[FM24] Truro City

[Tivvy18]

I've had two previous attempts at a save with Truro back in FM20 and 21 as part of the Dafuge Challenge. As they start off the game in the National League South they obviously aren't eligible anymore so I thought I'd start a thread here instead.

Why do I keep coming back to Truro when there are plenty of other teams to do a Dafuge save with? Apart from having some personal attachment to Truro , I like the idea of managing a team that is essentially representing Cornwall as a whole. There is also the added narrative that they aren't actually playing in Truro at the moment, as they have had to relocate to Plymouth Parkway after leaving their old home Treyew Road in 2020, so are in exile as well. Who doesn't love a good narrative when picking saves?

With that, I've got three main aims for this save that I think naturally follow from each other and feed into this narrative:

1. Return to Cornwall.

2. Become the top side in the West Country.

3. Premier League and Champions League glory.

How do we get there? I don't know. I'm not the greatest of tacticians and though I love the idea of developing youth I'm not great at that either. I'm also not the greatest at taking squads to the next level and end up plateauing at some point. Generally speaking I'm just not very good at the game. But it's not necessarily the destination that matters but the journey and as long as the trials and tribulations are enjoyable hopefully this save will be as well.

[Tivvy18]

The Journey Begins...

I can't remember when I started doing it but I very rarely ever play with the first transfer window enabled. This save is not one of the times I make an exception so the squad that we start with will hopefully see us through until we can. It's a bit short on numbers so I've promoted the only member of our u21 side - Obed Yeboah -  to make up some numbers up front. 

It's going to require having some players play out of position when it comes down to rotation but I'll be playing in 4-4-1-1 sort of shape. 

I'm fairly certain that this is our strongest squad and they will be the ones starting the season as our first XI. The board's ambitions for the next five years is to become a top half National League South side so hopefully they will be patient with things. The new stadium is in the planning permission stage so I don't know how long that will take to progress.

As part of our quest to be the pride of the West Country, I'll be keeping track of all the teams and using this colourful table that I poured so much effort in to creating. I've gone by Wikipedia to see which clubs need to be included. If I've missed anyone they will appear in later tables as I update it. I was surprised to see there isn't anyone playing in the National League at the start.

[Tivvy18]

July 2023

Not the most spectacular of preseasons but I'll take being undefeated. Worryingly the lack of squad depth was on display by the end as I don't have enough cover in certain positions (particularly the centre of defence). 

[Tivvy18]

August 2023

Things haven't started off very well at all. We've given ourselves far too much to do in matches when we concede and once we let one in it seems a few more follow in quick succession. I'll give it a few more matches with a few tweaks but I may need to have a big rethink of tactics if September doesn't look a bit better.

Edited January 27 by Tivvy18

[Tivvy18]

September 2023

I changed one role and this has been the result: a month unbeaten and no goals conceded. Two wins in the cup and we've managed to shoot up the table. It was as simple as turning the Segundo Valente into a DM on support. The leading strikers are still not scoring as much as I would like but Harvey in the AM slot is making up for it.

We can now start to sign players and I think the important thing at the moment is to get players to pad out the squad. I'm not so concerned up front but the defence is a struggle to rotate and with a two games a week every week in November I don't think the squad as it is would be able to cope. The scouts haven't been finding anyone at the moment so I've relied on asking the chairman for some suggestions and I'm currently trialling all of the names he has come up with. Fingers crossed there may be a few decent additions amongst them.

[Tivvy18]

October 2023

September ended up being a record breaking month for us, at least in the terms of the game, and we were immediately brought back down with a loss to Worthing. I'll take 9 points from the five league games we played which has seen us pull away from a relegation fight and in the early picture for the play offs.

A wild second half of extra time saw us beat National League Ebbsfleet to set up up an away tie at National League Woking in the FA Cup 1st Round, which we start the month off with. November has seven matches waiting for us which is going to test the depth of our squad. Fortunately I've been able to add a couple of squad players to help with this.

I'm not going to pretend they are that exciting but being able to actually rotate the defence has helped no end. I've also signed six youth players who are currently sat in a never ending cycle of playing the same four teams in the under 21s, three of which I didn't realise play in the same position . I'll post them if they even end up making the step up.

[Tivvy18]

November 2023

The month of death came and I'm quite happy with the 10 points and two cup wins. Only three more matches before we don't play on a Tuesday and then soon after it's Christmas. Blackpool at home is coming up in the FA Cup 2nd Round which I feel is likely to be the end of our run this season. I'm still having to heavily rotate the squad but with early results we are definitely looking up rather than down.

[Tivvy18]

Youth Intake Preview

It's that fun time of year where we get the preview for the youth intake. Anticipation building. Will we get a bumper crop in a key position? Will we get a gem that will either lead us to glory or can sell for loads of money? The item appears in the inbox...

Reality hits. I know this doesn't necessarily reflect who will actually appear in April but if the best you can say is "probably not up to scratch" then I've not got much hope that I'm going to be pleasantly surprised. What I am actually hoping is that by writing this the game will be like "AHA! Ye of little faith! Behold a god amongst men!" but I may be deluding myself just a bit.

[Tivvy18]

December 2023

As expected we lost in the FA Cup but managed to beat National League Maidenhead on penalties in the FA Trophy. A 4-0 thrashing of top of the table Weston-super-Mare and a game where nobody wanted to defend against Havant & Waterlooville set up a happy Christmas. We have an immediate chance to avenge the Boxing Day loss to Torquay as we play them in the return fixture on New Years Day. This time with our full strength squad.

As we head into 2024 (which I will most likely forget to put much as I do IRL) we are flirting with the play off spots. It's very close though and results going the wrong way can see us falling down to 12th. There's still a long way to go but it looks like in our first season we can look up rather than down.

[Tivvy18]

Just when I thought things were running as smoothly as possible...

Hammon is not just our first choice keeper. He is our ONLY choice keeper and my wage budge doesn't allow signing anyone even on a non-contract. With our next match a matter of 3 days away I sent an SOS to my Assistant Manager to recommend a loan keeper. Introducing...

Our emergency keeper for the rest of the season. No wages and if the fans are to be believed no talent. I've put a loan offer in for a Plymouth youth keeper as well but that deal is yet to be finalised. Whoever turns out to be better will go in goal. I just needed to sign someone before New Years Day!

[Tivvy18]

January 2024

Oh boy! We were sure doing well before Christmas. Hopefully we can maintain some kind of form and keep the performances up! Right lads?

Top Bantz guys... Utterly vile month that has me concerned going forward. We've lost our main striker to injury now as well so I'm trying to patch the squad together with loans. Can't afford to scout anyone either so relying on suggestions from my assistant manager and just gamble. I think the rest of the season is going to be a real struggle and I'm getting really concerned that the problem with the wages may mean I'll be losing a lot of my squad come the end of the season...

On more positive news, one of the earlier youth signings has made his debut. So close to an assist and a goal on his debut but it wasn't to be.

Also signed a DC as one of our first choice pairings is about to come to the end of his loan. Why anyone signed him up until the end of January I have no idea.

There are limitations with this tactic. We can create some amazing passing moves and seem to always find the second balls. The problem is that that only happens when we play well. Hopefully we've had our poor month and we can get back to grinding out results at least.

[Tivvy18]

February 2024

So how long did it take before I thought a tactical change was needed?

Two matches. You can see after that the results started to pick up and that started with a cup win against National League Bromley. 

It didn't take long for me to revert to a 3ATB tactic but it has at least stop the rot. I'm thinking I may carry on with this as one of the benefits of not playing wingers is that I don't have to have any wingers in the squad and allowing me to invest in a lot of positions that double up. The problem would then be not having wide players available if I were to switch tactics again but that's getting ahead of myself for the inevitable next collapse in form. Optimism is a banned word in my training camp!

Next Month:

With only nine matches left in the season we are 6 points off the last play off spot. We've got a spread of opposition across the league and the quarter final of the FA Trophy against yet another National League team in Dorking. If I'm being sensible I would rather focus on the cup then aiming for a play off spot. In my mind prize money is greater than the possibility of promotion (which I think would be far too soon with the squad I've got and likely lose over the summer!) but I will probably give it all equal focus and see where we end up.

[Tivvy18]

March 2024

A mixed month saw us fall out of the FA Trophy by a single goal and too many draws has seen us fall off the pace for the play offs. Against Weymouth we dropped two points but we managed to gain a point against Slough in a thrilling second half after being three goals down. With only four matches to play in March we could still fall as low as 17th but we could also snatch a play off spot if results go our way and we win our remaining games.

Finances:

Even with our cup exploits this season you can see that, before the board kindly put some more money into the club, we missed out on the real money spinner of the FA Cup 3rd round.

Contracts:

In an earlier update I said I was worried about the prospect of losing a lot of players due to their contracts expiring and not being able to offer new ones. Fortunately I have been able to extend the contracts of, so far, these six players. The board negotiated Harvey's contract which is why it has destroyed our budget at £700 per week. Worth it? His performances this year suggests yes but unless they increase the budget a bit more we may be in for a bit of a quiet summer...

Next month:

It's youth intake month! Even when expecting rubbish I get excited that I might have someone come through that will be worth it in the end. At the very least a squad of emergency cover for the first team would be appreciated given the nightmare we have had this season with a squad on the smaller side. The league I think is essentially done and all I'm looking at now is to finish as high as I can.

[Tivvy18]

Youth Intake 2024

As expected the intake was naff. I will sign as many players as the wage budget allows but only for the benefit of having back ups if all else fails. However, saying that I think there are a few worth keeping an eye on.

I put my faith in Head of Youth Development when they say this guy is a "top talent" and is probably the only reason I am even including him. Is he good? No. Will he ever be good? Probably no. Is he one of the better players in this intake? Sadly yes.

Supposedly Szumski has the best CA of the lot but limited on the PA. I like his mentals and again falls in the "probably won't amount to much" category but maybe he will be of some use?

I'm calling this guy a defender who can't actually defend. Physicals are decent I guess and I like that despite being utter rubbish at playing football this guy at least tries and then gives up easily.

The rest are not noteworthy and largely consist of players that will probably retire as soon as they realise that football just isn't for them. As I said these guys will be the priorities for contracts. A shame but ultimately expected.

[Tivvy18]

April 2024

By the time we played Maidstone we were no longer able to make the play offs. The final two matches didn't really matter and you could tell that from the performances. We nearly claimed a draw against Maidstone but they scored late on and it was the same story against Dartford. In the end we finished 10th and secured a top half finish two years before the board expected it. 

National League South 23/24 Final Table

Given how we started off the season I will more than happily take a 10th place finish. Though only finishing 9 points off the play offs there is a certain feeling of what might have been...

[Tivvy18]

End of season news

I'll do a more in depth look at the season once all the cups and everything have concluded. For now I've had a few things pop up in the inbox that I thought worth showing.

Club vision:

 

Just because we scored a few corners doesn't mean we should make that part of our culture  It's one of the things I wish would get toned down as it always appears in the club vision as soon as you get a decent set piece routine going. I'd be more surprised if it wasn't there and even more surprised if the board would just let me take it out! I'm going to think how best to meet the possession and high tempo pressing football desires though. One thing that I've noticed though is the plan for a stadium has gone?

Stadium news:

Oh there it is! I'm actually really impressed that they are calling it the Stadium for Cornwall instead of something generic. Sadly it's not the 10,000 seater version that had originally been talked about but it should still make a glorious return to Truro at the end of next season.

Supporter profile:

It's nice to see that we gained social media followers I guess and the percentage of core followers has grown. What does it all really mean though? It's not ever something I've really cared about in the past.

What's the plan now?

I'm currently trying to offer trials to any u21 or u18 players set for release. One of the challenges about managing Truro at this level though is that most people don't want to come to us as we are so out of the way. I found this back in my Dafuge attempts and it did add an extra layer of difficulty to something that I generally struggle with anyway. I'm trying to go a bit further a field but it looks like I will be stuck with players from other south western clubs and Wales. I'll keep doing this and adding them to a shortlist to hopefully start building a team for next season. I'd love to say it's a novel idea that I came up with but I think this is a pretty standard method for this type of save. 

[Tivvy18]

End of season analysis

Squad:

One thing that I am happy to see over the season is how spread out the assists have been. The goals have been domain of the strikers and attacking midfielders but still I am happy with how they have been spread out as well. The strikers seemed to become more of a threat when I switched to 3ATB. You might be able to see that I am planning on playing a 4-2-3-1 formation next season at the moment which is not one that I have had too much success with in the past but feels like it would meet the board's desires of high tempo pressing football. If it fails I should at least be able to fall back on what we've been playing this season to steady the ship again... I hope.

Finances:

The only saving grace with finances is that the board seem happy to put money in to keep us afloat. Hopefully that will continue now that we have the £6.25k loan repayments to go add on top of things. At the moment though things look quite bleak and a lot of activity over the summer will be dictated by the finances and the tight budget we are working with.

As it stands we are spending £251,836 a year on wages.  Our current wage budget is £245,960 so  we are currently over. When contracts expire we are committed to be paying £213,044 which will hopefully give us a bit of wriggle room to sign some players. I know finances there isn't much point in caring much about finances at this level but I have found in the past that you can really make things more difficult if you don't at least try to keep losses to a minimum. The best way I think you can do this is by looking at what you are taking in as gate receipts which for us last season was only £100,549. When you consider a large chunk of that has come from our FA Cup run you can see why I'm not too optimistic. The loan will add an extra £75,000 which from this limited look at the finances will be around £300,000 in expenses. This isn't even taking into account back room staff wages which is another thing I will need to look at.

Our average attendance was a measly 279 last season which just from a brief look at other teams seems to put us as one of, if not THE, lowest in the league. I'm putting this down to the fact we aren't playing in Truro at the moment which I assume the game takes into account with home attendances. Will the fact we had a good season improve them even a little bit? I hope so even to put a dent in our losses. This is all a bit of rough calculation based on three factors and a lot of it is out of my hands.

In conclusion, the line will keep going down and the most I can do is hope to make the line go down by not as much.

Facilities:

I've managed to get an improvement made to the Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. We are long way off making Truro City the envy of the world though.

[Tivvy18]

End of season competition updates

So now all the leagues have finished in England I can update the table that will be forming the basis of becoming the best in the West Country (now featuring Plymouth ).

No change at the top but there has been a lot of movement in the leagues below the Championship. Cheltenham will drop into League Two as the only representative as both Swindon and Forest Green go down. Torquay and Bath got promoted (I'm not sure whether to rank promotions as higher than finishing place in the table) meaning the National League goes from no representatives to having four. With Taunton, Chippenham and Weymouth all going down, we've gone from having nine teams at the same rank to four guaranteed teams. Obviously we haven't hit the league reset date yet so we may say hello to one of the six teams in the lower leagues. We've stayed 14th in the West Country Table (I need to think of a snazzy name for it) with Gloucester managing to get a better point total.

Leagues

Premier League:

Champions - Liverpool

Champions League - Man Utd (bottled the title on the final day), Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal 

Europa League - Villa, Spurs

Europa Conference League - Newcastle

Relegated - Sheff Utd, Burnley, Luton

Championship:

Champions - Southampton

Promoted - Leicester

Play off winners - Leeds

Relegated - West Brom, QPR, Rotherham

League One:

Champions - Reading (dominated the league despite their point deduction)

Promoted - Oxford United

Play off winners - Bolton

Relegated - Stevenage, Cheltenham, Carlisle, Northampton

League Two:

Champions - Stockport

Promoted - AFC Wimbledon, Notts Co

Play off winners - Colchester

Relegated - Swindon, Forest Green

National League:

Champions - Chesterfield

Play off winners - Bromley

Relegated - Dag & Red, Wealdstone, Eastleigh, Kidderminster

National League North:

Champions - Blyth

Play off winners - Spennymoor

Relegated - King's Lynn, Brackley, Rushall, Farsley

National League South:

Champions -  Torquay

Play off winners - Bath City

Relegated - Taunton, Chippenham, Hemel Hempstead, Weymouth

Domestic Cups

FA Cup

Chelsea 1 - 4 Man City

League Cup

Arsenal 3 - 4 Spurs (after extra time)

Community Shield

Arsenal 0 - 1 Man City

EFL Trophy

Oxford United 2 - 0 Swindon

FA Trophy

Dorking 2 - 1 Chester

Continental Cups

Champions League

RB Salzburg 3 - 2 FC Bayern

Europa League

Atletico 1 - 3 Liverpool

Europa Conference League

West Ham 0 - 1 Aston Villa

Super Cup

Sevilla 1 - 4 Man City

Club World Cup

Man City 1 - 2 Flamengo

 

Edited February 4 by Tivvy18
Formatting

[Tivvy18]

24/25 Season - National League South

Looking at the season ahead

New season, new challenges. I think the squad is looking a much healthier size this season which should help with the busy periods that I think were part of our undoing last year. Last preseason I had five friendlies where I had to play the same team each match. By the first game we were already knackered. This year, however, I've got enough players to make up two squads to swap between in ten friendlies.

Even without the trialists I will be able to feature a full subs bench (currently missing a keeper) and I plan to have two squads that I can flick between. The first team hasn't been decided yet so having a load of friendlies will hopefully help with working out the tactic and who plays where. I'm a bit nervous about switching to a more aggressive 4-2-3-1 but if needs be I will switch back to one of the tactics that worked well last season.

I say more aggressive because it's bumped the wide players up to the AM strata but I think it is still a bit reserved until I start seeing it in action. In my head (and this is where my lack of tactical ability comes in) we should have a base of a 3-2 shape at the back and then up top we will have five players with the AP-S acting as the conductor. The FB-A will bomb forward and the IW-S will tuck in to let him do that. I'm trying to build the team around Harvey while we have him as he is by far our best player and this to me makes sense. Problems that I see at the moment is the big gap between the defence and the attack and it will depend on how the DM-S and the AP-S move that will create a link up. It may not be all thrills but if it plays out how I think it should then hopefully it will work.

Transfers

Just the two signings so far and I'm hoping to make more. It's taking a bit of juggling with renewing contracts on lower wages and non contracts but I am opening up a bit of budget to be able to sign players I consider are improvements.

A free from Plymouth, I can easily see Edworthy becoming our main striker this season. Looking at the comparison below compared to our current main striker, Neal, he just lacks on aerial ability. It's just a question of how much I'm happy to annoy someone who is currently down as a regular starter.

A free signing from Cardiff. The physicals are what makes me like Mpadi and he has a big chance of becoming first choice as Dan Rooney isn't a natural AMR and I'd rather him be backup to Harvey at AMC. Decisions, decisions.

[Tivvy18]

Preseason Update

Finances

I wasn't planning on doing this as a separate update but as I had gone through quite a lot of talk about finances at the end of last season I thought I would show you things so far.

Apart from the results, which I would class as respectable losses, my main focus is on the fact that we were near enough a sell out against both sides. I wasn't expecting them to be anything other than higher profile friendlies to start preseason off with but I checked the finances after each match to see what income we made...

From just these two friendlies we have taken a third of the gate receipts we took last season and more than half of our match day income. In the grand scheme of things we are still going to lose money but I think this goes to show how pitiful our income was last year.

The board put in another £70k to keep things running which was appreciated. That along with these two friendlies has basically seen the loss due to loan covered. Wages are sitting at £233,000 at the moment but I can't see that staying like that as I'm looking at signing a few more players. Hopefully I can keep it not too far about £250,000 but I won't say no to a good player if it means going over budget. Having a board that is willing to put money in to keep things look relatively healthy should help no end though.

[Tivvy18]

Preseason 24/25

Preseason comes to an end and the question in my mind is should we have tested ourselves a bit more? I'm happy with what I saw with the new tactic but as we all know preseason is not the season and August will be the real test to see if we are on to a winner.

Transfers

If I had the budget this would have been so much more than what I ended up with. We lost out on an inverted winger to Hampton & Richmond who offered more wages than we were able to. I'm still looking at players to sign to cover the IW position but I'm also keen to improve the squad where I can. Last season's emergency keeper Reece Thompson was available on a free so I brought him in to act as a backup.

Finances

The board have yet again injected £120k into the club which is keeping us well above the water. Before this though our finances were described as being insecure (it is now okay)  which I'm not entirely sure how that is worked out? I'm assuming it is because of the big loan hanging over us so the game doesn't consider us £200,000 in the positive but actually £300,000 in the negative instead. Just a guess as it is the only thing that makes sense to me.

The season begins

This is the updated West Country table for this season, now with the full array of gold colours. The media have us down to finish 13th which I would like to think we would be able to exceed. Though as I'm typing this edit I've just seen that a contract has been offered to one of our defenders which is the area where I think we are weakest... That could be an issue 

We start at home to Aveley and hopefully we will get an idea of what sort of season we will be in for.

Edited February 5 by Tivvy18

[Tivvy18]

August 2024

So the question of whether our new tactic was going to work seems to have been answered with a yes. The results hide some suspect performances though but I am siding with the fact our players just aren't that good - particular at the back. The Dartford loss was our rotated second XI who are significantly weaker than our first XI. Bottom of the league St. Albans meanwhile couldn't even handle the second XI and I was impressed by the 3-0 win. The results are pleasing but what about the board? At the end of the day they were the reason I felt a change in tactics was required.

Early days but they are happy on both the possession and pressing front. My main aim is to do things in the most functional way possible and if that gets us results then all the better. I aim to add a bit more flair to the way we play once we can get the players to do that. Playing a 4-2-3-1 isn't my usual style so it has been pleasing to see things going well (so far).

Youth debuts

Being at the limit of our wage budget has meant I have been unable to sign players on non-contracts (what do you meant £1 a match isn't enough to play for the mighty Truro?) and so I have had to turn to some of the youth signings from last season.

His powers comes from his hair. Just don't touch him or he might break...

I think I described one of my youth players along the lines of tries really hard but gives up easily. Unfortunately I think this is going to hinder someone I could see being a nifty squad player in a few years (if our progress in the leagues are limited).

I ended up signing too many right wingers by mistake last season so this guy ended up being picked to play on the left instead.

Injuries

An unfortunate injury to Harvey will mean we are without our star man until October. Fortunately we have a bit of depth in the AMC position so it hasn't hurt in that sense but we will definitely miss his quality.

Other news

The Euros ended with an England victory as they beat Belgium 3-0 in the final. The country celebrated with a bank holiday that was coined 'Saint Southgate Day' and the whole country united with a chorus of Sweet Caroline. I refused to take part out of principle as I can't stand the song and how long it has stuck around football.

Edited February 7 by Tivvy18
Hiding some poor spelling decisions

[Tivvy18]

September 2024

A change in fortunes this month as our only win came in the cup against opposition not in a playable league. Even then I wouldn't call it comfortable. The draws were undeserved. I'm still seeing patterns of play that I am happy with but there was little end result from anything. If it's going to be a season where we need to outscore our opponents to win we need to at least try to score to give us a chance!

Finances

The board have nearly injected half the loan amount into the club. As long as they are willing to keep doing this then we should be ok.

[Tivvy18]

October 2024

A better month but to follow a 4-1 victory with an embarrassing 5-1 loss hurts. The 1-1 draw against Braintree was a poor performance but I was happy with the point playing my second XI. Our amazing opening month has given us an inflated position of 8th at the moment but we really need to address this inconsistency.

We have four tough games against current top 6 sides coming up next month. It will be a good test as to whether we are worth our current lofty position but I feel it's going to be a reality check.

[Tivvy18]

November 2024

And there is our answer. An awful month where our only win was scraping past a team I've never heard of. Even Gosport outplayed us, which is worrying as that was the match I thought we would take 3 points from. So what to do? I know my players aren't great and at the moment I'm thinking a back to basics approach may be the best thing to do.

So the question now is what to do to stop the rot? As long as I avoid relegation (and getting sacked attempting to do so) I will probably revert to something that has worked last season to at least see us steady the ship. From my rough estimate of 45 points being the safety margin at this level we are currently 5 wins from it. Ambitious? No. But if I have got this season completely wrong because of either poor tactics or poor transfers then I will take a season to consolidate in order to push next year if needs be.

[Tivvy18]

December 2024

I feel like I'm playing darts at the moment. I am trying to find something that works and have for the time being settled on one of the preset gegenpress tactics slightly tweaked. I would say results improved instantly but an unconvincing 1-0 win was followed up quickly by the Aveley loss (though to be fair we had to swap an outfield player in goal early on). We grew into the game against Dartford to claim a point even though that was our second XI playing.

It is now getting to the stage where I'm looking over our shoulder as the 11 point gap between us and Dover can very quickly disappear. I'm still convinced that 45 points is the safety mark and if we continue to grind out results we should reach it. Our current performances are just that bad.

Injuries

A case of de ja vu as Hamon suffers another long term injury before New Year. No scrabbling around for an emergency replacement and the keeper who played back up last season, Thompson, is at the club already.

Thoughts about the state of things

I feel a bit dirty playing a gegenpress tactic. I'm not seeing an immediate turn around in fortunes but I know these tactics are considered OP. All I want to do at the moment is right the ship and survive the season.

What's going wrong? I think the main issue this year is that the players aren't good enough to do anything beyond the basics - which we were aiming to move away from this season. I am not saying that the 4-2-3-1 I created was perfect by any means and may be fundamentally flawed in a way I just don't see. I see a lot of bad or loose passes which have led to a lot of goals - this I am putting down to my players not being good enough to do what they are attempting to do. Even switching back to what worked last season hasn't helped. So what is going on? I really don't have a clue and that is tremendously frustrating.

I feel like everytime I say something things get worse. So I'll finish 2024 off by saying at least we aren't at crisis point... yet. Look forward to the January update that will be nothing but crisis points 

[Tivvy18]

January 2025

St. Albans saw us deploy a new tactic. Going right back to basics and I know we've only won 1 of the 3 afterwards but I think performances have improved massively. If only we could take our chances.

I am slowly adding TIs as we go along - hopefully to address issues that I am seeing as we go. We are sliding down the table as we struggle to pick up points and with only 8 points between us and Slough in 21st (who we play next) the threat of it all is looming.

Finances

The investment from last season was the loan taken out for the stadium. This season the board have nearly covered the entire loan with cash injections. Very generous of them but unfortunately news has come through that our chairman will be retiring in the summer. Hopefully whoever takes over will be as generous and more importantly willing to keep me on!

[Tivvy18]

February 2025

This was an important month as we played four teams that are stuck in the relegation fight. Maidstone were the only mid table team we played against. We left ourselves with too much to do against Farnborough and Maidstone got a late winner after we fought back to 3-3. We managed to repay the favour against Chelmsford though it seems our equaliser may have been a result of a dive in the box. Certainly not condoning that behaviour but given the amount of nonsense the refs gives against us I think it was about time we got the rub of the green.

With 10 games left to play this is the state of things. I'm still looking downwards but if we hit a run of form, and results go our way, the play offs are still there. This is beginning to feel like one of those seasons where you need a lot of points to be safe. 47 points should be enough but when you consider Dover are on 35 points all it will take is teams to get four wins and the gap could be gone. Unlikely? Maybe but this is FM.

Transfers

Brought Sammy in on loan to appease Tyler Harvey who I promised I would strengthen the attack. So far he got us the win against Chelmsford with his only goal so far but I think he looks pretty decent. Shame that he hasn't got more presence up front.

Club news

So the fans are now in charge. I don't think I've ever had a takeover that has resulted in a load of investment. The chairman seems to lack a bit of ambition though from current requests but I have finally managed to start the first coaching course.

[Tivvy18]

March 2025

We are finishing this season with a whimper. Only needing the one point to secure safety or more likely Slough and Chelmsford will lose one of their matches. To say the least this season hasn't gone well. Without our good start we would have been relegated already. Just April to go and then I can really begin thinking about the state of things. Will the youth intake give me something to smile about?

Transfers (or who has jumped ship early?)

I liked Edworthy and as it says he was our top scorer. Unfortunately I could only get him on a non-contract and no one wants to consider renewing while our survival is in doubt. It's disappointing as I could have seen him really turn into a good player for us if we worked out a system that made him tick.

[Tivvy18]

April 2025

Uh oh...

Erm... Please don't sack me?

That seems reasonable...

Now how about a new contract in the meantime?

Humour aside. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't bother offering me a new contract. This season has been all shades of dreadful. How we survived I have no clue as we never looked like we were playing well.

[SovietTea]

Wow. What a second season!

Hopefully you can get some good signings in order to make that promotion push.

[Tivvy18]

End of Season Analysis

I don't think anyone could blame me for taking a break from the game after that last season. Before carrying on any further, for disclosures sake, I did holiday ahead to see what would happen after my contract expires. The board said that due to the financial situation no one would be getting new contracts and I was then put on a rolling contract. Whether that's because I've got that ultimatum hanging over my head or because they honestly consider the finances to be that bad (we will come to that in a bit) it doesn't look like the save is over just yet.

Squad:

Looking at the ratings I think it is clear that the squad has had a poor season. Ryan Law is asking for silly money to renew his contract so his 12 assists this season will be his last as a Truro player - unless he changes his mind later. Looking at the star ratings I think it is clear that our squad is just not that good. We have quality in certain positions but then quality falls off quite sharply.

My tasks for this preseason are very clear: 

1. Decide on a tactic
2. Sign players that are actually improvements in a sensible manner

Fortunately the board have actually increased the wage budget this season so this may be easier than it was last year.

Youth intake:

Given the state of things and the fact the intake was generally poor I didn't include anything in the monthly updates. So here is the best prospect from the intake:

Natural at right back but I was sold to me as a midfielder. Looking at his attributes I am much more willing to get him in the midfield.

Finances:

Going by this, I think our finances are in a relatively decent place and we are rated as okay.

If you go by this, however, we've got a load of debt. Anytime the game talks about bad finances I think it is looking at this. Though I could well be wrong and this 'discovery' could actually be a well known fact. 

This is what is exciting me most though. We've actually got a wage budget to play with! Hopefully it won't all be eaten away by contract renewals but just having some room to move is a novelty. It does mean that the annual wage budget goes up quite a bit to over £300,000 and I haven't got any idea if the new board will be so generous with cash injections. I need to use this budget wisely if we are going to get anywhere next season.

Finally I shall post our income from matches. It's just over half of what we made last year and what we did make was most from the two friendlies! All in all you can see how pitiful the income has been from matches with our average attendance being 178. Why am I including this here? Next season we are returning back to Truro in a fancy new stadium (which as an aside I've seen has just been approved of in real life as well) and with it I expect our attendance to increase as we will actually be playing at home. I think it will be interesting to compare just how much playing home matches in Plymouth has had an impact of things. Of course this depends on whether I'm around at the end of the season to do such a comparison 

Current thoughts on the save:

This has been a rough season and I have been thinking about what happens if I did get sacked. One idea in my head are that I will start all over again, emerging from the shower as if it had been all a bad dream. The second is that I will call it quits and just acknowledge that I am just not that good at FM to do something like this and find another save that I could fail at. I think something else that is slightly tempting me is to turn this into a journeyman save and show Truro what they would be missing if they did end up sacking me. All hypothetical at the moment but given the way things had gone I thought it was worth considering.

Anyway, thank you all for reading things so far. I hope it's providing some entertainment as I update on how bad things are going.

[Tivvy18]

On 13/02/2024 at 11:38, SovietTea said:

Wow. What a second season!

Hopefully you can get some good signings in order to make that promotion push.

That's the aim but the first order of business is trying to find players that are better than what I've got and who are also willing to come to the club!

One of the questionably fun things about playing as Truro is that due to their location they are limited at this stage who will be willing to come. I'm basically relying on all the south west clubs to produce some decent players at the moment. It seems people have to be pretty desperate to move to Cornwall.

[Tivvy18]

The Youth Policy

To celebrate the fact that our u18 side won their league this season, I thought I would discuss my current approach to the youth setup at Truro.

The ultimate goal is to have a core of products from the Truro academy playing in the first team. How we reach that goal is something that will change as we improve as a club in terms of league and facilities.

The current policy is fairly simple:

1.  Youth players are to act as back ups if the first choice and second choice are unavailable. Youth players will become second choice if there are no suitable players.
2.  Promote at least one youth player to the first team each season.

Given the quality of my current intakes I am really only focusing on the players that are highlighted as the top rated prospects. Everyone else I'm treating as emergency back ups unless I'm pleasantly surprised by their development. As it stands, the highest rated player from the 23/24 intake was Pawel Szumski and he has already featured in the first team as cover. It is likely he will find himself being rotated around the squad this coming season as well so that should hopefully aid in his development.

Obviously the issue with this at this stage in the save is that the quality of the players coming in are going to not keep pace if we find ourselves getting promoted. It is something that will have to be reviewed as the save progresses but for now this is the basic premise of my youth policy.

 

[Tivvy18]

End of Season Competition Updates

The Pride of the West Country

If the board were sensible they would realise that this season wasn't actually that terrible as we move up one place to 13th place in this completely arbitrary league that I made up for the sake of this save. Gloucester find themselves relegated into lower league obscurity. Bristol City and Plymouth didn't make the play off final despite both having very good seasons which still means that Bournemouth lead the way in the Premier League. Cheltenham suffer a second successive relegation and will be replaced by Swindon as the South West's representative in League Two.

Leagues

Premier League:

Champions - Arsenal

Champions League - Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool, Tottenham (Europa League winners)

Europa League - Brentford, Southampton, Newcastle (Europa Conference League winners)

Europa Conference League - Crystal Palace

Relegated - Fulham, Leicester, Wolves

Championship:

Champions - Norwich

Promoted - Burnley

Plays off winner - Birmingham

Relegated - Preston, Huddersfield, Millwall

League One:

Champions - Wycombe

Promoted - Blackpool

Plays off winner - Portsmouth

Relegated - Notts Co, Leyton Orient, Cambridge, AFC Wimbledon

League Two:

Champions - MK Dons

Promoted - Crewe, Walsall

Plays off winner - Grimbsy

Relegated - Carlisle, Cheltenham

National League:

Champions - Swindon

Plays off winner - York

Relegated - Altrincham, Torquay, Oxford City, Maidenhead

National League North:

Champions - Scunthorpe

Plays off winner - Chester

Relegated - Curzon Ashton, Gloucester, Southport, Buxton

National League South:

Champions - Dag & Red

Plays off winner - Yeovil

Relegated - Chelmsford, Slough, St. Albans, Havant & Waterlooville

Domestic Cups

FA Cup

Man Utd 2 - 1 Fulham

League Cup

Man Utd 2 - 3 Arsenal

Community Shield

Liverpool 2 - 2 p Man City

EFL Trophy

Derby 1 - 0 AFC Wimbledon

FA Trophy

York 3 - 1 Hartlepool

Continental Cups

Champions League

Barcelona 1 - 0 Inter

Europa League

Hoffenheim 0 - 3 Tottenham

Europa Conference League

Bologna 0 - 2 Newcastle

Super Cup

RB Salzburg p 2 - 2 Liverpool

[Tivvy18]

National League South 25/26

Start of Preseason

This is preseason for us this year. We have four big matches to start and then play weaker opposition to get ready for the season. I'm hoping the four matches to start with will see us pull in a fair amount of money. The Bristol City match is particularly momentous as that is the first match to be played at our new stadium.

Personal

My contract is still due to expire and I take the chairman at his word when he says it's because of the finances and not because they just don't like me. I'm hoping that the money earned from the first four friendlies will be enough to get this through.

On another note I am now a qualified coach which may help things if I need to look for another job.

Club reputation

I suppose being the subject of everyone's jokes has helped a bit with our reputation. At least they were talking about us!

 

[Tivvy18]

Preseason 25/26

A mixed bag as we try out a new formation but the way I see it is that if I'm going to lose my job I may as well do something a bit more fun. I'll save the big reveal for if and when I manage to get those magical 8 points needed to save myself.

Stadium update

We say goodbye to Plymouth...

...and we are back to make a glorious return to Truro.

Finances

Looks like the board are also happy to put in money. What I really don't get though is why we are being listed as insecure? It must be something to do with the loan but we've been listed as okay at £100k so I have no idea why we aren't now.

[Tivvy18]

August 2025

Five games to save my job

A team I've not beaten in three games to start with. In front of a bumper crowd as people get to see the Stadium for Cornwall host its first ever league match. Will the occasion get the better of us?

 

[Tivvy18]

August 2025

Four matches remaining...

The second team have done it though it took until the 91st minute to make me feel relaxed.

[Tivvy18]

August 2025

Three matches. One win needed.

I could have done without their goal but that's the win to take us to 9 points and the board's target has been met with two games spare. I was trying to build a bit of tension but I'll take the wins over drama today! Not included is their offside goal that they scored in injury time...

Now if I was paranoid I would think that the fact they listed it twice shows just how much they wanted rid of me. But given what game I'm playing it is just FM doing FM things...

Finances

Also FM things...

I really don't get this at all. How are we still listed as insecure?

If this is the reason than I don't get why it's an issue this season and not last season. We've never had more money in the balance and the net debt has decreased massively. Anyone got any ideas?

[Tivvy18]

August 2025

It's all looking brighter with two games to go

We did enough to win this. We did enough to lose it. A draw was probably a fair result. With 10 points the board should surely be satisfied at my performance?

[Tivvy18]

August 2025

The Last Game Before Judgement

We definitely did not deserve to win this. An 89th minute long range shot gave us the points but the 2nd team were not comfortable at all.

We succeeded after three games so this lost a lot of its tension. 4 wins and 1 draw is our best run of form since this time last year. My main concern is that now I'm on a month to month contract that they will be able to sack me for the slightest thing. As soon as I see our finances are classed as okay I will be requesting a new one.

[Tivvy18]

August 2025

So here we are at the end of August. Unbeaten somehow and more importantly still in the job. We started off the new season with the first league match at the Stadium for Cornwall which saw a record crowd that seems to have stuck around a bit. Being closer to home is clearly doing the trick. So what was the tactic that seems to have done the trick?

Taking some inspiration from BusttheNet and SteinkelssonFM, given the situation I thought why not? This is probably the most unlikely me tactic I have ever played but I'm enjoying watching it work though I have questions about the defending. I wouldn't be surprised if we became a team that only win by outscoring the opposition.

Early days but we sit at the top of the table. Will we manage to remain there?

Contract

Our finances are still insecure but I was offered a new 2 year deal which makes me think all the excuses were because they were waiting on the promise to come through.

 

[SovietTea]

Looks like the new stadium is bringing you luck! 

Fingers crossed you can finally get out of this league.

[Rick87]

Cracking start to life in the new stadium!

[Tivvy18]

Don't jinx it now! This is how last season started and then just look where we ended up!

 

[Tivvy18]

September 2025

League

I wouldn't say a convincing month in the league. Two wins and a draw but we've started to struggle up front. Torquay really hammered us when they attacked and I think the story of the season will be that we will beat the teams who are weaker and then struggle against stronger opposition. The loss sees us slip to 4th having enjoyed top spot for a few games.

FA Cup

Two wins so far and we are into the fourth qualifying round. With the right draws this could be a decent season for a cup run. I'm not holding my breath.

Youth debuts

An unattached youth that I signed in the first season. Enjoyed a goal scoring debut against Poole.

[Tivvy18]

October 2025

League

This felt a little bit familiar. Fortunately we at least picked up 4 points but defending was practically non existent at times. The Farnborough result was particularly concerning as it bucked the trend that we usually dominate the weaker teams. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come.

FA Cup

Despite the media wanting to focus on our poor league form, normal service resumed for a brief while at Eastbourne as we ran wild. Up next is an away tie at League One Fleetwood where I fully expect our run to end this year.

Finances

Another £100k injection and we are still classed as insecure 

[Tivvy18]

Is this a bug?

Honestly I'm out of ideas now. We have over half a million in the bank. The board keeps giving us cash injections (not that I'm complaining). We have no net debt. Why are we still listed as insecure?

[Tivvy18]

November 2025

League

Fun is over. The Welling match was one were we got ahead and they pegged up back immediately. The Dartford game was essentially the final straw. I've dropped the fun tactic because we've decided defending is just too difficult and I've switched to a 4-3-3 that, though defending much better, is lacking much goal scoring currently. Admittedly Tonbridge and Braintree were difficult opponents and confidence is lacking at the moment, I am hoping that once the goals get flowing we might find ourselves in a better place. As it stands we are currently holding onto 7th.

FA Cup

As expected, Fleetwood battered us.

FA Trophy

We found our level in the FA Trophy. I think the stats speak for themselves and yet we only managed one goal from open play and the other came from a corner.