Virtual Male

@XaW you're flying through the divisions!! I'm always jealous of the variety of nationalities you get in your intakes, are you doing anything special or is it just a case of crossed fingers?

Season 13 2036/37 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities Competitions Premier League (Past Positions) - It's a bit difficult at the top isn't it! We got off to a great start to the season winning 4 of the first 5 games and I foolishly thought what's all the fuss about? I then got 6 points between the beginning of November and the middle of March, A run that included some less than motivating results like a 7-0 loss to Newcastle and 10-1 to Chelsea. A bit of an easier run in saw the team pick up a few much needed wins to drag us out of the relegation zone and into 15th place at the end of the season. Honestly, I don't really think we deserve it but I won't say no to another season in the Premier League, I need to sort the defence out though, we conceded 50 more than the team that conceded the 2nd most goals! Still, at least the 116 scored against us wasn't a league record. The Emirates FA Cup - Another 1 game FA Cup run, I didn't pay it any attention. Carabao Cup - Another short one, I played a heavily rotated team to keep my better players fresh for the league. Squad - A lot of player development again this season given the higher level of competition, we're still well out of our depth and I think we only have 1 player that is actually the right quality for the league. Something must be working though for us to stay up, hopefully the development can continue and next year will be slightly easier. Robert Jones is our stand out player, clearly has more ability than anyone else on the team and is refusing to even enter contract negotiations, so not ideal! He had a solid year with 17 G/A in 34 league games, he's got 2 years left on his £300p/w deal so I'm hopeful we can get him to talk with us this season but if not I'll have some thinking to do nest summer. Youth Intake (Preview) A fairly promising preview followed by what looks like a pretty good intake, A couple of much needed fullbacks and a DM that has something about him and all good personalities too! I think there are 3/4 players in this years intake that will find themselves in the first team in a few years and will likely stay there for a long time to come. Lamine Mendes (2037YP9) has already been improving massively and has been called up to the Senegal U18's over the summer so that's really promising. Ben Davies is probably the pick of the bunch though, one of the much needed full backs and not far from getting into the rotation of the first team as a right back, I think I'll let him play a season with the youth groups before he moves into the senior team. That could all go out of the window though, we'll see. Transfers & Finance - Not much to talk about with transfers, a few out on loan to either try to develop them a little or just so they stop complaining about not getting game time. The bank balance is looking really healthy now thanks to the massive Premier League TV deal so just over £80m in there now, It shouldn't be a concern from here on out unless the board decide to so something ridiculous. Other - On the back of out newly found riches I got the board to agree to a few things, We'll be a level 1 academy soon which while I'm not really sure what it actually does in game I'm sure it's a good thing. We also upgraded our training facilities at the start of the season before some technological advancements meant we had to do it all over again at the end of the season. They're also expanding the stadium by a little over 3000 capacity but only 750 of that will be seated, every little helps though. Something that I have noticed this season that doesn't make sense to me is the board have been putting pressure on me because they're disappointed I'm apparently not using the clubs youth system to develop players.... I'm not sure they've been paying attention for the last decade plus of the clubs existence!! Is this something anyone else has been experiencing? Or are my board just talking nonsense?

I've been lurking again for the last week or so and getting caught up on what's been going on since I burnt out of my save a few months back. Some massive completions and @XaW deciding the challenge isn't hard enough for him in its standard form! I'm getting back into my Merthyr Town save in their first Premier League season. I'm just hoping to not get embarrassed every weekend, This Newcastle game is definitely one to forget.

If you're not a fan of keeping clean sheets then give it a whirl. I assume it's something to do with the central attacking mid and one of the strikers being offset, I could well be talking nonsense though.

@Brentmeister I don't think it's anything special... Just a pretty standard 4-2-3-1 to start but then I sold my only competent right wing so moved to a kind of wonky 4-2-2-2. No special player roles or instructions either. If you can see a reason it's working that I've missed that's be good.

Season 12 2035/36 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities So, I'm going to start this update with something I'd usually put at the end but if you guys are anything like me I'd end up just glossing over a paragraph of text at the end of a post without much reading actually taking place. I'm finding this save quite hard to stay invested in at the moment and I feel silly for even saying that because it's for completely the opposite reasons people usually drift away from these saves, I'm struggling because there hasn't been any real challenge since my relegation from the VNL. Since then I've been promoted every year all the way into the Premier League now and it just doesn't feel right but I can't sandbag can I? I've a feeling that the shape and tactic I've been developing over the last 4/5 seasons is breaking the match engine in some way and players are vastly outperforming their abilities, I mean Frankie Thomas shouldn't be anywhere near a game in the Championship unless he's paid for a ticket but here he is with a fairly respectable average rating from 14 games this year . He's a VNN player on a good day right? Anyway the point of all of this is just to say that this might be the last update for a little while until I'm feeling this save again.... I just miss the pain I think Competitions Sky Bet Championship (Past Positions) - I don't understand what's happening anymore, 2nd place in our first season in the Championship means five successive promotions now. 78 points only just scrapes the play-offs in almost every season in this save until this year but here we are heading off into the Premier League, I really don't know how this has come to be. The Emirates FA Cup - 90 minutes of the Fa Cup this year, 4-1 loss to Newcastle. Carabao Cup - Continued to not care about the Carabao Cup in the slightest exiting in the group stage again. Squad We're very top heavy now, we've got a Premier League quality attack and a defence that's League 2 on a good day. Luckily there's some potential at the back coming through but it's felt like that's been the case for a number of seasons now and I'm still playing the same guys because of a lack of development. Robert Jones became our first official Wonderkid this year and made his Wales debut! He's got a couple of years left on his contract but I doubt I'll get to keep him until the end of it and will probably be forced into a sale before then, Sam Haggett had another solid season up top bagging himself 17 league goals on our way to automatic promotion. I'm hoping he can manage to hit double figures next season, we'll need it if we have any hope of survival. Youth Intake (Preview) - Probably one of the best previews we've had in a few years and it left me a little disappointed when the youth intake came around. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad intake, it isn't. Just I got my hopes up and wanted more. Richard Lloyd is apparently the main man from this years intake, he's coming through in a position that I need some more players in due to a sale so he'll be in and around the first team at some point in the near future. I'm much more interested in Lim Yong-Jae though, a big Korean center back who's got a little bit of potential is everything I could have asked for really, he's going to be training with the first team with the hope that he can make his mark before too long. Transfers & Finances - A couple of big sales this year. Llion Davies kicked up a massive fuss in the new year and it was spilling over to the rest of the team so a deal with Portsmouth worth up to £10m saw him heading to the south coast. Mike Cox-Davies was much less planned out but LAFC threw £18.5m upfront with another £1.5m in clauses that will be met and I really couldn't turn that money down. All of that left the finances in a good place with about £7m in the bank but with the Premier League money coming in next season we should be pretty set from now on unless something goes horribly wrong. Other - The board we're very co-operative this year again allowing the training facilities to be upgraded twice and the youth facilities to be upgraded twice too! We moved up a youth category too, we're category 2 now. I got my final coaching badge too. The stadium needed some love with the promotion so we're getting undersoil heating fitted and a few thousand seats put in. Bingo Card - A handful of things got marked off this season so we're up to 29/100.

Who needs all that Hollywood money anyway?

Season 11 2034/35 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Sky Bet League One (Past Positions) - I was hoping for a largely forgettable season and for the first half of the season that was looking likely as we bounced around between 10th-18th, A serious injury to my only competent right winger in early December meant some tactical changes and we started playing a wonky 4-2-2-2 that I really didn't like the look of but it seemed to work as we climbed up the table and into the play-off spots. In what could possibly be the most entertaining play-off games in history we managed to beat Luton 9-4 over two legs before heading to Wembley to face Preston, that game was a goal fest too ending 5-3 in our favour! So it's the Championship next season, I don't think that the team has the quality to survive but I've thought that the last few seasons too and look how that's gone. The Emirates FA Cup - A lucky run in the FA Cup saw us getting drawn against lower league opponents all the way to the 5th round where we faced eventual Premier League champions Tottenham Hotspur who made light work of us. Carabao Cup - Out early against Wolves EFL Trophy - Really disappointed with this, we should have been able to get out of the group at least but in the end didn't pick up a single point. Squad The team is looking okay, I guess. A little light in places but most positions have someone coming through that has a fair amount of potential, could have really done with another season in League 1 but I can't really complain about getting promoted can I. Alun Duckett was one of the main reasons that we did as well as we did this year, he ended the season as the leagues top scorer and I'm hoping that he'll be able to score enough to keep us up next season. We scored a lot of goals as a team this season and broke the leagues scoring record by a distance this year and we needed to since we conceded the 2nd most goals too. Ryan Astley League One Player of the Season! I know I talk about him every season and even though he doesn't actually look that good he just keep preforming well, 36G/A in 39 league games leaves him within touching distance of hitting 400 league appearances and 200 league goals for the club, further cementing himself as a club legend. Youth Intake (Preview) - what looked to be a decent preview ended up being a somewhat underwhelming intake, maybe I've just been spoilt in the last few years though. I think a number of these guys could go on to become squad depth players but it doesn't look like anyone has the potential to play a huge part in taking the club forwards. Jordan Evans looks to be the pick of the bunch, not a great personality but fairly well rounded so hopefully he'll be able to develop well with a little mentoring. Transfers & Finances - Sam Jones (2029YP1) became the clubs biggest sale when the chairman made a decision for me, it ended up being a good deal for us though and all of the optional fees were quicky met meaning the full £10.5m was received. The other out was David Gregory (2033YP2) who left for Brighton for £2m and 50% of future profits, this was a sale I'd have really rather didn't happen but when 16 Premier League teams are bidding on a player from League 1 there's not much you can do apart from take the money. I'm hoping that since he's gone to a lower mid-table team he'll be moving on again sooner rather than later and with a current value of £32-£40m we're in for quite a payday. The finances are looking fairly healthy now, I don't expect that to remain like that though since facility upgrades are starting to get more expensive now and the wage bill is inflating as we go through the leagues. Other - We put the transfer income to good use and upgraded both the youth(1, 2) and training (1, 2) facilities twice! The board also agreed to send me off for my next coaching badge, only 1 more to go! Bingo Card - I think I got another 5 marked off this season, mainly due to the sale of Sam Jones topping £10m. 23/100.

The January window is going to be eventful.

@XaW Solid first season and a good intake too! Very jealous of the variety of nationalities you've got coming through though, pretty much exclusively Welsh at Merthyr.

Season 10 2033/34 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Sky Bet League Two (Past Positions) - The pre-season preview had us in 9th so I knew we could do something this season but I wasn't expecting a 2nd place finish and a 3rd consecutive promotion! We spend the full season in the play-off spots and a good run towards the end of the season saw us climb into the top 3 and secure automatic promotion with a game to spare, League 1 here we come. The Emirates FA Cup - A mega run in the FA Cup this year going all the way to the 5th round before getting knocked out by Wolves. We even managed to get the better of Premier League Aston Villa in the 4th round. Carabao Cup - Out in the first round. EFL Trophy - Didn't get past the groups, only getting 1 win in the 3 games. Squad Everyone played really well this season with the exception of Frankie Thomas (2025YP8) who's cover for the fullbacks and well out of his depth at this level, but he's a team leader so he's just going to hang around for a while I think. Our defence is starting to lack quality a bit and there's not been much coming through the intakes in the last couple of years so fingers crossed it doesn't cost us in a higher division. Wales games are starting to cause us a little bit of a problem now because we're having 16-20 players getting called up the the various age levels and some of the youth games overlap with other fixtures so we've been left a little short at times, I know I shouldn't complain about that because it means we're doing something right but it's still a little annoying when it happens . Sam Jones - He's been our starting keeper since he came trough the academy 5 seasons ago and had another solid year. He's been getting called up to the Wales senior team but hasn't managed to get on the pitch for the yet, surely only a matter of time for him though. Robert Jones - He's not even 17 for another 7 months and he's making something happen every time he plays, 23 G/A in 2200 minutes means he's made a goal contribution every 95 minutes. I truly believe that the sky's the limit for this guy and with half of the Premier League after him I think it'll be a struggle to keep him around. Ideally I can get another year or two at a push to see how he develops but mainly so his value will shoot up. If he kick up a fuss and force a move over the summer I'll make sure there's a % of future fee clause included in any deal. Youth Intake (Preview) A good preview and I think an even better intake this year! With 6 players that have 4.5/5* potential could this be Merthyr's very own class of '92?? Most of them will see some minutes in the coming season, Lewis Powell will be the one that I'll probably be looking to the most since he's not far off the first team already and will hopefully go on to be a mainstay at the back for years to come. Transfers & Finances - Again, nothing really that important on the transfer front. A number of players dropping a division or two to get some first team football on loan and hopefully develop, I even got a whopping £2.1k loan fee for one. Unfortunately, that loan fee income didn't make much of a dent in the losses for the season that stand at a touch over £1.3m and completely wiped out what we'd been saving up for the last decade. My plan going forward is just to not look at this tab so I can't worry about it then right? Other - At the end of the season we saw the Training Facilities downgraded due to technological advancements, it still leaves us with 'adequate' for both youth and training facilities and I can't see the money being available for further upgrades for a while, unless we get a crazy offer in for someone. Bingo Card - The promotion saw us tick off another box to take us to 17/100

As long as you've got a save from before the leagues become active you should be fine to go back and take them away if any issues crop up.

@HanziZoloman I'm the same with youth set-up cost. Spending more in 2 months than we did in a full season last year.... Oh, the joys of going full time. The only way out I can think of is player sales and hope for a future sell on %

They're not no, I backed it up just before I added them.... From what I've been able to find out (and been told by someone who seems to know what they're on about) it doesn't appear to be a common issue, but definitely worth creating that extra 'just incase' save before you add them as pending.

@DrJones Making some good progress there! Oriental Dragons are a really unique club, super interesting youth policy.

After thinking that I'd lost the save to it corrupting and having a sad afternoon I remembered why I backup my important saves externally. I lost a month or so but nothing that changes anything worth noting, still the same intake etc. I've no idea what caused the save file to die but after some googling I've seen that there's been people having some issues when adding playable leagues after the start of a save (which is something I'd done) so I assume that's what did it. Season 9 3032/33 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities Competitions Vanarama National League (Past Positions) - Going into the season I thought we might be able to do something but I wasn't expecting to finish the season sat at the top of the table! We moved into 1st early on and never went anywhere else, in the end it looked quite comfortable. The Emirates FA Cup - 1st round exit after an early red against Bromely. The Isuzu FA Trophy - The less said about this one the better, 3rd round exit against Gillingham. Squad - As a whole I'm very happy with the players I have at my disposal. Lots of players with potential, to a point that I'm actually having a bit a headache giving everyone the gametime that they need.... Will need to start making use of the loan market next season I think. Ryan Astley (2025YP9) - More goal contributions than games played for the 3rd consecutive season as an attacking midfielder, I really can't say enough positive things about this guy. I am a little worried he might not be able to make the step up into the Football League but we'll see. Alun Duckett (2030YP9) - By far the teams best player and he's been the main man this year with 33 league goals. Once I got the opportunity I got him tied down to a long-ish contract and massively overpaid with bonuses to get rid of the release clauses he was after. I can't imagine he'll want to renew further than he currently has with him being rated a 'leading' League 1 player currently with room to improve so I've started making plans for when he's off in a year or two already. Youth Intake (Preview) - Another decent intake with two stand out players. Nothing special with personalities. Robert Jones (2033YP1) - Straight in with first team quality, I'll have to move things around a little bit to get him some semi-regular gametime next season but he looks like he could be something special if we can keep other teams away. David Gregory (2033YP2) - Another that'll be in the first team next season, not sure he's the same quality as Jones but with full time training I'm hoping he'll be one of the best at the club by the times he's 18. Transfers & Finances - Nothing notable with transfers, just a couple that were never going to make the grade leaving for frees. The bank balance is looking quite healthy and we made a small profit even after the infrastructure spend was taken into account, the wage bill has ballooned with the club turning professional though so I'm going into the season expecting to be losing money, I'm just not sure how much. Other - As a result of the promotion into the Football League we turn professional and spent the profit made over the season on some stadium work to being the seating capacity up to meet the League rules. We also convinced the board to send us to complete the Continental B Licence despite their protests that it might make us too attractive to other teams. Bingo Card - Managed to get a fair few marked off this season with the back to back promotions, 16/100 I'm not really sure what to expect going into the first season in the Football League, we'll be favourites to come straight back down I'd imagine but it's only the bottom 2 that go down and I'm backing the team to do better than that... Only time will tell.

Well that's not ideal....

@DazRTaylor You're flying through the leagues!! You'll be all wrapped up with the challenge by 2040 at this rate Congratulations mate, I've no idea how you're managing it. I can't say I've noticed the player development being any faster than usual to be honest, but that could just be because I'm still Semi-Pro so no-one trains anyway.

Season 8 2031/32 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities Competitions Vanarama National League South (Past Positions) - It's all coming together now. We had a dominant season and broke a number of records along the way, highest points total in a season, highest number of wins in a season and most goals scored all go to show just how much better than the rest we were this year. We hit the top of the league after 7 games and never looked back finishing the season on 118 points and 22 clear of 2nd place. The Emirates FA Cup - 1st round exit against League 1 Millwall, I felt hard done by since we'd had the better of the game only for Millwall to grab an 89th minute winner. The Isuzu FA Trophy - I think bringing this trophy home is more impressive than what we did in the league and leaves me quite hopeful for next season. From the 4th round onward we only faced clubs in the division above and the only game that was close was the 4th round against Southport in which we relied on penalties. Even Tamworth who ran away with the Vanarama National League was a fairly routine win in the Semi-Final and a 2-1 win against Stevenage at Wembley saw us lifting the FA Trophy for the 2nd time in the clubs history. Squad - The whole team played well this year with only 2 averaging less than a 7.0 (one of those being 6.99) and quite a lot of player growth has happened so I think we'll be fine next year. Ryan Astley (2025YP9) - Another great year from our main man, the season stat tracker is broken but he scored 32 league goals to become the top scorer in club history with 132 goals in 272 appearances. Overall he made 61 goal contributions in 52 games and really was the heartbeat of the team. Alun Duckett (2030YP9) - The young forward broke into the team last season and his form carried on into this year 47 G/A in 43 games at 17 years old is very impressive and I'm hoping he can carry the form into next year. Youth Intake (Preview) - A good preview, even if it is more strikers and wingers which the club has an abundance of at the moment, but I can't complain. Only 1 5* player this year but it looks like a fairly solid intake. Sam Haggett (2032YP3) - is the pick of the bunch and will get first team minutes next year, I'm hoping that his relatively low potential is an oversight from my staff but even if it isn't he should turn into a useful player with a good personality. Transfers & Finances - The board wouldn't approve any upgrades so there's still a little over £1m in the bank, I think the next thing the board will do is look towards turning professional given the youth recruitment and junior coaching are at their highest and the youth and training facilities are about adequate and average respectively. Again nothing of note in the transfers, just letting some deadwood go. Other - After a few years of saying they couldn't risk me being too good for the club the board have finally approved and sent me to get my Continental C Licence, I'm hoping to get them to send me for the B licence over the summer. Bingo Card - Thanks to the league win we're up to 11/100 Somewhat unrelated buy my U18 team haven't had a league invitation for a couple of years now, I'm assuming it'll just sort itself out but it's a pain having to arrange friendlies for all of my youth teams. Anyone had similar?

Make the most of it before you get promoted, you don't get the money awarded in the top division (at least not in fm23), so I was bringing in significantly less income in the Bundesliga than I was in the 2.Bundesliga with Wiener Sport-Club last year.

@DazRTaylor You're flying through the leagues! You look to have the firepower to be comfortable in League 1, good luck!

I'm fairly sure it goes from the 'nation trained at' part of the players profile, everyone coming through your club will count. The money isn't awarded in the A.Bundesliga though, or wasn't last year.

Season 7 2030/31 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities Competitions Vanarama National League South (Past Positions) - I was expecting it to be another tough season after last years relegation and it started abysmally, we were conceding almost twice as many goals as our xGA and couldn't put the ball in the net at the other end either. After a bad run of results and some tactical changes it started to come together and we ended up finishing in a respectable 9th place, something to build on next year. The Emirates FA Cup - The FA Cup has become a massive competition for us and has been a real money spinner over the years. We got some favourable draws and a massive result against a League 2 Crewe to make it into the third round again and we got what could be almost the perfect draw with an away game against Manchester City. Obviously that ended in a heavy defeat but it brought almost £1m into the club which we'll be sure to make good use of. The Isuzu FA Trophy - Knocked out in the third round by another Welsh club, Newport County. Squad - After last years end of season tantrum I released all the legacy players apart from one who'll be leaving in a month or two so that leaves the club entirely populated by youth products. maybe it's a little soon since our experienced guys are 21/22 years old but if not now when? Seems to have worked out this season and there has been loads of player development that I've just not seen in most players until this point. Ryan Astley (2025YP9) - Most goals, assists, Motm awards and highest average rating, there's nothing he can't do! He signed another long term contract early in the season so he'll be sticking around for a while to come. Youth Intake (Preview) - I forgot to grab a screenshot of the preview but it was very average. The actual intake wasn't like they have been but I'm going to say that's because the squad has got better so the 5* potential bar has been raised. Llion Davies (2031YP1) - Immediately our best left back and he came into the team for the last half dozen games of the season playing well and averaging over a 7.0. Transfers & Finance - Nothing to see with the transfers again, just players leaving of frees when it becomes apparent they'll never play a part for the first team. Massive boost to the bank balance this year thanks the the FA Cup run, were sat on over £1m now and looking to invest it back into the facilities when the board allow it. Other - Some other upgrades this season though, the Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment twice so they're now both at an 'exceptional' level, I think there's maybe one more until they're both maxed. Bingo Card - Thanks to Ryan Astley reaching 100 league goals I got a 10th square marked off.

I'm at a loss, we're creating chances but can't convert and at the other end we're letting in nearly twice the number of goals we should be. It's got to be a player quality thing right?

Season 6 2029/30 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances Competitions Vanarama National League - The less said the better, dead last and by some way too. We're just too soft, can't convert chances and may as well just be playing without a keeper. We conceded 35 more goals than the xG said we should and scored 22 less than we 'should' have too, I genuinely don't know what I'm meant to do about that. Anyway, back to the Vanarama South. Squad - Just very poor all round.. Got to a point that I knew the drop was inevitable so I dropped the legacy players in favour of youth to try and encourage some development, we still lost and I'm not sure anyone got better tbh. Youth Intake (Preview) - The only saving grace really, another good one but if no-one seems to develop there's not much to be done with them. Mike Cox-Davies (2030YP4) - Could probably do a job in some capacity, a good personality but massive holes in his attributes too. Transfers & Finance - We're profitable now, so I guess that's something. I'm releasing all the legacy players who's contracts are up over the summer, could be a terrible move but they're not setting the world on fire so I doubt they'll be missed and at least then the game time can go to someone who might actually make us better. Other - No upgrades and I'm frankly shocked I've still got a job after that stinker of a season. Going into next I'm hopeful we can just play some football and stabilize for a couple of seasons.... The media think we'll be the leagues run away losers though and are pricing us at 500-1 so we'll see what happens. An incredibly demotivating season.