Earnie is God! Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 (edited) We lost our left winger Kyle Hurst but managed to get a more than decent £185k for him. Rather than invest it in another player, this guy caught my attention Apparently surplus to requirements and I saw he was very interested in joining on loan so I thought I'd ask. They wanted us to pay his full £1k wage a week for the season but with my new massive wage budget, and the big profit from the sale of Hurst, I was happy to do so. Whilst in the back of my mind I was hoping that a successful loan spell could turn into a permanent deal at the end of the season with a bit of luck. Edited May 8, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 Squad numbers for the first time, things are getting a little more serious Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 Might only be pre-season but that's delightful Preston are exceptionally good, although Moyes is now back there as manager so they are naturally doomed New boy Zac getting MoM too, hopefully a sign of things to come. Top goalscorer predictions and Bearne is amongst them. I don't think he'll get it though. Great, season about to start, I'm strapping myself in Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 In every save, not just this one, my DoF generally pisses me off with all the idiotic deals he tries to do but I tend to let him make the offers as I always have the final say anyway. I do that because occasionally, perhaps only one in ten, he comes up with a stonker of a player. He may have just done that today... How good is he? If we can get him in on loan, that would be mad! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 Whoop! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 This could be the start of a beautiful friendship Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 8, 2020 Author Share Posted May 8, 2020 ♫Only The Loan-ly♫ Kaseke gets his 2nd and fellow loanee makes it three. Excellent start to the season, long may it continue Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 After a great start, W5 D1 L0, we had more than just a blip, conceding idiotic goals. Truly FM'ed in this one Still, we won last time out to break the poor run and now face Dover (3rd) and Carlisle (2nd) which will give me a better idea as to where we stand within this division. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 Oh and Kaseke has moved onto 6 goals already Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) After praising my DoF, he then decides we need a GK who isn't any better than my first choice one, and also offers him a contract worth £2.7k a week! Thankfully, I was there to cancel that. That would have made him our top earner by almost £2,000. Stupid DoF 🙄😁 Edited May 12, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 Ka-WOW-seke He's now my top scorer with 10 and we've recovered from our blip and gone on a bit of a run I should really go to bed Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 Oops Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) After seeing that I'd played FM for 12hrs+ a day for the past two weeks, I decided to take a break yesterday. I even got to bed at a reasonable time. But I'm back and refreshed and raring to go again A quick update on our stature, etc... Another healthy rise in support and our 1st ever televised league match Edited May 10, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) FA Cup Tough 1st round away to Scunny but we came through it. 2nd round we were at home to Coventry, yet another side far better than us. We were quickly out of the blocks and had a 2-0 HT lead. This made it 3-0 A penalty made it four Scully from the edge of the area scored out 5th! Pitty with the 6th! Whoop! Edited May 10, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 But who would we get in the 3rd round? Great, we are at home! OK, so Hull might not be the most attractive of ties but, without really wanting to get ahead of myself here, we might have a chance of making it into round 4. But they are 6th in the Championship so it's going to be a mighty task. The board is naturally delighted with our performances but strangely no mention of our 6-0 win over Coventry 🤔 A bit sad to see we still get no decent youthies But not everything is melancholy, still laughing at some of the obscured views from lower leagues Interesting news just 3wks away from our match Their form has fallen through the floor, hope we can take advantage. Meanwhile, we are flying high Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) Sneaking a peek at Cardiff, no manager has done well there and they are already on their 4th 5th Edited May 10, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 Recent form has been good but we have some tough games coming up Going to have to rotate the squad and make sure every is fit for the FA Cup, and also not play anyone close to a suspension, can't be missing that game! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 Costa Fortune I was just going through the scouting section to see which player(s) might be interested in joining and this guy popped up... Yup, that is THE Douglas Costa, now aged 34 and 6 months away from retirement. But surely he wouldn't want to sign for a non-league club in England, has to be some mistake, right? Apparently not! But he'd want something daft like £50k a week, surely?! Well, no, just £6,250 which of course I negotiated down a little Now this is all just fantasy as it's telling me he isn't going to get a work permit but it reminds of when Socrates, aged 50, sign for Garforth Town https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/av/football/16024100 And, even though it's probably a one-off, it does make me wonder if I can find other big names at the end of their careers to sing short term deals with us. It would certainly boost sales in shirts, tickets, merchandising, etc. so has to be worth looking into. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 Others but none of them will get a work permit Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 No surprise that Costa's work permit was denied but was an interesting experiment nonetheless. I was going to appeal but he refused to join without a permit and, seeing as he's set to retire in under 6 months, there seemed little point in chasing it. My search for more international 'stars' wasn't completely wasted however. We found a Chinese international with plenty of caps who also had English as a 2nd nationality. Decent striker to bolster the squad although there wasn't the 'surge in shirt sales' message I was hoping for when we signed him. Ah well. We are set to lose two key staff members at the end of the season as they are unwilling to sign new deals. A bit of a bugger as they are quality and I may struggle to find like for like replacements The standard of youthies still very poor, these aren't going to make it and will be released It's January now and so not only is it FA Cup 3rd round time but also the month where all my best players are set to be pinched, like this one He wasn't going to stay but we got £130k for him, better than nothing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) Cardiff also pinched another of my starlets We got £125k plus 50% profit sell-on. It won't let me upload that one as it's telling me I've reached the 9.77Mb limit 🤷🏻♂️ Edited May 10, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 There we go, leaving and coming back seems to do the trick, not at the limit any more. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 FA Cup 3rd rnd v Hull Players rested for this one, can we make the 4th round for the first time ever? We'll see Disastrous start and we are 1-0 down already Got to stop Poku-man... Or not 😒 We're getting completely overrun in midfield so I decide to make changes. No subs yet, less than 30min gone, but shuffling around the players instead We had the better of the remainder of the first half which gave me a bit of confidence going into HT Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way. From the 46th to the 70th minute we didn't manage a single shot; time to change it up again. We still couldn't stop that Poku guy though We couldn't even get some luck with the offside decision Our first attempt at goal in ~40min 🙄 We had one more chance... but it was blocked. Time to shut up shop and not concede another I suppose Bugger, maybe next year then Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 More than 3,000 of our own fans turned up. I wonder where the glory hunting bar stewards are for our league games hmmm? Right then, back to the league and trying to fend off the vultures trying to steal our players Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 A bit sketchy with our results since the cup loss but we are hanging on in there Still 12 games to go, it's a long slog in non league! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 I need my sleep but will leave you with one big piece of news... More tomorrow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 (edited) Where's Wally? 😲🤪 No idea what happened there, with a few of their players playing in a kit which somehow blended in with the grass 🤷🏻♂️ Didn't help them too much though as we still beat them Edited May 12, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 Progression through March Playoffs guaranteed and so close to the title Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 When you know things are going your way... I'd been sorting out my throw-in routines as wasn't happy with them and somehow managed to mistakenly move my GK to lurk outside the box. I almost spat my tea out when I saw him there and, unbelievably he scored! haha Quickly sorted it out and put him back though The luck didn't end there. A la Leicester, we were sat at home when Chesterfield travelled to York, needing a win to keep the title race alive. Champions again Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 Season not quite over yet, still two games to go, and we are still in the FA Trophy too. Will do a quick review afterwards but going professional is massive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 Season 2024/25 Review We lost to a late goal in the FA Trophy. We've yet to beat Harrogate in 3 attempts now and an injury time winner for them did us this time. FA Cup Vanarama National League End of season awards Next season, the expectation is to survive relegation. Happy with that, much less pressure and I can revert to my 4-3-1-2 tactic which does leak a few goals but we score loads with it too and it's entertaining. It might mean I'm able to entice this guy back to the club, he can't get a game since leaving us for Fulham! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 12, 2020 Author Share Posted May 12, 2020 Woo-hoo!! Booo!! Give with one hand and take away with the other We'll get there one day Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 13, 2020 Author Share Posted May 13, 2020 Transfers Nothing too extravagant, just the typical freebies plus a couple of loans. Especially pleased with these two And the fans are happy too A number of contracts set to end so there will be some further changes to the squad Record scorer Simms doesn't want to rejoin but am trying to tempt him here on loan instead Some big transfers going on elsewhere though Just to show how small a club we are... And this has had an unexpected and rather damaging effect on what we can do this season Massively limited to what we can spend on wages due to our tiny turnover. This has meant we've had to sell a couple of the higher earners and get rid of a few others. This also helped Early fixtures don't look too difficult and the TV money will come in handy We're predicted mid-table and this is our supposed best XI A nice rise in season ticket sales is expected EFL Cup 1st round was drawn in June ?? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 13, 2020 Author Share Posted May 13, 2020 My most enjoyable part of this new season is undoubtedly going full time and the training schedules I can now implement. Things are going very well in training too, with almost everyone happy and working hard, even with the demands of pre-season. I can't wait to see some of our youngsters finally improve their attributes and hopefully realise their potential. It's started already with some of them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 13, 2020 Author Share Posted May 13, 2020 😭😡😭 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 14, 2020 Author Share Posted May 14, 2020 Season about to start and they don't fancy our chances of doing much in this division I'll prove them wrong though Shirt numbers, a bit of a jiggery pokery. Captain Burgess is 33yo now and losing pace; he'll be slowly moved out of the team The EFL Trophy groups have been drawn and the board expect us to qualify. Hmm, not sure what to make of that just yet Top of the league after the first game, Rochdale were slight favourites but we stuffed them good and proper Scunthorpe at home next and they would be much tougher. We took the lead but then had a man sent off and Scunny were all over us after that. We were a bit fortunate with the late winner but I'll take it! Solid season ticket sales, double what we sold last year although 183 isn't exactly a lot. and we are still small fry Training is going really well too Best XI and appearances all-time Finally, some more good news... And current standings/expectations Boro in the Cup next up, would be nice to get through that one. Hopefully they'll send a reserve side down Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 14, 2020 Author Share Posted May 14, 2020 ♫ Three Is The Magic Number ♫ Just hope we can keep it up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 14, 2020 Author Share Posted May 14, 2020 Some clubs in our division have received quite a bit of cash for some of their players. Unfortunately, from a financial perspective, we weren't one of those but at least that means we've managed to keep hold of our players. And it's done us a World of good on the pitch Top of the league after 8 games, let's hope it continues Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeedsUnitedLad Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 hi mate which tactic have you been using? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 I've used different ones tbh. This season I've reverted back to a 4-3-1-2 because I like the number of chances it creates, even if it isn't that solid defensively. Not always the same roles, as you can see 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 (edited) Things started well... kept on going... and going... and going! 11 wins in a row followed by draws at 2nd placed Port Vale and at home to 4th placed Oldham. We're not miles clear though, Vale (and others) had been doing really well too For the first time ever, we didn't have to go through qualifying to get into the FA Cup 1st round and we were handed a relatively easy tie, as home to Maidenhead who were next to bottom in the Vanarama. Should be easy for us, especially with our current form, right? Wrong! We battered them and had 7 CCCs and another 7 half chances but luck wasn't with us and out of the cup we go Edited May 16, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 (edited) Loving the way we are playing though. The football is very open and great to watch. Yes, we do concede a few more goals than I'd ideally like but we still have the 6th best defence and, with 47 goals scored, by far the best attack. I'm happy with that and so are the board. The players have been recognised As have I And I've had my 2nd job offer But, just like when Millwall came knocking a season or two ago, I'm not interested Edited May 16, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 (edited) Transfer History Our record purchase before this season was for £1,000. We've smashed that this season and are set to obliterate it again in January, but more of that in a bit. Here's the breakdown of all the players that have come through our door This season we've spent £45.5k on a striker Marsh came on loan at the back end of last season and did well. He's very good and I could see his quality so was more than happy to pay that for him. He's not disappointed Laurie Ferrier, a CB currently here on loan from Hibs, has been fantastic. He has some great attributes. Yes, his marking needs improvement and he's not the quickest but at this level he's great. £165k is a lot for a club like ours to pay but I see him as a long term replacement for club captain and legend Chris Burgess who, now 34yo, is declining pretty badly Ferrier's a captain in the making and I hope he's here for many years to come. Edited May 16, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 16, 2020 Author Share Posted May 16, 2020 Training Training has been nothing short of a revelation this season now that we are full time. I've implemented the training schedules recommended here Along with this info here https://www.fmscout.com/a-fm20-development-guide-and-training-schedules.html And training has just taken off! Players who have been here for a number of seasons and not really getting anywhere have been improving superbly, and happy with the schedules too. Prime example is young winger Tony Price, my most improved player at the club. Amazing improvement in the 6 months since we went full time. Now I get that he hasn't played for us for two seasons and therefore that will have stunted his growth and yes, some people will argue that his rapid rise this season could be attributed to him actually getting games, and there is a sense of truth in that, but the only reason I've afforded him the opportunities this campaign has been his superb performances in training. Check these out. He's not the only one. Some other excellent youngsters performing really well too Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 2nd half of the season hasn't been quite as open as the 1st. Sure, we are still doing well but it feels like we are grinding out results more rather than winning with plenty of attacking play. I guess the AI has caught up with us and are now playing more defensively against us. Struggling a bit to break down the lesser teams but shouldn't really complain when you see the table. The League Two record was also 27 games so could we be record breakers? Yes, yes we could Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 (edited) This has of course led to some more job offers The Leicester job might have been an excellent opportunity but I didn't even think twice before knocking them back. I'm on a mission to get Dronfield into the EPL. EFL Trophy has been interesting and we made it out of the group with a late, late show v Fleetwood Youth Intake looks a little more promising than in recent years And now into January, my most hated time of the season when teams try and steal all the players who have done magnificently to help get us where we are. We do make a couple of signings of our own though Ferrier, who I talked about before and 34yo Jack Rodwell who IRL had so much promise but not a lot of luck with injuries. He was a free agent and so we've given him a 6 month contract with the promise of a 1yr extension if he plays 5+ games. Let's hope he can stay relatively injury free. We also had a welcome boost from an unexpected transfer I always try to add in these sell-on fees for cases such as this one A few other interesting transfers going on in the UK, Bellerin to Man City being one of them which proves that, even many years later, Arsenal are still their feeder club Edited May 18, 2020 by Earnie is God! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 The early exit from the main cups was disappointing but no doubt helped with our fixture congestion. 46 league games is tough at the best of times without the extra games from the cups. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 Cups Nothing to write home about I'm afraid. Early exits in the main two competitions was disappointing although good progress in the Trophy before an annoying defeat at home to Chester League fixtures are much more pleasing on the eye though Top two clash this weekend as we travel to 2nd placed Lincoln, looking to avenge our only defeat of this league season. I'm not going to say that, with a 20pt lead, we've won the league just yet but if we beat Lincoln to go 23pts clear with just 13 games left, I think I'm going to blood some more youngsters for the remainder of the campaign and stop playing the loanees for sure. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 A bit more good news... This will bring our facilities up from shockingly bad to just very poor 😒 We'll get there in the end though Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earnie is God! Posted May 19, 2020 Author Share Posted May 19, 2020 Final Games of The Season Unfortunately, we couldn't avenge our only defeat of the season v Lincoln. They turned us over again But we didn't let it get to us and it was good news shortly after soon followed by Then promotion and of course the title, with a 4-0 win at Cheltenham Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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