warlock

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

I've sort of lost count now, but I reckon your first-team squad must be up around 50 players, no?

That won't help, as you surmise. The only workaround I'm aware of is to loan them to a top flight team in one of the bigger European or South American countries and hope they play enough first-team matches. And since I'd guess you're going to ask, I have no idea how many matches they'd need to play. Quantum physics is easier to understand than British work permit rules.

Nottingham Forest, May 2024 Apparently, it was a season of unlikely but jubilant success for Forest as we cruised to the Championship title. When I left you last time we had just completed the January transfer window having replaced several departing first-team players. Would the new signings quickly settle in? We remained unbeaten in the league and, although there were a few too many draws for comfort, we maintained our lead at the top of the table. We also made good progress in the FA Cup - a home draw against PL side Leeds was not too shabby, and we then went one better to beat them on their own turf. Unfortunately, that run came to an entirely expected end as we fell to defeat against Arsenal. But we left the Emirates with our heads held high after taking an early lead, before we succumbed to two late goals. Other highlights of the spring included a flurry of goals from on-loan striker Liam Delap, and young RB Fin Back scoring his first senior goal for the club. Down to the business end of the season and the strain started to tell. A home defeat to promotion-chasing Brighton was disappointing, a severe defeat against Cardiff was worse. By that time, though, the title was already ours and we celebrated with a crushing 5-1 victory against Luton. The away victory against Ipswich should have led to a final-day celebration in front of our fans but it wasn't to be... the players put in an abject performance that saw Huddersfield take a lead after the first minute, go 2-0 up before the 10th, and take a 3-0 lead into the break. Compensation goals from Baptiste and Garner were too little too late. A mere flesh wound, though - by the time we lost to Brighton we had gone 22 games unbeaten in the league and eventually secured the title by a 14pt margin: We finished with the best attack, the best defence, and the second-best possession stats (after Norwich). Individually, Pereira was pipped to the golden boot by Ipswich's Jerome Sinclair by a single goal, while RB Danny da Costa turned in an excellent season and won fans Player of the Year. The board have given me £37m to try to avoid relegation next year. Areas requiring reinforcements include a replacement for Joe Lolley who wants away; at least one backup striker to support Pereira; and backups at both RB and LB. It also remains to be seen whether we can renew Garner's loan for a fifth year - I'd certainly love to do that because he remains out of our reach as a permanent signing.

As I understand it, yes.

Doesn't have to be "full three years", he just needs to be on the books (and not out on loan) for the 3 seasons. As long as a player is registered at the club before his 19th birthday he'll qualify (if not loaned out at all), even if signed in January of the first season.

No problem, all Vanorama sides welcome

We're about to find out...

I think there's a lot of truth in that. After breezing through the lower leagues and Championship, it's hard to manage your expectations when finishing 17th would represent an excellent season and not an abject failure. If only I could learn this lesson

Nottingham Forest, February 2024 We've made it to the end of the January transfer window and there have been a significant number of changes... or at least, a number of significant changes. But first, we continued our excellent league form in an attempt to meet the board demand of a top half finish. As always, Reading were expected to do well in the Championship so a defeat was no cause for alarm, especially as we followed up with a series of wins against two of the better, recently-relegated teams. I was also encouraged by the fact that Johnson and Delap put in rare goal-scoring appearances against Palace. But we did even better in a hectic December, racking up convincing wins against promotion rivals Ipswich, West Brom, and early league leaders Cardiff, even if we ran out of steam at the end of the month. As we headed into the transfer window I wasn't planning on much business, despite the continued poor performances from Brennan Johnson. Unfortunately, FM had other ideas. First problem was a low-ball bid for Alex Mighten, who suddenly decided that a return to his native America was vital. I managed to negotiate the fee up a little but he eventually departed to Los Angeles for £5m. In similar fashion, Canadian RB Richie Laryea left the club for Sporting Kansas City for £3m. Although I hoped to stem the losses at that point, we were only mid-way through January when Aston Villa and Wolves (both PL outfits) set their sights on Johnson. Given his poor form this season I wasn't unhappy to let him go but we were already short in the AM positions. A final bid of £15m plus add-ons was enough too sway me and he eventually signed for Villa. Those deals left me with a handsome transfer budget of £19m and in need of two new AMs and a RB. First in was a loan deal that saw us sign Man City youngster Filip Stevanovic on loan for the eminently reasonable cost of £8k a week wage contribution. Next I decided to bring former loan signing Djed Spence back to the City Ground for an initial £5m fee that will rise to £9m over three years. Spence is perhaps best known for his performances at RB, but my aim is to play him at AMR - a role he is fully accomplished at - while he can also cover in defence. As extra cover, I also promoted young RB Fin Back to the first team squad; not quite ready for prime time but minutes at the senior level will only help him along. And while all that was happening, we continued to exceed expectations on the pitch: The most notable feature of the month was Spence bagging a brace on his return debut to Forest, although he was subsequently outshone by RB Danny da Costa who not only scored his first goal for the club against Hull, but added a vital double against Sunderland (in what was, admittedly, a very disappointing draw against a side cemented in the relegation spots). And while all that was happening, our promotion rivals Cardiff and Bournemouth were enduring a major winter of discontent, dropping points and succumbing to defeats, that allowed us to open up a massive lead at the top of the division: That Pereira is the leading scorer is no surprise, but just looking at that screengrab I must admit that I am indeed surprised that Colback is our leading source of assists, and that da Costa now holds the most PoM awards for the season. We also boast the best attack, the best defence, the best disciplinary record and the best pass completion rates in the league. I now have to face the prospect that we will, in fact, earn promotion to the Premiership... are we really read for that???

Yes, bad November (if not unexpected) but a great December. If you can carry that form (December!) into the New Year you should do well Ah, the poisoned chalice . Two futures beckon: the Legend, or the Turnip; I hope you achieve the former!

Nottingham Forest, November 2023 Our season proceeds in a pleasing manner: Well, apart from that loss against Sunderland. Neither side created anything but we lost to one of those infuriating FM own-goals when my LB intercepted a through-ball 25 yards out, laid it back to Samba in goal, and then Samba just stood and watched it approach him, go past him, and roll into the net . The rest of the month was pleasing - even a draw against promotion favourites Bournemouth was fine. And our form continued: The defeat against the Baggies was disappointing - they're a mid-table Championship side at this point, while we're pushing for promotion, but we just didn't turn up. If there's a cloud on my horizon it's the appalling form of AMR Brennan Johnson. After a good start to the season, his form has dropped off a cliff, with an average rating of 6.5 for the season, and for his last 5 games. I criticised him for it but in his next game he rated a 6.1, and in his latest match he missed the penalty that gave West Brom the cup victory. One of those baffling situations - he's happy, seems confident, and plays well for Wales, but can't do anything in a Forest shirt. The only option I have left is to play him in the u23s for a couple of games and see if that makes a difference. But having doubted the board demand for a top half finish, I have to say the team is exceeding my expectations:

Life in a parallel universe

Gotta ride that rollercoaster, right?

The cry of FM managers down the ages . The "lagging reputation" problem is hard to deal with - hopefully another good season will stand you in good stead. Good start, keep it up!

Nottingham Forest, September 2023 Transfer window now closed and, as expected, little business was done. The only senior players to leave were LB Nikolas Ioannou, who departed for his native Greece on a pre-arranged end-of-contract deal; CM Cafu, who left on a free after declining a new contract, and CB Jonathan Panzo, who joined Strasbourg for £1.5m. Coming the other way, our first priority was to replace Ioannou at LB and I found a promising young prospect from Portugal: A fee of £1m was enough to sign him from Vitoria Sport Club, and he's competing for the starting spot with ex-Hull youngster Brandon Fleming, who joined us in January. To replace Cafu I found Elias Hagen, a young Norwegian who was prepared to join us on a season-long loan from PSG: With AM Joe Lolley having declared that he would consider his options at the end of last season, his replacement was a Slovenian u21 international Tamar Svetlin, who was signed for a bargain £1.1m. In the event, Lolley suffered an injury at the end of the season that kept him out for most of the window and, therefore, remains at the club. Finally, we needed a striker to replace Eddie Salcedo, whose loan we couldn't renew because of work permit issues. Despite a long and tedious search for a good prospect, I couldn't find a likely candidate and finally resorted to the loan market again, bringing in Man City youngster LIam Delap. All of these new recruits are taking a little time to settle and gel, but that's to be expected and I have no complaints so far. In fact, we've begun our season in storming form: Here's hoping we can keep it up!

@robterrace Oddly enough, my scouts just flagged Gulliksen but he's way out of my range. He signed for Juve in summer 2022 and a year later he's valued at £21m-plus.

Last game of the season is often a tricky fixture, but a safe mid-table result is a pretty good achievement, I think I'm just about done with pre-season in our return to the Championship and we're looking good - just beat Spurs 3-0! I'm desperate for a striker to support Pereira (Eddie Salcedo was refused a work permit on renewing his loan), and unexpectedly lost Jonathan Panzo to a late transfer bid so he'll need to be replaced. But, for now at least, I'm pretty confident we'll be in good shape for the season kick-off.

Good to see you

Depends what kind of challenge you want, but Ipswich, Doncaster, Rotherham and Forest Green Rovers spring immediately to mind.

Nottingham Forest, May 2023 With the season over it's fair to say we strolled to the title. Given that we managed to hold on to most of our Championship squad, we were comfortably the best team in L1: A winning margin of 29pts tells the story - we lost just two league games all season, including - disappointingly - our final game against Ipswich at home Everyone in the squad performed at a high level throughout the season - only young CB Loic Mbe Soh rated less than 7 in average ratings for the year. Notable performances: Others worthy of mention include James Garner who scored a season average rating of 7.55 from the DM position; striker Eddie Salcedo, who racked up 20 goals from 24(12) appearances; and GK Bryce Samba, who played 57 games in all competitions and produced 30 clean sheets. Team stats were no less impressive... we were simply the best: Looking ahead to our return to the Championship, the board want a top half finish (which might be a little ambitious). I haven't been given budgets yet, but I ran a pretty tight ship this year and ended the season with more than £6m in the transfer budget and £120k in spare wages - even without an increase in either we'd be in good shape as the squad doesn't need much in the way of reinforcements. The big issue will be the loss of Garner - Manchester United want more than £350k a month, and £25k a week in wages, to renew his loan again and that seems hard to justify, despite his stellar performances.

New laptop day The usual delivery nonsense - your package will be delivered between 8.30am and 8.30pm - before it eventually arrived at 7pm, followed by the exciting/tedious process of installing Windows and driver updates, deleting the bloatware, installing Steam and other essentials. The plan was to extract the data drive from the old laptop and install it in an external drive cage, but the new laptop had space for it internally and that installation was eventually concluded successfully (a lot of very tiny screws notwithstanding ). Finally installed FM22, fired up the game and everything was in place - old saves, graphics files, tactics, the lot. Turns out I have 3 more games to play in Forest's L1 campaign, so I'm just about to find out what difference the new hardware makes. I have a slightly faster CPU, and much better GPU. Here we go... Edit to add: Happy overall with the new hardware - processing slightly quicker, graphics a little better but at the expense of louder fan noise; some of the graphics settings (both in game and in Windows) need a bit of tweaking.

Afraid not. But I have realised I can take the hard drive out of the old laptop and mount it in an external drive case to recover all of my data

I hope you get some enjoyment out of it too!

Congratulations and commiserations where appropriate. I'm following on my phone but typing any meaningful comment is a pain. I bought what I thought was a compatible fan but it didn't work so went to order the direct replacement from China... out of stock . So as much as it pains me, I've ordered a new laptop, which should be here on Wednesday . Not sure I'll be able to get the Forest save off the old machine but I'll be happy to get back in the game... missing it more than I thought I would. in the meantime keep up the good work