warlock

Well, it's survived earthquakes, invasions, civil wars, plagues and England football fans. I'm guessing it will cope

Hoorah I'll allow it I was very late (around 60 years old!) to the charms of the Eternal City but it is now one of my favourite places in the world. Hope you have a great time.

Quite so... I'm sure I'd have been sacked if we hadn't got automatic promotion

Well, it didn't take long...

Nottingham Forest, March 2023 It has been a while since my last update (real life getting in the way of FM ) but I've been steadily plugging away, which means there's a lot to catch up on. I intended to update after the January window but somehow ploughed through another month. Even a cursory glance at our form shows that we're really too good for L1. Just a single league defeat in a hectic schedule - fair play to Accrington, they took their chances and we didn't - and that was one of the very few games of the season where we failed to find the net. Otherwise, we're banging in the goals: strikers Pereira and Salcedo have been ever reliable, but Alex Mighten and Jacob Brown from the wide AM spots, and Braian Ojeda from central midfield have been regular scorers, as has AML Joe Lolley, despite his advancing years. We couldn't find a goal against Liverpool in R4 of the Carabao, but did take the PL giants to penalties so we exited the competition with our pride intact. I mentioned before that I expected a difficult winter transfer window. We had a number of players who were unhappy with our relegation and, although not actively pushing for transfers, were never going to turn down a move if offers arrived. So it was of little surprise that we lost no fewer than 6 players in January, including some of our best defenders. First out on New Year's Day was backup GK Ethan Horvath, whose move had been finalised some months earlier. The departures of the ageing Harry Arter, to Leyton Orient for peanuts, and third-choice GK Jordan Smith to Sunderland were of little concern, but then came two big blows. CBs Toby Figueredo and Scott McKenna had been ever-present in our outstanding defence alongside Joe Worrall but both were on expiring contracts and would not discuss new deals. Rather than lose them for nothing I opted to accept the best bids, with Toby Fig joining Brentford for £1m, and McKenna heading to Getafe for £4m. An additional defensive headache was a long-term injury to on-loan LB Jake Vokins and I opted to terminate his loan rather than continue to pay him to occupy a treatment table. In exchange we brought in three replacements. To cover Arter's departure in central midfield I spotted Shandon Baptiste on the transfer list at Brentford, and £1.2m secured his services. To replace the left-footed McKenna in central defence I repurposed Jonathan Panzo who I had been playing at LB, and then brought in young Brandon Fleming from Hull, who I believed could do a job for us. £275k seemed like a bargain. For more depth at CB I then went back to Hull for Sean McLoughlin - a model professional who is also able to cover LB - for a mere £72k. We were undoubtedly weaker as a result. I didn't think we were fatally weakened, but the proof would be in our on-field performances... Early results were questionable... despite a good number of wins and no defeats we certainly allowed a few more goals than usual. But a FA Cup win against Championship QPR suggested we still had what it takes, as did PJT wins against Man City and Chelsea u23s. Yes, there were doubts after we opened our February schedule with a severe defeat to West Brom in the FA Cup, but the rest of the month could hardly have been better: In our league schedule we racked up 4 wins from 4, scored 15 and conceded just the once. It can be no surprise that we are running away with the league: Pereira has 30 goals from 31 starts and 2 sub appearances, ably supported by Salcedo who has 16 from 19(9). Lolley is our creative force with 20 assists, but also 10 goals of his own. But it's also fair to say it has been squad performances that have driven us on - every single first-team player has an average rating above 7.1 for the season. And while we're on course to score more than 100 goals this season, we also have the best defensive record (and the best disciplinary record, too!) With 10 games to go we have a 24pt lead (albeit Wimbledon have a game in hand) and a couple more wins should see us have the title wrapped up nice and early. We can then start to plan for our return to the Championship. I'm expecting a battle to hang on to our star players.

Oooh, international man of mystery Based on your clues and a quick browse through the L2 squads I can't find a club that perfectly fits the bill (are you sure no transfers were made?) although there are a few that are close. Looking forward to the big reveal "soon" And I'm now a big fan of late takeovers via leagues with different seasons, avoiding the needing for tedious holidaying.

Not quite that many hours, but I've never had one either. A couple of takeovers that cleared some debt, but no tycoons, no sugar-daddies

I don't think you're alone - I have a Feedly page with around 30 FM blogs and where I used to get 5 or 6 updates a week, this year I haven't had that many per month. Forums here are quieter than I can remember, too. I suspect many people simply have too much life to catch up with after 2 years of Covid (and possibly a bit of burnout after 2 years of fairly relentless FM ). Limping laptops don't help either, as @Sysiphus has found. As for me, I'm still enjoying it although I'm having to rise above the EFL schedules that are more like 20 years hard labour than 3 months of football simulation. Just coming up to Christmas in the Forest save and can see the next crisis coming - having held on (without much drama) to wantaway players up to now, it has become clear that a bunch of them are on expiring contracts and won't discuss a renewal. So it'll be a big selloff in January, or lose a lot of value on frees in June . Hope you find a bit of fun in the final act at Valencia

@hasdgfas Congratulations @Parmie Double commiserations You guys play too fast for me to keep up with the updates

Good luck

EFL schedules are brutal . Just finished October having played 8 games in 28 days; then looked at November - 8 games in 28 days

I'd say the latter - sounds like smart business to me

Nottingham Forest, October 2022 Having taken over at Forest at the end of the 21/22 season, we've completed our first transfer window and settled into our unwanted life in the third tier. It's more than 20 years since the club last competed in L1 but, in truth, in the intervening years they've looked as likely to be relegated as promoted. So first item on the agenda is promotion back to the Championship. You'd say that on paper, the squad looks more than capable... until you remind yourself that this squad is the same one that just got relegated. To make matters worse (but not surprisingly) most of the best players consider L1 beneath them and immediately agitate for transfers out. I, on the other hand, am determined to keep them here, so there's a lot of tension and unhappiness - even now, 2 months into the season, I have 8 unhappy players on my hands. Transfers There were a few players on expiring contracts and several were allowed to leave, most notably main striker Lewis Grabban. I also pushed out RB Mohamed Drager, who went to Cagliari for £2m; and AMR Xande Silva, with the former West Ham youngster off to Nurnberg for £325k. There were others marked for disposal but no-one was interested in them either for transfer or loan so they remain for now. My first new signing was a replacement for Grabban and I was surprised when my scouts flagged that Ajax were unlikely renew the contract of young Brazilian Danilo Pereira... I was even more surprised when he agreed to join us on a free. It was a similar story with RB Danny da Costa, on an expiring contract at Frankfurt, and he was snapped up in short order. To replace Xande at AMR, I noticed Stoke had transfer-listed Jacob Brown and I gladly paid the required £600k fee for an upgrade on the departing Portuguese. As rotation/cover for Pereira I brought in Joe Gelhardt on loan from Leeds. Unfortunately, he has been terrible (average rating: 6.4) and will be going home in January. So I went back to the loan market and snapped up one-time FM wonderkid Eddie Salcedo from Inter. One of the impossible-to-remove players was LB Nikolas Ioannou, so to provide another option there I signed an old FM perennial, Jake Vokins, on loan from Southampton. Earlier in the window I renewed the loan of Man Utd's James Garner although, unhappily, Middlesborough refused a similar extension for RB Djed Spence. With that, I thought we were done, until on transfer deadline day, a bunch MLS clubs made offers for American GK Ethan Horvath. He was one of the want-away squad and made it clear he would take it badly if no move was allowed, so a £2.1m deal with Portland was agreed. Fortunately, he won't move until January so we'll have the opportunity to bring a new backup for first-choice Bryce Samba. Early form As a season opener we faced Bolton in the first round of the Carabao Cup and duly won 7-2. We then began our league campaign in similar form: A sparkling 5-1 victory against Pompey, with Pereira bagging a penalty on his debut, set the tone before he scored a brace against PL opponents Everton in the 2nd round of the Carabao, and then went one better with a hat-trick against Rotherham. With 7 goals from his first 4 games, surely he was destined for signing of the season? Alas, no... In his next 4 games he failed to find the net at all. I'm hoping it's just the law of averages coming to bite us but I need him to start scoring again, as evidenced by our toothless display against a mid-table Wycombe. Happily, others have picked up the baton to some extent and Salcedo scored his first goal in a Forest shirt against Cheltenham. We're also scoring a few from AMR and AML, as well as from Cafu and Ojeda as CM-att. The real revelation has been veteran Joe Lolley... I wasn't sure whether to keep him but he's proved me wrong! That unbeaten start to the campaign puts us top of the table for now, but it couldn't be much tighter with Ipswich and Forest Green hot on our heels: An unbeaten season would surely help us secure the title

You can't do better . Good luck with the rest of the season. Boards, eh? Loathe them or ignore them, you just can't like them. Hope you find a way to work within the limitations. Quite right, too! It took you a little longer than I expected to reach the PL but I never had a doubt you'd manage it Great stuff! Always easier on the nerves when you win it comfortably. Let's hope for more of the same next season.

Too easy! Well, maybe not too easy Congrats on another good season, though.

Always tough to go away needing a result, but a solid season nonetheless. Better luck next time! Sympathies, but it looks like you were one goal (to turn one of those draws into a win) shy of the playoffs. Hope things pick up.

I fear I'm becoming predictable in my old age

What it's all about, right? I'm just getting a new save underway... I had a mind to do a Man Utd rebuild similar to the challenge facing Eric Ten Hag. Rather than tediously holidaying through the first season, I added the Swedish league to the save, which allows you to pick a start date at the end of April 2022. What caught my eye was that Brentford looked doomed to relegation back to the Championship, and that had a lot of appeal. But then, with my manager unemployed and just watching for the end of the season, I was invited to apply for the job at Forest, who had sacked Steve Cooper when Forest were themselves relegated to L1. Forest in the 3rd tier seemed like an excellent basis for a save, so I interviewed for the position and was duly appointed as new manager I think I'll do the United save at some point, if only for the pleasure of being able to sign some top-quality players that are rarely - if ever - available to us EFL managers. But for now, I'll be securely in my comfort zone of cheap bargains and free signings

Yeah, that's not too shabby. Very close to European qualification, too

I take it your laptop is still limping on?

Always happy to advise, if I know the player. And Williams will be fine as a rotation option - he was very good for me in an Exeter save last year.

Going well, and some useful business. I've never managed Coleman but he always seems to play well against my sides. If Williams can help you to promotion he'll be a good buy, but I found him very hit and miss in the Championship with Hull.

Oxford United, May 2022 The season is over and after battling with Ipswich for the title down the final straight, how did we do? Despite the rigours of a packed fixture list - and continuing injury problems - we were unbeaten in February, dropping just a single point in a goalless draw with Crewe. But things went a bit Pete Tong in March: The FA Cup loss to Brentford was expected, but the home draw against a Burton side we should have beaten was a disappointment. Worse was to follow with a league defeat to struggling Shrewsbury. That allowed Ipswich to open a 3pt lead at the top of the division so our home game against the Tractor Boys became hugely significant. A fantastic 3-0 win took us back to the top on goal difference but we ended the month with a defeat to promotion-chasing Plymouth that allowed Ipswich to overtake us once again. We opened the final month of the campaign with a morale-boosting win over Wednesday to claim the Pizza Pot. It looked to have at least been good for finances with a £100k reward- until we promptly paid out £103k in player bonuses. As we arrived at the last two games, we still had a chance to claim the title, especially when Ipswich lost their penultimate game - unfortunately, we had already secured promotion and it seemed that everyone simply switched off. We never looked like winning either match. So we finished the season in 2nd - a fantastic performance from a squad never expected to do better than top-half but which produced the best attack and second-best defence in the league. Mark Sykes's performance as top scorer was a credit to him - and a black mark against our strikers who were horribly inconsistent all year. Luke McNally emerged as our most important player, as the 22-year-old earned the highest average rating and most PoM awards. Brannagan kept up his production of assists (although he did fall away badly in the latter stages) and, despite his poor disciplinary record, Seddon overcame a poor start to the season to become a solid, reliable presence at LB. I'm not yet sure I'll continue the save in the Championship - there's a huge rebuild to be done with 5 loans expiring, plus another 5 players on expiring contracts. The latter group includes new signing Billy Bodin, who missed most of the season with injury and was abysmal when he returned. It also looks likely we'll go into the summer with only Matty Taylor as a striker, and I'm far from convinced he can perform in the Championship. The same is true of another 3-5 first team regulars. Time will tell...

That's about right, I think. Really thought you could make the playoffs but no shame in coming up just short. Great start to season 2 as well - one defeat in 20 is promotion-chasing form indeed!

Some compensation for a "disappointing league campaign" . And European football secured for another season. Yeah, the winter months are a grind in the EFL. I thought things would ease off a bit after January, but they haven't - 7 games in February, 7 games in March. I've got a conveyor belt of injuries - as soon as one player returns, another goes out injured for weeks, and I've had to playi 17-year-old in central defence.