[FM18 Network Game] Harrogate & Salford [Seasons Complete: 54 | Total Trophies: Harrogate: 95 / Salford: 114] Finished

[oliscott]

Going to give a run down of my first team just to show what Im working with twenty seasons in now.

Goalkeeper - Been a solid investment has this guy, picked him up for about 6 million and ever dependable. Its usually Sant who has the solid Keeper.

 

Right Back - A young Brazilian I found a few years back, took a while to get a work permit but hes still young enough for another ten years in the time.

 

Left Back - Another youngster I picked up thinking I'd found a bargain only to discover he was on loan in Argentina from Juve, Had to pay 20 million to get him but think he will be solid like Breno for another ten years.

 

CB - Blew close to 60 million on this guy but solid stats and being 6"5 I think its more than worth it and that 60 million split across six or seven seasons is an easy investment

 

CB - Missed out on this guy the first time around as I wasn't a big enough club to attract him, Real Madrid were willing to play ball this year and despite costing 70 million I sold a few players this summer to more than cover that fee

 

CB - Listing a few more players than the starting 11 but this guy rotates in and out with the two above, another 50 million signing but I think his stats and again his height and age the investment split over the number of years he will be at the club more than pay for him.

 

CB - One of my first signings to play at CB and what is now a snip at 15 million, more of a rotation option now and plays at right back when Breno is injured.

 

CM - My first marquee signing and his stats really speak for themselves just holds the midfield well and is decent going forward also

 

CM - A young Argentinian I picked up whilst looking through some Argentinian teams for youngsters, developed nicely and hopefully has a place in the squad for years to come.

 

[oliscott]

CM - Another youngster I picked up for peanuts, saw his stats playing as an AMC in Brazil and thought he would slot into my midfield nicely. Does what I need him to do and provides the goals from Midfield.

 

ST - A 13 million pick up as an 18 year old, in his 175 games for the club hes just short of averaging a goal a game, hopefully get another few years out of him before selling him on for a decent profit.

 

ST - Spurs were selling this guy cheap and when I saw his stats I thought I could make a season of him and again sell on for profit. Has a brilliant partnership with William and has smashed in 40 in 43 games so will have another few seasons from him before selling on

 

ST - Missed out on this guy about six years ago as I wasn't established yet and had I have signed him then I think he would be past 250 goals for the club by now, had to spend 80 million to bring him in this summer but was a player both me and Sant were looking at 

 

ST - William 2 a backup to the first three strikers but will easily step in should I sell anybody

 

ST - Saw this guy going on a free last year and thought he would do for a season to flog later for profit, will probably stick to that plan given his age

[santy001]

Season 21: Dumped out of Europe, only the Premier League to contend.

The last season was quite a harsh one in Europe, @oliscott went out of the champions league in the quarter finals after a brutal 7-0 defeat away at Marseille in the second leg, after a 3-1 win in the first. I suffered the misfortune of being embarassed in the round before, going out to Porto 6-5 on aggregate after being hammered 4-1 away in the first leg. 

That left the Premier League title to contend, and a few games from the end of the season I was in the driving seat. However, my replacement for Donnarumma (https://i.gyazo.com/0409ba33dabf6439e3df1edead82f998.png - a fellow Italian called Benedetti) really failed to live up to expectations and hasn't improved at all since signing. A key weakness which saw me capitulate right at the last. I lost 3-2 against Man Utd and then 4-3 against Harrogate. With those 2 results the title naturally went to Harrogate who won all bar 1 of his games in the run-in, surviving a 2-2 scare against Arsenal although the title was already wrapped up by then.

Premier League:

Harrogate Transfers:

Salford Transfers:

[Nobby_McDonald]

Certainly flying through the seasons.

[santy001]

9 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Certainly flying through the seasons.

We usually rack up 3 nights a week on it, Tuesday, Saturday & Sunday so we do tend to get through them quite quickly. Think we just hit January in season 22 on Tuesday, and I would expect by the end of Saturday we'd finish it. 

Perhaps one of the problems has been where we play relatively quickly we're not sharing as much of the interesting things that happen, but it's hard to know what is good to share anyway at the moment.

[oliscott]

Some pretty crazy numbers from the front three this year

[Nobby_McDonald]

17, 25 and 9 aren't that crazy.

[oliscott]

8 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

17, 25 and 9 aren't that crazy.

I was just coming around to you Nobby.

[santy001]

Season 22: Harrogate Domination.

Season 22 saw @oliscott really begin to pull ahead. While my team weren't terrible they were indifferent a lot of the time, and a lack of consistency meant points were being dropped early doors and that effectively closed my participation in the title race. Meanwhile in addition to powering on in the Premier League, Harrogate also grew strong in the Champions League. I was crushed by Chelsea in the semi-final (who have become something of a bogey team) and Oli rode out winner 7-2 in the final.

Premier League:

Harrogate Transfers:

Salford Transfers:

[santy001]

Season 23: Slip-up Salford.

Continuing much in the same vein as the previous season, @oliscott rode out with a Premier League & Champions League double. His total trophy haul now stands at:
2x Champions League
4x Premier League
1x Club World Championship
1x Europa League
2x European Super Cup
1x FA Cup
4x Carabao Cup
2x Community Shield

Quite the trophy haul. 

Meanwhile over at Salford, another terrible start to the season saw me out of the title race before it really began. Despite getting close to being back in it post January, a terrible series of injuries that plagued me from February through to April meant I was often putting midfielders up front. In the final we had a fairly close game for a while but eventually Denis Skvorc of Harrogate proved too fast and tricky for my defence, putting 4 past us in a 6-4 final. It has exposed some serious deficiencies in my defence, mainly a lack of pace in the middle which I will be looking to rectify going forward.

Premier League:

Harrogate Transfers:

Salford Transfers:

Continued:

[oliscott]

If I don't retain again this year then its the best bottling job I've managed yet.

[santy001]

Last couple of years I've really fallen away a bit. In 2042 I can finally get a new stadium, and be free of this 12,500 restriction compared to @oliscott who currently has around a 60k capacity ground. Because its such a small ground the record gate receipts are £300,000 a larger stadium would see more money coming in which would kick in towards being able to sustain a higher wage bill. At least for how I play. 

I've also been building up a lot of funds for this eventual stadium move, to reduce the impact it can have on my finances. 

Despite the relative penny pinching that hasn't been the main issue, every year my team starts fairly slow and it's costing me as I often sit around midtable after 8 or 9 games and then begin to climb. More recently though, just dreadful finishing has been the bane of my existence. It's hard to watch world class players consistently shooting wide from inside the box. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Oli has taken over.

[santy001]

@Nobby_McDonald I prefer to think of it as an early lead. 

[oliscott]

15 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Oli has taken over.

All those doubters saying I’d bottle again! Now who’s laughing?

 

however like Sant said it’s an early lead and something that happens in all our saves, ill form a lead and then Sant will get his squad together and his conveyer belt of youngsters to replace his big money outgoings. Then use the funds to expand the stadium and bring more money in. 

This year though my I have also been following Sant’s method of selling high and replacing with youngsters so it could be more tightly contested.

[oliscott]

Undefeated and averaging four a game, I think this is the peak now before Sant takes over.

 

[oliscott]

Now better than the Arsenal

[Nobby_McDonald]

Stoke are doing well.

As are Barnsley.

[oliscott]

This must be how the Undertaker felt.

[santy001]

Season 24: The Streak Continues

Well last season saw more domination from @oliscott despite monumental efforts on my behalf to redress the balance. Consistency has still been the bane of Salfords aims. I tried a dramatic revamp of my squad, aiming to switch my formation around but still couldn't get any meaningful traction - spending most of the season more down around 8th/9th than in the top 4. 

Oli's side were incredibly strong however, decimating the league and everything infront of them (except for PSG in the champions league) and ran out worthy winners of the league, as the table below shows.

Premier League:

Harrogate Transfers:

Salford Transfers:

[oliscott]

I should really accept this offer and if it was Sant I know he would do, but the kid has at least another ten years left in him at a decent level I think.

[Nobby_McDonald]

That is stupid money.

[oliscott]

Had my best youth prospect yet come through today

[oliscott]

I've peaked

[oliscott]

Well this is heartbreaking, hopefully hes still young enough to come back from this

[oliscott]

Sometimes you just have to assert your dominance.

[santy001]

Been a busy few days, where we've racked up 3 seasons in quick succession so I'll whittle them off as we go along starting with season 25.

Season 24: The Harrogate Dominance Continues...

This season was a little closer run, at Salford I managed a solid 95 points but was beaten to the title by @oliscott and his haul of 103 points. Outside of the two major trophies we're keeping track (CL & PL) of I failed to win the Europa League, ending runner up. I did win the carabao cup and FA cup. Overall this was the closest title race since around 2037/38 when the gap was just 6 points but while it seemed close the reality was that my early season form had been a big problem again with most of my dropped points coming then. It was only during March that it became 'closer' when Oli dropped points with 2 draws and a defeat in the league. 

League Table:

Harrogate Transfers:

Salford Transfers:

[santy001]

Season 26: The Year of Big News!

Things appeared like they could be on the up for myself at Salford. Work on a 57,000 capacity stadium had begun, due to be in place for the start of season 28. Money had become a little tighter as the club funded a lot of the stadium costs from its own pocket and the rest from a 10 year loan. Meanwhile the chairman was making noises about moving on, and the club was taken over by a tycoon fronted consortium in March. 

As a little caveat here I'm not too sure what this means, because on one hand last year when I had a tycoon fronted consortium it was massive, ceaseless investment. This time around the chairman has invested around £120m into the club (£80m at takeover, a further £40m just randomly some day in the late season) but the budgets he has offered up have been lower than the previous chairman. 

Meanwhile, from a Salford perspective this great positive feeling off the pitch was not matched on it. The season was over by November, it ended on a cold November day against Stoke with a 3-2 loss putting me on 4 losses already for the season. The only team that usually has their title race ended in November is Arsenal (usually when they play against Stoke actually).

Another carabao cup win did little to soothe matters.

Meanwhile over @oliscott with his Harrogate team we were talking about how his team had perhaps hit their peak and weren't as strong as a couple of years previously. More dropped points, a lower points haul the goals were still there and it was still dominant - but not as dominant. He did secure a champions league and premier league win, and this seems to have been a transition season where he moved on a number of the older guard to bring through the next generation. Typically for Oli in previous years this has been a big weakness of his, and I've always mentioned that he didn't manage the transition right. Holding on to players usually until they lost their value and then needing to buy ready-made, world class replacements because he wasn't giving the youth he bought enough game time. With that issue seemingly being resolved this time around its making it a lot harder to close the gap that formed.

 League Table:

Harrogate Transfers:

Salford Transfers:

[santy001]

Season 27: Goal Difference Deciders

Coming into this season I had finally got clubs willing to come to the negotiating table for players I had been stalking for a couple of years. The previous season there was no transfer business, not because I thought my squad was fine - but because I had the targets I felt I had to get but couldn't get an offer accepted. It seems @oliscott also had similar, as he sanctioned 3 enormous signings this season. I went on a selling spree to offload players who were 28-32 and hadn't been massively impressive to bring in a new raft of players. In some cases I let a couple of players go with heavily subsidised wages, just to get a bit more money in for immediate signings.

As for the season itself, this was an interesting year. Despite losing both my games with Harrogate we finished the season dead level on 101 points. Although the title went to Harrogate who had a +128 goal difference compared to my own +85. A loss in the second to last game meant that the title was very much up for grabs. As we both won it was merely a formality for Harrogate as they brought the title back again.

Real Madrid ultimately proved too much for both myself and Oli in the Champions League. I lost to them in the semi-finals before they went on to beat Harrogate in the final. 

@oliscott also managed the highly impressive feat of failing to win the club world championship again, although this time he finished runner up - which was a place better than his last attempt where he finished in 3rd. This upwards trend suggests he should win his next one.

League Table:

Harrogate Transfers:

Salford Transfers:

[santy001]

A little sidenote but in the final game of the season I managed to achieve a first in an FM game for me. I had father and son on the pitch at the same time:

Father:

Son:

Unfortunately, his father doesn't like him as a person it seems. Not on his favoured personnel. but sadly fate conspired to stop them bringing home the title together. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

12 hours ago, santy001 said:

Season 26: The Year of Big News!

Meanwhile, from a Salford perspective this great positive feeling off the pitch was not matched on it. The season was over by November, it ended on a cold November day against Stoke with a 3-2 loss putting me on 4 losses already for the season. The only team that usually has their title race ended in November is Arsenal (usually when they play against Stoke actually).

 

Things look rather **** at Stoke now.

[santy001]

Decided to start a fresh save, with other teams. 

It reached the point where I was getting frustrated with seemingly unresolving issues. It started back when I was unable to request an improvement to the clubs training facilities and had to use an editor, but there were strange things where teams would just stay interested in a player but not bidding for years. If they did bid, then it was a bizarrely low-ball bid but in some cases like with my right back, at 22 he asked me to sell him to Barcelona, at age 27 he was still there and Barcelona were still interested but they had never made a bid. 

The main issue was morale, losing a game just seemed to cripple the morale, squad harmony and tactics happiness. On the flip side, wins would push it up massively. It felt like the club was only ever 1 result away from crisis, and 1 result away from wonder-land. It might have been me putting more in it as time went on after the initial bugs, but it didn't match the experience I was getting in tactic testing saves, whereby with teams like Barcelona, Juventus, Real Madrid, Man City and even Stoke it just wasn't an issue with it feeling so fragile. 

[oliscott]

GUESS WHO'S BACK

[Nobby_McDonald]

The real Slim Shady?

[oliscott]

Im back

[Nobby_McDonald]

You make PSG look worse than Stoke.

On that subject the inevitable has happened Santy. Interesting that today Jack Butland has come out critical of the transfer dealings and having read the article (on BBC Sport) you makes some very good points.

[oliscott]

[santy001]

Shortly (probably tomorrow) I'll get on posting some season updates since we came back to this. 

[oliscott]

Never been one to keep clean sheets or concede the least but pretty happy with this stat from the Goalkeeper I signed in January, only eight games in which he conceded.

[santy001]

Aston Villa have been interesting in our game, they've got a massive 57,800 capacity stadium. 

For the Vanarama National League:

[Nobby_McDonald]

Potential title decider in the penultimate game... or Santy might have to beat his favourite team to win the title.

[oliscott]

43 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Potential title decider in the penultimate game... or Santy might have to beat his favourite team to win the title.

At some point Sant will post an update to the finish of the last three seasons and you'll be able to see how cruel a finish the end of the season was, however if he takes the same time as he does in the game to continue we could be waiting a while.

[oliscott]

What the hell is this guys problem!

[oliscott]

He has a serious issue now

[Nobby_McDonald]

He's the Spanish(?) Robin Friday.

[oliscott]

Got a notification my Left back scored five whilst on international duty, had to wonder how? 

• 

[Nobby_McDonald]

That match was a tad one sided.

[oliscott]

[Nobby_McDonald]

Stoke relegated.

[santy001]

Indeed, it coincided with it actually happening. Shame the season that Stoke finished in the champions league spots never happened in reality.