FM20: The English Football League thread

[Jogo Bonito]

Well done with Wycombe @Ronaldo Beckham another very decent finish. With their financial limits it's an inevitable shame to lose lots of your best players. Maybe somewhere down the line you might be able to stop it, but I would imagine that's not going to be for a while. 

@smplfc123 Steady and solid progress there, exactly what you were after. Great to see the younger players getting the game time (that was why I chose them originally too). Is Bird still showing as right-footed in your game, as he most definitely isn't.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

4 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Well done with Wycombe @Ronaldo Beckham another very decent finish. With their financial limits it's an inevitable shame to lose lots of your best players. Maybe somewhere down the line you might be able to stop it, but I would imagine that's not going to be for a while. 

@smplfc123 Steady and solid progress there, exactly what you were after. Great to see the younger players getting the game time (that was why I chose them originally too). Is Bird still showing as right-footed in your game, as he most definitely isn't.

 

Yeah I thought I had lost Fred but he rejected the move so I still got him but he wont sign a new contract so will probably lose him on a free soon.

I will give my Wycombe save another go once I get bored of my Strasbourg save.

[Jogo Bonito]

5 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Yeah I thought I had lost Fred but he rejected the move so I still got him but he wont sign a new contract so will probably lose him on a free soon.

I will give my Wycombe save another go once I get bored of my Strasbourg save.

That's good news that Fred didn't leave. He did that once before and went back so maybe he is less likely to go again as he didn't have a great time at Millwall really.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Just now, Jogo Bonito said:

That's good news that Fred didn't leave. He did that once before and went back so maybe he is less likely to go again as he didn't have a great time at Millwall really.

Yeah maybe. I just wish he would sign a new contract but my wage is so rubbish that I struggle to keep any good players in the long run.

[Jogo Bonito]

@warlock How are you getting on with Darlo? Looks good from what I saw on the previous page. 

[warlock]

58 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

How are you getting on with Darlo?

I'll have an update imminently... just one game of the season to go.

[warlock]

Darlington, May 2023

At the end of November we were sitting in 2nd place behind league leaders Chester who were our next opponents. Sadly, we were unable to clinch the victory. But between then and the end of the year we managed to put together a good sequence of results that maintained our position. At the same time, Chester fell away badly but our grip on the top spot was brief as Wrexham put together a terrific run of results that saw them rocket past us from 5th.

In January we looked good - apart from an embarrassing exit from the FA Trophy at the hands of Billericay from a league below us. When we stumbled to a home draw against Aldershot I feared the start of a slump, but we quickly picked up and ended the month on a high as we scored 11 goals, conceding just one, to claim three victories.

February was rather less successful, with defeats against Chester (again ) and Eastleigh, but our position behind Wrexham was never under threat.

March - in which we were undefeated - and April were excellent months. But we couldn't live with Wrexham who had put together a run of 16 games unbeaten stretching back to early December. We started the year just one point behind, yet found ourselves 11pts adrift by the time they came to Blackwell Meadows in April. To have even a slim chance of claiming the title we had to win this one. And we didn't - we were 2-0 down inside the hour, briefly had hope when we pulled one back, before they added a third late on. To rub salt in our wounds, we had to watch as they celebrated their title win on our pitch .

So... playoffs again, but could it be third time lucky? In our favour, we go into the sudden death games in better form than previous years. I also decided on a late change of tactic, back to the tried-and-tested 442. We were understandably rusty for the draw against Halifax but after that we clicked into gear and finished the regular season with three convincing wins. If nothing else, it transformed Di'marlio Brown-Sterling who had been hit-and-miss in the lone striker role but as part of a front-two he bagged six goals in the last three games to finish as our top scorer. At the other end our Swedish keeper Sveijer played every game of the season and finished with 22 clean sheets from 51 appearances. Wooden spoon goes to Joe Hardy... the striker started the season with a bang and was leading scorer with 7 in November; he finished the season with just 11, having had his head turned by interest from the likes of Wigan and Bolton. When I realised I couldn't rely on him any longer, I brought in another striker - 21-year-old Jacob Walton on loan from Tranmere - and he quickly showed Hardy how it's done, scoring 5 goals and making 2 assists in just 7 appearances.

[warlock]

Darlington, playoff semi-final

A gritty comeback from the lads. But there's a cloud on my horizon... our opponents in the final are Chester 

[warlock]

Darlington, playoff final

Get in 

[Jean0987654321]

28 minutes ago, warlock said:

Darlington, playoff final

Get in 

There you go. Up you go to the Football League. Good luck.

[smplfc123]

9 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

 Steady and solid progress there, exactly what you were after. Great to see the younger players getting the game time (that was why I chose them originally too). Is Bird still showing as right-footed in your game, as he most definitely isn't.

Thanks mate and yes i'm happy we're ticking along even though I'm not settled on roles and style yet.

Bird is showing as either footed on mine.

[warlock]

6 hours ago, Jean0987654321 said:

Up you go to the Football League. Good luck.

Cheers, . I'll need to do a full squad review and see what we need. We'll need a lot, I imagine. At least the board immediately approved the move to professional status so I should be able to recruit more and better coaches. Necessary upgrades to the ground and other facilities mean there won't be much money for playing staff but I hope we'll be able to attract a better class of higher league cast-offs 

[smplfc123]

Looking forward to see how that off-season progresses @warlock 

[warlock]

29 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

Looking forward to see how that off-season progresses

Me too . Any progress will be welcome.

[smplfc123]

JANUARY TRANSFER WINDOW 2020 UPDATE

As there have been a couple of deals done both in and out, I decided I would provide an update so you can see how i'm looking going in to the final third or so of the season.

I'm not a massive fan of the January transfer window in general. I find players are overpriced and you very rarely find what you're looking for and end up buying just for the sake of it. I was determined to bring in a certain position as we just weren't strong enough there, with the potential options of strengthening elsewhere.

INS:

Sondre Rossbach - Odd - £1.2m - For those of you who know my style, I don't like buying players I've bought before. I've seen this lads name floated about on a few forums, so it did put me off buying him initially, but he turned out to be the stand-out option that was available, with other choices either not for sale or just not interested. The young Norwegian does possess some good stats and his value hs almost quadrupled already. If he's only decent, he'll still be a massive improvement on Hamer and Roos.

Rochina - Vit. Guimaraes - Loan - The attacking midfielder has joined on loan with an optional future fee should we wish to keep him. To be honest there wasn't much choice out there to cover Lawrence at AML and with Curtis Jones being the only other option who I've signed on previous saves, I went for the 24 year old from Portugal.

I was looking for another CB, with Davies 35 and Clarke unlikely to be affordable next season, but there was nothing worth doing.

OUTS:

Lee Buchanan - Brighton - £6.5m (£11.5m) - I didn't want to sell Buchanan, but a flurry of deadline day bids from PL clubs and the player refusing to sign a new contract unless I guaranteed him a spot as 'regular starter' left me no choice but to get what I could. Whilst I have no doubt he'll develop in to a top player on the game, with Lowe signing a new long term contract and Malone an able HG deputy, I think it was probably a good deal. £4M upfront, £2.5m over 3 years and then a series of clauses. Brighton will be paying £240k per appearance for the first 10 appearances, at which point we will also receive a payment of £1.5m. So that'll be £3.9m accumulated in fees for his first 10 appearances. Added to that an extra £1.2m should he go on to earn 1 international cap and 50% of any profit to be made to come our way, I think we've done well for ourselves. The board were extremely happy with the deal. 

Kelle Roos - Montreal Impact - £525k - I don't think there's much to say on this one. Just glad someone was willing to pay for him.

Craig Forsyth - Cincinati - £375k - Again with Lowe and Malone in the squad, there was no room for Forsyth. A trip to the MLS to finish off his career seems a good move for all involved.

So with the transfers sorted, here's how we are looking with February just underway:

 

Still sitting fairly comfortably in 13th. I'm actually closer to the play-offs than the relegation zone, but too far off from either to have anything to play for. With us out of the FA Cup too after a 1-0 loss against Brentford, the final third of the season will be used to focus on giving more opportunities to youngsters and settling on a style and philosophy ready for next season.

[warlock]

55 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

Still sitting fairly comfortably in 13th

Low-pressure season .

I signed Rossbach somewhere in FM19 and he was a good all-rounder. In FM20 I've seen him move to a few different PL clubs - the likes of Newcastle and Brighton - so he should do well for you. Definitely an upgrade.

[warlock]

*sigh*

Just popped into my inbox. Current chairman is actively looking to sell, so a takeover is more than likely. But we have two groups - one is likely to back me as manager, the other wants to replace me. In the meantime, my squad rebuild is on hold because of the transfer embargo. 

[Ewan0404]

My mate in work set me a challenge to see who could perform better over 10 years as Bolton Wanderers. 

I'm close to finishing the first season so will update this thread each season up to my 10 years. 

It's been an interesting season as we have a number of really good youth players mixed in with average older players. 

With most of the squads contracts only lasting the season it will be a real challenge going forward with the poor finances at the club. 

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by Ewan0404

[warlock]

5 hours ago, Ewan0404 said:

will update this thread each season up to my 10 years

A good challenge! Will look forward to following your progress 

[smplfc123]

18 hours ago, warlock said:

*sigh*

Just popped into my inbox. Current chairman is actively looking to sell, so a takeover is more than likely. But we have two groups - one is likely to back me as manager, the other wants to replace me. In the meantime, my squad rebuild is on hold because of the transfer embargo. 

Argh that must be frustrating. Let's just hope that the new owners are better than certain ones the club has had in the past....!

[smplfc123]

END OF SEASON UPDATE

So with us knowing in February that neither relegation or play-offs were a real possibility, the final third was about giving youngsters more game time and working on a style and philosophy for the future.

That didn't exactly start well in February, with me even starting to come under pressure at the end of March with my status showing as 'insecure'. Luckily, a good turn around in form saw us beaten just once in the final 7 games, picking up 4 wins and finally looking like we've got a system in place. This how the table finished:

So 15th on 57 points is how it finished for us. I'm fairly happy with that to be honest. It gives us plenty of room to grow. The youngsters were given plenty of chances and all will be involved in the squad next season. Including sub appearances, Bird made 26, Bogle 25, Lowe 36, Knight 38, Sibley 20 and Whittaker 13.

Moving forward, Wierik should be a solid addition, but Clarke will need replacing and we could do with more depth at CB on top of that. I'm undecided on if some experienced players like Huddlestone and Martin will stay on, but regardless, more depth in midfield and attack will be sourced during the summer.

The aim for next season is top half, with us maybe even flirting with the play-offs if we make the right signings.

[warlock]

25 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

starting to come under pressure at the end of March

So much for a low-pressure save . Glad you turned it around.

My takeover didn't amount to much - the current chairman cancelled all talks and the embargo was lifted after a couple of weeks. It did cost me a few transfers, and one or two of my favoured signings because I hadn't noticed that transfers already agreed with clubs and players would simply be voided; by the time I realised two of my main targets had already signed for someone else. It led to a bit of panic buying towards the end - with two weeks to go before our first competitive game I had 13 players in the first-team squad and every time I brought a new face in someone else would get injured for a couple of weeks.

Hectic weekend because the lovely MrsW has a major birthday tomorrow and a family gathering this evening, so I'll try to update tomorrow night when things have calmed down a little  'hic'

[Ewan0404]

Bolton Wanderers - Season 2019/2020

As mentioned in an earlier post one of my workmates challenged me to see who could take the cub furthest over 10 seasons. As we are both still on furlough I felt this would be a good challenge, especially starting with -12 points and all your players contracts only lasting 1 season.

The £40 million debt at the start of the save meant this 10 year plan was going to be a real slog.

Transfers

With limited room to manoeuvre in the market it was always going to be a challenge to bring people in but here we are:

Ins:

I am very happy with Jones and Gotts on loan. I was shocked to get Armini in on a compensation deal, he has been my go to signing at the start of every save this year and was a starter for me at AC Milan in season one so I had high hopes.

Outs:

Realistically I would like to have kept Darcy but the deal was far too good to turn down with all of the clauses included in the deal, we did manage to bring him on loan in January for the final few months of the season.

Competitions

Winning the league in season one was beyond my wildest dreams at the start of the season, I had in my head we would finish mid table and build in the off season for a playoff push next year. But wow we just hit form right from the off until around March where we had a wobble but by then the season was over. The cups there isn't much to say really, it is what it is.

Squad Stats

As you can see the stand out performers were Matthews in goal with 29 clean sheets on 55 games. Crawford with 22 combined goals and assists and the two young strikers Brown and Brown-Sterling.

But the star for me was Curtis Jones with 12 goals and 9 assists from the left side of midfield. I will try and bring him back on loan again next season.

It's now time for me to build a squad capable of staying in the Championship. 

[Ewan0404]

The Rotherham manager won manager of the year. I am fuming! We were predicted bloody last.

[karanhsingh]

Just caught up with all the updates

Congratulations on the well-deserved promotion @warlock and welcome to the Football League!

@smplfc123 - a solid enough season there, wish you luck for the next one. Decent price there for Buchanan.

@Ewan0404 - great start at Bolton, even if signing Armini seems a tad unrealistic  sad to see Darcy go but perhaps he will end up there again with you further down the line.

[warlock]

Darlington, October 2023

After briefly celebrating our return to the EFL after a decade in non-league football, we set about rebuilding the squad for the challenge. I was happy enough with the majority of the first-team unit but we needed much better strength in depth. The first requirement was to bolster the FB positions. Our best RB had been Forest's Malique Spooner on loan and I was delighted to sign him permanently when he was released. A backup was more difficult to find and in the end I settled for Barnsley's Jordan Helliwell, also on a free. On the other side Matty Downing, who joined us in sesason 2 from Leeds, has regularly been rated as one of our best players by the coaching team but rarely showed it on the pitch, so I was keen to find a good backup or even someone who could supplant him. Two candidates were Wrexham's Joe Muscatt and Ipswich's Bailey Clements, both having been released by their clubs. I had a tough time choosing between them... so I signed both. Downing is our club captain and he remains for this season but will have to perform to a higher standard if his place is to be secure.

Our next requirement was to sort out the GK position. Clear first choice last season was Barnsley's young Swede Hannes Sveijer who had been brilliant and I wanted to renew his loan. Barnsley declined, so I picked up another Barnsley keeper, Henry Kendrick, on a free. At which point, Barnsley transfer-listed Sveijer . However, there have been no takers and I'll keep an eye on him going forward.

We've been reliant on loan signings for cover on the wings and I was keen to find permanent solutions but no likely candidates were available - or those that were wanted far more than we could afford in wages. So I went back to the loan market again and signed Tranmere's Harvey Gilmour on the left and Sheffield Wednesday's Kyle Murphy on the right.

Up front I tried to renew either or both loans of Brown-Sterling and Jacob Walton but their clubs wouldn't play ball. I returned yet again to Barnsley for young Swedish striker Pontus Jonssen who had spent the season on loan at Torquay scoring 16 goals. In signing Jonssen I accidentally spent my first bit of transfer budget - his contract was running down but in the post-embargo panic-buying mentioned above I failed to spot the £10k compensation fee if I signed him early. Oh well... let's hope he's worth it 

Two final bits of business were also done on a loan basis. Although I was fairly convinced by the 442, I wanted the ability to use a 433dm if necessary but only had one capable DM in Reuben Sammut. Newcastle newgen Yusuke Ishida agreed to bring a bit of oriental glamour to Blackwell Meadows. Equally, the 442 meant I needed one more striker in the rotation and I managed to bag a player I've wanted since the save started, Forest's Gabriel Ogunseri, who made an immediate impact for the Quakers.

Early form

We made a shaky start to life in L2, with a disappointing home draw against Carlisle and a defeat away to Crewe. We were then unlucky to face Championship outfit Huddersfield in the Carbao Cup and duly made our exit. So I was stunned when we put 5 past Northampton in our next game which, sadly, turned out to be a bit of a flash in the pan as we stumbled to a couple of draws before surpassing the Northampton result by bagging 6 against Colchester. To make sure I didn't read too much into that one, we then embarrassed ourselves in a 0-5 shambles against Scunthorpe in the Leasing Trophy. Four days later we faced the Iron at their place and came away with a creditable 2-2 draw before finishing an unbeaten month in the league with two good wins.

I have no idea what to make of that run of results, which spanned the gamut from abysmal to brilliant. The good news was the performance of Ogunseri who scored 6 and created 2 more in his first 9 appearances for the Quakers. Even better, he seems to have spurred on Hardy who was struggling in the spring but returned to form with 7 goals and 3 assists in 12 starts (Jonssen has 3 in 5). Of our other new signings, Ishida, Gilmour and Murphy have all done well, and Kendrick has 4 clean sheets in 11 starts.

[smplfc123]

Great start @warlock, good to see Kendrick keeping some clean sheets even if he wasn't your first choice from Barnsley.

 

SUMMER 2020 UPDATE

So after finishing 15th this summer was about trying to improve the squad where we could without blocking a pathway for the youngsters to improve. With some big earners leaving on a free, we had plenty in the budget to spend big, but for those of you that have suffered my previous updates, you'll know that's not my style. CB, CM and out wide were the main areas I was looking to improve and this what we did:

Anya and Huddlestone were the only 1st team members released and Curtis Davies retired, thus freeing up extra funds. Holmes' form was awful, when he wasn't injured, so I decided it was the right decision to take the £2.1m. 

With Wierik already agreed, it was finding a left footed partner that topped our priority list. After sniffing around a few, I decided to prise Diego Gonzalez away from Malaga for £700k.  Harry Brockbank was brought in from Bolton as our young 4th choice CB. An injury to Wierik just before deadline day led to us bringing in Tangana on loan. 

Finding the right attacking players to unlock defences really proved to be a struggle. We scouted so many options, but in the end lumped on 2 Portuguese options, Felipe Chaby of Sporting and Fabio Martins of Braga for a combined £3.7m. We also brought in Curtis Jones on loan from Liverpool to add some depth. 

This how the squad is looking for the new season:

GK: Rossbach / Carson
RB: Bogle / Wisdom
RCB: Wierik / Tangana
LCB: Gonzalez / Brockbank
LB: Lowe / Malone / Shinnie
CDM: Bielik/ Bird / Shinnie
CM: Rooney / Knight
CM: Chaby / Sibley
RW: Martins / Jozefzoon
LW: Lawrence / Jones
ST: Marriott / Martin / Whittaker

Overall I'd say I'd rate my squad and transfer business as 7/10. On one hand, I'm glad I haven't stockpiled as there's clear pathways for Bird, Knight, Sibley and Whittaker to get plenty of game time this season. On the other, I'm not entirely happy with my wide attackers on paper and my centre halves are completely untested in this league, so only time will tell if they turn out to be good purchases.

[Jogo Bonito]

@warlock I'm really enjoying your progress. It's a nice start in League 2 and  good to be hard to beat already. Nice to hear how you have assembled the new squad too, keep up the good work.

@smplfc123 I like your low key moves in the transfer market and hope the squad will serve you well this season. I'm predicting a top six finish for you, best of luck.

[warlock]

1 hour ago, smplfc123 said:

Great start @warlock, good to see Kendrick keeping some clean sheets

 

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I'm really enjoying your progress. It's a nice start in League 2

Thanks fellas! Kendrick is doing very nicely, I think, and most of the squad are performing rather better than I expected. Early days yet, but things are looking good.

1 hour ago, smplfc123 said:

Overall I'd say I'd rate my squad and transfer business as 7/10

Sounds pretty good to me. I've been through a lot of transfer windows in FM20 that wouldn't rate half that well . Curiously, I noticed earlier that Jack Marriott is now plying his trade down in L1 for Notts County. Also with a Derby connection, in my previous season Frank Lampard was interviewed for the Solihull Moors job in the VNN... and didn't get it! He's currently unemployed after being sacked by Chelsea in 2021 and has had just two very brief spells with Stoke and Charlton since then. Also on the managerial merry-go-round, Steve McClaren was just sacked by Tranmere Rovers after guiding them to 23 defeats in 36 games in charge.

By those standards, I think we're all doing very well.

[warlock]

Is there anything in the world more boring than a Leasing.com Trophy penalty shootout?

That's a rhetorical question... the answer, obviously, is No!! 24 penalties to decide a game that nobody cared about .

[karanhsingh]

Good updates from both! @smplfc123 the Portuguese duo look good for this level.

@warlock is Ishida a Japanese new-gen?

[warlock]

31 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

is Ishida a Japanese new-gen?

He is, born in Okinawa apparently and with joint English nationality:

[Dong21]

After not looking at it since late May, I have decided to dust off my Bolton save and pick up where I left off. It actually took me a little while to familiarise myself with where I was up to after four months away. I knew we had just secured promotion to the Premier League and had a summer of squad rebuilding ahead, but not much more than that! I have taken some time to look at my squad in depth and reading my previous updates in this thread actually came in very handy (my detailed updates have finally paid off!). The memories of this save to date have all come flooding back.

I have now completed the 2024 pre-season and have made a large number of signings to rebuild the squad. The squad was not particularly strong by Championship standards and we were reliant on a large number of loanees, none more so than Tottenham wonderkid striker Jimmy Hirst who had bagged 26 league goals for us, so a lot of work was needed to be done for there to be any chance of us being competitive. Full update coming shortly.

Edited September 16, 2020 by Dong21

[warlock]

28 minutes ago, Dong21 said:

I have decided to dust off my Bolton save

Good man! Will look forward to seeing the Trotters back in the top flight 

[Dong21]

Bolton Wanderers - Season 6 - Premier League Preview

With what is sure to be a very tough season competing against Premier League giants who seem to spend on average £40m per signing and with squads bristling with highly rated wonderkids, I set to work building a team I hoped would be able to avoid relegation back down to the Championship. With a modest budget of £31m and no players that I could sell to raise funds (last season's key men were all loanees), free agents and bargains were my transfer strategy.

With the transfer window now closed on the eve of the league season, here is how my squad looks:

Goalkeepers

We conceded fewer goals than any other side when winning the Championship, so Pontus Dahlberg will feel hard done by to have been replaced, however I had to put sentiment to one side and strengthen the squad wherever possible. Luis Maximiano joined from Sporting Lisbon, where he had been their first choice 'keeper for the past three seasons, for £3m. Previous back-up Remi Matthews was loaned out to Stockport County and Aussie prospect Ryan Ryan was loaned to Blackburn.

Defenders

Last season's first choice right back was Ethan Laird, who returned to Man Utd after his loan. I have decided to give his understudy Donnelly the opportunity to start the season as first choice. This is probably the biggest risk I am taking as he still needs a lot of development technically. I have added Premier League experience with the free transfer signing of Matt Doherty, who may well be called upon against tougher opposition.

Club captain Lenihan had been partnered at centre back last season by 21 year old Shaquille Browne. Although the youngster performed admirably, his technical ability still didn't match up to his impressive physical stats. I opted to loan Browne back to the Championship and bring in some quality in this position. Experienced Serbian defender Nikola Maras joined from Red Star for £2.4m and the younger Oumar Solet arrived from Lyon for £2.5m. 

At left back I had been tempted to give Boon the opportunity, having been with me since League One and not letting me down yet. The coaching staff advised that my other left back, the Brazilian Marlon, would not get a work permit for his next contract, so I sold him to Santos for £2.8m. This meant I did need to recruit in this area, so I returned to Red Star and new recruit Mihailo Ristic is a big upgrade on Boon. He signed for £3.1m and will also add experience to an area of the pitch that certainly needs it in the Premier League.

Midfielders

As previously mentioned, I was delighted to be able to secure James Garner on loan at no cost for the sixth successive season. He has been key to my success throughout my tenure and provides consistency in the middle of the park. Conor Gallagher was transfer listed so I met his asking price of £7.75m. I hoped he'd join us after being part of our promotion campaign whilst on loan. Unfortunately he chose to join Watford instead, so I looked to other options.

I was surprised to find that former Bayern Munich playmaker Thiago was interested in joining us on a free transfer. All though he has waned physically his technical and mental stats remain first class. In pre-season the quality of his set pieces were apparent too, which may prove useful in our league campaign. He may not be first choice however, as on deadline day I was able to bring in Tommy Doyle on loan from Man City and my coaches now rate him the best player at the club.

I want to be able to play two different ways this season; 4-1-2-2-1 (wide) against bigger sides and 4-2-3-1 against sides I think we might be able to beat. Garner has successfully played in the deep role of the 4-1-2-2-1 (wide) for me before, but I wanted to recruit and out-and-out defensive midfielder. I settled upon Kamal Bafounta, who cost me £3.3m from Wolfsburg.

Attacking Midfielders

We hadn't played 4-2-3-1 before, so I was starting from scratch when building my CAM options. I managed to find two quality players who were available on a free. Hannes Wolf was previously at RB Liepzig and Ivan Martin was at Villareal. Martin is a CAM, whereas Wolf is more of a shadow striker. It may be too ambitious to try and play an attacking system in the Premier League at this stage of our development, but I want to give myself the option. Inevitably one of these players will end up unhappy as I can't play everyone, I will deal with that when it happens.

I also signed a third attacking mid, Aaron Ramsey, who came on a free but cost £1.2m in tribunal. I wanted to loan him out to develop but there were no takers. He will hopefully go out on loan in January.

Wingers

The wings was another area I knew I needed to improve in, so there was a lot of activity here. Andre Schurrle was sold to Goztepe for £3.1m and Carlo Holse was loaned to AA Gent. Former Saint Etienne man Arnaud Nordin joined after a period on trial and young prospect Petr Brezina signed for just £800k from Sparta Prague. Sparta are a team I often enjoy signing regens from. The biggest outlay of the transfer window was £4.3m on Jarrod Bowen, and I am hoping his quality can really add value to our squad. Finally, Danny Loader feels like a new signing after I recruited him from Reading in January but allowed him to remain on loan for the remainder of the season.

Strikers

Replacing Hirst was always going to be an unenviable task. That said, I have a lot of hope pinned on my new striking signing Jay Wearing. Signed on a free from Wolves, with only a £1.3m tribunal fee to pay, the England under-20 forward has bags of ability and potential. The other recruit in this area was young Portuguese striker Fabio Modesto, who is more one for the future. Tedic had a great season alongside Hirst last time around, so I will be hoping he can continue that. As I will likely only play one up top for the season, and the likes of Loader and Bowen can play here if needs must, I decided to loan out Brown and Bereton to give them more experience.

Tough Start

The fixture list hasn't been kind to us, with Spurs, Chelsea, Bournemouth (top 8 finish in last 4 seasons) and Man City in first five games. I have really enjoyed building this squad but a run of defeats could quickly sap the fun out of this save! I'm sure I'll keep persevering, whatever happens. Wish me luck!

Edited September 16, 2020 by Dong21

[warlock]

4 minutes ago, Dong21 said:

Wish me luck!

Wish you luck . Looks a decent squad, given the financial constraints but that's a tough welcome to the PL.

[Jogo Bonito]

16 hours ago, warlock said:

Is there anything in the world more boring than a Leasing.com Trophy penalty shootout?

That's a rhetorical question... the answer, obviously, is No!! 24 penalties to decide a game that nobody cared about .

Most pointless question ever there! That's one thing I really haven't missed in my eight seasons away from the EFL 

6 hours ago, Dong21 said:

After not looking at it since late May, I have decided to dust off my Bolton save and pick up where I left off. It actually took me a little while to familiarise myself with where I was up to after four months away. I knew we had just secured promotion to the Premier League and had a summer of squad rebuilding ahead, but not much more than that! I have taken some time to look at my squad in depth and reading my previous updates in this thread actually came in very handy (my detailed updates have finally paid off!). The memories of this save to date have all come flooding back.

I have now completed the 2024 pre-season and have made a large number of signings to rebuild the squad. The squad was not particularly strong by Championship standards and we were reliant on a large number of loanees, none more so than Tottenham wonderkid striker Jimmy Hirst who had bagged 26 league goals for us, so a lot of work was needed to be done for there to be any chance of us being competitive. Full update coming shortly.

Welcome back, and that's a great squad review. Perhaps a few too many players to keep happy but you look to have a reasonable amount of quality for the challenge ahead! Best of luck for the new season 

[Dong21]

3 hours ago, warlock said:

Wish you luck . Looks a decent squad, given the financial constraints but that's a tough welcome to the PL.

Thanks @warlock, going to need it!

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Perhaps a few too many players to keep happy but you look to have a reasonable amount of quality for the challenge ahead!

Thanks @Jogo Bonito. Totally agree, I definitely have too many players. As I’m still not certain of my tactical approach I thought I’d give myself options and then trim the squad down in January. 

[Ewan0404]

Bolton 2020 Summer Transfers

With an unexpected promotion and a lot of player contracts not being renewed it was going to be a long summer of recruitment, so let's start with the outs:

All of the above players were either sold to raise some necessary funds or they were just seen as surplus to requirements.

And now to the ins, most of which I am very excited about:

Ralston has been brought in to rotate with Emmanuel in the right back slot for the season ahead.

Federici is an experienced back up and nothing more, he is on low wages so its not a big financial drain to us.

Garbutt I feel is a real coup and will be our first choice left back and could even do a job on the left side of midfield if he were needed there.

Hornby and Gilmour have been brought in to add some depth to the overall squad.

Not on the above list as the deal was done at the end of last season was the extension of Curtis Jones on another 12 month loan deal.

Season so Far

We were expected to finish 23rd so what we have done so far in the league blows my mind:

This is the table as of the 4th January. We were 2nd for a number of weeks but we have started to slide down the table as I expected us to do. The aim is still just to stay clear of the bottom three.

[warlock]

28 minutes ago, Ewan0404 said:

The aim is still just to stay clear of the bottom three.

Lacks ambition 

It's good to have realistic goals, but I think you could aim for a comfortable mid-table finish from there. But well done so far, and good luck with the rest of the season!

[Ewan0404]

8 hours ago, warlock said:

Lacks ambition 

It's good to have realistic goals, but I think you could aim for a comfortable mid-table finish from there. But well done so far, and good luck with the rest of the season!

Haha I am a pessimist being a Scotland and Everton fan.

[smplfc123]

52 minutes ago, Ewan0404 said:

Haha I am a pessimist being a Scotland and Everton fan.

Ouch, that is a double whammy 

[nextqprmanager]

Dong21 - good luck there, you are building really well with more realistic transfers, some very good.

Ewan0404 - you`re doing great, maybe go up to Prem?.

I survived in 1st Prem in 15th [ 17th position with 2 Matches to go! ]. Top 6 now in 2nd Prem Season. I`ve still got Gilmour. I`ve got 4 LB`s incl. Armini who is a better CB ( injured again ) but the other 3 are not taking their chance!.

[warlock]

Darlington, February 2024

With the January window just closed, here's how we got on through the winter...

Results in October were very good, with draws against two of the divisions better sides costing us points. November started in similar fashion before we finally managed to exit the Leasing.com Trophy after that 24-shot penalty borefest mentioned above. In December we managed to avoid an embarrassing defeat against L1 opposition in the FA Cup - Bristol Rovers jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before we pulled one back before halftime. Unfortunately, they added to their tally soon after the break and Joe Hardy's injury time goal was our only consolation. Later in the month I was expecting hard games against Plymouth and Notts County but we managed to win both; the home match against a struggling Morecambe should have been a 3-point banker but we gave up an early goal and couldn't break them down.

The big news in December was the weather, and we had a succession of home games postponed because of a waterlogged pitch at Blackwell Meadows. It made for a punishing schedule in January but we came through with flying colours - only the home defeat to lowly Bradford City spoiling a perfect run.

Which means we go into the closing stages of the season in good form and well-placed:

Joint top with Scunthorpe having the slightest mathematical advantage. It's been a remarkable season of overachievement so far, and we're doing it with the smallest wage bill in the league. There are areas of concern - we're struggling in the wide areas as my attempts to improve the FB positions have met with mixed success, and our wingers - who had been standout performers last season - have been horribly inconsistent. We've been heavily reliant on 1-0 victories, which is hard on my nerves. The bright spots include the performance of Joe Hardy up front, who has 18 goals and 7 assists having played almost every game so far. Ogunseri has also done well with 10 goals and 8 assists. We're 5th in the league for goals scored, and have the meanest defence with just 21 conceded in 29 matches.

Takeover rumours continue and will likely happen at some point as the chairman is actively looking to sell. It's unlikely to be a tycoon deal but if it clears the club debts that would be a bonus.

Edited September 17, 2020 by warlock

[Jogo Bonito]

3 hours ago, warlock said:

Darlington, February 2024

 Joint top with Scunthorpe having the slightest mathematical advantage. It's been a remarkable season of overachievement so far, and we're doing it with the smallest wage bill in the league. There are areas of concern - we're struggling in the wide areas as my attempts to improve the FB positions have met with mixed success, and our wingers - who had been standout performers last season - have been horribly inconsistent. We've been heavily reliant on 1-0 victories, which is hard on my nerves. The bright spots include the performance of Joe Hardy up front, who has 18 goals and 7 assists having played almost every game so far. Ogunseri has also done well with 10 goals and 8 assists. We're 5th in the league for goals scored, and have the meanest defence with just 21 conceded in 29 matches.

Takeover rumours continue and will likely happen at some point as the chairman is actively looking to sell. It's unlikely to be a tycoon deal but if it clears the club debts that would be a bonus.

Great form, very consistent defensively and looking a good bet to achieve another promotion. Your opponents might not be exactly quaking in their boots when fixtures against you come around, but definitely they'll be fearful of being overturned by a well-drilled unit.

[warlock]

28 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Your opponents might not be exactly quaking in their boots

Yeah - we're not exactly tearing teams apart but we're difficult to beat and always capable of nicking a goal ourselves. Long may it continue 

[karanhsingh]

On 16/09/2020 at 21:42, Dong21 said:

Bolton Wanderers - Season 6 - Premier League Preview

Your squad looks in good shape and I like the new-gens. Surprised to see how much Thiago's physicals have waned, I do think that FM overdoes it in this regard.

On 17/09/2020 at 04:58, Ewan0404 said:

Season so Far

We were expected to finish 23rd so what we have done so far in the league blows my mind:

Good job, looking good for play-offs definitely.

17 hours ago, warlock said:

Darlington, February 2024

With the January window just closed, here's how we got on through the winter...

Excellent progress, keep it going! Consecutive promotions may just be on  

[warlock]

5 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Consecutive promotions may just be on

[karanhsingh]

6 minutes ago, warlock said:

Wow. Well done!! 

[warlock]

53 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

Wow. Well done!! 

Cheers, mate! Secured automatic promotion with two games to go, with the title still to play for. I'll get a full update up later.