Stuniverse

Yep. If you didn’t know Papa Johns are in competition with Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizzas over here.

So I’m all caught up, @Pearomaniac. You are doing a fantastic job at AFC Wimbledon. 2nd in League One and through to the semi-finals of the Pizza Trophy. And now you’ve released Josh Davison from his exile in the Academy, and are friends again, let’s hope he scores the goals that take you and AFC Wimbledon to glory! Good luck 🍀⚽️

Eighth in you first season in League One is brilliant, @Pearomaniac. That must give you a great foundation to go again for promotion in the next season.

Hehehehe… I’m getting caught up. 😂⚽️🤣

Congratulations, @Pearomaniac. That’s more like it. Excellent. On to League One next season.

Well there’s always next season, @Pearomaniac. After seeing AFC Wimbledon as high as 3rd at one point I was hoping for a promotion push. At least the Board and Supporters should be happy with that. Good luck next season ⚽️🍀

Congratulations on your success with Preston North End, @Punch. That’s three out of three now in straight seasons. No pressure, but Bristol City fans will be expecting more of the same.

Saturday 23rd July 2022 Staveley Miners Welfare v Bishop Aukland Bishop Aukland play in the Northern League Division 1 (Tier 9), the same division as Tow Law Town who we played recently, and are a tier above us.

Good observation, @Pearomaniac. Yes, we do. Striker is the main area where I'm looking to improve as the players I've got up front aren't really that impressive. Ryan Charnley and Milan Thompson have only just joined us on trial and haven't played for us yet. I've offered them both contracts but I'm not confident they will sign. Things will look a lot better though if they do... but it's a BIG IF right now. Max Rhodes is my best striker at the moment. And I have high hopes for 15-year old Jacek Kosowski, if I can hold onto him.

Wednesday 22nd July 2022 Staveley Miners Welfare v Sheffield Wednesday U21s Sheffield Wednesday are, of course, a League One club and we're entertaining their Under-21s.

Saturday 16th July 2022 Tow Law Town v Staveley Miners Welfare Tow Law Town play in the Northern League Division 1 (Tier 9), a tier above us. We again played a completely different 11 in each half and brought 15 year old Jacek Kosowski on for 27 minutes after Dwayne Greenwood picked up a yellow card.

Exactly that, @warlock. I don't normally manage below the default leagues so this is a whole new FM experience for me.

Wednesday 13th July 2022 Garstang v Staveley Miners Welfare Garstang are also Tier 10, like us, and play in the same North West Counties League Division 1 North as Holker Old Boys, who we played last time out. The plan was to start 11 players who are our players in the first-half and then make 11 changes, bringing on mainly trialists after the break. We did do that, sort of... sort of, because Max Rhodes's red mist meant we were unable to give Connor Anderson the second-half playing time we'd planned on.

Saturday 9th July 2022 Holker Old Boys v Staveley Miners Welfare Holker Old Boys are also Tier 10, playing in the North West Counties League Division 1 North. In the first-half I played the same team that drew 2-2 at Home to Coalville Town U21s, prior to my appointment as Staveley Miners Welfare manager. At the break, I made 11 changes and played a team of trialists in the second-half. -- Note: As I'm taking the screenshots any way, I'll update the results of the Friendly matches (briefly), but update on everything else ahead of the opening game of the season.

A change of approach for this Career Update save... At least for now... Those of you who are familiar with my Career Update FM saves will know that I like to update the save in detail, covering every football match my team plays, along the lines that I did with my earlier FM23 save at Derby County (while I was waiting for the Level 10 database I'm using to be ready): I've tried to take that approach with this save but, and I'm sure it's the nature of lower-league football, there's so much going on that it seems to be taking ages to progress through the save and I've had a rethink. With players basically Amateur, not under contract, and paid nothing, they can effectively walk away and join another club at a moment's notice. Two or three of my players have already been offered contracts by other football clubs and I've not even been in the Staveley Miners Welfare manager's job a week yet. Also, with no scouting staff, I've brought in a lot - and I mean a lot - of trialists, over 20 I think. And as you can see, according to my Assistant Manager Pat Lindley, and his ability to assess players, all of the trialists are better than most of our current squad. We've offered contracts to most of them, and we will probably offer contracts to all of them, but some of the better trialists have already received contract offers from other football clubs, one trialist has six current offers on the table. So, I'm really not confident of signing any of them. And we also have a lot of Friendly matches lined up - partly to try and raise money for Staveley Miners Welfare, partly so that I can assess the squad, and partly so that I can assess the trialists in action and evaluate them. So I think I'm going to play through all the Friendly matches and see what happens with the squad, the trialists, and anything else that might turn up and then I'll resume the updates ahead of the season opener at Home to Selby Town in the Northern Counties East League Division 1. Wish me luck - I think pre-season is going to be something of a roller-coaster ride.

Saturday 9th July 2022 Michael stays at Staveley Miners Welfare Some good news, Michael Davies has turned down the contract offer from Saffron Dynamo (Tier 10, different division) to stay with us at Staveley Miners Welfare.

Hi @silentwars At the moment, I'm focussing on my main FM23 save which you'll find here:

Thursday 7th July 2022 Press Conference for one journalist -- -- I've met Terry a few times and I have no doubt that he has the football club's best interests at heart and the Staveley Miners Welfare fans are lucky to have him. -- There are plenty of young successful managers. I believe I can be one of them. -- Of course, I can. I see no reason why not. I believe in myself. -- I hope so. This football club deserves to be doing better than it currently is and, hopefully, I can play a part in improving The Trojans fortunes. -- We have to take things one step at a time. There's a lot to do and we have to get off on the right foot. -- I believe that the harder you work, the more rewards you will get. If we want to be successful here, we have to work hard. We will be working the players hard. -- They offered me a job. To be fair, I did have another offer but the facilities here are better than I expected for a football club in Tier 10. Have you seen our pitch? It's like a bowling green. It's pristine. I can't wait to meet the groundskeeper and shake his hand. -- I've only just arrived here. We've had one training session so it's far too early to say. -- I have. We've had one training session and one team meeting. It's clear I will have to earn their trust but that works both ways. The players need to work hard and prove themselves to gain my trust. -- Yes. The supporters of any club are the heartbeat of the Community. That's no different here and we need the Trojans fans cheering us on if Staveley Miners Welfare are to be successful. -- I was impressed in our first training session. Max knows what I'm looking for and it's up to him to deliver. -- Yes, it is. We've placed some job adverts and put some feelers out. We do need to add two or three new faces, that's for sure. -- As you know, the player turnover in Tier 10 is very high. We need to be working all the time to be one step ahead. We need to be looking to strengthen in every single position because we never know what might happen tomorrow. -- Charlie is a player we like the look of which is why we've invited him in on trial. He's one of a group of players here as trialists and we'll assess them and see whether we want to offer them a deal or not. Then it's up to the players, but the fact that Charlie and the others have come to Inkersall Road is a positive sign. -- My door is always open. We need to work together to be successful. If there's an us and them situation then that will only end one way. And it won't be pleasant. -- It won't be easy, I have no doubt about that, but we want to be challenging for promotion by the end of the season. -- The league has to be our main focus but it won't be our only focus. If we can go on some Cup runs then that would generate some much needed funds for the football club. --

Thursday 7th July 2022 Keep it simple, stupid I don't believe in over-complicating things, particularly at this Tier 10 level of football. So we're going to be training three slightly different variations of a basic 4-4-2.

Thursday 7th July 2022 Influx of trialists...? The Band of Three, Terry Damms (Owner / Chairman), Pat Lindley (Assistant Manager) and myself have got together and gone through the scouting shortlist, such as it is given that we have no scouting or recruitment staff and, largely based on Terry's recommendations, we've invited a raft of players to come and join us at Inkersall Road on trial.

Thursday 7th July 2022 I also held a Team Meeting

Thursday 7th July 2022 And the U18s were there too... Defenders Midfielders Strikers

Thursday 7th July 2022 I also met the U21s I'm going to give them all a chance in pre-season so I've promoted them all to the first-team squad. Goalkeepers Defenders Midfielders Strikers

Thursday 7th July 2022 I've met my first-team squad All but two of the players are new-gens and, I'll be honest, having never managed as low as Tier 10 before I have no idea whether they are any good or not. Goalkeepers Defenders Midfielders Strikers

Yes, it looked like we may get a decent pay-day even from the U21 games. That makes sense. Thank you, although Tier 6 seems a long way off at the moment. Go for it... Good luck 🍀⚽️