The Journeyman - FM22

[BoxToBoxFM]

So FM22 has been out a little over a month now, I've absolutely loved it so far and have put over 100 hours in already. However, despite loving playing the actual game, I've not really managed to get into a save. Yet.

I've played 3 seasons in Belgium with Rupel Boom but as mentioned I've not really connected with the team, so for now I've decided to park that save and move to a more familiar save style for me. If you followed my save last year called League 2 To The Top then you'll know my favourite way to play the game is in full realism mode, making decisions in terms of clubs based on what I'd do in real life.

So that's exactly what I'm going to here. It's my career, with one aim - make it to one of the elite clubs in Europe, hopefully picking up some silverware over the save as well.

Welcome, to The Journeyman.

As you can see I've loaded the British Isles, the top 5 in Europe and also the Netherlands, purely for the fact I'd quite like to manage there at some point.

I'm not someone who likes to add too many rules to a save as I feel it restricts me a little bit, I like just going with the flow. However, there is a couple things I want to try and stick to throughout this save which will hopefully last until the end of the game cycle:

- Make decisions based on what I'd do in real life (mainly when it comes to moving clubs, but also choosing our starting club)

- Enjoy the save as much as possible. This is why there's no proper rules, I just want to see how things go and take it day by day really.

- Hopefully, end up managing one of the best teams in Europe 

- It's not really an aim as such, but I would quite like to get the Man Utd job at some point as that is who I support in real life.

In true journeyman style I'll be starting unemployed with no coaching badges and Sunday league past experience.

One other 'rule' to mention is I'm not going to apply for any jobs available when I first load into the save as they are hardcoded to be available for everybody (I think) and I want my save to be unique from everyone else's.

I can't wait to get started with this, the next update will most likely be interviews and getting my first job. Let the journey commence! 

Follow me on Twitter!

[BoxToBoxFM]

I have a job!

Prestatyn, in the JD Cymru North (Welsh second division) have offered me a contract on a massive £160 8 month contract which of course I accepted considering they were the first team to offer me a job. The Seasiders have been in the top flight recently though as the managed to pick up a Welsh Cup win in 2013.

Upon arrival the club sit in a rather precarious 12th place, just 2 points off the relegation zone. The media predict us to finish 8th this season which to be honest I'd be quite happy with.

I've not had time to look around the squad yet so I'll get on with that next time, I'm just glad I've found a job for now!

[BoxToBoxFM]

2021/22 Season - October/November

I've now been manager of Prestatyn Town for a month or so and after the first few games, it seems to be going well. I know I said I was going to talk about some key players but to be honest there's just no point, the majority of them will be leaving in the summer. But what I will show you is the results so far, and it's gone better than we all thought it would!

So far, we've lost just one game here in Wales and that was my first game in charge. We then went on a 3 game winning run including a win in the Welsh Cup and it was actually a 5 game unbeaten run as well as we ended the month with 2 draws. 

I'm pleasantly surprised with how our first few games have gone, if I'm being honest I'd have predicted to have lost a lot more than 1 game. I would show you the league table but i've actually played into December a little bit so I don't want to spoil things, you'll have to wait for a future update to see the table.

Tactic

This is the tactic I've been using, I've made a few tweaks over the course of these first few games but the actual shape has stayed the same. For example, I've added play for set pieces - it's quite handy having a 6 foot 5 midfielder!

[BoxToBoxFM]

2021/22 Season - Youth intake preview

On the face of things this looks like an incredible youth intake but what you have to remember is this is the second division in Wales - the staff judging this are awful and the chances are come April when we actually get the intake the players will be awful as well, despite having good star ratings. You can't really trust the staff this season, it's all about how they play in the match engine really.

I guess we'll find out just how good this is in a few months time!

[BoxToBoxFM]

 

 

Season 2021/22 - League Table

I know I said I wouldn't show you the league table until the next proper update with matches, but I realise I've not really showed you it all season so far and it's quite important for determining how well we're doing. 

We currently sit 8th which is perfect for where the board want us to be, we're exactly mid table and have a 5 point gap between us and the relegation zone which is crucial as we've got quite a difficult January coming up where we play the league leaders, Bangor City.

[BoxToBoxFM]

2021/22 Season - December/January

Our good form has slowed down a little bit it's fair to say, but you have to consider we've played some good teams over the course of the winter - most notably league leaders Bangor City so to get a point against them is a great result. Beating Penrhyncoch was also a massive result considering they are bottom of the league.

New signings

During January we made a couple new signings, we had quite a big squad (many have now left in January though) but there wasn't much quality in it so that was my aim for the winter window because if we got any injuries in attacking midfield or centre back we would be in a lot of trouble.

Callum James - free transfer

I wasn't convinced with the goalkeeper I had when I joined, this guy isn't much better but at least he has potential.

Kian Makepeace - free transfer

All the strikers when I joined the club were in their mid to late 30s so this guy is a younger option who's not done too bad so far picking up 4 goals and an assist in the league.

Harry Lee - free transfer

We only had 2 decent centre backs at the club so this guy comes in as cover. He's actually better than one of them so I may draft him into the first team in the coming games. It's worth noting all of these players' contracts at the end of this season.

Finally, we have 2 loanees coming in from England as other options in attacking midfield, I couldn't see any of their attributes when I made the offers so they were both blind signings but I think they've turned out quite well.

John Black - loan from Oxford City

 

John Black - loan from York

Both their screenshots are too big apparently, so I'll try posting them on a new reply to this below. 

[BoxToBoxFM]

Season 2021/22 - January signings

John Black - loan from Oxford City

Jack Degruchy - loan from York

[DomD]

Nice to see someone else starting in Wales. Good luck at Prestatyn!

[BoxToBoxFM]

9 minutes ago, DomD said:

Nice to see someone else starting in Wales. Good luck at Prestatyn!

Thank you, this is my first time managing in Wales, enjoying it so far. Will have to try and follow along with your save as well, getting your first job in the top vision is brilliant!

[BoxToBoxFM]

2021/22 Season - February/March

We went unbeaten!

5 wins, 2 draws and 0 defeats, I'm actually very happy with that! Defending seems to be a bit of an issue but I think that's mainly down to my goalkeeper who I've not been that impressed with. But for the moment, we're outscoring teams and getting the 3 points which at the end of the day is all that matters.

With 3 games to go that leaves us in 8th place with a massive 20 point gap between us and the relegation zone now which is massive, I'm really glad we've managed to pull away from there and solidify ourselves in mid-table. Just like almost everyone involved with the club my contract is up at the end of the season so hopefully we'll be offered a new deal in the near future as I'm loving live at Prestatyn and I'm very much looking forward to having a summer to build myself a whole new team.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Season 2021/22 - Youth Intake

On the face of things, this looks like a very good intake. We've got tons of players with 5 star potential but what you have to remember is we're in one of the worst leagues in the world, the staff are awful and their judging ability isn't that good so we have to take this with a pinch of salt.

However I will still be offering a lot of these guys contracts and hopefully we'll see a couple of them develop into decent players over the coming years.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 21/22 - New contract

As we expected the board have proposed a new contract and of course, I am going to accept it. I've only been here 8 months and I've got no reason to leave, I'm enjoying my time here so I'll enter negotiations with the club.

I tried to negotiate for a little bit more money but they were having none of it, I guess we'll have to stick to £160 p/w for now.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 21/22 - April/season review

We finish off the season with another unbeaten month which takes our unbeaten streak up to 11 games across 4 months. It's been a brilliant end to the season considering where we were when I first arrived I am very happy.

We finish the season in a very impressive 5th place which is absolutely brilliant, we've totally turned things around since I came in and it's been a brilliant start to my managerial career. 

During my time at Prestatyn so far I've played 22 games, won 11, drawn 8 and only lost 3 - one of which was our first game and another was a cup game. We've also pocketed £4.1k so far, not too bad for a semi professional football manager in 8 months! 

Looking forward to next season I'm nervous but also excited. Our whole squad will be leaving so we'll be building a squad from scratch, it could go well or it could be a total failure. 

We've been given a £400 wage increase which is very nice and also a little bit of transfer budget although it's very unlikely that it will be used.

I'm very much looking forward to season 2 of the save and my first full season at Prestatyn, thank you very much for following along. Before I go I'll leave you with the end of season review screenshots for you to read/look at if you so choose 

 

The goalkeeper we signed, Callum James, won signing of the season.

 

Take care and merry Christmas!

Follow me on Twitter!

 

Edited December 23, 2021 by BoxToBoxFM

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - Summer signings

We've made an absolute ton of new signings, so to avoid this being a really long post I'm not going to talk about very much of them, I'll post all the screenshots of them and you can have a look at them all. You'll notice a theme throughout these signings - they are all very very young!

Sam McClellen - free transfer

Tom Wilson - free transfer

Richard Robinson - free transfer

Owen Brain - free transfer

more screenshots will follow in the next post

[BoxToBoxFM]

Owen Brain - free transfer

Harry Wallis - free transfer

Joseph Perry - loan from Walsall 

more screenshots on the next post, I don't know why it's only letting me post a small amount of screenshots

Edited December 27, 2021 by BoxToBoxFM

[BoxToBoxFM]

Zack Maher - loan from Newport

Jake Bickerstaff - free transfer

Matt Sargent - free transfer

Cameron Lewis-Brown - free transfer

 

Edited December 27, 2021 by BoxToBoxFM

[BoxToBoxFM]

Cameron Lewis-Brown - free transfer

3 more loanees arrived on deadline day just to offer a bit more cover but since I can't post too many screenshots for some reason so I'll not bother showing you them. If during the season they emerge as first team players then I will show you their player profile.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - August/September

Due to the Qatar World Cup taking place this season we've had a very congested start to the season but that hasn't stopped us having a brilliant start to the campaign. We went unbeaten the whole of August and played some brilliant football at times, September started a little rough but we've sorted that out and went on to win 4 games in a row. We've also got ourselves into the League Cup quarter finals which will be coming up next month.

We currently find ourselves top of the league just as the media predicted, 1 point ahead of Colwyn Bay. We're just over a third into the season and it's clear the title race is going to go right down to the wire, Colwyn and Gresford are breathing heavily down our necks.

We're going to need to keep this up as well because the board are expecting me to win the league so failure to do so may result in me getting the sack, there's no room for mistakes this season.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - October

Well October has come and gone and it's mostly been pretty good. We managed to book a place in the League Cup semi finals where we'll be playing Cardiff Met Uni but then in the final game of the month we fell to defeat for only the second time all season. I'm hoping that it's the usual FM thing where when you have a big cup game on the horizon league form goes out the window but only time will tell. 

Due to this defeat we've actually dropped down to second in the league, two points behind Colwyn. We actually play Colwyn Bay just after the World Cup game so that is going to be massive.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - Youth intake preview

Our annual intake preview has arrived and it looks decent, I don't think it will be as good as last season's intake but you can't get a good one every year. You never know though, we may be surprised. It's annoying some of the better players in this intake look like they'll be wingers and we don't play with wingers so I might have to look at training them into full backs or centre midfielders.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - November - January

Form was much better over the course of January than previous months. We're through to the Welsh Cup quarter finals and in December we managed to get a run all the way to the league cup semis, where we lost to Premier side Cardiff Met Uni. This was very disappointing as we were 2-0 up the whole game, then they went and scored in the 90th and 92nd minute to take it to penalties where we just crumbled really.

New signing

Jack Degruchy was recalled from his loan which meant we needed a replacement and I think we've massively upgraded. Lahtinen comes in on loan for 6 monthd from Leyton Orient and has already got a goal from his first 3 games, I'm very excited to see how he does - 18 flair in the Welsh second division is going to be very interesting!

As it stands we sit top of the tree by 2 points and we play Colwyn Bay, the team in second, in the very next match. It's going to be a crucial crucial game that we have to make sure we at least don't lose!

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - Youth intake

Well this has been an awful youth intake. Nothing compared to last season, I might take a couple of them but don't expect many of them to break into the first team.

I realise it's been a while since the last league update, I've just been playing on and have forgot to share it over here so what I'll do is as there's only 3 games left I'll do a big update at the end of the season

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - February/March/April

The season is over and my word have we nothing short of sensational in these last couple months. We've won every single league game with ease and the only game we lost was in the Welsh Cup Semi Final. This was disappointing as our opposition play at the same level as us and the team they played in the final were also at the same level so we could have won a shock Welsh Cup but it wasn't to be.

As expected we did win the league and it was by an absolute landslide, Colywyn Bay totally fell off at the end of the season. It's no less than we deserved, we only lost 2 games and conceded just 15 goals which is very impressive and shows just how much we deserved this title and our promotion to the Cymru Premier. 

We've had a massive increase in the wage budget, almost doubled in fact. Obviously no transfer budget but that's to be expected, however this wage budget should be more than enough to bring in a couple new players. I'm not actually looking to do too much business, I want to give these boys who got us here a chance in the Premier League, the majority are all top flight level players so hopefully if we can bring in a couple more of the same quality I think we'll be fine. 

That brings us to the end of season 2, thank you very much for reading. It's more than likely we'll still be at Prestatyn next season but if not I will keep you updated, I'm loving it here at the moment so unless there's a real reason to move then I won't be - it's going to have to be a big increase in wages. 

Happy new year and I'll see you for season 3 in the coming days!🥂

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 22/23 - New contract

I've put an end to the speculation and have signed a new one year contract at the club on £220 a week. As I said last time I'm happy to stay at the club so signing this contract all but confirms I'll be staying at the club for this summer at least. 

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - Summer transfers

It's been a while since I last updated this save and I've been playing this save a lot - I'm almost at the January transfer window already and I've not even showed you our summer signings! So that's exactly what I'm going to do today. It will probably take quite a few posts because there's a limit on how much each post can store on the forums and there's quite a lot of new players. No less than 10, in fact!

So sit back, relax, and let's meet these new recruits!

Oliver Swan - free transfer

We really needed another goalkeeper as I wasn't confident Callum James would make the step up to the Cymru Premier. Swan had a bit of a rocky start when he first arrived but in recent times he's picked himself up and has managed to keep 6 clean sheets in the league so far and even picked up an assist. You could say it's not gone swimmingly for him so far...moving on...

Brody Paterson - free transfer

I've really struggled bringing in a left back this summer and we only have one at the club in Paterson. He looks decent, he won't light the league up but I think he'll do a job for this season at least and he's got some nice potential for him to develop into.

Connor Teale - free transfer

I always like having 3 centre backs in the squad, 4 if I can afford it and coming into the summer we only had 2. Connor's played a couple games so far this season and I'm really not sure on him, he probably won't be resigned for next season but I think he'll act as a solid cover option this year.

 

 

[BoxToBoxFM]

Sam Packham - loan from Connah's Quay 

One of 2 right backs brought in this summer, he originally came in to start but he's been relegated to backup at the moment thanks to the arrival of the next player you're going to meet.

Daniel Lake - loan from Accrington Stanley (who are they?)

Our starting right back for the moment, he's not the best but he's only 18 so I'm hoping that with first team football he'll develop quite a lot. He also has the added bonus of being a regen which sends him way up the pecking order.

Eliot Jenks - free transfer

Our starting midfield trio remain the same from last season as there's no reason to replace them but we did need a few backups and Jenks comes in as a backup/secondary option in the mezzala role.

 

 

[BoxToBoxFM]

Luigi Gaspar - free transfer

We've signed an actual real Brazilian! He actually looks pretty decent as well, he can slot in mainly at the ball winning midfielder role but he can also do a job as a mezzala as well. 

Finley Thorndike - free transfer

This is probably our best signing this season, we weren't able to get Lahtinen back for another year but we've got ourselves a very good player here - I just need to start playing him a bit more!

Douglas James-Taylor - loan from Stoke

I struggled to bring in a permanent striker this summer so had to result in loans, Taylor started slow but has been picking it up in recent games.

 

 

[BoxToBoxFM]

Glen Sani - loan from Hull

Our final signing, I've not been too impressed so far - just the 2 goals, was hoping for better but still plenty time for him to turn things around. 

So that's the signings out the way, let's talk about tactics quickly!

We're still rocking the same 4321 control possession, it's working so why fix it? 

The media predict us to finish 5th which I would be very happy with, let's see if we can go achieve it!

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - 1st half of season results

It's been a very good start to the season, we've only lost 4 games so far in the Cymru Premier. A massive highlight has to be beating Bangor and TNS back to back, the media predicted them to finish second and first respectively. We're also into the semi finals of the league cup for the second season in a row where we'll be playing Aberystwyth Town - our Welsh Cup semi final opponents last season. 

That leaves us in a very respectable 4th place and if we win our game in hand we will go up to 3rd. TNS are nowhere to be seen at the moment, struggling down in 6th and have already lost 5 games - 1 more than they lost in the entirety of last season!

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - End of regular season

All in all it's been a very good couple of months in what's turning out to be a successful season. We managed to beat TNS yet again so we've done the double over them in the regular season which is pretty special. Sadly we went out of the Welsh League Cup on penalties for the second season in a row and the team who put us out are the team who put us out of the Welsh Cup last season in the semis. I'm starting to notice we're bottling the big games in the cups and we've yet to win a penalty shootout in this save which is worrying, we'll have to keep an eye on that.

Moving into the Championship group I'm very happy with how things are going, even if we don't get European football (which I'm still not expecting to) it will still have been a very good season. 

So now we play all the other teams in the Championship group twice, let's see if we really can secure a top 3 place - this is where the best teams really do emerge from the pack!

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - Youth intake

Our youth intake has arrived and it's not great in all honesty, the top two players could be half decent players in the future so I'll be offering them both deals but I'm not expecting anything from the rest of them. Quite poor overall but I'm not too surprised considering the Cymru Premier isn't the most reputable league in the world.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - Welsh Cup semis

I wouldn't normally come back midway through a month but I just had to for this, we've made the Welsh Cup final!

After three consecutive semi final defeats in the Welsh Cup and league cup this feels so good, I feel like i've earned it. Let's hope we enjoy our first final come the end of the season!

TNS are in the other semi finals...

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - New contract

I've put pen to paper on a one year deal to stay on at the club for the 2024/25 season, there's a small chance we can qualify for Europe and I want to be the manager who takes the club into Europe for the first time if we get there. 

I've bagged a slight pay rise as well up from £220 p/w which is nice, but it may well be my last contract at Prestatyn - if we do well next season I'd hope a few clubs would start to think about potentially hiring me. Only time will tell though but for now, my full focus is on Prestatyn Town.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - The championship group

We didn't start the Championship Conference off that well, we were beaten by Cardiff Met Uni and TNS in the first month but we did manage to pick up massive wins against Bala and Aberystwyth. In March we drew all three league games which was very frustrating, the draw against Bangor was a decent result but we have to be beating Aberystwyth considering they came up with us. 

We also managed to get to the Welsh Cup final, on the 4th time of asking we've finally made it to a cup final and I'm so glad we've finally broke our curse. We'll be playing TNS in the final, but more on that later. We beat Bala and TNS in the league and went into the final game against league champions Bangor knowing we had to win if we wanted European football, but it wasn't to be.

However, we did have a bit of a lifeline - if we win the Welsh Cup final, we'll also get European football...

But again, we've fallen at the last hurdle. We were outclassed on the day and TNS were deserved winners, there's not really much else to say on that.

So here's the final league table, I'm very happy with a third place finish in our first season. Hopefully we can build on that next year and maybe secure some form of continental football? Or maybe we'll have a new job? Only time will tell!

BUT WAIT...

What's this?! 

There's some sort of tournament between 3rd - 6th to decide who gets a European place, I think?

Honestly I'm so confused, I think there might actually be more than one European spot up for grabs in this mini tournament but honestly I'm not sure. Here's how it seems to work, we enter in at the semi finals so I'll be back to report on that probably once the tournament is over!

Answers on a postcard...

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/25 - Budgets

The board have given me our budgets for this season and obviously we've got no transfer budget but we have got roughly a £1k increase in the wage budget which should help us in attracting some top players into the club 

[wepj88]

Congrats mate, you're bossing it. I'm doing the journeyman challenge (though I cheated and gave myself a National C licence), ended up getting the job at Cefn Druids who are in the JD Cymru Premier.  Currently 8th and have ended up in the PlayOff Conference (so I guess that means the highest we can finish is 7th? Even though we're only 4 points behind 4th. The players I've brought in have been average at best, Goalie is posting is a 6.9 which is the best of the bunch. The loans I've brought in haven't done much better apart from the striker who has 6 goals in 17 games but a 7.13 rating. At least the loans are free!

Overspent the budget so I expect I'll be sacked in the summer, also convinced the team to turn professional during the job interview (no idea if that was a good move or not!)

[BoxToBoxFM]

6 hours ago, wepj88 said:

Congrats mate, you're bossing it. I'm doing the journeyman challenge (though I cheated and gave myself a National C licence), ended up getting the job at Cefn Druids who are in the JD Cymru Premier.  Currently 8th and have ended up in the PlayOff Conference (so I guess that means the highest we can finish is 7th? Even though we're only 4 points behind 4th. The players I've brought in have been average at best, Goalie is posting is a 6.9 which is the best of the bunch. The loans I've brought in haven't done much better apart from the striker who has 6 goals in 17 games but a 7.13 rating. At least the loans are free!

Overspent the budget so I expect I'll be sacked in the summer, also convinced the team to turn professional during the job interview (no idea if that was a good move or not!)

If anything I bet giving yourself a coaching badge is more realistic as nobody applies for a managerial job without any badges! I kept a decent amount of my squad from the promotion season and it's worked out fine, struggled for goals a bit up front but the midfield made up for that. Hopefully with a couple new signings I can push on for Europe next season or maybe even rustle a few feathers at the top of the league.

That is if I'm still here!

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 23/24 - European playoff

We managed to get to the final of the European places playoff, but for the third time this season we've bottled Europe.

And of course, Bala had 1 shot on target. Typical FM!

What is frustrating is Bala somehow beat TNS in the semi finals thanks to an 89th minute winner and if we had played TNS in the final we'd have been guaranteed Europe either way as TNS have already secured Europe through beating us in the Welsh Cup final.

Overall it's been a positive season and I'm very happy with how our first season in the Cymru Premier has gone. Hopefully next season with a few new additions we can secure a European spot but I will also be on the lookout for jobs in the summer, preferably in Scotland. I won't be resigning because based on my rules I'm not going to quit a job where I'm happy, it's going well and I'm earning decent money.

Of course I'll let you know if anything interesting happens but that's all for season 3, I'll be bringing season 4 to you very soon!

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on Twitter

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 24/25 - Summer transfers

One player was released coming into this summer and that was Matt Sergent, he was our ball-winning midfielder in the tactic last season and did alright, but wasn't anything special so hopefully we won't miss him too much.

Eliot Jenks - loan from Torquay

I sold Jenks to Torquay at the end of last season on a deal where he would leave once his contract was up but what I didn't realise was I agreed to loan him back for this season. He was decent last season, we know what we're getting and it's a relatively risk - free transfer.

Arron Darge - free transfer

Meet our new centre back and new best player at the club! I'm hoping for big things for this guy and at 21 he's only going to get better, I'm very excited to see how he does this season!

Daniel Lake - loan from Accrington 

Another player returning for a second season at the Bastion Gardens is Daniel Lake, he'll be our first choice RB all season so hopefully we see a decent return from him. 

Harry Wood - free transfer

A new midfielder joins the club in the form of Harry Wood, he looks alright but don't expect him to tear things up.

 

[BoxToBoxFM]

Daniel Kanu - free transfer

One of two strikers signed this summer and although he's maybe one for the future I think he'll get a lot of minutes this season. It will be off the bench to start with but if he starts scoring a couple of goals he may push into the first team.

James Taylor - free transfer

Despite being younger than Kanu I think he looks a lot better, and before you say it's not Douglas James Taylor from last season, It's just James Taylor! He scored a hatrick on his debut in the cup and I have to say I'm very excited about what he has to offer over this season and potentially future seasons as well. 

Seb Quirk - free transfer

Right back is a position I've struggled to sign this season so we've kind of panic signed Seb here, but I'm hopeful when called upon he will do a job.

Tactics

We'll be going into the season using the same tactic as last year and again, nothing has changed. It's been working so far, so why change it!

Pre-season has largely been a success, we played 4 games and managed to win all but 1 and didn't lose in any of them. Hopefully we can carry this form into the start of the season!

[wepj88]

How do you manage your scouting at this level? I've made some great loan signings but then some duds too, basically because I've got no detail on the players (At least their club pays the wages!). I managed to win back to back Welsh cups with Cefn Druids and finished 2nd to TNS in my second season. Managed to get to the 2nd qualifying round of the Euro Conference twice, knocked out after extra time both times!

 

James Taylor looks good, if he was a bit taller I imagine he'd totally dominate at this level.

Edited January 21, 2022 by wepj88

[BoxToBoxFM]

1 hour ago, wepj88 said:

How do you manage your scouting at this level? I've made some great loan signings but then some duds too, basically because I've got no detail on the players (At least their club pays the wages!). I managed to win back to back Welsh cups with Cefn Druids and finished 2nd to TNS in my second season. Managed to get to the 2nd qualifying round of the Euro Conference twice, knocked out after extra time both times!

 

James Taylor looks good, if he was a bit taller I imagine he'd totally dominate at this level.

At this level I hardly even touch the scouting page. All throughout the summer I'm constantly asking my director of football for free transfers and then bringing them in on 2 week trials so I can see all their attributes, that's where the majority of the signings come from. The loans are basically panic signings and I just take a punt on them really and hope they are good because I can't afford to go scout them. 

Winning back to back Welsh Cups is pretty impressive, finances must be looking decent with European football as well!

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 24/25 - Deadline day signing

David Heffernan - loan from Oxford

We still never managed to bring in a permanent back up left back so we had to take a risk on a loan. He's not great, but hopefully he does the job up until January at least, but we've got him here until the end of the season if he's needed.

[wepj88]

13 hours ago, BoxToBoxFM said:

At this level I hardly even touch the scouting page. All throughout the summer I'm constantly asking my director of football for free transfers and then bringing them in on 2 week trials so I can see all their attributes, that's where the majority of the signings come from. The loans are basically panic signings and I just take a punt on them really and hope they are good because I can't afford to go scout them. 

Winning back to back Welsh Cups is pretty impressive, finances must be looking decent with European football as well!

I do exactly the same! I'm in my third season now so my scouts have gotten better so I'm getting a little bit of detail on some players. Panic loaned 3 strikers as my star pairing from last year have both moved on, all 3 look decent but not the two studs I had last year. Brought in Charlie Savage from Man United on a free so expecting him to boss my midfield all season. Finances are good though I wish they'd increase the wage budget when I requested rather than just the Youth facilities.

Edited January 22, 2022 by wepj88

[BoxToBoxFM]

6 hours ago, wepj88 said:

I do exactly the same! I'm in my third season now so my scouts have gotten better so I'm getting a little bit of detail on some players. Panic loaned 3 strikers as my star pairing from last year have both moved on, all 3 look decent but not the two studs I had last year. Brought in Charlie Savage from Man United on a free so expecting him to boss my midfield all season. Finances are good though I wish they'd increase the wage budget when I requested rather than just the Youth facilities.

Savage is a great signing!

I'm starting to feel it's time to move on from Prestatyn, taken them as far as I can and we've not made the best starts to the season. Will definitely be keeping my eye on the job centre over the next few months

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 24/25 - August/September

Well, it's not been a great start.

We actually won our first couple games but then went on to lose against Newtown and Aberystwyth, both games I really felt we should have been winning. Although we then beat Cefn Druids and Bala we didn't look good in either of them and struggled to create any chances. The defeat to Bala was awful and the Haverfordwest draw, despite having ten men, was embarrassing as they are bottom of the league and really felt like a defeat.

That leaves us in 5th place which isn't great but it is early doors so there's still plenty time to turn it round. I am seriously starting to think about leaving soon and have been keeping my eye out for potential next steps. There's nothing much available at the moment so I'm probably not going to apply for anything at the moment and I definitely won't be resigning because going with my rules, it's not something I'd do in real life.

However if things start to get worse and I'm in danger of getting sacked it may well be the only option.

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 24/25 - Job interview

We've had our first job interview at Prestatyn and it's from Carlisle!

This is an interesting one, they currently sit 22nd in League 2 after 16 games. I'm a bit concerned by the fact I've been offered an interview because they think I'd be a good fit for their scaled back vision for the future, but I'll attend and see what else they tell me. 

I shall report back in due course!

[wepj88]

Nice! After applying for loads of jobs I eventually got offered the Chesterfield job in the VNL. They were 10th by the time I took over and are expecting me to win the league . I've had a good starts with 6 wins 1 draw a 2 defeats but they'll have to settle for the playoffs. My new striker I brought in on a free scored 2 on debut and then broke his leg in training .

[BoxToBoxFM]

On 24/01/2022 at 16:27, wepj88 said:

Nice! After applying for loads of jobs I eventually got offered the Chesterfield job in the VNL. They were 10th by the time I took over and are expecting me to win the league . I've had a good starts with 6 wins 1 draw a 2 defeats but they'll have to settle for the playoffs. My new striker I brought in on a free scored 2 on debut and then broke his leg in training .

I had a very similar situation, got an interview at Dundee United who were 9th in the Scottish Championship and it was expected that if I got the job I would win the league!

[BoxToBoxFM]

Prestatyn Town 24/25 - October/November

I'll get the big news out the way, we didn't get the Carlisle job and I also had an interview at Dundee United but didn't get that either.

October saw us winless and I was really starting to fear for my job - we were sliding further and further down the league table, getting knocked out of the League Cup in the process. November however, saw us finally win a couple games! We were terrible against Aberystwyth but either side of that we played pretty well. We also one our first game of December against Bala (forgot to update over here before playing!)

After 16 games we're up to third in the league, things are very tight but at least we're back in the top half!