Gizmo & Jogo- I have about 3-4 internationals who didn't play the friendly and 2 of them started the Watford game. I normally don't do friendly's during international breaks but my team lost the last 2 league games so I decided to install some confidence and thought it would keep the sharpness up. I also purposely arranged it for the Friday before so my team still had 8 days to recover. It's a choice I mostly likely won't make again:D

Haha, that makes sense and it was worth a try. We learn more from bad experiences anyway

[Gizmo7]

So I had 30 days to save my job at Notts County, and here's how it went:

Not bad, didn't lose any, but also frustrating to draw as many as we did. The board are happy with this though, so that keeps me in the job for the time being, and we're now 15th in the league, with just the 4 games remaining of this season.

Looking forward to getting rid of a few high earners in the summer and really putting my stamp on this team. Highest earner Roy Carroll, who is on £4,000 p/w, is out of contract in the summer, and he won't lower his demands, even at the ripe old age of 37. Other big names who look like they'll be moving on are Hayden Mullins, Alan Smith, Gary Thompson, Mustapha Dumbuya, Stephen Foster, Mike Edwards and Mark Gower. Now that's quite a few players, so I'm expecting a fair bit of activity to happen for us, but we need it. Oh those players, the only one's I'll miss are Dumbuya, Carroll, and Foster, but none of them are irreplaceable.

[Jogo Bonito]

Nice one Gizmo, I'm very pleased you saved your job and presumably you have kept or will keep County up? That's quite a few draws, but looks much better to be on a decent unbeaten run!

Looking at that list of players with expiring contracts, I wouldn't want to keep any of them. You can build a much better squad with players you like, perhaps some young talent can be attracted, and it will really feel like your own team then. Now go out there and finish with some wins

[Gizmo7]

Just beat Barnsley 3-1 at home to send them down! Here's a look at the table now:

So yes, we're safe and we'll finish up in mid-table mediocrity. Oh well.

I do have some exciting youngsters who I'm looking to bleed in to the team next year, including 21-year-old goalkeeper Fabian Spiess, 17-year-old winger Paolos Beraki and 18-year-old striker Alex Kenlock. We also have Jimmy Spencer coming back from his horrific cruciate ligament injury that's kept him out all season, he was injured when I arrived here so that could potentially be like a new signing when he regains fitness, as he looks like he could be decent, and he's still only 23, so hopefully that injury isn't the end of him at such a young age.

And I will of course be wheeling and dealing in the transfer market, so yes, bright times ahead I predict

[Jogo Bonito]

Well done Gizmo! Spencer looked to be the best striker there, so that injury was a big blow. Hopefully he recovers well and makes up for lost time. Good luck in the transfer market and beyond.

[MichaelBrown]

I just lost 2-1 in playoff final with a last minute goal lol

[Jogo Bonito]

Very bad luck MichaelBrown. It's not FM if you don't concede a list minute goal though

[FjollFan]

As mentioned before we have had some horrible form to end season 3

Especially the loss to Doncaster was infuriating as we dominated the game but they got a corner goal in the 89th

With that garbage end to the season we took the 13th spot.

I am pleased overall with the 13th place even though I was 3rd early in the winter, as I mentioned we are not prepared for PL so another season in the Championship will do us good.

Newcastle and Crystal Palace was just on a different level from the rest and pretty much crushed everything that happened to stand in their way. On the other hand Stoke and especially Sunderland has been pathetic.

Cups

Urgh, got Newcastle away in the Capital one cup and lost 1-2, not a bad result but still disappointing to be out so early.

Now the FA-cup is where I am irritated because we got a "easy" draw in the 3rd round with Gillingham home and this is the result.

Extremly frustrating.

In other news Brad Inman for the 3rd time becomes Fans player of the year with a astonishing 6.89 average rating, I don't know what that guy does outside the pitch but the fans love it

The real MVPs of the season

Daniel Trickett-Smith: For some reason he has been much better in the Championship than in League 1. 30 games, 9 goals, 6 assists and 7.28 average rating. The pairing of him and Yesil in front was deadly. Why he didn't get Fans player of the year is beyond me.

Samed Yesil: 20 goals and 6 assists over 30 games speaks for itself. He also became signing of the year.

Reece James: I mentioned it before that my fullbacks are important and James has been really solid, nothing fancy just solid.

Contracts

Grant, Oliver, Ray, Murdoch and Swift have been left for free while we have extended the contracts of Saunders, Waters, Atkinson, Lelan, Yesil and Christensen. Tootle remains a sore thumb as he wants to leave and his contract expires next year

The Future

Will be looking to strengthen most of the squad but GK, wingers (I will try a 4-4-1-1) and fullbacks are a priority and with a budget of £100k wages and £1.2m transfer we should achieve some of it Depending on what players we can secure we might be aiming for play offs next season. A full transfer summary will follow once the window has closed.

Besides that I will be picking up a new assistant and some other coaches as well to prepare for the long run.

[Jogo Bonito]

Excellent update FjollFan, but that really was a drop in form. I agree, finishing 13th was still very good though. Nice to see Trickett-Smith has been good value, and that Saunders is still in your plans. Inman sounds like he holds some seriously fantastic personality to keep taking that award, haha.

Whilst the FA Cup defeat to Gillingham was tragic, I was interested to see Gary Noel amongst their scorers. I'd been monitoring him in the first season at Exeter, and he was available for free in 2015, but I opted against him. He's an English striker who went to Austria to play amateur football in real life, and has progressed slightly from that. In my game, Crewe picked him up in 2015 on a free transfer - but he has flopped massively, and constantly missed training. Looking at his stats though, he's worth looking at for any L1/L2 manager in 2015.