TheGoodRebel

ROCHDALE - SEASON 24/25 OPENING FIXTURES We've got off to a decent, if unspectacular, start. One too many draws for my liking but I am sure as soon as the team gels we will convert more of these into wins. LEAGUE TABLE Mid table but it's still early days - will be good to see if we can convert some of those draws into wins as the season progesses. EFL CUP Comfortably beat Chesterfield but then got schooled by Premier League Bournemouth PAPA JOHN'S TROPHY Good start against Crewe, let's see how far we can go in this. SUMMARY We will have to see how this squad copes until the next transfer window in January before delving into the market. There will no doubt be some movement, but it's still a bit early to say where.

ROCHDALE - SEASON 24/25 NEW RECRUITS It was important to bring in some new faces ahead of the new season if we wanted to make Rochdale competitive in League Two. BRAD YOUNG - GOALKEEPER We only had two goalkeepers at the club and one was 35 years old. Brad looks a good prospect for this level with very good potential. He's instantly become our new number 1. LUKE GARBUTT - LEFT BACK Brought him in for his experience playing at a higher level, will provide competition with John for the first choice left back slot. RYAN WATSON - MIDFIELDER Brought in from Salford to provide some work rate and stamina in our engine room. BRYAN FIABEMA - WINGER The former Chelsea player was signed on a season long loan from Aston Villa - but Unai Emery is already unhappy with me for playing him as an Inside Forward and not as an Inverted Winger - This is one of the things I find a bit silly and unrealistic about FM. CAMERON LANCASTER - STRIKER We needed a striker and Cameron fits the bill for us. Someone with good ability for this level and can play well in a number of roles. However, he will primarily be utilised as a Pressing Forward.

BUILDING ON OUR FIRST WIN After winning his first ever match as a manager, Rochdale went on a decent run, taking points off Portsmouth, Lincoln and Chesterfield. However, they inexplicably lost the next 4 games in a row to put themselves back in the bottom 2 going into the last game of the season. Ade was worried about the fact the team had only scored 1 goal in their last 4 games so he decided to abandon the 433 Fluid Counter Attack and went for the 433 Gegenpressing in the hope that his team would get stuck in, create chances and hopefully score some goals. They couldn't afford to be so passive in the last game. Thankfully, the tactical change paid dividends and Rochdale ran out 7-4 winners away at Mansfield meaning that Rochdale managed to survive relegation and Ade had completed his first objective of keeping Rochdale in the Football League. It is time for Ade to sit down and plan for next season. He certainly doesn't want Rochdale fighting near the bottom of the table so will set about reshaping the squad. There's not much to work with from a financial point of view so Ade will need to be smart in the transfer market and look to bring in free transfers and loan signings, as well as looking at the youth team to see if there are any promising young players down there that could be of use. It's going to be a busy summer for Ade!

ROCHDALE - SEASON 23/24 MEET THE SQUAD Ade knows he has his work cut out to save the club from relegation. The transfer window is also closed so he has to work with the players at his disposal. Thankfully, they don't actually seem like a bad bunch and Ade thinks that they're underachieving slightly; The first thing he does is arrange a team meeting to introduce himself to the players, lay out his expectations and hopefully give the morale a bit of a boost before their first match together. As fate would have it, against the first team to knock Ade back when he was applying for roles - Harrogate. In truth, the opposition doesn't matter, but it would be sweet to get one-up on them at this early stage. For the first game, Ade decided to be a little bit cautious and opted for the 4-3-3- Fluid Counter Attack tactic; Could they make the dream start in his first game as a manager?

JOB OFFER After a successful interview, Ade is finally given his chance. BEAST MODE ON! Although he will certainly have his work cut out - Rochdale are currently 23rd in the table with just 9 games to go! - Looks like I will have to add the Vanarama Leagues as I was not expecting to be in a relegation dogfight and I want this job to last longer than 9 games!

THE JOB HUNT CONTINUES Following the disappointment of the Harrogate interview, Ade was not to be deterred. He had other, unsuccessful, interviews with Crawley and Carlisle before he received a phone call from Simon Gauge at Rochdale;

FIRST INTERVIEW We are now in January of the 2023/2024 season and after many, unsuccessful, job applications Ade was at the gym when the phone rang; We have finally been offered our first interview with Harrogate Town. Could this be Ade's big chance?

INTRODUCTION After the disappointment of losing my Alan Shearer save I have decided to give things another go and start a new save. @DavidBeckham's 'No Room For Racism' save has inspired this new save due to the lack of BAME managers in the game. So, fresh from retiring at the end of the 2021/2022 season and acquiring his National C Licence, I present to you the 'strongest man in football' - Adebayo Akinfenwa. Ade built a successful career in the lower leagues of English football and had a good goalscoring record with 233 career goals. Known for his immense size and strength for a professional footballer, he was widely regarded as the strongest man in football. Ade will be hoping to bring his wealth of experience into football management. Ade's journey into management will be starting as unemployed in the hope of landing a job and then moving up the footballing ladder. His first priority will be making a name for himself in England before broadening his horizons across some of the top leagues in Europe. For now though, Ade will have to settle for submitting job applications and hoping he gets an interview. Let the job search commence!

Absolutely gutted - don't know what happened but I lost my save Never mind, will start a new one soon

Great career so far, unlucky with England If you land the Champions League this season, will that be 'job done' for Italy and off elsewhere?

Season 2023/2024 Blackburn were back in the Premier League and Alan was wanting to prove he had what it took to manage at the highest level. How would the season unfold? A very underwhelming season. From the 10th game of the season we just wanted the season to end as we knew the signings we made (with the exception of two players) were just not good enough for this level. The ultimate goal was to stay in the league, which was achieved, but Alan was hoping for more and perhaps a mid table finish. However, we live to fight another day and have a healthy transfer budget for next season. The wrongs of this season will be corrected next season for sure! We got off to a good start in R4 by beating Rotherham 4-1 but got beaten at home to Brighton. Another cup early exit, this time to Sunderland at home. We actually took the lead and threw this away. This game had extra significance for Alan considering the opposition and he was absolutely furious with the result. The Squad Nobody getting above a 7 all season. In truth, Valeri was on fire in the early part of the season but Alan kept chopping and changing his tactics which proved detrimental to the whole team and they suffered as a consequence. He still doesn't know how he wants his team to play. One thing is for sure though, these two will be instrumental to the team moving forwards. Standout Players Kaiky Didn't perform the best, but he's new to the country and still picking up the language, plus he's only 20 years old. He still has a bright future. Hopefully we can keep hold of him for a couple of years before he, inevitably, wants to move on to a bigger club. Emanuele Valeri At one stage he was actually the top goalscorer! When he gets forward he's a joy to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing how he develops next season. Next Season One thing Alan has done is take action with the coaching staff, he's let go several members due to them not being good enough and he's on a mission to recruit a good, solid coaching team to try and get the best out of some of his young talent. He also has £67m to spend in the summer transfer window and intends to go big (as big as he can anyway) to bring in some top talent to really push Rovers up that table. He will be aiming for an ambitious top half finish and a good run in the cup competitions.

Mikael Egill Ellertsson - Central Midfielder - £1.4m Signed from Spezia, Ellertsson can play left wing back or central midfield. Alan plans to utilise him in central midfield. A snip at just £1.4m. Keane Lewis-Potter - Winger - Loan Signed on a season long loan from Brentford, Lewis-Potter can play on either flank. A useful addition to the squad. Darian Males - Winger - Loan Signed on a season long loan from Inter, can play on the right wing, behind the striker, or up front. Not entirely convinced by him but let's see. Walter Gonzalez - Striker - £500k Shearer wanted a pressing forward and, for £500k, Gonzalez is a good option to have in the squad. George Hirst - Striker - £2m Last season's top goalscorer was made available for transfer by Leicester and at £2m we just couldn't say no. How will the new signings fare when the season kicks off?

Pre-Season After the heroics of last season's promotion it was back down to business for Alan. The transfer budget for the season was £37m so there was enough to bring in a couple of players. Alan thought it best to sign a few cheaper players to flesh out the squad. Here are the signings; Nathan Baxter - Goalkeeper - Free Transfer Baxter was signed on a free transfer from Chelsea to provide cover for current number 1 Thomas Kaminski. Leo Duarte - Central Defender - £7m We needed some new defenders who could do a job at Premier League level, Duarte seemed to fit the bill at only £7m. Kaiky - Central Defender - £11m One of the requirements is to sign players under the age of 23 for the first team. Kaiky is described as a wonderkid. The fee was £2m up front and the rest paid over 24 months. He has a great future ahead of him. Ryan Nyambe - Right Back - Free Transfer More of a sentimental signing. Nyambe was available on a free after getting released by Wigan. He's someone I've used before on previous editions on FM, played for Rovers before and he's always got high average ratings. No risk signing and can be moved on for a fee if he doesn't perform. Emanuele Valeri - Left Back - £3.3m At just £3.3m, Valeri is a bargain. He's a proper attacking full back who can whip crosses in and takes a mean free kick. Will definitely be worth a lot of money in the future.

End of Season So, after an absence of 10 years, Rovers were in touching distance of reaching the Premier League. A dreadful run of form saw Rovers slip outside of the automatic promotion spots with just two matches to go; Alan decided to hold a team meeting where he told the players to forget about the recent run of form due to having enough quality in the team to turn things around. His words seemed to resonate with the squad, who won both remaining fixtures; However, this wasn't enough as 2nd placed QPR also won both their last two fixtures meaning Rovers had to settle for 3rd place and a play-off spot. Hull City were drawn in the play-offs and had just recently beaten Rovers, at Ewood Park, in the league. Alan knew this wouldn't be easy. Luckily, the Rovers players decided to show up and comfortably dispatched the Tigers 7-2 on aggregate to set up a play-off final with fierce local rivals Burnley - you couldn't have scripted it better! Blackburn fans were fearing the worst, but they needn't have worried. In a one-sided contest they comfortably put Burnley to the sword and secured promotion back to the Premier League. Alan had achieved his goal at the first time of asking. They might have got there the hard way, but they did it. The board were delighted at the feat achieved. George Hirst completed the season winning the Golden Boot with 35 goals. Here's how they fared in all competitions. Alan will have his work cut out this summer - the squad is not good enough to survive in the Premier League. He's been handed a transfer budget of £37m and will have to spend wisely. Hirst will be going back to his parent club and there are no plans to make him a permanent signing. The next transfer window will be critical. Let's see what the summer brings!

The Final Stretch With 34 games of the season gone Rovers still occupy 2nd place in the table. Although they have never got close to Norwich they have been consistent enough to keep 3rd place at arms length. Although they have dropped valuable points in their last 3 games - is this the start of a sudden decline? Time will tell. Alan will be hoping the boys have enough left in the tank to go the distance and get promotion back to the Premier League. Rovers got hammered in the FA Cup, but it's not a priority this season. The sole focus is on getting promotion. Their hope will rest on George Hirst staying fit - he's now the outright top goalscorer in the league. Here are the final set of fixtures that will define the season for Shearer and his Blackburn troops.

Halfway Point We've reached the halfway point of the season and things are looking pretty good for Shearer. Rovers are sat in 2nd place, in the automatic promotion places with a nice little cushion over 3rd placed West Brom. However, this is The Championship, there's still a long way to go and things can change dramatically so it's important to try and strengthen the squad to maintain the promotion push. Shearer has been happy with the results the team have achieved so far, but he is not happy with losing to fierce local rivals Burnley. Rovers also got knocked out of the EFL Cup, but this competition isn't a priority this season. Key to Rovers' results has been George Hirst, who now has 18 goals for the season - with 16 coming in the league. Alan will be hoping his leading scorer can stay injury free and maintain his form throughout the season.

Season Beginnings Alan's reign has gotten off to a mixed start. Brereton Diaz announced he didn't want to commit to a new contract and RB Leipzig made an offer for him. Rather than losing him for nothing in the summer the club decided to cash in. With no new signings to note, Shearer went into the new season relying on his existing squad and they have got off to a decent start. Although he wasn't happy with ending September with a shock home defeat to Bristol City. That result leaves Rovers in 3rd place. An automatic promotion push is still on the cards but it's looking like Norwich might run away with the league, even though it's early days. Alan has been particularly impressed with the start made by two young guns, Tyrhys Dolan and George Hirst, who is on loan from Leicester. Hopefully they can carry this form until January when a couple of new faces can be brought in to bolster the squad and boost a promotion push!

Introduction After their relegation at the end of the 2011/2012 season, Blackburn Rovers have spent the last decade trying to get back to the Premier League. Following a further relegation to League One, Rovers bounced back at the first attempt and have been flirting with the play-offs in subsequent seasons. Despite doing a great job stabilising the club, the club owners decided not to renew the contract of popular manager Tony Mowbray and have chosen to replace him. The man they have turned to, in the hope of getting Rovers back to the Premier League, is club legend Alan Shearer. Shearer had a brief spell in charge of his hometown club, Newcastle United, which ended in failure and relegation from the Premier League. Shearer has decided he wants another shot at management, in hope of redemption and to restore Blackburn to the Premier League. While the fans loved Shearer for his goals in helping win the Premier League title in 1995, they are sceptical about his managerial credentials. Alan has inherited a squad who have shown progress in the last couple of seasons. However, club talisman, Ben Brereton Diaz, is out of contract at the end of the season and is being courted by several clubs. It will be a tough ask getting him to sign a new deal. While the club have a healthy bank balance, Alan will only be given £1m to spend in the transfer market - he's going to have to work with what he's got for now. Shearer had a reputation of being a classic centre forward, he likes a no-nonsense style of play so Gegenpressing will be the way forward for his Blackburn team. Let the journey begin!!

Some top advice in here. Ended up plumping for the M1 Air with 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. I've been blown away with how fast it is and the lack of fan hasn't hindered performance one bit. Very happy with my purchase.

Couldn't say with 100% confidence, but it should. Your safest bet would be to download the demo and give it a test run

This is great, thank you! Do you think you can get away with 8gb just for basic video editing - or do you think a pro would be needed for that?

Thanks mate, I’ll check that out 😀

Hello guys, just wondered if any Mac users could confirm whether FM23 runs ok on the base model of the M2 MacBook Air and how many leagues you can run. I’m looking to upgrade but I’m nervous about how it’ll run with 8gb of RAM, but I also don’t want to pay an extra £200 for 16gb if it’s fine on 8gb. Cheers!!

What RAM and SSD do you have with that mate? I’m wanting to upgrade to the M2 but want to know if the 8gb version will be enough

Thank you for coming back to me. Do you think it'd be worthwhile getting, or are there better options out there for the money?