Worst season/lowest points total

[BuryBlade]

Having got my Weston Super Mare team from the conference south to the Premiership in 9 years, my save had been going really well. I spent pre season building a team I thought capable of surviving the premiership and played plenty of friendlies to get them to gel, get used to the tactics and boost morale. Having never been relegated on FM before, I didn't expect the below to happen! By January transfer window we had 7 points, were clearly going to be relegated, so I sold as many players as possible to reduce the wage bill for next season. Thankfully the board recognise the work done in the previous 9 seasons and haven't sacked me!

I'm simply wondering, has anyone ever had a worse season than this, or accumulated fewer points in a season? 

[Preveza]

I seriously think you need to download some logos etc. Dayum

[Weston]

5 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

Having got my Weston Super Mare team from the conference south to the Premiership in 9 years, my save had been going really well.

First of all, that's impressive! And I have a soft spot for Weston-Super-Mare both because we share a name and also because that's where John Cleese is from!

Secondly, out of curiosity, how many job offers did you get during that run? Did you ever consider moving clubs as a way to get closer to the top vs sticking with WSM? And what was your promotion pattern? In other words, what was the 9 year trail - what years did you stall etc.?

While waiting for FM17 I started an experimental save as unemployed and landed at fellow Vanarama South side Chelmsford City to explore lower league management with the goal of taking charge of a third tier Italian side with the new game, so I'm just trying to get more of a feel for what this sort of long haul game has in store.

[BuryBlade]

6 hours ago, Preveza said:

I seriously think you need to download some logos etc. Dayum

It's FM a Touch on iPad so can't do this I'm afraid! 

[BuryBlade]

3 hours ago, Weston said:

First of all, that's impressive! And I have a soft spot for Weston-Super-Mare both because we share a name and also because that's where John Cleese is from!

Secondly, out of curiosity, how many job offers did you get during that run? Did you ever consider moving clubs as a way to get closer to the top vs sticking with WSM? And what was your promotion pattern? In other words, what was the 9 year trail - what years did you stall etc.?

While waiting for FM17 I started an experimental save as unemployed and landed at fellow Vanarama South side Chelmsford City to explore lower league management with the goal of taking charge of a third tier Italian side with the new game, so I'm just trying to get more of a feel for what this sort of long haul game has in store.

Hi Weston,

Surprisingly not many job offers! I think I got a few when I was at league 2 level, but they were all for similar or lower level teams. Just been offered Northern Iteland job and declined that. The aim of this save for me was to try and unofficially complete the Dafuge challenge (unofficially because it's iPad touch version of FM).

in terms of the progress trail, see the below screenshot. The hardest part was the conference. I lost in the play offs twice before finally getting promoted. Once in the footbal league, I found it surprisingly quick to get promoted by using lots of loans from leagues above and having a huge squad to rotate and keep people fresh. 

The Championship season was the biggest shock. I expected to struggle and my team played well above themselves all year, finished 6th and won the playoffs! It was way too soon though and I knew we would struggle in the premiership. However, at the time we had no money. Now, after a year in the premiership I have over £120 million in the bank (TV deal, parachute payment and selling the squad last Jan).

its been a fun save and well worth doing but it's hard work and I'm not sure I am good enough at FM to ever complete the challenge though! 

 

[Preveza]

23 minutes ago, BuryBlade said:

It's FM a Touch on iPad so can't do this I'm afraid! 

Ah Fair enough. Great achievement though. 

[BuryBlade]

1 hour ago, Preveza said:

Ah Fair enough. Great achievement though. 

Thanks. Shame season 10 was a disaster! 

[Preveza]

Upwards and onwards. 

[moyesout]

great story Bury Blade, i think you should keep at it & learn from season 10 for when you get back up

[Dharcness]

4 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

It's FM a Touch on iPad so can't do this I'm afraid! 

Wow no wonder, I was wondering why your fm is very clean and shiny

[BuryBlade]

3 hours ago, moyesout said:

great story Bury Blade, i think you should keep at it & learn from season 10 for when you get back up

Thanks. Rebuilding my squad now. Had to completely re-buy a whole new team for the championship, so pre season has been poor and certainly not long enough for my liking. Board wants mid table this season, and I think I would be happy to consolidate for a season and give myself time to build for a promotion push in season 12.

 

[isignedupfornorealreason]

Please tell me you run it with a 2-3-5 formation or something wacky like that?

 

Seriously, congratulations. LLM to the Premier League games are always good fun when it works.

[Weston]

11 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

Hi Weston,

Surprisingly not many job offers! I think I got a few when I was at league 2 level, but they were all for similar or lower level teams. Just been offered Northern Iteland job and declined that. The aim of this save for me was to try and unofficially complete the Dafuge challenge (unofficially because it's iPad touch version of FM).

in terms of the progress trail, see the below screenshot. The hardest part was the conference. I lost in the play offs twice before finally getting promoted. Once in the footbal league, I found it surprisingly quick to get promoted by using lots of loans from leagues above and having a huge squad to rotate and keep people fresh. 

The Championship season was the biggest shock. I expected to struggle and my team played well above themselves all year, finished 6th and won the playoffs! It was way too soon though and I knew we would struggle in the premiership. However, at the time we had no money. Now, after a year in the premiership I have over £120 million in the bank (TV deal, parachute payment and selling the squad last Jan).

its been a fun save and well worth doing but it's hard work and I'm not sure I am good enough at FM to ever complete the challenge though! 

 

Thanks for the info! That is pretty impressive, and good luck keeping up motivation to make it back up again!

[BuryBlade]

11 hours ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

Please tell me you run it with a 2-3-5 formation or something wacky like that?

 

Seriously, congratulations. LLM to the Premier League games are always good fun when it works.

Haha nothing quite so impressive I'm afraid! Using a 4-5-1 with two attacking wingers, 2 attacking wing backs and an AMC. The season fell apart because the players weren't cut out for that level! 

Weston - I've begun season 11 and the motivation is definitely there still. After a short pre season due to me still building my squad, we were demolished at home on the opening day by Derby. Since then, wins in the cup and three straight league wins gives us 9 points off 4 games and sitting in 4th. 

Early days but I'm happy with the squad make up and think we might have an outside chance of top 6 if we can be consistent all year! 

[ommerson]

Nice one, Bury Blade. 5 promotions in 8 seasons is pretty impressive. No shame in stumbling at the last hurdle. With a capacity of 4.500 heading into the PL, now that is an FM-ers dream come true.

[mark1985]

I can't find the screenshot, but I was on 2 points by Christmas in the Spanish 2nd tier at one point. Ended on 21 points after a mini run. Still finished bottom though...

[BuryBlade]

3 hours ago, ommerson said:

Nice one, Bury Blade. 5 promotions in 8 seasons is pretty impressive. No shame in stumbling at the last hurdle. With a capacity of 4.500 heading into the PL, now that is an FM-ers dream come true.

Thanks ommerson! I think the speed at which we climbed the leagues may ultimately have been our downfall. We weren't ready for the Premiership and it clearly showed. However the money saved the club from financial disaster and gives me a great platform to build on now. In terms of the stadium, it can't only be expanded to a maximum of 6000! I'm hoping the board hold off on building a new one until I'm a club legend haha... Name it after me ?

 

3 hours ago, mark1985 said:

I can't find the screenshot, but I was on 2 points by Christmas in the Spanish 2nd tier at one point. Ended on 21 points after a mini run. Still finished bottom though...

2 points at Christmas... Did you find you got a horrible sinking feeling as each game went by and your team just couldn't get the points? That's how I felt and with every game it just got worse! At least you improved for the second half of the season I guess. Did you continue the save after that and if so how did you get on the following season(s)? 

[mark1985]

14 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

2 points at Christmas... Did you find you got a horrible sinking feeling as each game went by and your team just couldn't get the points? That's how I felt and with every game it just got worse! At least you improved for the second half of the season I guess. Did you continue the save after that and if so how did you get on the following season(s)? 

Yeah, I went up far too soon. I fiddled about with tactics, players etc and nothing seemed to work. The longer a game went on, I knew it was just a matter of time before something happened. Those 2 draws felt like winning a world cup!!! Don't know what happened, but long after I resigned myself to going down, something just clicked, I stuck in the kids and they did ok. I carried on the save for a few more seasons and I think that season helped the young players develop (and helped me attract a few better quality players). 2 years later I went back up and I stayed up.

[BuryBlade]

10 hours ago, mark1985 said:

Yeah, I went up far too soon. I fiddled about with tactics, players etc and nothing seemed to work. The longer a game went on, I knew it was just a matter of time before something happened. Those 2 draws felt like winning a world cup!!! Don't know what happened, but long after I resigned myself to going down, something just clicked, I stuck in the kids and they did ok. I carried on the save for a few more seasons and I think that season helped the young players develop (and helped me attract a few better quality players). 2 years later I went back up and I stayed up.

Yeah sounds very similar then. At least you stuck at it and got them promoted again and survived! That's my goal for the next few seasons... Get promot d again and get more than 11 points haha! 

I remember playing on FM14 as Sheff Utd and in my first season in the premiership, I was bottom at Christmas with single figures, getting smashed every week. I promoted all the youth team and played them and they played incredibly and saved the club from relegation! 

[mark1985]

13 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

Yeah sounds very similar then. At least you stuck at it and got them promoted again and survived! That's my goal for the next few seasons... Get promot d again and get more than 11 points haha! 

I remember playing on FM14 as Sheff Utd and in my first season in the premiership, I was bottom at Christmas with single figures, getting smashed every week. I promoted all the youth team and played them and they played incredibly and saved the club from relegation! 

I thought sticking in half the youth team would be the best way forward. Partially to give them experience and aid their development, but mainly because they couldn't be much worse than what was already out there! In a way relegation was the best thing to happen to that team as the experience paid off in the end, I could attract a few more talented players to the team whilst in the higher league and then the 2 seasons I spent back in the third tier before going up meant I was 100% ready when I went up again

[BuryBlade]

12 hours ago, mark1985 said:

I thought sticking in half the youth team would be the best way forward. Partially to give them experience and aid their development, but mainly because they couldn't be much worse than what was already out there! In a way relegation was the best thing to happen to that team as the experience paid off in the end, I could attract a few more talented players to the team whilst in the higher league and then the 2 seasons I spent back in the third tier before going up meant I was 100% ready when I went up again

Yeah I think I'll have to view my situation like you viewed yours. See it as a positive, gives me more time to build a better team and use the money to give myself a better chance when I do go back up.

[BuryBlade]

Update from season 11:

The inconsistency is very frustrating. The team I have built is far better than the team I got promoted with two years ago. I have used the money to strengthen key area. I have a decent GK for this level, and I have an amazing striker on loan from AC Milan who has scored 10 goals so far this season. That said, defending is proving difficult. Look at some of the scores in the screenshot and I'm sure you'll agree. The number of heavy defeats is concerning.

Even still, we are 2nd at the moment with 22 points from 11 games. Far better than I expected at this stage and if we can keep averaging 2 points a game, I won't be too far away from top 2 I don't think. 

[mark1985]

This sums up the best and worst of youth I think. Brilliant and exciting one game, lacking in experience the next. I would say upper mid table this season and then they'll have a full season under their belts and will push on next season.

 

By the way, how the p*rtsmouth get back into the championship? Thought we'd got rid of them!

[dashi112]

For players, have a look at players from leagues you have not loaded in, in 1 save ( fm15) I just got to the prem from VCN and my top GK just got swiped by QPR for 2 million ( stupid buy out clause he wouldn't remove ( I found him in Afan Lido of all places in the  conference)) and found a 5* GK in Croatia ( around there anyway, he cost like 6 mill) and a few German players for free. Sure they need work but are better than buying from other teams in the uk and wont ask ( much) for daft wages!

[BuryBlade]

10 hours ago, dashi112 said:

For players, have a look at players from leagues you have not loaded in, in 1 save ( fm15) I just got to the prem from VCN and my top GK just got swiped by QPR for 2 million ( stupid buy out clause he wouldn't remove ( I found him in Afan Lido of all places in the  conference)) and found a 5* GK in Croatia ( around there anyway, he cost like 6 mill) and a few German players for free. Sure they need work but are better than buying from other teams in the uk and wont ask ( much) for daft wages!

I have just spent the last few hours scouring through international u21 teams. Found a few decent players but none who would sign, some because they don't want to join a championship club and others had offers from massive teams like Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

 

[BuryBlade]

Quick update at the half way point in season 11. Going well overall but still very inconsistent. Won 4 in a row then lost 1-3, 1-5, 0-6 and 1-4 all in a row. Then we went on a five game unbeaten run including back to back 5-1 and 6-2 wins. The goals scored and conceded show we are averaging nearly 4 combined goals in each match! So far so good though. Maybe we will be back in the premiership sooner than expected. 

 

 

[Cannes]

Good fun this.

In my Bath save I made it into the PL after some 10-11 seasons or so, was a very big struggle but managed to survive the 3 first season on final matchday.

Had a 2000 capacity stadium at the time... Local council were a bunch of absolute asshats and blocked all stadium expansions.

I started out in the Vanaram south with 8000 terrace capacity, so you would have thought that it is possible to fit more than 2000 seats into that, but nope!

[TQ13PS]

A few FM years ago I got Salisbury into the premier league only to be relegated with 21 points, I kept my job and finished 4th the year after but lost in the playoff final to Colchester.

[BuryBlade]

10 hours ago, Cannes said:

Good fun this.

In my Bath save I made it into the PL after some 10-11 seasons or so, was a very big struggle but managed to survive the 3 first season on final matchday.

Had a 2000 capacity stadium at the time... Local council were a bunch of absolute asshats and blocked all stadium expansions.

I started out in the Vanaram south with 8000 terrace capacity, so you would have thought that it is possible to fit more than 2000 seats into that, but nope!

My stadium situation is similar. The capacity has reduced every time extra seating has been required and the board delayed the required expansion for both Championship and Premiership. I don't want to ask for a new ground yet as I want it named after me so I need to wait til I'm a club legend to give me a greater chance of it happening.

 

4 hours ago, TQ13PS said:

A few FM years ago I got Salisbury into the premier league only to be relegated with 21 points, I kept my job and finished 4th the year after but lost in the playoff final to Colchester.

Nearly double the amount of points I got, well played! Shame that you were unable to bounce back up at the first attempt. Did you ever continue the save after that?

[BuryBlade]

Not sure what's worse... 11 points in the Premiership season or the two performances against Stoke. Absolutely furious and embarrassed with my team. 

 

[BuryBlade]

Well we did it! Straight back up at the first time of asking, even if the defence is absymal. We conceded more goals than Boro who got relegated! Let's try and beat 11 points in the Premiership!

 

 

[Weston]

4 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

Well we did it! Straight back up at the first time of asking, even if the defence is absymal. We conceded more goals than Boro who got relegated! Let's try and beat 11 points in the Premiership!

 

 

Nice!

[gibbo11]

My lowest has been around the 25/30 mark but never that low.

I do have a Doncaster save going (after holidaying the game into the future) and they achieved 11 points in the Championship before I arrived. They had got rid of their best players after promotion and didn't really replace them!

[BuryBlade]

On 10 October 2016 at 09:34, gibbo11 said:

My lowest has been around the 25/30 mark but never that low.

I do have a Doncaster save going (after holidaying the game into the future) and they achieved 11 points in the Championship before I arrived. They had got rid of their best players after promotion and didn't really replace them!

11 points in the championship is really bad! 46 games (8 more than the premiership) and a much wider range of abilities and levels club wise. How did you go about rebuilding them?

Strangely pleased to see that no one has been as bad as me haha. I'll take the positives though, that I got there in the first place, I didn't get sacked and I've just got them back there again. Board expectations are higher this time. Last time it was fight bravely. This time they want to avoid relegation... So I've spent all £60 million of their money! 

 

[mark1985]

13 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

11 points in the championship is really bad! 46 games (8 more than the premiership) and a much wider range of abilities and levels club wise. How did you go about rebuilding them?

Strangely pleased to see that no one has been as bad as me haha. I'll take the positives though, that I got there in the first place, I didn't get sacked and I've just got them back there again. Board expectations are higher this time. Last time it was fight bravely. This time they want to avoid relegation... So I've spent all £60 million of their money! 

 

I couldn't do that. My saves are almost always youth based, so that £60m is always plowed straight into the youth system/better coaching staff etc

[gibbo11]

13 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

11 points in the championship is really bad! 46 games (8 more than the premiership) and a much wider range of abilities and levels club wise. How did you go about rebuilding them?

Strangely pleased to see that no one has been as bad as me haha. I'll take the positives though, that I got there in the first place, I didn't get sacked and I've just got them back there again. Board expectations are higher this time. Last time it was fight bravely. This time they want to avoid relegation... So I've spent all £60 million of their money! 

 

It was matched by Oldham several seasons later, couldn't find a lower points total anywhere. As for the rebuild, well I took over about 10 seasons after that Championship season, they had fallen quite far and were in the Northern Premier Division (level 7&8 file). Finished 7th in the first season but currently on course for promotion second time around! I think you'll find that's a hell of a rebuild I need to do

[BuryBlade]

4 hours ago, mark1985 said:

I couldn't do that. My saves are almost always youth based, so that £60m is always plowed straight into the youth system/better coaching staff etc

That's the approach I've always taken on every version of FM. However, 11 points suggests I need to try something different. I've spent my budget simply because I'll get 87 million back in TV money this season. 

4 hours ago, gibbo11 said:

It was matched by Oldham several seasons later, couldn't find a lower points total anywhere. As for the rebuild, well I took over about 10 seasons after that Championship season, they had fallen quite far and were in the Northern Premier Division (level 7&8 file). Finished 7th in the first season but currently on course for promotion second time around! I think you'll find that's a hell of a rebuild I need to do

Wow yeah you have a lot of work to do but it sounds like you've made a good start. The satisfaction and sense of achievement you'll get from restoring them from that level will be huge! 

Update from the world of WSM- the board have decided to spend 25 million to build a new stadium. They cheerfully told me this had all been financed internally and that selling the old stadium would off set some of the money... They sold the old stadium for £300,000. I had been hoping to have it named after me (only ever had this once- FM12). However they've gone with the very imaginative Weston Super Mare stadium!