FM20: The English Football League thread

[Ronaldo Beckham]

MK Dons Season 3 Review

So as I said earlier I got to the play offs losing to West Brom 4-3 on Aggregate but I am very happy with how my team performed.

We ended up 5th in the league which is amazing and something to aim for next season is go up without the dreaded play offs to worry about lol.

Key Players

Ivan Kisekka

Big Ivan stepped up again getting 17 goals in the Championship. He stepped up but I do think at 19 years old he has potential to do better and get more goals. He is doing well for Sweden Under 21's as well with 6 appearances for them and 5 goals.

]

Jordan Houghton

Another player who has took well to stepping up to the Championship is Jordan Houghton who is now valued at £7.5m. I might make some good money off him if a good offer comes in. He got 12 goals and 7 assists he was probably overall my best player of the season.

David Kasumu

My enforcer in midfield had another great season and just had a calming influence on the team. 4 goals and 4 assists. He is now valued at £7.5m so he might go to a bigger club as well.

Scott Fraser

Scott "The Scott" Fraser was really good again with 9 goals and 9 assists. He played more this season and stepped up big time.  I demand he gets called up to the Scotland team soon especially as he is 27 years old and coming into his best years.

Lee Buchanan

Lee is one of the players that come through my first season youth intake and he is slowly making the left wing position his when Fraser plays in the centre. 19 years old and has plently of potential. I am really excited about this kid.

Hiram Boateng

Hiram was overshadowed by some of the other players but he continued to be a key player with 7 goals and 6 assists. I would have no issue if the club sold him this summer as his value is high at the moment with him being valued at £8.75m. I need to think about the clubs finances in the long term but I wont be gutted if he stays for another season or 2.

Honourable Mentions

Cedric Samba - A centreal defender who come through my first youth intake. He has played really well when called upon.

Regan Poole - Solid at the back again either in the centre of it or as right back. He even got his first Welsh cap.

My aim next year is to get into the play offs or automatic promotion.

 

 

[warlock]

Nottingham Forest, May 2021

At the end of February we were sitting pretty in the top half of the PL, and putting together some impressive performances. So how did the rest of our season go? Awful, actually 

Once relegation was off the table it was as if the players simply called it a day. Even our best performers in the first half of the season, like Badiashile, Holse and Tiago Silva, were phoning it in. Only CB Lukas Mai and DLP James Garner continued to perform at a high level. I'd give a nod to striker Eric Botheim, too - even though his scoring rate never improved he kept battling away and did everything except score.

That run of form cost us several places in the league table and we finished in 12th - an excellent performance by any measure but a bit of a disappointment given our earlier standing. As my chairman was quick to point out:

(And we were never within sniffing distance of the Champions League, you delusional muppet ).

I don't know yet what the board will give me for transfers, but we have significantly improved our financial status with £40m in the bank - we were firmly in the red 12 months ago. In any case, we need improvement across the board, either for first-choice players or better squad depth, so we'll take what we're given and improve where we can. I'm seriously thinking about a move to 442 - I have a hunch that a strike partner might get more out of Botheim. Right now my main concern is whether we can renew the loan of Garner - my coaches reckon it will cost around £50m to sign him permanently (which is out of the question) but Solskjaer has been turning up constantly in the last couple of months "to keep an eye on him" so my star player might find a regular role back at Old Trafford, which would be a huge blow.

So... reasons to be cheerful, a few clouds on the horizon. In the words of the philosopher Doris Day: que sera, sera 

[karanhsingh]

@Ronaldo Beckham - still a fantastic season, no shame in the play-off defeat. I am impressed by how you are developing the academy boys. Keep it up.

@warlock - I had something similar happen to me in my 1860 Munchen save, we were comfortably top half and once confirmed safe the team just stopped performing. I suppose it can happen IRL too - just focus on the positives and continue to improve the squad. In the Premier League if you aren't moving forwards, it means you're moving backwards.

[warlock]

55 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

I had something similar happen to me

Yeah, I've seen it before when there's nothing to play for. At least I did better than Sr Mourinho at Tottenham (who was sacked for his pains) .

[karanhsingh]

Just now, warlock said:

Yeah, I've seen it before when there's nothing to play for. At least I did better than Sr Mourinho at Tottenham (who was sacked for his pains) .

Don't remind me of Mourinho or Spurs right now 

[warlock]

Just now, karanhsingh said:

Don't remind me of Mourinho or Spurs right now 

Sorry! Seems like only last week we were saying how much of a shambles United are at the moment. Oh, it was only last week 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

@Ronaldo Beckham - still a fantastic season, no shame in the play-off defeat. I am impressed by how you are developing the academy boys. Keep it up.

@warlock - I had something similar happen to me in my 1860 Munchen save, we were comfortably top half and once confirmed safe the team just stopped performing. I suppose it can happen IRL too - just focus on the positives and continue to improve the squad. In the Premier League if you aren't moving forwards, it means you're moving backwards.

Cheers mate. My aim is to win the Prem with a team of just Academy players.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Bye Bye Big Ivan

So basically my best player and the one I didn't want to sell had an awesome offer come in for him from Sheff Utd and I couldn't turn it down as MK Dons finances aren't very good.

I will miss him.

£7.5M up front. £1.5m in add ons and a 25% future fee clause so if he gets a big move then I will get some good money off him.

I need money to invest in facilities so I can start producing better newgens.

There is a method to my madness.

Ivan Kisekka scored 41 goals in 111 appearances. I hope he ends up playing for Sweden.

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Dong21]

Bolton Wanderers - Season 6 - Part 2

I ended my last update, after 10 games in the Premier League, sitting in 12th place with things looking promising for our debut campaign back in the top flight. It is fair to say things took a turn for the worse in the months of November and December with the harsh realities of the Premier League proving apparent. After a win away at Leicester, we had two narrow defeats against West Ham and West Brom.

We began December with two results I was proud of; we scored three goals and drew with Everton and then pulled off a big defensive effort to draw with United. I was disappointed to lose to Southampton and Norwich, sides that we are looking to compete with, but there was at least a win against Brighton in between. We finished the year with two predictable defeats against Arsenal and Liverpool - I was just pleased not to be thrashed against Liverpool again! - but things weren't looking great.

In November I spotted that to my surprise Hannibal Mejbri was plying his trade in the MLS. After a few loan spells away from Old Trafford, United had released him and he had joined Seattle on a free a season earlier. I have managed him on my United save and he is quite the prospect so he immediately became my number one transfer target. I scraped every last remaining penny in my transfer budget together and met their fee of £7.75m, meaning he arrived on January 1st. Up until this point I have been predominantly playing 4-4-2 but I knew I wanted to build my team around Mejbri if possible and therefore switched to a 4-2-3-1, playing him as a trequartista.

Our form was slipping and I was worried we would soon be in a relegation battle. I hoped the new signing and tactical switch would give us a new lease of life - and that seems to have been the case so far.

We lost the first two games of the month, but the performances were vastly improved. We created far more chances in both of the games, which gave me a lot of hope. Against Burnley we played a much changed side as the first team was exhausted from the Christmas period. Mejbri played particularly well against Birmingham, making three key passes and having a goal disallowed that would have drew the game. We threw away a 2-0 lead against Wolves which was frustrating, but again we played really well and were creating more chances with Mejbri unlocking the potential of my wingers by serving them up opportunities. We beat bottom of the table Villa in a must-win game, but it was the final game of the month that really got me celebrating. In the biggest win of my managerial tenure we beat Arsenal 4-1. After going 1-0 down we pulled off a late, great comeback that will go down in the Bolton history books. As you can likely tell from the tone of this paragraph, I go into the remainder of the season with renewed optimism that we can avoid a relegation dogfight.

Since it's Transfer Deadline Day, I'll end with a brief transfer window wrap up. Mejbri was looking to be my only piece of business, but as the month rumbled on some players started to complain at their lack of game time so I decided to move some on. Thiago arrived as a statement signing, but the reality was that his legs weren't what they were and Doyle and Garner were two of my better players, so I cut my losses and sold the soon-to-be 34 year old to Lecce for £1.5m. Ezri Konsa also left for the same price, joining Crystal Palace in the Championship. I couldn't find a buyer for Doyle-Hayes, so he joined Portsmouth on loan. Finally Conrad Wallem, who played a role in our promotion, had spent most of the season injured so I loaned him to League One leaders Blackburn to get some playing time.

To provide some cover, on the last day of the window I signed young regen centre-back Cyril Charrier from Lyon and to replace the two departed centre-mids I brought Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain back to the UK on loan from Fiorentina.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Dong21

[warlock]

15 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I will miss him.

Sometimes you just have to let them go 

10 minutes ago, Dong21 said:

I go into the remainder of the season with renewed optimism

Grounds for optimism - if you can reproduce the spirit of that Arsenal victory you should be fine. Gotta love it when a favoured player comes in and gets it done 

[Dong21]

@warlock You've set the bar high with your 12th placed finish, first season in the Prem! I'll be happy just to not be in the relegation conversation

Edited October 5, 2020 by Dong21

[warlock]

3 minutes ago, Dong21 said:

You've set the bar high with your 12th placed finish

To be fair, I'd think Forest were a better bet than Bolton . You've worked wonders mate, don't over-think it... steady as she goes 

[Jogo Bonito]

Excellent job @warlock and @Dong21 and you are both proving much more durable with your PL efforts than I could ever be! Unlucky @Ronaldo Beckham but a very fine season in any case.

[warlock]

2 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Excellent job @warlock and @Dong21 and you are both proving much more durable with your PL efforts than I could ever be!

As mentioned, I had to have a severe spine-stiffening session before continuing. But in the end I found I enjoyed it a lot . Just finished the summer window in season 3 - update coming soon-ish.

[smplfc123]

Yes well done @warlock and @Dong21 on your PL adventures. Interested to see what transfers are made.

I'm nearing the end of my season with Stoke, so am update will be following soon!

[warlock]

1 minute ago, smplfc123 said:

Interested to see what transfers are made.

Spoiler: Man United agreed to renew the loan of Garner again - for me, that's the biggest possible signing 

3 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

I'm nearing the end of my season with Stoke, so am update will be following soon!

Looking forward to it!

[smplfc123]

2020 END OF SEASON UPDATE  - STOKE CITY

Since accepting the job of keeping Stoke in The Championship in November 2019, it's been a crazy 6 months.

Here's the results since Feb and the final table:

Winning 9, drawing 5 and losing just 3 of our final 17 games saw us rise all the way up the table to 12th spot. I really couldn't have been happier. We picked up some excellent results, including a win away at Leeds.

McClean, Chester, Allen and Edwards all finished with average ratings over 7. 

This summer is going to be so fun. We've already been under one transfer embargo, but the consortium's bid fell through. Coates has had to inject £13m just to get us out of debt and with high earners due to return, we're going to need a bit of a clear out.

The aim for next season is top half and to improve on our points total, with young hungry players bringing an exciting brand of football to the BET365 stadium. Oakley-Boothe, Edwards, Verlinden, Tymon and Campbell are all tied down to lengthy contracts, so will use them as a base, keeping some experienced players who aren't on too high a wage.

After taking over in the relegation zone and finishing in closer reach of the play-offs than the bottom 3, I couldn't be happier with my first season. Really looking forward to this summer! 

[smplfc123]

Literally my next messages after that update:

Still not much in the budget, but the finances are much healthier, with all debts wiped. My position has just dropped to being 'Stable' but it could have been worse. Glad this was done early and didn't drag on all summer.

[warlock]

Nottingham Forest, September 2021

Transfers

I said I had mixed feelings about Matty Cash - he looked like a decent prospect on the right but after two seasons of being re-purposed as an RB he was neither fish nor fowl, unconvincing in any role or duty. When Southampton came in with an offer of £25m-plus it was easy to say yes. At CB Toby Figueirdo was one of my favourite players at Forest, but after we won promotion he rarely delivered and constantly moaned about playing time. When it became obvious that I couldn't talk him round he was transfer-listed, and an offer of £10.75m from Levante was readily accepted. His partner in central defence, Joe Worrall, was a more difficult decision. I had made him club captain and thought he had a bright future, but he couldn't make the step up to the PL and wouldn't accept a reduced squad status. He was transfer-listed and eventually I accepted a pitiful offer of £3m from a relegated Fulham.

On the other side of the ledger, the board had given me about £40m in the transfer budget and between those departures and a few loan fees for various squad players, we ended up with an additional £37m. So I threw caution to the wind and spent... oh, about £39m . But because of my judicious - not to say frugal - spending, we brought in 9 new players.

I said I was considering a move from 433 to 442 and eventually made that decision. Which, when it became obvious that Lewis Grabban was at the end of his career, meant we needed a bunch of strikers. In my wildest dreams I had visions of an Eddie Salcedo/Sebastiano Esposito strike partnership... but managed only 50% of that. Salcedo was bagged for a £4m fee (bargain!!) but Esposito was attracting bids in excess of £30m and my inner Scrooge McDuck wouldn't countenance such a price. Instead I shamelessly stole from @karanhsingh's Villa save and signed up Huddersfield's Karlan Grant for £11m. Forest's fans immediately gave that transfer an A-rating. Now, in all my saves since that became a thing, even at Manchester United when I signied Haaland, I've never had a transfer rated better than a B-minus, so that's obviously the signing of the century .

To conclude the signings up front I wanted another rotation option and spotted Vitesse's Thomas Buitink available at what looked like a bargain price, so he joined for £6m.

Regardless of the outgoing moves, I had identified one of our critical problems as the fullbacks. Back in January I had pounced on Real San Sebastian's Andoni Gorosabel as a bit of a bargain and he was signed for free at the end of his contract at RB. On  the other side, my scouts flagged Feyenoord's Tyrell Malacia as a strong LB so he was signed for £6.75m. And then when Cash was moved on, I needed rotation/cover at RB and, again, my scouts spotlighted Romanian international Cristian Manea at the attractive price of £2.7m. 

I then turned my attention to the wide midfield roles in the 442. We were pretty well covered on the left, but only had last season's signing of Carlo Holse on the right. Scouring my scout reports I spotted last year's wonderkid Xadas languishing in the Braga reserves, so he was snapped up for just £725k.

Finally, it was time to address the issues at CB. With Figueirido and Worrall gone we need two signings and I'd had a likely candidate on my shortlist for more than a year: Atletico Madrid's Javier Montero. His £8m fee looked like a bargain so the deal was done. At which point I realised I had screwed up massively by not paying close attention to the new work permit rules under the Brexit agreement. On the face of it, any player earning more than £8k a week qualified, but... Only players who were HGN before the age of 21 didn't need to be registered, and we had almost none of those. At the same time, we needed 8 HNG players over the age of 23, and we had even fewer of those. The end result was that the only CB I could sign had to be HGN and under 23. Oops!

And when I conducted a scouting search on that basis I learned that everyone else in England had figured things out before me: home-grown defenders were like gold nuggets. The only prospect was Middlesboro's Dael Fry and a transfer was agreed. Then his agent stepped up. Then his agent was told to eff off. So we started the season with just three CBs and I thought I might get away with it until my leading CB Badiashile was hit with a 4-week injury. Happily, I spotted Watford's Ben Wilmot on the loan list, and he matched all of the necessary criteria so he was signed on a season-long loan. Job done.

Early form

I went into the new season brimming with confidence. We had a shiny new tactic, a refreshed and revitalised squad, and we were coming off the back of a string of pre-season friendlies that suggested everything was just tickety-boo. So when we struggled to a home draw against Aston Villa I was somewhat taken aback. And when we got thoroughly rinsed at Everton I began to question the natural laws of the universe. I was grateful, then, when we picked up a convincing win against Brighton and came away from Villa with a Carabao Cup victory. And all seemed well with the world when we went to Old Trafford and emerged with a point. Yes, they dominated the game and, okay, we looked like sheep before wolves for most of it, but the history books will only show that we matched them on the day.

Hooray for us 

[karanhsingh]

Nice updates guys. 

@smplfc123 that's a strong end to the season with Stoke. And the takeover sounds like good news, even if they didn't hand you a massive budget. Should be able to push on next season.

@warlock I hope Karlan does well for you! I have never bothered to check transfer ratings by the fans LOL - will keep an eye out now. Some good results to round off the month there.

[smplfc123]

Great update @warlock and well done on achieving the A transfer rating!

Some interesting signings there and I'm sure that form will now pick up and kick on as your new players begin to gel more.

Thanks @karanhsingh no it's not massive, but honestly if you've seen my previous dealings, I very rarely spend much money on fees and wages as I seem to have a disease called tightarseious  Although I really don't have much choice, not only have the new board only given me £2m to work with, but they are also only allowing me to receive 5% of transfer revenue, which is a shame as I've got some decent fees lined up for outgoing players.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Where part of the forums do I complain about the new forum layout ?

[karanhsingh]

Just now, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Where part of the forums do I complain about the new forum layout ?

 I don't mind it. Will grow on you.

[karanhsingh]

1 minute ago, smplfc123 said:

Thanks @karanhsingh no it's not massive, but honestly if you've seen my previous dealings, I very rarely spend much money on fees and wages as I seem to have a disease called tightarseious  Although I really don't have much choice, not only have the new board only given me £2m to work with, but they are also only allowing me to receive 5% of transfer revenue, which is a shame as I've got some decent fees lined up for outgoing players.

5% is criminal! You should definitely be knocking on their door.

I am the same usually, which is why spending all that money on Havertz & Werner at Villa was making me feel just weird

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Just now, karanhsingh said:

 I don't mind it. Will grow on you.

It wont cos this other forum I go on done the same thing and it does my head in. I aint the best sighted as it is and now it looks squished lol.

I would just like there to be an option to change it back but I can't see it anywhere.

[smplfc123]

8 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

5% is criminal! You should definitely be knocking on their door.

I am the same usually, which is why spending all that money on Havertz & Werner at Villa was making me feel just weird

I did knock on their door, they didn't even flinch and with them already moving my job security from secure to stable upon their arrival, I thought it best not to get in to an argument with them in just our fist meeting. 

Yeah I hate spending big money for some reason, but it's safe to say that won't be changing this summer.

[warlock]

40 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I aint the best sighted as it is and now it looks squished lol.

At least in Chrome (and I believe in other browsers) you can increase the text size using ctrl and the '+' key, or by holding down ctrl and using the scroll wheel on your mouse. Doesn't do anything about the wasted white space on the right, though.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Just now, warlock said:

At least in Chrome (and I believe in other browsers) you can increase the text size using ctrl and the '+' key, or by holding down ctrl and using the scroll wheel on your mouse. Doesn't do anything about the wasted white space on the right, though.

Yeah just annoying. I don't understand why they changed it.

[Dong21]

@smplfc123 Great season there, especially considering where you started with them! One of my favourite parts of the game is clearing out a squad you’ve taken over at the end of the season and rebuilding it as you see fit. I’m sure you’ll be able to more effectively spend the wage budget than Stoke are currently doing! 
 

@warlock Great update, I always like to read the thought process behind signings and squad building. Looks like you’re set up well to build on last season. Who would have thought you’d be sticking it out and enjoying the Premier League ay   

[warlock]

6 minutes ago, Dong21 said:

Who would have thought you’d be sticking it out and enjoying the Premier League

Well... I've always enjoyed the PL and have normally done a variety of saves with "lesser" clubs like Southampton, Newcastle and Norwich (as well as United, obvs). What I don't like is the recent regen creations, who all look like extras from a bad biker movie, so my interest flags when I get three or four years into a save and I'm seeing 17-year-olds with completely bald heads and bad 70s porn moustaches. But I've had to steel myself for this Forest save, and my five-year spell with Darlington (which I think stands as my longest ever FM save).

I recognise that SI have improved the face generation in recent years, but there's still room for improvement. Much, much improvement 

[warlock]

On the subject of regens, here's a couple of my brightest prospects - I've already turned down £2m-plus offers for both of them.

First my implausibly Irish GK, Abdelmalek Tiemcani:

And CM Mat Hamnett who is almost good enough to make the first team:

Edited October 6, 2020 by warlock
Hm... I see the forum upgrade has broken picture posting.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

MK Dons Season 4 Youth Intake

First of all I don't know how to put this in the middle of the page anymore. Sorry guys.

Anyway my Youth intake for this year is a little bit better then last season with DM/AMC coming through in Tom Campbell.

 

Tom Campbell

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I have managed to get MK Dons into the Championship Play Offs again. Lets see if I can break the curse this time.

Annoyingly I have been drawn against Aston Villa in the Play Off Semis. Wish me luck as I will need it.

They still have Ollie Watkins, McGinn, Betrand Traore, Douglas Luiz and Tyrone Mings so they have a strong team. No Grealish though so at least there is that.

It will be tough.

[Jogo Bonito]

5 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I have managed to get MK Dons into the Championship Play Offs again. Lets see if I can break the curse this time.

Annoyingly I have been drawn against Aston Villa in the Play Off Semis. Wish me luck as I will need it.

They still have Ollie Watkins, McGinn, Betrand Traore, Douglas Luiz and Tyrone Mings so they have a strong team. No Grealish though so at least there is that.

It will be tough.

Good luck, it will be tough.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 minute ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Good luck, it will be tough.

It certainly will.

First leg at my ground ended 0-0 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I stuffed Villa 4-1 in the away leg. That is how you do it guys.

I got Middlesbrough in the Play Off Final. Will the curse finally be over lol.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Absoulutely wounded right now. Another Play Off loss. This time in the final against Middlesbrough.

I lost 1-0 in Extra time. 

I will go again tomorrow and hope for Automatic Promotion this time.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

15 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Absoulutely wounded right now. Another Play Off loss. This time in the final against Middlesbrough.

I lost 1-0 in Extra time. 

I will go again tomorrow and hope for Automatic Promotion this time.

Very unlucky there, definitely time to log off and then have another crack tomorrow 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

MK Dons Season 4 Review

So as you know from my previous post another Play Off loss. I swear I am cursed lol.

The lads done well again. Considering they are mostly young players come through the system and constantly getting into the play offs the players should be very proud.

Key Players

Sam Nombe

Once Kisekka left Nombe stepped up and was my main man up front. He done really well and actually scored more goals then Kisekka as he scored 25 goals this season where as Kiesekka's best season he got 15 goals. 

Talking of Kisekka he is doing well for Sheff Utd since he left us and has got 9 goals in 15 games for them.

Hiram Boateng

Boateng continues to be a consistent key performer for me. He got 8 goals and 12 assists. He links up well with Nombe as he assisted a fair few of Nombe's goals.

Scott Fraser

Scott Fraser has another awesome season for us with 8 goals and 12 assists. Another player who links up well with Nombe.

Lee Buchanan

Lee took the left wing position full time from Scott Fraser and has really performed well with 11 goals and 9 assists.

Robert Jakobsen

Jakobsen the Faroe Islands striker done very well up front when Nombe wasn't playing. He got 11 goals in 16 games and 13 sub appearances. I think he will have a bigger role in the team next season.

Anyway time to go to bed and cry into my pillow lol.

Tomorrow is another day.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

On the bright side the board is backing me and my finances are good after the sale of Kisekka and the high league position pay out.

The board has agreed to upgrade the training and youth facilities. At the moment both facilities are Average and I want them as high as possible to produce better newgens.

They also agreed to improve Junior Coaching to Good and they also agreed to improve the Youth Recruitment to Exceptional.

[warlock]

32 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Absoulutely wounded right now

Yeah, the game is cruel - and painful - sometimes. Good luck with your next attempt 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

8 minutes ago, warlock said:

Yeah, the game is cruel - and painful - sometimes. Good luck with your next attempt 

Thanks I will get promoted one day I am determined to lol.

[karanhsingh]

That's a great season, even if you got unlucky as the final hurdle. Good to see the improvements across the board in the facilities. 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

4 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

That's a great season, even if you got unlucky as the final hurdle. Good to see the improvements across the board in the facilities. 

Cheers mate. I will get there eventually.

[craiigman]

Started my Blackburn save, and have got off to a flying start, so worried it's going to end in tears.

Only made 2 permanent signings and one out. Really not sure what anyone saw in Rothwell for him to get such a high fee. He's rapid, but no end product at all. Took the money and ran with it. I signed Cisse hoping to get rid of a couple of the other midfielders, but they didn't want to leave so I do have 4 BWM's competing for 1 spot, oops.

Armstrong has started the season on fire 8 goals in the league so far. I dropped out of the cup, I played a weakened team. Board not too happy, but less games the better.

Dack is an interesting one, seems plagued by this years AMC slot troubles. Thing is he is always in the right place and plays amazing passes, just the striker/winger doesn't score.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Sam Nombe becomes the clubs record goalscorer beating Izale McLeod. Sam Nombe scored 63 goals. I am hoping to get a player to score at least 100 goals for the club before I finish up with this save.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

The Return Of King Kisekka

[smplfc123]

SUMMER 2020 UPDATE - STOKE CITY

When I took the job last November, the aim was to fight to stay up and then look at stripping the squad and completely rebuilding. This turned out to be the complete opposite as to what would actually happen. Having stormed our way up the table, finishing in the top half, it changed my mind on how many changes were really needed. Would I be undoing all the hard work by gutting the squad that had just finished the season so strong?

I decided to stick mainly with the squad that had done so well, with players keeping their place in the squad that I had originally earmarked to have no future at the club. The likes of McClean, Powell, Clucas, Cousins, Batth and Ward all earning themselves a place in this seasons squad.

There were some that still needed to be sold in order to help the new owners consolidate the financial side of the club and as such, the following were let go:

Peter Etebo - £9.75m - Stuttgart - Returning from his loan with Getafe, there was no spot in the squad for the 24 year old, so cashing in on him was a no brainer.

Kevin Wimmer - £9m - Bristol City - Being a left-footed CB, he wasn't going to be first choice ahead of Martins-Indi and he was too expensive to keep as back up, so was sold for a good fee to newly promoted Bristol City.

Moritz Bauer - £5.5m - Southampton - Another player returning from loan, Celtic agreed to pay the previously arranged optional fee, however the takeover happened during negotiations, putting an end to all active transfers at the time. This left the door open for Southampton to sneak in as soon as our new owners were in place. With Smith and Edwards doing well, there was no place for the Austrian in my squad. 

Ryan Woods - £3.5m - Huddersfield - Brought back from loan in January, the midfielder was solid in covering the DLP for Allen, but I had targets lined up for that role, so decided to cash in on him.

Lee Gregory - £900k - Swansea - With me only using 1 striker and already having 3 solid options in the squad, I felt it best to let Gregory go. Another decent chunk off the wage.

Ryan Shawcross, Nathan Collins and Julian Ngoy are all out on loan.

Much to the surprise of me, probably you and according to reports, our supporters, we only brought in 2 first-team players this summer. As stated above, I decided to give the squad a chance to carry on their great form, so I identified 2 positions I wanted to strengthen, CB and DM. 

At CB, Bosko Sutalo was brought in from Atalanta for £2.6m. The young Croatian possesses some good all round attributes. I have a feeling that once he settles, he's going to be a good player for us.

As for DM (DLP):

At £1.4m, I think Branco Van Den Boomen has some excellent attributes to go with his brilliant name! Brought in to fight with Allen for that spot, I feel I've strengthened the squad there.

However, my 2 biggest signings of the summer I'd say were fighting off bids for returning loanees Benik Afobe and Badou Ndiaye. I feel these 2 add an immense amount of quality at Championship level and are better than any players I could have found in their positions had I cashed in on them. They add some excellent quality to the spine of our team.

I've also managed to reduce this quite a bit:

Yes, we're still high up the table, too high for my liking, but we've reduced our total significantly.

The aim for this season is top half (maybe a play off push). Wish me luck.

Edited October 8, 2020 by smplfc123

[Jogo Bonito]

@smplfc123 Nice review of your summer business, and interesting to see a change of approach to how you will build your squad. Hopefully the players you changed your mind on won't let you down, the returning loan players make a contribution, and the new signings settle in well. Good luck for the new season, my money is on a top six finish (so no pressure) 

@craiigman Very nice start with Blackburn, I hope you have an enjoyable season wherever you end up.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

MK Dons Season 5 Youth Intake

This seasons Youth Intake looks like the best one I have had so far. The investment in the youth recruitment and facilities is paying off. 

I am especially excited about centre back Darren Armstrong.

Darren Armstrong

Micheal Watts

Fred Razak

Alex McGregor

Jon Lister

Kisekka has been brilliant since coming back on loan from Sheff Utd. If I get promoted to the Prem I might go against my rules of being youth only and sign Kisekka. 

With 8 league games left I am currently 3rd in the league and only 2 points behind 2nd place Southampton.