FM22: The English Football League thread

[Sysiphus]

28 minutes ago, warlock said:

I take it your laptop is still limping on? 

It is! I took it to the shop and was half expecting them to tell me to just get a new one, but a week later they managed to clear it up a bit making it run smoother, so the limping continues...

[Sysiphus]

Sheffield Wednesday – 2024/2025 review

 

Last season review.

I finally finished my 4th season with the Owls, and it was quite a successful one. Even though we ended up in the 9th place we still amassed a points total of 62 points, which is usually enough to get into some sort of European competition, so I'm not disheartened with his. We also go out pretty early in the cups but we faced Man Utd and Arsenal so that's fine as well.

 

 

We were active in the transfer window, bringing in a lot of players and losing many who had been with us for a long time. The squad's now been pretty much turned around and I don't think I will sign this many players from here on but I will of course continue to snap up exciting hot prospects. Players who I signed to play a role in the first team were Nick Pope, Etienne Green, Daniel Hoey, Wagner Pinna, Omar Richards, Carlos Rodríguez and Iván Mancisidor. I got them all for a good price, I feel, and have especially high hopes for Mancisidor who came on a free and played very well for us—he even won the European Golden Boy award. The rest of the signings were youngsters to bolster up our youth team.

 

 

I think I want to add a starting right back, as Dominic Iorfa is getting on a bit, and a starting attacking midfielder as I'd like to move to a bit more attacking formation as the team grows in quality. Squad statistics (GKs missing from the screenshot):

 

 

Edited May 13, 2022 by Sysiphus

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

finished my 4th season with the Owls,

Yeah, that's not too shabby. Very close to European qualification, too 

[smplfc123]

Unfortunately my week away meant no Wifi (hard to believe these days I know), but it didn't stop me from making progress with my save. I've finally managed to get one going and I'm really enjoying. A reminder that I took over at the Liberty Stadium with the Swans sitting just 2 points above the relegation zone with 11 games to go. 

A strong start to my career on the South coast saw us finish the season quite comfortably in 16th, with just over £1m in the budget to try and reshape the squad to my liking.

Ryan Bennett departed for Huddersfield for £1m whilst Liam Cullen left for Strasbourg for £1.1m. Yan Dhanda was the only other departure that brought in some money, as he joined Sheffield Wednesday for £500k. Experienced midfielder Korey Smith was released on a free, whilst I chose not to extend any of the previous loan deals the club had in the prior season. This meant I had about £3.5m to play with.

I strengthened the back line, with Robbie Deas joining from Inverness CT for £250k and Matt Clarke joining from Brighton for £1.4m. Youngster Hugo Ekitike joined from Reims for £1.8m, with James Scott also bolstering our wide options with a 12 month loan deal from Hull.

Returning loanees Morgan Whittaker, Liam Walsh and Brandon Cooper were also brought in to the first team squad. Teams did circle around Matt Grimes and Ryan Manning, but no bids materialised. The board asked for a top half finish and with us now having navigated through the January Window, let's have a look at how we're doing:

  
 

We're probably right where we should be. Not good enough to be a play-off team, but good enough to be in the top half. We've drawn too many games and have lacked the depth in quality in attacking areas. Joel Piroe has been the shining star, scoring 15 goals in 24 starts, leading to a number of European clubs sniffing round.

I don't think we have the quality to make a consistent run at the play-offs, but i'm enjoying this season and hopefully we can finish on a high.

[warlock]

15 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

i'm enjoying this season

What it's all about, right? 

I'm just getting a new save underway... I had a mind to do a Man Utd rebuild similar to the challenge facing Eric Ten Hag. Rather than tediously holidaying through the first season, I added the Swedish league to the save, which allows you to pick a start date at the end of April 2022. What caught my eye was that Brentford looked doomed to relegation back to the Championship, and that had a lot of appeal. But then, with my manager unemployed and just watching for the end of the season, I was invited to apply for the job at Forest, who had sacked Steve Cooper when Forest were themselves relegated to L1.

Forest in the 3rd tier seemed like an excellent basis for a save, so I interviewed for the position and was duly appointed as new manager 

I think I'll do the United save at some point, if only for the pleasure of being able to sign some top-quality players that are rarely - if ever - available to us EFL managers. But for now, I'll be securely in my comfort zone of cheap bargains and free signings 

[smplfc123]

9 hours ago, warlock said:

What it's all about, right? 

I'm just getting a new save underway... I had a mind to do a Man Utd rebuild similar to the challenge facing Eric Ten Hag. Rather than tediously holidaying through the first season, I added the Swedish league to the save, which allows you to pick a start date at the end of April 2022. What caught my eye was that Brentford looked doomed to relegation back to the Championship, and that had a lot of appeal. But then, with my manager unemployed and just watching for the end of the season, I was invited to apply for the job at Forest, who had sacked Steve Cooper when Forest were themselves relegated to L1.

Forest in the 3rd tier seemed like an excellent basis for a save, so I interviewed for the position and was duly appointed as new manager 

I think I'll do the United save at some point, if only for the pleasure of being able to sign some top-quality players that are rarely - if ever - available to us EFL managers. But for now, I'll be securely in my comfort zone of cheap bargains and free signings 

I like that idea! I'm really enjoying the style of save in which you holiday/start later and then see how it's playing out.

Forest also got relegated in my save, although their superior squad has them 15 points clear in League 1 under the guidance of Freddie Ljungberg.

I do like the sound of a late start and rebuilding a big club. The problem for me as a Liverpool fan is that the 2 obvious ones I can think of that need an overhaul are Man Utd and Everton 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Sysiphus Excellent season with The Owls, your squad seems to be at peak ages or youngsters with potential.

@smplfc123Doing very well with Swansea. I like the idea of starting on a different date, taking on an alternative challenge. I've not done that for a couple of versions but does give a fresh approach. You did well to steer them away from relegation and it's a very solid season this time so far. Will wish you success.

@warlockHow many times have you managed Forest now? Joking apart, that's a good place to start with them and although a first season promotion should be fairly obvious, it least you'll get another year out of them before abandoning your PL effort 

I've decided to finish my second season with Valencia before cracking on in the EFL. The main contenders remain Cardiff, Plymouth and Hartlepool unless something more interesting comes up early with a fresh transfer update.

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

at least you'll get another year out of them before abandoning your PL effort 

I fear I'm becoming predictable in my old age 

[smplfc123]

A superb last third of the season has seen us clinch an unlikely play-off spot.

Young signing Hugo Ekitike finally settled and ended the season with 9 goals and 8 assists, helping to propel us in to the play-off spots. It's a really strong play-off group this season, with relegated Brentford and Crystal Palace failing to clinch an automatic spot. I genuinely don't believe I have the quality to beat the other contenders, but a good showing this season may enhance my profile nonetheless and we now have a shot to nothing. I'm yet to sign a new contract having turned down an earlier advance by the board, so let's see what happens!

[smplfc123]

Gutted, but expected. We put a solid fight over the two legs, but Toney's late winner in the 2nd leg means Brentford will meet Palace in the final.

Time to assess my options. The wage bill has tipped over the scales and there's no transfer budget, so I fear repeating a play-off finish will be too much of an ask. 

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 7 (2027/2028)

During the summer, our prospects are still getting picked off by big clubs, I like to keep a realism factor, by declining the AI's initial offers as unrealistically low, agreeing a significantly higher fee with the player which keeps them happy and gives us a good cash injection. Mike Siedel, our other free signing from M'Gladbach from 2025 goes to Dortmund for £9.75m, which makes a total of £17m made from him and Schur. Siedel is offered back on a loan deal.

Attacking midfielder Mazumbo goes to Premiership Blackburn for £8.25m and George McEachran whose value never seems to get boosted goes to Derby for £725k as he's at the low end of our squad's ability. Robert Richter, only signed a season ago, is taken by Brentford for £8.75m. He's not first choice and beginning to make noises about it so I feel best to capitalise on the offer.

I reinvest further in the squad to replace and build out numbers. Czech central defender prospect Jan Cervenka comes in for £1.1m, and I'm still looking for defensive midfielders so sign Graziano Bianchi for £4.5m from Bologna. I've had Florent Da Silva shortlisted for a long time, and eventually he becomes available for a relative bargain at £1.6m. I still keep an eye on German clubs 2nd teams for who is likely to get released, and German/Croat Karlo Krajnovic arrives on a free, although a natural right back, he's much better suited to centre back. 

Finally Rico Lewis, despite the injury issues from last season, is listed by Man City for only £250k which I jump on. We also add some numbers with loans, 2 strikers come in from Liverpool and Chelsea, and Dortmund loan us a defensive midfielder and left back, Dortmund are probably more a parent than Liverpool at this point.

Spoiler

I feel with these signings, we can push on and challenge again for promotion.

Our stadium expansion will complete in May 2028, so we're still playing at Huddersfield.

Season Review

Unusually for us, we have a bad start, losing the first 3 league games but winning 2 rounds of the Carabao Cup against fellow Championship sides. We recover with 8 unbeaten, but then lose another 2 games straight, this sets the pattern for the league, lose 2-3 games, go on an unbeaten run for 5-8 games before another couple of losses.

This may be because the number of new signings in high, and there's quite a few foreign players who need to adapt and learn English. Our average age in the squad is ever decreasing.

We do put together a strong run in. Going 8 games unbeaten including against some top sides to finish the season, this isn't enough however, and we can't pip Boro to the final playoff spot.

In January, we have another spike of January deadline day transfer activity. Svetozar Markovic is min fee released by Almeria for £12.75m and keeper Mark Travers goes to Watford for £10.25m after demanding to be let go. With short notice, we bring in loans to replace them, This does give me an issue with too many loan players, 7 in total with the league rule being a max of 5. 

I also let a couple of the fringe players out on loan which is stupid really, cover is really low across the team.

This is disappointing to take steps backwards (lower point total) and no playoffs.

We do ok in the Cups but nothing to shout about. The drop in home attendance is noticeable and revenues are down because of it but we'll be back at a bigger and better home next season.  This seems to fuel monthly losses of about £1m a month, although an increasing wage spend is causing most of that.

The £7.25m loan for the stadium expansion has very small payments, so after a year we still owe £6.5m. Our incoming transfers have been massive for a club our side, between last season's off season and January, we've brought in £41.5m and spent £12.5m of it. 

Next Season Preview

January saw us lose 2 of the older players in key positions, so I really need to consider the right players to recruit to benefit the team, rather than as individuals (or I'll probably end up with just more prospects).

The board are letting us spend up to £25m and the wage budget is creeping up.

While formally finances are 'Secure' it also feels precarious, and feels like I need to continue to be thrifty.

[Jogo Bonito]

@smplfc123Strong finish to the season, unlucky to lose the Brentford tie though. I hope you decide to stay with The Swans. Some challenges for the new season, but that's the kind of thing we often crave for in FM and it's right at your fingertips now  

[smplfc123]

3 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@smplfc123Strong finish to the season, unlucky to lose the Brentford tie though. I hope you decide to stay with The Swans. Some challenges for the new season, but that's the kind of thing we often crave for in FM and it's right at your fingertips now  

I've literally just signed a 1 year extension.

With no room to move in either budget, i'm having to offload some first-teamers who only have 12 months left on their contracts, including last season's top scorer Joel Piroe. An interesting summer ahead.

[Jogo Bonito]

2 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

I've literally just signed a 1 year extension.

With no room to move in either budget, i'm having to offload some first-teamers who only have 12 months left on their contracts, including last season's top scorer Joel Piroe. An interesting summer ahead.

It's a shame you have to lose Piroe, but good luck and hopefully your squad will be competitive to run strongly again.

[warlock]

14 hours ago, smplfc123 said:

Gutted, but expected.

Always tough to go away needing a result, but a solid season nonetheless. Better luck next time!

5 hours ago, Parmie said:

disappointing to take steps backwards

Sympathies, but it looks like you were one goal (to turn one of those draws into a win) shy of the playoffs. Hope things pick up.

[ShaunG95]

Summer Signings

As our reputation soared after out Champions League win, I wanted some big-names in our bid to compete on all fronts again.

*Bold - January deals

Transfers In - Ahmed Haidar for £350k (£1m), Benjamin Sesko for £50m (£58m), Josko Gvardiol for £78m, Bruno Iglesias for free, Yusuf Demir for £35m (£43m), Illia Zabarnyi for £85m (£90m), Jordan Henderson for free and Alessandro Alessa for £400k (£1.4m).

Transfers Out - Chris Mepham for £18.5m to Wolves, Josh Dasilva for £10.5m to Celtic, Jan Paul van Hecke for £56m to Liverpool, Marcuss Forss for £2m to Norwich, Marino Hinestroza for £130k to Envigado, Goncalo Esteves for £35m to Man City.

I also sent out masses of players out on loan but I'll be honest, I don't think very many of them are that relevant to mention! The signings I made were essentially quite romantic for me in terms of what players I really like on this game. Sesko is someone I'd looked at for years but wasn't interested in a move until this summer. We only paid £30m up-front so I believe it was quite the coup given his international profile. His wages essentially broke our structure upon agreeing terms with him, though. I moved on Mepham, Dasilva and Paul van Hecke in order to facilitate the moves for Gvardiol and Zabarnyi who are two world-class CBs who immediately took the starting positions with strong rotation in Antov, Katinic and Wood. Yusuf Demir was a shot in the dark really, he was transfer listed at Man Utd and I took a punt on him despite him not being as good as I've seen him on other saves. 

 

Premier League Table - 2027/28

We retained the Premier League! Only one lost which came against Tottenham in September away. As you can see, we set records with our goal-scoring and this was mostly down to my second-system which I employed to facilitate a much more attacking mentality. As I thought we were now definitively one of the best teams in the league, I felt every home-game had to be played with plethora of gung-ho aside from games against City and Liverpool.

Excuse the myriad of players on international duty as the season has just come to a close but this was the system I decided to employ. I'd played it on an Everton save earlier in the game cycle year and it was utterly dominant to say the least. Sesko ended the season with 49 goals in 22 starts and 24 substitute appearances across all competitions, notching 40 in the league which was a Premier League record, beating Erling Haaland's 34 a couple of seasons prior. I tallied up his numbers earlier and he scored 7 hattricks in total with two instances of him scoring 4 in a game. It is suffice to say that he won the Ballon D'Or because of this form as well as scooping the Footballer of the Year in the Premier League as well as the Players' Player of the Year and Top Goalscorer award. I cannot downplay Goncalo Ramos' influence though in the false-nine role, he was absolutely superb.

Champions League - 2027/28

We were really disappointing during this campaign, I tried to be clever and use the same methodology as last season by using a completely rotated eleven for Europe and the League and it backfired this time. Inter were much the better team and lessons were learned here. Ultimately though, my rotation does serve a purpose and I have a happier squad for it but if we want to win the Champions League again, we might need to upgrade on some of the rotational players as I am happy with my starting eleven for now.

League Cup - 2027/28

We retained our League Cup thanks to a Josko Gvardiol header who seemingly was keen to repay his transfer outlay!

Key Performers

Benjamin Sesko was an outrageous signing but I've already sang his praises in this post, I've ran out of superlatives for him really. However, Goncalo Ramos was equally as incredible and we've now established a deadly partnership where both of them score goals and Sesko virtually scores every-other near-post corner because of his 6"6 frame.

I am relatively happy with this season, I'm disappointed that we crashed out of the Champions League so prematurely and we still want to get our hands on the FA Cup. Newcastle dispatched us 4-1 in the Quarter-Final but I think I will put more emphasis on fielding stronger elevens in the FA Cup next season. I think we've got a firm foothold in the Premier League now though and I believe we will carry on dominating. I'm not sure how long this save will serve to quench my attention given how successful I have become but news of a new stadium would go some way to spark my motivation of keeping going!

[warlock]

25 minutes ago, ShaunG95 said:

We retained the Premier League! Only one lost

Too easy!

25 minutes ago, ShaunG95 said:

we crashed out of the Champions League

Well, maybe not too easy 

Congrats on another good season, though.

[smplfc123]

Swansea City - 2023 Summer Update

After finishing last season with defeat in the playoffs semi-final, it was always going to be a tricky summer in terms of keeping our best players. Add that to us having nothing left in either budget and a few first teamers entering the last 12 months of their contracts, it proved to be a busy summer. I'm not normally a fan of making too many changes, but I felt the changes were necessary. Let's have a look at the transfers below:

Struggling a little financially, I had to sell some big guns to give myself room to work. Club captain Matt Grimes departed for the recently relegated Brighton, bringing in a whopping £15m, all upfront. Joel Piroe managed to attract quite the attention and with him only having 12 months left on his contract, £8m was a solid deal. The same can be said for Ntcham. Quality on his day, but not particularly consistent and with his contract running down, I felt £6m was a good deal. A few other outgoings meant that we racked up over £30m in sales this summer.

Replacing Piroe upfront is French youngster Willem Geubbels, who was surprisingly easy to grab on a free with his Monaco contract expiring. Toffolo was also picked up on a free to act as back up to Ryan Manning. Andy Lyons was signed to replace outgoing high-earner Kyle Nuaghton, who was released on a free. I knew I needed to freshen up the midfield, with Grimes and Ntcham leaving, I brought in Jeff Hendrick's experience to combat the inexperience of Will Smallbone and Kacper Urbanski, who will hopefully add some attacking flair. Tom Kraub was our biggest outlay of the summer. The holding midfielder was signed as the long term option for the CDM role, but can also cover CB and CM.

In Whittaker, Geubbels, Obafemi, Patterson, Ekitike and Joseph, I have a core of attackers who I hope can all contribute instead of just relying on the one man as we did much of last season.

As the transfer window is now closed, it means we've started the season, so let's have a look at how we're getting on:

 A perfect start so far, although I must admit the fixture list has been kind with us having played Stoke, Portsmouth and Luton in the league, whilst we've knocked out Sutton Utd and Millwall in the Carabao Cup. Nonetheless, I can't be displeased with the start, especially with so many changes to the squad.

I'm happy that we still have 13 of the original squad from when I took over as I don't like to change too much, but the changes seemed to have worked so far this summer. Hopefully we'll continue to go from strength to strength when they all start to gel properly.

Up the Swans!

[CityAndColour]

2024/25 - Willand Rovers - Conference South

Season:

The best way to describe this season is it was just a good old-fashioned slog.

Our recruitment consisted almost entirely of teenagers, picking up discards from the youth systems at West Ham, Bournemouth and Bristol City and bringing in some further youngsters on loan. The media had us at 200-1 to win the title, with the next worst odds being 50-1. We also had the lowest wage budget in the division.

We started reasonably well with 15 points in nine games, before a six-match losing streak dropped us from just outside the playoffs to just above the drop zone. Three wins in a row over Christmas got us back into a comfortable lower mid-table spot, before the board cut the wage budget by 40% due to financial concerns, leaving me with no way to strengthen the squad or secure key players beyond this season.

In the second half of the season, we steadily picked up points without any great or poor runs of form, leaving us between 12th and 15th over the last 22 matches. We then finished strongly, winning our last three to go past 50 points and finish only a win shy of matching last season's 9th place finish.

Players:

Plenty of commendable performances, albeit once again we struggled to find multiple avenues to goal.

Sean Stanford - The West Ham academy product started the season as our third choice centre half, however got plenty of games early due to injuries and fatigue, at which point it become fairly clear he was a Rolls Royce and needed to play. Despite his tender years, he ended up as one of the nominees for the divisional player of the season and . For all his talents, he also proved to be a bit disruptive, first getting angry at me for the club's finances and then getting angry at me because I couldn't offer him an improved contract (due to said finances). Both issues were resolved by season's end however

Bradley Keetch - The heartbeat of our midfield for the third season running, as he went past 100 appearances and notched 12 assists. I could probably upgrade him, but I get more out of creating player legacies than I do promotions!

Ibby Akanbi - After 19 goals last season, our tireless lone striker upped that with 25 this campaign, 24 of which came in the league and had him third in the golden boot race.

Fatai Chibueze - Released by Bournemouth, I originally had him pencilled in at the back, however Stanford's form pushed him into a box to box midfield role, where his physicality and defensive work really added steel. He is definitely a future captain if we can hang onto him.

Next season:

I have reached a bit of a crossroads - the board has kept the wage budget at its current level due to our dire finances, meaning I am going to lose almost the entire squad as the most I can offer on a contract renewal is £20 per week. I currently only have two players under contract for 2025/26 so I'm not really sure what to do. It might inadvertently turn into a youth only save.

The board has also decided to build a new stadium, which will cost us £10k per month in loan repayments. I'd much rather spend that on player wages so we have a team to play in the stadium tbh.

 

 

[Sysiphus]

I'm at a nasty point reputation wise... no player who wants to come will better my first eleven significantly and I have good depth of quality youngsters so I don't need to bolden the squad more. It's either buying extremely good wonderkid regens for upwards of 25m pounds (which I hate—feels way too unrealistic unless they've achieved something in game) or waiting for my squad to develop over the next three seasons.

Slow and steady wins the race, I guess.

[Sysiphus]

20 hours ago, ShaunG95 said:

Summer Signings

As our reputation soared after out Champions League win, I wanted some big-names in our bid to compete on all fronts again.

*Bold - January deals

Transfers In - Ahmed Haidar for £350k (£1m), Benjamin Sesko for £50m (£58m), Josko Gvardiol for £78m, Bruno Iglesias for free, Yusuf Demir for £35m (£43m), Illia Zabarnyi for £85m (£90m), Jordan Henderson for free and Alessandro Alessa for £400k (£1.4m).

Transfers Out - Chris Mepham for £18.5m to Wolves, Josh Dasilva for £10.5m to Celtic, Jan Paul van Hecke for £56m to Liverpool, Marcuss Forss for £2m to Norwich, Marino Hinestroza for £130k to Envigado, Goncalo Esteves for £35m to Man City.

I also sent out masses of players out on loan but I'll be honest, I don't think very many of them are that relevant to mention! The signings I made were essentially quite romantic for me in terms of what players I really like on this game. Sesko is someone I'd looked at for years but wasn't interested in a move until this summer. We only paid £30m up-front so I believe it was quite the coup given his international profile. His wages essentially broke our structure upon agreeing terms with him, though. I moved on Mepham, Dasilva and Paul van Hecke in order to facilitate the moves for Gvardiol and Zabarnyi who are two world-class CBs who immediately took the starting positions with strong rotation in Antov, Katinic and Wood. Yusuf Demir was a shot in the dark really, he was transfer listed at Man Utd and I took a punt on him despite him not being as good as I've seen him on other saves. 

 

Premier League Table - 2027/28

We retained the Premier League! Only one lost which came against Tottenham in September away. As you can see, we set records with our goal-scoring and this was mostly down to my second-system which I employed to facilitate a much more attacking mentality. As I thought we were now definitively one of the best teams in the league, I felt every home-game had to be played with plethora of gung-ho aside from games against City and Liverpool.

Excuse the myriad of players on international duty as the season has just come to a close but this was the system I decided to employ. I'd played it on an Everton save earlier in the game cycle year and it was utterly dominant to say the least. Sesko ended the season with 49 goals in 22 starts and 24 substitute appearances across all competitions, notching 40 in the league which was a Premier League record, beating Erling Haaland's 34 a couple of seasons prior. I tallied up his numbers earlier and he scored 7 hattricks in total with two instances of him scoring 4 in a game. It is suffice to say that he won the Ballon D'Or because of this form as well as scooping the Footballer of the Year in the Premier League as well as the Players' Player of the Year and Top Goalscorer award. I cannot downplay Goncalo Ramos' influence though in the false-nine role, he was absolutely superb.

Champions League - 2027/28

We were really disappointing during this campaign, I tried to be clever and use the same methodology as last season by using a completely rotated eleven for Europe and the League and it backfired this time. Inter were much the better team and lessons were learned here. Ultimately though, my rotation does serve a purpose and I have a happier squad for it but if we want to win the Champions League again, we might need to upgrade on some of the rotational players as I am happy with my starting eleven for now.

League Cup - 2027/28

We retained our League Cup thanks to a Josko Gvardiol header who seemingly was keen to repay his transfer outlay!

Key Performers

Benjamin Sesko was an outrageous signing but I've already sang his praises in this post, I've ran out of superlatives for him really. However, Goncalo Ramos was equally as incredible and we've now established a deadly partnership where both of them score goals and Sesko virtually scores every-other near-post corner because of his 6"6 frame.

I am relatively happy with this season, I'm disappointed that we crashed out of the Champions League so prematurely and we still want to get our hands on the FA Cup. Newcastle dispatched us 4-1 in the Quarter-Final but I think I will put more emphasis on fielding stronger elevens in the FA Cup next season. I think we've got a firm foothold in the Premier League now though and I believe we will carry on dominating. I'm not sure how long this save will serve to quench my attention given how successful I have become but news of a new stadium would go some way to spark my motivation of keeping going!

Superb stuff mate. Keep it up. Sesko and Ramos are beasts. How does Henrique Araújo look on your save compared to Ramos?

[Parmie]

17 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

I'm at a nasty point reputation wise... no player who wants to come will better my first eleven significantly and I have good depth of quality youngsters so I don't need to bolden the squad more. It's either buying extremely good wonderkid regens for upwards of 25m pounds (which I hate—feels way too unrealistic unless they've achieved something in game) or waiting for my squad to develop over the next three seasons.

Slow and steady wins the race, I guess.

The reputation lag needs changing in my view, the same players who refuse to come to my newly promoted team are happy to join me once relegated.

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 8 (2029/2030)

With a revised transfer policy in mind to get some experience and leadership into the squad, I find myself with some classic EFL signings. 

Freddie Woodman, a leading Championship level player and 31 years old, fills our gap at goalkeeper and arrives on an end of contract deal. Louie Barry, set for release by Villa, helps us with the striking position. Given the turnover of German youngsters being sold and loaned back has meant we haven't had a permanent striker for 3 seasons. Juan Larios who had been signed by Leicester and not made an impact, also arrives on a free, as did Barry.

I still look at younger players, Johnny Martinez arrives for £450k as backup at right back and we're a little short in central midfield (not defensive midfield, more on that later), so we splash out £4m for Procopio.

I decide that's enough, as last season's signing Krajnovic, despite being young, has high leadership to fulfil the captain role.

I over-estimate the current ability of young defender Bernardino Valente, signing him for a massive £6m but deciding he has to go out on loan to develop, we send him out to Lincoln City for experience. An agent also pops up offering a young Egyptian, who shows enough high attributes with our limited visibility to take a chance on for £575k, but after arriving without a permit, he looks pretty good and heads out on loan to Western United in Australia to see if game time and perhaps some caps can earn him a permit.

I head to Italy for loans this season to give us depth, with a young striker arriving as backup to Barry from Napoli, and an Australian creative attacking midfielder from Lazio.

Spoiler

Thauan Lara, our Brazilian left back, was still middling in technical attributes and I accept Crystal Palace's negotiated £10m bid which pays for most of the incoming players. 

Season Review

Before the start of the season, with piles of cash from last season's sales still sitting in the bank, the board pay off the remaining £6m on the stadium expansion loan.

During one of the bad runs of form last season, I decide persisting with the 2 DM formation with 2 roles (anchor and Segundo Volante) that no player seems that good playing in is a bad idea, so move the two forward into central midfield, making one a supporting ball winner and the other a box to box. With a positive team mentality this suits us, leaving the central defenders on defensive should be enough.

Getting in mostly free signings feels more like Oldham, and I think I've achieved the type of squad re-balance with age by signing a 31 year old and 2 mid-twenty players that I was aiming for.

This seems to have the desired impact with 7 wins and 4 draws from the first 11 games. This is followed by three losses and a couple more draws which I can't identify why, our creativity has dried up. Without tweaking anything, we get some sporadic form back over December and January, but at the end of January, we embark on a 14 game unbeaten run. Up until that run, the initial run has sent us top but we had slipped back into the play-offs, the February to April form raises us to automatic promotion places and we start to edge out at the top. 

As FM does, the good form is somewhat broken by the pressure of promotion/winning the league, and we lose to lower table Coventry and Ipswich but win against 3rd place Watford. Our final game of the season will decide where the title goes, we have play-off place Burnley, and even though we score very late dead on 90 minutes, Burnley run into the box from the kick-off and win a penalty which they put away. However, avoiding a loss was enough and we win the league on goal difference.

The title elevates me to icon status and manager of the year. Captain Krajonovic picks up young player of the year and we even have 2 wonderkids named in the top 50 news item.

Towards the end of the season, the board have to inject £10m into the coffers, I guess if we hadn't achieved promotion, I probably would have had to sell players rather than just decide to let them go, however, we did, so we don't!

Next Season Preview

The board set the transfer budget at £37m and a wage budget of £552k/week which does fit as we're currently spending £350k/week. 

The coaching staff think nearly everyone has potential for the Premiership, except for the goalkeepers, Jose Capon, Florent da Silva and Miguel Azeez. So while it feels like a keeper is a priority, it feels like the squad dynamics needs Freddie Woodman to stay and be happy as much as possible.

With the big money rolling in, we'll also start smashing the facility improvements and look at overhauling the staff.

I look forward to all the red cards, penalties and other mistakes the match engine will no doubt force on us as underdogs in every match. But compared with previous saves, the ability of this squad, having spent so much time in the Championship, may make a fist of staying up.

Edited May 17, 2022 by Parmie

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - End of Season 2022/23

We had a stranglehold at the top before the run-in, could we hold onto it?

A couple draws in there, but three decisive wins.

And in the end, a very decisive title win. Best defense and best attack in the League, GD of 65, and 106 points. Only two losses all season, a well-deserved title win and promotion.

Important note - Gillingham got a win!

Just one! And they fought for it hard! But they got one!

Mika Biereth continues to carry the team. League One Golden Boot, top average rating, most player of the match awards, just outstanding.  Coleman was an outstanding signing, a huge improvement in goal.

However, I'm definitely going to need to increase the overall quality of the squad going into the Championship. A couple too many loan players, but with the link with Liverpool, hopefully we'll take advantage of that with enough quality to keep us up next season.

 

[warlock]

On 15/05/2022 at 21:07, smplfc123 said:

 A perfect start

You can't do better . Good luck with the rest of the season.

On 16/05/2022 at 13:26, CityAndColour said:

The board has also decided to build a new stadium

Boards, eh? Loathe them or ignore them, you just can't like them. Hope you find a way to work within the limitations.

12 hours ago, Parmie said:

The title elevates me to icon status and manager of the year

Quite right, too! It took you a little longer than I expected to reach the PL but I never had a doubt you'd manage it 

5 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

a very decisive title win. Best defense and best attack in the League

Great stuff! Always easier on the nerves when you win it comfortably.  Let's hope for more of the same next season.

[hasdgfas]

Transfer Update

While the window hasn't closed, we have brought in a few players

5 ins, including two loans from parent club Liverpool.

Conor Bradley is supposedly a DR, but I think he's secretly a right winger in disguise. Not sure he's good enough for me defensively, but he's a backup anyway. If they want him to get more game time, they can recall him.

Musialowski, however, looks pretty good? I don't know what this suspension is all about, but I think he'll do a job in our front line.

I'd like to bring in a couple more players, I think. It feels like a thin squad, particularly after a few inevitable injuries. A little bit of depth is going to be important for this slog of a league.

You can see that it's not quite as deep a squad as I'm probably looking for. maybe 2-3 more players? 

[hasdgfas]

Great entertainment for the fans to open the season though!

[warlock]

Nottingham Forest, October 2022

Having taken over at Forest at the end of the 21/22 season, we've completed our first transfer window and settled into our unwanted life in the third tier. It's more than 20 years since the club last competed in L1 but, in truth, in the intervening years they've looked as likely to be relegated as promoted. So first item on the agenda is promotion back to the Championship. You'd say that on paper, the squad looks more than capable... until you remind yourself that this squad is the same one that just got relegated. To make matters worse (but not surprisingly) most of the best players consider L1 beneath them and immediately agitate for transfers out. I, on the other hand, am determined to keep them here, so there's a lot of tension and unhappiness - even now, 2 months into the season, I have 8 unhappy players on my hands.

Transfers

There were a few players on expiring contracts and several were allowed to leave, most notably main striker Lewis Grabban. I also pushed out RB Mohamed Drager, who went to Cagliari for £2m; and AMR Xande Silva, with the former West Ham youngster off to Nurnberg for £325k. There were others marked for disposal but no-one was interested in them either for transfer or loan so they remain for now.

My first new signing was a replacement for Grabban and I was surprised when my scouts flagged that Ajax were unlikely renew the contract of young Brazilian Danilo Pereira... I was even more surprised when he agreed to join us on a free. It was a similar story with RB Danny da Costa, on an expiring contract at Frankfurt, and he was snapped up in short order. To replace Xande at AMR, I noticed Stoke had transfer-listed Jacob Brown and I gladly paid the required £600k fee for an upgrade on the departing Portuguese. As rotation/cover for Pereira I brought in Joe Gelhardt on loan from Leeds. Unfortunately, he has been terrible (average rating: 6.4) and will be going home in January. So I went back to the loan market and snapped up one-time FM wonderkid Eddie Salcedo from Inter. 

One of the impossible-to-remove players was LB Nikolas Ioannou, so to provide another option there I signed an old FM perennial, Jake Vokins, on loan from Southampton. Earlier in the window I renewed the loan of Man Utd's James Garner although, unhappily, Middlesborough refused a similar extension for RB Djed Spence.

With that, I thought we were done, until on transfer deadline day, a bunch MLS clubs made offers for American GK Ethan Horvath. He was one of the want-away squad and made it clear he would take it badly if no move was allowed, so a £2.1m deal with Portland was agreed. Fortunately, he won't move until January so we'll have the opportunity to bring a new backup for first-choice Bryce Samba.

Early form

As a season opener we faced Bolton in the first round of the Carabao Cup and duly won 7-2. We then began our league campaign in similar form:

A sparkling 5-1 victory against Pompey, with Pereira bagging a penalty on his debut, set the tone before he scored a brace against PL opponents Everton in the 2nd round of the Carabao, and then went one better with a hat-trick against Rotherham. With 7 goals from his first 4 games, surely he was destined for signing of the season? Alas, no...

In his next 4 games he failed to find the net at all. I'm hoping it's just the law of averages coming to bite us but I need him to start scoring again, as evidenced by our toothless display against a mid-table Wycombe. Happily, others have picked up the baton to some extent and Salcedo scored his first goal in a Forest shirt against Cheltenham. We're also scoring a few from AMR and AML, as well as from Cafu and Ojeda as CM-att. The real revelation has been veteran Joe Lolley... I wasn't sure whether to keep him but he's proved me wrong!

That unbeaten start to the campaign puts us top of the table for now, but it couldn't be much tighter with Ipswich and Forest Green hot on our heels:

An unbeaten season would surely help us secure the title 

[Woolly]

It's been a short while since I last updated but I've now finished season 2024-25 in my Rochdale save.

The Rochdale Fairy Tale Continues. After last season's record breaking position of 11th in the Championship this season was going to be one of consolidation and allow the young players to continue to develop at this level. When I last posted at the mid-way point the squad were pushing hard for the play offs. Sadly it was to prove a step to far, post Christmas the form suddenly became more and more irratic. The players could build themselves up to beat the sides pushing for promtion but the same wasn't true against the teams struggling against regulation. After the high point of getting into 3rd position it seemed a little bit deflating to end the season in 9th (another highest ever position record broken). Finances have got harder with the loan repayments for the ground expansion and due to the reduced capacity whilst building work went on, trying to keep players happy on wages more suited to the top end of Division 1 is meaning there are seeds of discontent starting to appear.  The core of the team (Coleman, Power, FIsh and Powell) continue to do well so I am confident that the 'Dale are going to continue to ruffle feathers next season.

I've continued to seek out young hungry free transfers this season the transfers in came to a massive £0 but I did manage to bring in £550K from sales and loan fees which has helped the finances a small bit. Notable transfers in Garnacho from Manchester United (he initially didn't have a WP so I had to send him out on loan until the January window when one was finally granted, and Alves Ibsen (a young CB signed on a free from West Ham). Hopefully if they reach their potential they will help keep Rochdale at these scary heights.

 This save started with just the aim of getting Rochdale into the Championship, but the longer it goes on the more determined I am to take this little club which is very much the perfect example of a lower league club overshadowed by much bigger neighbours into the Prremiership and hopefully Europe. Whether that happens is open to question (a bigger ground would help in the long term naturally) that coupled with the fact I'm now starting to attract the attention of bigger clubs (I've just been linked with the Southampton job) in the meantime however I will continue to enjoy the success and enjoyment this save is giving.

 

[smplfc123]

Great start to the season there for you @warlock

I'm now up to January in my second full season in charge at the Liberty Stadium, so thought I'd post a little update as to how we're looking:

With the board wanting a top half finish and me wanting to try and match our 6th placed finish from last season, we've made a good start.

In fact, we had made the perfect start after 16 games, with us sitting top of the table. However, the inevitable slump crept up on us, with us just picking up 2 wins from the following 9 games. More worryingly, we started to concede goals for fun after being so tight early on, shipping 4 to the likes of Forest and 3 away to Preston.

Thankfully we've arrested the slide in the form of a 2-0 home win over Preston (quick turnaround from the away fixture) and followed it up with a solid 0-0 draw against fellow promotion hopefuls Fulham.

My young front 3 of Ekitike, Whittaker and Geubbels have ben excellent, wit them netting 23 league goals between them up to this point. Kraus has settled in to the CDM role and young midfielder Kacper Ubranski is starting to find his rhythm. 

Ryan Manning will be leaving us in January. The LB lost his place in the side to Harry Toffolo and with just 6 months left on his contract, I decided to cash in, with the Irishman joining Young Boys in a deal that could reach £3m. Robbie Deas has complained about his game time and will also likely leave in Jan. I'm not looking to make major moves coming in to the club unless we have a big departure. The only real signing will be a cheap deal or a loan to cover Manning's departure.

[CityAndColour]

15 hours ago, warlock said:

Boards, eh? Loathe them or ignore them, you just can't like them. Hope you find a way to work within the limitations.

Indeed. I waited until the 30th of June and released my two highest earners without needing to pay any compensation, which got me under the wage budget and gave me a 24 hour window to offer new contracts to four guys I wanted to keep - not sure if this is "gaming" the system or just being clever, but at least it means I'm not starting from scratch again. Prior to this, L2 Aldershot came in and offered a pittance for Chibueze (£1.5k all up - at least with a 20% next sale clause), but with him wanting a move and our finances so bad, I didn't have much choice but to accept.

So come July, I have a little bit left in the wage kitty and eight senior players under contract, plus three more on loan, so it's not all bad. I have no senior strikers or 'keepers though!

[warlock]

1 hour ago, CityAndColour said:

not sure if this is "gaming" the system or just being clever

I'd say the latter - sounds like smart business to me 

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - September 2023

First off, I really have to chuckle at this:

Obviously, teams are coming in from the Premier League and are going to have different payrolls than a newly promoted squad, but I'm so far down there. (Derby, who came up with us, are spending almost 3 times as much per week as we are!)

Here's our results:

Literally could not have gone better. I'm in dreamland right now. I'm sure it'll crash at some point, but wow!

That puts us on top of the League(obviously). A long way to go, and I'm sure it won't last, but I feel confident about establishing ourselves in mid-table.

A couple additional transfers in after my last post. A loaned in winger, and a backup central defender. I feel all right with our depth at this point, I think? Our financials should be sustainable at this point though, which is priority 1. I want to be sustainable in the Championship and slowly increase our quality and reputation. We missed out on a bunch of our targets because of our finances, so hopefully a bit more time in this level will help with that.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - November 2023

A lot of draws, but only one loss in the League, even with matchups with some of the expected top Championship sides. I'm glad we were able to get a couple big wins to finish October.

All these draws have dropped us out of top spot, but, we're still way up near the top of the table, way stronger than expected.

[smplfc123]

JANUARY 2024 - TRANSFER WINDOW UPDATE

With the winter window officially closed, let's have a look at what moves we made, starting with departures:

Youngster Ryan and Lloyd had made the odd cup appearance, but their departures will not effect the first team squad. Ryan Manning was unhappy and with only 6 months left on his contract, £3m is a cracking deal. Seeing what was going to happen in Jan, I offered him out in December to ensure I received a fee for him.

Robbie Deas' contract was also due up in 6 months, but thankfully he chose Stoke instead of some of the offers from abroad, meaning I pocketed another £925k. Michael Obafemi also departed for a nice fee despite being out of contract in 6 months. So all in all, I couldn't really complain with the outgoings.

In terms of coming in to the squad, I found it really hard to decide what to do. With us in and amongst the play-offs, I didn't really want to buy players just in case we do get promoted and those available for transfer this month weren't really good enough for the level above. I decided to go for some loan deals instead, in the hope that the depth added to LB and LW would help ease the pressure on the squad, whilst an experienced CDM was brought in to help add some leadership to the young squad:

Bristol failed to come straight back up from League 1 last season, so they were happy to strike a loan deal for Semenyo to help ease the financial strain. The youngster should provide decent back up across the front line. Nicola Murru has been brought in on a 6 month deal to replace Manning and Cheikhou Kouyate was brought in to try and help see us through any tricky patches. 

We're currently sitting 5th after 30 games, so hopefully we can secure a play-off spot for the second season running! 

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - January 2024

The grind of December took its toll on us, with two draws and two losses. None of these teams are slouches, so I'm not worried, but we're definitely tired. How does that leave us in the League?

Stumbling a little bit, but it's so tight at the top. We're 3 points off top spot and 4 points from being out of the playoffs. The Championship is like that though! Hopefully we'll get back into form shortly here

[Woolly]

Nooooooo! I've just had my Rochdale Board agree to sell one of my promising young forwards. The joys of being a small club with limited finances. Oh well at least the initial £1.9m fee will help the finances some what and with any luck he will bring in the hoped for £10m as well. Stewart Eckersley 18 year old potential Rochdale legend you will be missed. I could have resigned over the issue but it is a fact of life with LLM I'm sure I will develop another player. 

[hasdgfas]

51 minutes ago, Woolly said:

I've just had my Rochdale Board agree to sell one of my promising young forwards.

Always sucks, he looks like a great player! But hopefully you'll be able to replace him.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - March 2024

A rough couple months. The Preston loss looks really bad, and it was, but we were also playing with 9 men and it was 1-1 before both red cards. The Millwall loss is really disappointing as well. But we're still doing pretty well!

Still in a playoff spot with 11 matches to go. However, Mika Biereth is out for the rest of the season with a broken ankle

As our top scorer, this is a big blow. Hopefully we can replace his goals(although this is just about his level, he's not quite dominating the way he did in League One).

 

I think our squad depth and financial issues are just starting to squeeze us here at the end of the season. I would have brought a couple more players in, but we don't have the wage budget for them. We're over wage budget right now as the second cheapest payroll in the Championship, so we're clearly overperforming.

[warlock]

EFL schedules are brutal . Just finished October having played 8 games in 28 days; then looked at November - 8 games in 28 days 

[Woolly]

5 hours ago, warlock said:

EFL schedules are brutal . Just finished October having played 8 games in 28 days; then looked at November - 8 games in 28 days 

Seriously brutal no wonder the players start to suffer from tiredness in games. I've had the same, it is made worse if you are even remotely successful in cup competitions.

[Woolly]

Well Eckesley did end up going to Southampton  despite Wolves trying to highjack the transfer with a better offer  but I have high hopes for the young former PSG forward I picked up on a free to replace him. The £1.9m immediate fee was a record for the club which will help the finances for the coming season.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Woolly

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 9 (2029/2030)

As always with the new promotion, it's who can get in thats good enough, is willing to sign for us and that doesn't accept better offers elsewhere.

Freddie Goodman was good in the Championship but needs to become backup to a better replacement, All 3 relegated teams have decent keepers but after we make bids, other clubs come in and they all go to other teams. We go abroad to sign Brenno who is experienced and a good leader for the dressing room.

I've tracked Tyler Morton for a while and he becomes available for £11m to give us another central midfield player. We're still signing German free youngsters and Yousef Kiani is good cover at left back, and Bayern have listed Zidan Sertdemir who arrives for only £3.9m. 

I make a couple more longer term youth signings but have settled thats our squad for the season ahead.

Spoiler

Season Review

I feel like I could copy and paste the equivalent season's review from the Bradford save. We have a decent home draw against Chelsea to kick off the season but start losing league games afterwards, after 4 losses we get our first win against Crystal Palace, after another loss a win against Brighton. November is a write off with 3 losses but in December, we rally with 4 draws and a win from 7 games.

At this stage we've hovering above relegation spots but one win could take anyone out of the relegation zone and above us. We continue the bad form, with the occasional draw or win but we succumb eventually to the small squad size, with injuries and suspensions kicking in.

We are relegated from the Premiership

Discipline is something I've posted about in the main forum, every save I've done with the first newly promoted season sees vast numbers of yellow and red cards as the match engine can't cope with us simply being worse in ability. So both the season result and how it occurred (setting a Premier League bad disciplinary record) is not surprising.

With the extra finances, I've done the usual facility improvement spamming. we still need to do more there if we're going to start using the academy.

Next Season Preview

The squad is well set for a good campaign, and I don't have many relegated release clauses hanging over the team, but some do have normal release clauses. The main challenge will be keeping this team together for another season of development to hopefully bounce back. The delayed reputation boost you usually see despite relegation should allow us to improve further or replace anyone who leaves.

Edited May 20, 2022 by Parmie

[smplfc123]

So for the second season in a row, we finish on 83 points and in the play-offs. After 41 games we were sitting in 2nd place, but we bottled it, ending the season with 3 defeats in our last 5 games.

A final day win will hopefully revive some momentum, but I fear Bournemouth will be too much for us. Hopefully we can prove the doubters wrong!

[warlock]

14 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

Hopefully we can prove the doubters wrong!

Good luck 

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - End of Regular Season

Rough run-in, between the Biereth injury and the lack of squad depth. Did we do enough?

by the slimmest of margins, yes. Regardless of how the playoffs end, it's been a huge success of a first season in the Championship. I just need to add a bit of depth to get across the line next season(assuming we don't pull something off in the playoffs!)

[hasdgfas]

EFL Championship Semi-Final, Leg 1

An outstanding first leg. Couldn't have gone better. The third goal in stoppage time puts us well in control. And we deserved it too. Dominance. Felt like we were almost back to our early season form with this one.

[Woolly]

Another Transfer Window closes on Rochdale and another window where no money on fees spent, this cannot continue yet I daren't risk the finiancial meltdown it could bring if I was to spend. I'm trying hard to maintain the wages allocation as it is whilst over achieving season after season.

[Woolly]

Once again I have high hopes for my signings. Betrabtcourt was signed to replace Southampton bound Eckersley as mentioned earlier yet his signing wasn't the only one this window. I also picked up two defenders. Sorensen a 19 year old Danish CB from Midtjlland has the potential to develop into a better player than my two first choice CB but it will require careful management, Badley-Morgan will primarily be used to begin with as LB as my first choice Zak Swanson is recovering from a broken leg going forward he may also move into a more central position. Finally we come to Mexican Marcelo Flores another CFwd who joined us when his Arsenal contract ended he is slightly ahead of Betrabtcourt at this time mainly due to being a few years older, he was signed not only due to his potential but also due to the fact he has holds a UK passport alongside his Mexican and Canadian ones so there was no need for a work permit. All four signings have made their debuts for the club and have performed well. 

[smplfc123]

Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. A 2-0 away defeat in the first leg meant that we had to chase the 2nd leg somewhat and Bournemouth sat back, soaked up the pressure and then hit us on the break in the 83rd minute to kill the tie off completely and win the semi final 3-0 on aggregate.

We overachieved in terms of the board's targets and if I'm being realistic, we didn't have a good enough squad to go up so I don't think I could have done any better than a play-off spot.

It'll be an interesting summer now having been at the Swans for 2 and a half years. There's a few players out of contract and our good season mean there's some vultures circling around our good youngsters. Furthermore, I'm actually out of contract and up to now, have turned down the club's offers for a new contract whilst the season was ongoing. Let's see where this all takes us!