officiallydeej

I last played Southend in the National League South in 2025/26 when they dominated the league and battered me twice. Fast forward 7 years and 3 promotions each, revenge is (belatedly) sweet!

Dulwich Hamlet - 2031/32 Sky Bet League Two - 7th (Playoff Winners!) This was not in the script!! An absolutely incredible first season in the Football League has seen us win our second successive playoff final which sees us into League One for next season. This season was amazing in so many ways, no least because we were only in the playoffs places once all season, straight after game week 46! We were in mixed form for the first half of the season, often holding our own at home and getting beaten easily away. After the autumn fixture build up we were actually as low as 19th and for at least a half of the season in with a genuine chance of going back down. As we hit new year and the fixture list thinned out everything just seemed to click. We lost 12 games in 2031 but as soon as the new year ticked over we only lost 3 times more all season, winning every other game expect one draw. We went into the final game of the season in 8th place, but a nervy 1-0 win at Burton coupled with a defeat for Milton Keynes saw us sneak the last play off place. I still didn't really expect much as we faced Chesterfield who had beaten us twice already including a 5-0 beating away early in the campaign. We played them at home first and not only beat them 1-0 but absolutely played them off the park. I still feared they'd turn us over away, but in what was probably our best performance of the season we went and won 2-0 to set up a playoff final with York. The final was fairly one sided and probably not as close as a 3-1 score line might look. We have an xG of 3.5 and even at 1-1 I was always confident we'd beat them in the second half. This feels a bit like groundhog day but outside a couple of stars our squad is barely National League standard never mind League One and I can't see this overachieving continuing. I'll again be happy with 20th and survival for a few seasons until our infrastructure and youth products catch up to our overachievement. I've said this already but this season is probably in my top 5 ever in FM, just because of the sheer unlikeliness and how we didn't enter the playoff spots once until the last game. Cups I said last season I wasn't going to put up much of a fight in the cups to minimise fixture congestion and we lived up to that hype, losing all 5 cup games we played this season. Our juniors lost 3-2 at Port Vale in the League Cup and got hammered 6-1 by Bolton in the FA Cup. We were drawn with Fulham u21s, Maidstone United and Walsall in the FL Trophy who beat us 6-3, 1-0 and 6-3 respectively. Not only did we not prioritise them we conceded 22 goals in 5 games, quite some going! Star Players We continued our attacking style of play this season, scoring 132 and conceding 114 in what is probably a reflection of a currently unbalanced match engine. That won't bother Jonathan Jewell 29a though, who continued to push our best player Caldwell out of position with an incredible return of 43 goals and 5 assists in 45 starts. He isn't rated as highly as some of our other strikers but is a deadly poacher as this level and now has 90 goals for the club in only 123 appearances. We play a traditional front two and James McHardy 27b more than pulled his weight, with 34 goals and 22 assists in 43 starts. It means between them our strikes scored 77 goals between them, easily the most I've had since the old old Football Manager or CM games. Both are tied to long contracts and if we have any hope of staying up next season their goals will be key. Drey Beaney 26b is a new entry and the only player left at the club from the disappointing 2026 intake. He's taken the attacking midfield role filled by former stars Paul Moro and Rakeem Thomas and didn't disappoint with 13 goals and 12 assists in 37 starts. Youth Intake Our best intake for 7 seasons, at least on paper and certainly reason at last to be optimistic for the longer term future. One 5* prospect and six 4* talents might be skewed by us losing our best player last season but is still not to be sniffed at. Delane Stewart has the highest potential and coupled with a good personality I am hoping he can go far. He's the third good right back to come through in 3 years however so won't immediately be in the first team. We have more issues at left back so Chris Freeman is a welcome addition. He'll need retraining from his current wing back role as I dropped that position a couple of seasons ago but he has a nice attribute base to work from and probably will be at least on the bench in the near future. Admin The only bad news coming from the club this season hails from the finance department. Although only showing us £44k in the red that number is largely skewed by the playoff final which pumped over 600k into the coffers. We lost over £1m over the course of the season excluding the Wembley gate receipts and I'm not sure there's much more money in League One to help. Our board did their usual pointless expansion last summer and added another 800 seats for 500k. Confirmation of Rakeem Thomas leaving us last summer for Queens Park where he ended up top scorer with 13. I also loaned two players to Kingstonian who used to be in and around the first team but unfortunately they couldn't prevent their loan club finishing bottom of the National League South.

Dulwich Hamlet - 2029/30 Vanarama National League - 4th (Playoff Winners!) What a way to bounce back from our disappointing mid table campaign last season! We flew out of the traps and were top of the league until fatigue hit us in November. Our form generally held this season though and although Gillingham ended up winning the league at a canter we finished 4th on 85 points, our highest total in the National League so far. We played attacking football this season, scoring a frankly ridiculous 135 league goals and conceding an equally bizarre 87. Into the playoffs and we battered Hartlepool 6-2 in the first round, with 4 goals from our striking sensation Jonathan Jewell 29a (more on him later). We then beat Stevenage 1-0 in the semi final in what was both of lowest scoring game of the season. Other than a 2-0 every one of our games had at least three goals with the highest scoring being an early season 8-3 dismantling of Dartford who would go on to register only 14 points and concede a record breaking 136 goals. The final was a true nail biter. Rakeem Thomas 25b gave us the lead in what was going to be his final game for the club. Our best player has agreed to join Queens Park on a free (no compensation again grr!) but was determined to go out with a bang. That lead held until the 95th minute when a cross from the left broke our hearts with an equaliser taking my exhausted team to extra time. We managed to pick ourselves up and 16 year old substitute full back Sam Mole 30c picked the perfect time to score his first career goal! That still wasn't enough as Gateshead carved through us again to equalise. The penalty shootout saw a fitting end to Thomas's Dulwich Hamlet career, sending the keeper the wrong way with his final kick in a Hamlet shirt to send us into the football league! I've been doing this challenge for years, sometimes posting here and sometimes not, but this is the first time I've ever got into the league in England. I've no idea how next season will go but I can't wait to get started. Cups On the face of it this doesn't look that exciting, a first round defeat by Doncaster in the FA cup wasn't anything to write home about. The interesting part of this however lies in the trophy. I was on a 6 game winning run going into the Bromley game, who although I didn't take much notice noted they were in the National League South and so with a full team out I expected to beat them comfortably. That wasn't the case and they absolutely battered us 4-0 on our own patch. I had a look into them after the game and found out that the tycoon who was sniffing around us a couple of years ago actually bought Bromley last summer! They won the National League South with 117 points and only 1 defeat and I'll be keeping an eye on how far they can go before the money runs out. Star Players After scoring so many goals it's no real surprise three attacking players are here again. A first appearance for Jonathan Jewell 29a was well deserved after an incredible return of 32 goals and 9 assists in only 29 starts. He's only actually my third best striker on paper and started the season on the bench, but I couldn't keep ignoring his true poacher instinct after he kept popping up with goal after goal. He displaced Caldwell from the team entirely in the last 10 games and repaid my faith with 4 goals in the first playoff and an ice cool pen in the shootout in the final. Sam Caldwell 25b also makes this list but as mentioned above actually finished the season either on the bench or playing deeper in midfield. He still managed 17 goals and 17 assists in 30 starts, but he is unhappy and with only one year left may leave us next summer. The saving grace is he's done this twice before and mellowed before signing a new contract each time. I couldn't leave Rakeem Thomas 25b out considering his heroics in his final game for the club. His last season was his best yet, registering 18 goals and 13 assists from his inside forward role. He leaves us 83 goals in a whopping 247 appearances since coming through in the golden 2025 intake. He is also a regular for his country scoring 19 times so far in 42 caps for Antigua and Barbuda. He leaves us for Queens Park who are now established in the SPL and will be facing off against Paul Moro 25a who has just completed his third season with Dundee. Youth Intake There's quite a bit of potential here and it's probably the best intake I've had since 2025. Two casual personalities isn't ideal however and I don't currently have any tutors to fix that. I like the look of Mark Goddard, a tough tackling full back who I can definitely work with. Right back is a position we aren't strong in and he's likely to see some minutes next season. Darragh Kelly is another player I like the look of, and with both Rakeem Thomas and his understudy not signing contracts and leaving us this summer Kelly is, perhaps alarmingly, our strongest remaining left winger at the club. Admin Our finances are still in the black, though this was helped by making the playoff final at Wembley. I don't think there is much more money in League Two next season, and with my squad paper thin already I probably won't have much of a go at either the League Cup or FL Trophy, at least for the first season or two. We sold out quite a few home games and I imagine it's only a matter of time before the board get giddy and take out another loan and start expanding again. No transfers out, Chad went to Bognor Regis on loan but will be coming back next season to help Kelly fill the left winger void. I've no idea what to expect next season and I don't know how big the leap is. Some teams seem to go up and sail through (Crawley who I played in the 2029 Fa Trophy final are now half way up League One), and others like last year's National League winners Ebbsfleet end up cut adrift and come back down with a whimper. I have no ambitions whatsoever expect finish 22nd and hope the intakes continue to improve. By rights our squad probably wasn't good enough to go up, we were predicted 24th by a large margin so we'll have to see how our all out attack fairs at the next level.

This happened in 2027 but we ended up being taken over by a local consortium. Fast forward 4 years and apparently another tycoon is sniffing..

I find the same. I'm doing well playing more attacking this season but after 13 games I've scored 49 (almost 4 a game!) and conceded 25 already. If I keep going at this pace I'll score about 180 goals.

Dulwich Hamlet - 2029/30 Vanarama National League - 14th Our lowest finish in the National League so far but probably a fair reflection of where my squad is at. We're starting to move out the last of the original players and with so may young players in the team it probably isn't a surprise we were so inconsistent. We never looked in danger of going down, but in the same vein never looked like getting close to the playoffs either. When it became apparently we weren't going up or down I used the last 10 games to blood some younger players, especially in defence. Our results didn't suffer noticeably which was a positive, and although I'm not sure we'll go up next season I do have plenty of players in the team now with room to improve. One not so good piece of news is that Rakeem Thomas has decided to explore his options and won't be renewing his contract. We do have him for one more season but he will certainly be difficult to replace. His natural understudy has been out for 10 months this season with an ACL injury so it remains to be seen how he will return. I struggle with fitness in the early part of the season, with the relentless National League schedule meaning we play 8 league games in August and 9 in September, in fact this season by the time we had played 23 league games the Premier League had only played 9! We usually come on much stronger when we start to play once a week but that didn't happen as much this year. Cups We had a good run in the FA Cup, beating Wealdstone and Weymouth 6-0 and 3-0 respectively. I was rubbing my hands when we drew Dagenham & Redbridge in the second round as they were 20th in the National League at the time, with my dreaming of a big money spinning third round tie. Sadly despite having a full team out we didn't turn up at all and got soundly thumped 4-1 on our own patch. The real kicker was D&R going on to draw Wolves away in the third round and no doubt being far better off financially for the experience. We beat Truro City in the third round of the FA Trophy before our reserves lost 1-0 to Chester in round 4. Star Players Despite some of our issues this season we have never had problems scoring goals, and this is reflected by our three star players once again coming from the top of the pitch. Jamie McHardy 27b is now very much a main player for us in his second season since moving up from the u18s, scoring 23 goals and laying on 12 more in 34 starts. Portsmouth are interested in him and although not unsettled yet it is definitely a situation to keep an eye on. Against all the odds we managed to get Sam Caldwell 25b to sign a new 3 year deal with an extra year. I'd expected this to be his last season after he asked to leave but he came back to the negotiating table in August and I was more than happy to make him our highest earner to keep him at the club for 3 (+1) more seasons. He scored 28 goals in 42 appearances this season and in doing so became the first player to score 100 goals for the club so far in the challenge. Rakeem Thomas 25c is our highest rated player and will be a huge miss when he leaves in 12 months time. 18 goals in 34 starts is his best scoring return from the left wing and he now has over 200 appearances for the club. He also now has 15 goals in 35 caps for his country and I've no doubt there will be plenty of suitors when he departs at the end of next season. Youth Intake Although there are no top prospects I'm not actually that unhappy with this intake, especially considering the last few we've had. Stevie Crawford is a tough tackling full back and I expect he'll pick up quite a few cards considering he has 20 aggression. We haven't had a defender come through and make the starting 11 since our first intake in 2025 but I'm hoping he could finally be one to make the step up. Christopher Roberts isn't as good as the other forwards that have come through in the last few seasons, but I like his high work rate and attribute split. I may look to convert him to a left winger to fill the void that will be left by Thomas's impending departure. Admin No transfers out this season and only one loan. Jairo Pomares developed quite well on loan at Oxford City and will probably be pushing for a spot in the first team squad next season. I did release quite a bit of deadwood from the u18s this season who had reached an age where they didn't look like making it, but they don't show up on here for some reason. Last season's takeover coupled with a rise in attendances in the new stadium have kept us in the black, at least for the time being. Our average attendance of 4,817 was bettered only by Oldham and Gillingham and although the finances are on the slide due to the loan did keep us afloat financially. I pushed through another coaching badge early in the season so now have my continental B.

Dulwich Hamlet - 2028/29 Vanarama National League - 8th One point and one place higher than last season but that doesn't tell the whole story. After losing Panamarenko and Moro I feared the worst for this season but we went out like a house on fire and ended up second after the first 10 games. We then suffered through the heavy autumn schedule (9 league games in September!!) and slipped to upper mid table before resuming our charge up the league in early 2029. We floated between 5th and 8th but came up just short thanks to our cup exploits (more later). I feel a lot better about this season as unless my board get giddy and accept one of the many offers we're getting for Rekeem Thomas then we won't lose anyone for at least one more year. I'm hoping we can have another go at promotion next year and try and get into the league before the finances become a real issue. We were taken over half way through the season, sadly not by the tycoon who was rumoured to be circling but a consortium nonetheless. They cleared the debt and immediately approved junior coaching and youth recruitment upgrades, not a bad start from the new Mr Chairman. Cups After complaining last season that we hadn't won an FA Trophy game in the first four seasons of the save we went on a charge to the final, eventually coming up short in a crazy game against National League champions Crawley who beat us 8-5 after extra time! We had a favourable run of 5 home ties in a row, beating Woking, Hartlepool, Dorking and King's Lynn before thumping St Albans 5-0 in the semi final. Ironically finally having a good run probably killed our league chances as the fixtures started to mount up towards the end of the season and we ran out of steam. I forgot to screenshot the FA cup, but again we had a good run. We started off beating Hungerford 1-0 away before dismantling League One Mansfield 3-0 in the First Round proper. Our journey came to an end with a 4-1 defeat away at my hometown club Chesterfield who went on to be League Two champions. Star Players Following last season's departures of Moro and Panamarenko it was time for new heroes to comes to the fore from the academy and they certainly delivered. Sam Caldwell 25b took our main striking role and ended up not only our but the National League's top goalscorer, rattling in 35 goals and notching 16 assists in 49 games for a total of 51 goal involvements in 49 games. He's now decided he's too good for the club (he really is) but he is contracted for at least one more season so will spearhead next year's charge for the football league. Rakeem Thomas 25c is a familiar face on this list and again delivered a dependable 12 goals and 11 assists from 31 starts. He had quite a bad injury this year and spent a long time on international duty which hampered his contribution. He now has 25 caps for Antigua but didn't add to his 11 international goals this year. We have him for at least two more seasons due to an option clause but I spent most of the season rejecting bids of up to £1million from as high as Watford in the Championship. Our break out star this year was Jamie McHardy 27b, the first academy player to make a proper impact since the generational 2025 intake. He was given the daunting task of partnering Caldwell and at just 18 years old delivered a tremendous return of 29 goals in 43 starts. He still has plenty of growing room and I'm excited to see how far he can take us. Youth Intake This has been a source of concern for me in recent seasons and although there is slight improvement here I'd hoped for better after more upgrades. Also, are there no defenders in Dulwich or surrounding townships?!?! Jonathan Jewell is the standout here and with a good personality looks to be a natural successor if (when) Caldwell leaves us next summer. Although not as good as Jewell, Magnus Kellerman has moved straight into our first team squad as we are very short on defenders and he's already our third best centre half. I took a chance on quite a few of this intake simply because they're better than what I currently have in the u18s. Admin Quite a bit of excitement in the admin section this season! First up the club were taken over by a consortium who put in just under 400k to clear our debts and also upgraded our Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. After a bit of bartering they also agreed to another coaching badge so I'm now on the way to continental C. The is draining again but we got a bit of money from the FA Trophy final and I'll try and force through more upgrades as soon as they become available. The transfers section makes sad reading, confirming what I've mentioned a few times in this and previous posts. Moro also opted to leave England for Dundee, meaning I again got no compensation for overseeing the formative years of his career. Both had poor seasons, with Bas only scoring 2 goals for St Pats and Moro scoring no goals in 11 starts for Dundee. I do think we'd have got promoted if we'd managed to hold on to Moro but hopefully that will come next season.

There is such a big difference between 2 games per week Dulwich Hamlet.. And one game per week Dulwich Hamlet. Mansfield are in League One and we absolutely blew them away. Ebbsfleet are mid table but Crawley and Boston are 1st and 2nd. I know England brings the extra challenge of a gruelling schedule and lots of games but fatigue has a bigger impact than ever this year. Everything crossed for some strength in depth in this season's youth intake!

Next time you are having a tough time with this challenge, just remember you could be Cheltenham in my save. After being relegated from League One last season with only 14 points, 38 defeats and 124 goals conceded they were probably hoping for a better start in League Two... Where they are currently on course to conceded about 150 goals and have lost 12 from 13!

Dulwich Hamlet - 2027/28 Vanarama National League - 9th A very pleasing first outing at this level, with a 9th place finish probably about fair based on our performances. We spent the first third of the season between 14th-17th and although we never got sucked into the relegation battle I was a little bit nervous knowing a collapse in form could drag us in. The middle third we exploded into league winning form and we were as high at 5th after 33 games. We only won 4 of our last 12 as my squad ran out of steam and everyone around us seemed to win every week, however if I'd been offered 9th and 25 points above the relegation zone before a ball was kicked I'd have been more than happy. Our issue comes in two of our star players who have been part of the quarter to carry us over the last few seasons will be leaving on frees. Bas Panamarenko and our best player Paul Moro have both refused new contract and (unless there's a miracle with Moro) will be moving on to pastures new. Panamarenko is annoyingly going to St Pats, meaning we won't get any compensation as he is leaving England. Moro hasn't signed a pre contract yet but with 10 English clubs circling I would imagine as soon as they can make him an offer he'll be on his way. As seen further down we've had another shocking intake and I'm not really sure why, they've declined each year despite an improvement to facilities. As a result I've sacked my HoYD, brought in another and given responsibility for intakes to my Director of Football who due to my error assigning roles oversaw the 2025 golden generation which makes up most of my team. I've no idea if there's anything in the DoF doing it, but I'm a superstitious chap and with 5 over 30s in my best 11 we really are starting to run out of time. Our u18s won their league with 30 wins, 1 draw, 1 defeat and 153 goals scores, but that is more a reflection on them playing in a very poor league than there being any first team ready players coming through Cups The cups didn't go so well and we really needed them to. As a National League side we now enter the FA cup in the fourth qualifying round and were dumped out at home to National League South side Worthing. We also enter the Trophy in the third round, with defeat to Yeovil meaning we had no cup wins at all this season. We are now four seasons in and still haven't won an FA Trophy match! Star Players Star boy Paul Moro 25b took the step up to the National League with ease, registering 16 goals and 12 assists at an average rating of 7.31. He will leave us with 47 goals and 36 assists in just 121 games, a seriously impressive return from attacking midfield. He's one of my favourite players over the last couple of versions of FM and is going to leave an enormous void that I'm not currently equipped to fill. One player who will be staying with us is Rekeem Thomas 25c. I offered him a 3+1 contract and the next day before signing he said he wanted to explore his options and leave. Luckily the contract offer seemed to supersede his unhappiness and he signed the contract. He gave us 10 goals and 9 assists in 31 starts, his season often broken up by international duty. He is a real star for Antigua though, with 10 goals in 17 caps for his nation. After Panamarenko signed his pre contract deal with St Pats, I decided to switch to 1 up front and go all in on Sam Caldwell 25b, benching our departing Irishman. He didn't let me down and despite not being the fastest scored 18 goals in 35 starts. 15 finishing and composure is elite for this level and keeping him supplied with chances will be crucial to surviving next season. I do have another similar striker in the academy from last year's intake, McHardy, who scored an incredible 46 in 38 for the U18s so there is every chance I may switch back to a front two going forward. Youth Intake As mentioned further up another really disappointing intake, meaning the squad situation is becoming quite desperate which original players aging fast. I signed 7 players from this intake, just to make the numbers up in the u18s if nothing else. Danny Atkinson seems to have the highest potential but has a very odd set of attributes for an attacking midfielder, I haven't quite decided what to do with him yet. I'm hoping my superstitious switch back to my DoF handling next year's intake bears the same fruit as it did in 2025 as the last 3 intakes have really dwindled to nothing. Admin The board's decision to take out a huge loan for a new 6000 seater stadium proved every bit as disastrous as expected, with the monthly repayments undoing all my previous good financial management and pushing us into the red for the first time. The stadium opens in 2 weeks, but the predicted increase in income doesn't cover the £50k monthly repayments. Obviously without a cup run facility improvements aren't on the horizon, however with good youth coaching and average youth recruitment (and being London based) I would really expect to see better intakes than we are currently. No transfers out to show but this will obviously change when my two top prospects depart. Moro I have already covered, and Panamarenko leaves us after scoring 47 times in 118 starts. Between the pair the have scored almost 100 goals and laid on 50 more in 3 seasons, and we will really need Caldwell and Beaney to step up going into next season.

Couldn't get him to sign a new deal and he'll leave us on a free at the end of the season. Had banked on a bit of compensation but as he's moving to Ireland we won't get a penny.

I would say only one is fit to play that role, he was initially a centre midfielder that I retrained to fill the gap as he's a big, brave lad who can also play a bit. The honest reason I play BPDs is that they just seem to perform better on FM's match engine. The BPD role by design makes centre backs play more direct passes which my tactic relies on, so in a sense 'ball playing defender' is a bit misleading as it feels as though they should play short intricate patterns like Man City but often gets them looking for a longer pass.

Annoyingly about 20 minutes after I posted my update last night both Moro and Panamarenko decided they were too good (probably rightly so) for the club and wanted to leave! I managed to agree I'd sell them if a certain fee was reached which I'm hoping is unrealistic for the type of League Two and other National League clubs that are interested and in doing so I don't seem to have affected their morale. I'm not a master tactician by any stretch, but I set up in a 3-4-1-2 which stems from years of watching Chris Wilder's Sheffield United home and away as we went from the bottom of League One to 4th in the Premier League when football paused for the pandemic. I tinkered with the overlapping centre backs but couldn't get that working, but the overall idea is to create overloads down the left and right and getting crosses in to my star strikers. The other telling thing from the screenshot is that only 3 academy players are in my best starting 11, something I really need to change quite quickly!

Right on cue! I'm not keen on the £3.5 million loan for a 6,300 seater stadium, but I suppose it is more than double our current capacity and may be worth it if we can fill it.

Dulwich Hamlet - 2026/27 Vanarama National League South - 1st (Promoted) Third time lucky as we are promoted as champions, holding off Maidstone United to win the title by a single point. As I suspected all four relegated teams landed in our division making it a league of big hitting southern sides, but we led the league from early on and never looked back. I decided to make use of the fact all our best players were attacking, finishing the season with a remarkable 129 goals scored, which was more than enough to offset the 71 conceded. We only finished three points better off than last season, but with no runaway team at the top like Southend previously 96 points was enough to take us into the National League. I'm not sure how next season will go as we are being carried by 3 or 4 high quality players yet are quite weak at the back, with 3 of my back 4 original players who probably aren't up to the tier above. I can take heart from looking at last seasons promoted teams Southend and Yeovil however, who finished 2nd and 7th respectively in the National League and will both contest the playoffs. Cups Another run to the first round this season gave us a decent financial boost. We beat Hashtag United, Hitchin and then Dover following a replay before being drawn away at National League outfit Crawley Town. Unfortunately the first round falls on the same weekend as the international break and we have four players who regularly turn out for nations in the Caribbean, including academy star Rakeem Thomas who has 3 goals in 4 caps for Antigua and Barbuda. We were no match for Crawley who comfortably beat us 4-1. As usual I put our second string out for the FA Trophy to keep my first team fresh. They put up a decent fight but lost out 1-0 at home to Slough Town. Star Players This list is now made up solely of academy players, as those from my early intake have overtaken my best original players. Sam Caldwell 25b started the season on the bench as he isn't the fastest, but he came in to cover injuries and never looked back. His professional personality has led to rapid development far beyond what I expected and he ended the season with a very impressive 20 goals in 26 starts. Our best player in terms of current ability is still Paul Moro 25d, who again didn't disappoint from midfield with a return of 16 goals and 11 assists in 38 starts. He has also been capped 3 times by the Ghana U20s and I'm excited to see him make the step up. The final player on this list is Bas Panamarenko 25g. He wasn't one of the stars of the 2025 intake but I immediately liked him due to his high finishing stat and his all round game is really starting to improve. He does have fitness issues and only managed 33 starts this season with an impressive return of 17 goals. Youth Intake The only real disappointment this season was the youth intake. Easily the worst we've had even accounting for the improvement in our first teamers coupled with a poor set of personalities. We did have our HoYD poached by Tranmere early in the season and I do wonder whether this contributed to the intake. Only four players signed in total, including Pomares and McHardy who are realistically the only two likely to get anywhere near the first team. We are very light in goal and defence, still relying on ageing original players so could really use some decent players through next season. Admin When it looked like we might win promotion I decided to gamble our finances slightly and request a youth recruitment upgrade which the board approved (now Average). Our money started to dwindle slowly following the upgrade but the decision was vindicated with a promotion and looking at this season's intake was definitely the correct step to take. I am hoping the increased revenue streams in the National League will cover the extra costs. No transfers out again this season. I did loan one player out at his request, but Agwu is very unlikely to make another appearance for our first team after being rapidly overtaken. Our board have (for some reason) decided to start scoping out a new stadium site, citing regular sell out crowds of our current Champion Hill Stadium as a suitable reason to do so. I was initially sceptical, but a bit of research showed me our average attendance in the league this season was an incredible 2948, meaning 98% of all tickets available this season were sold. That does explain why our finances have held up so well despite being professional and I'm hoping if/when the stadium does come to pass our fan base will continue to grow.

Dulwich Hamlet - 2025/26 Vanarama National League South - 2nd A return of 93 points with 30 wins along the way represents my best season on Football Manager for quite a long time, especially in England. We started well, suffered a bit of a drop when the gruelling two game a week schedule kicked in through autumn and up to Christmas, then came storming back in the new year. Although we never looked like troubling runaway champions Southend United, we did finish the regular campaign with 8 wins in a row, giving us plenty of cause for optimism going into the playoffs as top seed... We overcame Dartford 4-2 in the semis, meaning a home game against Yeovil who we'd beaten twice in the regular season stood between us and the National League. It was quite a game which we unfortunately lost 5-4 on penalties, with stay boy Moro missing the all important spot kick. Our youths are still developing nicely due to us being a professional outfit, and no clubs are circling for the better ones yet so although disappointing I'm not too worried about another season at this level. What isn't so good news is that all 4 teams who got relegated from the National League are (particularly) Southern, so I can could easily see all 4 being in our league next year and a couple of weaker teams from our league being put into the Northern section. Cups We had a good run in the FA cup, overcoming National League side Bromley 5-0 in the fourth qualifying round which gave me plenty of optimism going into the First Round proper against Torquay. We came unstuck however following a 1-1 draw at home, travelling to Devon with 3 of our first choice back 4 on international duty proved too much and we lost 3-1. It was particularly unfortunate as Torquay went on to lose at Leeds in the Third Round which would have no doubt been a money spinner for us. I'm not too worried about the FA Trophy at the moment, as reflected by our second string going out to mid table side Dover. Star Players Two academy players already making up our trio of star players is a very promising sign for the future. Paul Moro 25b is our brightest prospect and it showed with a debut season return of 15 goals and 7 assists from 33 starts. The one blot on his copybook was missing the decisive penalty in the playoff final defeat but hopefully he will come back stronger. Although a natural striker Rakeem Thomas 25c excelled in a left inside forward position, with 14 goals aiding his rapid development and only bettered by centre forward Panamarenko, who also came from our first intake. Although not a youth product the contribution of Ade Shokunbi cannot be ignored, with a quite ridiculous 12 goals and 19 assists from defensive midfield. He's our highest earner by far but I have managed to get him to sign for at least one more season. Youth Intake I don't actually think this intake was as strong as our first season, which was reflected by me only opting to sign 7 from the group. Brian and Beaney are the stand out talents however both have unambitious personalities. Luckily I still have some original players that act as mentors at the club who I have set to work trying to put that right. Chris Miller is the best of the rest and has a nice personality, but we are reasonably well stocked in midfield so he'll be in the under 18s for the time being. Admin Financially we are still in excellent shape. I didn't request any upgrades this season as we already have decent facilities and I'm not sure we could cope with the financial burden of the costs if I did try and push them further at this stage. I did however secure my first coaching badge (which I forgot to request in season one!) so am now at national C level. Only one player left this season, with aging Kosovan Krasniqi opting to leave us and return to his home nation.

Dulwich Hamlet - 2024/25 Vanarama National League South - 7th A really impressive outing for our first season, culminating in a 7th placed finish sneaking us into the final playoff spot. We started very well with 10 wins from our first 12, before dropping off the pace when the hard two game a week winter months kicked in. We picked up again at the end of the season beating Bath and Yeovil in our final two league games to pip Dover to 7th. We put in a terrific performance away at Hemel Hempstead in our first playoff game but unfortunately the Wealdstone game came only three days later and was a bridge too far for our fatigued squad. I'd already lost our star striker to a shock retirement (more on that later) and our best player damaged his spine in the final league game so we really were running on empty. Still, a great first outing and plenty of reason to be optimistic going forward. One thing I didn't realise until it came to renewing contracts is that Dulwich Hamlet are already professional. I've never seen this in England at this level before and it's huge for player development in this challenge. Cups A decent run in the FA cup saw us get to the fourth qualifying round where we lost out to Ebbsfleet United on a weekend where we had three players representing Caribbean clubs on international duty. We lost in the FA Trophy without much of a fight against runaway league winners Maidstone. Star Players Experienced striker Danny Mills was the real star of the show, netting 30 goals in 32 starts, including 16 in his first 9. You may notice his screenshot was taken in December, this was because he broke his left and promptly retired! We didn't really have a suitable replacement for him and I was forced to retrain a winger who didn't really cut it. Ade Shokunbi is our best player ability wise and chipped in with 12 goals and 14 assists from midfield, however he unfortunately damaged his spine in the final league game of the season and will be missing for the start of the next campaign. Our defence is held together by big Marvel Ekpiteta, with the Stevenage academy product only missing 4 games all season. Youth Intake Paul Moro 25b is the best player in the intake and already a decent player for this level, at least on paper. He went straight into the team for the last league game and playoffs and didn't disappoint, turning in 3 appearances at an average rating of 7. He has a good personality and I'm optimistic he'll star next season and maybe make us some money further down the line. Rakeem Thomas 25c provides much needed depth up front following the retirement of Mills, immediately becoming our second best striker by rating. Bas Panamarenko 25g is another striker, and although raw I'm always a sucker for a high finishing stat in lower league football. Admin Our finances held up well through the season, we were making money up until the point of me requesting an academy coaching upgrade. This was approved now take our AC rating to Good. No transfers in of course, however we did periodically lose players throughout the season who were out of contract and couldn't be persuaded to renew. Three of the five we lost were strikers which left us very light at the top of the pitch.

Dulwich Hamlet - Vanarama National League South I'm back to give this another try! I was going to hold off for a while but reading this thread has pulled me right back in. I've still yet to complete this challenge or even compete in the Champions League beyond the qualifiers, but I like what I have seen of FM24 so far and I'm hoping this could be the year I finally manage it. I've chosen Dulwich Hamlet for my first attempt. Possibly not the hardest of the English teams due to their geographical proximity to London and decent starting facilities, but make no mistake I don't expect the early seasons to be easy. We only have 20 players, 4 of which are goalkeepers, 4 that are over 33 and 6 that are only 16. A lot of the other existing first teamers are either almost or over 30 too, so expect to see a lot of turn over and initial consolidation after the early intakes. Looking forward to this, let's get started.

Who thought this new format was a good idea?! Newcastle are now the best team in Europe, Mainz compete with Bayern, Monaco with PSG. Then add in both Milan teams and Man U.. Oh and LASK. Cheers UEFA!

Chernomorets 1919 Burgas - 2033/34 Season We lost the title on the final day of the season drawing 2-2 at home to Levski. We started much better this season for not needing to qualify for the Champions League and were top after 10 games then kept in and around the top three for the rest of the season. We finished the main season well but lost 2 of our 5 Championship games including a disastrous 3-2 defeat at home to Botev which ultimately cost us the title. Fatigue did play a part and we were without quite a few first teamers but no real excuses for not closing out after topping the first phase. We did win the cup for the first time which was nice. Ludogorets have some ridiculous players for this level, far better than mine so it's always nice to get one over on them and their huge budgets. Our first foray into the Champions League group stage and it was a real baptism of fire. I was a bit disappointed we didn't get anything from Besiktas or Betis who I thought we might have had a better go at. The Barca game looks bad (and it was!) but by that point I knew we were going out and we were due to play Ludogorets in the league 3 days later so I gave the game up and sent the second string out to receive and expected beatings. We were already out by the time we picked up the two wins at the end but it was nice to get some points on the board, finishing 30th out of 36. Another incredible intake, with everyone except the last 4 players either 5 or 4.5* potential. A lot of players moved on this season but all of them through my choosing. A mish mash of players who never made the grade and players who used to play regularly for the first team but have now been overtaken. The most notable was Madzharov 24e who left after over 220 appearances for the club.

Chernomorets 1919 Burgas - 2032/33 Season # We did it! 10 seasons in and we finally secure our first Bulgarian EfBet League title. We did it the hard way with another atrocious start leaving us in the bottom half after 10 games. We hit remarkable form after dropping out of Europe, winning 11 and drawing 1 of our last 12 games, including a perfect 5 from 5 in the Championship group. Our last game was away the CSKA, and with Ludogorets and Botev still breathing down our necks we played out a nervy 1-0 win in which our 16 year old keeper saved a penalty in the 84th minute. Needless to say there were wild celebrations in my living room when he did! I was starting to think I'd have to refresh the team and challenge for the title with the next cycle of academy talents but really pleased to get this now. I don't expect to retain it as we now have enough money in the bank to afford a drop in order to bring our higher potential players through but with the top 5 teams so much better than everyone else I would think we should keep qualifying for Europe. Due to the coefficient being so high we'll enter the Champions League group stages next season for the first time without the need to qualify. We got through the first two rounds of the cup, including beating Levski 3-1 away before a disappointing 2-1 home defeat to Beroe Stara Zagora in the Quarter Finals. The League path is always hard when not in a top nation and Lyon just proved a little too much for us. Although 6-3 looks bad we actually had a higher xG by nearly double but Lyon's higher quality players were just far more clinical. We started the group stage on fire and were joint top with Arsenal, Chelsea and Levski after 4 games. Things nosedived from there and we didn't win another game before limping out without scoring over 2 legs against Rennes. We don't seem able to perform in domestic and European competition at the same time, with our league charging coinciding almost exactly with our Europa League campaign starting to falter against Torpedo. As mentioned before we'll be in the Champions League group stages for the first time next season and I don't really expect too much (other than money!) at this stage in the team's development. My first ever entrant (on any FM) into the Next Gen list, with Anton Sulev going straight in at number one! His numbers are quite remarkable with 30 goals this season in just 22 starts as he displaced long term number nine and last remaining original player Dzhevizov mid way through his break out season. My assistant thinks he's almost at potential though so I'm not quite sure how the NxGn is scored as I don't see a young 200PA Messi here... Youth Intake Another really solid intake with four obvious top prospects including a much needed goalkeeper. One thing I have noticed (and really should have before now) is that in 10 seasons we have only ever produced two non-Bulgarians, both of which were Turkish with a Bulgarian second nationality. We don't even get players with second nationalities other than those two and I'm not sure if that will hamper my chances of pulling in top level regens from Western Europe or South America into the academy as we look to start trying to make a dent on Europe. I can only assume it's because Burgas is located right on the East Coast of Bulgaria and so far from other countries but even then it seems a little unusual to only see 2 part Turks in 10 years. The Europa League run more than doubled our finances and has set us up for quite a while. We are maxed out in everything other than youth facilities where I haven't been given the option for a few seasons and presumably won't until our reputation gets up to 4 or 5 star. I let a few more legacy youngster go who never quite broke into the first team, all with little add-ons in case they are later bloomers. Damyanov was here when I arrived and proved a good little player as we stabilised ourselves in the top flight, leaving us after almost 200 appearances and 40 league goals.

2 games left and 4 teams still in with a realistic chance of the title. Could season 10 finally be the one we win the league!?

Chernomorets 1919 Burgas - 2031/32 Season Our closest run at the Bulgarian title so far, finishing only 3 points behind Ludogorets. We played them 3 games before the end of the Championship state and our star striker Manev (57 goals in 45 games) got injured for 3 days on the day before the game. His deputy managed to get himself sent off after 21 minutes and we barely laid a glove on them in a 2-0 home defeat. We actually went on a 23 game unbeaten run after losing 6 of our first 10 games as we struggled to balance league games with the European qualifiers, the Ludogorets game being our only defeat of the season. I do think we're close to winning our first title now and wouldn't be surprised if we manage to bring it home next season. I didn't bother screenshotting our cup run this year because there wasn't one. We lost 2-1 away to a non-league side in round one (my fault for making 11 changes) which led to the board noting their dissatisfaction and 5 senior players requesting a meeting! I apologised, we won our next game 4-0 and all was forgiven. A decent run in the Conference League though I was disappointed to lose to St Gallen and feel we could have gone a lot further as they got all the way to the semis before falling to fellow Bulgarian side Levski Sofia.. Levski lost the final 4-0 to Liverpool but it was another huge boost for the national coefficient. Ludogorets (captained by 37 year old Andy Robertson!) made the last 16 of the Champions League and have a squad of players far beyond any other team in the league. Really happy with this intake. Much needed reinforcements in our weaker positions plus a good set of personalities for the higher potential players. Kolev is already our second choice left back and Bazhev is our new number two keeper. A slight dip in our finances but nothing of concern as I managed to persuade the board to spend £3.7m on another training facilities upgrade. We'll be entering the Champions League qualifiers next season and even if we drop into the Europa League it will keep our finances heading in the right directions. Mainly loans our this season, Damyanov is one of the original squad who I'm not quite ready to part with yet and he gave me food for thought with an impressive 25 goals for perennial yo-yo side Hebar. Kotsinov 29a left on a free after never really living up to the hype of being an 'a' rated intake player. Was having my annual nosey around the other European leagues and found Middlesborough not only broke Derby's famous record but also went the whole Premier League season without a win! Portsmouth came close a couple of seasons before managing only 13 points but this is seriously impressive stuff.

Levski made the Champions League knockouts last season which has absolutely skyrocketed our coefficient. Sadly for them they only finish third meaning they won't benefit and are going into the Conference League! Hopefully Ludogorets and Botev keep flying the Bulgarian flag in the UCL.