warlock

@Dong21 It's looking that way. I played one match last night to see how it went and it was pretty bad - sounded terrible and the heat build-up was scary!

Well, my worst fears have been realised - it's the GPU cooling fan, and it looks as though the bearing has gone. The trouble is that every single model of laptop on the market appears to use a slightly different design of fan. I've found a supplier, but they're in China and it will take the best part of two months to get it shipped here (on current estimates). On the other hand, I'll be damned if I'll write off an £800 laptop for the sake of a £15 fan

Looking pretty good . Should make for a really enjoyable save with some long-term potential. Some good transfer business there - I particularly like the signings of Jake Young and Harry Lewis. I was hoping to conclude the season with Forest but ran into IT problems this morning with the laptop making discouraging noises on power-up. It's either a failing hard drive,, or a failing cooling fan. Oddly, I hope it's the former - although a replacement HD would be more expensive, at least they're readily available. Replacement fans for laptops seem to be in the hens-teeth department

Two good years, and you're leaving them in a better position than you found them, I think. Off to Yorkshire then

We'll need pictures

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

With apologies for the late running, the thread now arriving on a variety of platforms is the FM22 service, calling at all stations to the top flight of English football. Below you'll find a brief guide to all 72 clubs in the EFL, their (often miserly) budgets, and a special shoutout to all the naughty chairmen who have been living beyond their means and are now suffering transfer embargoes as a consequence. For each of the EFL's three divisions, clubs are listed in the order of FM media predicted finish. This is the prediction shown in the club selection screens and is different from the bookies' predictions in the season preview screen - media predictions never change; bookies' predictions change constantly as you improve (or weaken) your squad. If you spot any factual errors please point them out and corrections will be made forthwith. As ever, if you opt to join the English pyramid in the Vanorama Leagues - or even lower - feel free to join in and share your progress here; we expect you to become EFL clubs in the near future. Also, feel free to update here if you exit the EFL to the Premiership so we can follow your money-crazed depravity.