[FM21] - Back To Basics / Stopsley Utd!

[Maw74]

Stopsley Utd's History on Football Manager

Below are the 2 major saves I have had with Stopsley Utd on Football Manager.
I did attempt some saves on other versions but none that lasted more than just
a few seasons, the saves on FM10 lasted 50 seasons and on FMC15 was 64 seasons.

Updates and some details and stats from those saves.
_________________________________________________________

FM10 Stopsley Utd - The FM Era! / Club Honours - Manager Stats - Best XI

FMC15 Stopsley Utd - The FMC Era! / Club Honours - Manager Stats - Best XI

Legends & Icons on FM10 & FMC15

This all started on LMA Manager 2005 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

[I have many other attempts but nothing that lasted, so only really count the three above as proper saves.]

Stopsley United on Football Manager 2018 (Finished)
[Got to season 11, so one of the better attempts.]

& 

Stopsley United & Mawborough on Football Manager 2018 (Finished/???)
[Only in first season, this save still appeals, this was set up when going through a love/hate phase with save mentioned below.]

Also I have 

Mawborough on Football Manager Touch 2020 (Ongoing)
[Put too much time to give up on this, got through the love/hate phase, well sort of true,
thought about moving club to FMT21 but then not ready or willing to do that lol.]
 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

We will be replacing the MK Dons in League One and we will be based at Stadium MK, Milton Keynes, England.

[So yeah replaced them and nicked their stadium, sorry MK Dons fans, well I'm not really ]

More details still to be decided, I will be implementing some of these > restrictions/policies for the club.

I want our focus to be on youth/young players, probably not youth only but age restrictions on signings and also
will impose a limit on signings allowed per season.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

[Maw74]

 

CLUB INFORMATION

[Maw74]

So I have been trying to decide how to have my starting squad.......

Option 1
Hand pick some players.
Option 2
Let game generate squad.
Option 3
Start with no players, then make signings.

Well option 3 was not really appealing at all, option 1 was most appealing as over the course of this save we will be
having a massive amount of players generated by the game, so I decided we will start with a squad of real players.

I also think with the history of the club over my various FM saves it is a fair new start for the club.

That doesn't mean going mad and bringing in Messi, Ronaldo, Kane and Haaland etc lol

I have even held off the temptation to bring in players like Tanganga & Skipp (Spurs) and Reyna, Moukoko & Bellingham (Dortmund).
 

I wanted to go mostly for a squad of players 21 years and under, I decided to go through the squads in the Premier League and pick
one player from each club and have a squad of 21 players, taking 2 players from Spurs.

Here is my list........

Not my best writing lol

I then decided that I would keep hold of the MK Dons captain Dean Lewington, also wanted to boost the
squad to about 25/26 players so added........

George Williams & Andrew Surman for an MK link and some experienced players in squad, knock Gilbey
on the head because I found out he was 25 (too young) for what I wanted to add.

The final player is added for a bit of fun, I have had so many great legends/icons so it's hard to pick my favourite.
Stopsley Utd Legends & Icons on Football Manager
Ryan Sobers was the first youth player to make a big impact for me and he later became my assistant at Stopsley and later with England (FM10).

Ryan Sobers playing career on FM2010

Ryan Sobers career history on FM2010

To set Sobers up in this game I just searched players born in Luton and picked a player who wasn't at a top club and didn't have a pic in the database.

That was a player at Warrington, so I have just edited various things and this is > Ryan Sobers in FM2021 .

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Maw74
Posted before I had finished post lol

[Maw74]

CLUB CULTURE

 We will focus on youth & young signings.

 

FULL SQUAD ANNOUNCED
We have 25 players.

Staff & Manager to be announced soon.

[Narrator C]

Those are some magisterial saves, Maw.  I'm glad I will be able to follow this one from the very beginning!

[Maw74]

Putting faces to the names, Introducing my Stopsley Squad.

Most of the squad could be at the club for many years, we will see how that works out.
Lewington, Williams & Surman (MK Dons connection) well Williams could be with us for
a fair bit of time, Lewington & Surman at 36 & 33 could retire in game during early seasons.

Lewington & Williams were obvious choices for captains, nice to see key player and hot prospect are my Spurs duo.

[Maw74]

21 hours ago, Narrator C said:

Those are some magisterial saves, Maw.  I'm glad I will be able to follow this one from the very beginning!

Thanks, yeah I loved those saves, still have them and they often stopped me from giving FM releases in-between and after as much playing time because I was still in to those saves, can only really think of one other save that was anywhere close to the time of those, that was a career save also on FMC15, actually think my FMT20 save is now very close to being my 3rd longest save.

I am glad you are interested in following, I hope this proves to be great/fun save, I'm looking forward to getting into it, firstly I want to complete my 20th season on my other save (10 games left) and a few more tweaks to the set-up of this game and then we will get it going.

[Maw74]

 

I will be playing as Billy, my made up manager for this save (a tribute to legendary Spurs player & manager Bill Nicholson).

Billy shares the same birthday but born in 1989 Billy joined the world 70 years after Bill, they also share same birthplace.

Here are our other members of staff..........

firstly our chairman Adam Grant 

and here is a closer look at Billy's Assistant.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

CLUB DETAILS

CLUB RECORDS

Those 2 records were set in the FMC15 save, They will take some beating and it will have to be a long save.

 

Pre-Season done and dusted, we did have a friendly against Coventry lined up but we got drawn in the cup so cancelled
the friendly and arranged to play MK Irish as it would be rather silly to play Coventry in back to back games.

We start the season with back to back cup games, bring it on.

Those are no longer their squad numbers lol

Edited March 27, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

Billy Nicholson's First Game!

The tie finished 1-1 so we had a shoot-out.

Well done to the lads, 100% from the spot.

Surman scored the clubs first goal and a record for Scarlett.

Some early records.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

September 2020

It has been an eventful opening month, we had a good cup run that included a shock win against Sheff Utd, it came to an end
against Southampton but no disgrace in that and we did put up a good fight and were a bit unlucky with a goal ruled out.

We have also taken part in three penalty shoot-outs and only missed one penalty over the three of them.
the league games haven't gone so well though with two defeats in three games.

 

 

He has just signed a professional contract in real life at Spurs and he is getting game time from the bench for us.

  [SEASON TICKET SALES]

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

 

 

Don't be such an idiot Steven, it was a penalty miss in the Papa John's Trophy you mug.
He scored two goals in the game, missed in the shoot-out, 77 muppets giving that a like.

[Maw74]

No Transfers!

It was always the plan that there would be no signings during first season, would just be a bit silly after picking squad
to then go and make signings, we have to go with the players we have, it's the whole point of picking 25 anyway.

Dane Scarlett!

 

Ryan Sobers!

 

FA Cup Draw!

Edited April 3, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

Bogarde Header Sends Stopsley Utd Through!

A tough game but we are through.

[Maw74]

Levitt Makes Wales Debut!

He made his debut in a 3-1 loss to Rep.Ireland, he came on as a sub then got subbed. 

He then got a second cap in a 2-2 draw with Bulgaria, stayed on this time and picked up a booking.

Both games were in the Nations League.

[Maw74]

October 2020

TERRIBLE, Just terrible, can't say much more than that to sum it up really, struggling to score and struggling to keep them out.
Finally managed a clean sheet in the last game of the month against AFC Wimbledon, hopefully we can build on that and pick up some form.

 

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

 

November 2020 (Part One)

It's a narrow win but a good win and another clean sheet.

It was tough but we are through.

Another clean sheet but we lose on penalties again and go out.

[Maw74]

November 2020 (Part Two)

Parrot gave us an early lead but we couldn't build on it and Hull hit back.

A clean sheet but only a draw, we need wins.

 Sorensen nets late winner.

 

[deltablue]

Hopefully Stopsley will soon turn into Startsley.

[Maw74]

8 hours ago, deltablue said:

Hopefully Stopsley will soon turn into Startsley.

Heading for the sack at the moment, I have been ok on other FM's but on 20 & 21 I am just totally rubbish.

[Maw74]

December 2020 (Part One)

Charlton proved too strong, even though they were a man down.

Time running out for Billy?

Injury time goal from Smyth piles on misery.

Controversially? why? So it's fine for him to be critical of us but our response is controversial.

 Well............................sh        

Oh ok.................

Nicholson was called in for a board meeting.

Given a bit more time.

December continues to be a disaster, another defeat, no goals scored.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

December 2020 (Part Two)

We ended our four game goal drought but we were well beaten..

We took the lead with ten to go........couldn't hold out though.

Another tight game but yet another defeat.

We took an early lead through Scarlett but we couldn't build or hold on to it.

How the table stands..........

Rock bottom and I can't see that changing, relegation looks certain.

Our youth intake preview.

[Maw74]

  Billy Nicholson has now had numerous meetings with chairman Adam Grant.

The meetings have gone the same on each occasion.

I selected exact same answer on every occasion and got same response.

This is why I hate this part of the game and a big reason I switched to the Touch/Classic version.

It's just hideous and adds nothing to the game for me, too many set choice interactions.

Edited April 7, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

January 2021 (Part One)

So so close to a league win but late despair.

Another draw but on a positive note it's two games unbeaten.

Well what a game, we progress with another surprise result.

We need Parrott to get on a run.

How? Why? What?  We struggle in league but do well in cups.

I'm not quite sure how we pulled out the result against Reading, look at the stats....

 

[deltablue]

Great win over Reading.

[Maw74]

On 09/04/2021 at 10:50, deltablue said:

Great win over Reading.

Yeah rode our luck but showed real character to level late in normal time and then again in ET, I just wish we could match that in the league.

[Maw74]

January 2021 (Part Two)

Can we pull off another shock?

Same old story in the league, another narrow defeat.

Our FA Cup run comes to an end, Blackburn just too strong.

YES! A league win at last, Scarlett's goal enough to beat Charlton.

Rudoni condems us to another defeat with late free-kick.

Stopsley Fan's Are Not Backing Billy!

Closer than I expected to see it anyway.

How the table stands..........

Not good viewing, could say the only way is up..........

That would be wrong though, this is League One so we are going down.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

February 2021 (Part One)

A terrible start but a great recovery and another win.

Only a 0-0 draw but good result against high flying opponents.

We were 23rd & they were 1st at time of match.

A first goal for Sobers but a poor performance and result.

Billy was called in for yet another meeting!

Yet again made same comment and response exactly same, how many times we need to do this???

We had another fan poll!

Slightly wider result this time.

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

February 2021 (Part Two)

We do the double over Northampton, 1-0 & 2-0.

A terrible result away to Shrewsbury, Spurs loanee Rodel Richards with a hat-trick.

A great result against 5th place Oxford, Sorensen with late strike and another
clean sheet for Dewhurst. 

Current Table...

Avoiding relegation is looking very unlikely.

 

Possible Signings!

Edited April 12, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

March 2021 (Part One)

Frustrating result, simply can't afford to lose to teams we are trying to catch.

Same story in this game, done by another late goal.

Another fan poll...

We also had another board meeting, same as all others.

A very late goal gives us a win against 3rd place Blackpool.

Scarlett to Chelsea?

Really? Well maybe he is going to be a great player.

Would he get games at Chelsea or just get loaned out?

Edited April 12, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

March 2021 (Part Two)

Took an early lead but that was soon overturned and another defeat.

Gelhardt strike secures away win at Burton.

Truth is we got battered in this game, Parrott with a brace as we nearly nicked a point.

Scarlett Signs Professional Contract!

A big pay rise, small wage in football but wish I got that a week.

Current Standings!

 

Edited April 14, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

March 2021 (Extra)

Youth Intake Day

Our under 18's beat the youth candidates 1-0, here are those youth candidates.

12 of those players have been signed to youth contracts.

The other 4 candidates will leave at the end of April.

4 Players Joining Stopsley Utd!

Ballard    Longstaff     Butler       Devine

I have stalled on the Ballard deal for now.

Only one of those fit with this........

Oh well 

[Maw74]

April 2021 (Part One)

A bad start and it didn't get better as we slip to another defeat.

Gelhardt strikes on the hour to gives us a much needed win.

Outplayed and thumped by Ipswich.

Cole Palmer has an admirer!

Could Palmer be heading to Tottenham?

Current Standings!

 

[Maw74]

April 2021 (Part Two)

Another dismal defeat.

Cole Palmer has another admirer!

Could Palmer be heading to Tottenham or Arsenal?

Second half collapse as we are thumped.

Current Standings!

Relegation Confirmed!

[Maw74]

Who will be my next manager?

It won't be any of those.

Next manager will be one of those.

 

[abulezz]

There is no stopping Stopsley - I am all for Gareth Northgate. 

[deltablue]

Hopefully it's Brenda

[Maw74]

 

Who will be the next manager?

Stopsley Utd Chairman Adam Grant Confirms Talks!

Grant "I can confirm we have held talks with three candidates for the position.
A further announcement will be made in the next few days"

The three in contention are:

 

On 18/04/2021 at 09:20, abulezz said:

There is no stopping Stopsley - I am all for Gareth Northgate. 

 

3 hours ago, deltablue said:

Hopefully it's Brenda

Well both in contention 

Updating is the best part of this game at the moment , not the best manager and looks like this is gonna be quite a challenge for me, that is good though............

Even special managers get sacked >>>>>> 

 

[abulezz]

Well congrats! You became the news source that broke the Mourinho sacking to me!

[deltablue]

Brenda looks like she's wearing a terrible wig

[Maw74]

On 19/04/2021 at 14:33, abulezz said:

Well congrats! You became the news source that broke the Mourinho sacking to me!

👍😁

8 hours ago, deltablue said:

Brenda looks like she's wearing a terrible wig

How dare you? That is her very own golden locks 😜

She's a beaut 🤣

[Maw74]

 

 

 New Manager Revealed!

Current Season:

We have 3 games left to play this season.

Billy Nicholson Retires!
(for now anyway)

 

 

 

 

[Maw74]

 

A bore draw but that is a good result for us.

See, a bore draw is better than this.

Another narrow defeat, so we have failed to score again.

Three games and yet to score in Northgate's reign.

Final Standings:

The Relegation Zone

Edited April 22, 2021 by Maw74

[abulezz]

Rough start for Northgate - he will turn it around I'm sure. 

[Maw74]

On 23/04/2021 at 10:23, abulezz said:

Rough start for Northgate - he will turn it around I'm sure. 

 if he was real then maybe, as it is me then not that likely.

Edited April 25, 2021 by Maw74

[Maw74]

This is just feeling like a chore right now.

Certainly not fun at the moment, it's not just the results, look at my Mawborough save on FMT20, not setting the world on fire with our performance in that.
However I am enjoying the long slog that is going on overall in that save, yeah have moments when it drives me crazy but overall I am really in to that save.
 

This save not having same effect so far, not just the results but maybe part of it is my set up, also maybe full game is just not for me anymore, too many things
I don't like, the media stuff is a big annoyance, it is just so........................................................

[abulezz]

11 hours ago, Maw74 said:

This is just feeling like a chore right now.

Certainly not fun at the moment, it's not just the results, look at my Mawborough save on FMT20, not setting the world on fire with our performance in that.
However I am enjoying the long slog that is going on overall in that save, yeah have moments when it drives me crazy but overall I am really in to that save.
 

This save not having same effect so far, not just the results but maybe part of it is my set up, also maybe full game is just not for me anymore, too many things
I don't like, the media stuff is a big annoyance, it is just so........................................................

I used to have that feeling with certain saves through my FM "career" since 1999, but I found a formula that works (create-a-club, youth only in England) and I've enjoyed every version since! If you are not feeling it, don't force it, start a new one that you enjoy!

[Maw74]

7 hours ago, abulezz said:

I used to have that feeling with certain saves through my FM "career" since 1999, but I found a formula that works (create-a-club, youth only in England) and I've enjoyed every version since! If you are not feeling it, don't force it, start a new one that you enjoy!

I really wanted the save to be fun and a good update, think I am just gonna revive an old save for a bit, see if we can add to these