warlock

It's the hope that kills you . But fingers crossed - you deserve a bit of good luck.

Gateshead, May 2022 Having patched up a couple of holes in the squad following January departures, there was nothing else to do but plough on and see whether we could secure the title from a leading position. With a comfortable lead and in strong form, everything was looking good but veteran FM managers will know that the game can turn quickly and horribly wrong. But for two months we kept on our merry way: Another 10 games without defeat, although I was unhappy with the increasing number of draws, albeit away from home. Against Telford and Boston we never looked like scoring, and against Gloucester we were 0-2 down at half time and it required some industrial language and some major tactical tweaking to emerge with a point. And then came April: Another draw to open the month, our first league defeat since November, and two more frustrating draws to see out the month. With the pressure mounting and nerves widespread could we really bottle this? Um, no... An anti-climactic way to clinch the title but I'll take it. Turns out that while were stumbling both York and Fylde had stumbled harder. In the event, we were comfortable at the top: Scott and Blackett shared the goalscoring duties but it was loanee Taylor Charters who emerged as our best and most influential player. Happily, his loan has already been extended for another year, as has on-loan GK Filip Marschall who leads the league with 19 clean sheets. We still have two games to play, but thoughts have already turned to reinforcing the squad for the National League. About half of the players are good enough to make the step up, and another 3 or 4 seem to have the potential to reach the required standard but we'll definitely need to replace two loan signings at LB, neither of whom is good enough going forward, and some decent backups at AML, AMR and a couple of central midfielders. Should be an interesting summer.

@robterrace Congratulations! Definitely promotion the hard way but all the more satisfying for that

Okay. But better late-ish than never, no?

So you're saying they just shouldn't bother?

Love all the names in Argentina - a real melting pot of immigration.

Gateshead, February 2022 Another two months completed and we're just past the halfway point of the season. Although we were proceeding steadily, the mid-winter stretch is usually tricky in non-league as the weather can lead to postponed matches and fixture pile-ups, which in turn lead to player injuries and exhaustion. In the event, we had just one postponement but that led to some problems. We were due to travel to Farsley on the second weekend of December but a waterlogged pitch saw the fixture cancelled and pushed back to the end of the month. Unfortunately the schedule was already pretty hectic between Christmas and the first week of January and we ended up having to play 5 games in 11 days. We began the month with the visit of L1 Wednesday in the FA Cup. No-one expected us to get anything from the match and so it proved, although young AML Georgiou briefly lit-up the International Stadium coming on as a substitute in the 60th minute and taking the game by the scruff of the neck. Bagging a brace in two minutes, he gave us a flicker of hope. Unfortunately, none of his team-mates could rise to his level and the Owls saw out the game for a comfortable win. A week later we were back to cup action in the FA Trophy and needed extra time to find a way past a determined Brackley outfit before resuming business as usual in the league with three consecutive and comfortable victories. We began the new year in fine style, travelling to local rivals Blyth and putting 3 past them, but we looked shattered on a visit to Hereford and struggled to a draw. Our venture in the Trophy came to an abrupt end at the hands of Barnet from the league above us, but the return to a game-a-week schedule allowed us to recover some fitness and we saw out the month with back-to-back wins in the league. But January saw us suffer what may yet be a mortal blow to our title hopes. Gateshead's very own Captain Fantastic, Greg Olley, was snatched away from us by Bolton for £56k, an offer I rejected but was overruled by the board. In half a season, he scored 8, created 6, and enjoyed an average rating of 7.58. He'll be greatly missed. Sadly, his departure came on top of another loss after I was surprised to learn that on-loan LB Nathan Newell had signed for only 6 months and left the club. Although Sunderland were happy to extend the loan, the player declined the offer. To rub salt into our wounds, he appeared in the media soon after to say how much he'd enjoyed his time at Gateshead and thanking me personally for helping develop him as a player . That left me with two big holes in the squad to fill, but despite the increased transfer budget of some £50k, we struggled to find likely candidates, particularly for Olley's AMC role. In the end I spent £3.6k to bring in James Hardy from Chester, much better at AMR where he'll play, with Adam Campbell moving over to fill the AMC spot. At LB I went back to the loan market and brought in an 18-year-old prospect from Morecambe, Connor Pye, who I think will do a job for us, although he's better in defence and offers little when we're attacking. We have managed to extend our lead at the top of the table as both Fylde and Boston have slipped a little, allowing York to overhaul them. Taylor Charters, on loan from Carlisle, has proved to be a good stand-in for Olley despite being better at CM. Scott and Blackett now share the goalscoring honours. We have the best attacking and defensive records in the league, and despite not getting a big cup payday our finances are looking healthy. Onwards and upwards. Hopefully...

Gateshead, December 2021 We left the Heed after our first month of the season with an unbeaten start under our belts. The question was, could we maintain that excellent form and, if so, for how long? In the event, September was equally as impressive as our unbeaten run stretched to 8 games: New signing Georgiou continued his impressive start, while we also found goals from strikers Scott and Blackett, plus midfielders Campbell, Langstaff and Olley. Scott jumped out to an early lead in the competition for leading scorer, but we'd also developed a nasty habit of assuming first-half leads and then allowing the opposition back into the game - witness the Gloucester match where a 3-0 lead at half-time became a threatening 3-2 victory at full-time. Our unbeaten start came to an end in October as we struggled against a strong Boston side, but we quickly returned to winning ways in the FA Cup, before putting together an unbeaten run of 4 league games. The wins in the cup were also pleasing since the board had charged me with reaching the first round proper. And we went one better, seeing off L2 outfit Sutton in the competition in probably our best performance of the season, before suffering our second league defeat against promotion-chasing York. After a disappointing home draw to Alrfreton we managed to return to winning ways in the league. We also managed to hold on to top spot in the league, despite the 2 defeats and 2 draws, although Fylde are just 3pts behind with a game in hand: Although Scott continues to lead the scoring chart, our finishing could do with an upgrade as we often end games with just a handful of shots on target from a total shot count of 15-20. I've been unable to improve that, despite a number of tactical tweaks. Midfielder Gregg Olley is by far our most important player with 6 goals to add to his 7 assists but, worryingly, he has now attracted the attention of Bolton and Wrexham and we may face a struggle to keep him at the club in January. Young Taylor Charters, on loan from Carlisle, is not far behind him in terms of performances. We begin December with an FA Cup 2nd round tie as Sheffield Wednesday visit the International Stadium. I'd have preferred an away draw, but hopefully the Owls will bring a large crowd that should still provide us with a decent - and much-needed - payday.

Cheers, mate It's good to be back with a new save. Can't believe the new season is upon us already And it seems to me that you're working too hard. Might want to give some thought to that

There are up-to-date databases for download (search for the PRO database, for example). That should give you the up-to-date status of the football universe.

The numeric rating is often a combined rating of your scouts (usually higher) and your analysts (usually lower). Scouts rate the absolute ability (subject to their own analysis), while analysts report on the actual player performance. It's not unusual to find a player with a 70-80 rating from your scouts, but combined with a 20-30 rating from your analysts. I don't know why but I seem to think it's about a 60/30 ratio in favour of the scouts. In other words, you can have a player where your scouts say, "He's good and potentially brilliant", while your analysts says, "Yeah, but hang on - he's been rubbish this year".

Gateshead, September 2021 Our season at the International Stadium is underway. Down in the VNN the transfer window is open until March so it's not a significant milestone for us. But we have completed our first month of competitive football and it's therefore a good point to take stock. In terms of transfers there were no outgoings, apart from a couple of loans for youngsters. Happily, both of them attracted both a fee and a major wage contribution that allowed me enough financial headroom to plug the gaps in the first-team squad. First order of business was to solve our lack of a backup goalkeeper and we found our man on a completely free loan from Fleetwood. Tom Donaghy is an 18-year-old with good attributes in the right places, and he and his club were happy for him to fill the secondary role between the sticks. Next up, the LB position. Our only LB was another loanee, 20-year-old Matty Jacob from Hull. Having managed him in Hull saves in FM21 and FM22 I was initially happy to see him here, but he isn't training well, isn't doing much on the pitch, and generally left me nervous about having him as our first choice for the position. So I was delighted when affiliate club Sunderland agreed to loan us 19-year-old Nathan Newall for no wage contribution. A new signing at the Stadium of Light, he's valued at up to £160k and is immediately one of our best players: In Adam Armstrong and Macauley Longstaff we have two excellent AMs - but they were the only suitable players at AML/AMR so cover/rotation options were urgently required. First in was Andronicos Georgiou, recently of Wycombe Wanderers. At first sight I was worried about his lack of technical attributes but after a period on trial he convinced my coaches he was the real deal. And they were right - he scored on his debut and in 3 starts has 2 goals, 1 assist and 2 PoM awards: Joining him up front, I found youngster Andrew Ijiwole, recently released by Huddersfield. Another whose low attributes worried me, he also exploded into the first team, scoring on his debut. Importantly, he was happy to accept a "future prospect" status and a wage of just £110 a week: After a brief pre-season schedule that allowed everyone to settle in, we were ready to get our season underway. It's fair to say, we started in impressive fashion: Four games played, four wins - can't do better than that. A good squad assembled (albeit a little heavy on loans) and still under our wage budget, too. I couldn't be happier

I think I finally have my next save... Gateshead in the VNN. In reality, the Heed overcame the odds last season to win promotion to the National League, but in this alternative universe that hasn't happened yet and I'm taking over at the beginning of the 21/22 season. Can I emulate the achievement of player/manager Mike Williamson (now denied his moment of greatness. Oops!) I do have some personal connections with the club. For one year in the early 1970s I lived just a few miles from Gateshead and, in 1974, British Olympian Brendan Foster set a world record in the 3,000m at Gateshead's International Stadium - two years earlier, Foster was my O-level Chemistry teacher. The International Stadium is home to Gateshead FC, although reputedly much better as an athletics venue than for football, with the pitch surrounded by the athletics track and fans sitting about a half-marathon from the touchlines: On a positive note, capacity is 11,000 all seated and as long as the fans are happy to watch their football through binoculars there's a good opportunity for healthy gate receipts. There are also long-delayed plans to move to a new, purpose-built football stadium and one of the goals for the save will be to accelerate that move. And so to business... We start the save with a barebones squad and very little money to remedy that. Although we already enjoy professional status, we have no u23 squad and little of note in the u18s, which has just a handful of non-grey players. There are some decent prospects but they're a long way from first-team ready. Facilities are, at best, adequate with 'fairly basic' youth recruitment and 'average' academy coaching. The senior squad features just 17 players, with one on-loan GK, one on-loan LB, and a bunch of multi-purpose defenders and forwards. We can put together a pretty good First Eleven, but there's not much backup for cover and rotation. Worse still, moving all of my transfer budget into wages gives us just £700 a week to bring in at least 3 or 4 players. We do have an affiliate relationship with Sunderland, so free loans are a possibility but not a total solution... one of my first loan targets, a young Sunderland GK, had the deal agreed by his club but the player himself declined the loan. Since Mr Williamson managed to haul this limited collective to promotion, my mantra for the season will be "What did Mike do?" The answer is, loan when you can, play the youngsters when you can't. The board want a playoff finish and the pre-season predications agree with that. Let's see what happens...

Once again, top marks for loyalty and perseverance

Hope you continue to improve Rob

I don't think there's a huge difference between the top half of the National League and L2, so it can be tough. On the other hand, you might find things a bit easier than expected when you win promotion. Given the extent of the required rebuild, I'd say you were doing fine so far. Good luck with the rest of the season

Sympathies! Seems like the new variant of the bug - highly infectious but not too severe (unless you have underlying health conditions. Hope you make a full and speedy recovery.

Cheers mate, and the offer is much appreciated. But I think international travel is off the agenda for the foreseeable

Sadly not the case. Having dodged Covid for more than 2 years I eventually succumbed midway through the holiday - 5 days isolation. Except at that point we were in Italy - 7 days isolation. So I spent fully half the holiday alone* in an armpit of a hotel, thankfully testing negative just in time to go to the airport and fly home at the weekend (otherwise it would have been another automatic 7 days isolation ). The actual infection wasn't too bad, really like a bad cold, but I've been suffering symptoms and after-effects (mostly tired and fuzzy-headed) since we got back. It also meant the only bits of Rome I got to see where out of the window of a medical transport vehicle . Actually loaded up FM for the first time on Monday but found I'd kind of lost my way with the Forest save and haven't found any inspiration since. So a word to the wise: it's still out there, and while I fully understand the desire to get back out into the world just be aware that it's a gamble and there can be major consequences if you're unlucky. Particularly in Italy. *Alone was by choice; didn't see any point in MrsW missing out on half the holiday and sharing the misery. We were travelling with friends so she managed to enjoy herself, albeit without my witty repartee and charming companionship

No, a scan shouldn't affect anything

Well played . Contributions from me will be limited for the next couple of weeks - just arrived in Athens to begin a Mediterranean tour that will end in Rome in two weeks. Restricted to forum viewing on my phone... and I hate typing on my phone. Emojis incoming

I'm envious... across many, many saves in FM I've never managed to sign a genuine wonderkid. I've tried for Sesko several times in FM22 when I've had the money and he either doesn't qualify for a work permit or costs even more money than I've had . Still, we can dream...

Cheers, mate! Still midway through the transfer window and struggling to recruit a decent striker to backup Pereira and - terrifyingly - he's now wanted by a couple of top Brazilian sides and is making noises about going home . So the clock is ticking Glad to hear things have taken a turn for the better at Bradford; I'll look forward to the update.

There's a topic in General Discussion at the moment about loaning out players for work permits. If you have time to share your thoughts I'm sure many of us would appreciate it since you seem to make it work