FM22: The English Football League thread

[Dong21]

Good luck with Bradford @Jogo Bonito! I'm liking the way you are presenting your updates in the form of news headlines 

[Jogo Bonito]

1 hour ago, Dong21 said:

Good luck with Bradford @Jogo Bonito! I'm liking the way you are presenting your updates in the form of news headlines 

Cheers  I can't take credit for the news headline style though unfortunately. I may consider posting in such fashion if it's not too time consuming, but this is pure crop & post from the official website as these were all real life moments that I was able to replicate in my game.

@Ronaldo Beckhamand @Parmiethanks for the good wishes. 

@CityAndColourTruth is that I assigned him there myself when I changed the chairperson. I didn't want to cut Sparky rom the club as I feel they're about to have a good season IRL with him in charge. I actually wanted to make him DOF as it didn't feel right to have him assisting me, but for some reason could not do that and had to crush a bit of his ego and use him as my right hand man instead.

@warlockThanks also, hopefully I might get a season or two out of it. And I still wanted to manage Plymouth, Cardiff and another foreign club (Feyenoord possibly). I doubt any of that will happen in time! Sorry to hear about your laptop woes, I do wonder how mine will cope with a 46-league game slogathon as it struggled with the two month WC break with Valencia. Anyway, hopefully it can be sorted and you'll be back amongst it soon.

 

Edited June 2, 2022 by Jogo Bonito

[Dong21]

@Jogo Bonito I think you could quite easily and quickly replicate it using Word and then a snipping tool. Anyway, I’m sure whatever you end up doing it will be creative and enjoyable to read.

[Jogo Bonito]

35 minutes ago, Dong21 said:

@Jogo Bonito I think you could quite easily and quickly replicate it using Word and then a snipping tool. Anyway, I’m sure whatever you end up doing it will be creative and enjoyable to read.

Thanks mate, we will see. Who are you managing these days?

[warlock]

4 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Sorry to hear about your laptop woes,

Well, my worst fears have been realised - it's the GPU cooling fan, and it looks as though the bearing has gone. The trouble is that every single model of laptop on the market appears to use a slightly different design of fan. I've found a supplier, but they're in China and it will take the best part of two months to get it shipped here (on current estimates). On the other hand, I'll be damned if I'll write off an £800 laptop for the sake of a £15 fan 

[Dong21]

15 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Thanks mate, we will see. Who are you managing these days?

@Jogo BonitoSadly I haven’t found as much time to play this edition of FM compared to previous years. I had a fun two seasons with Charlton that lasted the first few months after the game was released and more recently I’ve completed a solitary season with Lyon (3rd place finish, Europa League semi finals).

That said, I’ve recently laid the groundwork for a new save that I’m excited about and will definitely write about! I already know my updates will be detailed so I will be writing over in the FMCU - I’ll share a link here when it’s all set up! 
 

@warlock Does this mean you won’t be able to play FM for two months potentially? 

Edited June 3, 2022 by Dong21

[warlock]

@Dong21 It's looking that way. I played one match last night to see how it went and it was pretty bad - sounded terrible and the heat build-up was scary!

[CityAndColour]

2025/26 - Willand Rovers - Conference South

Season:

Not too much to say really. We were once again tipped to finish last, had the lowest wage budget in the league, started well, had a few slumps and ended up in a very safe mid-table position, matching last season's points total. The board reduced the wage budget twice and then criticised me for not repairing the club's financial damage, apparently one of my non-negotiable objectives. Short of an FA Cup run to the third round and a favourable draw, I'm not sure how I can really meet that one. Excluding youth players, we only used 16 players in total which tells you quite a bit.

What I will say is that, if matches were decided by xG, we would probably be a playoff team. Unfortunately, we lacked those moments of quality the better teams seem to find to turn a loss or a draw into a win, with many games where we were the better side in general play but couldn't find the crucial goal. Still, we are significantly overperforming our stature.

Takeover rumours swirled all season, each time being unhelpfully shot down by a chairman that doesn't seem intent on putting any funds into the club. 

Our finances are in freefall.

Players:

The usual suspects and a very handy Cheltenham loanee.

Sean Stanford - Our best player. The young centre half was imperious once again, clean sweeping all the club awards and being nominated for the Conference South player of the year gong too.

Bradley Keetch - Another consistent season from our vice-captain.

Christoph Welsch - The Cheltenham academy graduate and German u19 international spent some time on loan here at the end of last season, before joining again and scoring 14 times from the right wing.

Oscar Massey - The former Plymouth youngster led the line superbly, however will likely be sacrificed to keep wages under control.

Next season:

By February I had all but decided it would be my last season at Willand, due to the ever-decreasing wage budget and my subsequent inability to put together a squad that could go anywhere near promotion. We kept playing above our abilities however, and by March I realised I was too attached to the club to walk away. When our youth intake delivered me a promising looking midfielder (Diogo Pereira), I decided that was the universe's way of telling me to stick it out. A member of last season's intake, Lewis Deacon, also looks promising, so that will give me a little project to try and introduce them into the first team.

A couple more high earners will need to go in order to get the wages down further, but I should be able to re-sign Stanford, Tapp, Keetch and Makokowe for next season, and hopefully a few loanees too.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - January 2026

Last time, we were struggling a bit immediately post-relegation. How are we faring now?

Significantly better. A couple tough away losses in the past 3 months, but we're winning more consistently. Our xG is consistently high, but loan striker Troy Parrott is struggling with goals.

Enter Kieffer Moore:

Signed to be a backup last season in the Premier League, he's stuck around as a good influence in the locker room, but I expected him to just be our Cup striker. However, he's taken his chances much better than Parrott recently and has taken over as starter. We just play much better with him right now.

And where has he dragged us to?

It's tight at the top of the Championship! A little bit of extra quality up front would probably help us get across the line again, but it's tough to find in January.

[hasdgfas]

Ugh, League One Blackburn just triggered my starting GK's 6.5M release clause and now I have to scramble to replace him...

[StePratt]

It's been a while since I've posted in here. 

I've downloaded a database that starts on the 30th of May and inputs all the results. So the football league, except the play offs, is how it is today. 

Starting as unemployed I received an invite to interview for the Barnsley job, recently relegated from the Championship. 

After a successful interview, I was offered the job. I duly accepted the offer. 

Barnsley are part of the PMG collection of clubs, which includes Nancy and Thun, and use a moneyball-esque style towards recruitment. I will be fully buying into this to, firstly, get Barnsley back into the Championship and, ultimately, into the Premier League. 

The squad contains a lot of young, talented players and with a few additional signings our aim is to win League One. 

[CityAndColour]

Here we go...

Hope the new stadium is a cracker though!

[Jamesbfc1887]

 

Long time no see to many on the EFL thread!

Just accepted the West Brom job in Dec 23, having had two and a half successful years in the Eredivisie. Looked like an interesting challenge, almost impossible!   

Not quite an EFL save just yet but it won't be long.

I'll keep you updated on the Championship rebuild when I fail to turn this side around, beating Derby's 11 points would be a start. I think even they had more than 5 points by the end of December. I  feel rather like Paul Jewell 

Edited June 4, 2022 by Jamesbfc1887

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - Mid-March 2026

The Cups kinda killed our momentum a bit at the end of January, but we got it right back starting in February. Where did that leave us?

Oh, we're a bit clear at the top now, I guess. Let's keep it up!

In January, I brought back a youth player I had sent on loan because I wanted to give him some time.

He's been performing quite well, as you can see! 5 assists in 7 appearances.

[hasdgfas]

Apparently, consistency in the Championship is incredibly important and rare:

Guess we're trying the Premier League again!

[hasdgfas]

As it turns out, today's just a day I can make a lot of progress!

Even though we had clinched first place (by a lot!), we got to have a huge impact on the final table. That final day win at Middlesbrough kept them out of the automatic promotion spots!

Our new stadium is going forward, about another 10k seats in it. It's a lot of money, but hopefully won't ruin us long-term.

[hasdgfas]

Getting ready for our second attempt to stay up in the Premier League, we're making a lot of moves this time, and hopefully of a much higher quality than last time.

I have some hope this time, compared to last attempt. The quality of the squad has gone way up in the past two years, and I think that should be able to turn a few of our losses last time into draws.

I'll be doing a full squad review sometime soon here.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton Squad Review - 2026/27

Let's talk about the first team squad a bit.

GKs:

Bingourou Kamara is the starter, bought this summer from Strasbourg for 2.3M. After Joel Coleman was bought away from me in January, I wasn't happy with any of the available options to buy, so I brought in someone on loan to last until summer. That GK was eventually beat out by my existing backup(who you'll see in a moment), so I had to try to find someone.  Kamara was available and seems...adequate?

Jonas Krumrey is the backup, who finished out the end of last season as the starter. I got him on a free from Austria before my first Premier League season as I needed a backup, and that's just about where he's stayed. Nothing too special, but a reasonable backup.

DRs:

Dion Sanderson is the starter. I brought him in for 5M from Wolves after he was on loan last season and killed it. He's not necessarily outstanding in any specific area, but he just performed. Excited to have him permanently.

Taylor Gardner-Hickman is the backup. I brought him in permanently for 4M before our first attempt at the Premier League after he'd had two great loan seasons in our two promotion years. He's...fine? Pretty good even? He just didn't perform quite as well as Sanderson did.

DCs:

Kenny Morgan is our best central defender, and one of the two stars of the academy. Loads of appearances last season in the Championship and he killed it. Very excited to see him try to make the step up to the Premier League. I think he can handle it.

Willy Kambwala is here on loan this season and I honestly don't know if he'll be able to make it in the Prem. I brought him in for his potential and his physical attributes and because I was able to get an optional future fee of 7.5M on this loan, so if he does develop well this season I can take advantage of that.

Ricardo Santos has been a staple of the squad from the beginning of the save, but he's finally starting to go downhill. I think he's got another season in him, but I don't think he'll make it through the whole thing at this level.

Jorge Segura was a free transfer in during 2022, and has been super solid for us. He's probably also just about reached his level, but if I go down again, he'll be a reasonable squad member back in the Championship, so I don't want to let him go.

DLs:

Kik Pierie feels like he might have been a steal? I brought him in for 4M in January after Facundo Medina had his head turned by Brighton, and he's been good! A bit inconsistent to start, but with a full preseason I trust him. Because he was good at the end of the season last time.

Jordan Hackett. I panicked a bit here, honestly. I couldn't find a backup DL so I looked through on-loan players and he was the only reasonable one. I maybe should have waited until closer to deadline day? But a lot of my other purchases took most of my budgets, so I didn't have a huge selection.

MCs/DMs:

Peter Lacko is our record signing. 10M from Aston Villa this summer and I'm very excited. I think he has a ton of potential and I intend to give him the playtime to show it off.

Henrik Thomsen is probably our best player. 7.5M release clause from Midtjylland this summer, beating out several other clubs who I would have expected he was more interested in. But he looks great, even now.

Ben Pearson was brought in for free before our first Premier League season and just hasn't ever clicked with the team. I'll probably give him a couple more tries this season, but at 31? I don't think he should be a regular starter over some of our younger players.

Garry Thompson is the other star of the youth academy. I brought him back in January for half a season with the first team squad and he was our best player in the second half of the season, being one of the key figures behind our increased consistency and push to promotion. Very excited to see him perform in the Prem.

Wouter Burger was another player brought in for our first Prem campaign who just wasn't ready at the time. 2.6M from Basel, but he was super solid in the Championship last season, even if he's probably just a squad player this season after our other signings.

Aaron Morley is another squad player. He's been with us since League One! 75k from Rochdale and a very solid squad player who has been consistently quite reasonable from the start of the save, if never spectacular.

Khalon Haysman has been a bit of a pet project of mine since his trial in summer 2022 and he has developed well! A solid performer who has been awesome for a free signing back in League One.

Wingers:

Marcus Forss was just bought for 7M this summer from Brentford for wing depth, since I was really worried about that. A little more than I wanted to pay, but I was worried.

Luis Henrique is the other player who has an argument to be our best player. I got him for 2M from Marseille before last season! He was awesome for us, a nailed-on starter with 11 goals and 6 assists from the wing. I think he'll definitely be able to make the step up, he felt better than the Championship.

Josh Koroma. A squad player on the wings, but he's been fine to step in when he needed to. He won't blow you away, but also won't be a huge disappointment. Not much to say about him honestly.

Felix Nmecha. I was surprised to get him this summer for 1.3M. I think he's better than that and I'm hopeful he can show it in the Premier League.

Strikers:

Joe Gelhardt. Leeds didn't want him, so I spent 6M to grab him. I've had success with him in the Premier League before, so hopefully he can make up for the loss of aging, left on a free transfer Kieffer Moore.

Terem Moffi. If Gelhardt can't, maybe this guy can. Nice was trying to offload him for 2M, so I grabbed him. I really need to find goals from somewhere, since I sure couldn't last time in the Premier League.

----

And that's the squad. Maybe in January I'll be able to do some slight reinforcement in places that are obviously not good enough, but I'm feeling good about this. I'll keep an eye out for bargains around Deadline Day, but I feel ok about the squad as-is for this attempt to stay up.

 

[CityAndColour]

Fair to say this is the toughest season I've ever had on an FM game.

The offseason started with the board taking out a bank loan of £950k to stave off administration - good in the short term but ultimately just adding another monthly payment we can't afford. I managed to re-sign four key players at the death using the same tactic as last off-season (release other players on the last day of their contracts to free up wage room), however our summer business then consisted almost entirely of loan signings - currently we have seven loanees and four academy products in a first team squad of 20.

Two of these loanees are renewals from last season and in our top few players, however the rest are purely for depth and not really the standard required, as clubs don't want their better prospects playing with my rag tag squad. As a result, we went into the season with a squad that was far more suited to the level below. Our wage budget is 25% lower than any other club in the division, and is literally 10% of the highest spenders (Torquay).

We then had a board takeover, with a supporters' club taking over. They opted not to invest however, leaving us in the same perilous position.

We started the season with a number of strong performances that just didn't yield points, which then gave way to poor morale. Then we collected 4-6 week injuries to three key players at the same time, putting us in further trouble. As a result, nearing Christmas, we are in a pretty desperate fight to avoid relegation.

It looks bad, however our performances have been surprisingly strong. We just don't have the quality to take our chances and then have a young 'keeper at the other end - I've literally lost count of how often we will pepper the opposition goal for no reward, then concede a 20-yarder or a goal on the break. Here's a selection of league matches this season where we have failed to collect points despite numerous chances:

            

If we could have just taken an extra 6-8 points from these fixtures, we would be well clear of relegation, so it's been frustrating to watch and difficult to manage as well (how often can you tell a team they have been unlucky?). It's particularly frustrating when the match engine shows good chances being created, which is backed up by xG, but they just don't go in!

The new board only wants us to battle bravely against relegation however, so I am hoping that relegation won't be the end of my tenure as long as we make a good fist of it.

[Woolly]

It been a few weeks since I last posted on my Rochdale journey. Currently at the half way point in my 3rd season in the Championship and still this small club from Greater Manchester continues to defy the odds. This season the bookies have predicted a mid-table position for this squad of big club youth rejects, free transfers and youth team promotees some what more promising that the relegation fodder prediction of the last two seasons. However, as per usual this club doesn't do as expected. It's now the 1st January and Rochdale are not even close to mid-table. The air is getting thin as the club now sits firmly in the play-off places in 3rd. I don't know how these players are managing to defy predictions yes a couple have the potential to play in the premiership but not just yet. Hopefully I can maintain a push for the play offs as it not only will mean we once more record a highest ever position but could also lead to promotion (something I feel would be a season too soon). Highlight of the season so far has to be hitting the top spot in the league all be it for a few days only. 

[Jogo Bonito]

On 03/06/2022 at 08:38, Dong21 said:

@Jogo BonitoSadly I haven’t found as much time to play this edition of FM compared to previous years. I had a fun two seasons with Charlton that lasted the first few months after the game was released and more recently I’ve completed a solitary season with Lyon (3rd place finish, Europa League semi finals).

That said, I’ve recently laid the groundwork for a new save that I’m excited about and will definitely write about! I already know my updates will be detailed so I will be writing over in the FMCU - I’ll share a link here when it’s all set up! 
 

@warlock Does this mean you won’t be able to play FM for two months potentially? 

I too have found hard to have time on FM22, but we finish work at 2.30 pm for the next three months due to summer hours so hopefully might fit in a little more. I will look forward to your updates when the time comes 

@warlock Sorry to hear this. I wonder how long my laptop will survive too, the heat doesn't seem to help it. Hope to see you around soon.

Too many updates for me to comment on but clearly very good work at Bolton and Rochdale, and good luck at Barnsley & West Brom for the new managers there. A gripping story at Willand and one that is a real test of character. Working under those conditions is a real test, but I'd say you are coping well and so far just above the drop zone so hope it continues that way. Perhaps one bit of luck with a striker (or keeper) might make enough difference.

After a lovely trip to Rome and a less than lovely return to work (way too busy), I'll look to get some progress with Bradford as 2022/23 pre-season has just been completed and the start of League 2 awaits. An update will follow in due course.

[StePratt]

Barnsley 2022/23

 

My first season as manager of Barnsley has concluded. We've played some great football and picked up some great results playing a narrow diamond with a focus on winning the ball back high up the pitch. Transfer targets were all under 22 and on short or expired contracts, the focus here being to buy cheap, develop and sell high. Simple, right?

Reece Devine signing on a free transfer from Manchester United exemplifies the strategy perfectly. 20 assists from left back and now we are fielding £2.5m offers from established Championship clubs. 

 

Two massive signings on deadline day too, with Bayern Munich's Lukas Mai joining on loan and Joshua Zirkzee signing for £110k (including a 40% sell on fee). Zirkzee will score goals at any level, massive coup for the Tykers and I will be trying to get Mai to sign permanently during the summer. 

 

 

As you can see, we finished top of League One with 104 points, which I believe is a record total. Cauley Woodrow played at the tip of the diamond and grabbed 31 (38 in total) goals, finishing as the leagues' top scorer. We beat Villa away in the FA Cup 4th Rd and won the Pizza Cup, beating Man City U23s in the final, after they had a player sent off early on. 

 

Now the planning begins for our return to the Championship.

[CityAndColour]

2026/27 - Willand Rovers - Conference South

Season:

As I outlined in a previous post, it really felt like everything was going against us in the first 2-3 months. A very thin squad, coupled with injuries to key players, left us as basically a sitting duck, and we sunk into a relegation battle very early on. The early fixture was unkind - we played the smaller clubs when they were in form and then all the "big boys" in the division seemingly in succession, which meant it was difficult to maintain morale.

We picked up points here and there to keep us afloat, and our ability to create chances kept me optimistic we'd be able to find that run of form to get us away from the bottom, but when?

In January we finally strung together consecutive wins, but then conceding a last minute equaliser at home to Bath sent us into a tailspin again. We played the return leg of all the bigger teams in a row and a six-match losing streak left us five points adrift at the bottom with only eight matches to play. At this point I was resigned to relegation and my focus switched to whether or not I'd get a new contract.

We then travelled to Slough, who had stuck six past us earlier in the season, and somehow came away with a 2-0 win. Next up was Wealdstone, directly above us, and we put three past them without reply to climb out of the relegation zone. Two matches later, it was 5-0 against Chippenham, and then a magnificent 4-1 home win over Dulwich Hamlet. Suddenly, we were the form team of the division, scoring for fun and taking out both the March and April divisional player of the month gongs.

We travelled to Walton Casuals for the penultimate fixture, knowing a point would see us safe. An early goal settled the nerves and, despite a second half equaliser, we ran out 3-1 winners, sending them down in the process. The great escape had been completed.

We weren't finished there either, beating Dorking on the final day to deny them a playoff spot and break the 40-point barrier. After winning just five of the first 32 matches, we won six of the last eight to finish a pretty comfortable 17th.

In the end, we finished 4th in the league for chances created, 5th for shots on target and 3rd for xG, so we really should have been anywhere near the bottom. However, this was genuinely one of my favourite FM seasons, just by virtue of the adversity we overcame to avoid a seemingly inevitable relegation.

Players:

The "last 5 games" column tells you everything about how we finished the campaign.

Sean Stanford - Another super season from the classy centre half. Once again he swept the club awards and was nominated for the divisional player of the season award. He has finally made the club's favoured personnel too.

Kyle De Silva - Brought in as a squad player last season, Kyle provided 10 goals and eight assists playing right across the attacking midfield line, almost exclusively dealing in either penalties or long range rockets. He had a knack for scoring really crucial goals too

Greg Hughes - We signed this lump of a lad right as the season started on loan, and while he was slow to get going, he ended up leading the line magnificently, scoring 18 goals and providing 7 assists. Unfortunately, I didn't really play the other guy we had on loan with Torquay and annoyed their manager, meaning I may struggle to get Hughes again.

Kevin Ward - One of my favourite players I've ever managed on FM. Playing in a box to box role, his leadership, work rate and stamina set the bar for the rest of the side, and he chipped in with some important goals too. Hoping to get him on loan for a third season running (or on a free if Aldershot releases him) but he should be playing at a higher level than us.

Next season:

I'm a glutton for punishment so I'm going to go around again.

We have eaten through the bank loan taken out at the start of the season, but at least the new chairman hasn't decreased the wage budget this time around. We also move into our new stadium after three years in Taunton, however with an average gate of 288 I can't see that making too much of a difference.

As ever, it will depend on the quality of loanees we can get in. I may also have to say goodbye to club icon Finn Tapp - he is still a very good player but I am basically just using up the wage budget re-signing the same players each season so a sacrificial lamb may be needed to freshen things up.

Lastly, I can't offer any of my staff what they want to renew so it may be an entirely new backroom set up (aside from the scouts who are on non-contract terms).

[Jogo Bonito]

6 hours ago, CityAndColour said:

In the end, we finished 4th in the league for chances created, 5th for shots on target and 3rd for xG, so we really should have been anywhere near the bottom. However, this was genuinely one of my favourite FM seasons, just by virtue of the adversity we overcame to avoid a seemingly inevitable relegation.

Next season:

I'm a glutton for punishment so I'm going to go around again.

We have eaten through the bank loan taken out at the start of the season, but at least the new chairman hasn't decreased the wage budget this time around. We also move into our new stadium after three years in Taunton, however with an average gate of 288 I can't see that making too much of a difference.

As ever, it will depend on the quality of loanees we can get in. I may also have to say goodbye to club icon Finn Tapp - he is still a very good player but I am basically just using up the wage budget re-signing the same players each season so a sacrificial lamb may be needed to freshen things up.

Lastly, I can't offer any of my staff what they want to renew so it may be an entirely new backroom set up (aside from the scouts who are on non-contract terms).

Incredible recovery, great story & genuine congratulations 

[Jogo Bonito]

Following on from my previous post, there was little more business done at Bradford before the transfer window closed ahead of the 2022/23 season

Liam O'Neil was allowed to depart for Rotherham (League 1) for a fee of £10k within weeks of arriving on a free transfer

This was in order to keep some realism as he had recently signed a new deal at Cambridge IRL and so was not actually a true free agent that we could have signed

We also tried to re-sign our released midfielder Levi Sutton as he signed a new Bradford contract last week IRL, but so far he isn't interested in a return

So the only additions were a couple of teenage strikers on free transfers for the U18 squad, as we only had one youth striker on the books

The pair came from different footballing backgrounds but Josh Stones (Harrogate) and Dewain Sewell (Aston Villa) both seem to have good potential

On our books are Elliot Watt and Charles Vernam, who have both been offered new City contracts IRL (as yet unsigned)

If either of these leave the club then we will replicate this in the game by moving them on at the next available opportunity

This leaves the following 24-man first team squad at our disposal for the start of the new season

Gordon, Daley-Campbell, Clark, Smith, Thorpe, Cannon, Dhanda, Bradford (had to be done), Eaves & Olaofe are the ones who are not present day Bradford players IRL

Pre-season went quite well, with a 4231 formation being used until late on when we switched to a 4312 formation

The season proper didn't start too well with Barnsley dumping us out of the Carabao Cup in Round 1

And the opening league game was another loss as Northampton came from behind to defeat us 2-1

Since then, however, we have chalked up four straight wins and looked fairly decent to surge up the table

The best result was the 2-1 win at relegated Lincoln, who we would expect to be favourites for promotion this time around

You will see though that we needed a very late goal from sub Jake Young (90+2) to turn a respectable draw in to a delightful victory

The performance graph shows how we bounced back from the slow start, and hopefully this momentum can be maintained 

[Dong21]

Strong start to the season for both Bradford and Isaac Olaofe @Jogo Bonito!

A long way to go of course, but the foundations for success certainly appear to be in place.

I've finally got round to writing up my scene-setting opening post for my latest adventure. I'm returning to Boundary Park to once again manage Oldham (I know, I know, I am a glutton for punishment ). It is a fresh challenge for me though as I have set it up so I will be starting in 2022, in the National League (a league in which I've never managed before). I was going to wait for FM23 to take this on, but I realised that rebuilding the squad from scratch was much more appealing to me than starting with whomever John Sheridan brings in this summer. 

I would love for you and the rest of the EFL page members to follow along here, if you're interested: 

 

[warlock]

Congratulations and commiserations where appropriate. I'm following on my phone but typing any meaningful comment is a pain.

I bought what I thought was a compatible fan but it didn't work so went to order the direct replacement from China... out of stock . So as much as it pains me, I've ordered a new  laptop, which should be here on Wednesday . Not sure I'll be able to get the Forest save off the old machine but I'll be happy to get back in the game... missing it more than I thought I would. 

in the meantime keep up the good work 

[CityAndColour]

10 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

 

We also tried to re-sign our released midfielder Levi Sutton as he signed a new Bradford contract last week IRL, but so far he isn't interested in a return

 

Good luck - it seems to be hard-coded into the game that a player won't return to their last club. If you go into his personal page it will have "would prefer not to play for Bradford" under long term plans and from experience that will last for a couple of years.

[Welshace]

14 hours ago, warlock said:

Congratulations and commiserations where appropriate. I'm following on my phone but typing any meaningful comment is a pain.

I bought what I thought was a compatible fan but it didn't work so went to order the direct replacement from China... out of stock . So as much as it pains me, I've ordered a new  laptop, which should be here on Wednesday . Not sure I'll be able to get the Forest save off the old machine but I'll be happy to get back in the game... missing it more than I thought I would. 

in the meantime keep up the good work 

no Steam cloud saves?

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Welshace said:

no Steam cloud saves?

Afraid not. But I have realised I can take the hard drive out of the old laptop and mount it in an external drive case to recover all of my data 

[hasdgfas]

November 2026

Pretty rough as far as points go, but really, none of these are bad results? Would have been nice to get a win against Everton instead of a draw, but the rest are probably results we'd expect. Hopefully we get some more weaker teams at home soon to rack up more points. Our performances have been a lot better than the last attempt too. Where are we sitting after this rough start to the season?

Just outside the relegation zone, which is pretty good for only 7 points in 10 matches. A few more home results and we'll have a little more breathing space.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - End of 2026

you love to see it.

You also love to see 5 wins and 2 draws in December and late November!

That puts us with some breathing room above the drop zone, and already with more points and more wins than our first attempt at the Premier League two seasons ago. We're well below the top teams, but we are right about at the same level as the bottom half, so if we keep getting those results we'll be just fine.

[Shakawkaw]

Anyone have any ideas for an interesting team in league one or two with a few good young players?

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - March 2027

A bit more up and down than the last update, but still getting points.

We've hit "would have been safe in every Premier League season of this save" levels of points, so I'm feeling good. We don't have the best run-in, but we're 11 points from the drop zone with 9 matches to go. Not totally safe, but in a good spot.

[warlock]

New laptop day 

The usual delivery nonsense - your package will be delivered between 8.30am and 8.30pm - before it eventually arrived at 7pm, followed by the exciting/tedious process of installing Windows and driver updates, deleting the bloatware, installing Steam and other essentials. The plan was to extract the data drive from the old laptop and install it in an external drive cage, but the new laptop had space for it internally and that installation was eventually concluded successfully (a lot of very tiny screws notwithstanding ). Finally installed FM22, fired up the game and everything was in place - old saves, graphics files, tactics, the lot.

Turns out I have 3 more games to play in Forest's L1 campaign, so I'm just about to find out what difference the new hardware makes. I have a slightly faster CPU, and much better GPU. Here we go...

Edit to add: Happy overall with the new hardware - processing slightly quicker, graphics a little better but at the expense of louder fan noise; some of the graphics settings (both in game and in Windows) need a bit of tweaking.

Edited June 15, 2022 by warlock

[warlock]

Nottingham Forest, May 2023

With the season over it's fair to say we strolled to the title. Given that we managed to hold on to most of our Championship squad, we were comfortably the best team in L1:

A winning margin of 29pts tells the story - we lost just two league games all season, including - disappointingly - our final game against Ipswich at home

Everyone in the squad performed at a high level throughout the season - only young CB Loic Mbe Soh rated less than 7 in average ratings for the year. Notable performances:

Others worthy of mention include James Garner who scored a season average rating of 7.55 from the DM position; striker Eddie Salcedo, who racked up 20 goals from 24(12) appearances; and GK Bryce Samba, who played 57 games in all competitions and produced 30 clean sheets.

Team stats were no less impressive... we were simply the best:

Looking ahead to our return to the Championship, the board want a top half finish (which might be a little ambitious). I haven't been given budgets yet, but I ran a pretty tight ship this year and ended the season with more than £6m in the transfer budget and £120k in spare wages - even without an increase in either we'd be in good shape as the squad doesn't need much in the way of reinforcements. The big issue will be the loss of Garner - Manchester United want more than £350k a month, and £25k a week in wages, to renew his loan again and that seems hard to justify, despite his stellar performances.

[warlock]

4 hours ago, Shakawkaw said:

an interesting team in league one or two with a few good young players?

Depends what kind of challenge you want, but Ipswich, Doncaster, Rotherham and Forest Green Rovers spring immediately to mind.

[hasdgfas]

25 minutes ago, warlock said:

Looking ahead to our return to the Championship, the board want a top half finish (which might be a little ambitious).

With how much you rolled League One, you're in a good spot for top half based on my experience.

[robterrace]

Its been a while.

Taken over Southampton at the end of the first season after they were relegated.

Had a few departures so far, Jack Stephens to Brighton for £4.5m, and Oriol Romeu for £18m to Newcastle. Che Adams also looks like leaving too.

However, a few big deals coming in, with a few more to come.

£15m (£7.5m up front + £7.5m over 2 years) for Fabio Carvalho.

£6m for Daniel Jebbison

Also coming in, striker Terem Moffi for £6m.

Hes going to be the target of my front line, and hold the ball up for the players coming past.

 

[warlock]

1 hour ago, robterrace said:

Its been a while

Good to see you 

[robterrace]

Another couple of new signings.

Firstly, Sean Longstaff from Newcastle for £6.75m.

Secondly, a player who will be integral to how I want to play this season, French defender, Oumar Solet from RB Salzburg for £13m

Also arriving is Argentine wing back, Enzo Díaz, for £5.75m from Talleres.

A few departures leaving, with Che Adams (Burnley £11.5m), Shane Long (Legia, Free) and Willy Caballero (Verona £75k).

In the time since arriving, over £600k has been trimmed from the wage bill, including the new signings coming in. 

[robterrace]

Another departure, taking £40k p/w off the wages, this time Nathan Redmond to Lille for £7m.

Also, a couple of goalkeeping arrivals.

For £1.2m from Dinamo, Ivan Nevistic. He returns to them on loan for the season. Although, Dominik Livakovic remains first choice at the Maksmir.

Also joining, but heading back out on loan, is Julen Agirrezabala from Bilbao. The 21 year old impressing the scouts, and convincing us to spend £7m on him. It may be slightly more than I wanted to pay, but, in the long run, him and Nevistic will be good for us.

[hasdgfas]

5 hours ago, robterrace said:

Also coming in, striker Terem Moffi for £6m.

 

3 hours ago, robterrace said:

Secondly, a player who will be integral to how I want to play this season, French defender, Oumar Solet from RB Salzburg for £13m

great pickups! I have had lots of success with both in FM22

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - End of 2026/27 Season

Did we end as strong as we had been looking?

Not quite, but we did have a tough run-in. The Everton loss is really the only result I'm fully "disappointed with", and even then we had a 20th minute red card and were comfortably safe, so I didn't mind it.

Wait, did I say comfortably safe? Yep.

Never worried for the run-in, it was a fantastic season. MASSIVE improvement from two seasons ago, which is all I wanted, and to do it comfortably mid-table is even better.

This was our star:

An absolute talisman in midfield, once he started clicking after our tough start to the season we started looking really impressive. I'm expecting him to get some interest from larger clubs this summer, but I'll do what I can to keep him.

[warlock]

8 minutes ago, hasdgfas said:

The Everton loss is really the only result I'm fully "disappointed with"

Last game of the season is often a tricky fixture, but a safe mid-table result is a pretty good achievement, I think 

I'm just about done with pre-season in our return to the Championship and we're looking good - just beat Spurs 3-0! I'm desperate for a striker to support Pereira (Eddie Salcedo was refused a work permit on renewing his loan), and unexpectedly lost Jonathan Panzo to a late transfer bid so he'll need to be replaced. But, for now at least, I'm pretty confident we'll be in good shape for the season kick-off.

[CityAndColour]

You know you're going to struggle when teams in your own division won't loan you kids because they want them to play with higher quality players.

[robterrace]

6 hours ago, CityAndColour said:

You know you're going to struggle when teams in your own division won't loan you kids because they want them to play with higher quality players.

Its definitely a feeling I've had before.

In more transfer news (getting some more ins and outs before the end of the window)

Out

Moi Elyounassi  - Celtic £5m. He didn't fit how I would like to play, and I didn't want to upset him by not playing him. Whilst I'd like to have made more on him, theres interest in a couple more players that will attract larger fees.

In

Hardworking Tunisian midfielder Ellyes Skhiri is the next to arrive. The 27 year old brings experience of the French and German leagues, as well as a fantastic energy that will help his colleagues out. For £4m, his signing was a bit of a 'no brainer'.

Arriving on the same day as Shkiri, from Swiss side Young Boys, is Fabian Rieder. 

The 20 year old Swiss midfielder has been a fixture in the U21 side, but, also has over 50 appearances for his previous club, securing 2 Swiss League titles in the process. Hes one for the future, with a £7m fee to live up to, but, with a bit of easing into the team off the bench this season, he'll be ready to replace Stuart Armstrong if he goes.

The day after saw another signing, this one having potential to go to the very top.

A fee of just over £7m was paid for Adam Hlozek, which, subject to conditions would go up to £9.25m. 
Comfortable out wide, or up top, which, is where he will spend most of his time, the young Czech forward arrives with a big reputation, having scored 31 goals for Sparta Prague in 100 games. He is also a full Czech international, and is seen as one of his countries biggest future talents.

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 15 (2035/2036)

We've got burgeoning potential in the squad coming ready for the Premiership season ahead, although we need to strengthen into current ability to survive.

Claudemir is our main attacking threat, arriving from SPAL for £8.5m

Rinaldo Altenhofen strengthens right back but could also cover on the left, and at 27, one of our oldest signings ever from ATP at £9,25m.

Neither of our young keepers are quite ready so Juan Dominguez signs from Pumas for just £3,7m on a release clause.

Lautro Tasso is reported as potentially a leading Premier level player and is already good enough to upgrade in central defence, seems a good buy for £10.75m from Velez.

Spoiler

Unfortunately Barcelona activated young South African Thabo Metete's release clause of £20m, and as he's not developed into the finished article, Andreas Norstrand left for Hoffenheim for £8.25m to largely balance the books.

Season Review:

In the Premier League, we have a couple of threatening weeks but stay clear of relegation, not with a huge points total but there are 4 worse teams than us.

 

You may have noticed the EC beside our league position, and yes, we qualified for Europe through the FA Cup.

It was no lucky result, we scored through the first half and were the better team, United scoring in the dying minutes to force extra time. Vitor Manoel, filling in up front for an injured Claudemir scored a deserved winner on the 115th minute.

A great achievement for us relative minnows.

End Of Save

Unfortunately I have not had an option to make the final upgrade of youth facilities for several  seasons, being stuck at Excellent, I really like getting graduates through the academy. There seems no justifiable reason for this in game so I think it's a bug. I've also had another long term bug with a player we sold to Derby still showing on the transfer outs page permanently for his entire contract. 

It's been fun Oldham, and we finally won something (my only major trophy in FM22). I might have one more save in me for FM22. 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Parmie

[robterrace]

So.

Deadline Day.

Most important move is to keep hold of James Ward-Prowse. Hes the glue of the side, and, probably the best player in the division.

First comes interest from Premier League Brentford in Kyle Walker-Peters, the right back is currently my first choice, but, missed the last match with QPR due to injury. A loan with a mandatory £7.4m fee is agreed, and he heads off. 

Tino Livramento will step up, but, moves are made to bring in a second right sided full back to provide cover.

Also getting a bid on them, was Mo Salisu. The 23 year old CB attracting the attention of Atletico Madrid and informing me that he wanted the move. Another loan with mandatory fee was agreed, this time for £20m, and he heads off to La Liga. We have 2 first choice centre backs remaining, in Jan Bednarek and Oumar Solet, with Brazilian Lyanco providing backup, however, we will need a 4th centre back for the occasions we are missing one of the first choice pair.

The third player to depart on loan was Dan Nlundulu. The forward heading to Port Vale for the season after deciding it was easier for him to get football that way.

18 year old full back, Thierry Small had expressed a desire to leave, but before I could act on this, Newcastle made an offer that would reach just under £10m for him. Which was enough for him to depart to the north-east.

------

Kyle Walker-Peters replacement had already been scouted as part of my initial drag of players when I joined the club.

With 26 appearances for Feyenoord last season, Norwegian, Marcus Holmgren Pedersen is a pacy right back who can go up and down the wing all day. He needs a little bit of work on some of his mental attributes, but, for a 22 year old who is a full international, a £4.8m fee isn't too bad.

With the departure of Salisu, a spot opened up for another centre half.

Homegrown centre halves always come at a bit of a premium, so, have to be accurately assessed and scouted.

Such a process was undertaken for Arsenal centre back, Daniel Ballard. The Northern Irish international being a strong centre half who we could develop technically. For £7.5m, he arrives on a 3 year deal.

Next, the Bundesliga was raided for 19 year old Spanish/Irish defender Anselmo Garcia McNulty. A centre back in the mould of Fernando Hierro, the left footer joins for £700k and goes into the development squad.

Young Swedish talent, Williot Swedberg was next on the list. With Hammarby receiving £2.8m for the 18 year old midfielder, who returns to Sweden on loan.

----

That remained our business for Deadline Day, with McNulty heading out to Union Berlin on loan for the season shortly before the 11pm deadline.

---

Most important item of the day was keeping Ward-Prowse, who, along with Stuart Armstrong, is a very important part of how we play.

[robterrace]

Literally the day after the window shuts...