Platinum

Really impressive goal, hes quickly become a favourite of mine. He terrorisea defences as hes always taking players on.

Thank you the update for the next month wont be quite as good though! But it's a long season so let's see

It said they underperformed under my management

First month in League One: August 2025 We finished the month in 1st place in the expected points table so lets end the season now using the expected points table In reality we finished the month in 4th place with 4 games played in the league (3W, 1L) and we got knocked out of the League Cup against Championship side Watford. We played well in our matches, controlling the games, but we are conceding too many shots and not having enough shots ourselves. We are very enjoyable to watch though and we play how I described we would in my previous update. One thing I didn't account for is that our team is quite small and weak (physically) now and that really showed this month as all the goals we conceded in the league were from set pieces. I will have to look out for this and possibly have us training defending set pieces more often. I was happy with Matt Jay and Tommy Blair this month. Blair got 2 goals and 1 assist and Jay got 3 goals and 1 assist. Other news: We sold 1834 season tickets this season, up from 1677 last season. Small progress but its progress. The board are delighted at how I've been integrating youth academy players into the first team since I joined. Goalscorers this Month 3 - Matt Jay 2 - Tommy Blair 1 - Harvey Blair 1 - Rodel Richards 1- Lewis Walker 1 - Sam Stubbs Goal of the Month Excellent lob from outside the box by Harvey Blair with an assist from Tommy Blair. They are building quite the partnership 2022-07-31 00-25-37 (1) (1) (1).mp4 Stinker of the Month Another set piece goal conceded 2022-07-31 00-32-54 (1) (1).mp4 Other news in the world of football Saka returned to the England team after not being in the squad for 5 years - and not being part of the World Cup winning squad in 2022

Ins and Outs: Summer 2025 It was a busy summer as we prepared ourselves for life in League One. The expectations from the board are to fight bravely against relegation, and the expectations for the team are for us to avoid relegation. We have a good squad with some League One quality players already and wit some additions I believe we can get a mid table finish. The club are delighted with how I've been developed and using our youth system players in the first team and they also added two qualities to our club vision: Play defensively solid football and play counter-attacking football. Our aim for the next 5 years is to remain in the league but let's see how that develops. Incomings We identified GK, CM and both wings as positions to strengthen with starting quality players. And at CB and LB we wanted to bring in depth. The goalkeeper position was a problem as although Tom Hadler had a good season in terms of match ratings and won our signing of the season, when you look at his stats they aren't impressive. As you can see in the image below Hadler didn't save us from more goals than expected, which can be interpreted as him not gaining us any points. We decided to spend £100k on Owen Evans from Gillingham who was one of the best performing goalkeepers in League Two last season based on those same metrics. In centre midfield we needed to upgrade the technical quality of the team to continue our possession and slow tempo style in League One. For this reason we bought in two players and loaned Regan Riley from Norwich again. The two players are Nick Thomas - bought on a free transfer from our arch rivals Plymouth and we had to pay £89k in compensation. He is a very technical and creative player with poor physical qualities. If he is played in the right system where we can mask his weaknesses he can be a very good player for us now and in the future Ger Devine - an absolutely quality player we bought in on loan from Middlesborough. He had an OK season on loan in the National League last season but I think he has the talent to step up to League One. At CB we bought in cover in the form of Santos who comes in on loan from Bolton who are struggling financially and just got relegated to Leaue Two. CB is our best position depth wise as we have four League One standard CBs We bought in Robbie Fraser who is a pacy attacking full back who can challenge Jack Sparkes. We reloaned both Harvey Blair and Rob Douglas from last season for our players in wide positions. Loans We loaned out a host of youngsters but the most important were Adilson Furtado (made 24 appearances last season), Josh Brimacombe-Ward (3 appeances), and Tychique Kouakou (on loan in National League last season), all to League Two clubs. Hopefully they play well and can be part of the squad for us next season. All three players came form our academy. Youth We have kept two young players with us this season that can get some game time. 17 year old Geslin Matondo is one of them, he made a couple of appearances last season and is a great prospect. Goalkeeper Sean Cromie is also staying with us as 3rd choice keeper after we couldn't find a loan for him. He is still a great prospect and is now 19 years old. Tactics Below is the tactic we will be going into the season with. We have a strong identity in terms of style of play. We aim to control possession with our three midfielders with outlets in Sparkes on the left hand side and Donacien who holds back but is always open at good angles for a safer pass. We then have Harvey Bair and Rodel Richards as inside forwards who make penetrating runs and dribble with the ball. We have the technical quality in mdifield to fund the runs from our attackers and Sparkes and also to keep the ball. Tommy Blair drops in to help out and he also finishes chances for us in the box. Outgoings We let go of a few bit-part players such as: Gary Woods - our previous backup goalkeeper joined West Ham as a backup in the Premier League Jack Caprice & Jermaine Hylton on loan Other news in the world of football Bukayo Saka transferred to PSG for £105 million Frankie De Jong transferred to Bayern Munich for £134 millikon Jude Bellingham transferred to Olympique Lyonnais for £103 million. No idea how they did this as they haven't won a trophy in 13 years and are playing in the Europa League Most of the best players in the world play for Bayern

This is a really important feature request, as using a DoF isn't really practical without these things. Especially being able to tell the DoF the expected playing time when renewing contracts. Sometimes it happens the other way round, the DoF has offered the player less playing time than I will actually be playing him, and this lack of promised playing time means the player rejects the contract. We are able to tell the DoF the expected playing time when making transfer targets (although not when the DoF initiates there own signings) so it should be possible when renewing contracts.

Yeah you can't change the playing time, and even if you could more often than not players don't like contracts being changed after they have been agreed

Yeah its not possible, its a big shame as really it should be basic functionality to tell the DoF the expected playing time and basically means in most cases you can't let your DoF renew contracts.

End of Season Review 2024 - 2025 We had a good season, coming in second place in the league and gaining automatic promotion after the initial expectations were to get a play-off place. Our u18s team also had a good season, finishing in second place in their league. We broke a few of our own team records this season too including most league league wins in a season Matt Jay was our best player by far and won the League Two Player of the Season, a massive achievement for him. He got 12 goals and 17 assists in the league and 13 goals and 20 assists in all competitions this season. Tommy Blair bagged 24 goals this season with 22 in the league and finished runner up as the League Two top goalscorer. We also had four players in the League Two team of the season. Also we finished first in the expected points table. Our team awards were as follows: Matt Jay won the Fan's Player of the Season and Jack Sparkes won the Young Player of the Season which were both deserved. Other news in the world of Football Bayern Munich beat Manchester United 2 - 0 in the Champions League final with two goals from Lewandowski. Bayern Munich are without doubt the best team in the league with two Champions League trophies in two years and a front three of Mbappe, Gnabry and Lewandowski Man City win the Premier League Arsenal lose to Inter Milan in the Europa League final. They were very unlucky and were by far the better team. Haaland scored 34 goals in 33 games in the Premier League for Man City Haaland wins English Player of the Year Cliftonville finished third in the league and lost in two cup finals. Premier League Team of the Year And the Champions League Dream Team

Just popping in to say thanks @kevhamster for the brilliant help you've been giving over the years. You've helped me twice before too and Im really happy with my FM experience because of it.

This means I can miss out on loan targets as other clubs can make offers

Yeah its a shame, Burton just weren't dropping points in the final streth of matches and we got 3 long term injuries to first team players that really affected us. Really disappointing to lose out on the league title but makes me even more determined to win a trophy next season. Delighted with being promoted though, hopefully the board continue to back me.

Promoted!: April & May 2025 We finished in second place with a great tally of 97 points. Im delighted to get promoted although I am disappointed we didn't win the league or any other silverware, We played fantastic football this season though and the Expected Points table had us in first place. We played 5 games in the last months of the league campaign and we won 4 and lost 1. The one loss meant that we couldn't win the league, and I must say Burton were great competitors. Matt Jay was a real standout for us this season and Tommy Blair scored a lot of goals for us. Also our January signings were key after we had several long term injuries. It was great to live up to the great praise that Nigel Clough gave me when I first joined Exeter Goalscorers Tommy Blair: 3 Sam Stubbs:: 2 Rodel Richards: 1 Matt Jay: 1 Corey Blackett-Taylor: 1 Lewis Walker: 1 Adilson Furtado: 1 Jordan Turnbull: 1 Goal of the two months World class volley by Walker and great pressing from Tommy Blair 2022-07-12 23-02-11 (1) (1) (1) (1).mp4 Stinker of the two Months Terrible 3 - 0 loss that meant we couldnt win the league 2022-07-12 23-01-31 (1) (1) (1).mp4

Playoffs secured: March 2025 We secured our place in the playoffs. It's fully deserved as well. We remain in second place and the Expected Point table has us in first place. We did however have unacceptable two losses in the league which really dented, and may have ended our chances of winning the league. In both our losses we concede all our goals after the 80th minute. We are really struggling in the last 10 minutes of matches this season and it has to be sorted out. Harvey Blair continued his excellent form for us and won both the Player & Young Player of the Month awards! Youth Promising goalkeeper Sean Cromie got a loan t the National League North and has played well so far. We got our new youth intake which was quite a poor one this year with no initial stand out players. Goalscorers this Month Harvey Blair: 3 Rodel Richards: 2 Timmy Blair: 1 Matt Jay: 1 Corey Blackett-Taylor: 1 David Carson: 1 Goal of the Month Excellent goal form Harvey Blair 2022-07-12 22-59-26 (1) (1) (1) (1).mp4 Stinker of the Month Terrible defending as we concede in the 89th minute to lose the match after initially being ahead 2022-07-12 22-56-50 (1) (1) (1).mp4 Other news in the world of football Man City beat Everton 4 - 0 in the EFL Cup Final NxGen 50:

Nine matches to go: February 2024 We remain in 2nd place at the end of the month and should have at least a play off place wrapped up. We had one loss this month which was disappointing but I was happy to see 18 year old academy product Furtado get his first goal for the club. Other than that we got three wins and one draw including a thumping of Northampton. Tommy Blair and Rodel Richards have both provided the goals this month and Harvey Blair has really shown to be an impressive player. His direct dribbling and the number of shots he takes as an Inside Forward is great. Matt Jay was also excellent this month with 1 goal and 3 assists, he is playing like the best player in the league. Matt Jay came in third place in the player of the month award Tommy Blair came in second place in the Young Player of the Month award Goalscorers this month Tommy Blair: 4 Rodel Richards: 2 Matt Jay: 1 Lewis Walker: 1 Adilson Furtado: 1 Harvey Blair: 1 Goal of the Month First professional goal for Adilson Furtado 2022-07-12 22-54-39 (1) (1) (1).mp4 Stinker of the Month I hold my hand up as it was a good goal 2022-07-12 22-54-21 (1) (1) (1).mp4

Incomings and Outgoings: January 2025 It was a month of incomings and outgoings and great results. Outgoings We lost academy product and skilful forward Sonny Cox to Premier League club Fulham for £550k, he was getting offers non-stop throughout the month an the offers were too good to turn down even though Cox was happy to stay with us. It shows what great players our academy is producing and it also justified the great work we done developing him this season and giving him a chance in the first team. His form had dropped alarmingly in the past couple months and I believed we could bring in better players in on loan which made it easier to let him go. We also let last seasons top scorer Sam Nombe go out on loan as he wasn't getting game time. Incomings We had 3 incomings this month with two of them being young wingers in on loan to replace Sonny Cox. We also bought in right back Janoi Donacien on a free transfer to replace the injured Jack Caprice and potentially start at right back. Talented and fast inverted winger from Brighton who will improve the quality in the team Harvey Blair is an Inside Forward who is a direct replacement for Sonny Cox, he has lots of pace and is a good finisher. I had considered signing him last summer but decided not to and he went to Salford in League 1 but has struggled for game time. The previous season he had a season with Gloucester in the Vanarama National. Donacien played for Fleetwood Town in League 1 for the past two seasons and he put in solid performances. He should be a very good defensive right back for us. Results We had a great month in terms of results, winning all our matches apart from a very respectable loss against Championship club Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Third Round. This put us up into second place with Burton still in first place. The great results meant I won the Manager of the Month award Injuries We lost both Archie Collins ( centre midfielder) and Jordan Turnball (central defender) to 1 - 2 month injuries and Jordan Graham (winger) to a 3 month injury which are a massive massive losses as they all start lots of matches for us. I hope this doesn't impact our promotion and title challenge. Goal of the Month Excellent link up between Tommy Blair and Rodel Richards 2022-07-11 23-40-53 (1) (1) (1).mp4 Second time lucky for Archie Collins. 2022-07-11 23-41-27 (1) (1) (1).mp4 No stinker of the month this month Other news in the world of football Vlahovic moved to Liverpool Haaland is scoring more than a goal per game for Man City in the league

2024 Award Winners Mbappe is named the best player in the world with Haaland second. Pedri has done extremely well to come in third place. The World XI is below:

Out of the cup and not enough wins: December 2024 It was another difficult month as we crashed out of the EFL Trophy against our rivals Plymouth on penalties (they are a League One club) and only won two league games. Unfortunately this month was always going to be difficult as we lost Tommy Bair to injury. We did manage to bring in a striker called Rodel Richards on a free transfer but he only seemed to settle in at the end of the month as he struggled before scoring 2 goals in the final game of the month. I had a great team talk with the players on 3rd December but it didn't have a big impact on our results. The game against Swindon was particularly disappointing as we squandered our 2 goal lead. We are still in contention for a automatic promotion though and we have the least amount of losses with more than half of the season being played. If we look at the XG table though we are first which gives me reason to believe we could finish the season as winners Burton, who are first in the league, also have started to show interest in our best CB and captain Sam Stubbs, but there is no way I will sell him. Lastly it was great to be gaining a reputation for our style of play, they call it "Francis-ball". Here is Rodel Richards who can play in all attacking positions and should really improve the team and more importantly give Tommy Blair some serious competition. He came from the Tottenham academy and was at Notts County in Vanarama National and League 2 where he scored 39 goals in 134 appearances in all competitions. He is a composed finisher who works hard for the team. Goalscorers this Month Lewis Walker: 3 Rodel Richards: 2 Matt Jay: 2 Archie Collins: 2 Tommy Blair: 1 Regan Riley: 1 Jordan Graham: 1 Goal of the Month Good first goal for Rodel Richards, I hope to see more of the same 2022-06-05 01-42-25 (1) (1) (1).mp4 Stinker of the Month Really disappointing to lose our 2 goal lead in the last 10 minutes of the match 2022-07-11 22-52-31 (1) (1).mp4

Yep I watch my matches on Full Match and in 3D. For me match day is the main event of being a manager, it's what you're preparing the players for during the week and for realism reasons it just feels right to watch the full match and its immersive. Also I actually think its actually quite entertaining and you really have a feel of what's going on in the match. Also it allows you to have a real tactical battle in a match, as you better understand and can react to what's happening in the match. I play all league matches on Full Match. A cup match that's against a much lower league team will usually be on Comprehensive unless theres a few players I want to pay close attention to. I play most friendlies on Full Match but might change to comprehensive if we are easily winning. I put the speed on 2 notches above medium and it takes me around 50 minutes to finish a match. @Brother Ben thanks for tagging me

Do you suggest players to your DoF?

I wouldn't recommend making any changes to your training based on the experiment due to the reasons I and other gave in this thread

My initial thoughts are that as only one match prep slot is used it will likely have a negligible effect and also the training slot will make the players conditions a bit worse than the other team who had no training.