FM16: Barnsley F.C - The Only Way Is Up Surely?

[Gungner]

Board returned with a verdict, and I now have Tottenham as my parent club. Kyle Walker-Peters has joined on loan for the season, and I have also brought in a head of youth Development alongside Eva Carneiro as my new physio. Lost the first friendly of the season, at home to Rangers FC... They beat us 2-0.

[Sir-Rik]

I got Spurs too, Josh Onomah (sp) was excellent for me on loan, you might want to try get him if he's available.

I should also do an update, maybe later tonight as i am onto my second season.

[lewis999]

He's called Jesus Marimon mate. A little bit injury prone if I remember but can play any role at all in midfield very well. Some good signings there especially KWP from Tottenham. He can improve into a Premier League player easily so keep an eye on his contract.

[Gungner]

Here's my transfers so far:

Here's the League at the end of August:

Aaron Kuhl has been an mvp for me... Putting in some great performances and contributing to a few goals. He's really the heart of my midfield alongside Hurrihane.

Edit: sorry about the huge Pictures... can't seem to make them smaller

[lewis999]

What a day out! I'm about to start my save properly now i'm all proud, teary eyed and have no voice left.

[lewis999]

After a busy few weeks i'm about to start my last game until FM17. Just looking for signings now (one or two at most) and struggling to decide which formation to use. Kind of want to use a 4-4-2 like real life but not sure how I would set it up just yet.

[lewis999]

We are going up, say we are going up! I shall be making our 'Championship' thread next year

just a shame we had to play against a team that has fans like that, awful scenes. Have a good summer everyone.

[roadie]

Fantastic thread this one. I will have to check out the Barnsley players and recommended signings for my first season Bristol City save.

[lewis999]

Fantastic thread this one. I will have to check out the Barnsley players and recommended signings for my first season Bristol City save.

Thanks for the kind words mate.

[samwilzrhcp]

Fantastic thread this one. I will have to check out the Barnsley players and recommended signings for my first season Bristol City save.

Is that you Lee?

[causticgrip]

Hi all, great thread- inspired me to start a new save with Barnsley. First season went well:

(Josh Brownhill was the MCR)

Barnsley have a great squad, should compete well in the Championship.

[kelabb]

Hey all,

Great thread Lewis, have enjoyed it immensley.

I started a Barnsley save because they were one of the managerless clubs. I have the summer update as my default database so already had Aiden White and Adam (?) Hammill at the start of the season. I bought in DM Josh Pritchard so I could play a 4-1-2-3 with a specialist DM. I also enticed Abdul Razak into the fold to rotate with Scowen and Hourihane in the middle of the field. Only other newbie was the lanky yank, Parkwood who I signed to boost the DC numbers but made the DR spot his own after I accepted 1.5m for Bree. Happy to say we finished as champions. Switched to a 4-4-2 in the second half of the season and led almost all the way to the finish.

Life in the Championship has been noticeably harder, and we are sitting in the lower half, though not in a relegation battle. I sold Adam Hammill after he demanded a ridiculous wage following his Player Of the Year Award for League 1 last season, and interest from Premier League clubs. I've never seen a player (real or digital) fall over nothing so much as I saw him constantly tripping over pixels and losing the ball. Good riddance, really!

I am confidant of staying up, and look forward to continuing on. I must say, it is pleasing to have a board willing to listen to my "suggestions". Maybe it's the 18 for Determination in my profile, not sure...

Onward and upward...

[causticgrip]

Finished my 2nd and 3rd seasons with Barnsley.

2nd season was a bit up and down but I got promoted in the end:

Several of the real Barnsley players still did a good job at this level.

3rd season I was tipped to finish 19th and be relegated but I wasn't having that!

Made a lot of signings which unsettled things at first but it worked out alright, played some good football at times. Should be able to make a big profit on some of these players as well. As for the original squad members, I still had Bree, Hourihane, Winnall, Hamill, Scowen and Smith. I think only Bree has what it takes to stay in my team going forward.

[lewis999]

On 14/07/2016 at 02:42, kelabb said:

Hey all,

Great thread Lewis, have enjoyed it immensley.

I started a Barnsley save because they were one of the managerless clubs. I have the summer update as my default database so already had Aiden White and Adam (?) Hammill at the start of the season. I bought in DM Josh Pritchard so I could play a 4-1-2-3 with a specialist DM. I also enticed Abdul Razak into the fold to rotate with Scowen and Hourihane in the middle of the field. Only other newbie was the lanky yank, Parkwood who I signed to boost the DC numbers but made the DR spot his own after I accepted 1.5m for Bree. Happy to say we finished as champions. Switched to a 4-4-2 in the second half of the season and led almost all the way to the finish.

Life in the Championship has been noticeably harder, and we are sitting in the lower half, though not in a relegation battle. I sold Adam Hammill after he demanded a ridiculous wage following his Player Of the Year Award for League 1 last season, and interest from Premier League clubs. I've never seen a player (real or digital) fall over nothing so much as I saw him constantly tripping over pixels and losing the ball. Good riddance, really!

I am confidant of staying up, and look forward to continuing on. I must say, it is pleasing to have a board willing to listen to my "suggestions". Maybe it's the 18 for Determination in my profile, not sure...

Onward and upward...

Thanks for the kind words about the thread mate. I will be doing ours again next year which will be a pleasure. Fantastic to hear you got promoted and some very good signings there. Disappointing to hear about Hammill as he is our best player and has an unbelievable amount of quality. Look forward to more updates as you carry on. Well done.

[lewis999]

On 12/07/2016 at 21:52, causticgrip said:

Hi all, great thread- inspired me to start a new save with Barnsley. First season went well:

(Josh Brownhill was the MCR)

Barnsley have a great squad, should compete well in the Championship.

Thank you also for the kind words mate. I can't see your pics to view them. Not sure if it's just me but....

[lewis999]

On 21/07/2016 at 15:13, causticgrip said:

Made a lot of signings which unsettled things at first but it worked out alright, played some good football at times. Should be able to make a big profit on some of these players as well. As for the original squad members, I still had Bree, Hourihane, Winnall, Hamill, Scowen and Smith. I think only Bree has what it takes to stay in my team going forward.

Some very good signings there fella. Especially Kranevitter and Wimmer. Glad to see our real players played well for you too. There is a few that can make the step up if used properly as you have done.

[lewis999]

Started off like an house on fire. Long may it continue.

[lewis999]

As you can see with our gap at the top combined with our recent form that we set off like a house on fire and have been pretty bad in the last 4 games. This is down to injuries and having a lot of matches in quick succession. We are through to the FA Cup 3rd round against Liverpool which is our next match and the JPT Northern Final against Walsall so we have games every 3 days.

I'm hoping Mr John Stones gets sold by Everton for mega bucks so we can get our 15% and invest for next season.

With January beginning and the transfer window opening, the vultures are already circling. Conor didn't mind me rejecting Burnleys offer but James did and he is now unhappy. His contract isn't over for another 3 years and i'm hoping by that time we can be at least a top Championship team to be able to tie him down to another contract. He's a local lad so I want to keep him around.

Davey and Todd are newgens that my Director of Football found and are playing U21 games and occasional first team games. We desperately needed a CB as Nyatanga in my opinion just isn't good enough so in comes the very good Doneil Henry from the Hammers.

I'm using a 4-1-2-2-1 formation which is what i've used 90% of the time.

[lewis999]

We had the 1 good chance of the match and unfortunately didn't put it away. Going to be a hard task to replicate that performance but being at home helps.

Just a few days after that match I get this message. Yes James you know it makes sense old mate.

[lewis999]

Exact same team, exact same tactics and an even better result. They had more chances than me this time and my goalkeeper had a brilliant game but against teams and players like these that's what you need. We play Nottingham Forest at home in the next round. James Bree's late run and finish from RB was brilliant.

[lewis999]

We go to Wembley hoping to emulate our real life travels and win the JPT. Peterborough are 4th in the league so it will be a very tough game.

These are our domestic cup exploits with some very, very good results. I can't help but think Stoke will be one step too far and that this can't carry on much longer but we'll give it a good go with the same plan and team that played against Liverpool if everyone's fit.

[lewis999]

Yep, one too far. Neither team deserved to win really. Draw would of been fair.

[lewis999]

It's youth player time and we have a very good striker and seemingly a very good CB. Not sure how good, good is but we shall see they look the part for their age. Here they are.....

Brilliant finisher already, just lacking in dribbling, strength and vision. He can't jump but that's not too bad for me.

Fantastic personality on Allen and has very high tackling and marking for his age. With the jumping of 8 he may end up being a DM as I don't like small CB's. He also has 4* and 1 black *. Looking forward to seeing how both develop.

[lewis999]

Finished my very successful first season at Oakwell with a title win and the JPT trophy. We also managed to somehow get a record points total with 104 points. Not sure how to be honest as we weren't very good in the last part of the season despite picking up scrappy wins by the odd goal. It helps that I managed to bring Mason Holgate back from Everton on loan and also the very good Marcus Rashford from Man Utd. He's not as good as he is in real life understandably but never the less he was good in League One.

We lost games against teams we 'should' be beating and put in good performances against the teams around us. As you can see Peterborough and Millwall are in the final. I'm hoping Peterborough win because I have my eye on Onyedinma from the Londoners.

Our fantastic run to the fifth round of the FA Cup provided us with a lot of cash after replys against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest and the loss against Stoke.

Have my fingers crossed now that someone pays a massive amount of money for our very own John Stones which will boost my transfer budget of 3.4m for next season.

 

[ryan045]

Nice read @lewis999 will be looking forward to see who you sign for next season. Stones usually goes in the 2nd season, could see you getting around £6-7million from it. Elliot King looks like a little gem aswel. Aims for the championship?

[lewis999]

2 hours ago, ryan045 said:

Nice read @lewis999 will be looking forward to see who you sign for next season. Stones usually goes in the 2nd season, could see you getting around £6-7million from it. Elliot King looks like a little gem aswel. Aims for the championship?

Thanks mate, glad someones reading feel less daft! Well signings wise I always try to do my stuff as early as possible. Obviously if something comes up later on that I feel I can't really turn down i'll do it too if they're better than what I have. Firstly I want to show my young players that have come from teams in England or my academy. They didn't cost much and I doubt any of them have the potential to be world class but if they can become Premier League players, even if it's lower end then I can sell them for profits or have them as back up homegrown players in my squad.

Joshua Elliott - Just arrived from Chesterfield for 84k. He didn't want to come initially so I had to talk him round but i'm glad I did, every scout raved about him so looking forward to seeing him develop.

Robert Allen - I posted him a bit further up, he came through our own youth academy and i'm hoping he can become nearly as good as our very own John Stones then we will have a good player. His lack of jumping is making me consider him as a DM.

Elliot King - My Head of Youth said he is the one to look out for and has impressive starting stats for a 16 year old. I feel very lucky to have got him. He needs a bit of development with his strength, teamwork and vision but his other areas are good.

Kevin Wilkinson - Joined us from Crewe for 55k. They have a very good academy so i'm glad he wanted to join us as a new Championship club. I think he can become really good and doesn't have any glaring weaknesses.

Gary Todd - Joined us at the very start of the first season from Boston for 8.5k. My DoF signed him and i'm glad he did. He is already 2* current ability and is looking promising. His stamina needs some work but i'm hoping that will improve with age.

Liban Elmi - Another one from Crewe who looks to have good starting attributes but his potential is apparently lower than the others. For 60k he's worth a chance.

Jack Davey - The same as Todd, my DoF signed him from Aldershot at the start of the first season for 39k. Another one like Elmi who has good stats but lower potential.

In total they have all cost 250k which even to Barnsley as a Championship club now, is nothing. Especially when i'm more than sure that they will all go for more than that when/if they leave. Like I said before, we aren't talking about the next Aguero or the next Hummels but i'm hoping they can become solid Premier League players if trained and developed properly.

[lewis999]

Just into the start of July and we have already strengthened our team massively with a mixutre of loans and transfers.

Dan Burn was the first to join. I lodged a cheeky 100k bid a few weeks before his contract ended in the hope I could beat the other teams when he was a free agent. They accepted and so did he and now we have a Championship defender who played 20 times in the league last season with an average rating of 7.15 which is very solid.

Jordan Williams joins us through the door on a season long loan from Liverpool. He is a very versatile lad who can play RB, CB, DM and CM and has a professional personality which is a massive bonus. He's an all rounder and will be a very good player for us.

Cameron Brannagan is another lad from Liverpool who joins us on loan. Like Williams he has brilliant stats for our level in all areas. Very, very solid for his age.

Daniel Bentley is a very highly rated goalkeeper from Southend. He cost 105k as I did the same as with Burn and put a bid in before his contract expired. He will start as our #2 as Davies was brilliant last season and I like to be loyal to players that have always done well.

Chuks Aneke returns to England from Belgium having played for Arsenal and loan spells at Crewe when he was younger. A very tall, technical player who can play in the centre of midfield or up front.

Adam Forshaw is the 'big' money signing for us so far. He cost 1.2m in total. I paid half up front and half over a few years to leave us some money in reserve. He is a very complete player for the Championship and i'm looking forward to his partnership in midfield with Hourihane.

That's it so far but we haven't even got to our first friendly yet so this list could have more additions. At the end of last season I renewed the loans of Mason Holgate, Ashley Fletcher and Lloyd Isgrove as they all did very well last season, well Holgate for half a season.

[TheJanitor]

On 8.8.2016 at 07:15, lewis999 said:

Thanks mate, glad someones reading feel less daft!

Reading this aswell. I have been looking for a different type of challenge for a last save and since I always start in the first division I've decided to start with a team in a lower division. This team guide really inspired me into start with Barnsley, just won the opening game of the season, will update as I go on.

Great signings you've made, have you sold any players? I'd really like to keep the likes of Bree, Scowen, Hourihane and Hammill if I manage to get promoted.

[lewis999]

6 hours ago, TheJanitor said:

Reading this aswell. I have been looking for a different type of challenge for a last save and since I always start in the first division I've decided to start with a team in a lower division. This team guide really inspired me into start with Barnsley, just won the opening game of the season, will update as I go on.

Great signings you've made, have you sold any players? I'd really like to keep the likes of Bree, Scowen, Hourihane and Hammill if I manage to get promoted.

Cheers for the nice words mate. Glad you have decided to give us a go. I do still have a lot of the original team. I still have Davies, Bree, Mawson, Roberts, White, Smith, Scowen, Digby, Hourihane, Hammill, Watkins and Williams. I have just sold Winnall as he isn't quite good enough for a lone striker in the Championship. They all did well last season and I don't want to upset the chemistry by replacing every single player. We built up a fair bit of money last season with our FA Cup ties with Liverpool, Forest and Stoke and that's without the John Stones money to come.

Look forward to your updates Janitor. Keep us posted.

[lewis999]

Oooo just made, in my opinion a fantastic signing. Absolutely no idea why he was transfer listed but even though I have 3 good CB's already I had to add this one. He's an U19 German international and on my last save where I ended up at Schalke this lad was brilliant and a starting defender for Borussia Dortmund and worth 20m+.

I bet you can't guess how much he cost? Nope, it was....

Yeah even our spokeperson said he should of cost a lot more and he's right.

[lewis999]

Our first match back in the Championship ended well eventually.

Our returning favourite from the coast, Southamptons Lloyd Isgrove gave us the 3 points and we are off to a fantastic start. We followed this with a 1-0 win over League 2 side Crewe in the League Cup. I rotated all 11 players and played a handful of our promising youngsters who all did very well. I'm glad they can hold their own and we have Newcastle and St. James Park in the next round.

 

[lewis999]

Just managed to play a few games and we started as we left off with another 3 wins in the league to take us top of the league albeit being very early in the season. Top half is my aim but if we can carry on with our clinical taking of chances then we may be able to sneak a play-off spot which would be brilliant.

Our 2nd round Capital One Cup game was against Premier League team Newcastle United and this is what happened....

It wasn't a smash and grab but the last 20 minutes they were battering us after we went ahead in the 70th minute through Hammill. We have another Premier League team Crystal Palace in the next round. Looking forward to it and nothing to fear as we have started this season brilliantly. I think it is the fact that teams atack us and leave gaps as we are seen as a weak team in the league.

[lewis999]

Halfway through my first season back in the Championship and the second season in total and we are doing well.

We have a very good defence and attack so far which is a good recipe. I'd like us to score a bit more but that's been very picky.

As you can see we started off like a house on fire and I thought we were going to run away with it with our counter attacking style but as teams realised what we were doing, they played more patient and less gung ho and this is the result....

It looks like we have turned a corner with two wins and in there we have a few good results like the 2-0 away win at Norwich which was a very professional display. The win against Premier League Bournemouth was also impressive but we faced a very strong Tottenham side in the Quarter final which ended our run. We hit a late equaliser in local derby against Sheffield Wednesday which was very important for morale and the fans. The loss against Sheff Utd was a bad performance and one which we couldn't get a foothold in.

 

[lewis999]

I have secured the signing of a very, very good player that is hopefully going to take us to that next level and allow us to keep up this unexpected promotion charge. He has cost us 2.5m. I had to use some of my wage budget as I only had 1.9m left but he's well worth it and i'm hoping in January that John Stones finally gets a big money move for a lot of money so we can get our 15% to use in the winter window. He's currently unhappy there so fingers crossed.

I will post it up when January 1st comes around and he officially joins so if in the rare event anyone is reading you will see then.

[lewis999]

Here he is my new signing and hopefully our goal machine. Will be our main striker in the Premiership too if he can fire us there. Just need Mr. Stones to be sold too and good news on that front....

It looks like a bidding war will start soon. I have only shortlisted him to follow his career and at a very ambitious push, sign him when he becomes 31-32 and make him captain

[lewis999]

Yet another signing that I couldn't say no to. His agent came to saying he was available for hardly anything.

Yes the Croatian wonderkid is available for 250k. Transfer listed by Dinamo.

He had a ton of interest from the worlds elite so I got in there quickly and......

He wanted first team football at a team that could soon be in the Premier League. Can't blame him as we are probably a stepping stone for him.

[lewis999]

With 10 games to go we are making a massive slog out of this. So many dropped points and looking really bad. I've had to drop our original 4-1-2-2-1 because it doesn't seem to be working at all now no matter what I do or try so i've set up a 4-4-1-1 which is very attacking and press oriented which is having better results but prone to long balls over the top which I need to sort out. We hammered Birmingham 5-1 and Forest 4-2 with it about 5-6 games back and I thought we were turning a corner as Clough started on fire but as you can see we haven't won in 4 matches since so now i'm at the point of going back to what got us here in the first place and making the tactic a bit more conservative AND picking players that started the season here as I have a feeling we are struggling with cohesion as I have loaned a few players since and stuck them straight in as they are better. 

Youth Intake day came a few minutes ago and we seem to have produced an absolute giant of a man that goes by the name of Mick Jackson. Good old fashioned English name who looks to be very, very good for his age already. I didn't get the best of his generation news item but he's impressive and with a left foot that is rare on CB's at 6ft 7' he shouldn't be beaten in the air much. He's going to be my 4th choice CB as I like to play the young ones whenever I can, it's more beneficial long term.

His potential is as good as I could have hoped for and he is good enough for League 2 already my best coach says.

[lewis999]

So with 3 games to go we have made a real a**e out of it. We have only won once in about 11 games which is horrendous. We seem to be missing everything and our strikers have gone on massive goal droughts.

I'm not joking when I say that those last 5 games I should and could have won them all. We have been awful in front of goal and haven't scored in that period.

So we sit 4th and in danger of missing out as Huddersfield, Derby and Norwich are doing a lot better than us and Reading who were the 2 early leaders. I need 7 points out of the last 3 games to go up I reckon. I'll be really angry if we don't go up. I just haven't been able to address what's been going on and it's been so frustrating.

[lewis999]

Just beat Fulham 3-0 to go into 2nd place behind Huddersfield and my laptop froze and now i'm all the way back to 40 games played why is this happening?

[lewis999]

So we managed it eventually after making very hard work after being so many points clear. Even then it was only on goal difference that did it. After my computer crashed all the top teams seemed to win more than before and thankfully after I went more aggressive and gung ho, we managed to win a few games to limp over the line.

I have been given a good budget. We need 4-5 players and a few loans too compete but we'll get there. My first target is a LB and Charlie Taylor from Leeds is my #1 target. They have just rejected a 4m bid even though my scouts said they would accept that. He has kicked off so hopefully I will get my man soon. I need another central midfielder. A big reason why we ended up playing so badly was Adam Forshaw our best player by a clear distance broke his leg a few months before the end of the season. He was superb.

[lewis999]

Just wanted to show Gary Todd off as he has come on leaps and bounds and is very close to my first team. His stamina needs a bit of work and then he will be there but he only cost us 13k from Boston at the start of the game and every month I seem to be getting reports on him saying everyone is pleased with his progress. His stamina, teamwork and composure need to improve but at 18 I can't really ask for more. He has very high tackling, marking, anticipation, decisions which is a very under rated attribute. He's really quick and strong.

I'm also posting him so I can look back after a few more seasons to compare. I owe my director of football for spotting him.

[lewis999]

These were my signings for the season. A lot of late loans to deal with injuries and to add depth. A lot of them are regens for the future, I tried to stick with a lot of the original team as we didn't have much money.

Unsurprisingly Forshaw got 65% of the votes, surprisingly Aidan White came 2nd where I thought Hourihane would be and Hammill 3rd. James Bree is good enough for the Premier League now so no surprise he got his young player of the year award.

This coming season I am going to be targeting a domestic cup as I feel an early trophy in the cabinet would be brilliant.

[lewis999]

My pre-arranged signings have arrived and i'm happy to have them.

Harry Maguire arrives from Tottenham for 5m and is already a very good CB for the Premier League. He's no stranger to Oakwell as he spent time here as a young lad before he joined Sheff Utd and broke through to their first team.

Ryan Woods is a very good, versatile player from relegated Brentford who are heading to League 1. He can cover a lot of different positions and is definitely good enough to be a starter which is invaluable in our first season here.

Charlie Taylor comes from our rivals, Leeds who were adamant they didn't want to sell but he put in a transfer request and eventually I got my man. As well as LB he can play at LM and LW too if needed which again is going to be really important.

Freddie Davidson came to my attention via my UK scout and has some very good stats at 18 years old and was transfer listed as he wanted first team football at Charlton who will be joining Brentford in League 1 this coming season.

Kieron Goode was another player from Charlton who was transfer listed and his initial scout report was higher than what you see above but at 31.5k it's a risk free transfer. If I can get him tutored and improved he may become a good player.

[lewis999]

3 loanees are probably my final signings to provide extra quality for injuries, suspensions and fatigue.

Adalberto Penaranda is on loan from fellow Premier League side Watford and is a very talented wide midfielder/striker who can also operate behind the striker so very versatile. His high work rate is a massive bonus to how we are going to play.

Federico Dimarco is a LB/LM who joins from Inter Milan. He has fantastic pace and is still very young at 19. If he does well I can see us putting a bid in for him.

Simeon Slavchev comes from Sporting Lisbon in Portugal and he is a very all round central midfield player with very good physical attributes as well as strong mentals. At 6ft 1' i'm hoping he can become a big presence in the centre of the park.

[Kamakazeee]

Just reached January in the first season of my Barnsley save, so I thought I would do a quick update. I chose Coventry, due to the more than decent young players at the club, who I believe Barnsley have high hopes for building a future team, so they are players I want to build my team around, providing I can keep them. I have really struggled to enjoy FM this year, ( I blame Steve McClaren for depressing me), but I've realised, i only enjoy this game when i'm micro managing myself to end vision/goal, so here it goes....

Summer Transfers

IN

• N/A

I looked at the squad in depth when I first took over, with a measly 100k transfer budget I didn't feel I could improve the squad with that amount and with 4 loan signings already at the club and a maximum of 5 on a match day, it wasn't worth going into the loan market. However, I did feel the squad is good enough to punch its weight at the higher echelons of the league, so went as I started.

OUT

• N/A

Again, not a lot going on, there was a few players I was hoping to shift on permanent deals, but there were no bites. So, they will go into the season with us, but I do prefer to work with a nucleus of 16/18 players, with the rest of the squad made of youth players.

Targets

League - Promotion.

FA Cup - Not important.

Capital One Cup - Not important.

Johnstones Paint Trophy - Should be winning ideally.

Nothing unrealistic with promotion the main aim, the two bigger cups i'm not particulary fussed about as we can't really threaten the bigger teams. However, looking at competition in the Johnstones Paint Trophy, we should really be doing well in that.

League Performance - 1st | Pld - 27 | W - 18 | D - 7 | L - 2 | For - 52 | Ag - 19 | GD - 33 | PTS - 61

Bossing it basically, which is what i set out to do. For this save I really wanted to push my tactical capabilities on this game and I have recently been studying Pep Guardiola religiously due to his arrival in the Premier League, reading countless books, articles and watching videos. So, its by no means a short term project, players will be brought in and leave to fund and be moulded into the eventual aim of the project. The first few seasons are undoubtedly about getting to the money league as quickly as possible.

FA Cup - Exited fourth round.

Capital One Cup - Exited third        round.

Johnstones Paint Trophy - Final

January Transfer window

IN

• N/A

It’s been hard to make any moves in the transfer window, as I hoped John Stones would move and we would get a decent pay day, but no move has materialized, but hes having a decent season at Everton, so hopefully we will get more when he does move.

OUT

• Callum Evans | Loan - He played in a few games, but was never going to be in the team past this season, he started to complain about a lack of first team action, so I hoped a loan move to Forest Green would raise his value a tad and gain some proper interest, I hope to include a future percentage on his inevitable permanent transfer in the summer coming up.
• Otis Kahn | Loan- Similar to Evans in the sense that he didnt have a future at the club, but could have played a part this season, however we are romping the league and i doubt I will get a money for him, so hopefully a loan move will raise some interest.

 

There has been a hell of a lot of interest in James Bree, I have knocked back bids from Everton, Newcastle, Palace, Watford and Spurs to name a few, ranging from £1-4m, hes also signed a new contract.

So, going splendidly, but this game isn't just about success, we a have vision, Peps vision for his games and is the measure for this game, how close we can get to his philosophy in football. That will be the success. Anyway, i'm sixth month in, not six years. Im getting ahead of myself, ill be back at the end of the season.

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A few minutes after writing this update, Connor Hourihane, went and broke his leg in training and is now out for 7 months. Danny Guthrie has been brought in on loan for three months to ensure we have enough players to cover til end of the season.

[lewis999]

Fantastic update mate, always keen to see how others are doing with Barnsley. I hope they get more recognition throughout this season because tonight we have beaten a good QPR team and on Saturday we beat a very talented Derby team 2-0. We have passion, commitment and work rate and all but 2 players have never played in the Championship before with most coming from non-league. I think we are going to be the surprise package.

Back to the game and Conor getting injured isn't ideal as he's the best player at the club as well as Bree (potential wise). I signed Adam Forshaw in the Championship and he was at the top of the average rating in the whole league at about 7.92, he broke his leg and we didn't perform at the same level for the rest of the season. Good luck with the second half of the season, looks like you won't need it.

[lewis999]

Get in there, had to micro manage a lot in this game but I suppose that's what needs to be done against the top teams at the top level. We went 1-0 down so I changed my mentality to defensive in the hope it would draw them in and we had more shots than them and more shots on target and scored 2 goals to come back and win. I also have my 2 best players coming back in Forshaw and Clough from lengthly injuries so hopefully we can push on.

[Kamakazeee]

Cracking result against Leicester, Vardy is always a pain in the rear end for me. That lad from Watford is brilliant signing too.

Ive heard decent things about Barnsley and there young players, so with Newcastle being in the Championship, I should be able to keep an eye on yourselves. Alfie Mawson is someone who interests me, as I know for certain Newcastle have had scouts watching him for the past 6 month.

I should be finished my first season in tonight, so should be update tonight or tomorrow. It gutting getting Hourihane injured yeah, I recently just rejected a £3m bid from Middlesbrough.

[lewis999]

Yeah Vardy was a menace but we just about managed to deal with him. He was the main reason why I went to defensive as it dropped our defensive line to stop him. Yeah he hasn't played yet as he has been injured but I have high hopes for him.

Yeah we are doing things the right way for the first time in ages and it's clearly paying off. We know about your interest in Alfie so keep off he's brilliant but his partner Marc Roberts is every bit as good but more the John Terry to Alfies, Carvalho.

Looking forward to your update, it looks like you will win the league so i'm curious to see how you approach the Championship and the signings you make. Good luck.

[lewis999]

Just picked up this lad who my scouts have been raving about. He was transfer listed for 1.4m so I got him on loan as a back up with a 1.4m future fee in the contract which I only didn't do as I don't hae any cash left. He looks like he will be brilliant.