FM20: The English Football League thread

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I just won the Championship with 3 games to go.

I will do a full update soon. 

[Jogo Bonito]

34 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I just won the Championship with 3 games to go.

I will do a full update soon. 

Nice one, hope you are enjoying your time with Reading. 

[Jamesbfc1887]

Just finished editing, not much to be done for League 1 and 2 (outside the teams promoted) imo. Mainly because they've not really played any football since the official update.

I'm going to load a game up, just got to decide who to manage for the new season, I've already got my eye on teams for FM 21, so I'll stay clear of them.

[Jamesbfc1887]

 

And we're live!

Here's the file, not tried any of this type of thing before, so we'll see how it goes 

Edited August 10, 2020 by Jamesbfc1887

[Jamesbfc1887]

On 08/08/2020 at 20:58, Jamesbfc1887 said:

 

And we're live!

Here's the file, not tried any of this type of thing before, so we'll see how it goes 

Think I may add a few tweaks to this, mainly around budgets for some of the teams. Having had a click around some teams basically have a squad of about 15 but now wage or transfer budget, I'm sure their real life managers will be allowed to bolster their squad even if it's just free agents you still need a budget for it. I'll  try and tweak that.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Jamesbfc1887

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Nice one, hope you are enjoying your time with Reading. 

I am thanks. Its a perfect team to do a youth only save with.

I started playing my youth players more when I had a decent lead on the league and Tyler Frost has done well for me in April, he scored a hattrick in a 3-3 draw with Blackburn. 

Tyler Frost ended up getting the Championship Young Player Of The Month for April

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Reading Season 1 Review

Competitions

Well I won the League with ease, Getting 103 points as well. A great team performance and done way better then I thought when I took over.

I did rubbish in the cups. I lost to Spurs in the FA Cup 4th round and lost to Charlton in the 1st round of the League cup.

Results For The Season

]

Squad Performance

As you can see I gave a few games to lot of our youngsters.

The main standouts for me in the youth team were Tennai Watson, Omar Richards, Tyler Frost, Danny Loader and Michael Olise

Tennai Watson

Omar Richards

Tyler Frost

Danny Loader

Micheal Olise

My top goalscorer was Yakou Meite who mostly played on the right wing as an inside forward. He scored 25 goals in 33 games.

George Puscas performed well up front with 16 goals in 42 games. He also scored some important goals when I needed them.

Lucas Joao who I had high hopes for didn't get to start many games due to him keep picking up injuries but he still got 9 goals from 18 games.

Finances

Reading are 10 million in the red but the future looks bright with the Premiership TV money floating in and not spending any money on players.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Ronaldo Beckham Nice one. Richards, Olise and McIntyre are the best youngsters in real life, plus Boyce-Clarke and Nevers who haven't emerged yet but there are high hopes for. Tyler Frost was actually released (gone to Crawley) and it wouldn't surprise me to see Watson leave either, You got great returns from Meite, good work.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 minute ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@Ronaldo Beckham Nice one. Richards, Olise and McIntyre are the best youngsters in real life, plus Boyce-Clarke and Nevers who haven't emerged yet but there are high hopes for. Tyler Frost was actually released (gone to Crawley) and it wouldn't surprise me to see Watson leave either, You got great returns from Meite, good work.

Cheers Jogo much appreciated.

McIntyre will be getting more game time as Matt Miazga will be leaving as his loan finishes. 

Boyce-Clarke will get more game time gradually and become my number 1 goalie.

Thierry Nevers played a few games but didn't impress much but I am hoping he will get better over time.

B

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Awards Time

I won the Manager Of The Year award

Meite was runner up to Mitrovic by 1 goal in the Top Scorer award.

Rafael, Miazga, Swift, Meite and Puscas got into the Champion team of the season.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

A nice start to the Prem season

[smplfc123]

SUMMER 2021 - TRANSFER WINDOW UPDATE

Having just missed out on the play-offs last season with a very small squad, I decided that this season we would go for a slightly deeper squad. 

Again to go against the usual grain, I've scouted players based on my rigid 4-4-2 system, constantly looking for bargains, whether it was kids, outcasts, misfits or just dependable players at this level. Sort of along the style of how Wilder did with the other half of the city.

OUTS:

Matt Penney - Watford - £13.5m - I didn't plan on selling Penney this summer, but when Watford came in with a bid of £5.5m, instead of instantly rejecting it, I set the price ridiculously high at £13.5m all upfront, with the assumption they'd walk away. Instead they accepted straight away and with him not really nailing a starting position, I decided it was a no-brainer to take that much for him.

Dominic Iorfa - Fulham - £12.5m - Really like Iorfa, big strong lad, solid and dependable, but when Premier League Fulham came sniffing, he said he wanted to go. I received £8.5m upfront, with a further £4m in add-ons. 

Julian Broner - Wigan - £2.1m - Recalled from his loan in the MLS to help repair the finances. £1.8M upfront with the extra £300k in add-ons for the German. 

Joey Pelupessy - Akhisarspor - £500k - The Dutchman had been solid back up, but never really threatened to start last season with Luongo coming good, so decided to cash in.

INS:

Alex Mula - Malaga - £2.5m - A natural inverted winger at LM, the Spaniard is someone I've scouted countless times on this game before without taking the plunge. With half of the fee being paid upfront and the other over 3 years, I'm hoping he can bring a bit more attacking flair to our side.

Declan Rudd - Preston North End - £450k - The experienced GK is a direct replacement for the retiring Westwood. An experienced HG keeper to challenge Dawson for the number 1 spot.

Jason McCarthy - Millwall - £140k - One of those Wilder signings. Unwanted at Millwall, the ex-Saints youngster is a tall, aggressive, determined RB who will undoubtedly be dependable when fighting for that RB spot.

Tom Lowery - Crewe - £130k - The much coveted youngster has been brought in as back up to Luongo in CM. 

Dominic Revan - Aston Villa - £125k - The 20 year old looks to be the bargain of the summer. Excellent physical stats and highly determined, I feel he's going to be the signing of the season.

James Bree - Free - Coming as first choice in that RB slot vacated by Iorfa, the Yorkshireman has some solid all-round stats.

Lars Stindl - Free - If this works as planned, the German could also be a contender for signing of the season. Released by Gladbach, the 32 year old's mental stats are everything I want from my team and with him suiting the DLF role perfectly, I'm hoping he can help link the midfield and attack better.

 

So as you can see, we made nearly £25m this summer and spent just £3.5m. Our finances are looking excellent, with plenty left in the transfer and wage budgets should I need to invest in January.

I told you I do transfer windows differenlty! And I know a lot of you may not think I've improved the squad, or maybe been too tight, but with probably 9 of the starting 11 from last season lined up to start again this season, this summer was about depth whilst adding that little extra quality with Stindl and Mula.

Wish me luck and UP THE OWLS!

[Jogo Bonito]

@smplfc123 Stindl is a clever player, hopefully he's not declined and can deliver for you. Mula has potential to be useful, and Revan is a left-field (but commendable) pick who has the raw ingredients to be useful. It's the kind of transfer window I would do, whether that's a good thing or not, who knows! I hope it works out well and good luck for the new season.

[smplfc123]

So with 2021 drawing to a close and with us sitting just outside the Play-Offs, a struggling Premier League team offered me an interview. It turns out, they want me to help them avoid the relegation battle.

I've got 2 games in quick succession as it's the Christmas period, so I've asked them to delay the offer for a week whilst I process it.

I'm torn. I did plan on leaving at some point, probably at the end of this season if we didn't gain promotion, but the plan was similar to @karanhsingh's in that I was looking at going to a league that gives me a proper chance of winning silverware.  

However, with Villa still having big players such as Grealish, Mings, McGinn etc. and the lure of testing my Simeone-esque 4-4-2 at the top level, I'm struggling to convince myself not to take the jump. 

[karanhsingh]

Go for it I say! Would be fun to manage Grealish and build your team around him. 

I owe an update! Hopefully tomorrow. 

[warlock]

4 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Go for it I say!

Me too. Some good players but a big challenge nevertheless. And worst case, you go down and get a pot of money for a rebuild 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

My Youth intake for the season

Jonathan Madden

Robert Wybraniec

Harry Burnett

Ian Gordon

[warlock]

Darlington, season 2, New Year

Things are going fairly well in our first season in the National League. As might be expected, we have not been the very model of consistency, with some big wins, big losses, surprising victories and shameful defeats. We have been as low as 21st but we've sort of settled just below mid-table, having been predicted to finish in 15th.

The screenshot shows the biggest news of our summer transfer window. Just as I was putting the finishing touches to our business I spotted Jahmal Hector-Ingram transfer listed at Derby. Required fee? Nada, nuttin', zilch. So I bid that, expecting the player himself to show me the door. Instead, he was happy to sign. And I was happy to have him. In other news, former Chester striker George Waring, who had been our top scorer while on loan last season but turned down a permanent move after Chester released him, had a change of heart and signed in July. Both are on track for 20-goal seasons. Another dozen players also joined the ranks, marking a decent upgrade on our promotion-winning squad, and we have some money available to add another couple of new faces.

[Jogo Bonito]

36 minutes ago, warlock said:

Darlington, season 2, New Year

Things are going fairly well in our first season in the National League. As might be expected, we have not been the very model of consistency, with some big wins, big losses, surprising victories and shameful defeats. We have been as low as 21st but we've sort of settled just below mid-table, having been predicted to finish in 15th.

The screenshot shows the biggest news of our summer transfer window. Just as I was putting the finishing touches to our business I spotted Jahmal Hector-Ingram transfer listed at Derby. Required fee? Nada, nuttin', zilch. So I bid that, expecting the player himself to show me the door. Instead, he was happy to sign. And I was happy to have him. In other news, former Chester striker George Waring, who had been our top scorer while on loan last season but turned down a permanent move after Chester released him, had a change of heart and signed in July. Both are on track for 20-goal seasons. Another dozen players also joined the ranks, marking a decent upgrade on our promotion-winning squad, and we have some money available to add another couple of new faces.

Nice work so far, you've got to be happy with that. It's good to hear you're beginning to shape the squad the way you like it. What formation are you generally using?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Nice to see I am up there with the boys from Manchester for making a profit.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Reading Season 2 Review

Competitions

I ended a nice comfortable 13th place in the league. I was as high as 6th place at one point but went on a terrible run near the end of the season and slumped down to 13th but I am happy with that.

I got through to the 5th round of the FA Cup but lost to Huddersfield Town and lost to Stoke in the 3rd round of the League Cup.

Results For The Season

As you can see a terrible end of season. Luckily I started strong.

Squad Performance

I lack the goalscorer I need. Puscas done ok with 13 goals for the season.

Meite last season's top goalscorer only got to play 19 games and only got 4 goals.

23 year old striker Sam Smith done well when called up but mostly in the cup games against minor competition. He got 8 goals out of 10 games, I might play him a bit more as he has a better goal ratio then Puscas.

Andy Rinomhota continues to get better and better with game time.

Danny Loader had a good season as well and is now a proven Premiership player.

Tom McIntyre filled in nicely as a decent centre back pairing with Liam Moore

Omar Richards has took over from Jordan Obita as the main left back.

I really like the look of Jeriel Dorsett, He has done well when called upon.

Finances & Projection

My finances are looking amazing. I got £70m in the bank and that will get better in time.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Awards Time

John Swift was voted Fans Player Of The Season

Tom McIntyre was voted Young Player Of The Season

[Ronaldo Beckham]

The board has decided to expand the stadium by 12,098 seats.

They have also upgraded the training and youth facilities.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Nice work @Ronaldo Beckham that's a good season. 

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

What formation are you generally using?

So far we've been exclusively playing 442, but I think I'm going back to the 433dm - I think the DM protecting the defence will offer us more than a second striker does. The squad is pretty well set to play either system, so it's nice to have the option. It would be great to be able to play something narrow with two strikers, but I've got too many wingers to make that possible.

[warlock]

22 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Nice work @Ronaldo Beckham that's a good season. 

Agreed 

[smplfc123]

Thanks @warlock and @karanhsingh I did take the Villa job in the end. I've kept a separate file saved as Wednesday manager should I ever wish to go back to it.

Very solid start in the VNL @warlock and having those 2 upfront will help. 

And an excellent season with Reading @Ronaldo Beckham despite the end of season run. 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

11 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Nice work @Ronaldo Beckham that's a good season. 

 

10 hours ago, warlock said:

Agreed 

 

1 hour ago, smplfc123 said:

Thanks @warlock and @karanhsingh I did take the Villa job in the end. I've kept a separate file saved as Wednesday manager should I ever wish to go back to it.

Very solid start in the VNL @warlock and having those 2 upfront will help. 

And an excellent season with Reading @Ronaldo Beckham despite the end of season run. 

Cheers guys much appreciated.

I have sold Puscas for £15m and going to promote Smith as the main striker for next season.

[nextqprmanager]

44 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

 

 

Cheers guys much appreciated.

I have sold Puscas for £15m and going to promote Smith as the main striker for next season.

Very good 1st Prem Season, just out of interest, why are you mainly building up funds?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

5 minutes ago, nextqprmanager said:

Very good 1st Prem Season, just out of interest, why are you mainly building up funds?

No reason, I suppose I just want funds to improve facilities but I will naturally have bigger funds as I aint buying any players.

I also want to keep the club on a good financial standing.

[karanhsingh]

So a quick update on Sheffield Wednesday in the Premier league.

The summer was pretty much ruined by a long protracted takeover of the club. As promised, the ex-Chairman got out as soon as we got promoted and got the new owners to pay off his 90 million debt as well.

This meant that most of the summer we had a transfer embargo, and when it was finally lifted the new board decided to sign players they wanted - more frustration.

Here are the transfers that eventually did take place. Lourenco was by the board and to be fair he looks a handy little player. Ryan Edmondson would be the man entrusted to score the goals for us.

We had a bit of an up & down start including an early exit at the hands of Wigan in the Carabao cup. However since then have put together some strong form that sees us in the top half of the table.

As much as I am enjoying this though, I am now putting my Wednesday career on hold for the time-being like @smplfc123. Reason being that I have managed in the EPL for several seasons on other FM saves - I know how it goes, it's a 4-5 year slow & gradual progression as you build your squad up to the world-class levels of the best in England. Like many others on here I find the process of reaching the Premiership more gratifying than actually playing in it.

Also I have found myself drawn to Italy which is usually a favourite country of mine but somehow I haven't yet managed there in FM20. I am continuing with the same save as a really interesting opportunity opened up in Italy and have saved my current progression so I can potentially come back to Wednesday at some point in the future.

Meanwhile will enjoy reading about the others' updates!

[nextqprmanager]

It is difficult when there is instability from the top of the Club. I know what you mean about The Prem. My 1st Season in Prem with Bolton I finished 15th from 17th on the last day! ; but I can see during our Summer Transfer window that the big boys` will take some catching looking at their Squads, so many of us `minnows` take 3-5 Seasons to climb.

I am not sure if I am brave enough to be unemployed? & look for a new project. I would like to start again with a larger database??.

GL to all on here.

[karanhsingh]

26 minutes ago, nextqprmanager said:

It is difficult when there is instability from the top of the Club. I know what you mean about The Prem. My 1st Season in Prem with Bolton I finished 15th from 17th on the last day! ; but I can see during our Summer Transfer window that the big boys` will take some catching looking at their Squads, so many of us `minnows` take 3-5 Seasons to climb.

I am not sure if I am brave enough to be unemployed? & look for a new project. I would like to start again with a larger database??.

GL to all on here.

Yes absolutely. You have to be in for the long haul. I did it once with sunderland already so now off to italia for some Calcio. Saying that maybe it will turn out to be as difficult over there 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

What a result for my Reading team

4-3 against Man City

 

[nextqprmanager]

14 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

What a result for my Reading team

4-3 against Man City

 

You`re making this look easy! - must be your Tactic, whose Martin Terrier?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

16 minutes ago, nextqprmanager said:

You`re making this look easy! - must be your Tactic, whose Martin Terrier?

I think he plays for Middlesborough in real life.

I do have a good tactic but it isn't a cheat tactic as you can see by my results towards the end of last season.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

A great result for Reading against Spurs away. Also a great defensive performance from my fairly young side. 

Really proud of my lads.

A couple of my players also made team of the week as well.

 

[dothestrand]

19 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I think he plays for Middlesborough in real life.

I do have a good tactic but it isn't a cheat tactic as you can see by my results towards the end of last season.

 

Ex Lyon, just signed for Rennes.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 hours ago, dothestrand said:

Ex Lyon, just signed for Rennes.

Oh yeah of course. I was thinking of someone else, I think I was thinking of Tavernier and not Terrier.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Another great result for Reading against Man City

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Another lovely result this time against Watford. A 3-2 win and a Danny Loader Hattrick.

[Jogo Bonito]

Going great there @Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Going great there @Ronaldo Beckham

Cheers buddy much appreciated.

Danny Loader is starting to do really well and on the verge of an England national team call up.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

My Youth Intake looks pretty good this year with some International flavour.

Fredrik Danielsson

Graham Mackenzie

Kurtis Hughes

Aymar Makengo

[warlock]

Darlington, season 2 completed

Mixed feelings about this season. On the positive side, while the board merely wanted us to avoid relegation and the media were predicting a finish in the bottom half of the table, we managed to secure a top half finish in 10th place. On the other hand, the inconsistency that plagued the first half of the season continued into the new year and despite a superb April in which we posted 4 wins and a draw from our last 5 games, we couldn't make up the lost ground. We finished just one point off the playoff places.

The tactical switch from 442 to 433dm worked in exactly the way I expected - we were much more solid at the back, but lost a lot of our cutting edge up front. In my last update I said our main strikers - George Waring and Jahmal Hector-Ingram - were on course for 20-goal seasons, but in the second half they added barely half-a-dozen between them, both finishing on 15 goals apiece. Beyond that, our main problem is lack of squad depth - we could beat almost anyone when fielding our first-choice team, but struggled when we had to rotate. That will be the main goal for the summer.

For now, I think I'll park this save for a couple of weeks and look for a team with somewhat better quality and more enjoyment. I've already taken them on twice in FM20 but my eyes keep turning to Nottingham Forest... there's a very good club buried in there somewhere.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Reading Season 3 Review

Competitions

I managed to get 12th place in the league, slightly up from last year so that is good progression.

I managed to get through to the Quarter Finals of the League cup but lost to Everton and got knocked out of the 3rd round of the FA Cup to Luton.

Results For The Season

Squad Review

Stand out players this year were John Swift, Danny Loader, Ryan East and Liam Moore.

Danny Loader was top scorer with 18 goals. Michael Olise was runner up with 11 goals.

Danny Loader

Michael Olise

John Swift

My finances are looking amazing at the moment.

£150m in the bank.

Projection is looking amazing as well

Meite and Obita will be leaving the club in the Summer and I might look at selling Liam Moore so McIntyre and Tom Holmes can get more game time.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Awards Time

John Swift was voted Reading's Player Of The Season, follwed by Danny Loader and then Ryan East.

Danny Loader won the Reading Young Player Of The Year

I now have great training and youth facilities and excellent youth recruitment and junior coaching.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Norwich tried to offer me a measly £40m for Danny Loader. I rejected it as I don't need the money.

He does have a £56m release clause but I will try get that bumped up a bit when I offer him a new contract.

Edited August 15, 2020 by Ronaldo Beckham

[karanhsingh]

Great going both. 

@Ronaldo Beckham Olise looks fantastic as well. As does Loader of course.

@warlock - that's a good season there. Why not try to move up a league or two in your current save with a new job, I'm guessing your reputation must have improved by now. 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Great going both. 

@Ronaldo Beckham Olise looks fantastic as well. As does Loader of course.

@warlock - that's a good season there. Why not try to move up a league or two in your current save with a new job, I'm guessing your reputation must have improved by now. 

Yeah a few clubs are after Loader. He wont sign a new contract but if a club wants to pay his release clause of £56m then I wont complain.

Luckily Michael Olise has a £86m release clause so I can't see him going anytime soon.