FM21: The English Football League thread

[kilik]

Im thinking to give Harrogate Town a try. anyone got tips or free transfer i should sign?

[warlock]

5 hours ago, kilik said:

I'm thinking to give Harrogate Town a try

Should be a fun save, and a decent challenge 

[warlock]

York City, May 2023

This seems like it's been a long old season, but we have another title in the bag. As reported last time, the injuries mounted through February and March and we lost AML Harry Bunn and striker George Alexander for the last dozen or so games of the season, while our CMs rotated their time in the treatment room with the result that we had to use a number of players out of position. But the lads stuck to their task admirably:

We had promotion tied up by the Walsall game, and I think we just needed one more win to secure the title - but the win didn't come. Crawley were our closest rivals and a win in that game would have clinched it at a stroke but we couldn't claim the 3pts. Then another home game passed by without so much as a goal. Crawley also stuttered and we needed 1pt from our last 3 games and a brace from 17-year-old Jack Ashcroft was enough to get the job done against Wrexham. With the pressure off we rediscovered our better form and ended the season with consecutive wins.

In the end it was a comfortable 10pt margin at the top. Max Watters led the goalscoring charts for us, and shared the league honour with Mansfield's Elliot Lee. Young AMR Ben Price had an oustanding season with 15 assists and another 15 goals of his own, while AMC Abdulmalik wasn't far behind with 12 assists and 13 goals. GK Bradley James started 50 games for us and kept clean sheets in exactly half of them.

The summer window will need some careful thought - we have a number of squad mainstays who are either entering their last year of contract or - like Bunn - starting to get a bit crumbly. The good news is that I've already renewed the loans of Vokins, Abdulmalik and Alexander - Cardiff, sadly, are playing hardball over renewing Watters for another season, but we'll see what happens.

 

[hasdgfas]

6 hours ago, warlock said:

This seems like it's been a long old season, but we have another title in the bag.

Feels like you're zooming up with this one!

[Gunner 101]

Nice one @warlock Is that 3 promotions on the spin now? Max Watters doing bits. 

[warlock]

5 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Feels like you're zooming up

2 hours ago, Gunner 101 said:

Is that 3 promotions on the spin now?

Yeah, 3 in a row. Will be interesting to see how L1 will go. We'll surely struggle at some point.

[CityAndColour]

Great work on another title - how many academy players have you got in and around the first team?

[Sunstrikuuu]

2 hours ago, warlock said:

Yeah, 3 in a row. Will be interesting to see how L1 will go. We'll surely struggle at some point.

I'm just about to start the L1 season as well.  Getting out of the Vanarama National has been the hardest part so far, but four teams getting relegated out of L1 will make that pretty spicy.  I'm expecting each successive promotion to be harder than the next.

[warlock]

2 hours ago, CityAndColour said:

how many academy players have you got in and around the first team?

I have two academy players who are first-team regulars - LB Tom Robinson and AMR Ben Price. Young striker Jack Ashcroft has just moved up as cover for the injured Alexander but looks good enough to stay and fight for games. AMC Ryan Horne has made 22 first-team appearances but he's struggled since we came up from the VNN, but at 18 he still has time. Then there's two or three more who look like good prospects to make the grade.

1 hour ago, Sunstrikuuu said:

Getting out of the Vanarama National has been the hardest part so far

Yeah, I always think the VNL is one of the toughest leagues in the game. I was lucky in that we breezed through it this time. In the past I've not found L1 to be notably more difficult than L2 (hostage to fortune right there  )

[Sunstrikuuu]

9 minutes ago, warlock said:

Yeah, I always think the VNL is one of the toughest leagues in the game. I was lucky in that we breezed through it this time. In the past I've not found L1 to be notably more difficult than L2 (hostage to fortune right there  )

23 teams for two spots, only one of which is guaranteed, is hard.  And the fact that if you've just come up from a regional league you're probably still semi-pro, and at a training and money deficit compared with the full-timers who've come down in earlier seasons.  The AI's new insistence on loan players being played in specific roles, and aggressively recalling them if they aren't, is another wrinkle; I was going to come up in my second season in the VNL until I had three players yanked for playing wingback instead of fullback or centerback instead of no-nonsense centerback or whatever.

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Sunstrikuuu said:

The AI's new insistence on loan players being played in specific roles

It's amazing how much difference this small change makes! I've had a few good loan signings terminated for that reason, and it caused me grief this season because Abdulmalik, for example, is rated both the best striker and best CM by my coaches - but I had to play him as an AMC to meet the conditions of his loan. I've found some clubs will let you tweak the conditions, so playing a CB or CM but not specifying the role, but others will insist on the detail. Always worth a try.

[hasdgfas]

The role thing is wild to me, same with loaned-out players getting upset if they're not played in the specific position you send them out on loan for. Like often I send out an AMC/CM and genuinely don't care which of the two he plays in, but he gets SUPER UPSET that he's a CM instead of an AMC.

I don't care about the specific role as much for players I loan out, I care more about them just getting playing time.

[CityAndColour]

Don't you just love those players that seem to perform wildly above their attributes?

This is Gary Fitzpatrick, who came to us via Boreham Wood and Havant & Waterlooville and plays up top in a 4-2-3-1 formation:

As you can see, there is nothing all that remarkable about him. He is a decent finisher and not all that slow, but he's terrible in the air, not great off the ball, is slow to anticipate the play, makes poor decisions and lacks both strength and balance. He's not going to score many from outside the box (unless it's a free kick) and his composure is so-so. He doesn't have a great personality or any useful PPMs.

My coaches think he is a Conference North/South player at best and he's never been within a sniff of any underage Ireland squads, let alone attracting any interest from other clubs.

Yet, he is absolutely lethal. He almost never misses a one on one, constantly finds the corners and scores from just about anywhere inside the box. Across the keeper, roof of the net, near post, power finishes, finesse finishes, you name it. He scored 30 league goals in the Southern Premier (34 overall), 35 league goals in the Conference South (43 overall) and he's started with 10 in 10 in the Conference National. He really shouldn't be this good.

(As an aside, this is one of the things that bothers me about the CA/PA system. A player scoring this many goals at such a young age would likely be getting interest from Championship clubs, but because his is (presumably) low, he's never once had a club interested. It affects immersion a bit as it shouldn't be this easy for me to hold onto him.)

[warlock]

4 hours ago, CityAndColour said:

He is a decent finisher and not all that slow

I will - reluctantly - disagree with you here. For a Vanorama player he's an excellent finisher, pretty quick and agile, with good technicals where it counts. I'd say he's good at taking chances, and probably playing in a system that gives him a lot of chances over a season. But he certainly doesn't look like a Championship player so I'm not surprised by the lack of interest there.

Also, bear in mind the quality of your coaches. Unless their JCA/JPA is unusually high for your level he could be better than they think. Or... you might just have got lucky. Enjoy him while it lasts 

[CityAndColour]

1 hour ago, warlock said:

I will - reluctantly - disagree with you here. For a Vanorama player he's an excellent finisher, pretty quick and agile, with good technicals where it counts. I'd say he's good at taking chances, and probably playing in a system that gives him a lot of chances over a season. But he certainly doesn't look like a Championship player so I'm not surprised by the lack of interest there.

Also, bear in mind the quality of your coaches. Unless their JCA/JPA is unusually high for your level he could be better than they think. Or... you might just have got lucky. Enjoy him while it lasts 

You're right, I am just mentally preparing myself for when the standard is too high for him - hopefully not for a while yet!

[hasdgfas]

Yeah, some of my Blyth players have stuck around with me from non-league all the way up to the Championship and even Premier League, and now that I can actually improve my coaching, I'm seeing that they're significantly better than my older coaches thought. Many of them still shouldn't be Premier League quality, but hoo boy is there a big difference between "decent player for Vanarama National" and "Good player for League One/Championship" in terms of how I feel about giving them PL time.

[hasdgfas]

We're near the end of the season now:

These are our remaining matches:

I've written off any points from Man City, but if we can get 4+ from the final two matches I think we're ok? Even if we just get the win against Newcastle to finish off the season that might be enough. It'll be tight, but I didn't expect otherwise.

[warlock]

2 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

We're near the end of the season

Oof, not much margin for error there. Given Newcastle's games in hand I expect it will go down to the last game of the season. Hope you can pull out a win from somewhere 

[hasdgfas]

5 minutes ago, warlock said:

Oof, not much margin for error there. Given Newcastle's games in hand I expect it will go down to the last game of the season. Hope you can pull out a win from somewhere 

yeah, the absolutely tragic GD means I can't even really "get lucky" by surviving via that.

 

Can't screenshot right now, but we got the draw with Everton. Going into match 38 we're on 35 points, Birmingham is above us on 36, and Newcastle is above them on 37. We're playing Newcastle as per the screenshot above and Birmingham are at CL-qualified Tottenham. We need to win, but Newcastle might not need to.

 

It's kinda frustrating actually, because this was the Prem last season:

We'd have easily been safe at this point total last season!

[warlock]

Another change I've noticed this year, which is giving me grief at the moment... it used to be that clubs had to offer youngsters on expiring contracts a new deal before the end of the season or lose them on compensation-free transfers. This year, clubs are not offering new contracts but the players hang around on month-by-month deals. I've got a shortlist full of hot prospects that are out of contract, prospects that are "valued" at hundreds of pounds, but if I want to sign one of them it will cost me anywhere from £50k to £800k in compensation fees.

I understand that clubs should be entitled to some reward for developing players, but this situation where young players are in limbo, not being played by their parent club but not given opportunities anywhere else, is nuts. Here's one example:

Kayode is at Rotherham, his contract expired in June, we're now at the end of August, Rotherham are paying him £525 a week and his "value" is £2.2k. But if I want to sign him it will cost me £375k in compensation. And I thought slavery had been abolished 

[CityAndColour]

Is it possible that they have been offered a contract by their current club but have rejected it (but the club hasn't formally released them)?

[warlock]

30 minutes ago, CityAndColour said:

the club hasn't formally released them

I think it's this. My own feeling, for what it's worth, is that if no new contract is forthcoming the player should be able to walk away. But it doesn't seem to work that way - out-of-contract players seem tied to the club for weeks and months after their contract has expired. I can't see that working in any other business..., but football!?! 

[hasdgfas]

Well. Matchday 38. It all comes down to this. One match for survival. Will someone step up?

If you guessed "Chay Kavanagh", our 40-goal wonder from the Championship, you'd be right. He only got 12 in the Prem, but these 3 probably got me more excited than any of those 40.

We have some...clear holes to fill this summer. I would like to shore up the defense as priority 1, because if some of those losses can turn into draws, or the 7-1 losses can turn into 3-1s, we might be able to be a little bit safer next season.

[warlock]

12 minutes ago, hasdgfas said:

One match for survival

Last day survival, and an 8-goal thriller... how's your heart rate? 

[hasdgfas]

10 minutes ago, warlock said:

Last day survival, and an 8-goal thriller... how's your heart rate? 

High, but not as high as you might expect from the final score. We were up 4-0 within 33 minutes and up 5-1 after 73. Their third didn't come until second half stoppage time, so I was feeling pretty good most of the game. Minor spike with their third goal, but no highlights after that so I was fine.

[Sunstrikuuu]

16 hours ago, warlock said:

I think it's this. My own feeling, for what it's worth, is that if no new contract is forthcoming the player should be able to walk away. But it doesn't seem to work that way - out-of-contract players seem tied to the club for weeks and months after their contract has expired. I can't see that working in any other business..., but football!?! 

Agreed with all of this, and it's very strange.  I've got staff who've been on month-to-month contracts for literally seven years now - they've expired at the end of my first season, I forgot to release them and now I'm morbidly curious how long they'll stay.  My backup keeper has been on a month-to-month for two and a half seasons.  I know he's pretty bad, but still!

[Jogo Bonito]

On 20/04/2021 at 21:22, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Off topic but after what has happened I have decided not to support Man Utd until the Glazers disappear so in the mean time I am going to go see Walsall FC play when that is allowed to. I might even get a season ticket for next season so @Jogo Bonito I will get to see your boy Adebayo live. You should come with me to go see them sometime 

You might need to move to Luton to see Adebayo play 

@hasdgfasThat's a really good achievement. It may have been late, but to survive with Blyth is a massive ask. Well done.

@warlockCongrats on another promotion. Done in style again. I've looked at Kayode quite a few times myself as he looks quite decent (for the level) IRL and his attributes in the game seem to give some reasons of optimism. I totally agree about the contracts issue, it does seem to be a bit of a problem when they are retained on a month-to-month basis and stuck in some sort of limbo. I think it is due to whether contracts have been offered but it's also depending on player age, the value of the contract etc. But yes, OOC should probably allow us to sign them for free and not pay compensation.

[warlock]

1 minute ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Congrats on another promotion

Cheers! Noted your absence this past week... been busy or just life? 

[Jogo Bonito]

1 minute ago, warlock said:

Cheers! Noted your absence this past week... been busy or just life? 

I'd love to say I have been on a lovely and long overdue holiday in the sun but that's very far from the truth. Dealing with a few life challenges but all fine thanks. Hope you are well too 

I hope to do an update with Ipswich soon (maybe later) as I have edged towards the end of 2021/22. Keep up the great work with York.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

25 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

You might need to move to Luton to see Adebayo play 

@hasdgfasThat's a really good achievement. It may have been late, but to survive with Blyth is a massive ask. Well done.

@warlockCongrats on another promotion. Done in style again. I've looked at Kayode quite a few times myself as he looks quite decent (for the level) IRL and his attributes in the game seem to give some reasons of optimism. I totally agree about the contracts issue, it does seem to be a bit of a problem when they are retained on a month-to-month basis and stuck in some sort of limbo. I think it is due to whether contracts have been offered but it's also depending on player age, the value of the contract etc. But yes, OOC should probably allow us to sign them for free and not pay compensation.

Oh damm I forgot he went to Luton.

I still will probably go see them as they have a good squad. 

[StePratt]

Good evening everyone. Quick Oxford update.... 

We are currently 4th in the Championship, having just got to the World Cup 2022. Around 20 games played. Happy with the progress we have made following last season's promotion. 

We're ranked 23rd in wages and have barely spent any money, while Brentford spent 30m on a player from West Brom! Crazy money being spent. 

Highlights of the season so far; beating Burnley 7-3 and a couple of regens making starting roles their own. I'll upload some screenshots tomorrow of them. You'll want to see them before they get poached by the big boys. 

Rumours of a takeover keep cropping up but so far no new investment has been made. 

[hasdgfas]

3 hours ago, StePratt said:

We're ranked 23rd in wages and have barely spent any money, while Brentford spent 30m on a player from West Brom! Crazy money being spent.

It's wild. some HUGE fees once you hit the Championship in this FM

[karanhsingh]

On 27/04/2021 at 05:01, warlock said:

Another change I've noticed this year, which is giving me grief at the moment... it used to be that clubs had to offer youngsters on expiring contracts a new deal before the end of the season or lose them on compensation-free transfers. This year, clubs are not offering new contracts but the players hang around on month-by-month deals. I've got a shortlist full of hot prospects that are out of contract, prospects that are "valued" at hundreds of pounds, but if I want to sign one of them it will cost me anywhere from £50k to £800k in compensation fees.

I understand that clubs should be entitled to some reward for developing players, but this situation where young players are in limbo, not being played by their parent club but not given opportunities anywhere else, is nuts. Here's one example:

Kayode is at Rotherham, his contract expired in June, we're now at the end of August, Rotherham are paying him £525 a week and his "value" is £2.2k. But if I want to sign him it will cost me £375k in compensation. And I thought slavery had been abolished 

Have you tried putting in an offer to the club? They may accept lower than the compensation figure especially with future clauses. 

Also your game seems to be progressing very well indeed! 

15 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

Well. Matchday 38. It all comes down to this. One match for survival. Will someone step up?

If you guessed "Chay Kavanagh", our 40-goal wonder from the Championship, you'd be right. He only got 12 in the Prem, but these 3 probably got me more excited than any of those 40.

We have some...clear holes to fill this summer. I would like to shore up the defense as priority 1, because if some of those losses can turn into draws, or the 7-1 losses can turn into 3-1s, we might be able to be a little bit safer next season.

Amazing stuff! Definitely a lot more fun than a boring safe mid table position. 

11 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I'd love to say I have been on a lovely and long overdue holiday in the sun but that's very far from the truth. Dealing with a few life challenges but all fine thanks. Hope you are well too 

I hope to do an update with Ipswich soon (maybe later) as I have edged towards the end of 2021/22. Keep up the great work with York.

Hope all good with you now. Look forward to your next update. 

[karanhsingh]

I have been trudging along with Wigan but just not had the time to update. Hopefully get one up today. 

[karanhsingh]

Welcome to Wigan

Playing as a female version of myself in the hope (as has been rumored) that it may lead to a son being produced in the game sooner!

Here is the starting squad, all but 3 contracts up at the end of season 1. First window disabled so no changes possible.

As I usually tend to do, I have played a fair bit of the save before updating so the first few updates may seem a bit rushed.

[karanhsingh]

Wigan Athletic - Season 1

The first set of fixtures to open the season:

A decent start, the highlight being the Carabao cup win over Everton.

November & December were quite frankly brutal, with the sheer number of games taking a huge toll on the squad.

We entered the new year just off the play-off places.

January again was a mixed bag.

But things began to pick up in Feb & March. 

I forgot to screenshot it but we made a couple of key signings in Jan that helped us - Spanish/ Nigerian DM Stephen "Sunny" Sunday on a free to add some bite to the midfield, also Cole da Silva joined for free to provide quality cover in the wing back roles and Richard Nartey on loan to add some quality to the defense which was badly struggling for numbers & form.

This meant we broke into the top 2 for the first time all season, with 10 games to go.

So this is how we finished the season, but would it be enough?

A crazy league table going into the final day of the season, everything to play for!

In classic English league one fashion, none of the top 3 managed a win 

This of course meant that we managed to stay where we were!

[karanhsingh]

Also came across this during the season which drew a chuckle! Not seen it before.

Really happy with the promotion and bouncing back to the championship at the first attempt, although I am not sure we played well enough to deserve it. Not a single club managed even an average of 2 points per game, was a pretty poor league overall (or competitive, if that's how you want to look at it?). Anyway not that I am complaining, of course.

I have currently played through till the end of the year for season 2, so the half-way point, and it's largely been... well, frustrating. Another update should be up soon.

[Mackem742]

Well I havent updated for a while but Im coming to the end of my 1st season with Sunderland in the Premier League. Im 14th at the minute, 10 points clear of 18th with 7 games left so Im hopeful Im going to survive which was my main aim this season. The squad needs quite a rebuild as the signings I made were just to get me through this season. I kept the majority of players that got me promoted around the squad but they have been disappointing. Ive had 2 spells throughout the season where Ive been on terrible runs, 5 or 6 games without a win etc. But Ive just won 2 out of my last 3. 

A massive 1-0 win at home to Burnley who were 18th while I was 17th.

I then lost 4-1 at Watford despite taking the lead and absolutely battering them, my attacking players let me down badly, if they could finish I would have been out of sight by half time. Watford equalised mid way through the first half and then my defence collapsed. My attackers were still creating chances, we just couldnt score.

After that game I wasnt holding out much hope as I went away to Leeds who were 11th. My forwards seemed to find their scoring boots and I raced into a 2-0 lead within 20 minutes. They pulled one back before half time but I was still confident but that confidence was short lived as they equalised late in the 2nd half. Only for Pellegri to be played through in injury time and he slotted home to give us a 3-2 win. 

Hopefully those 2 wins late on in the season has given us enough to stay up. Im planning on a rebuild, scouting missions are already ongoing for next season. Also planning on revamping the backroom staff. I need to increase the clubs world knowledge so ill be targeting South American, Eastern European and African scouts.

Its been quite a miserable season to be honest but Im sticking with it, the one bright spot was a 4-0 win at home to Newcastle. The only downside to that is that it seemed to kick start there season and they have gone on an incredible run to move from lower mid table up to 6th!

Despite how hard this season has been Im enjoying the save, its keeping me distracted from how Sunderland are bottling it in real life!

[warlock]

2 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Really happy with the promotion

Quite, that's a great season. The Championship is meant to be harder 

39 minutes ago, Mackem742 said:

Im hopeful Im going to survive

Good luck, and well done for sticking with it... some us never get to the end of the first Premiership season 

[CityAndColour]

Sometimes there are FM moments that literally have you jumping up and yelling to the point that your wife thinks you're nuts.

94th minute, away at Halifax in a key relegation battle, the AI misses a defensive header, and the ball falls to Gary Fitzpatrick...

After a tough stretch through September, October and November, that one moment of brilliance keeps us afloat, as a draw would have dropped us into the relegation places. In truth however, we're on pace for 55 points which should see us comfortably safe, but it's such an even league that we're only just keeping our heads above water.

We open December with Yeovil at home and host Woking soon after, so we have a real chance to put some daylight between us and the bottom four. We've also beaten Chesterfield, Wrexham, Dulwich and H&R so far, so we're at least winning the important matches.

However, the reality is our squad simply isn't good enough for this level, and every match we're coming up against far superior players. To make matters worse, Ricardo Rees is out for three months with a torn calf, meaning we are basically only going as far as Fitzpatrick's goals (17 so far) take us. I am checking the loan and free transfer markets after almost every match, but there isn't a lot of quality there in terms of the players willing to come.

 

[Mackem742]

11 minutes ago, warlock said:

Good luck, and well done for sticking with it... some us never get to the end of the first Premiership season 

Not going to lie, its been tough. Watford have a 8-1 aggregate score over me in my 2 games with them 

[Sunstrikuuu]

8 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Have you tried putting in an offer to the club? They may accept lower than the compensation figure especially with future clauses. 

There's a 19 year old Irish AML at Derby  in my save on a month-to-month.  It's November 20208, and his contract ended in June/July 2028.  Derby won't go lower than £600k + future fee percentage, and compensation for signing him is £800k  Looking at his history, he's not played a single game, including during a loan spell in 2026/27. 

There's another guy at Southampton who plays striker; I wanted to get him in my summer window, but Southampton want £7.75m for a player who isn't under contract anymore.  It's kind of bizarre!  Is this a thing that happens in football?  I know there are compensation payments, but surely compensation doesn't apply when contracts have expired.

[Jogo Bonito]

12 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

Hope all good with you now. Look forward to your next update. 

Cheers, all OK thanks. Hope the same with you considering the news of the situation there.

Well done on a superb promotion with Wigan, quite an achievement there!

[StePratt]

Anthony Rees, £45k from Ross County. Had Premier League clubs sniffing around, so we went high with playing time and wages. I think the gamble paid off. Already a solid Championship centre half, hopefully, only going to get better.

Spoiler

John Raynes, came through the youth set up at Oxford. Probably the best newgen I've had on this years game. He is unreal. Genuine Premier League potential.

Spoiler

As for the rest of the team, we loaned Illias Akhomach from Barcelona Under 19s, absolute baller and destined for the top, Troy Parrot from Tottenham, plus McGuane and Forss. 

Here is my squad to date, under £65k in transfer fees and currently smashing it with a lot of original players.

[CityAndColour]

Raynes is unreal.

[karanhsingh]

11 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Cheers, all OK thanks. Hope the same with you considering the news of the situation there.

Well done on a superb promotion with Wigan, quite an achievement there!

Thanks. Yes it's a really bad situation here. Hopefully we can get through it soon. 

[karanhsingh]

10 hours ago, StePratt said:

Anthony Rees, £45k from Ross County. Had Premier League clubs sniffing around, so we went high with playing time and wages. I think the gamble paid off. Already a solid Championship centre half, hopefully, only going to get better.

  Reveal hidden contents

John Raynes, came through the youth set up at Oxford. Probably the best newgen I've had on this years game. He is unreal. Genuine Premier League potential.

  Reveal hidden contents

As for the rest of the team, we loaned Illias Akhomach from Barcelona Under 19s, absolute baller and destined for the top, Troy Parrot from Tottenham, plus McGuane and Forss. 

Here is my squad to date, under £65k in transfer fees and currently smashing it with a lot of original players.

Both the newgens look top draw! Well done. 

[hasdgfas]

Well, I was having another horrible start to the season, so I changed my tactic:

I feel like it's pretty clear when it changed

[warlock]

York City, September 2023

We've concluded our first month - and first transfer window - in League One. The transfer window was notable because for the first time we paid transfer fees, largely funded by the reluctant sale of AML Micah Hamilton. The youngster hadn't done much in his first season after signing on a free, but his potential caught the eye of a number of Championship clubs. Eventually, we managed to use that interest to drive up the fee to £375k from Blackburn. I didn't want to lose him, but he wanted to go and that's a sizeable fee for York. I was even less willing to see LB Tom Robinson leave but he discovered a burning desire to play in Scotland after Motherwell came calling and he eventually departed for a fee that will easily reach £135k plus a 40% sell-on clause.

In-coming signings included RB Kyle Knoyle from Cambridge for £60k, and CB Pierce Bird from Eastleigh for £100k. Ex-Newcastle youngster Yanick Toure, and Hull CM Max Sheaf joined on free deals, and Stoke CM Lasse Sorensen on a season-long loan.

I wasn't convinced that the squad was strong enough for L1 but the lads proved me wrong with a superb opening month:

Four wins from our first 4 league games shot us straight to the top of the division. We were also expected to exit the Carabao Cup in the first round but we survived and almost pulled off a second-round upset against Sunderland, who are now in the Championship. In Alexander and Toure we have two good strikers, Olowu and Bird have immediately formed a good partnership in central defence, while young Ben Price and the ageing Harry Bunn are providing goals and assists from the wide areas. I'd identify two real weaknesses: we're a bit fragile in central midfield where Sheaf has been OK but Sorensen has not impressed; and we're badly lacking squad depth. A couple of long-term injuries to key players could see our season go south in a hurry. But for now the Minstermen can enjoy the plaudits.

[warlock]

26 minutes ago, hasdgfas said:

I changed my tactic

Seems to have worked