[FM24] CDs, BOTs, and Unkindness – FC Isle of Man

[erik45]

13 hours ago, Carninho said:

One thing i did find is that its really easy to find OP staff. I had a DoF who was Premier League standard while none league asking for minimal wages. only issue is that they come on a one year contract and move on at the end of the season, but it helps to have a good scout. My National League setup carried me through for years (players, staff etc)

Yes, I've had the same experience. My coaching and scouting staff has always been the best in the league. I'm yet to find very good physios (and the board doesn't allow me to have sport scientists )

Edited April 1 by erik45

[erik45]

Sell-on clause. We have two players who we have sold for actual money. There's Stewart 31a who we sold last summer and there's Fagan 29a in the summer of 2030. Both players have a sell on clause (40 % & 50 %).

Fagan 29a been starting striker for Bury for four seasons and is even the captain of the team! We don't know his current value, but previously it has been up to 2,5 m€. Bury has been promoted four times during this save and are taking steps towards a fifth promotion, I would guess his value is more likely to go up rather than down. It would be a nice boost for us if Bury end up selling him. The only problem I see is that his contract is up at the end of the next season. Fingers crossed that they sell him before that - or at least get him a new contract!

[erik45]

Youth intake preview. A fine prospect in the attack, but other than that, this looks like a disappointing batch of youth players. I would really love to have a good CB and RB, maybe a target man as well. But as a reminder for myself: The preview is more about the positions than how good the players in those positions will be - and this still is a 5-star intake!  

[erik45]

December 2034. Alright, alright, we found our rhythm! Even Christmas dinners didn't slow us down as our 2nd demolished Hyde United (and Sweetser-Hawkes 34a continued his amazing goal-scoring form with a hat-trick). It would have been a perfect month, but the goalless draw against Alfreton Town made a little dent to our record.

Table. Good results = good position. 

Player of the Month. Our target man Dugdale 31c has been a really good form, scoring in the first three games of the month.

Upcoming fixtures. Five in the league + one league cup game. Both 1st and 2nd XI will be needed. December was an excellent month, could January be at least close to the same?

[TelcontarTargaryen]

Wow, that is quite a comback through the leagues for Bury.

[Carninho]

2 hours ago, erik45 said:

Yes, I've had the same experience. My coaching and scouting staff has always been the best in the league. I'm yet to find very good physios (and the board doesn't allow me to have sport scientists )

yeah it doesnt get much better for me in the Prem haha

Spoiler

 

[erik45]

1 hour ago, TelcontarTargaryen said:

Wow, that is quite a comback through the leagues for Bury.

Yes, and what makes it even more impressive is that they are not tycoon-owned like almost all the other teams that have been promoted multiple times.

What helps them is the community around the club. For example, we've faced them twice, during my first season, and in their home game they had almost 3,800 spectators at county league level (9th level). Now they average 7,000+ attendances at League 2

[erik45]

January 2035. Not the best start for the year. I feel like we play better if it's a team that are favourites against us. Maybe I need to change tactics because in the games against relegation candidates we just give them the ball and hope to get something out of counter attacks. That's not the plan I've tried to create, but it happens almost in all of these kind of games.

What made this month trickier than expected was the injury of Dugdale 31c who was the Player of the Month in December. We have no other good target men. I used Broe 31d who's a tall striker but that's maybe the only positive about him. He managed to score three times, but he's still slightly underperforming his xG.

Table. We are still in promotion playoff places, but it is getting tighter. Curzon Ashton is cruising to the championship, but the rest of the top half of the league is really even.

xG Table. I wanted to show this not because I feel we should be higher in the table but because I feel we need to get luckier if we want to make it to the playoffs. Look at the difference between us and King's Lynn Town. We've outscored and "outdefended" our xG and xGA, but performing worse than our xPts suggests. Then there's King's Lynn who don't know how to convert their chances and also concede more than they should - but they are four points above expectations. Maybe they just know how to manage games better?

Transfer out. This is not a big loss to our team as Smith hadn't been playing much in the past few seasons. It just shows why it is difficult to get players from Gibraltar (or other Overseas Territories) to join us. If a backup's backup can get 625 €/w in Gibraltar, why would he want to join us for 30-100 €/w?

Player development. We have our first player who is at Vanarama North/South level while playing for us. Parillon 30e has contract with us until the end of next season, and he's not willing to renew it. Should I sell him during the summer if there are teams interested in him? He's an amazing goalkeeper, but his bad days are so bad that we lose points because of him. His achilles heel is shooting from distance. But on the other hand he can be amazing on another day

Also, look at his kit: it's so ugly that I love it!  

 

Upcoming fixtures. We need to find our groove to stay in the promotion contest. In the league cup our 2nd XI get their chance to show if they can get us through to the semis.

[erik45]

February 2035. Our form is not on the line with my idea of battling for the promotion.  I was very happy with the double win over Trafford, but the rest of the month was just meh. Neither Matlock or Leek Town deserved to win us by such a big margin, but sometimes it just happens.

Table. Our chances of making it to the top 5 are slimmer than before, but it's not an impossible task. We just need to be more consistent, but that's easier said than done as the team is so inexperienced.

Defending set pieces. Just look at this... we don't have a set piece coach, but I would guess any coach could tell that it is not wise to leave to opponent unattended in this kind of free kick. The taker just passed to the one furthest left and he shot...and scored 

Upcoming fixtures. Busy month after another. All the focus in the league, but it would be a nice touch if our 2nd XI can make it to the league cup final. The Curzon Ashton game will be the toughest, and we've struggled in the past with many of these opponents. If we want to fight for the promotion until the end, we need 12, preferably closer to 15, points.

[erik45]

Youth intake 2035. At first glance it looks like we have quite decent top prospects, maybe too many wingers, we don't use them in our narrow 4-3-3. Let's take a closer look.

So here are all the players from the intake. What I see here:

• All the good players are from Isle of Man 
• None of the top players have a top personality (I'm fine with Jovial and Light-Hearted) 
• The winger prospects have either some knowledge of playing in a position we use or have a good skillset to be utilised in a new position 
• Determination values are really low (average of 8,44) 
• The top prospect is a a short goalie (183 cm) 
• I see multiple players with a future in our team: Green 35b, Forth 35c, Bartley 35d (as a RB) and Gaul 35e 

 

Youth intake tracking. As said, the average determination of this batch is very low, the second lowest in the save so far. On the other hand, rest of the key attribute averages are quite good! These players have the skills to run and work together, but they just aren't determined to do that  I need to find a way get less negative personalities, as we don't have many senior players who can mentor.

[shd34_216_42]

6 hours ago, erik45 said:

Yes, and what makes it even more impressive is that they are not tycoon-owned like almost all the other teams that have been promoted multiple times.

What helps them is the community around the club. For example, we've faced them twice, during my first season, and in their home game they had almost 3,800 spectators at county league level (9th level). Now they average 7,000+ attendances at League 2

Bury probably has really high reputation given their league to start with, in the FM22 database they start in the 10th level with a reputation of 1600 (so roughly the reputation level of a 7th level team).

Still quite the accomplishment though to get to League Two.

I think the personalities matter less at your level, you just want future contributors. Also, fickle is technically a positive personality for development purposes.

[erik45]

March 2035. And there goes the last hope of making it to the playoffs. We just imploded when it mattered. We fought bravely against big money teams Curzon Ashton and Winterton Rangers, but after that there was no positive response. We should've won the games against Blyth Spartans and AFC Fylde, but our star goalie scored game ratings of below 6.0. Just look at this:

Table. Curzon Ashton are already crowned as champions, but it is all open who is going to make it to the playoffs. I can tell who isn't: FC Isle of Man. 

Upcoming fixtures. We have a theoretical chance of making it to the playoffs if we win all the games, but what makes the challenge even trickier is that there are four teams between us and the playoff line. At least I want to finish higher than last year (9th).

Edited April 1 by erik45

[erik45]

April 2035. Now that we had practically no chances of making it to the playoffs we decided to start playing really well.  King's Lynn Town will hate us as we won both games against them with combined score of 11-2. Even if we had won the Hyde United game, we wouldn't have made it to the playoffs, BUT we would've been sixth in the table.

Final league table. 9th last season, 9th this season. In the season review I till show why I still feel that we made a lot of progress and next season we can really be promotion contenders.

Team of the Week. This is here just because I think this is the first time we've had so many players in the team of the week. 

April Fools' Day. I knew I was playing FM on April 1st, I knew I was going to go past April 1st in the game and I knew there is always some kind of surprise in the game for this date, but this still surprised me for a moment   (He's fine, freak injury specialist made the injury go away )

[erik45]

Season 2034/2035 review.

This season we ended up in the same position as the season before, but our game was much more balanced and positive than before. If we can keep this team together and players keep on developing, we should be in the promotion spots next season. 

I'm happy Winterton Rangers won the promotion playoffs as they're tycoon owned and now both the tycoon owned teams are out of this league (the other being Curzon Ashton). BUT, there's a new one coming as Atherton Colliers finally got promoted from level 8.   They actually just got a new chairman at the end of the season (promotion from within) so I don't know if they're going to keep thei 1m€+ wage budget.

xTable. We scored a little more than xG suggested, but overall we were performing basically just like the expected numbers thought we should. But as it seems like the trend, the luckiest teams do better and there were four teams below us in the xPts table who got more real points. These were fine margins, we just need to be better and more consistent (and maybe a bit luckier, as we are not that good). The most overperforming team was Curzon Ashton and but I think actually the luckiest was Whitby Town who managed to escape relegation even though the numbers suggested they were by far the worst team in the league.

Progress tracking. This was our 3rd season at this level and the second time we finished 9th. Media prediction was closer to the reality this time, so others are starting to recognise our quality! In the cups we are doing okay. We still haven't managed to better in the FA Cup after the first season when we got the last qualifying round, but both in the league cup and the FA Trophy we managed to go furthest so far.

Best XI. The best XI is our 1st XI with one change: Scott 27c is left to the bench as club icon Reddy took his spot in the best XI. In the bench there's one player who caughts my eye: Sweetser-Hawkes 34a. He scored 12 goals in the cup, which is just ridiculous.  What will happen next season is that he will take Scott 27c place in the 1st XI. As Scott 27c is on a non-contract he might just leave if he gets unhappy about being benched, but I'm not too worried atm.

Players by minutes. Parillon 30e is a machine when it comes to availability. I think this is the third season in a row that he plays all the games. He's a leading player at Vanarama North/South level, so he's not going to stay with us for long. He's contract is up in the summer of 2036, I need to think if I want to keep him or sell him before that. Adams 30c was my absolute favourite for substitutes as he made whopping 39 appearances from the bench! 

Players by goals. Adigun 32a was predicted to be in the battle for the golden shoe. He was our best goalscorer, but not close of being best in the league. His goals/90 is only the 4th highest. As he is our #1 advanced forward I would hope he would win both these categories with ease.

Players by assists. Somehow Adigun 32a is at the top with this one too. Tbh, I'm quite disappointed that our DLF (Scott 27c, 7 assists) or TF (Dugdale 31c, 7 assists) are not on the top of the lists. What I am happy about is that our CM (Blake 32b, 12 assists) delivered as we've struggled to get assists from the midfield. For the next season I would like to see our left wing-back Gould 33i to get even more assists, although 7 is not too bad for him.

Players by progress. I feel most of the players have progressed only modestly (as we don't have good facilities), but there are some exceptions. I chose to put Hayward 32k as the DLP in our starting XI and he really progressed while making the position his own. I'm also satisfied with Codling 32j's progress as I felt choosing him for the 1st XI was the "wild card" option, but he played and progressed relatively well. During the off-season I need to think what to do with Harris 34c. He practically hasn't played for us. Could he make it all the way to the 1st XI or is it enough for him to continue progress by choosing him for the 2nd XI? Parillon 30e's progress is still amazing and it is really useful for us as his CA is so much better than the rest of the team's that it helps the star rating to actually show differences between players.

 

Tax bill. As we didn't do any major moves with our facilities, we got hit with the tax bill. I will be asking for youth recruitment upgrade because for the last couple of intakes we haven't got that many 5 star PA players. .

[erik45]

Summer transfer window. This is the first summer we've had more than one offer that includes actual money - we got two offers!  Dugdale 31c is our best target man, so I'm not ready to lose him and fortunately he's not interested in this transfer.

But this offer is something I'm ready to listen. Phizacklea 29b has left us once before and I feel like he hasn't progressed as I hoped. He's been playing the mezzala role, and as we have multiple younger prospects for that position I'm ready to push him out of the club. As Avro was willing to offer some money, I grabbed it immediately.

 

More transfer offers. These I wasn't ready to accept, but it shows that the class of '35 might have some real potential. There has been some offers from the professional leagues, but this summer those offers have been coming non-stop. If some of these big teams actually offer money, proper sell-on clause and a friendly, I might consider the offer.

First international call-up. Tavengwa 30j is not our player anymore but as I was going through potential transfers, I noticed he had changed his first nationality from English to Zimbabwean - and got his first games in the national team!

Testimonials. Two of our own had the chance of testimonial, so of course I wanted them to have that. Reddy still has some kind of role in the team, but Doyle is here just so we have a midfield player who can mentor younger players.  

[erik45]

 

Season 2035/2036 preview. This is the season we are going to make it to the playoffs! I don't we are strong enough to win the league (unless we really, really overperform), but we should be good enough to get to the top 5.

Board expectations. They want us to finish top half, which is the very, very minimum for me. In the cups we need to be competitive, which means absolutely nothing to me. 

Media predictions. Last season media estimated us to be the 12th favourite for the title, this time 11th, but with much better odds (34.00 vs 12.00). They think our best player is our goalie (I agree) and our hot prospect is also a keeper (I kinda agree, but he's maybe just a little short).

Media dream eleven. We have our first player in the media dream eleven at this level as Parillon 30e is just not our best player but also the best goalie in the league! 

Injury. Our best outfield player is out for most of the first half of the season as he broke his foot in a friendly (because of not so friendly tackle). Bookies don't know how injuries work as they still think he's one of the major contenders for the top goalscorer. 

 

Team dynamics. It's positive that we have a good core of team leaders and influental players. But...most of these don't have a proper role in the team anymore. I'm a bit worried that if these players start to make noises about their playing time I don't know how to handle the situation.

Starting XIs. There are some new faces to our 1st XI: there's Sweetser-Hawkes 34a who was amazingly effiecient last season and took the DLF place from Scott 27c. Then there's another change that I didn't plan: as Adigun 32a got injured, I needed to choose a new advanced forward. McMenemy 31f is a risky choice (he's not the most prolific goalscorer), but I hope the team is good enough to give him proper chances.

The 2nd XI is just all about potential and vibes.  Bartley 35d is learning to be a right back and he's also the youngest player in either of the squads.

 

I accidentally noticed that the ultimate caretaker manager, Anthony Woodhouse, finally got his chance! Blyth Spartans have used his caretaking services on seven different occasions and now he's finally the first team manager, congrats Anthony! 

 

Pre-season friendlies. The testimonials didn't go well (Doyle didn't even play in his????), but rest of the games were quite good. My favourite win was against Guernsey, who play on the same level as us.

Upcoming fixtures. It is a nice start to the season as we don't have any midweek games yet. All these teams are quite close to us in the predictions so August will be a good measure of what we are capable of this season.

[erik45]

August 2035. Perfect start for the season against tough opponents, no notes!

Table. Even with the perfect start we are not top of the league as Blyth Spartans thrashed Harrogate Town 7-0 

 

Youth upgrades. While I was waiting for the boards answer about improving youth recruitment, they decided improve our youth rating - and accept the youth recruitment upgrade.I think this is also the reason we are now playing in a better(?) division this season with our U18s. (I forgot to update about the upgrades in the season preview)

 

Upcoming fixtures. Now the grind starts as we have (at least) six games in September. We got somewhat favourable draw in the FA Cup, we should be able to make it through this round.

[shd34_216_42]

Be competitive in the cups basically means that they expect you to not be blown out in the first round you play in. (Also, naturally you aren't expected to do anything involving winning.) Mid-table is not actually top half, basically it's below that but above being in the relegation battle. You might not be playoff material yet, but definitely should be in the discussion at the very least.

I should warn you that if you do get promoted that you might end up ground-sharing for a bit due to not meeting requirements (I believe National League North has a minimum capacity requirement of 3k) and your attendances will really suffer for however long it takes to expand the stadium to meet requirements (or possibly go beyond), so your finances will not be good for that time period.

[erik45]

 

September 2035. A really strong start continues. Our 2nd XI had the first loss of the season, but otherwise it was a perfect month. Town after Town was defeated and it was made easier for us as Stockton, Billingham and Whitby Town all got player sent off.  At the moment we are playing really well, but also overperforming our numbers.

Table. We have a new leader: FC Isle of Man!  Let's keep it this way until the end of the season?

New contract. A new 2+1 (promotion clause) contract.

Moore wants more. Our record appearance maker started to moan constantly about his playing time. I kinda understand his frustration, because he's as good as some of the starting defenders. It is difficult to explain to him that I prefer younger players because of their potential, so I had to let him go.

 

International call-up. Our best CB got called up to the Scotland's U19s!  I hope this is an indication of his potential, because my assistant thinks he's already almost playing to his full potential.

 

Finances. Four home games and two away cup games = money! I was worried that the costs of our better youth level would stagnate our finances, but I think there's no need to worry!

Upcoming fixtures. Another busy month! We've only once made it this far in the FA Cup (during my very first season), can we find a way to beat Stevenage?? We also have many visits to the West as we face West Auckland Town twice add West Didsbury & Chorlton once.

[erik45]

2 minutes ago, shd34_216_42 said:

I should warn you that if you do get promoted that you might end up ground-sharing for a bit due to not meeting requirements (I believe National League North has a minimum capacity requirement of 3k) and your attendances will really suffer for however long it takes to expand the stadium to meet requirements (or possibly go beyond), so your finances will not be good for that time period.

Yes, I think this is a real possibility. I try to save up money if we happen to get promoted so when we do expand the stadium, it doesn't destroy us financially.

[shd34_216_42]

Congratulations on the cup overachievement!

I wouldn't celebrate over the finances yet, the real test comes when you don't have the lucrative FA Cup games.

[erik45]

October 2035. Great start and then the big loss against Stevenage created a little dip in form. The cup losses don't. bother too much, but the league losses...  We're still playing really well so I hope the win against West Didsbury & Chorlton will bounce us back to the track of good results. Also, we got our best forward back as Adigun 32a returned from his injury - and scored!

Table. Even with the two losses we are still top of the table! Blyth Spartans also lost two, it is very tight at the top.

Player discussion. I hope this is not an indication how much the team believes in itself!  We are top of the table and our starting mezzala thinks its not realistic to get promoted. 

Finances. At Stevenage there were almost 8,000 spectators so that gave us a nice little extra cash to our bank.

Upcoming fixtures. Five games, twice of them being against Northwich Victoria that got relegated last season. Also, top of the table clash against Blyth Spartans, can we (or they) create a gap at the top?

[erik45]

 

November 2035. I say this is actually a quite good month even if we lost four points. In the game against Blyth Spartans we led twice but they came back both times. I think 2-2 was somewhat fair. Same can be said about the game against Wythenshawe Town, where both had a lot of chances, but couldn't score more than once. And the games against Northwhich were in the right order: I preferred winning in the league.

Table. We hang on to our top spot, but there are teams who can overtake us if we keep on drawing games.

xPts table. Just to back up that our form is just not about overperforming. Yes, that's part of our form, but we actually are in the position that numbers suggest.

Cut link. Does this have something to do that Guernsey lost the last friendly 6-1?  The yearly friendly was the only thing that happened within this partnership.

Upcoming fixtures. Busy times in the league, but only one mid-week game - which might be the trickiest fixture. Atherton is the only tycoon-owned club in the league but I feel we can match their financial powers with our players. 

[erik45]

December 2035. Merry Christmas, what a month!  Small margins, but deservedly those were on our side. The draws were against two really strong teams, very happy with this month.

Table. Our strong form opens a small gap between us and the rest of the teams.

Youth intake preview. A lot of defenders! No positions with A or B rating is something to worry about. Still it should be a 5-star intake. My wish list is: good midfielder and a good centre-back.

Upcoming fixtures. A difficult month with three away games, but no impossible games. The ones against Matlock Town and Witton Albion can be considered as the most challenging.

[erik45]

January 2036. New year, same amazing form! What guarantees our great form is the defence. Only one goal conceded this month, that's something we haven't done before.

Record. I'm very happy with this, but I also know that we probably lose the next game.  This is just how FM likes to work.

Table. A veeeeeeery nice gap between us and the rest. We are definitely going to be in the promotion places but can we keep the form so we could clinch the title? Too early to tell.

 

Upcoming fixtures. A lot of difficult fixtures, I would consider us clear favourites only against Leek Town at home. But if we can keep defending as well as we do now, we should be able to get couple of wins next month.

[erik45]

February 2036. I knew this was going to be a tricky month, but this is a disaster! We controlled the games against Worksop and Shilden and should've scored more goals, but as I said in the previous post: after making an unbeaten record, you lose straight away  Hyde United created absolute world-class chances against us from the break, they won deservedly. A small consolation was the Leek Town win, thanks to our 2nd XI.

Table. From seven point lead to being second in the league, what a month...

 

Upcoming fixtures. March will really test us if we can battle for the title. Blyth away is the ultimate challenge.

[erik45]

Youth intake 2036. The intake preview wasn't too positive with it grades, but I think the first look of the players is actually quite positive. Good goalie, high potential defenders, that's a lot to like! Let's take a closer look

Okay, this a good intake, but somehow I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe it's because the goalie is very short for his position (178 cm) and we have only 4 high potential players who have 1< CA. My favourites from the intake are Wilson 36b, Bremser 36c, and Sheering 36g. 

 

Youth intake tracking. Another year with relatively low average for the key attributes. Work rate being so low is quite an anomaly? But on a more positive note: not too many negative personalities and I like how we continue to have a lot of players from the Isle of Man!

[erik45]

March 2036. The very inconsistent form continues. The worrying thing was that we even didn't deserve much better than this. The only game that should've ended differently was the Harrogate Town game, where we created 3 xG but only scored once.

Table. Even with such a bad form we are still in the title battle. It looks like that Blyth Spartans and us have the battle who can bottle it the best. Just look at how they've done this month:

International call-up. Coleman 33a has already been capped on U19s level and now he got to play one game in the U20s (he came on in the 11th minute in a game that ended 2-2).

Upcoming fixtures. We are still in a strong position to make it to the playoffs and we have a real chance of fighting for the title, but we really need to start taking our chances. The home games and the game against Atherton will be really difficult, but I'm hoping we can find a way of getting min. 10 points.

[erik45]

April 2036. Apparently we decided to put all the goals of the spring to one game as we beat our mini-rivals Trafford 7-2.  Rest of the games were not that convincing. Eight points out of fifteen possible where does it take us?

Table. It takes us second! Blyth Spartans decided not to choke and won all their games in April. Before the last two games we were as low as fifth, but salvaged home advantage in the last two games! 

Playoff semi final. Bookies consider us slight favourites - and I agree. The most recent game against Worksop was a nightmare as it was the game that ended our unbeaten run and started the downfall of our form. I'm confident we can get a win from this game!

[erik45]

Playoff semi final. What a performance! After 30 mins we were leading 3-0 so we could start lowering the tempo to keep players fresh for the final. After that the game was much more even, but we managed the game really well. We will face Witton Albion in the final, they went all the way to the penalties against Hyde United.

Playoff final. Witton Albion hasn't beaten us for the last 9 games we've faced. This make us slight favourites and what tips the scale even more towards us is the fact that Witton players had to play extra time (and AI managers don't know how to rotate). The latest game against Witton was really scrappy with practically no proper chances, so I'm expecting a similar game to that.

[erik45]

Playoff final. WE DID IT!!!!! We scored early on but Witton Albion found a way to get back to the game. Then we lost Dugdale 31c who scored the opening goal, but that didn't stop us. We took our time, but in the 76th minute our CB Codling 32j rose highest in the box and scored the winning goal. We truly deserved to win the game!

Next stop: Vanarama North! 

You can see why it was made a bit easy for us to control the game: this screenshot was taken after 20 mins, they already had multiple players on red/yellow fitness levels.

[sam@ashbyz]

Finally caught up with this story this morning, and I'm glad I tuned in to the new updates today! Congratulations on the promotion!

As someone who usually does saves between L2 and the Premier League, I recently tried a lower leagues save and STRUGGLED. Glad to see such a very enjoyable save at this level!

[shd34_216_42]

Welcome to the normally playable leagues!

Home playoff games are huge, I assume you get all the gate receipts, which means money naturally.

38 minutes ago, sam@ashbyz said:

Finally caught up with this story this morning, and I'm glad I tuned in to the new updates today! Congratulations on the promotion!

As someone who usually does saves between L2 and the Premier League, I recently tried a lower leagues save and STRUGGLED. Glad to see such a very enjoyable save at this level!

The standard strategy to player recruiting at these low levels is trials, trials, and more trials. Typically most teams can only afford free agents that are interested because the money situation is not great (to the point that FA Cup games are absolutely vital), so the trial is more for attribute/personality scouting.

@erik45 is applying a harder version because most of those free agents aren't eligible choices due to the restrictions added, and the eligible player options have really high wage demands even for a relatively rich club like FC Isle of Man, so he's effectively youth-only.

[sam@ashbyz]

17 hours ago, shd34_216_42 said:

The standard strategy to player recruiting at these low levels is trials, trials, and more trials.

I've been using those a lot for the first time in my current save, though that is having taken Barnsley from L1 to the Premier League. I rarely find many gems (hardly surprising at this level), but I've certainly got a decent amount of squad players and youth prospects over the seasons this way, so sell-on profits have been nice! Considering my budget has been woeful for both CH and PL, relying on being able to find at least a couple of free transfers per season to pad the team out has really helped.

But yeah, @erik45's imposed restrictions add an extra layer to things!

Edited April 8 by sam@ashbyz

[erik45]

On 07/04/2024 at 21:21, sam@ashbyz said:

Finally caught up with this story this morning, and I'm glad I tuned in to the new updates today! Congratulations on the promotion!

As someone who usually does saves between L2 and the Premier League, I recently tried a lower leagues save and STRUGGLED. Glad to see such a very enjoyable save at this level!

Thanks! I love doing youth only or youth focused saves in lower leagues, I get bored easily if I don't have some kind restrictions. One of my favourite restrictions was to only sign players who are 190 cm or taller 

As @shd34_216_42 explained, my version of youth only-ish is really difficult as there aren't good players available who would be interested to join us + affordable. But I've enjoyed this enormously and I know that when we actually recruit a player, it will be so enjoyable because of the rarity of the situation.  

[erik45]

Season 2035/2036 review. It happened again, we got promoted!  We were very close of winning the league until we started to stumble in February. We stumbled so badly that at one point it looked like we were in danger of being left out of the playoffs. But in April we found our form, got the home advantage to the playoffs and finished the season in style! I'm kinda happy Blyth Spartans were the eventual winners as their manager Anthony Woodhouse had been caretaker manager seven times before he got the actual job - and won the league in his first season in charge!

Highlighted matches of the season. I put this here because I think there's some kind of bug/limitation in the game. The match to remember is always from the first half of the season, almost always from the first 10 games. That has been the same in previous editions of FM as well. What's the point?! I would say the most memorable matches were either the playoff games (obviously) or the 7-2 win against Trafford (which is on this screenshot, but in the biggest win section).

Best eleven. This was the 1st XI, so no surprises here.

Players by minutes. Once again, Parillon 30e played all the games. We actually had a decent back-up option, but I sent him on loan because his game time in our team would've been very limited. What delights me is how many minutes Dugdale 31c played! He's had quite a bit of small-ish injuries during the previous seasons, but now he practically played all the games 1st XI was selected.

Players by goals. McMenemy 31f was the surprise star of the season. He started as the 2nd choice for the AF position, but overtook Adigun 32a who got injured and was a bit inefficient. Sadly, I didn't notice that Scottish teams were able to offer him contract 6 months before expiring, so he will move to Hamilton Academical, who got promoted to League 1, at the end of the season.

Players by assists. Our young and promising DLF Sweetser-Hawkes 34a was the assist master. I think 11G+14A are amazing numbers for a player that young, his goal contributions per 90 is 0,70! Fingers crossed that my assistant is not right about Sweetser-Hawkes 34a's potential.

I'm also happy about the fact that two of our midfielders and the left back got into double figures with assists. The team is more balanced and not that reliant on one or two players.

Team performance tracking. Fourth season in the Northern Premier League Premier Division, every season we made some progress. This season we got the best numbers so far at this level, so it can be said we somewhat deserved to get promoted. We did overperform our xPts slightly, but that is what happens with the teams at the top positions of the table.

My aim for the next season is to do better in the FA Cup. At this level it is mostly about draw luck, but it would be cool (and financially amazing) to make it to the 1st proper round. 

Stadium expansion. As our stadium is too small for Vanarama North, the board decided to build more capacity. Standing area of 500 people for less than 60 k€ is not too bad!

Finances. As the stadium expansion was much cheaper than I expected, we are in a very strong financial position. I'm not going to spend any of the money during the summer, as first I need to see how the rising player wages affect our balances.

 

Transfers. This was the fourth season in a row that we didn't make any signings, meaning we did not sign a single player during our time in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. But we did loan out A LOT of players.  Not too many of the loans were actually useful for the players, but I think it is good for them to get proper playing time at men's games.

What made this season easy was the fact we didn't lose any of our important players during the season.

Contract extensions. As we got promoted two players got their contract extension triggered - and so did I!

[shd34_216_42]

That's actually fairly quick for a stadium expansion.

Season tickets look like a really good deal, seems like the game doesn't compensate for the added home league games from the promotion though.

[erik45]

Season 2036/2037 preview. We've made it to from the regional levels to the national! We lost one of our key players during the summer, McMenemy 31f who left for Hamilton, playing on the third level of Scottish league pyramid. In Scotland, Celtic has continued their dominance, Rangers won only 2 titles - and Dundee United won one! 

League history. This was the fourth promotion for the team and third with me as the manager. Our progress stalled at level 8, as we kept loosing all the promising players, but as soon as we were able to offer part-time contracts, we've been continuing our progress. At this level, promotions are still difficult as f*ck but at the moment we are on a positive trend and I think we could be in the mix for the promotion in a season or two.

Board expectations. My board is really fair, almost relaxed when it comes to their targets. Avoiding relegation is the absolute minimum (okay, they could ask to fight bravely against relegation, but I'm happy they have at least some ambition). I'm looking for a mid-table finish and a positive goal difference.  The cup targets are useless as we start those at the round mentioned in the target.

Media predictions. The odds and positions on the odds table change everyday but at the time of the screenshot we were predicted as 18th favourites with the odds of 34.00. Those are actually quite good odds for a promoted sides (although there are two promoted sides with much better odds). Parillon 30e is still our best player and our back-up goalie is the one with the most potential - I must have some genius GK coach at the academy!

1st XI. I surprised myself and made quite many changes to the 1st XI. My thinking here is that the promotion is kind of a reset and I need to make space for the most promising players who are now or soon ready for this level.

Hudson 33b played at the end of the last season in the 1st XI and he claimed his spot as more consistent than Lennon 32f. Hudson 33b is also huge: 200 cm tall! But as we needed defensive solidity to the right-back position, I opted for him to play there, not in the middle.

At the beginning of last season, Harris 34c was my choice for 2nd XI mezzala, but in the end I decided to loan him out. It was a good decision, as with regular playing time he's developed to be a 1st XI level. 

Green 35b is all about the potential. He's actually more of a striker than a midfielder, but that's okay for me as I look my CM to spend a lot of his time in the attacking third. Also Sweetser-Hawkes 34a has been so good in the DLF position that there was no way of pushing him out of the 1st XI.

2nd XI. The potential and vibes squad. The age of this squad has gone up quite a bit. The reason for it is that I want all the players of 17+ who have a lot of potential and don't play in the 1st XI to go on loan. For this reason, there's only three players who are under 18: Rotter 35a in goal (who's grown 4 cm since he came from the intake 183 --> 187 cm ), Wilson 36b in the centre of defence and Bremser 36c as the left wing-back.

Players by ability. These are all the players who are at least decent for this level (per my assistant). I'm surprised that there are so many, because I think we haven't had this many players listed as decent for the level they are playing ever before. Also, look a the birth city: 12 out of 14 players are born at the Isle of Man. 

Top player odds. Our goalie is not on the list, but the odds of 16.00 are still very nice. What the challenge is, is the fact that Parillon 30e is without a contract and is not willing to sign a new one.  The silver lining is that he didn't left the club after his contract was up and there's no teams at the moment interested in him. He could be a very useful keeper for us for some years, as my staff thinks his ceiling is at League 2 level!

 

Player numbers. This was the first time I needed to register numbers, I feel very professional now!  

Stadium expansion. As mentioned in the last post, the board took the initiative to extend the ground's terracing. We can now fit 3,290 fans to the ground (although only 800 will get seats ). This is much more than the league requires (Capacity of 3,000 with seats for 250).

 

Reputation. We are still a 0,5 star local reputation team. But if we perform well at this level we will definitely become a 1 star local reputation team!  The big boys of the league are at 1,5 stars, I don't think we will get there at this level of the pyramid.

Pre-season friendlies. A bit of a mixed bag when it comes to the results, but when you look at the opponents we lost to, the image starts to look more positive. Against Wigan we had a massive friendly crowd of 3,000+!

Upcoming fixtures. It's all about the new league in August! We start with the most delicious of fixtures as we face Blyth Spartans, the team that won the league and got promoted with us last season, in the first fixture. This will show us which team has had the better preparation during the summer. Solihull Moors will be the real test of our squad as they're the favourites for the title. Actually, we also face the 2nd, the 4th, the 5th and the 8th favourite for the title, oh dear.  

The game against Bamber Bridge is the only where we don't face a team that is expected to much better than us in the league. If at the end of August we are in the mid-table positions I'm confident we are more than ready for this level!

[erik45]

August 2036. New league, same great results! This start is just so, so good. Yes, we were a bit lucky in some of the games (and very unlucky in the Barrow game). The favourite game of the month was the win against Blyth Spartans who got promoted with us. Last season we drew both games agains them but this time we showed them which of the teams is ready for this level.  And to emphasise the greatness of the results: all teams, excluding Bamber Bridge, are expected to be in the promotion fight. This month showed us that I might need to re-calibrate my aim from mid-table to top half.

Table. We are scoring a lot and conceding a lot, but getting the results. Maybe we don't deserve to be as high as we are, but we are playing really well.

Barrow AFC are the highest scoring team, but I think it's more about efficiency & luck than they are really good at attacking. I took this screenshot mid-game as I thought it was funny that we had the exact same xG but they scored 4, we scored none.  

Upcoming fixtures. Our old nemesis Stalybridge waits us just two days after the last game of August. Actually, all the teams we face in the league, we've faced previously!  Only new opponent is Gateshead, who play in the same league. Home advantage should take us through that tie, but nothing is certain.  

[erik45]

September 2036. Nice start and then the unfortunate cup loss did something to the team and we couldn't find the net after that. BUT the 6-1 win against Stalybridge was so mind-blowing that I just can't say this was a bad month.  And what made it even better was the fact it was our 2nd XI playing against them.

Table. After the first two games we were right at the top, but now we are closer to where I think we should be based on our performances. 20 points from 11 games is a very, very good start at a new league level.

Upcoming fixtures. We have such a relaxed schedule in October that I needed to add a friendly game to keep the fitness levels. Maybe that game will help us find our shooting boots? 

[shd34_216_42]

Tragic loss in the FA Cup, but I guess if you had to pick between that and the league you would pick the league (and beating Stalybridge Celtic, the unofficial rival).

 

[erik45]

October 2036. Well, not the best of months. Stafford Rangers deserved to beat us, but we should've gotten something out of the Tamworth game. This is a bit of regression toward the mean as we were very lucky in the first games of the season. But it's not all negative, because we ended the month with a nice win. Another nice thing: home attendance. We are constantly having 1,500+ spectators in our home games!

Table. 1 win, two losses but we are still in a good position. 

Finances. We go above 1 m€ mark once again. Even with just two home games we made profit of 19k€! Maybe I should start asking for upgrades?

Upcoming fixtures. A busy month as we have six games in the league and we start our FA Trophy journey with a tricky away tie against Winterton Rangers. We also have chance to revenge our FA Cup loss against Gateshead at the end of November.

[shd34_216_42]

I wouldn't ask for upgrades yet, you might actually be able to afford going professional.

 

[erik45]

November 2036. Another difficult month. We are giving too many easy goals (especially penalties) as our defence can't keep it together for 90 minutes. Also, as one can see, we are not scoring. Two games without a goal and three more with just one goal. Our advanced forwards have forgotten the art of goalscoring, Adigun 32a scoring once and Lord 33k twice. When looking at xG, Rugby Town and Scarborough Athletic played better than us, but rest of the games should've been close or our wins.

Table. Six points from six games in nowhere near good enough for us. We are still in top half, which is my goal, but the results worry me.

Incoming player. What, did I just make a signing???  Murphy 27d is one of our own and I've tried to sign him twice after he left us. He has two full seasons at League 2, so he is the most experienced player in the team. I'm yet to decide where to play him, but I'm really tempted to use him as advanced forward just because other forwards can't score at the moment. His skills are maybe closer to a very attacking midfielder or maybe a DLF, but let's see what I'll do with him.

Here's one reason I wanted Murphy 27d to join us. He's immediately highly influential player + he has a good personality (resolute). Maybe he can mentor some of the younger attacking players?

Appearance record. Reddy has been with us from the beginning. While he is now only making some appearances from the bench, he has scored 20+ league goals in six different seasons. I think this might be the last season I'm keeping him in the team.

 

Upcoming fixtures. A relatively quiet December, I always think Christmas period should feel busy and exhausting.   We reach the second half of the season and I hope we can find some kind of form again. My favourite game will probably be the one against Blyth Spartans! (Just today I noticed some discussion in Twitter about Blyth Spartans. Apparently their new owner is having trouble finalising the club purchase while the team is fighting against relegation? Not the best combination. )

[erik45]

December 2036. The friendly against Greenwell Star really did wonders! Before that we were crushed by Scunthorpe (they deserved to win, but not by 4 goals). The win against Blyth Spartans was my favourite; there's always something extra when meeting fellow promoted sides.

As I complained about the goalscoring in the previous post, our strikers did do a little better this month: best was Lord 33k, who scored whopping three goals! 

Table. We are steadily staying in the top half. I doubt we are going to fight for the promotion spots, but I'm really happy if we keep this position until the end of the season.

Intake preview. Another excellent intake with no excellent players.  Grade B for CMs and rest are D or worse??! How is it even possible with our relatively excellent youth system? The positive thing is that there are lot of players to the centre: 3 CBs, 2 CMs and 2 forwards. 

Head of Youth Development departs. This was a surprise! Maybe he felt disheartened after the preview as he left the club only days after the preview news. He was on a month-to-month contract, but had been so for quite a while, so I did not expect this. Below are screenshots from Dixon's profile and from the guy, Gallacher, who is our new HoYD. He's an expensive staff member, but he had the best personality of available ones and his stats are quite good.

 

Upcoming fixtures. We face teams from both ends of the league table as we have games against 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 23rd and 24th. My gut says the most difficult games are going to be against the teams at the bottom.  

[erik45]

January 2037. I would've been so happy with this start to the new year, but the Mossley game kind of ruined it... Losing against to the bottom of the table is just so "fun". And what made it worse, based on their performance, they deserved to win!  Rest of the month was solid, the win against "rivals" Stalybridge was almost perfect as we were winning 3-0 before making it nervous by conceding two goals before 90th minute.  But that was not the craziest game of the month, that award goes to Boston game. Just look at the stats during the game:

 

Table. We continue to be 9th in the table, but the positions between 8th and 14th are really close.

Random stat of the month. I took the screenshot at the beginning of the month, but the point stands even now. We are creating A LOT of goalscoring opportunities - and we are scoring quite efficienlty as well. BUT it doesn't feel like that, as our main threats, the players in AF position, don't score consistently. Also, they are not having single amazing games. For example Adigun 32a, who was supposed to be the star striker for the team, haven't had a single game where his average rating has been above 7.7 

Upcoming fixtures. We want to stay where we are in the table, 7-10 points or more from these fixtures should do it.

Edited April 19 by erik45

[INESSOU]

It puzzles me why the Isle of Man, like Jersey and Guernsey, do not apply for FIFA and UEFA membership. Yes, they can have a team playing in the English leagues - after all, FC Andorra play in the Spanish leagues, San Marino Calcio in the Italian and teams from Liechtenstein play in the Swiss leagues - but surely it would help the island's development as a football nation to be involved playing the likes of Germany, England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain etc. Further, if Gibraltar and the Faroes are both members of FIFA and UEFA despite not being independent states then why not the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey? Having lived on the island about twenty years ago, I can vouch that the standard of football is quite high for an amateur league and they would easily hold their own against teams from Malta, Cyprus and Andorra, as well as potentially beating San Marino and Liechtenstein.

 

 

 

snaptube &nbsp;  vidmate

Edited April 21 by INESSOU

[TelcontarTargaryen]

39 minutes ago, INESSOU said:

It puzzles me why the Isle of Man, like Jersey and Guernsey, do not apply for FIFA and UEFA membership. Yes, they can have a team playing in the English leagues - after all, FC Andorra play in the Spanish leagues, San Marino Calcio in the Italian and teams from Liechtenstein play in the Swiss leagues - but surely it would help the island's development as a football nation to be involved playing the likes of Germany, England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain etc. Further, if Gibraltar and the Faroes are both members of FIFA and UEFA despite not being independent states then why not the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey? Having lived on the island about twenty years ago, I can vouch that the standard of football is quite high for an amateur league and they would easily hold their own against teams from Malta, Cyprus and Andorra, as well as potentially beating San Marino and Liechtenstein.

No way, they would be just cannon fodder. Worse than San Marino. Way to few people living there, for them to become even remotely competitive. Plus they can play against other regions and unofficial teams which is more balanced. If they could get one of those teams like Jersey bulls, Guernsey, FC Isle of Man into the football league system.. maybe.

Also I guess political reasons, maybe Catalonia would ask then to become a member too. Although UK has a specific setup since they have independet FA since the beginning of football, so you get one country, but four national football teams.

Edited April 19 by TelcontarTargaryen

[sam@ashbyz]

1 hour ago, TelcontarTargaryen said:

Way to few people living there

Well, a quick Google shows that they have a comparable population to Andorra, and much more than nations that 'compete' in FIFA and UEFA competitions (such as Faeroe Islands and San Marino). Their population is actually approaching 3x that of San Marino! I'm not saying that they would do anything remarkable, but given the strong football history of the rest of the British Isles, I daresay they could compete with the minnows currently in Europe - at least to such an extent that they're not embarrassed in a Nations League group.

[erik45]

13 hours ago, INESSOU said:

It puzzles me why the Isle of Man, like Jersey and Guernsey, do not apply for FIFA and UEFA membership. Yes, they can have a team playing in the English leagues - after all, FC Andorra play in the Spanish leagues, San Marino Calcio in the Italian and teams from Liechtenstein play in the Swiss leagues - but surely it would help the island's development as a football nation to be involved playing the likes of Germany, England, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain etc. Further, if Gibraltar and the Faroes are both members of FIFA and UEFA despite not being independent states then why not the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey? Having lived on the island about twenty years ago, I can vouch that the standard of football is quite high for an amateur league and they would easily hold their own against teams from Malta, Cyprus and Andorra, as well as potentially beating San Marino and Liechtenstein.

I love it that there's a person in the thread who's actually lived on the island! 

The islands would have a good supporting system from the English football pyramid: quality games in quality leagues. But I think the islands would need to have a team higher in the league pyramid to help their future national team. Liechtenstein has one in the 2nd division of Switzerland, same with Andorra in Spain. San Marino's team is on maybe the 5th level? Faroe Island has a quite nice domestic league, KÍ Klaksvik making it to the Europe last season!

13 hours ago, TelcontarTargaryen said:

No way, they would be just cannon fodder. Worse than San Marino. Way to few people living there, for them to become even remotely competitive. Plus they can play against other regions and unofficial teams which is more balanced. If they could get one of those teams like Jersey bulls, Guernsey, FC Isle of Man into the football league system.. maybe.

I think this is true when thinking about current qualification systems. But in women's football UEFA has changed the qualification to be a Nations' League style system, where teams play more games against sides who should be on a similar level. If the same change happens at men's side, I think the small nations could be more interested to invest in the game as there would be a bigger chance of winning (a) game(s).

I think smaller leagues and teams have been trending for a quite a while, at least when following at football discussions in Twitter. Accounts like Far Away Football, The Sweeper, San Marino fan account, Nordic Footy, Europe's Winless, Paul Watson, CONIFA, Forgotten Football have gained quite a bit of following. If there would be a new national team in UEFA, I think many of these kind of accounts would support and almost put the team on a pedestal.

13 hours ago, TelcontarTargaryen said:

Also I guess political reasons, maybe Catalonia would ask then to become a member too. Although UK has a specific setup since they have independet FA since the beginning of football, so you get one country, but four national football teams.

I think the most difficult region would actually be Basque Country as they've had more radical independency groups/movements in the past.

In Finland, where I'm from, Åland is an autonomous area and has their own FA. Population ~30k. They've participated some CONIFA or similar tournaments in the past. Their best men's and women's team play in the highest division in Finnish system, but they also have teams in lower divisions of Swedish leagues. I would love to see them competing on their own, but I think quality-wise they would be somewhere near San Marino. The more difficult question in the Nordics would be Sámi national team, where there would be players from Norway, Sweden, Finland and maybe even Russia. Sámi have played some friendlies in the past, Morten Gamst Pedersen being their star back then! If they would create their own FA and apply for UEFA+FIFA membership, I would think that at least the Finnish and Swedish government would have some objections.