Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 Growing up Down Wembley Way When the FA announced plans to rebuild Wembley Stadium in 2003, the new stadium came with a promise of making Wembley "one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe." They announced plans to completely transform what was a run down and deprived area, turning it into a vibrant, thriving part of the country. What did they actually do? They built some shops. Wembley resides in Brent, one of the poorest boroughs in London, and arguably the country. 33% of households live in poverty, with 32% of employees earning less than the London Living Wage, the second highest rate for any borough in the city. It's incredibly ethnically diverse - 36% of Brent is White, 34% Asian, 18% Black, 5% Mixed Race and 5% 'other'. However, it's also very run down, and the new Wembley Stadium redevelopment hasn't given much - if anything - to the local community. Brent had the 5th most homicides in London between 2000-2012, and has a bit of a reputation for knife and gun crime. It borders on insanity. You have the 'home of English football' built here. but apart from building some new (expensive) shops and flats, very little has been done to provide real regeneration for the local community. What the area needs is something to bring them together, to give them something to do and keep kids away from falling into the spiralling trap of the gang lifestyle. Something like a football team, maybe? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Just two miles away from Wembley Stadium, a football team can be seen practising in the local park. Wembley Stadium can be seen from there, and for the majority of the kids currently playing, they can see the Stadium from their house. They go home, and they dream of one day playing at that fated stadium - just like Raheem Sterling did. When Raheem Sterling moved to England at the age of 5, he lived with his family on the St Raphael's Estate in Brent, a notoriously crime-plagued community. Sterling could see Wembley Stadium from his house as it was being built, and told himself that he'd be playing there for England in the future. After helping lead England to the World Cup Semi Final, I think it's fair to say Raheem Sterling has turned his dreams into reality - but that likely wouldn't have been the case were it not for Clive Ellington and Alpha & Omega CF. According to Sterling: "But if I really think hard about it, the moment my life changed was when I met a guy named Clive Ellington. He used to mentor the kids in our neighborhood who didn’t have their fathers around. On the weekend, he’d take us on little trips around London and show us a different side of life. Sometimes we’d just go play snooker. Basically, anything that wasn’t our day-to-day. He genuinely cared about us. So one day he sat me down and he said, “Raheem, what do you love to do?” Simple, simple question, right? But I never really thought about it like that. At that point, I was just playing football in the street, biking around with my friends, being a kid. I said, “I love playing football.” He said, “Well, I got a little Sunday League team. Why don’t you come out and play with us?” And that was it. That moment changed my life." 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) Alpha and Omega FC As aforementioned, Alpha and Omega FC are based just two miles away from Wembley Stadium, in Kingsbury. They're mainly a Youth Club, but their Senior Club competes in the Middlesex County Football League Division One (West) - Level 12 of English football. (Note: It seems their senior team has temporarily withdrawn from league football, so I've just swapped them back into the league in the editor myself and replaced Hammersmith. Sorry Hammersmith fans!) They're run by a guy called Clive Ellington, who is just as much a pastoral worker a football coach. Ellington is all about trying to help the kids in his local community stay off the streets, and what better way to do that than football? They're a perfect club for this save, which is: We're going to go Youth Only. We'll have kids coming through from the surrounding area - hopefully born near Wembley! - and see if we can develop them. This save is more about youth development than necessarily winning trophies - of course, winning trophies is always the aim, but I want to do what Clive Ellington did for Raheem Sterling with these youth players. There's a shedload of talent in Brent. Let's harness it! I said Youth Development is the main aim of the save, so what are the goals I've got in mind? Well... Firstly, I'd like to have somebody from our academy make the breakthrough for England. If that could happen when we're still in the lower leagues, even better! As this save is about Youth Development, I'm not going to be holding our players back. If a reasonable offer comes in for one of our players who's clearly capable of going onto better things, then they'll go with our blessing. Teams often sell prized assets to fund upgrades off the pitch, and FM doesn't really force that on you enough in lower league management. In this save, though, we're fine to be a selling club. We just want our players to go on to be the best they can be Winning trophies will always be important, but I'm totally fine for us to stagnate in the lower reaches of non-league for a while. As long as I don't get fired! Brent is an area with a lot of immigrants, so if we could get some youth prospects playing for other countries, that'd be superb too. The ultimate, probably-never-going-to-happen-but-worth-dreaming-about-anyway goal is to win the World Cup with an entire team made of Alpha and Omega FC youth prospects. Aiming high, I know Let's go play football! Edited August 10, 2020 by Bedese 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) Alpha and Omega Hall of Fame: The players who've come through our academy that have gone on to best represent Alpha and Omega CF. Spoiler Raheem Sterling. Played Youth Football at Alpha and Omega before moving to QPR, Liverpool, and Manchester City. A key attacking figure for England, helping the team reach the 2018 World Cup Semi Final. Spoiler Ousmane Camara (YP8a) - our first major sale, going to Luton in the Championship. In a short time here he made a massive impact, and in his last game for the club he scored 3 goals, 3 assists and had a 9.9 rating as we smashed Shortwood United 7-0 to claim the FA Vase and our first win at Wembley. Nations Tracker: A list of all the nationalities we've had at the club: Europe: England Wales Ireland Northern Ireland Scotland Spain Gibraltar Finland Greece Denmark Germany Slovenia Slovakia Poland Portugal Asia: Oceania: Australia Africa: Nigeria Zambia Uganda DR Congo Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau South America: North America: Antigua and Barbuda Jamaica Canada Trinidad and Tobago USA St Kitts and Nevis Barbados Edited September 4, 2020 by Bedese 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) Edited August 10, 2020 by Bedese 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Just to give a little bit more context on why Alpha and Omega, particularly (or, more to the point, a club based in that area): Wembley Stadium might be called the 'Home of English Football', but Wembley as an area won't be getting such a glamorous description anytime soon. According to Operation Trident - the Metropolitan Police Unit set up to tackle gangs in London - there are roughly 15 'major' gangs active in the borough of Brent, although unofficial estimates have put this number far higher. In Establishing the reality of gangs in Brent, gang-involved respondents answered questions relating to the prevalence of gangs in the borough with a majority saying it rated ‘9 out of 10’ whilst others rated it off the scale and a ‘big one’ and ‘crazy innit.’ One 17 year old said: ‘Yeah, people are shooting out of their windows; outta their ‘ouse. That’s the sort of stuff that goes down and it’s true." Brent is one of the youngest boroughs in London, but has the 5th highest rate of unemployment in the Capital. Combined with one of the highest poverty rates in the city, it's not exactly an area with a lot of opportunities for young people growing up there - hence the gang map above. Football is an incredible sport. It reduces grown men to tears, provides moments that reverberate through time, and makes dreams come true. Even more than that, though; it can be an incredible vehicle for change. Let's go and change things. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dllu Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 Always interesting! Defo following... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, dllu said: Always interesting! Defo following... Cheers Dllu! I'm hoping my laptop can handle the slog... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 We don't have any staff, so I've had to hire the first assistant manager I could find in order to get a read on the squad's ability: Our best GK is rated 1/2*, our best defender 1*, we have 1 CB and no LB.... this might be a struggle Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 I like the concept of this. I will be following and good luck buddy. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 15 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said: I like the concept of this. I will be following and good luck buddy. Cheers! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sc91 Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 Narrrt West. Good luck, will read, always fun for a few strange nationalities is the capital. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 2 hours ago, sc91 said: Narrrt West. Good luck, will read, always fun for a few strange nationalities is the capital. Cheers! Aye, I'm hoping we can get a fun mix of some in such a diverse area! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 10, 2020 Author Share Posted August 10, 2020 Been a very good start to the season at just over the halfway point, considering how weak our squad depth and balance looked. Knocked out on penalties in the cup, but we've yet to be beaten in the league. South Kilburn are right on our heels though, and with only one promotion spot, we may need to beat them in the reverse fixture in order to seal the title. Still a long way to go, though. Hopefully the chance to get a 'golden generation' in, too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Youth Intake Day! Our first Youth Intake! It's hard to tell if there's any standouts, but it gives us a heck of a lot more squad depth, at least! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Season Review! We fell off a bit with a mix of injuries, suspensions, and players moving clubs, and South Kilburn were able to run away with the title. I think second is pretty good going for the first season - but I was really hoping we'd get promoted so I could remove this level from the game and speed my laptop processing up 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dllu Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Reece Beautyman - I don't know if he's a top prospect, but his name is top-notch. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPFC,Moses Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Sam's better sponsor you at sometime in this save! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 12 hours ago, CPFC,Moses said: Sam's better sponsor you at sometime in this save! Hahahahahaha, class! Well remembered We'll have to see what we can do 14 hours ago, dllu said: Reece Beautyman - I don't know if he's a top prospect, but his name is top-notch. It's definitely a beauty Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 Our first upgrade! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 It's taking like an hour just to holiday a month at this point, so lord I hope we can get promoted quickly and turn Tier 12 off Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 13, 2020 Author Share Posted August 13, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted August 14, 2020 Share Posted August 14, 2020 17 hours ago, Bedese said: It's taking like an hour just to holiday a month at this point, so lord I hope we can get promoted quickly and turn Tier 12 off 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 Youth Intake Day! Some good players and some great nationalities Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 Season Review! Disappointing to be five points off top spot, and even more disappointing that my laptop is going to keep dying while we're still in Tier 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 Youth Intake Day! A bit disappointing, in truth. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 Season Review! We struggled for consistency, and even in a really poor standard of division, we can't get away with that with just one promotion spot. My laptop really needs us to get promoted soon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 14, 2020 Author Share Posted August 14, 2020 A Youth Recruitment upgrade to go along with our Junior Coaching one last year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 15, 2020 Author Share Posted August 15, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 16, 2020 Author Share Posted August 16, 2020 Youth Intake Day! One obvious standout! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 Season Review! With FCD Galicia Reserves winning the league but as a reserve team being illegible for promotion, we ended up being just 4 points off going up. In truth though, we were really poor, and the negative goal difference tells the story. I'm going to start playing the games next year I think, because my assistant is useless and I think he might be close to getting me sacked 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 (edited) Halfway point of the season, and we're sitting just above that magical 2 points per game mark. Annoyingly though, so are Kodak... the only team we still have to play twice. Could be tight. Edited August 17, 2020 by Bedese Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deez0r Posted August 17, 2020 Share Posted August 17, 2020 Having done a tier 11 start it was a joy turning the tiers off whilst moving up 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 17, 2020 Author Share Posted August 17, 2020 14 minutes ago, deez0r said: Having done a tier 11 start it was a joy turning the tiers off whilst moving up I genuinely can't wait to be able to process the game at a reasonable speed again Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 Youth Intake Day! Hello 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deez0r Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 That is some intake! Lets hope it finalises that first promotion! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 3 hours ago, deez0r said: That is some intake! Lets hope it finalises that first promotion! Cheers! An update on that soon... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 (edited) Season Review! We finally go up! We did it in some style, too, winning 15 of our 20 games to leave everyone else behind and go up to Tier 11! Edited August 28, 2020 by Bedese 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 Wow! Our last intake was so strong, look what it's done to the CA ratings of our entire first team squad! That's player of the season Les Harper on a 2.5 Silver * CA rating Compared to the intake kids... We might look a slightly different team next season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 28, 2020 Author Share Posted August 28, 2020 Some interesting teams in our new division! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 Starting to make some real improvements off the field... I'm excited for our next intake! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 We're only halfway through the season... @Jimbokav1971 would be proud 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 Here's how things do stand at just over the halfway point... We're sitting top, but it's far from over. Yeading Town can catch us if they win their games in hand, and it only takes one small slip with just one team going up for us to sink our chances. I'm optimistic we might be able to get out of this league at the first try, but we've got a lot of work to do first! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted August 30, 2020 Share Posted August 30, 2020 6 hours ago, Bedese said: We're only halfway through the season... @Jimbokav1971 would be proud I am indeed. That's very impressive. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedese Posted August 30, 2020 Author Share Posted August 30, 2020 Youth Intake Day! A really good intake again! I forgot to grab screenshots of the players at the time, but here they are a couple months later, signed up: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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