FM22: The English Football League thread

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - Championship Semi-Final Leg 2

Would Bournemouth be up to it?

Yeah. I was feeling really good after our first goal, but their immediate response got me slightly nervous again. Then they got 3 goals in 8 miunutes! I was really worried at that point. But we were able to hold on until extra time, where we got the goal to take us to Wembley, one game away from the Premier League???

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - EFL Championship Final

We go into it against Hull

Neither of us come into this in the best of form, as you can see above.

We've held our own in our first two meetings against them, so I'm feeling all right about the final. Obviously this is MUCH higher stakes though. Going into the final, I tell the team there's no pressure on them, because we were barely expected to survive relegation, who expected this? A good response from them, so I'm hopeful we'll at least not make fools of ourselves.

Welp. I guess we have a lot of work to do if we don't want to set the bad kind of records next season, but I'm ok with that. This was a very even game without much in it. All 3 goals were direct free kick goals, if you want some indication of how tight it was and how it could have gone either way. Time to try to scrape out anyone who is Premier League quality and willing to come to us. Particularly with the expected loss of our senior affiliate link with Liverpool now that we're in the same division, I really have no idea how we're going to get points next season. But I guess the money and reputation is more important for now.

[hasdgfas]

Oh, let's go (sort of, it'll still be weird on the finances, assuming it goes through)

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 10 (2030/2031)

We're back in the fixture hell of the Championship having been freshly relegated. Targeting an immediate return, it's more of keeping this team together rather than active recruitment for me.

Still with an eye on my version of a money-ball to help fuel us financially, I sign a Bosnian defender - Michael Kreuzer - on a free without a permit, and our newly appointed Loan Manager finds him a place in Brisbane. We also (mis)use the top 50 wonderkid news item to find two who will come to us, Martin Straka arrives for only £875k, and Jose Luis Clemens for £1.1m. I'm a sucker for an obscure nation player, and the scouts find Liechtensteiner Leon Drach at Basel to give us a much needed 2nd striker option for a relatively high £7m. 

This is funded by young Colombian Andres Anchico, who had been loaned out since signing, deciding he wanted to explore his options at the end of his contract and reacting angrily to being told that was fair enough, I don't think I'd even screenshotted him in previous updates because he hadn't made it to the team. However, Pachuca had Man City and Arsenal money to burn and paid £9.25m for him. Rico Lewis had seemingly plateaued at a leading Championship level, and well, we're after Premiership potential now and we accepted a Sheffield United bid of £6.5m for him. 

Deadline day arrived and Bayern activated Johnny Martinez's clause for £16.5m meaning between him and Rico Lewis, both first team right backs were gone. I scrambled around shortlists which offered nothing meaningful and took a risk on Deyon De Jong from Ajax for £2.1m. Any cover could be provided by the centre back, nearly all of whom can fill in when needed.

Spoiler

Season Review

I do admit to some early confidence in strolling back up to the Premiership, we faced Stoke and Crystal Palace in our first 2 games who were our fellow relegationees from last season, winning both games seemed to make promotion a certainty. The next game was a loss to Shef Utd, but they're also a yo-yo team so not a terrible upset. Our form is good but not dominant so we hover around the play-off places as the teams in the automatic slots start to pull away.

The January transfer window sees constant bids on many of our remaining players which destabilises quite a few of them and creates more morale problems. Yousef Kiani who was starting to break through was activated by Fulham for £18.25m This was enough to splash out for an urgent replacement as Juan Larios was also attracting interest but with a low clause himself. This proved prudent as just as Abdenour Zemane arrived from Young Boys for £11.5m (a record), Sheff Utd too Larios for £8.25m. On a more voluntary basis, I let Florent da Silva move to Fulham for £6.25m given the competition for attacking midfield positions.

Following this transfer turmoil, we dip down to the lower play-off positions and even fall further a couple of places, although recovering somewhat and able to claim the 4th playoff slot with a final day win, we bottle it instead with a poor performance, and remain in the Championship.

Special mention for Brenno, at 31 and playing in the Championship, he wins his first Brazil cap and is perfectly happy at the club.

Next Season Preview

This sobering season outcome means I need to re-focus. We have turned into a foreign legion, Tyler Morton and Freddie Woodman are the only English players in the first team squad. This might not be an active hinderance but it probably isn't optimal for player loyalty. Premiership potential English players are hugely expensive, but maybe I need to revert to the Prem U23 last year of contact approach at least in part, or do I go for older leading Championship level players.

I almost certainly need to go into transfer windows expecting to lose players and have succession plans made for who is likely to leave.

We have improved coaching and training facilities, and our last youth intake was promising, we may at last start to see home grown players make it into a Championship level squad.

 

Edited May 20, 2022 by Parmie

[warlock]

@hasdgfas Congratulations 

@Parmie Double commiserations 

You guys play too fast for me to keep up with the updates 

[smplfc123]

So after considering my future on the back of 2 consecutive semi-final defeats in the play-offs, I decided to sign a 12 month extension at Swansea.

I've approached this summer differently. The sales of Grims, Piroe, Ntcham etc. have cleared the debt at the club and reduced thee wage bill right down, allowing me to revamp my coaching staff and attack the window in a different way. In the backroom, I've brought in Graeme Jones as my assistant manager along with some highly rated coaches, such as ex Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna. 

As for the playing squad, there wasn't really much in terms of outgoings. Ben Hamer retired, Kouyate, Murru and Semenyo's loans came to an end and Liam Walsh was released on a free having decided to want 4x the wages he was on. 

I felt one of the reasons we maybe failed to put a fight in the play-offs and when it mattered most during the campaign was our lack of experience. Going in to the summer, Jeff Hendrick was our only player over the age of 30 and I felt that the squad could do with an influx of leadership and know-how. Let's see who I brought in:

First through the door to address the lack of experience was Wataru Endo. With leadership, teamwork and work rate attributes all 15+, I felt the many-capped Japanese international was an absolute steal. I followed that up with the signings of experienced Javi Manquillo who joined from Watford, Marvin Plattenhardt from Braga and Christian Tello on loan from Rangers. I'm hoping this group of experienced players will help keep the squad on track.

I added some youth and quality as well. Finn Dahmen replaces Ben Hamer as the back-up GK whilst Justin Janitzek will provide back-up for Matt Clarke. The main piece of business though came in the form of Amine Adli. The French youngster failed to make an impact at Bayer Leverkusen, but I have complete faith in his ability at this level and I think he'll link up excellently with his fellow countrymen in attack (Ekitike and Guebbels).

I've use the transfer and wage budget to their fullest this summer and it may be a big throw of the dice, but i'm a lot more confident in this squad than the previous 2.

[Jogo Bonito]

23 hours ago, warlock said:

@hasdgfas Congratulations 

@Parmie Double commiserations 

You guys play too fast for me to keep up with the updates 

So true! I've not even completed four seasons in total since the BETA was launched 

Great commitment to plough through those seasons at Bolton & Oldham.

@warlockNo surprise to see you plundering points with Forest. But hopefully you're enjoying your time there.

@smplfc123I'm enjoying your story with Swansea. A shift in approach will keep things interesting hopefully. Best of luck for 2024/25.

I've hit a bit of a brick wall with Valencia as my laptop really struggled to get through the two month break for the 2022 WC. After what seemed like (real) weeks of just pressing continue and waiting for it to progress day by day (it seemed like minute by minute, it was so slow) I've finally stumbled in to January now. However, through no fault of the club or save, it hasn't really been 'fun' doing that so I need to get the enthusiasm back to finish off season 2022/23. 

The thinking time whilst hitting continue in the last few weeks has given me a chance to decide what appeals next though, so some positives there at least. And I have come up with something that hopefully will give me a decent run at my first EFL save of FM22. In fact, if it goes well, I still have three teams lined up using the same start point. But it will be one at a time, so no bold statements that I will actually get time to manage all three 

[warlock]

3 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I've not even completed four seasons in total since the BETA was launched 

I don't think you're alone - I have a Feedly page with around 30 FM blogs and where I used to get 5 or 6 updates a week, this year I haven't had that many per month. Forums here are quieter than I can remember, too. I suspect many people simply have too much life to catch up with after 2 years of Covid (and possibly a bit of burnout after 2 years of fairly relentless FM ). Limping laptops don't help either, as @Sysiphus has found.

As for me, I'm still enjoying it although I'm having to rise above the EFL schedules that are more like 20 years hard labour than 3 months of football simulation. Just coming up to Christmas in the Forest save and can see the next crisis coming - having held on (without much drama) to wantaway players up to now, it has become clear that a bunch of them are on expiring contracts and won't discuss a renewal. So it'll be a big selloff in January, or lose a lot of value on frees in June .

Hope you find a bit of fun in the final act at Valencia 

[hasdgfas]

On 20/05/2022 at 16:50, warlock said:

You guys play too fast for me to keep up with the updates

 

18 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Great commitment to plough through those seasons at Bolton & Oldham.

I use an Instant Result skin when I'm not tactic tinkering, which speeds things up a bunch. I also have multiple work from home days a week where I can make progress while my automated tests are running.

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 11 (2031/2032)

With my own advice about increasing the home grown contingent within the squad, I spend a few minutes on a player search screen deciding this is too expensive and start scouting the Brazil U23-U21 teams.

I decide an overhaul across the defence and central midfield is required.

Initially though, Miki Aleksovski who was with us on loan from Lazio last season has been transfer listed and I pick him up for £7.5m although as an Australian, he doesn't qualify for a permit. I sign Tudor Sabangeanu for £2.3m, also without a permit and Antonini Svalina for £3.6m as ball winning midfielders. The Brazilian scout reports start to come in and Rubio Cruz Torres looks an exciting attacking midfielder prospect for £10.75m, Andre Luis (£2m), is another hard tackling central midfielder who can also play at centre back.

I'm still looking for future squad depth and another 'without permit' signing in Abed Miari arrives for £6m, and due to sales I start to need defensive replacements, Rayan Selmi a Tunisian full back comes in for another £8.25m. Romain Moreau, looks like he good be a top player and PSG will let him go for £9,5m. We're still not done signing players, Roman Stefluk is a Ukrainian signed for our other central midfield position, currently carrilero. Emeka Abdulazeez is reported as a potential leading premiership level player so I jump at him for only £800k.

Those with a calculator will realise thats over £50m of new players coming in. While our previous financial successes and brief Premiership experience could have let us afford this, the overhaul more than covers this.

Jan Cervenka £15.5m (Fulham), Tyler Morton £19m (Brentford), Graziano Bianchi £11,25m & Rico Speksnijder £19m (Derby), Procopio £20.5m (Crystal Palace), Stipe Sahinovic £15.5m (Lazio), Bernardinho Valente £12m (Bournemouth) is a total of £112.75m 

Spoiler

Season Review

Summarising until March in the season, we're doing really well, we're winning lots of games, while theres an occasional loss or draw, we're right up there in 2nd place in the league. Swansea are doing an attempt at being invincible but we're consistently staying about 5 points ahead of the chasing pack.

We lose to Norwich in an FA Cup replay (after getting to the Carabao semi final) and this, or something else I don't understand, triggers creativity in the team to dry up. We start to labour to draw after draw, drawing 6 in a row with a brief respite of a win but followed by another draw. This is enough to drop us into the playoffs. By then it's early April and we lose 4 straight followed by yet another draw. We hang onto the play-off spot but Norwich smash us away 4-1 after yet another home draw.

Team talks didn't make any difference, no matter how positive the player response, the tactics which previously worked now simply don't. It could be the pressure effect FM applies in so many promotion push seasons. The average age of the squad is still very young and perhaps I need to look more at personality types and big match traits.

On the plus side, with the bank balance bursting at the seams due to player sales, the board decide to build a new stadium fully funded by ourselves. I also continue to improve the facilities and we're starting to see some youngsters emerge from the academy.

Next Season Preview

I've become somewhat distracted by selling players and making money. Which is not having the desired effect of seeing us back to the Premiership. If I can recover the winning form though, it feels like we can make a good push again with some tweaks at right back, we've got a couple of the best players in the league by far.

Pressure is starting to build though, the board will expect the playoffs next season, and if we're still not up, automatic the season after. I also have 4 players on promises to get promoted.

 

Edited May 25, 2022 by Parmie

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - Premier League Transfers Summer Window

Honestly, I've been panicking quite a bit. When players are going to Championship Clubs over me because "they'll play with a stronger squad", I legitimately don't know how I'm going to get a single point in the Premier League. But we'll try.

These are the ins I've had to even attempt to do anything in the Prem. I don't want to go too crazy, so I'm hoping to grab some players who will stick with me after our inevitable relegation.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - September 2024

Shockingly, we're not nearly as good as anyone else in the Premier League.

Could this be why?

Maybe!

Our friendlies were good! And we can actually score a goal a game in the Premier League, but we have a really poor defense. Hopefully a couple further additions will help with that.

We splurged a little bit for Emmanuel Dennis, but his pace alone makes him our best winger

Hopefully Medina will help shore up the back a little bit, because we really need it.

We'll see how things go moving forward. I'm not hopeful of staying up, but I'd like to make a fight of it.

[smplfc123]

We did it! I finally won something! The experienced signings and utilising our full wage and transfer budgets paid off!

My contract is up and that's me 4 seasons in to the game. Whether I'll carry on is a question for tomorrow, I may just finish on this high.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - November 2024

I've been doing some tactics tweaking after the really poor start to the season? Has it paid off? see for yourself.

I'd say it has! 

We've momentarily brought ourselves out of the relegation zone, even! Hopefully we can keep up the spark of the new tactic and do just enough to stay up. A second season would let us really improve the quality of the team due to the reputation bump we'd get by sticking around. I still don't have that much hope for staying up, but I have some now.

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 12 (2021/2032)

I have some clear improvements/replacements to recruit for. It's probably easier to outline the sales first, I'm still sticking to the policy of selling players who I've agreed a price with if that is bed, it has meant we lose some top players.

Zermane goes to Almeria for £19.75m and Selmi to Sheff Utd for £17.75m our first choice full backs on each flank. I also decided the backup left back Bech and central defender Krajnovic could leave for £7.75m and £5.75m.

To replace them, I signed right back Stuart Jenkinson (£5.25m from Liverpool), and two left backs Venancio Calei (£165k from Spurs) and Polat Akinci (£1.1m from Besiktas). Washington (£7.5m), a Brazilian centre back should become a first choice pretty soon. John Krosnes also joins after being listed by Arsenal for £2,5m.

As the window closes, Fulham want Martin Staka for £32m, and Miki Aleksosvki finally granted a permit, leaves for Villa for £31m playing just 1 game for us since signing permanently. I continue to look at home grown talent in the U23s and we get Jacob Collins (£10m Southampton), and Lee Holland (£2m from Liverpool) for midfield. Augustin Rivero is a deadline day signing to give us some depth.

Spoiler

I feel the team is lessened by the departures of Staka and Aleksosvki but I like to keep my promises.

Season Review

Worryingly our bad form continues into the new season, 4 straight losses, and then sporadic form leaves us in the relegation zone running up to November. At that point the board are starting to lose patience, and after I get called into a board meeting, I promise an improvement within the next month. Tactically, I switch to an older variation of our tactic, which seems very similar but has the desired effect winning 8 of the next 10 games. A loss doesn't throw us off track and we claw back up the table as the season goes on. We needed multiple teams to drop points to make the play-offs but as expected, they can't all slip up.

We have another strong showing the Carabao Cup, again making the semi-finals which is at odds with the league struggles.

There is still a pile of cash in the bank from another season of positive transfer activity, we've keep improving facilities and we've got state of the art training facilities in the Championship. We also had an academy graduate listed at 31st on the top 50 wonderkid news item.

Next Season Preview

It's make or break time for the save probably. The expectations have reached 'gain promotion' and I'm in the last season of a contract, if we fail again, this could be my last season at Oldham.

Looking at the squad, the left back recruits weren't that good, but Jenkinson being left footed can be converted if I can find a right back. It also feels like an out and out striker to put away goals would make a huge difference.

 

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - January 2025

It looks like those two wins were a huge blip. We got another one against Leeds, but only 4 points total over the past couple months.

We're in a LOT of trouble. We need some huge upgrades in January to turn this around.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - March 2025

Two players in, one defensive mid in Burger and one attacker in Richards. Did it help?

Not really? It looked like it might at the end of January into early February, but our last two matches have been disasters.

That leaves us 8 points from safety with 10 matches to go. I just don't see it, but we'll fight to the end.

[Sysiphus]

Harsh on you both @Parmie and @hasdgfas. Hopefully you'll manage an uptick in your form, you've done well to improve your clubs this much at least even though recent results haven't been ideal.

[hasdgfas]

1 hour ago, Sysiphus said:

Harsh on you both @Parmie and @hasdgfas. Hopefully you'll manage an uptick in your form, you've done well to improve your clubs this much at least even though recent results haven't been ideal.

I don't actually think this is harsh at all. We made a fight of it after a double promotion from League One, with a squad that was nowhere near Premier League level. I was expecting worse than this!

[Sysiphus]

1 hour ago, hasdgfas said:

I don't actually think this is harsh at all. We made a fight of it after a double promotion from League One, with a squad that was nowhere near Premier League level. I was expecting worse than this!

That's actually true.  February was a solid month for you though, hopefully you can build a bit on that.

[hasdgfas]

It just never came together.

Made it until Matchday 35 before it was confirmed, but every good-looking run was immediately interrupted. Still, it's better than I had expected. More than 20 points is pretty decent for a double promotion, IMHO. We'll be in a great spot after going back down, and maybe I can start to bring in some of our developing academy players in the Championship (there are some gems in there).

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 13 (2033/2034)

These I make that mental adjustment that our selling days should be mostly behind us, so I've been checking regularly to see if there are further facility improvements we can make and apparently not. So while we can State of the Art training facilities, we can't go beyond Excellent youth facilities. That is with a view to calm down on recruitment and focus with the current team.

That said, we need some players to come in to help us in certain positions. We lose Jose Luis Clemens and Abed Miari on frees, Abed was an expensive purchase that was still working through permit issues, and Clemens was a first team regular. I have a word with myself for allowing about £15m of player value walk out the door with no return. With that in mind, our first choice centre back Sebastian Skov is approaching the final year of his contract and declares himself as having no interesting in extending, so he goes to West Brom for £12m.  Liechtensteiner Leon Drach, seems to be reaching his level and I also decide to let go for £12m. Watford come in for Venancio Calei for £5.5m on deadline day and I feel converted right back Jenkinson is ready to be first choice on the left. 

Incoming is a South African prospect Thabo Matete for just £575k, and Andreas Nordstrand for £1.8m. To round off the attacking threat I get a tall striker from Chelsea on loan. Finally, as cover for the ball winning midfielder role, Elias Martinez joins for £4.5m from Boca Juniors.

Spoiler

Season Review

Relative stability is much better for us and we go the first 26 games unbeaten. By now it's January, with cup games in the mix too, we pick up some injuries and go through a pretty bad enf of January and early February. We could never shake off Norwich even with that impressive run, so they take over at the top while we sit 5 points clear above the playoffs in 2nd. 4 out of 4 wins in March then see the traditional crash in form in the run up to the end of season. It's getting annoyingly predictable, and I should do some research on how to recover sooner but no wins in the last 8 has us dropped into the playoffs. 

While we overcome Stoke easily 8-2 on aggregate, and dominate Wolves for the entire final game, they sneak a goal while we fail to score. We remain in the Championship.

I do have a real life long think about if I want to continue with Oldham (and even a break from FM), the crash in form has no real explanation, it's the same players with the same tactics. It's still largely a young squad which is the only issue I can think of. During our good run, the board extended my contract, so that potential issue went away.

On the plus side. We've got £125m in the bank, £129m of transfer budget and £230k/week available in wages. A new stadium on the way, top facilities for our level and a youth system starting to produce potential first teamers for the Premiership.

This is mainly how we got here:

Next Season Preview

If I do another season....the squad is mainly still to come into it's prime, most of the players like me enough to accept the 'you're highly influential' response to rejecting bids from top European sides, so it does feel like I can keep the team together, with our training facilities continue to improve them and make another push. If there's another unexpected form crash, try to avoid it extending more than a couple of games.

[Jogo Bonito]

Sympathies to Bolton for a brave fight against relegation. Unlucky at Oldham for another narrow miss, but still doing very well. And congratulations at Swansea for a fine season and promotion.

I've completed the 2021/22 season, my first EFL campaign of FM22 

Now you're all wondering how that happened so fast and so quietly, right? So it's confession time...

I took a new save by loading Canada as a playable league. And started in England on 4th April 2022 at the start of the CPL season. I had to re-load about 6 times to make sure the team I wanted to manage was not in the PO spots, and finally managed to get them starting from 8th place in League 2 with 6 games left. I wanted to start a little lower than that, but this was looking like the best option I would get.

A little bit about the club? Using this method of start date means the squad is the original one, no transfers made. But the team I am managing had a ridiculous squad depth of 28 senior players plus another 2 out on loan. The maximum number of players you are allowed to register in League 2 is 22. The squad also included 6 loan players, although the maximum you can use in a match squad is 5. And they had lost 3 of their last 4 league games. It seems they needed both a new manager and also new controllers at board level, but the short-term focus was on the last 6 games.

I had a reasonably good start, with a really tight defence masking a lack of goals being scored. I nudged the team up to 5th courtesy of DWWWLW results in those 6 games. The first two wins were 1-0 with a 90th minute winner and 2-1 with an 86th minute leveller and 90th minute winner. It showed some spirit, but luck played a big part too. I mentioned the defence, and that sequence of 6 games saw only 6 goals for and 3 against, so you could say it wasn't particularly exciting to watch.

The play off games came and went, a 0-0 draw away and 1-0 win at home (80th minute winner when it was looking unlikely) booking a place in the final. The play off final itself was 0-0 deep in to extra time, until my left-back scored the only goal of the game after 100 minutes. Unfortunately, it was an own goal and it was a 1-0 defeat that would bring another season in League 2. The cause wasn't helped by the 6 loan players deals ending on 31st May - and the PO final was 4th June. The word shambles springs to mind.

On the plus side, of those 9 games in charge, 5 had been clean sheets (6 if you only count the first 90 minutes of the final) with only 3 goals conceded (or 4 if you wish). With 6 loans already expired, I am excited to know that a further 12 players are out of contract (all of them will probably leave), and another 4 or 5 contracted players can probably be sold or packed off on free transfers to other destinations. I'm very happy to be given the freedom to improve the quality of the squad, even if my recruitment drive will be aimed at free transfer players due to budget (none). The loan market will be avoided completely.

Earlier I mentioned new ownership being needed too. I can't promise to deliver on that, but some sort of change can definitely be revealed soon.

Edited May 27, 2022 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Now you're all wondering

Oooh, international man of mystery 

Based on your clues and a quick browse through the L2 squads I can't find a club that perfectly fits the bill (are you sure no transfers were made?) although there are a few that are close. Looking forward to the big reveal "soon" 

And I'm now a big fan of late takeovers via leagues with different seasons, avoiding the needing for tedious holidaying.

[Alejandro1202]

After a bit of forgetting the game by my college exams, now i´m finally on vacation so i´ll be playing again, I started a thread with barnsley if anyone wants to go and have a look .

 

 

[CityAndColour]

Despite having to adjust to a significantly reduced wage budget, it's been a cracking start to our third season in the Conference South...

Unfortunately, this then happened again...

This save is going to become unplayable pretty soon unless we get a board takeover. For context, my wage budget was £3.8k in our tier seven season.

[ShaunG95]

On 16/05/2022 at 13:59, Sysiphus said:

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

He's very average mate, I've not got him scouted unfortunately but he's still at Benfica, hardly played in their first team but scored a lot for the B team. I have seen him develop a lot better on other saves though. Hugo Felix, on the other hand is superb on my save for me.

[Sysiphus]

8 minutes ago, ShaunG95 said:

He's very average mate, I've not got him scouted unfortunately but he's still at Benfica, hardly played in their first team but scored a lot for the B team. I have seen him develop a lot better on other saves though. Hugo Felix, on the other hand is superb on my save for me.

That's what's great about FM—the unpredictability of development! Araújo seems to have been given preference over Ramos in my game and has better attributes, although Ramos looks to have superb hidden stats.

[ShaunG95]

1 minute ago, Sysiphus said:

That's what's great about FM—the unpredictability of development! Araújo seems to have been given preference over Ramos in my game and has better attributes, although Ramos looks to have superb hidden stats.

I really rate Ramos because of that. The fact he's a model citizen from the start makes him a great buy, he's almost guaranteed to reach his potential on that basis alone. I think a lot of Benfica's young players have great personalities. Rafael Luis (who I have on my save) is also a model citizen.

[warlock]

Nottingham Forest, March 2023

It has been a while since my last update (real life getting in the way of FM ) but I've been steadily plugging away, which means there's a lot to catch up on. I intended to update after the January window but somehow ploughed through another month.

Even a cursory glance at our form shows that we're really too good for L1. Just a single league defeat in a hectic schedule - fair play to Accrington, they took their chances and we didn't - and that was one of the very few games of the season where we failed to find the net. Otherwise, we're banging in the goals: strikers Pereira and Salcedo have been ever reliable, but Alex Mighten and Jacob Brown from the wide AM spots, and Braian Ojeda from central midfield have been regular scorers, as has AML Joe Lolley, despite his advancing years. We couldn't find a goal against Liverpool in R4 of the Carabao, but did take the PL giants to penalties so we exited the competition with our pride intact.

I mentioned before that I expected a difficult winter transfer window. We had a number of players who were unhappy with our relegation and, although not actively pushing for transfers, were never going to turn down a move if offers arrived. So it was of little surprise that we lost no fewer than 6 players in January, including some of our best defenders. First out on New Year's Day was backup GK Ethan Horvath, whose move had been finalised some months earlier. The departures of the ageing Harry Arter, to Leyton Orient for peanuts, and third-choice GK Jordan Smith to Sunderland were of little concern, but then came two big blows. CBs Toby Figueredo and Scott McKenna had been ever-present in our outstanding defence alongside Joe Worrall but both were on expiring contracts and would not discuss new deals. Rather than lose them for nothing I opted to accept the best bids, with Toby Fig joining Brentford for £1m, and McKenna heading to Getafe for £4m. An additional defensive headache was a long-term injury to on-loan LB Jake Vokins and I opted to terminate his loan rather than continue to pay him to occupy a treatment table.

In exchange we brought in three replacements. To cover Arter's departure in central midfield I spotted Shandon Baptiste on the transfer list at Brentford, and £1.2m secured his services. To replace the left-footed McKenna in central defence I repurposed Jonathan Panzo who I had been playing at LB, and then brought in young Brandon Fleming from Hull, who I believed could do a job for us. £275k seemed like a bargain. For more depth at CB I then went back to Hull for Sean McLoughlin - a model professional who is also able to cover LB - for a mere £72k.

We were undoubtedly weaker as a result. I didn't think we were fatally weakened, but the proof would be in our on-field performances...

Early results were questionable... despite a good number of wins and no defeats we certainly allowed a few more goals than usual. But a FA Cup win against Championship QPR suggested we still had what it takes, as did PJT wins against Man City and Chelsea u23s. Yes, there were doubts after we opened our February schedule with a severe defeat to West Brom in the FA Cup, but the rest of the month could hardly have been better:

In our league schedule we racked up 4 wins from 4, scored 15 and conceded just the once. It can be no surprise that we are running away with the league:

Pereira has 30 goals from 31 starts and 2 sub appearances, ably supported by Salcedo who has 16 from 19(9). Lolley is our creative force with 20 assists, but also 10 goals of his own. But it's also fair to say it has been squad performances that have driven us on - every single first-team player has an average rating above 7.1 for the season. And while we're on course to score more than 100 goals this season, we also have the best defensive record (and the best disciplinary record, too!)

With 10 games to go we have a 24pt lead (albeit Wimbledon have a game in hand) and a couple more wins should see us have the title wrapped up nice and early. We can then start to plan for our return to the Championship. I'm expecting a battle to hang on to our star players.

[warlock]

Well, it didn't take long...

[hasdgfas]

Nicely done! 

Looks like it was not really a challenge at any point this season, but that's ok sometimes! The jump to the Championship is more interesting anyway.

[warlock]

1 hour ago, hasdgfas said:

The jump to the Championship is more interesting anyway

Quite so... I'm sure I'd have been sacked if we hadn't got automatic promotion 

[Jogo Bonito]

On 28/05/2022 at 00:51, warlock said:

Oooh, international man of mystery 

Based on your clues and a quick browse through the L2 squads I can't find a club that perfectly fits the bill (are you sure no transfers were made?) although there are a few that are close. Looking forward to the big reveal "soon" 

And I'm now a big fan of late takeovers via leagues with different seasons, avoiding the needing for tedious holidaying.

Yes, I am quite sure (but may still be wrong ) there were no transfers made. I've completed my second season at Valencia now so the League 2 reveal is edging closer (although a long weekend to Rome may delay it being posted). Yes I do agree, having a different date and challenge is nice, especially as it's not much different to where we now are in real time. 

Congratulations for the stroll that took you down Promotion Road with Forest. Hopefully the 2nd season will give you more to focus on! 

You need some curve balls like the one directed at Willand for @CityAndColour. Tough times indeed!

[warlock]

43 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

the League 2 reveal is edging closer

Hoorah 

44 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

a long weekend to Rome may delay it

I'll allow it  I was very late (around 60 years old!) to the charms of the Eternal City but it is now one of my favourite places in the world. Hope you have a great time.

[Jogo Bonito]

9 minutes ago, warlock said:

Hoorah 

I'll allow it  I was very late (around 60 years old!) to the charms of the Eternal City but it is now one of my favourite places in the world. Hope you have a great time.

Thanks mate. Believe it or not, I've never been to mainland Italy myself - only Sicily, and Corsica (yes, I know it's French really and just close to Italy). My small team at work sees me sat between two AS Roma fans, and we have a public holiday and an extra concession day this coming Monday & Tuesday so a small group of us are heading off on Saturday.

I really hope it is Eternal, and that it remains alive after our visit. Good to hear you have enjoyed it on your trips there, I'm sure I will too. 

[warlock]

2 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I really hope it is Eternal

Well, it's survived earthquakes, invasions, civil wars, plagues and England football fans. I'm guessing it will cope 

[Jogo Bonito]

3 minutes ago, warlock said:

Well, it's survived earthquakes, invasions, civil wars, plagues and England football fans. I'm guessing it will cope 

You haven't seen the Maltese on a night out, it's by no means a certainty 

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

You haven't seen the Maltese on a night out

We'll need pictures 

[CityAndColour]

10 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

You need some curve balls like the one directed at Willand for @CityAndColour. Tough times indeed!

He's reduced it again! Infuriatingly, despite several media rumours of a board takeover, he maintains he is "happy to stay".

I will see out the season and, if there is no change, then will leave and continue the save elsewhere.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - Summer Transfer Update

Honestly, not as many outs as I expected after relegation

I think the squad is in a good spot for the Championship, only losing Emmanuel Dennis, who threw a fit after we were relegated. Which is fair, he was our best player. I was able to make 1M on him, which is something.

We also released a few people who were absolutely not good enough for the Prem, and probably not even good even for the Championship:

I'm feeling good about our chances to go right back up. We made a fight of it in the Prem last season with basically the same squad, hopefully having a lower level of competition is just what we need.

[hasdgfas]

Bolton - October 2025

Honestly, been a bit rough after the drop. We're not scoring quite to the level I'd like and that's leading to a TON of draws.

We're in the playoff spots, but I was hoping for an automatic promotion this time. If we start to find our goals we can easily still get there, but some minor early struggles.

[hasdgfas]

I was able to fend off interest for one of my youth players from the Premier League

He's starting to play for the first team this season, and I think he has some solid potential.

[Jogo Bonito]

@hasdgfas A solid start, if not spectacular. But that's a good response to relegation and I'm sure a few tweaks will get you flying.

 

Meanwhile, I'm settled in to the dugout at my first EFL club of FM22. Unfortunately it's not an original choice for these threads, but Hartlepool just didn't seem to be the right one in the end even though I freshened up the kits I made for them. I quite liked these simple kit designs and colour combos, but it clearly wasn't meant to be.

Instead of Hartlepool, this is where I landed on 4th April 2022...

At the time of Brad Ford's arrival, Bradford were 8th in League 2 with six league games of the 2021/22 campaign left

However the club had lost three of their last four fixtures, and promotion chances were slipping away

The welcome came from re-appointed ex-Chairperson Julian Rhodes who was reinstalled at the expense of German custodian Stefan Rupp

The official website delivered the news of Rhodes return, which was later confirmed as being more than a consultancy role

Rhodes hoped to oversee a return to better days, as he had been in charge during the club's Premier League era

Mark Hughes was moved in to an Assistant Manager position after informing the club that he wanted to use his experience in a less-pressurised role

Managing Director Ryan Sparks remained in his role, and would probably contribute more than Rhodes on day-to-day duties

 

Sparks assured the new boss and the supporters via the club website that the budget would be decent regardless of how the 2021/22 season ended

The reality was that there was no transfer budget at that point, but Sparks had another announcement to make on the club website

That one gave good vibes, as he announced that the club had signed a lucrative new kit deal with Macron for the start of the 2022/23 season

The end of season run-in was already covered a few days back so we won't go over that again here in detail

Just to recap, a 5th-place finish was achieved through solid defensive displays - but an extra time own goal handed Walsall a 1-0 win and promotion in the PO Final 

The good news for Ford is that of his 28-man first team squad (plus two away on loan) the majority could be cleared out almost immediately

Six players were at Bradford on loan, and most would not be retained

The vast majority of the permanent players had contracts about to expire, and underperformance made those decisions quite easy to make

A few more would also be pushed out of the door, leaving Ford with the exciting task of assembling his own squad ahead of the new campaign

The fact this needed to be done via the free transfer market was not a concern, the manager knew he could bring quality in without needing a transfer kitty

The club remains an attractive option at this level, and the generous wage budget (for League 2) was what Sparks had earlier been alluding to

The new regime also knew that the reputation of Mark Hughes would play a part in attracting new talent - but another media release took this one stage further

This is a wrap for now, but more news will follow as the Bradford City rebuild gets underway

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Jogo Bonito

[Jogo Bonito]

So with the 2022/23 season ahead and the new Macron kit deal & designs in place, here is how The Bantams will be looking under new boss Brad Ford

The 24,000 all-seater stadium with season ticket holders exceeding 12,000 gives the club enormous potential to progress beyond this level

Note the captain O'Connor (who played every game since Ford's arrival) is one of the soon to be out-of-contract players in the squad

In fact, his time at Bradford was soon over along with a number of other players

Some decisions made (Cooke and Sutton primarily) mirrored how the club were said to be handling their actual contract renewals

Sutton has since signed a new deal IRL so we will see if we can convince him to come back - if not, it's his loss really

Had the facts been known at the time this started, he would have been retained at the expense of Liam O'Neil (who has now signed a new deal at Cambridge)

At the time, that wasn't the case for O'Neil, but we are already too far in to try and undo these two decisions 

New contracts were given to striker Lee Angol and Bradford-born left-back Matty Foulds to mirror real life decisions taken by the club

Other moves that mirror transfers done IRL are confirmed by the reliable club website below

Only one of the six loan men was retained, but this time he'll be playing under a permanent contract

Jamie Walker - loan turned permanent (free transfer at end of his contract with Heart of Midlothian)

Jake Young - free transfer from Forest Green Rovers

Harry Lewis - free transfer from Southampton

Matthew Platt - free transfer from Barrow

And the new arrivals were met with more positive claims from the club via their website 

For now, here are the other transfers made, both in and out

Moves have been decisive and early, so you shouldn't actually expect to see much else from the club as Sparks comments were made a few weeks ago

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Jogo Bonito

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

So with the 2022/23 season ahead and the new Macron kit deal & designs in place, here is how The Bantams will be looking under new boss Brad Ford

The 24,000 all-seater stadium with season ticket holders exceeding 12,000 gives the club enormous potential to progress beyond this level

Note the captain O'Connor (who played every game since Ford's arrival) is one of the soon to be out-of-contract players in the squad

In fact, his time at Bradford was soon over along with a number of other players

Some decisions made (Cooke and Sutton primarily) mirrored how the club were said to be handling their actual contract renewals

Sutton has since signed a new deal IRL so we will see if we can convince him to come back - if not, it's his loss really

Had the facts been known at the time this started, he would have been retained at the expense of Liam O'Neil (who has now signed a new deal at Cambridge)

At the time, that wasn't the case for O'Neil, but we are already too far in to try and undo these two decisions 

New contracts were given to striker Lee Angol and Bradford-born left-back Matty Foulds to mirror real life decisions taken by the club

Other moves that mirror transfers done IRL are confirmed by the reliable club website below

Only one of the six loan men was retained, but this time he'll be playing under a permanent contract

Jamie Walker - loan turned permanent (free transfer at end of his contract with Heart of Midlothian)

Jake Young - free transfer from Forest Green Rovers

Harry Lewis - free transfer from Southampton

Matthew Platt - free transfer from Barrow

And the new arrivals were met with more positive claims from the club via their website 

For now, here are the other transfers made, both in and out

Moves have been decisive and early, so you shouldn't actually expect to see much else from the club as Sparks comments were made a few weeks ago

 

Nice to see you back Jogo. I will keep an eye out for your updates. 

 

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

here is how The Bantams will be looking

Looking pretty good . Should make for a really enjoyable save with some long-term potential.

Some good transfer business there - I particularly like the signings of Jake Young and Harry Lewis. 

I was hoping to conclude the season with Forest but ran into IT problems this morning with the laptop making discouraging noises on power-up. It's either a failing hard drive,, or a failing cooling fan. Oddly, I hope it's the former - although a replacement HD would be more expensive, at least they're readily available. Replacement fans for laptops seem to be in the hens-teeth department 

[CityAndColour]

@Jogo Bonito - amazed you were able to convince a man with an ego like Sparky to take a reduced role!

[Parmie]

12 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

So with the 2022/23 season ahead and the new Macron kit deal & designs in place, here is how The Bantams will be looking under new boss Brad Ford

The 24,000 all-seater stadium with season ticket holders exceeding 12,000 gives the club enormous potential to progress beyond this level

It'll be interesting to compare Bradford notes, I certainly noticed the financial difference with smaller crowds at other clubs. 

[Parmie]

Oldham Athletic Season 14 (2034/2035)

Feels like ages since my last update, but looks like it was only 6 days ago. I did get distracted by an FM project to look at club facilities while I mulled over life at Oldham but decided to carry on which I did, but also starting a Wimbledon save as I needed to look at data at the start of a game.

Anyway to Oldham...sales were mostly consensual this season as I refused bids for anyone I wanted to keep in the first team. This didn't generate too many player happiness issues as most of them have been at the club a while and telling them how influential they were, prevented any escalations.

Mohamed Gomaa did leave for Jeonbruk for £5.75m, he was a good Championship player but we needed to kick on by developing Matete and giving him the most game time. We lost John Kjosnes to Norwich on a release clause of £12m but as he had an inconsistent trait in his coach report, I am not too upset.

With Brenno now 35 years old, which although isn't over the hill for a keeper, is near the end, we bring in 2 good level prospects to takeover, Lui Shang arrives from Beijing for £7m, and hopefully will bring marketing revenue, and Wouter van Burik from Utrecht for £5.5m, neither have permits so get sent out on loan while Brenno continues as first choice.

Tom Collin is available for £12m from Man City, although it's a big outlay, he's both Premiership potential and English, so is an investment.

A light turnover of players for once while I try consistency.

Spoiler

Season Review

We start 9 unbeaten until a couple of losses but we quickly get back on track and it's not until December where we have the traditional drop in form, drawing 4 and losing 1 before winning  the Boxing Day match. At this stage we're in play-off position but no one is pulling away at the top so everything is up for grabs.

Following the early form dip, I decide to focus on press conference responses that avoid pressuring the team. This seems to avoid any further bad runs and although there are occasional losses, we find ourselves at the top of the table at the run in.

We need a win against bottom placed Peterborough in the penultimate match of the season to secure the title, having already secured automatic promotion. We do the business with a comfortable 2-0 will and a final day loss to Bristol City doesn't dampen the celebrations.

We are promoted to the Premiership (for the 2nd time) as Champions!

We were knocked out fairly early in the cups, the 4th round of the Carabao by Spurs and the 4th round of the FA Cup by Man Utd, which does help with fixture congestion, especially when over 20 players are getting called up for international.

We had 7 players in the team of the season including picking up player and young player of the season awards:

 

Alongside Andy Ritchie, Roger Palmer, Joe Royle, Jimmy Frizzell and John Sheridan, I am elevated into Legendary status.

Finally, our new stadium with a capacity of 33,003 will be ready in June for our Premiership campaign.

Next Season Preview

With a promotional season behind us and looking forward to the increased income the Premiership brings, the board slash our transfer budget from £149m to just £46m. The monthly financial deficit seems to have worried them seeing as we haven't sold hundreds of millions of players this season. However, because of an activated release clause of a top academy prospect of £21m, we still made profit this season.

Brenno is leaving at the end of his contract, and neither keeper prospect is ready for the jump in quality, so priority for recruitment is a Premiership level keeper, Both full backs have the potential but not the current ability to compete, but otherwise, we're looking good enough in midfield and up front.

It'll be interesting if the new stadium is holding back further facility improvements or if's somehow the Championship level we've been at.