[FM23] Wrexham AFC - Hollywood meets North Wales

[KillYourIdols]

15 hours ago, ashlfcowen said:

Wish me luck.

Nice Work. Lets us know the Result. Be interested to see your Squad too.

[ashlfcowen]

7 hours ago, KillYourIdols said:

Nice Work. Lets us know the Result. Be interested to see your Squad too.

We finished 3rd, but won promotion via the playoffs!

I'll update you tomorrow with how things have gone up to now.

[stevemc]

Wrexham: Season 1 (22/23) - Complete

Previous post^^

Season 1 done, took me longer than planned as life's been so busy, but finished up last night.

 

Vanarama National League:

Dominated the league as most have, 119 points, 132 goals scored - would have been more but played youth in the last 6 games to give them a run out.

Paul Mullin is a cheat, 42 league goals in total with 52 in 50 games overall.

I'd advise everyone to pick up Adam Wharton on loan too from Blackburn, he's a top player at this level in central midfield.

 

Emirates FA Cup:

FA Cup run wasn't great, I was a little disappointed to draw Sheffield Wednesday (A) in Second Round, was hoping to make the Third round at least - we took the lead and looked good before Matt Smith bullied us

 

Isuzu FA Trophy:

Again, disappointed exiting another cup early, this time to Torquay (A) in the fourth round - I actually thought we were good for a win, but wasn't to be.

 

Season Review:

 

As we move up into League Two, we have some very good players however there are a lot of issues I'd like to address;

> The Goalkeepers are not great, we need a a new number 1

> Starting fullbacks need addressing

> A new partner at CB for Tom Anderson

> Need a stronger set-piece delivery expert to maximise corners & free-kick situations

> Add 2x wingers/inside forwards to allow me to play my second tactic more often

> I want to change the personality of the team, bringing in more determined/professional players with better teamwork, pace & stamina

We currently have a budget of £130,000k plus around £25k in wages available to achieve this and I've just accepted a bid of £170,000 for Ryan Cassidy whilst trying to shop off a couple of fringe players. Also looking for a senior affiliate for some loan players.

 

Next post…

Edited November 27, 2022 by stevemc

[stevemc]

If you make it into League Two in season two, then loan a striker called Evan Ferguson, my God, he's that good he's benching Paul Mullin  

[stevemc]

Wrexham: Season 2 (23/24) - Start

Previous post^^

Much busier window than I expected, started off slow when a number of my top targets chose other clubs but cracked it when I got 3x important loans done in five days: Bellingham, McAtee and Ferguson.

Decided there was enough quality available on a free and loans, so avoided spending any money at all, so finances are healthy too. Also helped by selling a couple of players I picked up last season like, Ryan Cassidy (signed for free, sold for £130,000), John Bostock (signed for free, sold for £50,000), Joe Hilton (signed for £3,000, sold for £51,000) and Mungo Bridge (signed for free, sold for £120,000) plus some loan fees for three talented youngsters I picked up from the Premier League release list.

Mungo Bridge I'd highly recommend picking up in season one, I only sold him as I was offered good money after he broke his leg and was out for 9 months, which hampered him.

For this season, Sean Morrison came in to partner Tom Anderson at centre back, both leaders with good determination giving us a sold base to build from with Nathan Smith arriving as third choice. Matt Penney and Adam Lewis arrived for left back, replacing Mungo Bridge and Callum McFadzean (who seemed to have an amazing ability for giving possession away). Right-back is still an issue, but Harry Clarke will provide cover this season. Allan McGregor came in for one season to play back-up to number one Jamal Blackman. In midfield we added Ethan Hamilton and Josh Scowen plus the loan arrivals of Jobe Bellingham and James McAtee. Finally Lyle Taylor and Evan Ferguson (loan) complete the attack.

One week trials at these levels are amazing too  

I like a big squad, so this will offer me more freedom to switch between my 4-4-2 diamond and 4-2-3-1 inside forward tactics, depending opposition.

 

We also had a decent youth intake, with Paul Davies being the stand-out prospect, in a position we were lacking in too, so he's training and being mentored with the senior team and will get a few minutes throughout the season. Determined charactered with 18 determination, (16 flair a bonus!) - love to see it  

 

That leaves the squad looking like this, as I look for instant promotion from League Two in to League One:

 

I've also made some improvement to the youth facilities, and set-up a Senior Affiliate with Aston Villa.

We're currently in October, sitting top after 9 games:

 

And in the Papa John's Trophy, this is our group:

 

Next post...

Edited December 7, 2022 by stevemc

[ashlfcowen]

Lovely stuff Steve. Seems you're on a great trajectory.

 

We finished our 1st season in the Premier League 14th. It was hard and not much fun to play through as we got battered, a lot.

 

Will get an update soon, I've been really busy away from FM.

[ashlfcowen]

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

So - we had back to back promotions to the Championship, where we spent 2 seasons. I did post above that we managed to get promoted via the Playoffs.

Our first season in the Premier League was a painful one. We moved away from our 'chase them down, win it back and control possession' to a more direct style of plain in the hope of utilising our AF and IF more. It kinda worked, because we finished 14th but wow it was painful to watch (as our GD will tell you...)

Just before the start of our 2nd season, Ryan and Rob basically said they wanted us to go back to the style that did so well for us climbing the leagues.

And, after reading @MattyLewis11's brilliant thread here it inspired me to try his tactic. I think this might be the first tactic I have ever downloaded playing any FM series but it just felt like it fitted my players like a glove and I'm excited to watch the team to play. 

We still lack the necessary quality technically, but off the ball we are value for money in that mid block .. as you can see from these stats:

We only really have two players hovering around the first team since we started this save...

Whether they have the quality to start for our first team in the next couple of years is yet to be decided, but I think Jones has the best chance. He still has plenty of room to develop.

The facilities are certainly there for them to!

[ashlfcowen]

.... we're massively overachieving.

[stevemc]

What a result and comeback in the fifth round of the FA Cup

[ashlfcowen]

12 hours ago, stevemc said:

What a result and comeback in the fifth round of the FA Cup

Brilliant. Surprising how much money you get for good cup runs the lower down you are.

[ashlfcowen]

After just our 2nd season in the Premier we've managed to get Champions League football!
 

[stevemc]

 

Won League One with 9 games to spare and the Wrexham board pumped some money in but dropped my wage budget significantly and put my transfer budget to £0 (despite me having built up around £400,000 over two seasons).

However, Reading have a few quid, and have approached me to start at the end of the season - there's a good chance they'll be relegated from the Championship too and be a League One team next season.

Very tempted to move...

Edited December 1, 2022 by stevemc

[KillYourIdols]

I've been offered 4-5 Jobs Now, Including Championship Forest, Palace and also Reading, but I KEEP staying with Wrexham. I Really want to go all out with some decent Money and Players, but not getting to the Prem with them seems like bailing out Currenly 3 back to back promotions and in the Championship, got £350k Transfer Budget

[stevemc]

1 hour ago, KillYourIdols said:

I've been offered 4-5 Jobs Now, Including Championship Forest, Palace and also Reading, but I KEEP staying with Wrexham. I Really want to go all out with some decent Money and Players, but not getting to the Prem with them seems like bailing out Currenly 3 back to back promotions and in the Championship, got £350k Transfer Budget

I'm in that same boat, feels like I'm letting them down - I've delayed it for now but I'll review in the Summer  

[stevemc]

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be,

We're going to Wembley

Que sera, sera..

 

[KillYourIdols]

33 minutes ago, stevemc said:

Que sera, sera

Whatever will be, will be,

We're going to Wembley

Que sera, sera..

 

Nice work. And I was chuffed with the PJT 

 

How's Harry Clarke doing for you?

[stevemc]

1 hour ago, KillYourIdols said:

Nice work. And I was chuffed with the PJT 

 

How's Harry Clarke doing for you?

He's only broke through since November, but he's really solid for me, number one right-back now.

[stevemc]

Wrexham: Season 2 (23/24) - Complete

Previous post^^

Season 2 done, very good season overall.

 

League Two:

Dominated the league as most have, 122 points, 132 goals scored (same as last season) - losing just two games

Paul Mullin was excellent again but shout out to Evan Ferguson (33 goals in 29 games) and Jahmal Hector-Ingram (19 goals from 37 games).

All three loan signings were superb too; Jobe Bellingham, James McAtee and Evan Ferguson. In January I managed to pick up Steve Cook who was amazing for this level but he since broke his leg and retired on me.

 

Emirates FA Cup:

FA Cup run was amazing, making the semi-finals at Wembley, even taking the lead against Chelsea, and VAR disallowing an equaliser for 3-3 but lost 4-2 in the end.

Round One: Lincoln City (A) 0-3

Round Two: Newport County (H) 3-0

Round Three: Walsall (H) 6-3

Round Four: Blackburn Rovers (H) 2-1

Round Five: Nottingham Forest (A) 1-2

Quarter-final: Brentford (H) 2-1

Semi-Final: Chelsea (N) 4-2

We made roughly £1.4m in prize money I believe too, for that cup run.

 

Papa John's Trophy:

We topped our group fairly easily:

 

But struggled in the knock-outs, we made it past Tranmere Rovers in the second round (3-1) but then Manchester United's kids done us 5-2 and knocked us out:

 

Carabao Cup:

Less said about this the better Knocked out in round one away at Oxford United (p).

 

Season Review:

 

I'm at a point now where I might actually leave, I'm genuinely on the fence; back-to-back promotions and a semi-final FA cup run deserves more money to play with in League One that the £0 they've put forward. Wrexham board pumped some money in but dropped my wage budget significantly and put my transfer budget to £0 - despite me having built up around £400,000 over two seasons in transfers OUT, that's not taking into account the £1.4m from the FA Cup run. So I'm a bit peeved about that.

I rejected Reading in the end, but we'll see what happens this summer...

Next post...

Edited December 7, 2022 by stevemc

[stevemc]

Wrexham: Season 3 (24/25) - Start (League One)

Previous post^^

Decided to stay (at least for another season) - I leaked to the press that the board were being tight with money and they released some funds  Which is absolutely fair after I spent the back end of last season preparing for League One by stripping the squad to raise funds for a rebuild:

 

Armed with some decent leeway on money and wages I set about re-building the team for League One. The only transfer fee I actually spend was on 18-year-old  Sam Curtis who looks likes a very talented right-back for £450,000, who could probably play a role all the way up to the Premier League or at the very least I'll make more back if he's sold further down the line. Endrick arrived on loan because Brighton wouldn't re-loan me Evan Ferguson for a second year but I did manage to get James McAtee and Jobe Bellingham back for a second year. Anthony Knockaert will go down as the worst piece of business in the clubs history after he last 24 minutes on his debut before coming off with a 6 month injury and I can't terminate the loan  So Dario Sarmiento came in on deadline day to replace him.

 

That leaves the squad looking like this, as I look for instant promotion from League One in to the Championship:

 

I've also made some more improvements to the youth and training facilities, and set-up a Senior Affiliate with Manchester City which so far has been pointless.

We're currently in October, sitting top after 8 games:

 

And in the Papa John's Trophy, this is our group:

 

Next post...

Edited December 20, 2022 by stevemc

[BartleyGreenBaggie]

Enjoying playing as Wrexham - currently top of league two in the second season - got to January and I was very surprised to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic was at the top of my player search as being available and interested. So I now have 42 year old Zlaton on 1300£ a week leading the line until the end of the season.

[stevemc]

1 hour ago, BartleyGreenBaggie said:

Enjoying playing as Wrexham - currently top of league two in the second season - got to January and I was very surprised to see Zlatan Ibrahimovic was at the top of my player search as being available and interested. So I now have 42 year old Zlaton on 1300£ a week leading the line until the end of the season.

Love that, I very nearly did the same with Arturo Vidal  

[stevemc]

Wrexham: Season 3 (24/25) - Complete (League One)

Previous post^^

Season 3 done, very good season overall again - DOUBLE WINNERS!!

 

League One:

Dominated the league, 121 points, 138 goals scored this time - losing just three games

Paul Mullin was excellent again but shout out to Endrick (38 goals in 41 games), so good I've extended his loan again, this time with an £18m option-to-buy just incase I make it to the Premier League    Similar story with James McAtee, extended his loan again for a third season.

Picked up Teden Mengi on a free part way through the season, highly recommend him.

 

Emirates FA Cup:

FA Cup run wasn't as good as last season, but no shame in losing 2-1 away at Tottenham.

Round One: Barnsley (H) 4-1

Round Two: Salford City (H) 2-0

Round Three: Carlilse United (H) 4-0

Round Four: Tottenham (H) 2-1

 

Papa John's Trophy:

We topped our group:

 

And smashed the knockouts, ended up winning very comfortably after knocking out Brighton u21s and West Ham u21s in the later rounds  

 

Carabao Cup:

Solid run the quarter-finals, after a pretty simple run of games against Huddersfield Town, Salford City, Barnsley and Luton but Manchester United were obviously too much for us:

 

Season Review:

And some financials...

 

I'm still keeping an eye out for jobs but I've had a couple of wacky bids already for a few of my players; Jahmal Hector-Ingram for £1.2m, Rob Atkinson for £500k, Matt Penney for £1.1m. Harry Clarke for £325k, Ethan Hamilton for £325k and Arthur Okonkwo for £325k too.

But the biggest is £3.5m for Demarai Gray - don't get me wrong, he was brilliant last season but that's great money for his standard. So that should leave me with around £55k in wages and a massive £8.1m transfer budget...

Next post...

Edited December 20, 2022 by stevemc

[stevemc]

Start of season 4 now, struggling to identify some real quality additions, I could sign plenty of "decent" Championship players but I'm looking for a bit more - I'm not content with decent  Scouts are not really bringing back viable options either (like players with wage requests over £20,000p/w, transfer fee's over £6m etc)  - loan market has gone wild too, every club wants silly money/fees for loaning players, it seems.

So if anyone has any decent suggestions, hit me up  

[stevemc]

Wrexham: Season 4 (25/26) - Start (Championship)

Previous post^^

I mentioned in the previous post that after the League One season finished, I got some very good offers for a number of my players so decided to cash in which boosted my transfer kitty to £8-9m, which is good, although dwarfed by the likes of newly-relegated Watford spending £50m in the Championship

With a job on my hands trying to sign top-level Championship quality, most my targets choosing other clubs, my scouts throwing up odd options, I decided to manually scout to find some gems - since this I've completely re-done my scouting set-up, bringing in 10 scouts and setting them up better.

For goalkeepers, I picked Jakub Stolarczyk in January for £300k from Leicester City after a falling out with Jamal Blackman, this summer I added Nicolás Rossi for £80k to add real number 1 competition and Marwin Hitz on a free for a year as third choice.

In defence, I added Welsh international Ben Cabango for £375k, John Souttar for £375k and Shane Flynn as new left-back for £325k from Leicester City. Levi Colwill arrived on deadline day where I managed to get his daft wage demands down too. Finally, added some young newgens too Ahmet Savatović (free) and Nathan Mitchell (£525k).

In midfield I settled on Liam Henderson on a pre-contract, Gerald Távara on a free from Monaco (who has amazing set-pieces for this level), Tommy Doyle but as his wage demands we're insane all window, but got him down to £15k p/w on deadline day, Telmo Arcanjo on loan with a £2m option-to-buy, which looks a steal and Matty Longstaff on a free for depth.

Wingers and strikers were strengthened with the arrivals of fan-favourite Evan Ferguson returning on loan, along with fellow returning-loanees James McAtee and Endrick, whom I've managed to insert an £18m option-to-buy if I make it to the Premier League  Stipe Biuk also arrived on loan with a £9m option-to-buy. Sebastiano Esposito completed the reinforcements, on a free transfer.

Deadline Day was scary,with 6 hours to go both Watford & Brighton bid Sam Curtis £2.1m release clause, which would have been a disaster at that point in time (as he's my only right-back and he's quality), however he signed a new deal, absolutely bent me over on a contact, which wounded me but he's now resigned with a £7.2m release clause.

 

That leaves the squad looking like this, as I look for an ambitious instant promotion from the Championship in to the Premier League, working under one of the lowest wage budgets in the division:

 

I've also made some more improvements to the youth (great) and training (great) facilities but our youth coaching and recruitment is now at exceptional, and the stadium is being expanded by 3,000 seats.

We're currently in October, sitting top after 8 games:

 

Next post...

Edited January 8, 2023 by stevemc

[pedromanuelpinto]

Hi,

When should be ideal to renew with Mullin. I'm at the end of the first season and have a lot of people interested in him.

Were able to avoid the release clause?

 

[stevemc]

8 hours ago, pedromanuelpinto said:

Hi,

When should be ideal to renew with Mullin. I'm at the end of the first season and have a lot of people interested in him.

Were able to avoid the release clause?

 

I avoided the release clause (just add it then click remove and exclude), he's still banging them in at Championship level now so personally I wouldn't sell him. Add the clause in for a contract extension upon promotion.

[stevemc]

Wrexham: Season 4 (25/26) - Complete (Championship)

Previous post^^

Season 4 done, very good season overall again - CHAMPIONS!

 

Championship:

Topped the league with 109 points, 115 goals scored this time - losing five games, but that doesn't tell the whole story. We were hovering around 6th up until January, due to an injury crisis which saw 9 first team players injured for up to 3 months, with Paul Mullin being the worst with a broken leg. This forced me into the transfer market to pick up Marcos Alonso on a free, another goalkeeper in the shape of newgen Dani Mora (£2m), and two new strikers, Jan Hurtado (£300k) and newgen Emiliano Zeballos (£475k). All these injuries forced me into changing my formation & tactics three times during the season to accommodate the options I had available at the time.

Emiliano Zeballos was insane, scoring 26 goals in 21 games:

 

Dani Mora - Model Citizen 18-year-old goalkeeper:

 

We kicked on from January on an amazing run, not losing a single game - including beating rivals Watford and Everton. Endrick again the star player.

 

 

 

Emirates FA Cup:

FA Cup run was non-existent, mainly due to me resting the whole starting eleven for the visit of Crystal Palace and poor scheduling has us playing Watford just 48 hours later:

Round Three: Mansfield Town (H) 4-0

Round Four: Crystal Palace (H) 0-3

 

Carabao Cup:

Average run to the third round where Chelsea put us out:

 

Season Review:

 

With an initial budget set at £29m, I'm going to have to do some wheeling and dealing. I've already activated Telmo Arcanjo £2m loan clause as he's been brilliant, I have an option on James McAtee but he's leaving City on a free so I'll try for him too. Endrick will be my priority as I have an £18.5m loan option on him and although Stipe Biuk has been excellent, I might be able to find better value in the market than exercising his £9m loan fee.

 

The career continues with Newcastle United...

Edited December 28, 2022 by stevemc

[Raymubdo21]

Just started my save with the Wrexham boys, looking forward to giving this a long term run and seeing what fun can be had. Enjoyed reading all the posts here so far, lots of progress!

[stevemc]

Having got Wrexham to the Premier League, the board just wouldn't back me financially, enough to even keep our current loan players - so I've left to join Newcastle United and completely cleared out they backroom staff who have followed me to Tyneside. Bit gutted the journey is over but I'll turn this into a bit of a Glory Hunter save now.

I was offered Newcastle United, Tottenham, and West Ham jobs so was never going to stay beyond this summer.

If you wish to continue reading, you can do so here:

 

[Raymubdo21]

What a season, used a 4-2-3-1 with deep centre mids and looked at some free transfers and a loan. Even managed a 5th round FA Cup tie but lost to Luton after knocking out Everton!

[MWE]

Decided to have a go with Wrexham finished the first season second in the table, lost in the play offs to Notts County 2-1 in AET.

Also only lost 2-0 to Villa in the FA Cup 3rd round

 

 

https://i.imgur.com/OWk0E6d.png

 

https://i.imgur.com/nz5NQvD.png

[ashlfcowen]

WARNING: Screenshot spam incoming

The year is 2035 and Rob and Ryan have sold the club to ... Matthew Porter who has links with Port Vale? NO idea in what capacity but that was a weird one. We got linked quite heavily with tycoons but yeah some dude from Leaguewhatever ended up buying us.

Fast forward 2 years later and we're now in 2037 so if you want to see what life at Wrexham looks like after 16 years in the game then keep reading...

So this is a long overdue post. The last time I put an update in here, I'd just finished my 2nd season in the Premier League and we finished 4th. We won absolutely nothing between winning the National League in 2023 to winning the Community Shield in 2031. 

Since then, we've won an epic haul of trophies (Minus the Sky Bet League One - which was won in 1978)

And we moved to a new stadium! This is sad because I loved the history behind the Racecourse but we were pretty stunted by it's inability to expand beyond like 18k seats. So our home is now Arfon Griffith Park which seats 35,312 but is already being expanded to 40,100 something.

We have a VAST scouting network - 25 strong covering all of Europe, South America and Africa with a couple of them looking in Asia.

We have the best First Team coaching team in the World, no arguments to be had here:



And in comparison to the rest of the league, our U21 and U18 coaching team is not too shabby either:

Our U18's have been up there with Spurs recently - trying to win their respective league year after year (2 in the last 4)

I'll admit, we're at a stage in the save now, where we pretty much have world-class players in each position, and in the games we play, we are winning convincingly. It has been so much fun getting to this point, but it does beg the question - what now?

See examples of said-world-class-players:

So I've set a few long-term objectives which, I think if we can continue developing the players in the way we are, we should achieve them.

It's simple:

- Wales to be ranked 1st in the World Rankings (38th)

- 75% of the Wales Starting XI to include Wrexham players (4/8 so far)

- 6/11 of the Wrexham players to be from the youth academy (2/6 so far)

- A Wrexham Born and Bred Player to win the Ballon d'Or

- A Wrexham Born and Bred Player to win the FIFA U21s BEST PLAYER

In terms of who I expect to come through the ranks next, we have these 3 starlets who I think can turn out to be World Class.

Thankfully, I have zero loyalty to the players we have signed from elsewhere so the pathway should be pretty simple for them.

.... except maybe Bootsma who is basically Messi mk2 which is annoying as our home-grown Ali looks like he could become a superstar 😭

 

 

Edited February 20, 2023 by ashlfcowen

[ashlfcowen]

Just now, ashlfcowen said:

Thankfully, I have zero loyalty to the players we have signed from elsewhere so the pathway should be pretty simple for them.

Example of what I mean here.

Even at this point of the save, we do not sign wonder kids just for the sake of it.

At the age of 18, they have to have a clear pathway into the first team. If they don't, they will be loaned out, or if they're not good enough - sold.

All of these players, despite being sold for a great, great price had someone to step into their shoes. 

Obviously based on my goal of wanting my first team dominated by academy players, they will not be sold at any price so we're buying less and less players from abroad now.

[FM08CHAMP]

Is anyone still playing as Wrexham? I'm in my 4th season with them in League One. Just about to finish my pre season. I'm struggling to find decent free transfers this season for a change so I'll be relying on my squad from last season in League Two although we did win the league so hopefully we have the quality to stay up.