[FM13] Alice in FM-land

[deltablue]

2 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Ouch!  That's just brutal.  A promising start dropping off horribly.  You still have the chance to get back in the playoff spots, but challenging at the top is looking less likely.

Yep, it's just so frustrating. Both goalkeeper injuries happened just as it looked like we might be building some momentum and it was unfortunate that we had both keepers out on each occasion. There was some extra frustration about the York defeat since aside from the fact that we would otherwise have hoped to win that one comfortably, results elsewhere meant the gap to the playoffs and the top 3 remained 3 and 5 points respectively so we could really have closed in. I only played through to the end of the month to do the update because of how frustrating I was finding it. The playoffs aren't too far off but the gap to the top 3 looks big. The next three games are Peterborough, Accrington and Fleetwood all away which probably won't be fun either.

[MWFC_3]

@deltablue Could we see how the 2014-2030 World Cups went?

[deltablue]

2 hours ago, MWFC_3 said:

@deltablue Could we see how the 2014-2030 World Cups went?

Here you are (with the Euro winners as well)

2014

2018

2022

2026

2030

 

[deltablue]

Jan 2031

It's fair to say that this is a much more optimistic update than last time with no defeats at all in all competitions despite having two cup ties (both against higher division teams) go to replays.

I wasn't looking forward to our initial run of December fixtures but we got a respectable draw at Peterborough and beat Accrington Stanley and Fleetwood Town, slashing the gap to Mansfield in 3rd from 10 points to 5. Suddenly a top 3 challenge seemed possible after all. Unfortunately we've not managed to win 3 league games in a row all season so it kind of seemed inevitable that we would drop points after conceding an equaliser to MK Dons but we rounded out the year with a comfortable win against Bromyard Town (whose wage expenditure would narrowly miss out on being in the top 6 in the Championship). We started 2031 with a draw at Halifax (which still allowed us to close to 3 points of Mansfield) after one of those games where both sides had a few 'how did they not score that!' chances before alternating home wins against Crewe and Gateshead with draws at Dagenham & Redbridge and Newport, the latter result being by far the most disappointing of the two. That's the one real negative, that at least a couple of draws in this run should have been wins and it's costing us badly. Barnsley and Mansfield (away) are next so we can't afford to slip up.

So to the cup. Altrincham made it three out of three this season for drawing League 1 teams, though while we comfortably beat the other two, we barely held on in the first game thanks to a late-ish equaliser. I was glad to just be in the tie so I was delighted when a late Hawkes goal sent us through. Championship side Chesterfield were next but we took a shock lead in the first game. They equalised immediately but despite remaining deep and defensive we actually hada lot of chances and forced a lot of corners in the second half so had we got a winner it would have been deserved. The replay turned in the second half when they went down to 10 men I decided to push a little more and we almost immediately scored and went full defensive to send us through to the last 16! We face Norwich of all teams and will almost certainly lose but you have to wonder. This is part of why it would be harsh to get sacked if we don't go up. It's not just the promotions but the cup runs and what is now a long list of higher division scalps. I think I have earned the right to stay for one more promotion push after this (if need be) and leave on my own terms.

[deltablue]

I wanted to get the rest of the season done today and it started promisingly with a win against Barnsley and a draw against Mansfield that both sides had reason to be happy with. We then beat Doncaster and Rochdale with the FA Cup match at Norwich in between. We lost that to an early free-kick and a late penalty but otherwise put in a solid performance given the circumstances. However there were clear signs that we were starting to slow down as we had to rescue a point at home to Blackpool, followed by another draw against AFC Wimbledon and our unbeaten run finally falling (and deservedly so) at Kettering, though the latter two matches were at least tough ones against other playoff contenders though we then drew at York as well, Unfortunately it didn't help that we were suddenly getting a bunch of injuries to defenders in particular and the injured players seemed a shadow of their former selves when they returned. The most frustrating thing was that the gap to the top three didn't open up that much. Our rivals were stumbling and we were completely failing to take advantage of that.

I thought we might have turned a corner after beating Sheffield Utd but it wasn't to be, as we then crashed to a humiliating defeat to Wrexham. Mathematically we still had a decent chance of making the top 3 but I knew it was fading away fast. It wasn't until the penultimate game at Port Vale that our chance of automatic promotion died when they equalised, leading to a chaotic final game against Accrington Stanley where we went behind, then 2-1 and 3-2 ahead before being denied the win by a soft penalty. In some ways I am glad that we had a gap of 6 points to 3rd in the end as at one point when we were leading it was only two and that would have left me thinking that we had really blown it. It still left us one place and 5 points worse off than last season, not good for a team that could have done so much better. Into the playoffs we go but in my experience your form going into them is everything so it probably won't go any better than last year.

[deltablue]

Playoffs 2031

Semi-finals

The first leg against Birmingham was my 900th match of the career but I wasn't sure I would have much to celebrate. Having to take off a couple of defenders early due to worrying body language ('complacent' and 'very nervous' respectively) didn't help. However when Brownhill slotted home, followed by a free-kick from Lobo (who came on for one of the defenders earlier) I suddenly felt we were in control. We could have gotten a 3rd before they pushed late on but 2 goals seemed a decent margin to take to the second leg.

The plan to keep it tight in the away leg quickly fell apart as they scored an early goal and the defence once again looked a right mess. A second Birmingham goal seemed inevitable and it seemed like we really were about to throw it all away. That was why I was relieved when Hawkes broke away and lobbed the ball into the goal at mid-range to equalise on the night. That left us with a bit more breathing room which it turned out we didn't need as despite some close calls we managed to keep them out for the rest of the match.

[deltablue]

Playoff Final 2031

The playoff final was against Peterborough. The first half was very quiet, at least until they unfortunately took the lead. I started to worry until Sandjak headed in a cross to equalise. We kept pushing on and it wasn't long before the Algerian took the ball to the line and pulled it back for Hawkes to hammer home for 2-1! The celebrations were wild indeed, which gave way first to caution to see if we could hold on, and relief when the end came.

We really don't do things the easy way at this club. That makes it 4 promotions, three of which were through the playoffs and one of those came after blowing a good lead at the top of the table. This season was a proper roller-coaster of hope and despair and I really thought we had blown it late on. As it was it took until the final day to even confirm our place in the playoffs. As it turned out we didn't win more than two league games in a row and probably never occupied the top 3 places so this was very much an unconvincing mess of a promotion season, yet we got there in the end. I will definitely leave after next season now with a promising array of future destinations (and Ipswich) and will leave quite a legacy behind. As a reminder, this was the situation I inherited...

 

Star player: This was a toughie. In recent years it's gone to an attacking player based on goals and assists but this time I decided to go back to the player with the highest rating as it was won fairly comfortably by the Croatian defender Stojan. I really didn't expect him to be this good, and I only signed him over another player who had a long-term injury. He soon established himself despite an early straight red card and I am glad he found his old form in time for the playoff final.

Squad Stats

[13th Man]

Wow! Well done, despite some rocky patches you managed to push on through to League One! Love how far your manager has gone up through the leagues. 

[deltablue]

19 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Wow! Well done, despite some rocky patches you managed to push on through to League One! Love how far your manager has gone up through the leagues. 

Thank you. Oh it was definitely one of my less convincing promotion seasons and during the final matches of the regular league season I was already looking ahead to our chances of doing it the following year but thankfully the team managed to find some form again (to a point) in the playoffs, As for rising through the leagues, the whole point of this save (aside from experiencing the different leagues and teams below the Conference North/South) was to have that long-term goal of rising through the leagues and counting the promotions. Now it's 8 down and just 2 to go and I wonder if I can do them both at my next club.

[13th Man]

3 hours ago, deltablue said:

ow it's 8 down and just 2 to go and I wonder if I can do them both at my next club

Impressive work and dedication!

[DavidBeckham]

 Congrats on the playoff final win mate! And Zoran has been an absolute towering presence for you!

[deltablue]

4 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Impressive work and dedication!

Thank you. It's actually gone much quicker than expected after the early seasons, helped by the triple promotion with Cadbury Heath and being able to get Grimsby after that. I'm glad I had the rule about not being allowed to skip promotions (and in fact I was offered the Man City job this summer) as it feels more rewarding. This year in League 1 we have Everton (who have been down for couple of years), Wolves. Blackburn and Watford among the teams so the next move could be a really good one.

3 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

 Congrats on the playoff final win mate! And Zoran has been an absolute towering presence for you!

Thank you. We really did it the hard way once again. As for Stojan he actually set a new record for the highest average rating in a season. He's not even the first rock solid Croatian defender I have had on this version (though a previous save)...

[deltablue]

Summer 2031

This was a surprisingly quiet summer, especially after promotion. Now we're firmly in the realms of multi-year contracts (which still takes some getting used to) we only had three players with expiring contracts last season. There was Mirfin, who I was 100% going to keep, Rob Jennings, who was good for us in the Conference but was now one of a handful of players now surplus to requirements and wanting to leave so they could actually play, and Lozano who I would have wanted to keep but couldn't get a work permit this time. There was also the fact that we couldn't offer players any more than last season and even with a bit of rebalancing to get a potential transfer budget of around 300k, it was hard to afford anyone who would actually improve this side. However after the chaos of last season, having a more settled squad this time probably wouldn't be a bad thing and the theoretical ability of the team isn't in doubt.

As for who I did sign, there was only one hole in the squad to fill, for a playmaker, and I went for the Scottish attacking midfielder Goodwillie from fellow promotees Port Vale. The fact that he could fill in on the wing as well was bonus and the compensation fee was no longer a deal-breaker. The other initial signing was Beasant from Peterborough, another somewhat familiar face from our promotion battle last season. I still wanted another central defender and while there were few good options out there, I was glad to beat a couple of other League 1 sides to signing the Argentine Scarsi. A good central midfielder was on the 'would be nice' list but the only plausable target was a Chinese defender/midfielder who couldn't get a work permit. It's not the end of the world though.

I did raise the expectations slightly to mid-table from 'learn from the experience' for a little extra budget. That's something I virtually never do (and has usually backfired when I have) but in this case I doubt I have too much to worry about and I am leaving at the end of the season anyway.

Beasant

Goodwillie

Scarsi

Transfer Activity

 

[deltablue]

Sept 2031

This has been a pretty good start to the season, especially with a game or two in hand over pretty much everyone else. A Sandjak double gaves us a win to start with over Watford, with another to beat Championship Rotherham in the League Cup, we then snatched a draw at Portman Road and hammered Cambridge to briefly enjoy a spot in the top two. Defeat to Sheffield Wednesday only seemed a blip as we returned to winnling ways in the league against Notts County, sandwiched between cup wins over Bristol City and Gateshead. We then hit a trickier patch with a draw against Oldham and defeat at Brimscombe & Thrupp (one of those games where had multiple 'how did they not get the ball over the line' moments before they scored). Kings Lynn Town had a pretty good team given their position so it was nice to beat them, then we made it 3 out of 3 for beating Championship sides in the League cup when a wonderful Hawkes goal gave us a last minute winner. The month did end on a slightly disappointing note as we laboured to a 0-0 draw against Salisbury but if that can be considered a low point then we're hardly doing badly.

I must admit that with the start we've had I've been wondering if we could make a play-off push but at the moment our form has only really been good enough to hang on to a top 6 place at best and there really isn't any pressure to push again. I'm just so used to gunning for promotion that it's nice to have a more relaxed season and take in things going well for a promoted time and what would be my swansong in North-East Lincolnshire. Aside from our position in the league, we have a 100% cup record this year, including a hat-trick of Championship scalps in the League Cup, therefore keeping up our long-established tradition of beating teams in the league above us. Premier League Nottingham Forest (who have made a good start to the season) await in what I think is the last 16 of the League Cup, and while I look forward to beating a Premier League team for the first time I'm not sure it's going to happen quite yet.

[Sahaj Oberoi]

Love what you have done at Grimsby, very impressive. 

[deltablue]

On 17/08/2022 at 12:03, Sahajpal Oberoi said:

Love what you have done at Grimsby, very impressive. 

Sorry, didn't see this earlier. Thank you so much, and I might not be finished yet

[deltablue]

Oct 2031

This was very month of two halves. Our poor form early on wasn't helped by a bit of an injury crisis, especially in midfield. That meant having to play unfit players, players out of position (especially once I found out that a few forwards were theoretically 'competent' in central midfield), or both. It was a situation I had to manage all month though a couple of players starting to return from injury meant that the situation did ease a little. It was still frustrating having to sub on players in positions they were unsuited for because I had to look at a bigger picture that meant that playing unfit players for 90 mins was out of the question. The two points in the first 4 games were both won by coming back from behind, and right in the middle of that we missed all 4 penalties in a shootout with Sheffield United to go out of the Football League trophy. We took advantage of home games with struggling Leyton Orient and Wolves to get back to winning ways, then a win in a tougher trip to Port Vale gave us 3 league wins in a row for the first time in almost 2 years and took us to the heady heights of 4th with 1/3 of the season gone!

That took us to the highly anticipated match with Nottingham Forest. They were 6th in the Premier League so as a newly promoted League 1 team not much was expected. However at Grimsby I have finally got the hang of going appropriately defensive for such ties which has given us a long list of higher division scalps over the years. It was a more even match than you'd expect as while we were holding on to dear life at times, we also had our chances. 25 shots for them (7 on target) and 15 for us (4 on target) shows that either side could have won it. That meant it went to penalties, and while all of their first three efforts were saved, we only scored one of our own and that let them back in to take it to sudden death. The next 7 efforts were all scored before Adams pulled off his 4th save of the shootout to send us to give us our first Premier League scalp and take us through to the League Cup quarter-finals!

New Signings

I took advantage of the fact that we could still sign and register free agents outside of the usual windows to sign a couple of players who were being offered out. Another left-back and right-winger were not big priorities in terms of having sufficient numbers but they added a lot more quality in both positions and the added depth was still welcome.

 

One More Thing...

After the Leyton Orient win I got this message. For a while now it's felt like Hawkes has been around forever but he's just a couple of months or so past his 24th birthday! I was thinking of making him 'Star Player' based on his career as a whole but the way he's going he might well be a genuine contender for the season anyway.

 

[deltablue]

Dec 2031

I have no idea how we are continuing to be this good. The only breaks we have really had has been due to postponed matches and we had the same 'injured midfielders' issue as earlier in the season in December. Thankfully as of the end of the month that situation is just about to clear. We haven't been spectactular by any means but I wasn't expecting us to be with a seemingly interminible run of 2 games a week and having to manage the squad due to fitness and injury issues, so just getting the results felt like a big triumph. It wasn't too surprising to see an end to our run by losing in a replay to Wolves in the FA Cup, then losing to relegation battling Altrincham in the league but we have managed to get 10 points from the 4 remaining games to built a 3-point lead in 2nd, 7 points ahead of 4th and 11 ahead of 7th. Hopefully we should get into the playoffs at least but as things stand I fancy our chances of automatic promotion.

The main event was the League Cup quarter-final with Leicester. They were in the Championship but had spent almost the entire game in the Premier League and their squad reflected that, so I treated them as such tactically (otherwise I wouldn't go more defensive than usual for a home game against a team a single division above, and nor have I needed to given our cup record). This time we didn't need penalties as Palmer headed us into a early lead. We could have gotten a second goal on the break soon after but despite going more defensive to protect the lead, we eventually got one with Ablett's first goal for the club. They got a goal back with enough time to get me very worried (as by this point all our eggs really were in the defensive basket) but we held on. We face Reading, struggling in the Premier League, in the semi-finals. It feels like a worst of both worlds situation as we'll probably finally lose but it won't feel as exciting or as understandable as doing so to Arsenal or Man City (the other two sides left). Still, what a run it's been, and there's just a little chance that it's not over yet!

[DavidBeckham]

Solid work through the busy November and December mate! KUTGW! 

[deltablue]

16 hours ago, DavidBeckham said:

Solid work through the busy November and December mate! KUTGW! 

Thank you. I can't quite believe it myself, especially with the fixture congestion and injuries (including to our first choice keeper for about a month in November). We're pretty much over the worst of it on both fronts so I am daring to dream of promotion again.

[deltablue]

Feb 2032

The bottom line of this update is that we maintained the 3 point advantage to Brimscombe & Thrupp but I am still not happy as it could have been more, starting with the defeat against Sheffield Wednesday (no thanks to the worst finishing I've seen for a while) after we already knew our rivals had drawn and we could gave extended the lead to 5 points, The gap went back and forth as we extended it again by beating Notts County, lost ground after a narrow defeat to Everton then beat Oldham and Brimscombe & Thrupp (surprisingly comfortably) to end January with a 4-point lead and a big goal difference advantage.  February was a month of missed opportunities, starting with a draw at bottom side Kings Lynn. Salisbury was our only comfortably win of the month as the defence seriously let us down. We lost the lead twice against Blackburn then went 3-1 down from 1-0 up against Northampton and only a late Hawkes double gave us a draw and a single point lead in 2nd. We also barely scraped a win against Leyton Orient, no thanks to my tendency to keep forgetting to change my starting tactics back after defensive cup ties. Thankfully that was tied with Ipswich taking a point off B & T (and nearly winning but) a more comfortable lead (and even top spot) was within our grasp. 2 out of 3 teams will go up automatically and we have 10 games to ensure we are ahead of either rival.

Once again the league cup will be dealt with seperately. Facing two legs (with the away leg first) complicates things considerably for the underdog. We made a woeful start at Reading but FM has taught me that however bleak things look, if it's just 1-0 you can always find a way back. So it proved as Hawkes ended a goal drought to put us level in the tie. That made a big difference as not only could we remain defensive at home, I only noticed while checking the rules mid-match that you do have away goals in the League Cup, just only after extra time. That meant that if we could hold on, we didn't even need to score to to through. As it turned out Walker gave us an extra time goal anyway with a lob on the break to send us through to the first major cup final in the club's history. That saw us face Arsenal, and it was no surprise to see that most of their players earned more than our entire squad. The defence earned its pay and then some as while we weren't at our best up front, we held them off until the 113th minute! It was an amazing cup run to be sure and even in defeat the players have a lot to be proud of.

[deltablue]

May 2032

I went into this season thinking that it would just be a quiet 'lame duck' season to wrap up my time at Grimsby. How wrong I was! The endgame wasn't as comfortable as the final table suggests, starting with what should have been a comfortable win against Bristol Rovers which turned into the second time in 3 games where we needed a late brace to rescue a point. We won the next three to get a 5-point lead over Brimscombe & Thrupp and even go into 1st but they weren't dropping points where I hoped they would, including beating Everton while we faced Port Vale. That was probably the least preferable outcome of that match as while we were technically competing with Everton for 1st as well and any result technically favoured us, the gap to 3rd was all that mattered. We were now in a position where I expected we could probably hold on with the matches running out but Brimscombe & Thrupp just about looked close enough to still be a threat.

We started to stumble a little, starting with a draw at Dagenham and Redbridge. We then just managed to avoid throwing away a 3-0 lead against Coventry (while Brimscombe and Thrupp were beating Wycombe in another game where I hoped they'd drop points) before actually losing from 2-0 up against Wycombe. That was followed by a 2-0 defeat to Mansfield due to a penalty and own goal! Thankfully Brimscombe & Thrupp failed to capitalise both times, drawing from winning positions to keep us 3 points ahead. That meant that we could go into the Bolton game knowing that a win would basically see us up, as aside from the fact that we had already relegated Altrincham at home last, it was very unlikely (though not completely inpossible) that we would lose our goal difference advantage. Two Sandjak goals gave us the win we needed, followed by an utter hammering of Altrincham to make it official while Brimscombe & Thrupp eventually lost a topsy-turvy match with Northampton to make it look as comfortable as it should have been in the end. Everton beat Wolves to secure 1st (which would otherwise have been ours on goal difference if they dropped points) but that didn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

Star Player: While far from the best over the course of the season (Stojan beat his own average rating record from last year), Hawkes still did well to wrap up almost 9 seasons together. His numbers may not have been as high since promotion to League 2 but he still gets a decent ratio, with a lot of important goals as well. I feel lucky to have inherited him as a star in the making and we just couldn't have done all this without him  He now has 248 goals and 95 assists in 444 appearences for the club and I look forward to seeing what happens with the rest of his career. If I can, I plan to sign him in the Premier League and use him at least a little as a squad player.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Goodbye Grimsby

I have had so many 'shall I stay or go?' moments since we were trying to get out of the Conference that this season really did feel like the time had finally come, even if we hypothetically got promoted. I did reconsider that during the season but in the end I was determined to stick to my original decision. Part of the reason is financial, We couldn't actually offer any more in terms of wages than before (and less than some players were already on) after the last promotion and while the budgets were boosted significantly this time, it still leaves struggling to afford players of the required standard, not helped by having regularly sold out the ground even in League 2. While I was thankfully very wrong about League 1 being as far as I could reasonably go with Grimsby, I am more certain about the Championship being that limit so I probably need to move on to be able to do more than survive at that level

In some ways, having such a great season was actually another clinching factor. It's nice to leave on a high, with a 5th promotion and the run to the League Cup final (with every opponent being in the Championship or Premier League) providing the best note I could possibly finish on at the club. Even the final game against Altrincham counts, a 5-0 home win with Hawkes, Sandjak and Stamp (all in the overall best 11) scoring. This has been one of the best stints I have ever had at a club on FM.

[deltablue]

New Club!

In the end it look over a year and a half to get a new club. This was partly by choice as I was linked with pretty much every Championship vacancy and a few in the Premier League. I was deliberately very picky, not wanting a team with too high a wage bill, immediate expectations of promotion, too small a stadium or a few other things. However as the second season progressed I was feeling a little more willing to compromise, especially after surprisingly failing to get the Nottingham Forest job which I had hoped would become available after they were relegated the previous season. In February a club I had rejected the previous Summer came calling again, and this time I decided to agree...

Now Everton in the Championship may seem like a Golden ticket to success but they are in a very bad way right now. They have only a single point from their last 7 games and one win in their last 11, including having lost their last 5. Thankfully it's late enough in the season that I don't have to worry about being judged on league position and they seem pretty safe. As for their financial situation...

Yeah! If this was pretty much any other club I wouldn't have taken it, especially not with a wage bill almost 50% over the budget!. However while this presents a massive short term challenge, I was thinking long term. The idea always was that my next club could be big enough to potentially be my last, where promotion to the Premier League would be considered a matter of when, not if, then having the potential to build a title-winning team, having done it with Ipswich a bunch of times.

I welcome the big rebuilding challenge required over the next few seasons. The wage budget being so low (just over 90kpw) is almost a good thing financially and expectations shouldn't be higher than mid-table at first. I have time that I wouldn't have at far stronger and wealthier clubs and while the financial situation is bad, it's also managable for a club of this level and turnover, especially with average attendances of over 25k and with the CVA repayments ending in 6 years. I really can't do anything for now but every player on an expiring contract will be let go (which I think will wipe out most but not all of the wage budget deficit) and a couple of big sales (if I can manage them) on top of that should give me some room to operate and hopefully invest wisely in the summer. There were a handful of decent young players, helping make a big squad that can sustain a lot of players being let go without having to worry about the numbers.

Unfortunately things have not gone so well for Grimsby. They went straight back down after being bottom all year and are stuck in the bottom half of the table in League 1 this year. Maybe I could have done better had I stayed but looking at all the available jobs (including squads and budgets) has hammered home how I was probably right about the club being out of its depth in the Championship, and that it was better to bow out when I did.

[13th Man]

Just catching up here, but wow, what a series of events.  Win promotion again with Grimsby take a little vacation (hey, Guardiola did it too!) and end up with a big club down on their luck in Everton?  Definitely looking at a club that you could take up into the Premier League (funny to see them wallowing in League One with Grimsby) even if the financial situation looks really tough.

Sorry to see that Grimsby have dropped off, but, like you said, League One might be the right place for them?

[SinlessCity]

Feels like a good point to slide into this Career...!

I hate how the AI always manages to totally undo whatever progress you make. I've left saves in the past with a team having a decent squad, settled formation, routinely finishes top 4... but then you leave and AI gets them relegated within a couple of seasons.  It crushes me whenever it does that - RIP Grimsby.  As you say both suggest, L1 is probably their level.  A bit like IRL...

What on earth has happened to Everton to be in such a mess!?   Are there any of the more notable players still kicking around or are they only the same club by name?

Surely Tony Hibbert is a player coach or something?  Will look forward to seeing the shoots of recovery and some squad overhauling.  Good luck!

[deltablue]

3 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Just catching up here, but wow, what a series of events.  Win promotion again with Grimsby take a little vacation (hey, Guardiola did it too!) and end up with a big club down on their luck in Everton?  Definitely looking at a club that you could take up into the Premier League (funny to see them wallowing in League One with Grimsby) even if the financial situation looks really tough.

Sorry to see that Grimsby have dropped off, but, like you said, League One might be the right place for them?

This was probably the worst short-term option though everything other than the financial status was very appealing to me. If I had succeeded at getting Nottingham Forest than I would have probably taken them back up after just half a season in charge and pretty much skipped the Championship. At least here I will get more of a sense of achievement. In the short term I am going to have to get used to be a selling club (which is practically unheard of for me) as well as having to really look for bargains, buying low and trying to (re-) sell high if I can while not weakening the team more than I need to. Thankfully you can get some really good free agents offered occasionally but at the moment the wage limits are so restrictive that I can't reasonably offer anyone anything until the wage bill gets below the budget, so probably July. Thankfully it looks like we get a lot in season ticket sales each summer and having one of the highest average attendances and one of the lowest wage bills (even with the massive overspend) is a good position to be in.

2 hours ago, SinlessCity said:

Feels like a good point to slide into this Career...!

I hate how the AI always manages to totally undo whatever progress you make. I've left saves in the past with a team having a decent squad, settled formation, routinely finishes top 4... but then you leave and AI gets them relegated within a couple of seasons.  It crushes me whenever it does that - RIP Grimsby.  As you say both suggest, L1 is probably their level.  A bit like IRL...

What on earth has happened to Everton to be in such a mess!?   Are there any of the more notable players still kicking around or are they only the same club by name?

Surely Tony Hibbert is a player coach or something?  Will look forward to seeing the shoots of recovery and some squad overhauling.  Good luck!

Welcome aboard! I don't see it as the AI messing things up as I felt we were defying gravity a bit so it's no surprise to see them slip back a bit after I left. Looking at the budgets and squads of potential clubs showed how much Grimsby would have been a bit out of their depth. My previous team also got promoted to the Conference South for a while without me. I did once see Ipswich struggling in League 30 years after I won the Premier League, this being in the mid-table championship days and when it was relatively rare to even see them drop to League 1, so that was a clear example of what you describe (even if it's admittedly a long time for such a decline to take place over).

Everton got relegated from the Premier League after 3 seasons and have had just a single 2-season stint back there since. They then spent a few years in League 1 before getting promoted alongside my Grimsby team a couple of seasons before and managing a middling finish last year. If they weren't cutting their wage bill fast enough to compensate than it's no surprise that they ended up in financial trouble. As this is the 22nd season of the save there are no real life players left, though I loaded up the game on seeing your comment and we do have the legendary Duncan Ferguson as an u18 coach, John Ruddy as a GK coach, former Man Utd midfielder Anderson as HOYD and former Watford, Sheffield United and Wycombe man Stephen McGinn providing another vaguely familiar name as a scout. There seems to be no sign of Hibbert in the game.

And yes, there is going to be a lot of work to do this summer to try and turn things around!

[deltablue]

May 2034

There really isn't much point doing the usual end of season update. The end of the season was just ok, not great but not terrible, meaning that we end up in the same position as when I took over, including an almost identical margin to the bottom three. We started off really badly, going 3-0 down at home to Derby before getting a late consolation as we at least partly got our act together. It was much the same at Bolton where we conceded early, and perhaps deserved an equaliser, especially as we had a goal disallowed. We surprisingly got my first win in charge against hight flying Brentford before then beating Bristol City to pretty much secure survival. After losing at Brighton we pulled off another surprise win, this time against Stoke. The rest of the season was frustating as we took the lead against Rotherham before losing 4-1, came within a whisker of getting a good draw against Hull and conceded a late equaliser against Swindon to be denied 19th.

It's hard to know what to make of this team. In terms of quality there are certainly a few good star players and a good set of central defenders (in theory) and it's not at all bad as far as inherited squads go. Annoyingly there are players who would otherwise be decent if they weren't weak in an important attribute or two. In terms of performances we probably should have gotten a few more points as we were hardly bad, just making costly errors at the back in particular. 'Mostly Solid' would be a decent summary. I think it would be a while before we can think of making a promotion push but we should be able to tread water in mid-table for now with some smart transfer activity. It's hard to know whether to go for a few big sales, got for more sales of more 'middling' players if I can get the money for them or adopt a strategy of mainly selling once a better value replacement was identified. It'll probably be a mixture of the three, bearing in mind that the financial situation is a bigger short term priority.

[deltablue]

Summer 2034

Pre-season started off with a big sale, and a necessary one. Our star winger Savage was always likely to have to go as our most valuable player and top earner and it was just as well as it was harder to sell other players for what I hoped for. 9.5m was a good fee and at a stroke it put us back in the black for the time being. Aside from a few other (much smaller) sales I also released a bunch of players slightly early to try and get the wage bill under budget and actually offer contracts to potential signings. The provisional wage budget had been cut to 76kpw given the financial situation when it was drawn up but budget adjustments helped raise it enough to make the difference. However it was clear that we would probably have to stick to free signings for now, not wanting to waste any of the total budget on fees. I also didn't want to sign anyone on more than 5kpw.

The initial exodus had left us very short in a few areas so the first players I looked for were a winger, followed by a forward (a target man specifically), even if the latter arrived after my next two priorities, a right back and a central midfielder who were decent enough but probably fell under the motto of 'beggars can't be choosers'. There was a bit of a pause after that as I gathered a little more spare wage budget and wondered what to do with it. We only had youth players (admitedly ok ones with reasonable potential) which I thought made it worth going for a bit of depth. Drapic having pace actually makes him a potential minor upgrade on the otherwise-good incumbent though Talakic is a backup through and through. That was almost going to be it before I decided to do something our woeful depth up front, even after Rush's signing, this time going for poacher. Like Drapic, Manga is actually a potential minor upgrade and I am amazed that I got him for just 900pw!

This was actually a really good window under the circumstances. Not being able to make a few more big sales (which with hindsight would have been unnecessary anyway) after Savage actually worked in terms of not weakening the team in the way I thought I would, and while there was a sense of making do with at least some of the signings, I felt like I managed to do a lot more than expected with so little, and it helps to have a couple of additional players who were out on loan last season, including my prefered keeper. I might still move for a player for around 300k or so (funded by another sale) if they were young and promising enough to be worth the investment. This doesn't look like a bad squad for this division at all, even if I doubt we'll trouble the top half of the table much. Expectations are basically 'avoid relegation'. On the financial front, we have £8.5m in the bank which is a great turnaround and even though it only brings us short-term stability (and we're short on potential big sales like Savage was), we should be comfortable this season at least.

Carson

Drapic

Fenwick

Manga

Mercier

Rush

Talakic

Transfer Activity

[13th Man]

Looking forward to the resurrection of the fallen giant segment of this save.  Tough to sell a top player, but if you can get into the black with one player that's fantastic.  Of course, then it comes time to rebuild and it seems like you're doing so with all solid free signings which will definitely go a long way.

I also expect Manga to do well at this level too.  Speed + dribbling + pretty good finishing is often enough at all but the top level.

[deltablue]

6 hours ago, 13th Man said:

Looking forward to the resurrection of the fallen giant segment of this save.  Tough to sell a top player, but if you can get into the black with one player that's fantastic.  Of course, then it comes time to rebuild and it seems like you're doing so with all solid free signings which will definitely go a long way.

I also expect Manga to do well at this level too.  Speed + dribbling + pretty good finishing is often enough at all but the top level.

Thank you. It will be interesting to see how Manga does, and a few of the other players as well, since I placed a particularly high value on certain attributes. Hopefully next year I can either pay for a few signings or at least get in a lot earlier for players on expiring contracts. I couldn't do that this time due to the wage budget situation, approaching my initial signings with literally a day to go.

Selling Savage was an easy decision. It wasn't just a necessary financial decision but he had been a little inconsistent and we had already had a bust-up over my subbing him off. While not being able to make other major sales is a good thing for now. It did highlight how tricky it might be to do when we next need to. That's why I am on the lookout for good younger players that I might be able to get for up to 500k or so given their profit potential, basically be one of those clubs.

It will probably be a slow route back to the top. The initial wage budget which I got up to 110kpw) would have probably given us the lowest wage bill in the league this year. Looking around the bigger clubs during the job hunt showed me just how high the bar was near the top, with wage bills of up to 500kpw or so! With the CVA repayments costing us over 3.5m a year (almost as much as wages) we're not going to be going up by competing on spending, big club or not.

[13th Man]

Should be a fun challenge then, to bring Everton back to the top flight, but a relatively realistic one. Good luck!

[deltablue]

On 04/09/2022 at 07:03, 13th Man said:

Should be a fun challenge then, to bring Everton back to the top flight, but a relatively realistic one. Good luck!

Oh it's a challenge alright!

[deltablue]

Oct 2034

As you can see this season started atrociously! It wasn't just the results but the way we lost points either due to bad luck or incompetence. We lost an even game to Derby late on (giving a better account of ourselves than my first game at the club in March), then faced tough games against Brentford and Bournemouth where we only lost the latter in stoppage time due to a goal dribbled in from a narrow angle. Swindon should have been easier but we conceded early to a goal that went in off both posts and could only rescue. Things were worse against Northampton where two own goals 'helped' us to a 3-0 defeat. That left me with a lot to think about over the international break, including whether I'd even be in a job for long. Despite being just over the wage budget as it was I still signed two free agents (featured below) who I felt we could really use.

We returned to take the lead against Leicester and if we hadn't needed to start winning that would have been considered a good point. Defeats in our following three games were less impressive, especially Huddersfield where we took the lead only to lose eventually to a direct freekick that counted as an an own goal from my keeper. That left us part of a pack of 3-4 teams looking like we were becoming cast adrift at the bottom.  We finally registered a win against Carlisle, and a really comfortable one. Two home draws followed which didn't do much for us, then we claimed another win at Chesterfield. We conceded a stoppage time equaliser against Ipswich which denied us the chance to get out the bottom three, but that still gave us an unbeaten month.

This certainly isn't the glory days of Howard Kendall. It's hard to remember when I last had to endure a team who appeared to be so hopeless at both ends to the point that I almost felt like writing off my time at Everton as a short lived failure. However we finally found a bit of form, not great form but enough that we can probably look to slowly climb and handful of places and maybe into some form of mid-table comfort. That will do fine for now, especially as for now it's basically about enduring this very disruptive first stage of the rebuild (with the two new signings taking it up to 9) with little margin for underperformance. This will probably be the worst of it for the time being, at least as far as on-field performances are concerned. The financial situation will rear its ugly head again after this season.

Jardine

Kuklis

 

[13th Man]

That is a rough start indeed, but hopefully you can find a way to claw your way to a few wins and get to comfortable safety.  Maybe not a promotion year though? 

These types of seasons are so tough but can be rewarding in a longer term way even if each game feels like a slog.

[deltablue]

On 18/09/2022 at 07:31, 13th Man said:

That is a rough start indeed, but hopefully you can find a way to claw your way to a few wins and get to comfortable safety.  Maybe not a promotion year though? 

These types of seasons are so tough but can be rewarding in a longer term way even if each game feels like a slog.

Yep, I feel like we should be able to get out of trouble. Promotion isn't remotely on my mind and probably won't be for a few seasons yet as at the moment it's all about trying to make the best of a bad short-term situation, with modest improvement at best. I won't be around much for a while but we'll see what happens when I'm able to play and post more.

[deltablue]

Dec 2034

It has been a while! I have barely touched FM for the past couple of months but that changed today. We opened up November with a '6-pointer' win against Watford which took us out of the bottom 3 for the first time all season. A couple of narrow defeats followed, then two wins which seemed to be helping take us clear. The second of those, against Brighton saw a debut brace from new forward Eastham. Unfortunately a tough run followed and we briefly dipped back into the relegation zone while we were behind against Derby but we won the second of two games in as many days (the first two of four league games in under a week), followed by coming back from behind to beat Swindon to look at least a little comfortable again.

When you're fighting relegation you really appreciate wins, or even draws like the one against Plymouth. Things are basically going how I expected to for now, trying to avoid being in trouble after a lot of new signings and a focus on trying to fix the financial situation. We lost over 2m in each of the last two months, with the wage bill only making up a quarter of that. Tax's, non-footballing costs and loan repayments aren't far behind in the expenditure rankings this season. It's going to be hard to get the necessary sales each year though I hope we can soon settle down into a cycle of making good transfer profits from players bought for little or nothing. I knew what I was getting into, having to endure a lot of short-term pain which will hopefully pay off eventually.

Eastham

[phnompenhandy]

Just wondering how you celebrated the tenth anniversary of FM13 

[deltablue]

16 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

Just wondering how you celebrated the tenth anniversary of FM13 

Wow, it has been out a long time! I might play newer versions eventually but I might as well finish this off first.

[deltablue]

Feb 2035

Aside from a blip in late January, its definitely going much better at Everton now. The Northampton result gave me three wins in a row for the first time as Everton manager, followed by a comfortable cup win against Watford. We were denied a 4th league win (and a 5th in all competitions) in a row with a late Leicester equaliser, then seemed to have taken a step back with some soft goals conceded against Bolton and Stockport condemning us to defeats that saw drop back worryingly close to the bottom 3. That was followed by having to write off the West Ham tie after going 3-0 down inside 15 minutes (and having saved a penalty), we may have been underdogs but I didn't expect us to be that bad.

Thankfully February was much better, winning 4 out of 5 games and only losing late on in a tricky away game against Charlton. It was the final two wins against Chesterfield and Ipswich that finally saw us pull away from the black hole of the relegation zone in a way we'd been unable to manage before. We can still be in trouble if we have a poor end to the season but a 10 point (and 5 place) safety margin with as many games to go is a nice thing to enjoy. We have now matched the win tally from last season and are close to beating the points tally as well. Eastham has been the big difference maker. I had to pay to terminate a couple of contracts to get the budgetary room to sign him in November but he has truly given us the cutting edge that we were painfully lacking, racking up 13 goals and 2 assists in 18 games in all competitions so far.

[deltablue]

May 2035

The season ended on a strong note, though not without a few little blips. If we hadn't thrown away a 1-0 lead to lose against Rotherham we would have even snuck a top-half spot, making this only the second time in the entire career (and the first in 20 years) that I have finished in the bottom half over a full season!. Aside from the terrible start, this was roughly as I expected this season to go, maybe a little better in the end. We can take heart from a strong second half of the season, getting almost double the points than we did in the first half (41, compared to 21), and this despite a big overhaul. It's now 16 years since Everton were last in the Premier League and while I don't see that changing in the next couple of seasons, we might be able to make better short-term progress than expected. We still need to sign a bunch of players this summer both to fill the gaps and improve on a few areas, so we won't enjoy a more settled squad next season, but I like to think that this year was at least a good first step.

Star Player: The defender Shilton gets this on merit, earning him the right to be one of two players I exempted from my 'max 5kpw wage' policy. As both players were my top rated players this year I felt it was a good compromise to make, especially as I could sell at least one of them in the summer.

Squad Stats

[deltablue]

Summer 2035

This summer was always set to be part 2 of the overhaul. Every player earning over 5kpw was sold or released, with Shilton as the exception (and he was only on 6kpw), with a slashing of the initial wage budget making sucha policy more importantTthat left a few holes to fill even before we got to the areas I really wanted to improve, like a new first choice goalkeeper. Just like last year, Reading gave us our big sale though it wasn't as much as before, especially as it mainly installment-based. Still, it was hopefully enough for now. Shilton would have followed if we had gotten enough but we were already low on central defenders as it was and I wasn't sure getting rid of another key player was a good idea.

We retained a strong central defence but with no backups left, meaning that was the priority. We were pretty much left rumaging in the free agent bin anyway but I wanted to be careful on wages as well to give us that depth for as little as possible. Once those signings were secured, I could really go to town on ticking off my wishlist. With the exception of the two defenders and the last signing, every new player represented an upgrade (even if the bar wasn't that high), the on-loan Oakley up front (though that was a low-priority position), Mulcahy as a playmaker, Stoyanov out wide, Dias at left back (where we badly needed another player anyway) and Milic to hopefully be a more reliable keeper than Perkins. I also really wanted to invest properly in a good young player after that (with a couple of players having caught my eye when looking for earlier signings) and finally Basic seemed to fit the bill perfectly, even down to the expected country of origin. I think that's actually the first non-compensation fee I've paid this career!

This makes 18 signings since the start of last summer, and budgetary room for a couple more who might catch my eye, like last year's autumn free agent signings. However the bar for new signings is much higher now for most positions which means that the hopefully I can slow down considerably on that front and wait for this team to gel and develop as I feel I have laid down some very strong foundations. This has been the overhaul I really needed to make, improving the team considerably while also raising money through sales and slashing the wage bill, now standing at just 90kpw as the third lowest in the division. We're still not going to compete with the stronger teams in this division (and their insane wage budgets of up to 500kpw!) but this is definitely a team that can make some big steps in the right direction.

Basic

Bernard

Delic

Dias

Milic

Mulcahy

Oakley

Stoyanov

[deltablue]

Sept 2035

This season has gone much better than the last so far, we even spent a couple of weeks in the playoff places though having played until after the October international break our form has dipped a bit and we've been falling into mid-table. That's not too frustrating though as a promotion push was never on my mind this season. It's just far too early, especially with so many changes in a short space of time and having only just (hopefully) moved on from being relegation battlers. We definitely look like a potentially good team who just aren't quite clicking yet, especially up front where only Eastham seems capable of putting away chances. The big difference has been at the back where our new young Serbian keeper Milic has undoubtedly been the signing of the season so far. We'll see how the rest of the season goes but a comfortable top-half finish would do very nicely while we wait for things to come together.

As an additional bit of trivia, Bromyard and Staveley Miners Welfare become the first of the small 'tycoon' clubs to make it to the Championship. I've actually encountered Bromyard before when they spent a season in League 2 the year I got promoted with Grimsby. Clearly they bounced back from dropping straight back down to the Conference that time. I wonder if any of these teams will ever make it to the Premier League, though not for while given the way things are going with these two so far.

[LeLaga]

 Aaaah, so there is someone still playing old FM versions in here! Need to catch up with this topic.

[deltablue]

7 hours ago, LeLaga said:

 Aaaah, so there is someone still playing old FM versions in here! Need to catch up with this topic.

I hope you enjoy

[DavidBeckham]

The number of games you win 1-0 with Eastham scoring the winner 

[deltablue]

1 hour ago, DavidBeckham said:

The number of games you win 1-0 with Eastham scoring the winner 

Well that's only ever happened 5 times, though it's been three times already this season . However it's true that we do rather rely on him for goals!

[deltablue]

Dec 2035

The past few months have not been good, and it's just as well we started so strongly otherwise we would be in serious relegation trouble and I have actually started looking down at the gap to the bottom three. A winless run that started in September continued until late November with a lot of draws, and it wasn't until Stoyanov's goal against Millwall that someone other than Eastham got more than one league goal for the seaon, and even now he's the only one on more than 2. On balance, I felt disappointed not to win more times than I was glad to get a point. It was a relief to finally get a first league win in 10 against Rotherham but that just made things worse as we started losing much more and again a few of those games were those we should have potentially won. Aside from all the new signings (three more taking it up to 21 in a year and a half) we also have a very young team, meaning tutors can be hard to come by. Give it a couple of years or so and this investment should really pay off, both on the pitch and financially, but clearly it's going to take a while to come together.

So to the new signings. Hakobyan came in first as an Armenian international defender who provides what proved to be useful added depth when a couple of others got injured, though he has been a real mixed bag so far. Epstein is a player I actually rejected earlier in the season as he would just be a backup but he's at least content to be one. He might get a look in and opens the door to being able to sell Milic if need be. Finally Pergolini was a borderline decision, but he is a versatile player and a low risk signing. We were also in such a mess up front that anyone who might actually be able to score was welcome, and he got off the mark just 3 minutes in on the very day he arrived!

Epstein

Hakobyan

Pergolini

[LeLaga]

On 24/11/2022 at 21:41, deltablue said:

Wow, it has been out a long time! I might play newer versions eventually but I might as well finish this off first.

 I wanted to ask - You never played any of the newer versions, or just got back to FM13 because You found it the most enjoyable?

[deltablue]

3 hours ago, LeLaga said:

 I wanted to ask - You never played any of the newer versions, or just got back to FM13 because You found it the most enjoyable?

Interesting question. It's a mixture of both. I do have most of the newer versions (though not FM 23) and I have played a couple of short careers on a couple of them, which were fun. There is just so much to deal with in the modern versions that I still easily prefer this era of FM. However once this save is finished I might try and play FM22 more, especially as I am in it