the Official FM24 Dafuge Challenge

SaintsFCFan7498 · November 10, 2023

Basingstoke Town FC 2024/25: Consolidating Our Place

Spoiler

National League South: 12th

FA Cup: Second Qualifying Round - Loss to Horsham

FA Trophy: Fifth Round - Loss to Hartlepool

It went far better than Salisbury. Though that wasn't difficult. I went more traditionally non-league with a 4-4-2 DM with a focus on directness and getting the ball forwards. We've had good runs and bad runs but I feel like the worst runs were more affected by goalkeeper injuries than anything. On our worst run, we had one goalkeeper injury to Jake Weaver before our backup, club original Mark Scott, was also injured whilst not being on a good run of games. Before that, we were fighting for the final playoff spot with the rest too far to realistically catch. We had a small run to give us a chance but it was too little, too late. Before we lost that opportunity, I felt like form would have come at a good time for a surprise promotion.

It couldn't be more different between the FA Cup and FA Trophy. We were atrocious in our only game in the FA Cup in Horsham. We were awful and I don't know why. In the FA Trophy, we made a good run to the Fifth Round.

In terms of coaching badges, I had the promise of the training overload but apparently that didn't work as it never came. I kept asking then the excuse of bigger clubs came in. I'm hoping I can sign the contract and that issue removes itself though finances aren't as good as they could be with no FA Cup run.

The plan for the off-season is to improve the team and hope the money's there to do something. I pushed loans but some of them didn't elevate the team in the way I expected. It wasn't perfect but some of them were positive additions. The main area to improve is definitely defence and maybe goalkeeper. There's a goalkeeper on my mind but the last time I approached them for loan, they wanted him to be with higher quality players. The plan is to build the team with free agents and loans. I can't see why that shouldn't work until around League One. I doubt we'll have the money until then. The good news in that regard is we've got about £2k more in wage budget compared to last season. I can do a lot with that.

Edited November 10, 2023 by SaintsFCFan7498

Rick87 · November 10, 2023

Hi all, Don't suppose anyone has a save where my local club, Workington has come up?

Tyer · November 11, 2023

Folkestone Invictia 23/24

We had an ok first season. Predicted 22nd, finished 11th easily midtable. Simmed the last couple months as I was pretty stuck into that spot.

I made alot of mistakes with finances and signings. Ran into an issue where I missed 3 loans only being for 3 months instead of the full season, which killed my depth and caused me to not have any real promotion hopes, maybe next year though.

Hopefully with a full offseason I can mold this team in the way I would like too. Fun start so far, always good to keep a team like this up first year.

jrobertgordon13 · November 11, 2023

3 hours ago, Rick87 said:

Hi all, Don't suppose anyone has a save where my local club, Workington has come up?

I haven't seen them yet

andydick · November 11, 2023

11 hours ago, Rick87 said:

Hi all, Don't suppose anyone has a save where my local club, Workington has come up?

I spent some time re-rolling hoping to get Marske, Workington, or Whitby. Eventually Whitby appeared but no Marske or Workington yet unfortunately.

Rullom · November 11, 2023

On 22/10/2023 at 21:22, jrobertgordon13 said:

To sign a player, you must be able to scout them, this doesn't mean you have to, just he must be accessible to your scouts. If you have a foreign player on a free transfer who is willing to come on trial, you do not need to be able to scout them, as long as you have them at the club on trial so you can get a coach report on him. If an agent offers you a player, you can sign him without scouting him.

How do we feel about DoF - Transfer targets suggestions?

Technically it is often players outside the scoutable area in none league, though I guess the staff from a "role-playing," perspective, do know the player, as they would otherwise not be able to suggest them, making it sort of a grey area, and not specified in the rules.

Tyer · November 11, 2023

3 hours ago, Rullom said:

How do we feel about DoF - Transfer targets suggestions?

Technically it is often players outside the scoutable area in none league, though I guess the staff from a "role-playing," perspective, do know the player, as they would otherwise not be able to suggest them, making it sort of a grey area, and not specified in the rules.

I think its ok. I've always looked at it as players the DOF 'knows' about, but you still have to trial them or scout them to get the full picture, its just names given to you.

Mahzun_Savas · November 12, 2023

Carshalton Athletic

Season 1 2024/25 Review

The season started fairly well and that meant we never were in the relegation places but half way through the season we were just above the relegation places in 18th place. However a much stronger second half to the season saw us rise to a high of 9th were we finished the season.

League Results 1 2 3

How we lined up

Our star player was undoubtedly box to box midfielder Tom Beere with his 14 goals and 11 assists being vital to our success.

16 year old Amarri Eyles was our striker and he scored 26 goals and 6 assists in the league. I am not sure how long we will be able to keep him.

The youth intake was woeful, I did not sign one player from it.

DazRTaylor · November 12, 2023

End of Season Review

Season 2026/27

Marine

Season Summary

What a season! Not only did we secure another league title and promotion, we also enjoyed three good cup runs.

Season Details

League Table - We stormed to another league title and promotion, securing promotion with six games remaining and the title with five.

League Fixtures 1, 2 & 3 - As usual, consistency is the key as we churned out win after win.

F. A. Cup - An excellent cup run as we went all the way to the fifth round before losing at home to Championship side Blackburn Rovers. The away win at top flight Brentford was incredible.

Carabao Cup - We claimed another big scalp, Wolves in this case, before losing at giants Chelsea as we made it all the way to the quarter final in our debut in the competition.

Papa John's Trophy - Despite playing my reserves for much of the competition, we still topped our group and made it through to the quarter final before the Chelsea Under 21 team beat us on their own patch.

Friendlies - We won eight and lost two of our pre season games as we enjoyed ourselves somewhat.

Squad - We have an excellent squad and with the right additions, we can immediately compete for a place in the Championship.

Squad Dynamics - It continues to be rather good.

Transfers In 1 & 2 - I spent £1.5m on bringing in more quality, as well as a plethora of loan signings and free transfer additions.

Transfers Out 1, 2 & 3 - Over £7.5m was raised in player sales, including a club record transfer fee received, £5m, for American winger Alex Mighten.

Youth Candidates - It wasn't a great intake, though Northern Irish right back Caolan Donaghy YP27B9 looks like he has a chance of making it.

Finances - We made another healthy profit, thanks to the player sales detailed above.

Key Players

Niall Huggins - The Welsh full back, comfortable on either side, had a fabulous season.

Josh Bowler - The winger only joined the club in October and he quickly proved to be highly effective.

Elian Quesada-Thorn - He is so versatile, he can play anywhere on the left hand side. Signed as a backup, he proved to be undroppable as the season went on.

Mario Ferreyra - The teenage Argentine Under 23 international striker had a tremendous season on loan from Boca Juniors, scoring 29 goals in 48 appearances.

Albert - A Spanish Under 21 international, the teenage central midfielder had a great season, after joining on loan from Villarreal.

Next Season

I am greedy and want another promotion.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          24 June 2024             30 June 2025         £750 p/w          £600 p/w
2024/25          18 March 2025             30 June 2026         £800 p/w ↑        £625 p/w ↑
2025/26          10 April 2026             30 June 2028         £875 p/w ↑        £675 p/w ↑
2026/27          10 April 2026             30 June 2028       £1,000 p/w ↑        £750 p/w ↑

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att  Def  Fit  GkD  GkH  GkS  Tac  Tec  Men  SeP  WWY  Ada  Det  PlK  YoK  LoD  PeM  Mot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    5    1    1    1    5    1    1    1
2024/25    Minimal = (1.00*) ↑   National B     ↑↑    5 ↑  6 ↑  2 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 =  5 ↑  6 ↑  5 ↑  2 ↑  5 =  1 =  5 ↑  5 ↑  6 ↑  9 ↑  6 ↑  6 ↑
2025/26    Minimal = (2.50*) ↑   Continental B ↑↑↑    9 ↑  9 ↑  4 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 = 10 ↑  9 ↑  9 ↑  4 ↑  5 =  1 =  7 ↑  7 ↑  9 ↑ 12 ↑  9 ↑ 10 ↑
2026/27    Minimal = (2.50*) =   Continental B   =    9 =  9 =  4 =  1 =  1 =  1 = 10 =  9 =  9 =  4 =  5 =  1 =  8 ↑  8 ↑  9 = 12 =  9 = 10 =

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Youth Level  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Basic                Basic                  4       Basic                 Average          Basic              Local      (1.00*)
2024/25    Basic =              Basic =                4 =     Basic =               Average      ↑   Fairly Basic   ↑   Local    = (1.00*) =
2025/26    Basic =              Basic =                4 =     Basic =               Good        ↑↑   Above Average ↑↑   Local    = (1.00*) =
2026/27    Basic =              Basic =                4 =     Basic =               Exceptional ↑↑   Excellent     ↑↑   Regional ↑ (1.50*) ↑

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25      51        35       10        6         133              51                 +82              68.63%
2025/26      57        46        7        4         154              50                +104              80.70% ↑
2026/27      62        44        9        9         165              60                +105              70.97% ↓

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25          51        35       10        6         133              51                 +82              68.63%             298 days
2025/26         108        81       17       10         287             101                +186              75.00% ↑           699 days
2026/27         170       125       26       19         452             161                +291              73.53% ↓         1,035 days

Transfer Purchase Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Purchased From          Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7 May 2025        Thanasis Theodoridis      Right Back             Bury                         England                         £5,000
 1 January 2027    Shaun Wade                Left Wing/Right Wing   Shamrock Rovers              Ireland                       £400,000
 1 January 2027    Arian Kalantari           Striker                Gillingham                   England                       £425,000

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 July 2024       Louis White               Central Midfield       Yeovil Town                  England                         £3,800
 1 February 2025   Max Howells               Right Wing             IF Karlstad Fotboll          Sweden                          £7,000
10 June 2025       Theo Robinson             Right Back             Gateshead                    England                        £33,000
24 January 2026    Max Halil                 Striker                Sheffield United             England                     £1,000,000
10 January 2027    Alex Mighten              Left Wing/Right Wing   LA Galaxy                    United States               £5,000,000

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------
2024/25    Vanarama National League North
2025/26    Vanarama National League
2025/26    F. A. Trophy
2026/27    Sky Bet League Two

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------
1 x Sky Bet League Two             (2026/27)
1 x Vanarama National League       (2025/26)
1 x Vanarama National League North (2024/25)

Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------
1 x F. A. Trophy                   (2025/26)

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     F.A. Cup                    League Cup        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League North        1st       Fourth Qualifying Round         N/a           Promoted as champions.  F. A. Trophy third round.
2025/26           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League              1st ↑     Fourth Round            ↑       N/a           Promoted as champions.  F. A. Trophy winners.
2026/27           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Sky Bet League Two                    1st ↑     Fifth Round             ↑   Quarter Final ↑   Promoted as champions.  Papa John's Trophy quarter final.

Edited November 12, 2023 by DazRTaylor

Mr_Demus · November 12, 2023

Merthyr was a failure

Have restarted with Dulwich Hamlet. Post will come soon

CMU Chips · November 12, 2023

St. Ives Season 1 - Vanarama North (14th)

First season recap will be fairly short. Seems like players want more money this year so I only had 16 until I got the youths in at the end. Started the season well, then had both GKs go down with broken hands in the same month with no money to get a third in. Grey GK got 5 points from 9 games and we jumped from +2 xGA to +16. Put us right on the edge of the drop zone but once the GKs came back and I was able to sell some players for free to the lower divisions and get better replacements we stabilized and were mid-table for the rest of the season.

Ended up 14th with 62 points; final game of the season we had a 15 year old and a 35 year old score in the same game.

Not sure if anyone other than the youths will be back next year; I would like to keep my RW but he wants to go somewhere bigger and won't talk to me. Wouldn't mind getting GK, CB, and LB back but have a feeling they might want wages more than their ability would deserve.

Season stats

League table

Transfer history

Edited November 12, 2023 by CMU Chips

SaintsFCFan7498 · November 13, 2023

Basingstoke Town FC 2025/26: Playoff Pain

Spoiler

National League South: 5th - Lost in Playoffs First Round

FA Cup: First Round - Loss to Blackpool

FA Trophy: Fifth Round - Loss to Halifax Town

Firstly, a note on the kits, they were made in KitBasher. Managed to easily remove the background from the sponsor and thought I'd do a local paper for the third kit too. Planning to do it for every league we're in. Maybe even additional kits for when we get into Europe but that's further down the line. They're Hope+Glory kits as they are currently in real life but expect that and the sponsor to change as we go up the leagues.

In terms of the offseason, it didn't go as planned. I messed up on the contracts and the players were unhappy when I tried to renew them. I've reduced that issue for 2026/27 but it meant our star striker left and we had a bit of an injury crisis when the other was injured for 12-14 months. Yes, months. You read that right. I had considered Ryan Seager but thought he wasn't good enough. About 2-3 loan players were brought in for it and we needed time to start the season. At the start of September, we had lost a few games in a row and were 20th after a promising first two games.

In terms of signings, I had to overhaul the team even more than I already had. They weren't league title winning but they should keep me in a job. In the early part of the season, we just didn't have the Team Cohesion in order to regularly win games and even into early September, we were 16th. The only thing that was going my way at that time was how there were two catchable playoff teams and then they had started to lose form. We were about 10 points from the playoffs when I realised we had a chance and had put together something of a winning streak. Writing this before the last game of the season, we were confirmed 6th with a game to spare and playoffs with two to spare which meant that run just continued. Writing this as we play Billericay in the final game of the season, I feel positive about our playoff chances.

Injuries were a nightmare this season in the early part. Losing centre backs with no centre back depth caused a panic and a 17 year old kid from the Skates. It worked out well. He was a Work Experience loan which helped us a lot. He was also our best centre back at the club which definitely helped.

In terms of the FA Cup, it went much better despite inconsistent league form which both encouraged and annoyed me. Comfortable wins against our own and the division above gave us a First Round tie to Blackpool. They were professional in the sense of the club itself and how comfortably they beat us. And clearly better than us.

The FA Trophy was similar to last season. Winning against winnable teams but I felt Halifax was winnable too but we didn't. Beating teams comfortably including Accrington who were fighting for a title. Unlike Blackpool, they were professional but their performance was anything but.

Penalties. A misery. I kinda wish players missed more in penalty shootouts on this game as I feel like it's always like this or goes on forever. You don't see it that much in real life. Especially at this level but it shouldn't have gone to this. We were 2-0 up and cruising but this game likes to throw you a curveball sometimes and us throwing it away was that. It was 2-1 and I feared it. Then it was 2-2. Then I saw we were on the back foot and got it to Extra Time. I felt if we had calmed ourselves and got an early goal, we'd go through. But no. Wealdstone score in the first minute of Extra Time and we're behind for the first time. We got the goal back in the first half but nothing happened in the second. Then penalties. Everybody else had scored. We went first for the last go and there it was. The miss that would end our season. I had hoped Jake Weaver would provide us some hope but clearly not.

Rullom · November 13, 2023

Hornchurch

Season 2 | 2025/26

Recap: We were predicted 14th by the media to win the league. Our hopes & goals were high with a good transfer window, with better fitting players for our tactics (I thought.) But things never went according to plan, as we ended up on 10th spot at the end of the season, 12 points lower than 1st season.

Vanarama National League South: Slightly unlucky, as we are statistically supposed to be a top 3 team judged on XG and many other statistics and performance tell us, that we do well, but somehow drop to many points. Though, also at least 2-3 managerial mistakes dropped us points to be fair.

FA Cup: A decent FA Cup run earning us around 100k overall with away ticket sales, when we lost to Peterborough in the first round.

FA Trophy: We had 2 draws in a row against midtable national league teams, and on top of that, against 1st spot Solihull Moors in the Quater Final, who finally got the better of us. Very successful run, looking at the draws.

Schedule Results: 1: 2: 3:

Squad Overview: Only 8-10 of the boys will be around for the 3rd season, unless someone makes an offer to good to refuse.

Fan's Player of the Season: Deon Moore

Signing of the Season: Lorent Talla

Key Player: George Quantrell

Key Player: Dennis Kelmendi

Manager profile: From National C to National A coaching badge within one season. Happy days.

Finances: Were stabilized, and we ended up with a small plus. A key goal for the season was reached.

Staff: We got a decent staff, while also being dirty cheap. We are spending £500 p/w in total. Surprised by how well this turned out, from only using adverts and staff meeting recommendations.

Hornchurch overview: The Club had a board takeover in the pre-season, one that didn’t matter much in terms of finances, embargoes or structural changes, but they decided, without notice or us asking for it, to give us a National B licence badge the day after the takeover (haven’t ever seen that before - so I like our new board.) Silver lining for the overall status of the club - Keep doing what we do, and we will be successful.

Tactics:

4-3-2-1 SpursyHorn (AsyV4) - 28 starts (A high line, all guns blazing gegenpress. Typically applied against mid table / similar quality opponents sides, where our weakness is not getting exploited directly, and we attack by running with the ball and underlap in the half spaces. Often good against other control based teams, tiki taka, fluid counter attack or route one with 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or other narrow formations with single pivot.)

4-3-2-1 MidHorn (AsyV3) - 18 starts (A mid block counter press with more structured marking, specifically designed to counter top teams and to stop them from exploiting our defensive weaknesses, while we counter more directly with through balls, rather than trying to control or run with it, often with crosses and set pieces being key to success going forward. Often applied against other gegenpress tactics and wing play styles, with 4-2-3-1 or 5-2-3 formations that want to play wide with a double pivot.)

4-3-2-1 ControlHorn (AsyV2) - 6 Starts (Almost the same tactic as TheSpursyHorn, but rather running with it, we try to control the possession more, work the ball into the box, play out of defense, play for set pieces to pin in weaker teams in their own box. Applied against teams we should be dominating, and can easily play through from the back, typically having lower engagement lines, without much threat to our backline.)

4-4-1-1 NarrowMidHorn (AsyV1) - 3 Starts (Late season, the Midhorn developed, and we experimented with it, to improve it for next season to be better against gegenpress / good wing play teams.)

Strength, weaknesses & comparison:

GK’s: I value agility, handling, passing & 1on1 very highly as we play with SK’s. Room for improvements in the transfers as we lost our key GK mid season, leaving us with an old cup keeper, who was not exactly a Sweeper keeper.

Squad Physicals: DNA is Acc, Pac & Sta. (Balance is the outlier, and something of an underrated attribute, one working really well in our transition play on the counter, while also making up for poor attributes in tackling and marking defensively, as we are one of the better teams winning the ball and keeping it. A norther thing to work on, is jumping, which is a weakness.)

Squad Mentals: DNA is Ant, Cmp, Cnt, Dec, Wor. (Decisions are a big outlier, one we got to work on in the transfer window, along with Anticipation, concentration and positioning need to be higher.)

Squad Technicals: No specific club DNA. (While not a DNA, our technicals are overall above what I could have expected from my signings. The high crossing, technique & passing, is surely a key benefactor to a good amount of our goals in tactical approaches we use. Heading is one of our big weaknesses, something leading to points either lost or not won, on both ends of the pitch. Tackling and Marking, also need to slightly go up.

Goals & predictions:

2nd season goal - We stabilized the finances, but delusional far from pushing top 2.

2nd season prediction - Sitting 5 points from the playoff, I was wrong on all accounts.

3rd Season goal: - Top 7 finish. Earn another 100k or more in a FA cup run, and be competitive in the Trophy once more.

3rd Season prediction - 4th in the league, losing a final in the FA Trophy.

Tyer · November 13, 2023

I just want season 2 over, its been a nightmare!

Game seems a bit harder than previous years, been having trouble finding good loans, also board won't give me a senior affliate in Season 2 even. I wonder if bugged, that has happened to me before, two years ago, with the board just saying no to everything without reason.

Anyone been having issues like that? Seems like teams accept my loans but players always turn it down.

Although we had our first famous win, Swindon got FM'ed here lol.

Edited November 13, 2023 by Tyer

DazRTaylor · November 14, 2023

End of Season Review

Season 2027/28

Marine

Season Summary

It sounds like we are on repeat, though another promotion, this time to the Championship, showed we had another exceptional season.

Season Details

League Table - It was a three horse race for most of the season before we broke clear during the home stretch. The fact we scored xxx league goals is ridiculous.

League Fixtures 1, 2 & 3 - We score goals for fun. We hit ten goals away to York City in a crazy game, which is comfortably our biggest ever win.

F. A. Cup - We made it through to the third round before playing poorly in defeat away to Championship side Rotherham United.

Carabao Cup - Championship outfit Burnley proved too strong in the first round as they comfortably beat us on our own patch.

Papa John's Trophy - After topping our group, we progressed all the way to the final, where we faced fellow League One side Wrexham at Wembley. We dominated the match, lifting our second domestic cup in the process.

Friendlies - We did lose three games in a tough pre season schedule.

Squad - We are good enough to compete in the Championship, though we are a long way off challenging for a Premier League spot.

Squad Dynamics - We are rated as "Excellent" in each category, I doubt it can get any better than that.

Transfers In 1 & 2 - I spent just under £3.5m in bringing in some fresh faces and improving the quality of the squad.

Transfers Out 1, 2 & 3 - Around £15m was brought in through player sales as I had a huge clearout of fringe players.

Youth Candidates - Once again there are no elite talents in a poor intake overall considering how good our academy is supposed to be. Right back Simon Dixon YP28A18 looks pretty good though.

Finances - Thanks to the player sales detailed above, we have a very healthy bank account after another profit was made this year.

Key Players

Charlie Patino - The former Arsenal midfielder quickly became one of our most important players.

Gianni Zanchi - Costing a club record £900,000, the right back is already one of our most reliable performers.

Shaun Wade - Comfortable on either wing, the former Under 18 international for the Republic of Ireland had a fine campaign.

Gerónimo Rivera - The Argentine winger arrived on a free transfer in February and has proved himself to be far too good for this league.

Albert - The Spaniard, who is an Under 21 international, had an excellent second successive season bossing central midfield after he extended his loan from Villarreal.

Next Season

I don't think a top ten finish is unrealistic.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          24 June 2024             30 June 2025         £750 p/w          £600 p/w
2024/25          18 March 2025             30 June 2026         £800 p/w ↑        £625 p/w ↑
2025/26          10 April 2026             30 June 2028         £875 p/w ↑        £675 p/w ↑
2026/27          10 April 2026             30 June 2028       £1,000 p/w ↑        £750 p/w ↑
2027/28       27 November 2027             30 June 2030       £1,100 p/w ↑        £800 p/w ↑

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att  Def  Fit  GkD  GkH  GkS  Tac  Tec  Men  SeP  WWY  Ada  Det  PlK  YoK  LoD  PeM  Mot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    1    5    1    1    1    5    1    1    1
2024/25    Minimal = (1.00*) ↑   National B     ↑↑    5 ↑  6 ↑  2 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 =  5 ↑  6 ↑  5 ↑  2 ↑  5 =  1 =  5 ↑  5 ↑  6 ↑  9 ↑  6 ↑  6 ↑
2025/26    Minimal = (2.50*) ↑   Continental B ↑↑↑    9 ↑  9 ↑  4 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 = 10 ↑  9 ↑  9 ↑  4 ↑  5 =  1 =  7 ↑  7 ↑  9 ↑ 12 ↑  9 ↑ 10 ↑
2026/27    Minimal = (2.50*) =   Continental B   =    9 =  9 =  4 =  1 =  1 =  1 = 10 =  9 =  9 =  4 =  5 =  1 =  8 ↑  8 ↑  9 = 12 =  9 = 10 =
2027/28    Decent  ↑ (3.00*) ↑   Continental A   ↑   11 ↑ 11 ↑  5 ↑  1 =  1 =  1 = 11 ↑ 11 ↑ 11 ↑  5 ↑  5 =  1 = 10 ↑ 10 ↑ 11 ↑ 14 ↑ 11 ↑ 12 ↑

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Youth Level  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Basic                Basic                  4       Basic                 Average          Basic              Local      (1.00*)
2024/25    Basic     =          Basic     =            4 =     Basic =               Average      ↑   Fairly Basic   ↑   Local    = (1.00*) =
2025/26    Basic     =          Basic     =            4 =     Basic =               Good        ↑↑   Above Average ↑↑   Local    = (1.00*) =
2026/27    Basic     =          Basic     =            4 =     Basic =               Exceptional ↑↑   Excellent     ↑↑   Regional ↑ (1.50*) ↑
2027/28    Adequate ↑↑          Adequate ↑↑            4 =     Basic =               Exceptional  =   Exceptional    ↑   Regional = (2.00*) ↑

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25      51        35       10        6         133              51                 +82              68.63%
2025/26      57        46        7        4         154              50                +104              80.70% ↑
2026/27      62        44        9        9         165              60                +105              70.97% ↓
2027/28      58        44        6        8         193              69                +124              75.86% ↑

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25          51        35       10        6         133              51                 +82              68.63%             298 days
2025/26         108        81       17       10         287             101                +186              75.00% ↑           699 days
2026/27         170       125       26       19         452             161                +291              73.53% ↓         1,035 days
2027/28         228       169       32       27         645             230                +415              74.12% ↑         1,398 days

Transfer Purchase Record

Date               Player                    Position                              Club Purchased From          Country                   Transfer Fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7 May 2025        Thanasis Theodoridis      Right Back                            Bury                         England                         £5,000
 1 January 2027    Shaun Wade                Left Wing/Right Wing                  Shamrock Rovers              Ireland                       £400,000
 1 January 2027    Arian Kalantari           Striker                               Gillingham                   England                       £425,000
15 June 2027       Andrew Moran              Attacking Midfield                    Brighton & Hove Albion       England                       £525,000
15 June 2027       Tyler Morton              Defensive Midfield/Central Midfield   Liverpool                    England                       £675,000
 1 January 2028    Gianni Zanchi             Right Back                            Cesena F.C.                  Italy                         £900,000

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position                              Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
12 July 2024       Louis White               Central Midfield                      Yeovil Town                  England                         £3,800
 1 February 2025   Max Howells               Right Wing                            IF Karlstad Fotboll          Sweden                          £7,000
10 June 2025       Theo Robinson             Right Back                            Gateshead                    England                        £33,000
24 January 2026    Max Halil                 Striker                               Sheffield United             England                     £1,000,000
10 January 2027    Alex Mighten              Left Wing/Right Wing                  LA Galaxy                    United States               £5,000,000

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------
2024/25    Vanarama National League North
2025/26    Vanarama National League
2025/26    F. A. Trophy
2026/27    Sky Bet League Two
2027/28    Papa John's Trophy
2027/28    Sky Bet League One

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------
1 x Sky Bet League One             (2027/28)
1 x Sky Bet League Two             (2026/27)
1 x Vanarama National League       (2025/26)
1 x Vanarama National League North (2024/25)

Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------
1 x Papa John's Trophy             (2027/28)
1 x F. A. Trophy                   (2025/26)

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     F.A. Cup                    League Cup        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2024/25           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League North        1st       Fourth Qualifying Round         N/a           Promoted as champions.  F. A. Trophy third round.
2025/26           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Vanarama National League              1st ↑     Fourth Round            ↑       N/a           Promoted as champions.  F. A. Trophy winners.
2026/27           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Sky Bet League Two                    1st ↑     Fifth Round             ↑   Quarter Final ↑   Promoted as champions.  Papa John's Trophy quarter final.
2027/28           N/a               N/a                    N/a                       Sky Bet League One                    1st ↑     Third Round             ↓   First Round   ↓   Promoted as champions.  Papa John's Trophy winners.

Edited November 14, 2023 by DazRTaylor

Tyer · November 16, 2023

Folkestone Invicta Season 2

Really strange year, we started really poorly, then went on something crazy like a 22 game unbeaten run, got all the way to 6th in the table, to fall apart at the end.

Getting closer though! I really expect to get promoted next season, getting a hang of what is working in lower league FM24.

3rd in the XG table, 9th in the table that matters so we really underperformed our XG!

2nd Rd of FA Cup was nice.

Mr_Demus · November 16, 2023

Better post my official second attempt starting screenshot.

I am halfway through the season and having a blast

wheatoplays · November 16, 2023

Santa has come down Coalville Town's chimney, to spread joy across the whole club.

SaintsFCFan7498 · November 16, 2023

Basingstoke Town 2026/27: I Never Want To Do That Again

Spoiler

National League South: CHAMPIONS

FA Cup: Fourth Round - Loss to Man City

FA Trophy: Winners vs Woking

That was horrible. Genuinely genuinely horrible. I hated how we didn't get the points vs Dover. I hated how we needed to rely on an 84th minute equaliser from Worthing. I hated how I didn't know we'd won the title until we had the trophy lift. I hated how I ran a 2-0-4-4 formation and didn't get the goal vs Dartford. But most of all, I hate how much I'd do it again because we're finally out of here.

There was a time where we felt comfortable and like we'd win the title in March and there were times where the team were unrecognisable. I couldn't explain it but that's how it went down. Our signings have improved the squad year on year and you're probably seeing those cup runs and seeing that loss to Man City and wondering if our finances are as good as everybody dreams. Yes. Yes they are. It's incredible how this season has gone but I'd so have loved it if it was just that little bit easier in the end. Losing 3-1 to Dover in the penultimate game despite smashing them on xG. Just any goal vs Dartford would have been nice.

I should probably talk about the cup runs. In the FA Cup, we beat every beatable team. Our closest slipup in that regard was how we'd drew 2-2 with Ebbsfleet in the Fourth Qualifying Round. York finished 10th in League Two and we stepped up. Notts County are fighting for automatic promotion into the Championship and we made them look like a Tier 8 team. Then we played Man City. They were Man City and smashed us but it's a great quantity of cash for the budget. I'd have loved to go Professional but the board won't let us.

Spoiler

In terms of the FA Trophy, we were just better than the teams we played. Fellow Tier 6 side Alfreton Town made it to the Semi Final who gave us a scare in the opening stages before failing to score a penalty and we fought back to win that game 4-1. We looked a class apart after their missed penalty to play Woking in the final nearly 40 days after the end of the season.

Fortunately, with 40 days rest, Woking just didn't turn up. We were better and Woking equalised but it was a false dawn for Woking. It felt like a false dawn to me and we proved it by making it 3-1 even before half time. Then 3 more goals in the second half to win the FA Trophy. Impressive. Beautiful. Nothing like Dover. Nothing like Dartford.

Spoiler

Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

2026/27 Vanarama National League South

2026/27 FA Trophy

Edited November 16, 2023 by SaintsFCFan7498

CMU Chips · November 19, 2023

St. Ives season 2 - Vanarama North (11th)

A season where we spent pretty much the entire time just outside the playoff spots. Struggled to get goals from my strikers until a midseason signing. We spent most of the year as the 2nd best team defensively until we conceded 4 from set pieces late in the year and ended 6th best in terms of goals conceded. Entirely let down by our away form; we were the third best team in the league at home (50 points) but couldn't manage even half of that on the road. Money is an issue as the board kept having to pump funds in; we only have an average attendance of 358. Will decide who is staying in the next couple days before I go on vacation. Board still refuses to let me do any coaching courses.

League Table -

Season Stats -

Transfers -

jrobertgordon13 · November 19, 2023

SEASON 1 - DORCHESTER TOWN

We could've had a good season, yet in the last 3 months of the season we didn't get a win... not even one.

Results:

League: 11th in Vanarama National League South

FA Cup: Lost in Fourth Qualifying Round to Dorking

FA Trophy: Lost in Second Round to Bath City

Stats:

Highest Avg Rating: Matt Buse, 7.18 Rating

Most Goals: Luke O'Dwyer, 21 Goals

Most Assists: Dean Slade/Oscar Bridgman, 9 Assists

Best Transfer: Oscar Bridgman

End of Season Talk:

It could've been a better season, but that REALLY bad stretch at the end ruined any chance we had of a good year. Well at least there's next year, right?

Faramir · November 20, 2023

Stourbridge- Season 4- 2027/28 1st Season League 2

A long slog of a season, but we battled hard and finished 2nd as Forest Green ran away with the title. The slog came from us battling to win many close matches, enough to stay 8 points clear of 3rd place Exeter (15 points adrift of Forest Green).

It was another season of remaking the club personnel and we did find some keepers this time around, but because our signings soaked up so much of our wage budget, we lacked depth and that hurt us badly down the stretch as several key injuries left us limping to the finish. Up until just after the midway point of the season we were neck-and-neck with Forest Green, but then faltered for the last 15 matches of the season, but still were able to remain comfortably second.

We made several big free signings that paid off handsomely. Our leading scorer was Mark Scully (released by Manchester City). Scully is a very tall, moderately agile striker who can't score a header to save his life- but did score 24 goals otherwise. Jovan Makama was his strike partner with 16 goals, but both he and Scully were terribly inconsistent- when they were on they could be overpowering- but there were many matches that both disappeared. Jamie Watt (free signing from Arsenal) on rightwing was a wee driving force for us with 6 goals and 15 assists (to equal the League record). Connor Stanley chipped in with 5 goals and 7 assists (mostly when Watt was injured for over a month during a heavy slate of double match weeks). Leftwing Adi Adebayo added 6 goals and 9 assists, but lost his starting role down the stretch when we loaned Rayan Daniels from Aston Villa (would love to keep him but Rangers want him when his contract is up and we can't compete with that interest). Our midfield was manned by 19 year old Northern Irish International Mervyn O'Connor (free transfer from Arsenal) and Mahamadou Doumbia (Mali International, signed on free and using one our our 2 ESC slots). We also had contributions from Pawel Ograbek, Joao Veloso dos Santos and mid-season free signee Sydie Peck.

In goal we had Belgian Matteo Chiacig (released by Charleroi, managed to get WP on appeal) and he was superb during a long unbeaten stretch through to late season, when he got hurt and missed a month and wasn't nearly as sharp when he returned. Mid-season signing Ellis Craven (released by Norwich) filled in fairly well while Chiacig was out. We leaned heavily on four defenders- Taylor Foran (skipper), Jem Hewlett (released by Exeter, originally Southampton youth), leftback Guilherme Montoia (another Norwich release) and rightback Federico Danneman (4K from Argentine side Alianza- we used our 2nd ESC slot on him). Unfortunately, as they all inevitably tired our depth was severely lacking with Teddy Ramwell, Juan Manuel Arredondo, Adisa Osayande and Jon Esenga all subpar most of the time when filling in.

All of this meant that while we scored 90 goals, we also gave up 74, which left us (me!) sweating out the dying moments of many one goal matches (mostly wins). Our FA Cup run did yield us a 3rd round match at St.James against Newcastle, which brought in almost 1.4 million- pretty much a boost that carried us into more secure financing territory. We were also renting out Aggborough from Kidderminster and that gave us much more gate receipts to also boost our bottom line. All of which puts us in better shape to enter League 1 competition. We still need to find depth, but many of those starters mentioned will remain starters going into next season, so we might have a bit more continuity and not take so long to gel next season.

Mahzun_Savas · November 20, 2023

Carshalton Athletic

Season 2 2025 - 26

A better season than season 1, made the playoffs but no promotion.

League Table and Results 1 2 3

How we lined up

My best two players were my midfielders Tom Beere and Ewan Clark

My finances are in quite good shape because I was able to sell a clause of my former star player Sam Logan for $1.1million.

I have let a lot of the players from this season go and I am looking at upgrading on what I let go. However so far I have not been completely successful. Next season only promotion is acceptable to me.

SaintsFCFan7498 · November 21, 2023

Basingstoke Town 2027/28: WE'RE GOING TO THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE

Spoiler

National League: CHAMPIONS

FA Cup: Second Round - Loss to Torquay

FA Trophy: Final - Lost to Torquay

Whatever the National League South was, the National League wasn't. I expected it to be another miserable slog but we took to it like a baby duck to water. I say baby duck because we were a little bit nervous and were a bit leaky for the first few games but when I switched back to our National League South title winning goalkeeper, we didn't look back. It was win after win after win. It was fantastic. The recruitment and loan signings I did were aggressive but that aggression paid off. It was fantastic. Now we're a professional football team as of the season switch. That feels fantastic. We've beaten so many professional sides that we deserve it.

Of course, I'm writing this part as we'd just won the league title but our recruitment was excellent. I don't even think it was about bigger clubs wanting more standout players to join. We had built our squad with smart signings throughout but they had helped us on this journey. Our goalkeeper for example. Signed in the second season when he was released by Palace and now he's lead us to two titles in his three seasons here. When you look at other points, we had good loan signings from Watford we just didn't take advantage of. We weren't good enough elsewhere to properly reward them for their skill and hard work. But now we have that.

The season was positive. We had a little scare near the end when it was looking a little shaky but we pushed through and got the title with the standout 5-0 win vs Crawley. Having an opportunity to get the title felt like it lifted some of the pressure of their shoulders. Straight away, we were on the front foot and gave Crawley no chance to just allow us to sneak the draw to get the title or hope Chester mess up at the weekend.

In terms of the FA Cup, it wasn't as successful as last season but we still beat League Two opposition in Stevenage. It's just Torquay who we just didn't turn up for. A 2-0 turned into a 5-0 when I went fully aggressive like Dartford last season where we went everybody bar the central defenders up front. It was a cup game and we showed nothing. What else would I do? So our FA Cup journey ended in the Second Round.

We've gotten to the FA Trophy Final again. If you read this last season, you'll know that it's a month after the season ended. That's still the case. So that could mean two unbeaten FA Trophy seasons. We've been great in that and had just beaten Sutton 2-0 through 2 penalties but they weren't as good as we were anyway. We play Torquay as revenge for the FA Cup and they're going to be in the playoffs so could it be a playoff hangover for them? I hope so.

Annoyingly, it wasn't. Torquay were every bit as good as we were and took the lead of the FA Trophy Final. I wished for a repeat of Woking but it wasn't to be. We equalised to take it to Extra Time, I went more aggressive and everything but they had scored in Extra Time to win it. It's disappointing but I'm glad we'd already won that trophy. We've now got the chance to win the EFL Trophy and the EFL Cup.

Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

2027/28 National League

2026/27 FA Trophy

2026/27 Vanarama National League South

Mr_Demus · November 21, 2023

Dulwich Hamlet 2024/2025 - National League South

Our first season was a huge succes leaguewise. Finished top with many goals and many points. We were strong throughout the season, and never really looked like a team that wouldn't contend for promotion. Our professional status, our reputation and placement in London has helped us a lot.

Vanarama National League South

We used some of the players who were there when I took over, but I brought in a lot of quality players who helped shape the season.

Former Brentford player Kyrece Lisbie, the son of former Charlton striker Kevin Lisbie, was an absolute beast from his role as a winger on the right. He is already drawing the attention of League One and Two sides, but I hope that we can keep him.

Another young man, this time from the Crystal Palace academy, Victor Akinwale, banged in goals for fun as you can see.

Surprise package was a guy I brought in from Hull. He was never meant to start, but he kept playing well, so he kept his place in the starting XI. Rajdeep Palit.

The cups weren't very exciting. In the FA cup we fell to mighty Sholing in the second qualifying round in a match we absolutely dominated, but couldn't score. In the FA trophy we managed to beat Hampton & Richmond and Hendon, before we lost to South Shields, who ended up promoting from VNN, on penalties in the fourth round.

Goals for next season:

Mid table in Vanarama National

Sign key players to new contracts

Progress to the FA Cup proper

The board is looking into places to build a new stadium. Could be good, could be disastrous.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Mr_Demus

Tecmo · November 21, 2023

On 10/11/2023 at 14:32, Rick87 said:

Hi all, Don't suppose anyone has a save where my local club, Workington has come up?

Been doing a bunch of rerolls trying to get Lancaster City up, unsuccessfully so far. Haven't seen Workington yet.

KVJ92 · November 21, 2023

31 minutes ago, Tecmo said:

Been doing a bunch of rerolls trying to get Lancaster City up, unsuccessfully so far. Haven't seen Workington yet.

I have a Lancaster, if you want it? No Workington I think.

Tecmo · November 22, 2023

4 hours ago, KVJ92 said:

I have a Lancaster, if you want it? No Workington I think.

That would be much appreciated, getting rather tired of these rerolls

KVJ92 · November 22, 2023

6 hours ago, Tecmo said:

That would be much appreciated, getting rather tired of these rerolls

I'll send it to you later today

KVJ92 · November 22, 2023

15 hours ago, Tecmo said:

That would be much appreciated, getting rather tired of these rerolls

https://www.mediafire.com/file/8eqh0smx1posoep/Lancaster.fm/file

Here you go

Tecmo · November 22, 2023

36 minutes ago, KVJ92 said:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/8eqh0smx1posoep/Lancaster.fm/file

Here you go

Thank you so much! You just made my long weekend. And probably ruined my work productivity for today.

Rullom · November 23, 2023

Hornchurch

Season 3 | 2026/27

League / Cup / Trophy

Spoiler

Vanarama National League South: 14th predicted in the league. An otherwise good season, us sitting comfortable in 1st and 2nd spot until a terrible run of form at the end, losing 8 out of 10 games. Still enough to secure playoff, where we undeservedly so, beat Bath, but get kicked out by Barnet in the semi final. We honestly never looked like a promotion hunting team near the end.

FA Cup: Kicked out by Mansfield in the first round, after a rematch. Still a fairly successful run, netting us around £70k.

FA Trophy: Got FM’ed extremely hard in this one. Dulwich Hamlet is back to haunt us once more, as they take an underserved win to kick us out in the fourth round.

Schedule Results

Spoiler

August to November

December to April

Squad Overview

Spoiler

Squad Overview

First team

Fans Player of the Season

Signing of the season

Young Player of the Season

Squad Comparison

While we did manage to root out some of our weaknesses from last season, they still persist along with other problematic things.

Top 5 priority for new signings:

1. Better first choice keeper

2. Higher pace, acceleration, first touch and passing for any new Central defenders, while still keeping position, jumping and heading above average.

3. Either switch away from IWB, or get much better quality on these specific spots, as many games are lost or won in our backline capability of playing out of a pressure and getting it out to our wingers or AMC.

4. Better overall midfielders, especially the passing, decisions, first touch and marking need to go above average on both the B2B and BWM.

5. We lack leaders

Tactics

Spoiler

4-3-2-1 ControlWideHorn (RasyV11)

4-3-2-1 ControlNarrowHorn (LasyV11)

4-4-1-1 CounterCounter (V3) -

Manager profile

Spoiler

We managed to bag the Continental B License this season.

Club details

Spoiler

Finances: Took a chance on the wages, as we knew it would bleed red, but also knew we needed to push for playoff spots. Afterall, we ended in the season in white, but it will be hard to keep the finances under control if we are to keep the best players, while also pushing for better.

Staff: We still have the same staff, with around £500 p/w in wages. No current plans to find new, unless we lose anyone.

Transfers: Sold Lorent Talla mid season, for a nice little profit.

Goals & predictions:

Spoiler

3rd season goal - We managed a top 7, earned around 70k from the FA Cup, but failed to be competitive in the FA Trophy. I will still call that a goal reached, though I think we could have done better.

3rd season prediction - Well, my prediction was wrong once more.

4th Season goal: - Top 5 finish. Earn another 100k or more in a FA cup run, and be competitive in the Trophy once more.

4th Season prediction - 2nd in the league (losing in the playoff final,) FA Cup run will like previously come to an end in the first round against a 2. Liege team.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Rullom

SaintsFCFan7498 · November 24, 2023

Basingstoke Town 2028/29: League 2 Easy

Spoiler

Sky Bet League Two: CHAMPIONS

FA Cup: First Round - Lost to Port Vale

EFL Cup: Second Round- Lost to Aston Villa

EFL Trophy: 4th in Group Stage

I'll keep this short as it's fairly uninteresting. Won the league fairly comfortably. I knew League Two was going to be fairly easy in comparison to the earlier slog but this is even easier than I had thought. The original points record was somehow only 102 but we smashed that.

We had a few banana skins. Both Fleetwood and Cambridge got both wins against us. It's not like they were especially good. We were just not that great against them. Bradford also got two draws and they looked like being title contenders early on before falling away a little but came back to finish second.

In terms of the cups, the EFL Cup is the only place where we did anything resembling anything. We beat QPR in the First Round which was great but had a tough Second Round draw vs Villa. They took the lead early and we equalised in the 66th minute but they showed us why they were a Premier League team and made it 3-1. It's not a bad run considering but I wouldn't mind an easier draw to make it further.

The FA Cup was poor. We got Port Vale who ended up getting relegated and took an early lead. We were in the middle of a good league run when we led on 12 minutes but no. Port Vale turned it round through goals in the 24th and 48th minute to win. We outclassed them on xG so it's not like we weren't the better team. Strikers just had an off day.

EFL Trophy was annoying. A 1-0 loss to Oxford was frustrating but I knew we had a chance. We proved it when we beat Shrewsbury 3-2 put us level on three points with Shrewsbury and win vs Tottenham's U23s would see us through. I mean, they've lost two games. How hard can it be? So we put in our most gutless performance of the season. They won and progressed on goal difference when Shrewsbury lost 3-1 to Oxford. Fun.

Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

2028/29 Sky Bet League Two

2027/28 National League

2026/27 FA Trophy

2026/27 Vanarama National League South

deadfncat · November 24, 2023

gonna give this a go this year with Bamber Bridge. Probably wont be updating seasons etc. though in here

Rullom · November 25, 2023

Hornchurch

Season 4 | 2027/28

Light at the end of the bottle job

League / Cup / Trophy

Spoiler

Vanarama National League South: 13th predicted in the league. We were sitting number 1 in the league for 24 weeks, but completely bottled the title in the last 3 games, making sure that Barnet, running on 19 unbeaten games at the end of the season, catch up and win by 1 point. All we needed was for number 3 in the league, Woking, to score one goal in the final game, but it never materialized. Classic bottle job.

We managed to beat Worthing in the playoff semifinal in a fairly easy fashion, onward to the final …Maybe one of the most crazy and nervy final playoff matches I've experienced. We always looked like the better team, but the ME was having a laugh, making a 10 man Woking side look like Liverpool, as they were better after the red card. We managed to find the net 3 times in offside, before Player of the Season (once more,) Ben Acey found the nets to secure promotion, in the 89th min.

FA Cup: Disastrous loss in the 4th qualifier round against Eastleigh. We had just won 4-1 against them away from home, with the same team, and then we get FM’ed at home in what could be a financial disaster … hitting the crossbar no less than 7 times. Absolutely fuming.

FA Trophy: After the FA Cup disappointment, I was hopeful to get further in the trophy then previous years … Murphy's law in full swing, as we pull one of the biggest opponents we could in the second round, away from home in Worthing, and they win the coin toss after 90 min of play. Cup over, before it began.

Schedule Results

Spoiler

September to November

December to April

Squad Overview

Spoiler

First team: With good performance, come high demands. Unfortunately for our squad … I do run some tight budget control management. The only renewed contract was Ben Acey, while extensions was also automatically triggered for George Quantrell, Brad McGregor and Alfy Whittingham, along with a couple more already on longer contracts, who likely will be the only surviving getting promoted, as we are not about to triple, quadruple, or even in some cases spend 5 times the amount on wages to give new contracts to ridicules player demands.

Fans Player of the Season - Also Young player of the season, most assist, and most POM

Signing of the season - Also top goal score

Squad Comparison

I forgot to take a snapshot of the squad strength from the start of the season. Though, we seem a lot weaker now compared to the competition, compared to start with. There are likely two reasons for this. 1 is that we had 4 players above the age of 33, but secondly and more importantly, the AI seems to do a lot of transfer business throughout the year, where we tend to stick to only doing business in the summer.

Overall, we are overachieving and are overachieving each season, but there is still room for finding holes and weaknesses to improve, even if that is the case.

Tactics

Spoiler

4-2-3-1 DMBalanced (V5) - Decided to move over to a more traditional formation, and this one, was by far the most used throughout the season.

4-3-3 DP (V3) - An attacking version of the first tactic, used against bottom 5-6 teams, or when I had to push for the result and felt it was possible to gain something from it.

4-2-4 Balanced2 (V6) - When something “else” was needed. Was fairly good against top teams, who tend to play 4-3-3 wide and gegenpress, sort of taking advantage of their weaknesses with different / asymmetric attacks and two strikers. Often we had the ball only 30% but ended up with much higher match momentum then the opponents, as the counters were more lethal.

I see no reason to make any drastic changes for the upcoming season in terms of tactics.

Manager Profile

Spoiler

Another year, and yet another license. We are also getting approached by liege 1 and 2 teams now.

Also worth a mention, 3 manager awards this season.

Club details

Spoiler

Finances: Getting kicked out of the FA cup early, really hurt the finances.

Staff: Still no changes. But Laurie Walker is retiring, so that might leave room for another coach in the summer.

Transfers: Mark White left us, but that left us with 8,5k in the bank. Otherwise, all our transfers were free, and also very successful when we look at wages vs how much they improved our team, gaining a promotion and all.

Board: Not a lot going on, outside of demanding coaching badges. We are not in a financial spot to start getting new training facilities, and I have given up the idea about a senior affiliate. I honestly think it is a broken feature, as I've succeeded with getting the board to agree to find one, over 100 times (not even lying,) in the past 4-5 editions of FM, but they always come back empty handed.

Supporters: Growing rapidly now. Also upping our average attendance each season, which will be very beneficial for the finances.

Goals & predictions:

Spoiler

4th season goal - While we did get a top 5, actually top 2 in the league, we failed being competitive in either Cup’s, and that also left us with a small financial minus at the end of the season. But overall, can’t be unhappy with a promotion, which will make up for lost money quickly.

4th season prediction - Very close to hitting the nail here. That late goal in the playoff final, was all that separated the league prediction to be true or not.

5th Season goal: - While I have no idea how well we do in the transfer market, as we need a lot of new players. I feel like we should be fine, and maybe even overachieve once more. So I’ll aim for a top 10 in the national league. I’ll look past the trophy or even completely ignore it playing full rotation, as long as we can get into the first round of the FA cup and get a comfortable mid-table spot in the league.

5th Season prediction - 14th in the league, FA Cup second round, trophy runner-up.

Edited November 25, 2023 by Rullom

Patti · November 26, 2023

Is anyone else experiencing that the staff wage limit is incredibly low? Now I am in League 2 with Dorchester and every coach available want 425 p/w and I can only offer 200 p/w. I asked the board to increase the limit, they accepted it but nothing changed so I can't get any staff.

Faramir · November 27, 2023

Patti-

In similar circumstances, the only way I found around that was to let staff (whoever- GM if you have one, otherwise Asst. Manager) suggest staff additions (in responsibilities under staff). The ones they suggest are typically signable, though they probably wouldn't be your first choice. I know I saw a change in this after the season flipped on June 24th, so if in summer you might want to wait and see if it changes then.

Rullom · November 29, 2023

Hornchurch

Season 5 | 2028/29

Back To Back

League / Cup / Trophy

Spoiler

Vanarama National League: predicted 22nd. Absolute crazy campaign, and we have no rights being this good, but we are, as we end up with 87 points, in 5th place.

Honestly, I thought last season's playoff was one in a thousand, but no, we had to top it. First we get incredibly lucky against York, as Robson our goalkeeper saved 3 in the penalty shoot out in the first playoff.

Next up, semi final against Scunthrope, where they score 4 goals within 12 minutes, 4 shoots, 4 goals, and I thought that would be the end … but Harry Smith our Target Forward had other ideas, as we slowly but steadily got yourself into the match, and ended up winning the most crazy comebacks in a long time.

But why not complete it, in the final against Torquay, where to my surprise, we were by far the better team, winning 4-1 without ever looking like losing it at Wembley. Completing the most unlikely of back to back promotions without even directly trying.

FA Cup: Not a bad little run in the FA Cup, unfortunately we did not get lucky pulling one of the big out of the hat in the third round, and an early red in the replay against Fleetwood, proved a tiny bit too challenging. No big payout this year either, but still a healthy £120-130k profit in total.

FA Trophy: Even with a heavily rotated squad, this result and performance was one of the worst in the season, as Hampton & Richmond is also one of the worst teams we have been up against. Disappointing from the backups, but also making sure we could focus on the league and the upcoming FA cup game.

Schedule Results

Spoiler

September to november

December to March

April

Squad Overview

Spoiler

First team

Fans Player of the Season - Surprisingly so. Also taking Young Player of the Season and most player of the match awards too.

Signing of the season - Though he only signed in January, his impact was massive, scoring 19 goals in 17 starts and 4 subs.

Top Goal Score - And league top goal score too.

Squad Comparison

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

https://i.imgur.com/bYo5hJ9.png

https://i.imgur.com/JLwK4LQ.png

https://i.imgur.com/k86ktmV.png

https://i.imgur.com/x7MyxZF.png

https://i.imgur.com/nHl3t33.png

https://i.imgur.com/FV7dqI2.png

https://i.imgur.com/u8o6x6A.png
So, I think it is fair to say that our squad is at best average, or even slightly below average, making a promotion an incredible achievement. As of now, we only got 6 players on contracts running beyond the summer, and I think like last summer, there will be plenty of new faces for League two. A lot of the players currently at the club are none contracted, wanting a contract higher then what I want to give them, while other players underperformed or simply not worth keeping around ( I expect to maybe give 1 or 2 contracts to players I’ll like to keep.). I’ll not even worry about our weaknesses or strengths, as I know what I’m looking for in new players for our tactics. Only question is, if those players will be good enough, but I bet they will.

Tactics

Spoiler

3-3-1-1-2 Balanced Asy (V2) - Unexpectedly using this a lot, something developed after some poor form in the start of the season. Tend to do well against 4-3-3 and other 5-3-2 systems.

4-2-3-1 DMBalanced (V6) - Same as last season, and still performing above what I could expect. Still the most used, and I tend to always start with it as most of the league also use 4-2-3-1 systems and it performs well against similar tactics, so unless I specifically see a 4-3-3 or 5-3-2 this is the starter, and then I often switch it around inside the match if needed.

4-2-4 Balanced2 (V6) - Same as last season, but not used nearly as much, as my players fit the other two systems better.

I've been experimenting in other saves with other tactics and I got some thoughts after 400 hours of play time - Like the last couple of editions of FM, if we want to over perform with our “average” players, we always need a gegenpress, higher line, counter / counter press kind of system. It seems to just outperform any other tactical choices, and that is also what the AI goes for, when I noticed a team of theirs overperform. Thankfully there is room for a lot of nuance within the positions + player role, and also in possession style of play. On the other hand, In transition and out of possession, it seems to be very hard to make anything work without those specific tactical approaches. Mid blocks, low blocks, regroup, and trying to be a defensive minded team, with players that are of lower quality

Manager Profile

Spoiler

Last season we won manager of the season, it was just updated a few weeks after the season was done.

Club details

Spoiler

Finances:

With more fans, a better run in the FA cup and also keeping the wages fairly low, we are starting to have a decent profit. And that balance is even after we have paid for stadium expansion, training facilities upgraded to basic, and the youth training in process of being upgraded too, so we are actually looking really good financially.

Nice little update on ticket prices. 20% is actually a big deal.

Staff:

Our former assistant manager, Steve Taylor decided to leave in the summer when his contract ran out, also Laurie Walker was sacked as the GK coach, so we had room for a couple of new faces. Upping the wage bill for staff to around £775 p/w + our contract, which is £625 p/w, so a total of £1400 p/w.

Transfers:

I sort of forget to show the early signings in the summer, which is these:

Following these, after the transfer history resets:

Like predicted, a lot of movement, like I predict a lot of new faces for the next season. Also an interesting transfer out by Dan Casey of £18k, but that could be much higher with a sell on clause of 50% same goes with Afi Adebayo.

Pro tip, check your buyouts clauses from time to time. Hot dang, we just made 110k early in the season. Honestly I don't believe they would bring in that much in sales anyhow. Also worth saying, that those transfer money will just get liquidated into better overall balance next season, which in turn will be used to again update facilities hopefully. We are not about to spend them on players.

Board:

Board decided to announce a new expansion to the stadium very early in the pre-season, which was already completed. Actually a good deal, for 1000 extra capacity, and likely already paid for itself.

Also the training facilities were finally getting a facelift. Expensive, but worth it in the long run. Actually, this will be the focus for a lot of our money in the future too.

Youth facilities are cruelty in the process of getting upgraded. Honestly a bit of a “oops,” I clicked the wrong thing kind of mistake. But I guess we could try to make an academy, not by youth intake, but from signing good prospects to sell for profit after a year or two in training (Chealea / Brighton) model.

The board also announced that we turned professional at the end of the season. This could lead to some unfortunate problematic situations when it comes to contract negotiations for the upcoming season, as players tend to want a lot more money from professional clubs. And I do not intend to overspend, and put our club into a rough spot financially, so tricky to say the least.

Goals & predictions

Spoiler

5th season goal - Let’s just say all goals were reached, and then some.

5th season prediction - Nope, pretty far from 14th spot, and also completely wrong about a runner up in the trophy, and we got all the way to the third round in the FA Cup.

6th Season goal: - From what I can tell, is the quality not that much higher in League two, so dependent on my transfer skills in the summer, I think we should aim for a mid table season again, while trying to get as far as possible in the FA cup, to hopefully pull a big team out of the hat in the third round to give us a big payout. I believe we are also out of the normal trophy but taking part in the Carabao Cup and something called the EFL Trophy instead. The latter seems to have a good amount of prize money, so we might want to give it a go.

6th Season prediction - Promotion? Nah, but I’ll actually predict us to go top 10, and close to top 7, sitting just outside the playoffs. I hope we will be beaten by Manchester City or Spurs in the third round of FA Cup away from home, earning us 2 million … get in. All the other Cups, don’t really care, but we might do well in that ESL trophy.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Rullom
Forgot to add a picture.

Faramir · November 30, 2023

Season 5- 1st Season League 1 2028-29 Finished 1st League 1

After all the drama of last season, League 1 was smooth sailing, due to several additions. The first big addition was when I badgered the Board (and it took a lot of pushing) to pursue getting us a Senior Affiliate. It was jackpot time when one of the clubs on offer was Manchester City. Besides the friendly giving us a financial boost- they loaned us LW Eduardo Benfica (15 assists and 4 goals) as a key ingredient for our success. More huge boosts- to make us very comfortable financially and actually getting our training facilities upgraded- were reaching the 3rd round of EFL Cup and traveling to Emirates versus Arsenal (we lost 3-2 in a very competitive match) and reaching 3rd round of FA Cup and traveling to Anfield against Liverpool (we lost 3-1 in a match that wasn't that close). Both of those netted us over 3 Million in gate fees. We also won the EFL Trophy for our first Cup Hardware as we defeated Swindon 2-0 at Wembley. Our coffers were also boosted when Bolton came calling for Mark Scully with a 1.6 Million bid that was accepted before I had an opportunity to offer input (typical happening for a lower side- but still bugs me when I can't at least try to get more for the player). With the friendly boost from Man City and a couple other big clubs- we added enough to start doing world scouting- a boon at this level.

With no youth program to speak of, we continued to poach released Premier youth players and hit paydirt with an ex-Arsenal forward named Kenny Morgan. Morgan was a godsend after losing Scully and netted 31 goals with 6 assists as our leading scorer. We had released Mahamadou Doumbia (well, only had him on 1 year contract), so were able to allocate our 2nd ESC slot to Argentine forward Federico Parilla after signing him on free from Argentine side Kimberley. Parilla scored 20 goals with 8 assists. Our strike triumvarate was complete when we signed on free Omari Forson (released by Swansea) after the season started- he scored 26 goals with 8 assists.

Mervyn O'Connor continued yeoman work in our center mids with 4 goals and 5 assists, but the biggest boost to our entire side was when we signed Leo Castledine on free (released by Chelsea) and he added 13 goals (many key goals down the stretch) and 6 assists from his central midfield role. Also contributing in the center were Sydie Peck (6 goals, 2 assists), Pawel Ograbek (4 goals, 3 assists) and Joe Snowdon (2 goals, 3 assists). Benfica was our main LW, but we also got good value from Mouhameth Mane (youth released on free from Manchester City- 7 goals, 7 assists). The diminutive Scot Jamie Watt continued to regularly play on RW and added 7 goals and 9 assists. We also had Icelandic loanee RW Axel Kari Willumsson (7 goals, 11 assists) and after Federico Danneman received his Work Permit to free up the 2nd ESC slot at midseason we added 18 year old Paraguayan RW/LW Fabian Riquelme on free from Paraguayan side Fulgencio Yegros and he chipped in with 6 assists.

We received a huge boost during the season when we signed DC Jamal Mohammed after West Ham released him- he anchored our center defense for the rest of the season. We also had Taylor Foran and Jem Hewlett, but their spotty play during the season opened the door for another released youth player- Tom McKenna (released by Everton) to be the main partner to Mohammed. We also landed another promising released youth signee with Irishman Ian Atkinson (released by Arsenal), but he spent the season on loan to Bath because of the other 4 available. Our stalwart RB was Danneman and we had to fend off substantial bids from larger sides to keep the 19 year Argentinean (that is why the Cup boosts were so valuable- it meant our coffers were full enough that the Chairman didn't automatically accept the offers). LB continued to be the steady Guilherme Montoia.

Matteo Chiacig continued to be the main man in Goal, but we managed to sign another really good young Keeper in Alexi Rojas Fedorushchenko after Arsenal released him and with these two we should be fine in net for the next couple of seasons at least.

We continued to plow the transfer budget into wages and scouting budget, as the only two players I have purchased have been Foran (45K) and Danneman (4K) - everyone else has been signed on free. All that means we have a large boost in transfer funds for moving to Championship play and a lot of room on our weekly wage budget to add players. We remain a very, very young club because of this approach and that may cost us a bit moving to Championship, but we won League 1 by 10 points over favored Watford and scored 124 goals (League 1 record) against 59 allowed- this club is good enough with additions to play in Championship.

Mr_Demus · November 30, 2023

Dulwich Hamlet 2025/2026 - Vanarama National League

Once again many points and many goals, but also a fairly jeaky defense and a keeper who didn't play to his standards. But we still managed to gain a second straight promotion. I am excited for League 2, but I fear that the financial and reputational gap might hinder us. I think we have might have rised too fast, and ideally, I would have liked to stay in the National League for another season. We will take it as an experience.

Spoiler

Once again, we crashed out the FA Cup by losing to inferior opposition in Banbury in the first round proper.

The FA trophy, however, was a success as we managed to go on and win it.

Spoiler

Our key players this season were new man from Crystal Palace Roshaun Mathurin who bursted onto the scene from his inside forward on the left.

Loanee Ethan Brierly from Brentford became our assist king from his DLP role. Unfortunately, he wouldn't join us at the end of his contract.

Former Man U player Sam Murray was a constant threat from left back.

Last years star Victor Akinwale, still scored goals, but struggled a bit more. He didn't really develop and wanted to be a star player, and I simply didn't feel he was worth it, so we let him go.

Our stadium, Champion Hill, didn't fulfill the requirements to play in League 2, so for the next two years we will groundshare with Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road, while our new stadium is being built.

Previous season goals:

Mid table in Vanarama National Exceeded

Sign key players to new contracts Accomplished

Progress to the FA Cup proper Accomplished but still disappointing

Goals for next season:

Survive in League 2

Have a run in one of the cups

Nurture finances

SaintsFCFan7498 · December 2, 2023

Basingstoke Town 2029/30: League Won

Spoiler

Sky Bet League One: CHAMPIONS

FA Cup: Fifth Round - Lost to Arsenal

EFL Cup: Fourth Round - Lost to Brighton

EFL Trophy: Quarter Final. Lost to Bristol Rovers

In terms of the league, it was definitely tougher than League Two. I think that was partially my fault as I wasn't as aggressive as I was when we transitioned to a Professional side. Although the signings I made were good and did make the difference I wanted, it's more about pushing to be better as a building point for the Championship and something who might turn up in the Premier League. Realistically, that makes building for the Championship a little tougher.

There were definitely points where I felt like we were going to throw it away. Before we earned promotion, it felt like we had to grind every single point and it was a misery. I thought it was the start of the impending disaster but we got through it and promoted when other teams around us failed to do so.

Until this point, we've gone for Frees and Loans. I feel like the Championship is the turning point to spend some money and we've got £3m to spend which is a good amount. Hopefully, the wage budget does fit that as well as I hope it does. I know it's going to be a struggle going up against recent Premier League teams. Even Derby made it there for a season recently so that's just another team to go to war with. A surprise team there is probably Wrexham who are about 9th in the table with a few games to play. Weird.

In terms of the Cups, we did what we could with one irritating exception. We beat who was in front of us in the EFL Cup before a Premier League club was drawn against us in Brighton and the same for the FA Cup where we took teams like Middlesbrough to replays and a win before Arsenal were too much for us.

Now for the one which hurts. EFL Trophy. We didn't lose to a U23s team. We got Tottenham's U23s again but didn't make that mistake again to top the group then beat Wycombe and Reading before Bristol Rovers. They took the lead in the 14th minute but neither team was especially impressive but we grew more into the game than they did and turned it round to make it 2-1 through goals in the 45th and 68th minutes. A positive. We were leading. Late into the game. Wasting time. A corner. 95th minute for Bristol Rovers. They hadn't offered anything. Then they scored. 95th minute. No Extra Time. Straight to penalties. It wasn't the best shootout but that's post-patch for you. Both teams missed the first before we scored the third. They missed. We were 1-0 up after two each. So of course, our player missed that opportunity and it's 1-1 after 6. Both teams score their fourth. Then our fifth penalty. The 9th of the night. Missed. Gutting. Unfortunately, Khoshaba couldn't bail us out like he had a few tiimes before. We were out in the cruelest way.

Spoiler

I'm also an Icon now which is nice.

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Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

2029/30 Sky Bet League One

2028/29 Sky Bet League Two

2027/28 National League

2026/27 FA Trophy

2026/27 Vanarama National League South

SaintsFCFan7498 · December 6, 2023

Basingstoke Town 2030/31: How did we get playoffs?

Spoiler

Sky Bet Championship: 4th - Lost to West Brom in one half at home.

FA Cup: Third Round - Lost to Reading

EFL Cup: First Round - Lost to Oxford United

I'll cut to the chase on the cups. In the EFL Cup, we bottled a 2-0 lead then lost 3-0 on penalties. Against Reading, it was a tight game but I didn't want a replay so I made sure we lost 2-1. We were in good form in the league and didn't want to throw that away.

As much as I thought we'd be safe, the first half of the season is what I expected from the whole of it. It was a struggle and bigger teams showed why. We were inconsistent and relegation was never a story so I pretty much put that problem to bed. As much as I made signings, I didn't think they'd take us to the Top 4. The thing is, I was right. After losing to Colchester in December, we were on a losing run and 13th. By all accounts, this was to be a consolidation season but then we hit form. I was so sure we'd still be here that I made kits for the next Championship season.

After beating some awful South Coast team who eventually finished 23rd, we had 16 out of 24 wins. However, I can't attribute that all to being a turnaround in form. In late January, I made a few signings which gave us a better chance. Wunsch on a free from Uruguay on an ESC Permit got us 8 goals. He was stellar. Then we signed two wingers who gave us more options. Unfortunately, the 18 year old Scottish kid was injured so we have to run our usual Asymmetric 4-3-3 which had given us success in the past. Mainly because we didn't have a Left Winger.

Heading into West Brom, I've got no expectations. I didn't expect to be here and a Playoff Final would be great. West Brom are a difficult team and in the league, we'd won 2-0 at home for our only win in November and lost 1-0 at The Hawthorns for our only loss in March. In terms of the other teams, we shocked a weird tactically set-up Sunderland to a 4-0 home win after losing 2-1 at the Stadium of Light. With Watford, we lost 2-0 at Home early in the season before winning 4-2 at Vicarage Road. Welcome to the Championship. As a Saints fan, I find it unpredictable in real life and that's going to take another step-up. Though it was Pure and Simple in my Early Access save with them.

Spoiler

With it being significant, I thought i'd write this bit live-ish. Just finished the first leg and it was a nervy affair. Del Rio scored in the 4th minute of a 1-0 away win. I'll take it. Our APs have started to elevate themselves and introduce themselves in the goalscoring game which is what Wunsch is also a part of. Sometimes, it's difficult to choose between the two and Del Rio is a £99k release clause signing. Definitely worth it. The home game will probably be about as nervy and I'm glad we've got the advantage as well as home advantage itself. Sunderland/Watford play on the Sunday so we won't find out who we play until then. After we find out the 19 teams either team would join.

That first leg gave me so much hope. We scored in the 10th minute of this to make it 2-0. West Brom had 0 shots in the first half. We give them a goal from their first shot and that revived them. They were pretty much dead and buried. Then the throw in. Far post, 2-2. A great save from our keeper in the 90th. A big chance for Fletcher which barely went wide. I thought that shot was in and sat there stunned. Then it happened. A good ball in behind our defence. It wasn't immediately given and I had, of course, forgotten VAR exists with how we hadn't had it all season. Then it was. We had 2 minutes to score. But that's it. I'm proud of this season but it's deflating how it ended. I felt like we had a chance. You can probably sense the difference in tone between the last paragraph and this.

Since I had just gotten the email, I thought I'd mention this new stadium. It's been in the works since last season but now we've actually got something.

Spoiler

Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

2029/30 Sky Bet League One

2028/29 Sky Bet League Two

2027/28 National League

2026/27 FA Trophy

2026/27 Vanarama National League South

Edited December 6, 2023 by SaintsFCFan7498

Rullom · December 7, 2023

Hornchurch

Season 6 | 2029/30

A fantastic season

League / Cup / Trophy

Spoiler

League Two: predicted 24th, Obviously a sensational season being top 5 with 83 points.

Playoff semifinal: Against AFC Wimbledon, I expected us to lose as they had proven to be tricky opponents in the past, and over two legs, the chances were maybe even less in our favour - But I did not expect to almost get FM’ed from a second shot of theirs in the 84th minute in the second game, and then get a penalty in the 118th minute to win the match & playoff with a combined 6.06xG vs 1.34xG for them over two matches. Typical FM experience. In the end, happy days as we won 3-2 on aggregate to secure the final playoff spot.

Playoff final: Against Walsall at Wembley. I expected an even match, but to be honest, Walsall was the better team. Though, seeing us going 3-1 up early on in the second half, I thought we would come out victorious. No, a complete collapse ended the dream of triple promotion from playoffs … Still, this was a fantastic season.

FA Cup: Decent effort, as we get to the third round, but unfortunately not getting lucky with the draw, as Bristol Rovers, was one of the worst teams to get, too little of a stadium and fan base to bring us a big payout, and too good to beat.

Carabao Cup: Small surprise run by the rotational options, as we got all the way to the fourth round, where we got beaten by Aston Villa.

EFL Trophy: We got out of the group stages, and lost to Crawley Town in the third round on penalties. Not a bad run, and as I thought, also decent prize money getting this far, at least worth a run, compared to the carabao cup.

Schedule Results

Spoiler

August to november

December to february

March to May

Squad Overview

Spoiler

First team

Fans Player of the Season: Also Signing of the season, Young player of the season, most assists, most PoM, and in the EPL team of the season. Maybe one of the players with lowest expectations in the team, bringing him in as 3rd choice WB, he took everyone by surprise.

Top Goal Score: 27 goals, another great season by the big man upfront, but it could be the last as he is now 35 years old.

Squad Comparison

Tactics

Spoiler

4-2-3-1 DMBalanced V8 - Couple of changes compared to last season, such as not passing into space, the CD’s changed to BPD’s and also a few other instructions to specific roles. Still the bread and butter tactic of our successes.

3-4-2-1 Balanced V2 - This is my direct counter to 4-3-3 / good Gegenpress teams, and you can see how effectfull it is, if you take a look at the semifinal playoff against Wimbledon.

4-2-4 Balanced2 V8 - Almost the same as last season, and often something I use inside the matches if we have a hard time finding good chances (but in control,) with the 4-2-3-1 and need to spice it up.

Manager Profile

Spoiler

Club details

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Finances: Fair to say, that now playing in league two, we are financially stable, and can look forward to spending even more on training facilities, players and staff in the future. We are still spending half of what Port Vale on 23rd spot is on player salary, so I think we can easily go a bit further up, seeing we also ended up with over 1.4 mil in the bank.

Another price ticket increase. Love to see it.

Staff: We might consider making an overhaul soon, and spend some more money on areas we haven’t - Such as, set piece coach, performance analyst and sports science staff.

Transfers: We spend, for the first time, a bit of money (kind of mistake,) on Sammy Lilies, 8.5k, but in the bigger scheme of things, it doesn't matter much.

Board: Iv’e been trying a couple of times throughout the season to get the board to upgrade the training facilities, but failed, same goes for the senior affiliate, which I must have been hitting successfully around 100 times now, without the board coming back with any suggestions.

There was a takeover in the summer. Didn’t change much.

Board decided to announce yet another new expansion to the stadium for 1250 extra capacity, for 1.4 mil. Well, hopefully it will be worth it. (unless they decide to build/buy a new stadium this upcoming summer, it is worth it.)

Goals & predictions:

Spoiler

6th season goal - Everything went according to plan. It was a fantastic season.

6th season prediction - Funny enough, we were a lot closer to promotion then what I was predicting, a top 5 rather than top 10, and unfortunately it was another unlucky season with the draws in the FA Cup, but we did also do good in the other cups, though without aiming to do so.

7th Season goal: - Top 7 in the league, third round in the FA Cup, and continue to grow the clubs finances even with increasing the wages (which very likely will happen.)

7th Season prediction - I think we will be title contenders. So second or third spot but close to 1st in points, and getting direct promotion. We will also finally get a big payout in the FA Cup - more wishful thinking.

SaintsFCFan7498 · December 9, 2023

Basingstoke Town 2031/32: xG Champions

Spoiler

Sky Bet Championship: 3rd - Lost to Watford because a guy who barely scores got a hattrick

FA Cup: Third Round - Lost to Watford in a replay

EFL Cup: First Round - Lost to Exeter after just pure awfulness

Cups weren't really that exciting. We were dreadful against Exeter and they deserved to win. After a 3-0 season opening loss to Burnley, it did make me panic a little but then we did what we did all season where we got 20 clean sheets in the league and the fewest goals conceded. It's not normal for me to do this but it wasn't bad. In the FA Cup, we got Watford. Took the lead in the 12th minute before they equalised in the 92nd minute of injury time so we needed a replay. They went 3-0 up inside 20 minutes and we came back to draw 3-3 in the 58th. I thought we'd take the lead but we didn't and needed Extra Time then penalties. They were a misery losing 4-1.

Now. The league. Good form but losing the wrong games really hurt us. If there were a few games I'd like to point out where we should have reversed the positions between us and Leicester, it's probably Wrexham away. We had come into that game with 6 wins and a draw before that game to close out December. We went 2-0 up inside 10 minutes. Then, somehow, they came back and made it 2-2 in the 31st and 37th minutes. I thought we'd still be able to win the game but no. Nothing for the rest and it's 2 points dropped.

Around the end of November, we had Middlesbrough away. In the home fixture near the end of the season, they were incompetent and we dominated them to win 3-0. We were a lot like that in the away game and were cruising to a 2-0 win. Then out of seemingly nowhere, they get a goal back in the 87th minute but it's fine. We're better than them. No. 97th minute. They get the equaliser they truly don't deserve. 2-2. Two points dropped.

You're wondering why I say xG Champions? Well. Leicester and Sunderland. They both outscore their xPts by 18 and 19 points respectively. It's an insult how much they overperformed. Fluke. I hope they fail in the Premier League whether we get promoted or not. I'm annoyed.

Spoiler

So we head into the playoffs again. Horrible. Against Watford who we've already had a home and away cup tie and it was miserable. I'm hoping for revenge but who knows? It's the playoffs. The most miserable experience in football unless you're a neutral or win. If there's one mistake I've realised from that experience, it's not playing this song.

I would say the song worked as we took the lead through Luca Fletcher in the 21st minute then they equalised within 5 minutes. It wasn't great and we made some changes at half-time bringing on players including Nicolas Wunsch. He got sent off in the 57th and I thought life was a misery. But no. Fletcher scores again within 3 minutes and the retiring Lewis Cook made it 3-1 in the 73rd minute. I hate this so much. At least we've got a 2 goal cushion this time. Just hope we don't do what we did last season.

Well. That was horrible.

Spoiler

THIS MAN SCORED 3 GOALS AGAINST ME!

Spoiler

Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

2029/30 Sky Bet League One

2028/29 Sky Bet League Two

2027/28 National League

2026/27 FA Trophy

2026/27 Vanarama National League South

Rullom · December 11, 2023

Hornchurch

Season 7 | 2030/31

Happy days

League / Cup / Trophy

Spoiler

League Two: Again, dead last in the prediction from the media. It started a bit worrying in the early stages of the season, but the mid-season was fantastic, and when we got our 1st spot, we never looked back, and won the league with 3 games left.

FA Cup: An interesting run, came to the end, after a replay against Nottingham Forrest. Not quite lucky with the draws (yet again), but in the end, this FA run did generate a good amount of money, estimating around 350k.

Carabao Cup: Fulham in the first match … Yeah, not ideal.

EFL Trophy: https://i.imgur.com/2saIKaV.jpg Lost in the quarter-final to Wigan on penalties. A good run, and I could see us win this trophy in the near future with a bit more luck.

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

Schedule Results

Spoiler

August to November

December to February

March to April

Squad Overview

Spoiler

First team

Fan's Player of the Season: Also signing of the season, Young player of the season, Top goal score with 25 goals, Most PoM with 6, and highest average rating of 7.2.

Most assists:

Tactics

Spoiler

4-2-3-1 DMBalanced V10 - Same same, but decided to pull it back to CD’s rather BPD’s and also a bit fewer overall personal instructions.

5-2-1-2 Balanced V1 - More or less the same as the 5-2-2-1 from last season, just with two strikers instead.

Manager Profile

Spoiler

Club details

Spoiler

Board:

Here we go, training facilities getting upgraded two times in the same season. (some inside the club say that we are underpaying our staff and players), to finance such things, to that, I’ll just laugh and release them if they ask again.

We also upgraded for higher wages allowed, as I think there is a bug with staff. After we became professional, all staff in the game want higher wages then what we are allowed to give.

Supporters:

Transfers:

Released:

Finances:

Staff:

The wages on staff, is starting to add up, now when we’re getting performance analyst, sport scientist and an extra coach. The main problem is that we turned professional and minimum contracts are starting at around 500 p/w now. Basically our budget for staff wages went up with 500% or so, and will likely increase even further moving into League One, as I also look to find youngsters to start to train in the academy, whom also need coaches, physios, etc. (but that is a long term project).

Goals & predictions:

Spoiler

7th season goal - I can’t be anything but happy with how this season went. By far the most successful. First league title in the cabinet, and we manage to do so without at all bankrupting the club, actually quite the opposite, as we look very stable, with double upgraded training facilities within one season too.

7th season prediction - Well, we did better than what I could have hoped, and always looked like the team winning promotion, but still a bit surprised by winning the title with such ease.

8th Season goal: - Survive? No, I think we can aim a little higher than that. I would be good with a top 15 spot to make it a consolidating season, before we look for the big push. As always, I hope, we will get lucky in the FA Cup, but our main focus will be the league and make sure that we get enough points to be nowhere near relegation.

8th Season prediction - League one got a lot more quality compared to League two, or there is a bigger gap between top and bottom at least, and I think we will end up in the mid-table somewhere, but hard to tell if it will be 18th or 10th.

Edited December 11, 2023 by Rullom

SaintsFCFan7498 · December 12, 2023

Basingstoke Town 2032/33: WAR IS OVER

Spoiler

Sky Bet Championship: 2nd

FA Cup: Third Round - Lost to Man City in a replay

EFL Cup: Quarter Final - Lost to Newcastle

War is over. It was one of the more miserable seasons. At one point, we had about 6/7 teams covered by about 3 points. It was just ridiculous. Then around January/February time, teams fell off and the running order slowly became us, Palace if they won two games in hand, Wolves and Sheffield United. Fortunately, Palace didn't win those games and slowly fell away. That on top of more injury struggles than normal. It was just one of those ridiculous Championship seasons. I can't quite put it into words, really. It was one of those horrible seasons where teams just couldn't get a stranglehold on the league. Even Wolves needed Sheffield United to fail to win their penultimate game to win the title. That 86th minute Burnley equaliser is what did it. I didn't want to go through the playoffs. Would it have been third time lucky? Probably not. But I don't care. We did it. We're finally in the Premier League.

In terms of the cups, it was a reasonably successful season. We got a bad luck draw to Man City in the FA Cup but took them to a replay. In the EFL Cup, we won against Plymouth, Palace and Bristol City to set up a Fourth Round tie against Arsenal. We won on penalties. It set up a Quarter Final show against Newcastle which was a step too far. Whatever. It feels so long ago that I genuinely forgot what happened. This season took a toll out of me in a way I could probably equate it all the way back in the National League South with the final day equaliser for our promotion. That's all I can say on it right now.

My board did give me a scare in January, however. My stellar Finnish goalkeeper was wanted by Alaves and offered about £12m for him at some point. Fortunately, I protested the transfer and they accepted it. Their gamble in me paid off as WE'RE PREMIER LEAGUE! Him being wanted by clubs like that is a good sign. I just need to find about 10-15 players of that calibre.

Spoiler

Erm. I don't really know how to manage money like this now. Wish me luck. Over double my current wage bill of about £117k. £30m is about £29m more than I've spent. My best deals have been XDR for £99k. I haven't managed this much money since my Early Access save with Saints.

Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

2029/30 Sky Bet League One

2028/29 Sky Bet League Two

2027/28 National League

2026/27 FA Trophy

2026/27 Vanarama National League South

jrobertgordon13 · December 12, 2023

SEASON 1 - DULWICH HAMLET

League: 18th in Vanarama National League North

FA Cup: Lost in Third Qualifying Round to Hungerford

FA Trophy: Lost in Fourth Round to Oldham Athletic

Player of the Season: Decarrey Sherrif - 24 Goals, 2 Assists

CMU Chips · December 13, 2023

St. Ives season 3 - Stuck in the north again - 4th

Not much to say, we spent the whole season in the top 6 but ran into Scunthorpe in the playoffs and the officials decided to award them three penalties. Typical rigged lower league game. Board keeps refusing to let me take coaching badges and we're losing tons of money so hopefully we can figure out how to push to promotion next season or the club might just go bust.

League table -

Squad stats -

Transfer history -

Rullom · December 15, 2023

Hornchurch

Season 8 | 2031/32

Back to back champions

League / Cup / Trophy

Spoiler

League One: As always, predicted last by the media. The early season started horrendously, and I thought it would end up as a battle against relegation, or at best a mid-table slumber season. But a few changes to the tactic, and some consistent wins going into the mid-season, and all of a sudden we looked like title, or maybe promotion contenders. With one game to play, we won the promotion, now the question was, who would win the title, as both us and Charlton were sitting on 87 points, though we had the better goal score. With a 3-0 over Peterborough, we took EFL by surprise, and won back to back titles.

FA Cup: An early direct red card, stopped us in the third round against Bolton. Funny thing is, though we seem to always manage to find some of the hardest/worst draws, round for round, we still get to the third or fourth round often, to generate some money, without it being the big pay day.

Carabao Cup: Knocked out in the third round by Brighton.

EFL Trophy: We were knocked out already after two games in the group stages. Very disappointing, just like most of the early stages of the season.

Schedule Results

Spoiler

Squad Overview

Spoiler

First team

Fan's Player of the Season: Pedro Roxo - Also Young player of the season, the highest average rating of 7.1, top goal score with 26 goals and most PoM with 5.

Signing of the season: Leo Shahar

Most assists: Josh Ginnelly with 10

Tactics

Spoiler

4-2-3-1 DMBalanced V12 - After the poor run at the start of the season, I decided to try to do underlap runs instead, and that worked like a charm as both the WB’s and DM’s made good use of this creating a lot of overloads in the half spaces. I also played 1 RPM in the midfield, for most of the season, but which side, dependent on who was playing. For once, I did not really play any other tactics.

Manager Profile

Spoiler

Awards

Club details

Spoiler

Board: I think a takeover might happen in the summer.

Supporters:

Transfers: 600k from selling Paw Nielsen, paid for 16 months worth of wages. Love it.

Released:

Finances: Still positive, but that will only stay that way, as long we sell players. We do not have the sponsors, ticket sales, competition income, etc etc, to keep up with the wages in the long run. We are going to depend heavily on selling players over the next couple of years.

Staff: I mentioned that we would be getting U21 and U18 staff, that plan have changed, as I sort of forgot about the very strict rules with Brexit, making any EU players foreigners. So, we are going to focus more on our first team, and bring in the best 18 to 23-year-old players we can find for money, develop them a bit, and turn a profit when the big teams come knocking instead.
The board gave us 4 new coach slots, and 3 more scout slots after we won the league, which we might look to use in the summer. I would also love to upgrade the facilities again, but that is dependent on selling players for big profit.

Goals & predictions:

Spoiler

8th season goal - I believe a lot of the success, is down to understanding the ME and creating a somewhat broken tactic. Though, that also come from playing the game for 1000 of hours each year, and most of us, that play that much, know that the in transition and out possession stuff, is almost a default choice in reason years. Anyhow, I’m very happy with how the season went in the end, though I’m starting to get salty when it comes to our luck, or lack of, in the FA Cup.

8th season prediction - No, no, big no. Clearly, both I and the media is very far from predicting anything correct.

9th Season goal: - Finish in the mid-table … yes I know, history tell us, we will likely do better, but this is the biggest step up in quality when it comes to the English divisions.

9th Season prediction - I don’t even know what to predict anymore. I’ll go with us ending up in 10th to the 12th spot area, as I think any team beyond that position will have 11 players on the pitch, which each equal our entire wage budget.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Rullom

DazRTaylor · December 16, 2023

After spending - literally - over four hours of reloading, I finally got the club I wanted.

Club Introduction

Kingstonian

The Manager

This is me.

Personal Contract

Season     Contract Start Date     Contract Expiry Date     Pre Tax Wage     Post Tax Wage
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start          24 June 2024             30 June 2025         £500 p/w          £400 p/w

Personal Coaching Data

Season     Reputation            Qualifications     Att  Def  Fit  GkD  GkH  GkS  Tac  Tec  Men  SeP  WWY  Ada  Det  PlK  YoK  LoD  PeM  Mot
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At start   Minimal   (0.50*)     None                 1    1    1    1    1    1    1    3    1    1    3    1    1    1    2    2    2    2

Club Facilities

Season     Training Facilities  Youth Facilities  Youth Level  Corporate Facilities  Junior Coaching  Youth Recruitment  Club Reputation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
At Start   Poor                 Poor                   0       Basic                 Fairly Basic     Limited            Local   (1.00*)

Season Record

Season     Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Overall Career Record

After Season   Played     Won     Drawn     Lost     Goals For     Goals Against     Goal Difference     Win Percentage     Time At Club
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Purchase Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Purchased From          Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transfer Sale Record

Date               Player                    Position               Club Sold To                 Country                   Transfer Fee
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Trophy Haul

Season     Competition Won
--------------------------

Trophy Cabinet

League Titles
-------------

Cup Competition Victories
-------------------------

Career Overview

Season     Champions League    Europa League    Europa Conference League             League                             Position     F.A. Cup                    Carabao Cup        Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edited December 16, 2023 by DazRTaylor

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