FM22: The English Football League thread

[luka_zg]

Playing with Aston Villa.

My first season was a great succes. Playing this team mostly through out the season:

 

We finished as a runner up in the Premier League with 80 points. It was some kind of weird season with top 4 going to Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa and Leicester. In the FA cup we lost in the final v Liverpool.

 

Started the second season with a bit underwhelming results. With Champions league football (group with Zenit, Barcelona and Ajax), Premier League and fixtures being congested due to the 2022 World Cup, this will be a tough season for us. The opening 4 games in the league have been quite bad in terms of results. Should have won all of my four opening games. What's good is that the level of football from us was still good to very good, just missed a bit of luck. For now I plan to stick with my line up and tactic and hope we start to score our chances.

First four fixtures were:

Brighton (A): D1-1

Brentford (H): W6-1

Sheffield Utd (H): D1-1

Fulham (A): L0-1

 

My second season first 11 for now will be:

Edited March 3, 2022 by luka_zg

[goonergez]

Wrexham FC: Summer 2025 Update

We haven't really had a chance to celebrate our promotion into the third tier of the English pyramid, but I return with another update. Less than a month has passed since we were pipped to the League Two title on the final day but it has already been a really big summer for my football club. This update isn't remotely related to anything on the field but its a piece of news that may completely change how I approach things ahead of my fifth season at the helm.

Ryan Reynolds announced he was actively looking to leave Wrexham and it paved the way for French tycoon Alexis Roussel to move in and complete a remarkable takeover of the club. Initially I was a little nervous of who may take charge but in Roussel we've become very lucky indeed. I didn't want the takeover to go though if I was to receive less financial backing but thankfully it's the opposite. Roussel has already pumped over £35,000,000 into the football club as well as handing me a transfer budget of £3,500,000 to prepare a squad for our first League One campaign.

I am now under a fair bit of pressure though. Ryan Reynolds and the previous board wanted us to fight bravely in a relegation battle but the new owner and board want us to make the play-off places as a minimum. In fact they want promotion to the Championship by the end of next season. The pressure is on but thankfully I now have the financial backing to have a real go at it. Prior to the takeover I had completed a couple of signings but the new players may well find themselves out of the picture if we can now bring in more prolific arrivals.
It makes for a very exciting summer indeed but for the first time since I took charge I really do feel under pressure now to deliver successes.

Honours
---------------
2021/22 Conference National Winners
2024/25 League Two Runners Up

 

[warlock]

40 minutes ago, goonergez said:

a remarkable takeover of the club

Good to see . There were two prominent Wrexham saves in the careers forum that ended badly when the new owner just slashed budgets and showed zero ambition so you've done very well.

But as you say, you're under pressure now 

[Bergbatov]

 

MK Dons 2021/22 Review

 

We started the season pretty decent and was fighting top 2 after half of the season went by. Then we started to struggle and we lost all our momentum, which led to us falling down to the last playoff spot when the season was over. So I didn't have the biggest confidence going into the playoffs, but we managed to beat Rotterham who was the highest seeded team 3-1. In the final we met Sheff Wed and we lost 3-1 after extra time in a really close game. 

 

 

Our best players where Warren O'Hara, Josh Martin, Harry Darling and Troy Parrott. All in all an OK season, but could have been so much better if it wasn't for our bad form. The only transfer we did was to get David Strelec on loan in January. We got knocked out in the 1st round in Carling Cup and in the 3rd round in the FA Cup, so it's definitely room for improvements heading into the new season.

.

 

So with the season done we are now going to try to strengthen the squad with some deals and hopefully secure some bargains on free transfer. We need to strengthen our right back since we didn't manage to sign our loan player Peter Kioso who went for a sunny deal and some fine wine in Empoli, can't really say I disagree with that choice. We also need to get a couple of central midfielders and someone who can play out wide. We are also going to make some adjustments to our tactics heading into the new season. Our main goal will be to reach the playoffs again and hopefully do a little better in the cups as well. 

[Parmie]

Bradford City - Season 10 (2030/2031)

After the unexpectedly close call with relegation last season, I spend pre-season thinking about how to introduce some experience into the squad and decide loans are the answer. I try for both William Saliba and Neco Williams who are both 29 now. That said, I do look to try to improve the 'decent' level positions, which mostly means our current most experienced players need to be moved on.

Omar Campos left to Leipzig for £17.75m and Petrovic went to Leicester for £25.5m. Mindful of registration rules if we do push higher up the table, we bought in Elijah Smith, a promising English keeper from Southampton and Sikiru Bello, a striker from Arsenal that never quite made it into their first team.

Season Review

We start well enough, with wins against Southampton and Brentford, hammer Shrewsbury 6-0 in the Carabao followed by a draw away to Newcastle. we then go 8 games without a win, only picking up a draw at home to Man City. This spurs me onto a tactical rethink, I'd gone for a more passing game towards the end of last season, but with the narrow 4-3-3, I started to think 3 strikers as just not suited to this, so I pulled back the DLF into attacking midfield, and the central of the 3 midfielders to a deep playing playmaker role.

This helped give us more possession and creativity, losses became far fewer and we picked up runs of wins. we also did well in the cups, getting to the Carabao semi final and 5th round of the FA Cup. We make the long awaited progress up the table as the youngsters continue to mature, and they largely don't seem interested in going anywhere else yet. We finished 8th and nearly scrape into a minor European competition.

 

Off the Pitch

We're still mainly on the look out for youngsters to develop, but go for first team improvements as we can. The main purchases being:

Spoiler

With the change to tactics, I shoe horned joao victor into the AMC position, although he's our best striker. Tariq Bibby, our League One academy graduate who still contributes to the first team, got unhappy and is leaving us for £15m to Monterray which makes me a little sad.

The off season will need focus on off-loading the other DLF, plus one of the advanced forwards if I can get a good natural AMC to take on that role.

From the way results were going, I start to need to develop variations on the tactics for when we're favourites or underdogs, now that we're not underdogs against absolutely everyone.

 

[Woolly]

Way back in November I started a LLM save with Rochdale mainly because they have never reached the heights of the top division let alone the Championship. Then RL got in the way and meant I couldn't devote as much time to them as I wanted. I managed in my first season to gain promotion out of Div 2 as Champions by some margin ( think I ended the season something like 20 points clear of the next best team with a record points haul). Now I have finally completed my second season with them which to my shock ended with promotion to the Championship by 2 points achieved via a 2-1 win v Lincoln in the last game of the season (luckily for me the other two challengers Rotherham and Crewe played each other in the last game and Crewe who were in 3rd won ). Now as I contemplate life in new territory not just for myself as a manager but also for the Club I wonder where my journey will take me next. Now is the time to decide whether to move on if a decent offer comes along from a bigger club or stick with my current plan.

 

[warlock]

2 minutes ago, Woolly said:

I contemplate life in new territory

Often, you'll find the step up to the Championship isn't too difficult, You probably won't over-achieve by much (unless you have a great squad, a great tactic, or both) but you should be able to survive and look to build next season.

On the other hand, I wouldn't expect many exciting job offers after just two seasons. You have over-achieved with Rochdale, but club and manager reputation grows pretty slowly so you might find your best job offers come from your fellow Championship relegation candidates or L1 promotion prospects.

[Woolly]

3 hours ago, warlock said:

Often, you'll find the step up to the Championship isn't too difficult, You probably won't over-achieve by much (unless you have a great squad, a great tactic, or both) but you should be able to survive and look to build next season.

On the other hand, I wouldn't expect many exciting job offers after just two seasons. You have over-achieved with Rochdale, but club and manager reputation grows pretty slowly so you might find your best job offers come from your fellow Championship relegation candidates or L1 promotion prospects.

I know I've over achieved both seasons the club was not even in the frame for promotion at the beginning of the season, I'm just hoping in the third season to at least put up a fight (the players in the squad have mainly been with the club for most of the journey although I did pick up a couple of excellent free transfers). Unless there is a really huge offer of a job I ain't moving as I'm having far to much fun writing history for the club (they have never been this high up in the league so every position is a bonus). The priority I've got now is to get hold of a decent DR and a couple of Championship standard players in other positions.

[goonergez]

Wrexham FC: 2025/26 Review

At the third time of asking I managed to get my side out of League Two as we won promotion as runners up having missed out on the title on the very last day of the season. The club was then taken over by an ambitious French tycoon who gave us a transfer budget of over £3,000,000 with the target of competing near the top end of League One straight away and at least gaining a play off spot. So ambitious was he that come January he actually added another £10,000,000 to the transfer budget. Helpful but not ideal as for the first time since I took charge I actually found myself under some pressure to succeed.

The extra pressure definitely paid a part in my transfer activity as we spent a fair chunk of money trying to improve the squad. Winger Elliott List signed from Stevenage in a £170,000 deal but we went further by breaking our club transfer record by signing central midfielder Ben Liddle from Bristol Rovers in a £400,000 deal. Come January we went even further by spending £400,000 on young striker Gareth Caulfield and the same fee of central defender Seb Amofah, both from League Two side Exeter City. Those two signings would actually fix our stuttering campaign though.

We started the season off really slow but actually did really well to finish the season strongly and make it into the play offs. Frustratingly my second trip to Wembley ended up exactly the same as the first though and we lost out in the final to condemn us to another campaign in League One. We should be proud though really. To come up last season and then end up one game away from back to back promotions really is something.

Outside of the league we disappointed again although we did navigate through to the Quarter Finals of the Papa Johns Trophy, following from our semi final run last season. I’m not too worried about cup competitions at the moment though.

We did pretty well this season and it can give us plenty of hope going forwards. The new owner definitely showed us what his ambitions are and the frustrating thing is that despite being given plenty of money to spend I haven’t managed to find players worthy of spending it on. Hopefully this summer may change that though. The owner laid on a new vision for the future and he is now chasing a place in the Premier League in the next five seasons. That’s a really big ask but I’m sure he’s going to provide plenty of money to help.

The summer will see a lot of changes with a number of contracts expiring. Striker Paul Mullin is one who will depart after a lacklustre campaign. He found himself replaced in the starting line up by youngster Jules Arbogast whom we signed for £120,000 last summer from FC Basel. The youngster actually ended the season as our top goal scorer whilst Mullin only managed 10 goals after finishing the season pretty impressively. Central midfielder Teddy Bishop is another who will depart. That’s frustrating for me as by the end of the season he had formed himself as a key component in the heart of our midfield. There’s going to be a lot of changes this summer but it’s really exciting to think of what we may be able to put together with the funds at our disposal.
 

Honours
---------------
2021/22 Conference National Winners
2024/25 League Two Runners Up

 

[goonergez]

Wrexham FC: 2026 Club Record Broken

This isn't a full on update by any means but more a report of something that took place during our summer preparations that has absolutely obliterated one of our club records. I have already told you how the club was taken over last summer by a French tycoon and he has pumped money into the club since his arrival. I have spent some of it but haven't gone crazy by any means. I had faith in my squad last summer and having come close to promotion again last season in League One I once again had confidence ahead of the 2026/27 season. January just gone saw me spend the most I had in a single window as we paid a total of £800,000 out of the club to bring in three new signings. In total three signings of my era held the record for the highest transfer fee paid by the club, that of £400,000. That record has now been smashed by a new recruit though.

As a lifelong hardcore Arsenal fan I am delighted that my star man is now to be named Aaron Ramsey. Obviously it isn't the Welsh wizard but our very own version. He found himself out of favour at Bristol City after a move from Aston Villa a few years back but i decided to make him the poster boy of our new regime. Structuring the deal helped us to get it done cheaper than his club wanted but it is still an absolutely enormous transfer for this club. I was a little cautious of paying that sort of money but we really have picked up a promising player.

He's going to slot straight into our midfield and I can't wait to see how he will get on. He's got all the quality to be one hell of a player at this level but also I feel like after any promotions he would still prove a key man. I want to treat him as the real star of this squad and I cannot wait to get him involved as soon as possible. Promotion from League One is an absolute must and hopefully Aaron Ramsey will hit beast mode and help us to achieve that goal.

Honours
---------------
2021/22 Conference National Winners
2024/25 League Two Runners Up

 

[warlock]

@goonergez I'm guessing no-one at Wrexham is missing the Hollywood years .

[luka_zg]

Finished 2nd season with Aston Villa. After finishing 2nd in the 1st season, this one was a bit tougher due to fixtures coming thick and thin with WC2022 schedule. But, we were consistently in the mix for a top4 finish and with a strong form in our last 8 games we managed to lock up 4th place in the final day of the season with a bit of luck going our way because we needed to win at the Emirates but drew 0-0. Fortunately, Chelsea lost their game and we finished 4th equal on points (76pts) but with one goal better goal difference. Great job!

FA cup, we lost in the 4th round against Southampton.

Carabao Cup, we lost in the 3rd round against Man City.

Champions League, we had amazing showing. In the group with Barcelona,Ajax and Zenit, we managed to finish 2nd. We drew Besiktas in the 1st knockout round and elimitated them. QF draw was not kind and gave us Liverpool which we lost ofc. Still no wins against Liverpool who are just flying, winning the treble in the 1st season and winning the PL and CL again in the 2nd season. Reallly insane how dominant they are.

As far as transfers for the 3rd season, the team will mostly stay as it is but I did bring three serious reinforcements who will get a lot of game time. 

From RB Leipzieg, I bought Amadou Haidara, good central mid who can play B2B and playmaker roles for 24 milion.

Form Red Star Belgrade, I bought wonderkid Nemanja Motika. Nice 20 year old 5 star PA prospect and 3.5 star CA winger who can play right and left side for 4.5 milion.

From Spezia, in central defence comes Dimitris Nikolaou for 20 milion. Technically limited but with great attributes for a central defender. Just don't ask him to do anything more.

From ManUtd I bought Aaron Wan Bissaka for 25 milion. He was unhappy with the lack of playing time there, he accepted to be squad player for us but for quite big salary which we could afford. Finally Matty Cash will have some rest and wouldn't be asked to play like 90% of games during the season.

From Man City we brought Gavin Bazunu, a nice prospect in a GK position who will take 2nd choice keeper slot.

Notable players who left are Danny Ings for 28 milion, Morgan Sanson for 10 milion, Calum Chambers for 10 milion.

 

Golakeepers: Emiliano Martinez, Jacob Rinne, Gavin Bazunu

Defenders: Matty Cash, Aaron Wan Bissaka, Renan Lodi, Rico Henry, Tyrone Mings, Ezri Konsa, Dimitris Nikolaou, Girorgio Scalvini, Kerr Smith

Midfielders: Amadou Haidara, Douglas Luiz, Dennis Zakaria, Dominik Szoboslai, Carney Chukwuemeka, Jacob Ramsey, John McGinn

Forwards: Leon Bailey, Emiliano Buendia, Nemanja Motika, Alberto Moleiro, Gabriel Barbosa, Ollie Watkins

[warlock]

3 hours ago, luka_zg said:

Finished 2nd season with Aston Villa

Sounds like you're doing well, but I'm sorry to say a Villa save is off-topic for this thread. This EFL thread is for the English leagues below the Premiership. There's a PL thread here:

But good luck with season 3.

[Parmie]

Bradford City - Season 11 (2031/2032)

A significant season for Bradford City as the Stuart McCall Arena has been completed, our previous stadium had been sold to the local council due to previous financial issues in real life. With our top half finish last season and a group of players maturing into prime years, I'm hopeful to see what we can accomplish.

This far in, I didn't think I would sign any real players, but to fill our vacant attacking midfield position, the recruitment team report on Hugo Felix, still only 27, and he's our main purchase, with a newgen loanee from PSG providing pack up. I adjusted the striking numbers, Thiago Morais offsetting the Felix outlay and Tulio, our DLF is surplus to requirements.

Season Review

August and September are a mix of results, I just don't seem able to beat rivals Leeds but we get some good wins and draws, and as we get into October onwards, we settle down into a strong set of results, Shrewsbury, whom we smashed last season in the Carabao, pull off a giant killing in the Carabao in the 2nd round, and Burnley dump us out of the FA Cup also at the first hurdle. The fewer games does help with squad fitness and despite two losses at the end of the season, we record Bradford's highest ever league finish and qualify for the Champions League.

The board give us £70m to spend (although our net transfer last season was very positive) and our wage budget is set to £1.4m, still one of the smallest in the Premier League.

Off the Pitch

Our original stadium loan debt has been repaying for 3 years even before we finally completed it, current debt is £44m due to be repaid by 2038. Chairman Rupp had a sniff of a consortium takeover but that quickly went away and unusually for a Bradford save, he's sticking with us, although with our success, it's not hard to see why.

Last season's English signings, Goalkeeper Smith and Striker Bello, both make international debuts this season, Bello scoring too. Smith seems to be establishing himself as the international first choice but Bello isn't called up again. Joris Renault, the Frenchman we signed at 15, has become a superstar, previously rated in the top 5 wonderkids, the big clubs have sniffed around him and his value shows as £86m-£93m.

This has become a theme, as we improve this season, we're noticed more, although the players continue to be mainly disinterested in moving, Paulo Cezar, our top centre back, gets a release clause of £40.5m activated by Man City, as I've still been recruiting promising youngsters, I hit the cap for 6 in a season already and I have to look at homegrown replacements, we complete what is effectively a player swap with City as we buy one of their up and coming players as a replacement, Simon Tipple for £20m.

I've been focused on facility improvements, and we do see a 5* potential youngster emerge.

Spoiler

For the campaign ahead, I need some extra bodies, I trimmed down another couple of squad positions but found we were quite short even for a standard Premier campaign. We are at the stage though of being able to pick up 1st team ready youngsters that can still improve further that the big teams haven't swooped in for, so I'll be doing my traditional squad analysis exercise and looking to go for the two in every position target again.

Edited March 10, 2022 by Parmie

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Parmie said:

we record Bradford's highest ever league finish

Bradford in the Champions League  You're doing good work up there!

[Bergbatov]

 

MK Dons 2022/23 Review

After last season I decided to tweak the tactic and change to a 4-3-3 system with the same style of play in mind. I wanted to get my IFs to cut inside and have the WBs to stay out wide and endlessly work up and down the sides. We also wanted more penetration through the middle and the mezzala and box to box midfielder is providing a more dynamic attacking play with their forward runs. It's very attacking but we want to outscore our opponents and play some attractive football for our fans.

 

Transfers

With last season in mind I knew we needed to strengthen our squad a bit and most importantly add some depth so we could handle the long season and manage to cover if someone got injured. We tried to get both Parrott who was among our best players last season but the wages was just too much so we decided to look elsewhere. I was pretty happy with our transfer window and the deals that we made, even tho we overspent on that Barlow loan. We also signed Billy Mitchell from Millwall for £30.5k, Haydon Roberts on loan from Brighton, Jake Bidwell joined in October as a free agent and we replaced our great goalkeeper Andy Fisher, who didn't want to extend his contract, with the talented James Trafford for only £275k(£475k) from Manchester City. So we spent around £8-900k and sold for £3.1M, keeping our books healthy. 

 

Season

I was a little nervous about our striker options since we pretty much only had Ricky-Jade Jones and Charlie Brown. But wow! We all know Ricky-Jade Jones is a monster but Charlie Brown had an amazing season scoring 22 goals on 30 appearances, Ricky-Jade Jones had 14 goals on 31 appearances. I did not expect that kind of performance from Charlie Brown. We started the season with a 2-1 win against Barrow and then we had 2 losses and 2 draws, so I was a little worried at the start, but I also knew that we had to play in our new tactic and players. Luckily things turned pretty quick and we went on a great run and played some amazing football.

 

So we managed to win the league pretty comfortably and the players who stood out this season where Charlie Brown as I already mentioned, Josh Martin who had 16 assists, James Bree and Harry Darling. We where hoping to fight for at least playoff but I always had promotion on my mind this season, so it was really satisfying to see that we manage to do so well. We also had a great Cup run reaching quarter finals in the FA Cup. That was really good since we didn't have an easy road to get there, we beat Crystal Palace after extra time, destroyed Luton 6-0 and manage to beat Newcastle after a penalty shootout. We almost took Leicester as well, but lost after a close game.

 

Hopefully we can make a good effort in the Championship next season, but we need to strengthen our squad and keep our best players. 

Edited March 11, 2022 by Bergbatov

[warlock]

52 minutes ago, Bergbatov said:

So we managed to win the league pretty comfortably

Looks like you were head & shoulders above the rest - points, goals scored, GD. A good season all round 

[Dustman2015]

Nottingham Forest Season 1:

 

Taking over Forest, as I’ve enjoyed watching Spence, Surridge, and Johnson. They also seem to be a team on the edge of promotion. Look like a fun save.

 

Transfers in:

Joe Gelhardt on loan with 10m buy option

Theo for 1m 

Sarrachi on a free once he’s healthy 

Transfers out:

various deadwood pieces for around 1.5m total

had to reject 10m offers for Johnson from Spurs and Arsenal. Luckily he agreed he wouldn’t get playing time there

 

Playing a direct attacking 5212 with Johnson sitting behind Keenan Davis/Grabban and Gelhardt

 

3rd at the sept intl break. Hoping for a good run of form on the other side.

[Bergbatov]

 

MK Dons 2023/24 review

After our promotion to the Championship I was ready for a tough season. Media predicted us us to be 22. place this season and our objective was to fight bravely against relegation, but I always have a little higher expectation than the media so my goal was to stay clear of the relegation battle and hopefully have another good run in one of the cups. We kept our ambitious tactic and improved our training facilities, youth recruitment and youth coaches, so we spent a good amount of our money on that, knowing that we couldn't go too crazy on the transfer market.

Transfers

After the promotion there was no doubt that we had to strengthen our squad and depth. I wanted to keep Haydon Roberts, Ricky-Jade Jones and Josh Martin but we didn't have any agreements on future fee clauses so it was just to expensive to sign them and Brighton wanted to keep Roberts in house, the same with Jade Jones in Peterborough and Norwich wanted to high wages for my liking to give us Martin on loan for another season. We had a transfer budget around £3.5m and wage budget around £150k a week making us the second lowest wage budget in the league, only newly promoted Crewe had lower. So we had to make some smart transfer moves in order to keep our budget intact.

We also brought in Josh Tymon £195k, Liam Cullen £170k, Jacob Davenport £200k(£325k), Youssef Amyn £160k and Kobbie Mainoo on free in June. I was really happy with our Tymon deal since he has so much potential and is still young. I was a little worried about our strength at both inside forward positions, Edozie was released by Manchester City and was a guy for the future but wasn't really good Championship material yet. The same with Samson Tovide who just came from a good season with Colchester in League One, he had to develop before making him to good Championship material. Pretty happy with our deals to strengthen our center backs and we had another good striker on loan in Satriano and Liam Cullen as backup. Also nice that we managed to get Peter Kioso back to the club, a player who came up as a youngster in 2015. Regarding the players leaving the club I sold Jake Bidwell after we managed to pick up a great regen in Drew Warburton, so he would have been only a third choice and we needed the money. I didn't have any intention in selling Warren O'Hara since he played very good for us, but he wanted a new contract that was just too high for a player of his calibre. Same thing with last seasons sensation Charlie Brown unfortunately, but I just couldn't overspend and make reckless decisions that would hurt our financials. 

Our big signing was Drew Warburton that I just had to jump in and get when our scouts told me what price we could get him for. Just take a look at that boy, viewer discretion is advised:

Spoiler

A good transfer window with our budget but we where pretty weak at both inside forward positions leaving a lot of responsibility to some young talents that had no experience on this level. But since our goal was to stay in the league I thought we could try to develop them as them as the season went by and hopefully they could contribute, if needed we could get more quality on loan in January.

League

What a season! I had no expectation whatsoever of even getting close to playoffs and we managed to not only promotion but to win comfortably, mind-blowing to be honest. I was really happy with the tweaks I made with the tactic last season after spending a lot of time watching full matches to get full details of how our positioning and movement where. Did not expect it to be that good tho..

 

We started the season really well winning 4 and 2 draws after 6 games played then a little back and forward before we went on a huge run of 25 games unbeaten (in all competitions). After 18th November we only lost two games, one was an absolute robbery and the other one a really close game against second placed Reading that could have gone either way.

Here is past positions chart:  

Spoiler

 

Josh Tymon was on another level averaging 7.83 in the league and 7.79 overall and had 12 assist, not bad for a £195k signing! Another revelation was Samson Tovide, the same guy I was  worried about taking a too big step playing in Championship. He had an absolute banger of a season with 21 goals and 13 assists leaving him with an 7.36 average rating in the league. With a season like this of course everyone had a massive season so here is our best eleven:

Spoiler

It was great to see that our core group of players in Kioso, O'Riley, Kasumu and Harry Darling, who played more than Ferguson, had a great season as well. Billy Mitchell was our main box-to-box midfielder next to O'Riley provided us 10 goals and 6 assists. Also have to mention Liam Cullen who had 20 goals and stepped up big time when Satriano was injured 2-3 months. We also had 4 players on team of the year, O'Riley, Mitchell, Tovide and Trafford. How on earth they managed to not involve Josh Tymon(7.83 avg) over Charlie Taylor who only had 6.95 average rating is so far beyond suspicion of corruption as it gets. We should also had Kioso who had a much better season then Andy Yiadom and Ben Nelson who had a magnificent season averaging 7.53 in the league.

Team of the year:

Spoiler

 

Cups

Wth last season FA Cup quarter final in mind we were hoping for another cup magic in Milton Keynes. We came to fifth round in the FA Cup losing 2-1 to the Premier League club Norwich, a match that we should have won as we had a much higher xG than Norwich. Another decent FA Cup run for us, even tho it was rough to lose that match. In the EFL Cup we met Leicester in fourth round after beating som lower division teams prior to that. For once we were a little lucky and lost the xG 1.09 to 2.35, so we managed to secure another quarter final spot. We were lucky with the draw and got the League One side Wigan, we ended up winning 4-0. In the semi final we met another Premier League team, Crystal Palace. We managed to win the first leg 2-0 at home giving us faith that we actually could reach the final. At the second leg it was a close game with Palace going up 1-0, but we still had faith in our ambitious play style and tactic so we just kept going. We managed to score two goals before Palace made it even to 2-2, a close game which gave us a 4-2 overall and a ticket to Wembley!

Just a massive achievement for a little club as MK Dons to get to play a cup final at Wembley. We had a massive challenge ahead as Chelsea demolished Leeds 9-5 overall in the other semi final. I said to my players that we made an incredible effort to come this far and that they should just enjoy their moment, since we most likely we're going to get beaten by a far superior team in Chelsea.

 

What a match! We have done miracles by beating Chelsea in the EFL Cup final, not only did we win but we were actually the better team as well. I was absolutely sure that we were getting beaten by Chelsea because of the massive difference in quality between our squads. We also kept our ambitious tactic even tho we were massive underdogs, making it even more pleasing winning deserved knowing we played the MK Dons way. Matt O'Riley was the man of the match and 17 year old Drew Warburton had a great game as well.

Who would have thought MK Dons were going to play in Europa Conference League in 2024? Not me!

What an amazing season! We have a £30.48m transfer budget and £440k a week wage budget, making us the biggest favorite for relegation in years. But hey, we are absolutely up for the challenge. We already made our first signing in Keane Lewis-Potter for only £4.7m, he was out of contract I July but we decided to pay up before a lot of clubs with more resources came in like wolves when he was on free transfer. We also signed a very promising striker from Kosovo on a £4.7m deal.

Spoiler

When I first signed Ben Nelson on loan before this season I was trying to get an optional future fee in the deal and I got it to around £24m but I decided to not do it since we also had to pay some monthly loan fee(not that much) and we needed to be strict with our money. I thought we wouldn't afford that future fee anyways since we only was going to stay clear of relegation in the Championship anyways. Pretty damn mad about that now, since it's not possible to get a deal done with Leicester who demands hundreds of million pounds for him now. We have to strengthen our squad before the Premier League season kicks off. We need 2 CBs, RB, CM and a striker at least to have any chance of staying in the Premier League. Will also strengthen our staff team on every level to be the best it can be. We need to step up our game before this massive challenge.

Edited March 13, 2022 by Bergbatov

[goonergez]

Wrexham FC: 2026/27 Review

After defeat in the play off final last season it felt like this was really a campaign that was full of pressure. The change in ownership had provided me plenty of funds to try and charge this side forwards but for the first time in my career here it felt like success was pivotal this time around. I threw caution to the wind in the summer transfer market, namely with the huge signing of midfielder Aaron Ramsey in a deal that smashed our club transfer record. On top of that we added other new faces across the pitch and headed into the campaign full of hope. 

We managed to thrive on the pressure by going on to lift the League One title and gain promotion into the second tier for next season. We started the season like an absolute freight train winning twelve of our first thirteen league matches to show our credentials. The signing of Aaron Ramsey turned out to be an inspired one as he scored nine league goals and provided a club and league record of thirteen assists to go with it. Defensively we were once again good and in truth we were never really in any doubt of gaining the promotion we craved. Our weakest point was probably up front really but thankfully wingers Beryly Lubala and Cal Roberts both hit double figures for goals helping us on our way.

Outside of the league we did well to reach the third round of the FA Cup before we were truly dismantled by Tottenham Hotspur in a disappointing and humbling 1-5 defeat. The League Cup saw us how out at the Third around stage and we lost out on penalties in the Quarter Finals of the Papa Johns Trophy too.

I’m delighted to gain a third promotion of my era here and it’s now made this save probably my most successful save on FM starting so low down. The money I’ve been given has certainly helped but in truth I’ve managed to build a very strong squad without going completely crazy on big money signings. Thankfully the ambitions of our French tycoon owner have mellowed slightly as before this league title win he wanted promotion to the Premier League within three seasons of this point. The new club vision now wants us to clinch top half finishes in the Championship over the next five seasons. I’m under no illusions as to how difficult the next few years could be for us though. We have money to spend but the Championship homes some huge football clubs and in truth we’re punching well above our weight. It’s going to be a tough summer market for us but we have to add some quality to our ranks. I’m confident but I am very much nervous this time around. Hopefully we can achieve this aspirations of a top half finish and spend the next couple of seasons building a squad capable of looking at becoming a Premier League side soon.
 

Honours
---------------
2021/22 Conference National Winners
2024/25 League Two Runners Up
2025/26 League One Winners

 

[warlock]

Some positive reports here... @Dustman2015 - a really good start to a Forest save. Hope you can keep it up.

@Bergbatov, @goonergez - very good seasons for you both, and a strong response to the pressure at Wrexham.

I'll be back in the thread sometime this week - started a Hull save but haven't had time this weekend to make much progress, but might get to the end of the transfer window tomorrow.

[hasdgfas]

Some great stuff going on in here as usual! Keep up the good work, everyone! Hopefully I'll be joining you soon, been unable to get a League save started for various reasons.

[goonergez]

Wrexham FC: 2027/28 Review

Although I understand that for most people my story through the leagues may not seem a huge achievement I find myself enjoying by far my most successful save from the lower leagues and am absolutely loving it. Taking over a rich side in the Conference National and climbing to the Championship over a six season spell feels huge to me and I couldn’t wait to lead my side into this campaign. Being taken over by a rich Frenchman has certainly helped but despite of that I find myself incredibly proud of what I have managed to achieve with this club.

The crowning jewel for this save would definitely be to make the Premier League though and that’s definitely going to take some time. We came into the summer with demands from the board of a top half finish and in truth I thought for the first time since I took charge that we may be doomed to fail. To counter that I allowed a number of players to leave the club and brought in a total of seven new faces to help us. The biggest summer signing was a £2,000,000 deal to bring winger Ben Knight to the club from Blackpool, although we also signed exciting central defender Harry Darling from the MK Dons in a £900,000 dealing. The rest of our business was free transfers until January when we paid Chelsea £650,000 to sign 21-year old centre back Aaron Haley, a promising youngster who could become a key component in our defensive line.

We came ever so close to completing a remarkable feat of gaining promotion at the first time of asking. We started and ended the season fantastically but suffered a bit of a blip over the new year period that cost us any chances of winning promotion automatically. Making the play offs was a fantastic achievement though and hugely unexpected. Striker Dale Taylor (a summer free signing from Nottingham Forest) was our real hero, bouncing back from a slow start to nab 23 league goals across the campaign. Wingers Beryly Lubala, Ben Knight and Cal Roberts also contributed with double figures each. Our central midfield partnership of Ben Liddle and Aaron Ramsey was our real highlight though, contributing double figures in assists each. We could’ve done with some more goals from them but I was pretty pleased with their contributions.

The play offs saw us progress after a real tense two legs against Preston North End. We dominated the first leg at home but had to settle for a disappointing 0-0 draw. A goal early in the second period of the away leg was enough to see us home though, by the slimmest of shorelines. The final was horrible as we were edged in an even game to condemn us to another season at this level.

I have to be pleased with the campaign as we came one game away from promotion to the promised land of the Premier League. I’m absolutely gutted to have lost a third play off final at Wembley but we deserve so much credit and pride for making it that far in the first place. Outside of the league we disappointed in both the FA Cup and the League Cup but in truth neither of them are priorities to me. I’m really keen to get cracking on next season though as I believe with a few shrewd signings we can turn ourselves into genuine promotion contenders. It won’t be easy but we have a squad that has over performed this time around and I’m sure we can do well again with some quality new faces. I want promotion next season although to be honest I think I would be able just to make the play offs again. It’s a really exciting time to be involved with this football club and I can’t wait to have another crack.
 

Honours
---------------
2021/22 Conference National Winners
2024/25 League Two Runners Up
2025/26 League One Winners

 

[warlock]

21 minutes ago, goonergez said:

We came ever so close to completing a remarkable feat of gaining promotion at the first time of asking

A brave effort! And another season in the Championship might not be the worst thing if it gives you the chance to add some extra quality to the squad. Good luck with the next attempt 

[Bergbatov]

Well done with Wrexham @goonergez. I agree with you, the most enjoyable saves are often with lower league clubs. Harry Darling have done a great job for me all the way up to Premier League, so that should be a good signing. Take a look at Samson Tovide from Colchester, probably in another club in your save now. He just became European Golden Boy here! 

 

@warlockLooking forward to see that Hull save. I got Keane Lewis-Potter here in PL, great player. I also had Richie Smallwood for a while, guy was hunting down yellow cards. 14 yellow and 2 red cards in 15(9) matche 

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Bergbatov said:

Looking forward to see that Hull save

Thanks for the nudge - meant to post earlier on but got distracted by chores! So...

Hull City, September 2021

I managed Hull in FM21 and managed to get them to the Championship before I was lured overseas for my first ever saves in Spain and France. It seemed only natural to take them on again when they made it to the Championship IRL. There have been quite a few changes to the squad although, happily, most of the key players remain. The club has also been subject to a takeover by Turkish media mogul Acun Medya and as a result there is a decent transfer budget in the winter update. But it looks like a decent squad to me and I decided I'd go with what we had:

As you can see, we have quite a bit of quality - and potential - throughout. At first sight, it looks quite unbalanced with only two CBs and an unnecessary number of AMLs but Di'Shon Bernard (on loan from Man Utd) and Sean McLoughlin can both play CB to a high standard. Up front, Marcus Forss is a better striker than AML, and Randell Williams can play at AMR so it all balances pretty well. The only real issue at the start is that George Honeyman and Liam Walsh are both injured, which requires the use of some of our poorer players like Andy Cannon and young prospect Callum Jones but that seemed a better approach than buying in extra numbers for a short-term need. I also opted to let a couple of the weaker players leave - CM Richie Smallwood went to Dundee for £38k, and ST Tom Eaves also went north of the Border to Aberdeen for £57k.

Playing McLoughlin at CB meant we were short of an LB but Brandon Fleming was promoted from the U23s and has proved to be an able deputy to the excellent Callum Elder.

My preferred tactical style in FM22 has been variations of the narrow diamond but we have too many wide forwards to make that work here. A 4231 is also difficult in the absence of strong AMCs so, almost by default, we have ended up in a 433dm. We're not blessed with excellent DMs either, but the ageing Tom Huddlestone boasts excellent passing as long as you don't ask him to move (pace: 5; agility: 5) and Regan Slater is a capable defensive DM. In the longer term this is an area we'll have to strengthen, as is the attack where we're reliant on two loan signings.

We're predicted to finish in 18th, just avoiding the relegation places but, no doubt in view of his investment, the new chairman wants a mid-table finish. I feel that's achievable, but we're obviously a long way behind the likes of Fulham, Sheffield United, Bournemouth and West Brom.

Early form

A much better opening month than we had any right to expect. The home draw against Derby was a big disappointment, but we followed that with a tremendous win against promotion-chasing Fulham. The defeat to Bournemouth was another disappointment after we took a 2-1 lead before half-time, but they were just too strong for us. We've also done well in the Carabao Cup, seeing off the Blades in R2, for which our reward is a visit from Liverpool in R3.

Those early results had us sitting in 2nd place for most of the month until that defeat against Bournemouth. Things are so tight at the top that any dropped points sees you drop down the table. But we've achieved that with a makeshift midfield and I'm hoping to recover our good form when Honeyman and Walsh are available. Forss and Sayyadmanesh are sharing the goal-scoring duties between them but we're generally in good shape. I'll review things in December to see where we might invest our £9m transfer budget in the new year.

 

[warlock]

About that Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool...

Liverpool fielded a somewhat B-team that nevertheless featured players like Diogo Jota, Divock Origi, Kostas Tsimikas, Joe Gomez and Naby Keita. I have often had success against PL sides in the cups and they often make the same mistake - they come out all-guns blazing expecting us to fold. Liverpool had 22 shots in the game but only 4 on target, while we were a little more measured and clinical, with two goals from our 8 shots on target. Next round we're off to Liverpool... to face Everton. I don't expect they'll be as wildly obliging 

[warlock]

Another one bites the dust...

Everton at least paid us the compliment of fielding a full-strength side, but we nicked the lead and then held on after they went down to 10 men.

We drew Birmingham in the quarter-final... room for cautious optimism?

[hasdgfas]

1 hour ago, warlock said:

Another one bites the dust...

Everton at least paid us the compliment of fielding a full-strength side, but we nicked the lead and then held on after they went down to 10 men.

We drew Birmingham in the quarter-final... room for cautious optimism?

It feels like you always do this in the Cups!

[warlock]

4 minutes ago, hasdgfas said:

It feels like you always do this in the Cups!

*blush* I have had quite a bit of cup success against PL sides, but I can't really explain why. I stick to my usual tactic - whatever that is - but try to hit them on the counter. Standard LoD, lower LoE, "pass into space" on, a couple of quick players lurking around the halfway line. As much as anything, the big clubs usually beat themselves: overly attacking, ultra-high tempo and lots of low-quality chances. However it works, I'll take it - the TV and gate money is great for EFL sides 

[Bergbatov]

 

MK Dons 2024/25 Review

After our promotion we knew it would be a tough season ahead since we a pretty weak squad compared to our competitors, so the goal was to fight bravely against relegation. We had a transfer budget of £30.48m and a £440k wage budget so we had to be smart since the wage budget was quite small and we had to strengthen a lot of areas. We didn't change our tactics going into Premier League, we kept attacking and playing the MK Dons way.

Transfers

As I said above we had a lot of things we had to do in terms of being somewhat competitive in Premier League. But we also don't want a overhaul since we wanna keep some of our DNA with players like Matt O'Riley, David Kasumu, James Trafford and Samson Tovide, players that have been here since the League One days. The first thing we did was to sign a promising striker that could also be used as an inside forward, Besjan Shala from Kosovo for £4.7m, then we went over to Hull to grab the promising Keane Lewis-Potter for £3.7m(£4.7m) deal, talented Charlie Setford got signed from Ajax for only £400k since he was just stagnating on the bench over there, Nathan Collins was signed for £8.25 from Burnley and we sold Stephen Walker to Plymouth for £975k.

I was really happy with our transfer business. Especially with the center backs Bailly, Collins and Gibson coming in, since that was a key area to strengthen this summer. I was really surprised that we managed to capture Eric Bailly(30 years old) on free transfer and only pay him £23k a week. We didn't want to do much in central midfield since we wanted to keep our faith in Matt O'Riley and David Kasumu that has been with us from the start, but we had to get another guy in that could start straight away. So we ended up with Marko Bulat, a perfect fit for our box to box position. I felt like I had to upgrade our right back position since Bree and Kioso lacked a bit of quality. Really happy with that Ethan Laird deal, he was loaned out to Swansea in Championship last year and did really well. I also knew how talented he is, so a £5m deal for him was a no brainer. Another position we had to strengthen was a striker, we ended up with the Norwegian Jørgen Strand Larsen, a 193cm (only 78kg) 24 year old that came in from Bochum after playing several seasons for Groningen. 17 strength and 16 jumping reach, 16 heading making him a big threat in the box. Than we signed some backup/rotation players and we managed to get Jacob Ramsey for only £2.9m, a really handy signing since he could almost play everywhere in the middle. Benjamin McCarthy was a talent for the future and could get some playtime as a defensive midfielder. We also managed to sell a lot of players that wasn't ready for the Premier League, ended up with selling 11 players from the first team and signing 13. 

League

With no big expectations we went into the season knowing it would be a struggle for survival, but we started off really well with a 4 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in September. Our striker Strand Larsen had 5 goals in 4 matches so it was looking great. October and November also treated us well with only 1 loss, 2 draws and 3 wins giving us faith in our survival battle. Then we had the fixtures of death with Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool leaving us with 0 points, pretty much expected and we should have won against Liverpool. The start of the season was so good but in the second half of the season it just got too much for us, we couldn't handle to fight in two cups and manage to keep a good run in Premier League, so we struggled in the league and ended up with a 11th place, which I would take with open arms before the season started so I can't really be to mad about it. But I gotta say I was a little disappointed since we started off so well. 

I also think we might need to untick that Get Stuck In box... Yikes!

Past positions: 

Spoiler

Cup

With the Premier League as our main focus we focused on squad rotation in the cups. We came to 4th round in the FA Cup losing on penalties to Leicester, which was a really good result since we played with a heavy rotation. In the FA Cup we decided to not rotate that much after we won against Hull over two matches in 4th round. In the 5th round we managed to beat Fulham after penalties, giving us Burnley in the quarter final. We won 3-2 away after a hard fight and we can't complain with the FA drawing us Stoke in the semi finals, which we won 5-2 comfortably. Once again we made it into a cup final and this time Manchester United was the opposition. 

Former Manchester United player Eric Bailly really had some unfinished business to take care of, huh? So it was pretty much over after 8 min... But hey, we made It to the final!

Europe

After last seasons EFL Cup win we made it into Europa Conference League and we met the Swedish team AIK in the 4th qualifying round we won the first match 4-2 and the second one 3-0 so we made it into the group stage. We were given IFK Göteborg from Sweden, Antwerpen from Belgium and Slovácko from Czech Republic. Not too bad so we decided to rotate quite a bit in those matches but we ended up winning the group and met the Ukrainian warriors Dynamo Kiev, leaving us as underdogs going into those matches. We won 2-0 away and 1-0 at home so we made it to the quarter final with AZ Alkmaar on the other side. Another tough opponent that we manage to get past after winning 3-1 at home and 1-0 away. In the semi finals we met Club Brugge and we knew it would be a another tough match since they played really well against Chelsea in the group stage with a 1-1 draw at home and only losing 1-0 away. The media was backing Club Brugge but we kept rolling and won 3-1 away and 4-1 at home, so we made it in to another final! German machinery Bayer Leverkusen was a big challenge, and we had to keep focus and play our very best to have a chance. With our FA Cup final against Manchester United in mind, it could only go one way..

Once again we lost our head in a final. We managed to get two red cards, in 66th and 67th min, leaving us no chance in yet another final. So disappointing that we once again lost our heads. We where down 2-1 when it happened but it was a close game until then.

As posted earlier Samson Tovid was given the European Golden Boy trophy and also the Kopa Trophy, pretty insane from a young guy climbing up from League Two football with Colchester. Never had him on Football Manager before so I am so surprised with how good he is, get him!

Plans moving forward

First off all we need to get less cards so that Get Stuck In is now removed. I almost got Dele Alli in January but his wage demands was just too high and he wasn't to keen to join, but with a bigger budget and more money to spend we can hopefully get our icon back where he belong. He just turned 29 years old so he still got some seasons left in him. We also need to get an even better striker and we already signed Burhan Günes in a £15.5m deal, a really quick and technical wonderkid from Fenerbache that we will train to be an inside forward on the left side. Other than that we might get another central midfielder, a new central defender and some more talented youngsters that can give us a bright future. I also need to give a shout-out to our U18 team who came in the FA Youth Cup final losing only 1-2 against Arsenal, they took down Liverpool in the 6th round as well, so we have a couple of youngsters that can get some games for the first team next season. Our training and youth facilities are also being upgraded and we got £80m in the bank so the future looks bright.

Edited March 18, 2022 by Bergbatov

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Bergbatov said:

I gotta say I was a little disappointed

Love the ambition, but that sounds like a fantastic first season in the PL. 11th place and two cup finals is very impressive 

And I definitely agree with unticking "get stuck in". I usually go the other way and play with "stay on feet", and I usually have the best disciplinary record and the best defence.

Good luck next time!

[Bergbatov]

2 hours ago, warlock said:

Love the ambition, but that sounds like a fantastic first season in the PL. 11th place and two cup finals is very impressive 

Indeed a fantastic season, just a little disappointed with the second half of the season. But I think our squad wasn't good enough to fight in three competitions, too many games. 

[Sysiphus]

Have a free weekend for the first time in ages and want to do a save in the English leagues before FM23 comes out. I'm thinking about Sheffield Wednesday, Ipswich, Fleetwood and Charlton. Leaning towards the Owls—how substantial are their money problems? I like the idea of not being able to spend too much money but I'm not desperate for a Derby/Bolton situation.

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

how substantial are their money problems?

Pretty substantial! They have the highest wage cost in L1 at around £200k a week, and they're losing money rapidly. You have no transfer budget, minimal room in the wage budget, and you'll only get 10% of any outgoing transfers.

On the other hand, it's FM and club finances are murky at best. For example, the game lists their net debt at £126m, but then itemises loans to a total of more than twice that. Those loans are supposed to cost around £1.2m a month in repayments, but there's no evidence that those payments are being made 

I'd guess there's actually no risk of the club going bust, but you'll have no money to work with. Would certainly be a challenge.

[Sysiphus]

20 minutes ago, warlock said:

Pretty substantial! They have the highest wage cost in L1 at around £200k a week, and they're losing money rapidly. You have no transfer budget, minimal room in the wage budget, and you'll only get 10% of any outgoing transfers.

On the other hand, it's FM and club finances are murky at best. For example, the game lists their net debt at £126m, but then itemises loans to a total of more than twice that. Those loans are supposed to cost around £1.2m a month in repayments, but there's no evidence that those payments are being made 

I'd guess there's actually no risk of the club going bust, but you'll have no money to work with. Would certainly be a challenge.

Fantastic answer, cheers mate! I'll be starting with the first transfer window turned off either way so I'll clear out some of the wage budget in Jan or let some contracts run out after the first season. Think I'm up for the challenge, the squad looks quite fun at first look at least.

[Bergbatov]

1 hour ago, Sysiphus said:

Think I'm up for the challenge, the squad looks quite fun at first look at least.

In my save they got taken over a year ago(2024) and their finance is now secure and they just got promoted this season. So you might get a new rich uncle as well.

[warlock]

@Woolly How's it going? You still at Rochdale or were you tempted to move on?

@Dustman2015 Similar questions - how is going at Forest? You were off to a good start so I hope you managed to build on that.

[warlock]

Hull City, December 2021

Managed to complete another 3 months of this save with the Tigers so it seemed like a good time to update ahead of a tough winter schedule.

Our terrific performance in the Carabao Cup has already been noted but we've not been too shabby in the league - just the one defeat in 15 games. For a while we looked better in away games than at home, but we've managed to improve on that recently. We've also had a disturbing tendency to score early then do nothing for the rest of the game - a second minute goal against Stoke, and a 7th minute goal against Coventry, only to end those games with a single point being prime examples.

November has been a particularly good month, with us taking 13pts from 5 games. If there's a cloud on my horizon it's the poor performance of our strikers. Forss has added just 3 goals to his tally, and Allahyar only 4 in those 15 matches. Happily, Lewis-Potter has started to add goals to his appearances after a slow start to the season.

That run of results has taken us up to 2nd place in the league (although we were briefly in top spot in late November). The Blades are proving to be tough opposition so far:

Perhaps the surprise packages here (apart from us) are the two Boroughs - Peter and Middles - who are performing above expectations. But the real surprise is West Brom who, despite having one of the best (and one of the most expensive) squads, are currently languishing in 17th place.

I'm looking ahead to the January transfer window and I've identified a need for an upgrade in central midfield, where we have too many mediocre players. I'd also consider terminating Allahyar's loan but the new chairman has a thing about signing Turkish players and he's the only one we have right now. That makes Forss the likely subject for replacement - I've recently noticed we're paying a £63k a month fee (plus £9k a week wages), which looks like very poor value for money.

I'll be back at the end of January - hopefully with an upgrade to the playing staff!

[Rollin93]

Anyone in here make there  own kits on kitbasher? Was wondering if anyone has any new sponsors they have put in game they could private share with me 

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Rollin93 said:

Anyone in here make there  own kits

Never have, I'm afraid. Maybe ask in the skinning/graphics forum?

[Dustman2015]

In to January. Sitting 3rd, 4 pts of Fulham in 1st. 
 

Gelhardt and Spence have been awesome for me. Struggling to get either Grabban or K. Davis going.

Trying to decide if I should cash in on interest in January for keep the squad in tact to try to push for promotion. Then dismantle/rebuild in June. 

[Sysiphus]

Sheffield Wednesday – 2021/22 review

Yep, strapped for cash. No, none were signed. I started with the window turned off so the only movements that happened before the season were that I terminated Bailey Peacock-Farrell's loan as he was on 25k p/w which was WAY too high and recalled C. Dawson from loan to replace him. Slightly worse, but on much cheaper wages. In January I terminated some other loans who weren't playing, loaned some out to ease the wage bill and sold a couple for non-fees. I brought in a loanee DL from Aberdeen on no salary to cover for my DL, Lewis Gibson, that had recently gotten injured for three months. Therefore, this was my first XI for most of the season:

The season started off horribly and after around 20 games I had gone on two board meetings to discuss my future and was really close to getting sacked. By then January was rolling around and I got rid of the bad apples, held a couple of team meetings and one-on-one conversations along with scheduling in easy friendlies to boost the morale. I also made some tactical tweaks and we started to pick up the points. It looked like we would finish just outside the play-offs spots but we ended the season very strongly, taking 42 points from the last 48 available, climbing up to the 3rd place.

We carried our form into the play-offs and finished off Charlton and Wigan to gain promotion to the Championship. The squad is way too weak and thin now as I'm not renewing our high earners. I'll be relying on loanees and some freebies and players transfer listed for maximum of 100-200k (have no transfer budget but some players may raise some money). I can't really afford giving players over 7-8k p/w in wages so the quality will have to come from youngsters and economically advantageous loans. This is my full squad and their performances the last season:

The cups were nothing to write home about. We almost managed to win the Papa Johns but lost in the finals, but the board didn't care how we'd perform in that competition.

This is my best and most valuable player, who was attracting attention from the PL and I was hoping to raise some sweet, sweet cash from (up to 5m probably), but he broke his leg in the last game of the season and will be out for 4-6 months, so he's not leaving just yet. Let's just hope that the injury doesn't hamper his development too much.

Let me know if you want to see something else!

Edited March 20, 2022 by Sysiphus

[warlock]

8 hours ago, Sysiphus said:

The season started off horribly

Amazing turnaround . And a very good season in the circumstances. Good luck in the Championship!

[Sysiphus]

11 hours ago, warlock said:

Amazing turnaround . And a very good season in the circumstances. Good luck in the Championship!

Cheers pal! It's starting off rather well, 8 points in the first 5 games and I think we can stay up.

[goonergez]

Well my Wrexham adventure has come to an end after I was sacked from my position. I had actually completed the next season which once again saw us lose out in the play offs in our quest to reach the Premier League. A truly shocking start to the season saw me relieved from my position in mid November having won just two league matches. I holidayed the rest of the campaign and Wrexham were indeed relegated back down to League One.

 

I am absolutely gutted that it’s over and not sure what to do next. I may take some time off the game to figure out where to head next. I’ll be keeping an eye on everybodies progress in here though. There are some really enjoyable reads going on. 

[warlock]

30 minutes ago, goonergez said:

I was sacked

 That seems really harsh, but I guess it's the downside of an owner who puts a lot of money into the club - they want a return on their investment.

Hope you find another save soon. Actually, I have a suggestion - as an Arsenal fan, have you thought about a side you could set up with Arsenal as a senior affiliate? If IRC, @Sysiphusdid it with Boreham Wood a couple of years ago. Would allow you to develop some of those Arsenal youngsters.

[Sysiphus]

7 hours ago, warlock said:

 That seems really harsh, but I guess it's the downside of an owner who puts a lot of money into the club - they want a return on their investment.

Hope you find another save soon. Actually, I have a suggestion - as an Arsenal fan, have you thought about a side you could set up with Arsenal as a senior affiliate? If IRC, @Sysiphusdid it with Boreham Wood a couple of years ago. Would allow you to develop some of those Arsenal youngsters.

One of my favourite saves the past few years!

 

[warlock]

15 minutes ago, Sysiphus said:

One of my favourite saves

I was pretty sure it was you, less sure that it was Boreham Wood... and I'm astonished it was 3 years ago 

I enjoyed it too!

[warlock]

Hull City, March 2022

I had intended to update after the January window, but I was desperately trying to turn around a run of very poor form and kept on playing.

I mentioned last time that, although we were massively over-performing, there were signs for concern - struggling for consistent goal-scoring, giving up leads with worrying regularity. And those chickens came home to roost in December:

Five league games without a win, and the result against Reading was particularly upsetting - we took a 3-0 lead in at half-time and still couldn't come away with a win. Elsewhere, we continued our awful habit of scoring early and then just giving up. I couldn't wait for the January window and the chance to strengthen the squad. Sadly, it wasn't until late in the window I could make a couple of signings and, in the meantime, our poor form continued:

Against Wolves in the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg, we - again!! - scored early and then collapsed leading to a 1-6 defeat on aggregate. The win against Birmingham was only slightly better, giving up the lead twice before grabbing a winner in the 72nd minute. But it was back to bad habits after that, producing a spineless performance against Stoke and needing a 92nd minute equaliser against Bournemouth. But having terminated the loan of the expensive and ineffective Marcus Forss, I did manage to bring in a young striker: Tiago Cukur (and a Turk at that!) on loan from Watford and he scored on his debut against Preston. Stupid as it sounds, Cukur's arrival was important because of his nationality - my failure to sign a Turkish player in the summer had left the board "devastated" . Whatever else the youngster does here, he at least got the board off my back on that score.

There was further good news on transfer deadline day. My scouts identified versatile midfielder Atakan Karazor at Stuttgart who was interested in a move, and he was duly signed for £1.5m. Similarly, Danilo Pereira, a Brazilian striker at Ajax, was on an expiring contract and interested but, rather than waiting to sign him on a free move in summer, we invested all of £50k to make the transfer immediately. Could a reinforced squad stop the rot?

Mostly, turned out to be the answer. All three of our new signings found the net in February and, largely, we looked better. The win against table-toppers Sheffield United was excellent, with a last-gasp winner from KLP to boot! And he did it again when Barnsley came to town. So the loss against Posh was a disappointing way to end the month when our old frailties returned. Having gone down to an early goal, we fought back well to equalize and then go ahead early in the second half. But in the last 15 minutes Posh cut us open twice in rapid succession to head home with 3pts.

Regardless of our up-and-down form of the last 3 months, we're still massively over-achieving:

I admit, I'm now becoming officially terrified at the prospect of taking this squad into the Premiership. According to my coaches, we have no-one of PL quality, only three or four players who might reach that level, and the bulk of the squad still at L1 level. Nevertheless, it's been a fun if stressful ride and - as I said to the nation's media just the other day - we'll try to put as many points on the board as possible and see where that takes us .