[FM21] Hometown Heroes

[_Ben_]

December 2027: The Growth of local football

An interesting little chart that I'll try and keep updated across the seasons tracking the strength of football in this area. For reference, the levels are:

1	Premier League
2	Championship
3	League One
4	League Two
5	National
6	National North/South
7	Regional Prem
8	Regional Division 1
9	Midlands Premier
10	Midlands Division 1

We have had a promotion and Worcester City have risen up a bit, before dropping back into the Regional Leagues but Walsall have made the most moves - with a couple of spells in the Championship. As we grow, I may look to artificially enhance the reputation of these lower teams and see where they can then climb to - in particular, Studley, which is the neighbouring village to Redditch, housing just 6,000 people and playing in level 10 and Cadbury Athletic, home to Daniel Sturridge when he was a child.

 

[_Ben_]

January 2028: Questions

Some procrastinating has led me to a couple of questions that I'd appreciate someone knowledgeable about English FM'ing to help me with please...

1) Looking ahead:

On the League Two rules, it says this:

Now, currently, I have a National B License, as the board won't fund any more. I have re-read and it says 'should' - so I presume this causes no issues or triggers no courses?

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2) Brexit:

Not managing in England for so long - is this a hard Brexit? I'm none the wiser..

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by _Ben_

[_Ben_]

January 2028: HUGE bid

I've got no choice really, have I?

[_Ben_]

January 2028: Player Sale

Aidan had been really good for us but £1.3m profit on a 28-year-old was impossible to turn down. He dropped down to us after a spell at Portsmouth and was far too good, with excellent Technique and Flair so, moving back to League One Ipswich was probably a good move.

---

This is the big news:

No cup runs, continued spending and staying at this level means it's going to take over five years to run out of that money as we look to lose about £450k per year. Obviously, my ambitions are loftier than that, but I'm happy to now be back at zero.

[Conan21]

I see that Leamington aren't on any of your lists of local sides? 

[_Ben_]

5 hours ago, Conan21 said:

I see that Leamington aren't on any of your lists of local sides? 

Completely forgot them! That's why. Yes - they should definitely be there and I'll amend my lists. Thanks for the reminder!

[abulezz]

Interesting chart showing the growth of the local teams. Love the little random tidbits of information. 

[_Ben_]

December 2027/January 2028

We're having a little wobble here. 

The two cup defeats I can take and completely understand. We played well against Forest and kept the score far more respectable than we did against Fulham last year, however the draws against Sutton and Kidderminster, two mid table teams, are the kind of things that may come back to haunt us at the end of the season. History tells me that a Playoff final nets you a load of money from gate receipts, but it also gives you a smaller chance of going up - as we've found out for the last two years but these results lead to an ever more likely chance of it happening again. 

We do play Solihull Moors next so that's a bit chance to make a mark on this title charge.

[_Ben_]

3 minutes ago, abulezz said:

Interesting chart showing the growth of the local teams. Love the little random tidbits of information. 

I think @Jimbokav1971was one of the first, many moons ago, to make light of little updates that weren't related to the on pitch results and to also separate them from the reviews. From there, I've always enjoyed doing little spot lights on development, tactical changes etc as well as other little things that I've brought into the game.

Glad you are enjoying them!

[Johnny-Trotter]

11 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

January 2028: Questions

Some procrastinating has led me to a couple of questions that I'd appreciate someone knowledgeable about English FM'ing to help me with please...

1) Looking ahead:

On the League Two rules, it says this:

Now, currently, I have a National B License, as the board won't fund any more. I have re-read and it says 'should' - so I presume this causes no issues or triggers no courses?

----

 

 

I understand that this is specific to hiring someone in from outside the club - rather than renewing a contract or changing the role of someone within the club already. I think coming to the later topic of Brexit, this also leads to non-UK staff needing work permits to work in the UK, which was not in the game pre-FM21 also.

[_Ben_]

February 2027: New Affiliate

Finally the board agreed to add a senior affiliate, to gain some extra income and potentially loan in some players. They gave me four choices: Stoke - of the Championship, Brentford - also Championship, League One Blackpool and League One Peterborough:

I decided to go for Stoke as their excellent youth facilities may lend us to be able to loan in better players. Brentford were considered for reputation but their lack of academy meant that any youngsters at the club would have had to have been signed and therefore may be reluctant to leave again on loan.

With Stoke 59 miles away, it is nearly twice as close as the second nearest club, Peterborough, which further emphasises the links with the most local clubs I can get.

[_Ben_]

1 minute ago, Johnny-Trotter said:

I understand that this is specific to hiring someone in from outside the club - rather than renewing a contract or changing the role of someone within the club already. I think coming to the later topic of Brexit, this also leads to non-UK staff needing work permits to work in the UK, which was not in the game pre-FM21 also.

Interesting! Thank you. 

As an American manager (in game), I do like to bring through a similar nationality backroom team so may have to ensure that these are also dual nationals.

[_Ben_]

March 2027: The power of regular football

Jacob arrived a couple of years back as a seriously underdeveloped 24 year old after playing literally no first team football. Despite being at a poor level, with poor players, Jacob has made steady and consistent progress and this has elevated him to both a Team Leader and a key player within the squad who is now, honestly, far too good for this level. I still stand by the fact he won't reach a Premier League standard but he could stay good for at least another couple of levels.

Nothing different or extra - just first team exposure.

 

[abulezz]

First team exposure can be the difference maker alot of times. 

[_Ben_]

1 hour ago, abulezz said:

First team exposure can be the difference maker alot of times. 

Indeed it does. I've been so deep down the rabbit hole of youth development that I have often forgot about the allowance for development at a much older age. This, hopefully, will diminish as, when we progress, we'll have players at the club from 16 onwards, instead of recruiting older players.

[_Ben_]

February/March 2028

It's a very dull day in Redditch today so no better excuse to get some serious FM time in.

It very much appears that neither York or us actually want to win this title. Considering the poor run ins that we are both experiencing, I genuinely feel that, whichever order we end in, Gateshead will be above at least one of us. We have the upper hand though thanks to a smash and grab win over York, themselves, who can consider themselves very unlucky to have taken nothing from their trip here. Since then though, Dulwich game aside, we've been really average. Extremely wasteful - 60 shot attempts totalling only 6.78 xG with 8 goals scored, hitting only 47% of shots on target -  but then also leaky at the back.

---

If this hasn't been a slightly sombre period - we have the youth intake up next, which I'm sure will only make it worse!

[_Ben_]

2028 Youth Intake

Nationalities. Excel Analysis.

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Nothing to write home about, again!

There are two things that I can take from this - the first is that our recruitment area is significantly growing. In previous intakes, all of my English players were from Redditch, but now I've been able to attract players from Halesowen (20 miles), Bromsgrove (6 miles) and Solihull (16 miles). It's not much, but it shows how far one improvement goes.

Next is the gradual improvement of current ability. I have had one upgrade here too and you can see a steady upwards trend now:

Not much, but that technical average for all players is now getting higher and the intelligence level has risen after a sharp drop off over the last couple of years.

[_Ben_]

April 2028: Last day

 

We are away to 5th place Bradford and York travel to 18th place Dagenham and Redbridge. We have won four of the last five with a silly defeat mixed in, whereas York have three wins from 5 but are undefeated. We have a superior goal difference and lead in goals scored (89 to 75) so we only need a point.

However - there is history here. In 2025, we went into the last game of the season in the Vanarama North behind York and they needed a win to take the title. They failed and we won it then. This is the opposite.

Over the past two years, we have fallen at the final hurdle - two playoff final defeats in a row hurt. We are 90 minutes away from a second league title and entry to the Football League. 

[Nottingham Forest]

So close. You can do it!

[_Ben_]

April 2028: Victory

Full report to follow...

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

April 2028: Victory

Full report to follow...

Congrats on your promotion. I am really enjoying reading your Redditch career on here.

[abulezz]

43 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

April 2028: Victory

Full report to follow...

Never doubted it!

[_Ben_]

58 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Congrats on your promotion. I am really enjoying reading your Redditch career on here.

 

18 minutes ago, abulezz said:

Never doubted it!

Thanks both!!

[_Ben_]

April 2028: Skinning

One thing that I've recently began to enjoy was modifying the skin so that it matches what I want and gives me a personal touch. Today, I've put some time aside to have a play and realised I can pretty much move all of my old panels over to this version. Therefore - this is where I currently am with the player profile screen:

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In the process - I managed to click the 'Reset to Default' button which does mean I now have to remake every view, re-import everything, change skin colours and change every single setting!

[Watson156]

Congrats on the promotion. Some fantastic work going on and its great to see the cup runs continue! Do you think you'll be in a position to challenge for promotion soon, or will it take a couple of years to build a promotion winning team?

Also on the local list don't forget Rugby Town, Nuneaton & Banbury.

[abulezz]

That's a good looking panel and skin!

[lupinho]

Going well so far!

[Lodi Lemmer]

3rd time's the charm! Congrats on being promoted!

[_Ben_]

40 minutes ago, Watson156 said:

Congrats on the promotion. Some fantastic work going on and its great to see the cup runs continue! Do you think you'll be in a position to challenge for promotion soon, or will it take a couple of years to build a promotion winning team?

Also on the local list don't forget Rugby Town, Nuneaton & Banbury.

More teams I forgot to add! Will get them added..

As for growth - I don't know. The teams that have gone up lately seem to be hovering around mid-table in League Two, whereas the North to National AI teams were much stronger in relation. Ideally, it'll be a time for me to get things in order, settle finances, set up some basic scouting and move from there. I don't need to rush.

9 minutes ago, lupinho said:

Going well so far!

 

4 minutes ago, Lodi Lemmer said:

3rd time's the charm! Congrats on being promoted!

Thanks! Finally some league football. In every save I've played in the past few years - two promotions was enough to reach the top flight, so I feel rather different now.

20 minutes ago, abulezz said:

That's a good looking panel and skin!

Yeah - I really like how it's come out. I only got into it last year so I'm happy to be able to port most stuff over. Played with some competition pages too, but they are less interesting!

[_Ben_]

2027/28 Season Review

We eventually showed that we had enough about us to get promoted and, fortunately didn't fade as away Dulwich and Gateshead did nor fall apart in the final like York City did. We were, to be fair, the best team across the whole of the season so, in my eyes deserve it.

---

As with most seasons at this level - it's all about the individual, and, if you can get a top striker, you're going to score goals. Josh Thomas did that for us this season and, uinlike previously, there wasn't much else in the way of support aside from Gregory's contribution:

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Time to start our first ever season as a league club!

 

[_Ben_]

June 2028: Relocation

We are back in Redditch!

[_Ben_]

June 2028: Facilities

I feel like we may be able to get a move on with these now...

 

[_Ben_]

2028/29 Recruitment

Noah Killman. James Hill. Ikechuckwu Okafor. Charlie McCann. Stephen Kelly. Connor Stanley. Harry Cleaver.

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I am pretty happy with this haul as I've gone for quality over quantity in large parts. Killman is a very strong centre back and the best that we have at the club whilst Hill and Ike are an upgrade on my old full back slots and will fight for their places - with Okafor, as club top earner, probably getting the nod. I managed to pick up some good experience in McCann, who has spent time in the MLS, Kelly, who recently appeared for Livingston and Connor Stanley, who I can confirm is from Redditch, even if his profile says Birmingham, following some time at Swindon. Cleaver is another ex-Arsenal youngster who looks to have a good attribute balance and could put some real pressure on Thomas for the starting berth.

This leaves me DNA looking like this:

I want to move away from these attributes, even though they are in game and look at this more holistically. If I'm honest - my Guadalajara save, where I hid the numbers, was great, but not entirely sensible as I couldn't hide them everywhere. I am thinking though that I want to turn these numbers (for DNA and mean) into some kind of suitability for each level, returning it as a text string rather than a load of numbers - which I can see in the game if I want to. My use of Excel is to create extra, or another viewpoint, on these kind of things - such as the 'three ticks for player development' not just regurgitating numbers from within the game. Something to think about!

On that note - I can see that my squad is getting stronger, which is wonderful news. Again - I want to look at this in a different, non-numerical way though. 

 

[wesl]

Have you considered hiding attributes entirely and just going with stats/performance? I assume it might be more palatable with all the information you can get in this edition.

[_Ben_]

4 minutes ago, wesl said:

Have you considered hiding attributes entirely and just going with stats/performance? I assume it might be more palatable with all the information you can get in this edition.

Yes and no. It certainly makes player development much harder, particularly in their formative years when I can't say 'x player has improved their xG' because of the variation in this season by season whereas I can easily say 'x player was a poor finisher and is now an average finisher' . However, some kind of banding is a good medium - I believe. Sadly, I didn't manage to hide every attribute from everywhere and that did kind of spoil it for me. I am trying to edit the octagons to give me more data and use those as the principle 'player evaluating tool but it's proving a little problematic at present.

My plan is to use Excel to do some extra stuff with the attributes, leave them in game but then focus on statistics. However - I don't feel particularly engaged with these at a low level so this'll maybe start at League One/Championship time I think.

[_Ben_]

July 2028: Best XI

I think this is a squad that, over the next few years, can develop into a good team at this level. Moving Ramsey to a Grealish styled AP role out wide left means I can afford one more defensively solid player in the team but also retain a good attacking threat - as Gregory has proven he is good enough to score goals.

We have been given a lofty prediction of 14th - so it'll be interesting to see how we actually do when the games start.

[Kubson]

Congrats on the promotion to the Football League and good luck in League Two!

Those 3 Arsenal youngsters look class, especially Kilman, getting a former England U19 player in League Two is impressive and suggests he still might have some potential left in him. Cleaver is a really good set-piece taker, either footed too! He might be actually worth retraining as an Attacking Midfielder, his only real weakness in that position would be passing, but then again at such a young age he could easily make up for it with enough development.

[_Ben_]

12 minutes ago, Kubson said:

Congrats on the promotion to the Football League and good luck in League Two!

Those 3 Arsenal youngsters look class, especially Kilman, getting a former England U19 player in League Two is impressive and suggests he still might have some potential left in him. Cleaver is a really good set-piece taker, either footed too! He might be actually worth retraining as an Attacking Midfielder, his only real weakness in that position would be passing, but then again at such a young age he could easily make up for it with enough development.

I agree - Kilman is really solid and Ike surprised me with how good he is too, as I'd already purchased James Hill for that area.

You're right about Cleaver - here is he is when analysed by my own tracker:

Looking at a AP on the left wing, as, initially, a backup for Jacob Ramsey, could be good! Great shout - thank you!

 

[_Ben_]

July 2028: Procrastinating

I've spent a bit of time away from the game and looking at my tracking things, with the big question:

"What can I get Excel to do that I can't (easily/quickly) do in game?"

Here is my answer, so far:

It still relies on numerical values, as I've given each level a 'target' number for attributes. 16 for Elite, 15 for Premier League standard and down to 9 for Regional level players. When I change the level from the drop down list, it changes the suitability. I am purposely using the phrase 'may be suitable' as the key attributes I have decided are needed for each role are certainly not a hard and fast rule for success.

I still want to feel that these decisions are based from performances so I'm going to look at how I can influence that going forward.

[_Ben_]

July 2028: Skinning update

At a bit of a crossroads right now! I'm still working on getting the skin to where I want but having some issues with the octagon. I'm trying to match the analysis octagons I use on Excel with those in the game so I can essentially export them. These are the current categories I am using:

This is where I currently am with the actual skin:

Since last time, I have moved some of the additional attributes to the bottom left, replacing the 'suitable roles' because - to be fair, I can decide that based on their attribute analysis. I have also removed the multicoloured rows so that I can change the bottom attribute colour and essentially 'hide' the attributes they are poor at. See Free Kick Taking for Ike, above. It is coloured in black as it's less than 4 so easily seen as 'poor' as that is the language I'm looking at using.

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Attribute analysis box:

This just needs to be made to work! I will then play about with the colours etc at a later date.

Red box:

I would like to finish moving the red box from the right hand side over to the left so that I can really centre the analysis polygon and use that as my main viewpoint when analysing the quality of the player. I'm still going to keep the attribute numbers there but, by moving to the right, I can take some of the impetus away from that. I'm currently unable to actually do that though as my skinning knowledge isn't the best!

Green box:

I'd also like to edit the green box and make this a lot more useful in terms of the stats that I am looking at tracking that can't be seen at the bottom. I'd like:

• xG
• Conversion rate - which should be doable by dividing goals/90 by shots/90
• Pass completion rate
• Chances created/90
• Assists /90
• Interceptions/90
• Duels (tackles + headers) won/90
• Minutes on pitch per goal
• Minutes on pitch per assist

Yellow box:

In this area, I want to move media description over to replace agreed playing time and add in Media Handling style as this is another indicator of hidden attributes. I don't know the coding for these strings though, at all!

Dark Purple box:

I want to add some more detail to this table - maybe assists, average rating or just anything else as the goals column is only really a useful indicator for strikers.

Purple box:

Finally, I'd really like to get rid of the capital letters that are everywhere (particularly in the name)

 

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If anyone knows anything or anyone with this know-how, I'd be forever grateful! My play time has slowed to a snails pace as I look to get this where I want over the summer months!

Edited November 29, 2020 by _Ben_

[_Ben_]

August 2028: New stadium

That's a big attendance for us. Time will tell as to whether we keep that up or not.

[_Ben_]

August 2028: Milestone

I'm back to actually playing now...

 

[_Ben_]

September 2028: New HoYD

Bobby is a big step up on Mark Davies, who he's replaced.

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When I get this intake, I will hopefully be able to pinpoint changes to the following:

• Upgraded Junior Coaching
• Upgraded Youth Recruitment
• Promotion (so increased reputation)
• (Presumably) higher ability HoYD - although I don't think he impacts quality, just personalities. He's F.Pro, whereas Davies was Balanced.

[_Ben_]

August/September 2028

A period of two very different halves.

In August, I genuinely thought we'd make back to back promotions. You don't host the team that was just relegated from the division above and smash them 5-0! However, since then, we've found our footing and I'm happy with us being mid-table.

Interestingly, the statistics don't necessarily show that:

Out performing the average in most areas, a little more wasteful than I'd like to be but good at the back. Once we've found our feet, we'll be fine!

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I've also finished the Player Panel, for now. Here is Harry Cleaver to show it off.

[Conan21]

Nice, player panel looks good! 

[abulezz]

That is an awesome panel!

[_Ben_]

November 2028: Story of the year?

Restricting top of the league Oxford to no shots and, therefore, zero xG, but failing to score from any of our 19 shots or 1.97 xG created!

[_Ben_]

October/November 2028

Things are progressing very nicely indeed.

A little wobble in October, which started with a mathematical exit from the EFL Trophy (of which the board wanted more but in a group of Charlton (L1), Plymouth (L1) and the Southampton U23 squad - I wouldn't have expected more!) but ended in some good clean sheets, even if we'd gone a little goal shy. We then took apart the team we got promoted with, showing the gulf in quality of our summer recruitment before another cup victory against higher level teams - beating League One AFC Wimbledon. Three clean sheets with 6 goals before an annoying draw against Oxford (see above) and passage to the third round with another relatively easy win.

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We also had a youth intake preview and, well, it's nothing I've not seen before.

I wonder how mediocre at this level with these facilities compares to the mediocre of before?

[Maaka]

This is a great read, Ben.

Btw, any chance you could share your spreadsheet?

[_Ben_]

January 2029: New deal

Kicking off the new year with a new deal!