erik45

August 2032. What a way to start in a new division! How nervous can a start of the season be? Two red cards and a conceded penalty in the game against Basford is something I don't want to see again. In the first league game the team showed that we belong to this level as we trashed Ashington in front of 1,200 spectators. The last two games of the month were more even. Our strikers haven't found a consistent form yet, but I'm sure they'll do that once they get used to the higher-level games. Table. 1 win, two losses means we have three points. Stalybridge has started incredibly strong, but they do have the largest wage budget by a mile. If at the end of the season we would be 11th, I would be more than satisfied. Injury. Our best player is out for 1,5 months. He's done a good job at DLF role and I'm not sure who to put there in the 1st XI on his place. Finances. Even with just one home game we made some profit. That is a very positive signal. Soon we might offer more part-time contracts for the most important players. Upcoming fixtures. We have the two of the hardest tests so far this season as we face tycoon-owned Stalybridge Celtic in the league and Barrow AFC in the cup, who play in the league above us. I think we can challenge them both and the minimum expectation is that we get good gate receipt money from the cup game.

Season 2032/2033 preview. First season in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. The board wants us to attempt to avoid relegation, I'm aiming for mid-table. Media prediction. Media thinks in the same manner as our board: we are going to be in the relegation battle. Stalybridge, who got promoted with us, are heavy favourites for the win, once again. They have the highest wage budget (as they are tycoon owned) and I think they will be in the top 2-3 places. During the pre-season we lost one player from our starting XIs as Onyeka Chidi 29c decided to leave for Clitheroe who play two divisions below us. I don't understand why he did it as he was in the 1st XI for us and Clitheroe don't pay him more than we did. Pre-season friendlies. Harrogate was too strong for our 2nd XI, but the rest of the games were relatively easy wins. I'm always happy when we can win another "island team" as we beat Guernsey in our only away game. Youth product tracking. This is something I've done for the first time in Football Manager in this save. I follow all the players who came through our academy and collect data about how many games they've played for us and how many goals they've scored. Players in italics have left the team. Players with underline have left the team but we have re-signed them. Players with both have been re-signed but they've left again. These are all the players with 50 or more apps for the team in all competitions. 6 of these players still play in the team (but two of them are not in the 1st or 2nd XI anymore). After this season the list of players with 50+ apps is going to be much longer as we have 10 players from 2030 and 2031 youth intakes in your playing XIs. Upcoming fixtures. Some fresh air for the start of the season as we don't have FA Cup game as the season opener. We face Basford United who are predicted to be in the relegation fight with us. Then two mid-table sides before starting our cup journey.

First part-time contract. Phizacklea 28b got the honour of getting the first part-time contract in the history of FC Isle of Man! There were some offers for him during the summer so I decided to try if I can get him sign a part-time contract. As he was wanting a non-contract it was difficult to guess the right level of weekly payment. I think I overpaid a bit, but not much. 50-60 € p/w could've been possible. At the start of the new season we have three players on part-time contracts. At the end of the season we have about 15 players who have their youth contract ending so at that point we need to be ready to offer many more contracts. We have almost 1,2 m€ in the bank so we are in a good position to do that.

Lucky for me, he didn't accept any of the offers from other teams so he's staying with us with his old contract, which earns him 375 per game.

Season review, part 2. Before going to the new season, I wanted to show two important factors behind our promotion. We had good luck with both transfers and injuries. Yes, we lost two players from the 1st XI (Gibbons 30b and Spooner 29f) and couple of good rotation options, but the big picture is that our team was stronger at the end of the season compared to the beginning. We also got two players back to the team. We won't be trying to renew Price-Jordan 29g's loan, but Phizaklea 29b is very close of getting to the mezzala role in the first XI. The other reason is lack of injuries. None of the important players lost more than 2 weeks. In the screenshot below there are all the players who missed 2 weeks or more because of injuries. The list is very short and what is even better that we had only one player who was missing more than a month (Parral).

Thank you for asking, because I thought I couldn't, but I CAN! I haven't moved any further after the season review, so I thought things hadn't changed but... There are many teams circling around our players. As starting DLF Scott 27c got an offer from another club, I wanted to check if I could offer him a part-time contract because of your question. He was asking non-contract with 1,1k€/game appearance fee. I tried to offer him part-time contract and my last offer was 240€ p/w and 240 €/game appearance fee + bonuses, but he was not interested. We really can't lose him, hopefully those teams wanting him don't offer anything better. I checked and all the teams in the league above have at least some players with part-time time contracts, most teams having yearly wage budget of ~200-300k€/year. I think we should be able to afford close ~200k€/year, but I want to take things slowly.

Season review. Finally! We got promoted and we did in style! We scored so much!!! Stalybridge is on a different level with their tycoon budget, but I think we got deservedly promoted, although there was some luck involved (more about that later in this post). Players sorted by minutes. These were all the players who started at least one game this season. I think the top three were available for the games the first XI played, that level of fitness and consistency will be needed in the next division. I might need to re-think our defence as we conceded 70 goals in the league and our CBs got quite low average ratings throughout the season. Players sorted by goals. Strikers delivered very evenly this season! Reddy and Walcott 31k were on fire most of the season and Scott 27c & Dugdale 31c backed them up really well. The players from 31 intake are on youth contracts, so I definitely get to keep them at least for another year, hopefully Reddy and Scott 27c want to stay as well. The surprise name on the list is Jamie Doyle, who got a new role for this season - and made it his own! 9G+15A in the league, 11G+15A in total. Those are numbers I've been expecting from CM(a) but he's the first to deliver. Dugdale 31c also needs his own mention. Look at these rookie year numbers?! The reason for our promotion can be found from the screenshot below. Our attackers were so active and efficient that they made the promotion possible. Season end When looking at the Tracking. As one can see, this was our best season when it came to final position (and promotion). But if we look at the xGD or xPts, we've had multiple seasons better than this. I said earlier that we need some luck to get promoted and this season it happened through our attack being very, very, very efficient. Hopefully we can keep that up, but probably not gonna happen. Contract extension. Promotion means +1, yee-haw!

Playoff final. WE DID IT?!?!?!! We took an early 2-0 lead and hoped for the best after that. Trafford kept coming and coming, shooting whopping 28 times! We didn't budge until the 91st minute when they got their first good change: open goal from 2 meters. But it wasn't enough, WE GOT PROMOTED!!! Seventh time is the charm, right?? And we did it playing the 2nd XI in the final! I think it was destiny as McMahon, who's been so unhappy with his playing time, scored the penalty. That told me that anything is possible. I'm just so happy and relieved that we actually made it through the playoffs!

Playoff semi final. What???? 3-0?! Let's gooo!!!! We were so good, maybe not 3-0 good, but still the only side that deserved to go through. All the three strikers scored and our defence left opponent shooting from poor positions, I'm so happy with this! Playoff final. Away from home, just three days after the semis... this is going to be tough. I am going to make a bold decision and start our 2nd XI. This is a mid-week game so it's their turn! I think Trafford won't change that many players in the starting line-up so we have the fitness advantage if we use 2nd XI. It is a high risk tactic, but I want to do it. The previous games have been very even against Trafford. The only worry is that we played against them just a few weeks ago and lost 3-1. But that's not the whole truth as the game was really, really, really even. Just look at the numbers:

April 2032. Two clear wins, two almost-as-clear losses. Trafford had the chance to overtake us if we failed to collect more points than them. Did we fail? Final league table. Yes... but we still got the home advantage! But only for the semifinal, so if we progress we need to play away from home and the final is just three days after the semis! Also, please take a look of our goals for column! 113 goals, that's new league record Semi-final opponent. Atherton have been in solid form, winning 6 out of last 8 games, losing only once. They have been a very very difficult opponent for us, we've beaten them only once. But on the flipside, the only win came this season, just a few months ago when we demolished them 6-3! Expectations. Both the board and the fans think we are going to lose the game... I think we are slight favourites, but we really need to find the game balance after losing the last two games of the regular season.

March 2032. We are scoring SO much! 22 goals in six games is something I can't remember doing earlier in the save. On top of that, we are winning everything we can (Nantwich was just too much, they were the better side). And both our 1st and 2nd XI are doing their job. Table. Even with our form, we are definitely not running away from our competitors. We have almost guaranteed our place in the playoffs, but we want to do better than previously and get the home advantage. Transfer out. Losing our 5-star PA goalie just before the most important games of the season is...not optimal Spooner 29f went up one step in the league pyramid and still is the first choice keeper for them. That tells something about his current level. The new #1 is Parillon 30e. A year younger than our previous #1. Parillon 30e has a bit over 20 starts with the first team, so he's not a total rookie. He has really big shoes to fill - and he needs to fill them fast - but I think he's quite decent option at this point. U18 champions. This is the third time our U18s won the league, this time they did it 5 games before the end. Upcoming fixtures. Oh dear... I'm feeling nervous. Not because the fixture list, but because this is the end of the season and probably our position in the table will be decided in the game against Trafford (who are currently 3rd). The first two should be relatively easy, but then... let's see

Youth intake 2032. Oh my days, this is an amazing intake! Both high PA & CA players! Four players who have 2,5 or better CA If there's something negative to be said, it is that two of those players have a challenging position: ML (we don't use) and RB (we already have two exciting talents). Players. All the English players are from the island. Once again, we have some Swedes in the intake. Is there some reason for it? Viking connection? My favourites are Adigun 32a, Mardic 32d and Alie 32p (yes, the one with the worst star rating). Their and other high potential players' player profiles can be found below. Intake tracking. Once again, a lot of high potential players AND even more players with a decent starting CA. Stats-wise this is a good intake, but not the best. What impresses me is the small number of negative personalities, that's a good sign for the future!

March 2032. Oof, this is a bit of a blow. We are playing in the same way as earlier, but we don't have the luck we had. Table. Our blip in form means we didn't gain any advantage in the promotion battle. It is very close and teams in positions 2nd to 8th are all very close to each other. I know I'm a bit too optimistic at this point, but I really want us to get to the 2nd place so we could have home advantage in both semis and in the playoff final. But first we need to secure playoff spot Upcoming fixtures. I was too eager to play and took the screenshot of the fixtures (and the table) after the first round of March. Target man hat trick, I love it! Nantwich Town is going the be THE challenge of the month. The 2nd XI will get their chance in the mid-week games. Also, it is youth intake time!

January 2032. The league leaders were too strong for us, but it didn't stop us from continuing our strong form in other games. I love how the team bounced back after the loss by scoring six goals against Atherton who are in promotion battle with us. I forgot to take screenshot of the table, but at this point we are third in the league table, Stalybridge being 1st and Trafford 2nd. Transfer out. Gibbons 30b is from the last intake who didn't get youth contracts so he was free to leave whenever. Cannon Woods started from the level 10, but they got bought by a tycoon in 2025 and are now a top half side in Vanarama South. Gibbons 30b was available for a loan but he decided to join Whitehawk who play in the Isthmian Premier (can't blame him). He was our best CB, let's see how our team can cope. Upcoming fixtures. I forgot to screenshot at the turn of the month, so a bit different view this time. Staveley Miners Welfare has been a tricky opponent for us and they are playing well at the moment. Rest of the teams should be winnable.

December 2031. Yeeeeees, what a month - again!!! 15 games undefeated in the league! We are playing so well! We are not dominating the game, but we are scoring so efficiently that the opponents can't match that. Kian Reddy has found his form after a minor injury. He's been here from the beginning and even if he's not the most consistent player, he surely is a deadly striker. Table. Our amazing form means we are in the playoff zone! Stalybridge looks too strong this season (and they are, their wage budget is 1< m€), but we are just one point away from home advantage. Youth intake preview. Not too many A grades, but three players for ST, CM and CB positions is something to wait for! Also, it is supposed to be a 5-star intake, let's hope it will be! Upcoming fixtures. Most exciting game of the month is going to be against Stalybridge. They are absolutely flying in the league. They are both the best and the luckiest team in the league as they have best xPts and their are outperforming it the most.

November 2031. Undefeated month! Two trashings and then three dull 1-1 games. I'm happy with everything but the Avro game. They are so bad, but we just couldn't score until the 83th minute when they were playing with 10 men. As Kian Reddy was injured for good part of the month, Walcott took his role - and was even better than our all-time leading goalscorer! Table. Many draws meant we couldn't get higher in the table. I really want to get to the promotion battle AND get a home advantage, but we still have 7-point gap between 3rd place and us. Job interview. I haven't had these in a while. Exeter are doing quite well by playing in the Championship. But I'm dedicated to FC Isle of Man, so I say no to this possibility. New contract. 2 + 1 (activated if promoted). Same amount of money, but I'm all about the commitment Media. This is the first time I see one of our own youth products is considered for an international team. Jatta 28n plays on the third level of Swedish footballing pyramid. He has some U21 games for Sweden, but he's eligible also for The Gambia and England. I kind a hope he chooses the Gambia as I see it as the most realistic team to get some minutes. Upcoming fixtures. Difficult start for the month as we face Nantwich. If we want to be in the promotion contention, we need to be able to handle these kind of games. The 2nd XI will get some minutes against Barnoldswick. I think I start to get some friendly games for the 2nd XI to keep them fit.

October 2031. Out of all the cups, but we are playing better and better in the league! We gained 13 out of 15 possible points, that's really good! I'm especially happy about our target men (Dugdale 31c, Walcott 31k & Broe 31d) who all got in the score sheets this month. I was worried that after Robert Jones retired we would not have any good target men, but seems like my worries were not justified. I can't remember the last time I've had such young TMs playing so well! Table. We shoot right up in the table, but there's still some gap between us and the teams in playoffs. For some reason, I've had very good feeling about this season - and now the results match my feelings Transfer in. Phizacklea 29b sounds like a Greek-ish name to me, but I just learnt it's an old Anglo-Saxon last name. As he's born here in Isle of Man we were able to re-sign him. He will become part of the 2nd XI sooner or later. I was particularly happy with this signing as we took him away from our direct competitor, Nantwich Town. Finances. I added this here as it's the first time we have surpassed the 1m€ line! Upcoming fixtures. Only league games left, and all on Saturdays. First XI will play in all of them, I think we have a chance of being at least almost as good as this month.

September 2031. Solid in the FA Trophy, but not in the league. It was our 2nd XI taking care of the cup games, maybe they need to get more game time (although they were the ones losing to Buxton)? Table. Not where we want to be... we are already 11 points behind the top two Upcoming fixtures. Busy month, both XIs will get plenty of playing time! This shouldn't be the most difficult month even if we meet the league leaders Silsden.

August 2031. Amazing start in the cup, but then... We should've won against West Auckland, but we just didn't find the net. We were the better team in both games. On top of that, tycoon owned Stalybridge demolished us and our 2nd XI could only get a draw at home against Mickleover. Not the best start to the season, only way is up? Ex-player. One of our first players to play in Vanarama North just transferred to Ipswich Town who play their 2nd season in the Premier League! Morris 27g is in their U21 team and he has quite nice valuation (and it has gone up in few weeks to 4,1-6€m!). We didn't get anything from his move from Gateshead to Ipswich as it was a free transfer. Maybe next time we will get some solidarity payments. Upcoming fixtures. Some fixtures got moved because of cups and it meant we didn't have any game during the last weekend of August. I arranged a friendly to keep our fitness levels and hopefully a win against a weaker opposition will do wonders to club atmosphere.

Yeah, there really aren't any good options in the market - and that's been the case after the first season. We've recruited couple of free agents to be rotational players, but hadn't had any proper options that would strengthen the first XI. I think Louis Parral has been closest to that and we signed him on 2024 And I know that the real risk with going pro is youth contracts. I would try to take the risk if I have the feeling that we can either a) get promoted every year from here onwards or b) get bigger teams to buy our players with high sell-on clauses. Preferably we would need both options to happen

Season preview. Our progress has stalled quite badly in the last couple of seasons, but optimism is still there! We are financially stronger than ever and contract situation of the players is much better than previously. Now we shouldn't lose our players before their 18th birthday! Some of the "older" players haven't been willing to change their non-contract to a youth contract, so there are still some young players we are in danger of losing. In our first XI, only 2 of the 11 players have a youth contract, so 9 can leave when they want to. It seems like that if the player is asking for a non-contract with appearance fee of 50 € or more, they do not accept the counter offer of giving a youth contract. League preview. We have the same odds and predicted position as last year. Those were a bit better before we lost two first team players, but at least we are not worse than last year. We have new oppositions to face as Belper Town and Coventry United were moved to this division. Belper Town might be a really difficult opponent as they gathered more than 90 points last season in Div 1 East and lost the title by 2 points. All the promoted and relegated sides we have faced before. Media considers our best player to be our starting GK Spooner 29f, which I agree. They consider our back-up GK Parillon 30e to be the hot prospect, but I think we have more interesting options for a breakthrough star. It is so stupid that the league's season preview shows projected line-up as 5-2-3 even though the preview page recognises the preferred formation being 4-3-3 narrow... I think this is because I chose 5-2-3 as my manager's preferred formation, but I haven't used it at all after that. Tactic and starting eleven. I made some changes to the system. As I'm lazy and I let the assistant to take control of the friendlies, I don't know how well the changes are working. In an ideal world this system would work as 4-3-3 defensively and something close to a 3-4-3 when we have the possession. I also want us to press little higher. It's a risky tactic but it will hopefully make me and the players feel more alive. Comparing to the last seasons 1st XI, we have three new names in the sheet. We lost our starting DLP in the summer, so I moved McCaffrey from CM to DLP. Doyle was previously in the role of Carrilero, but as I opted for Mezzala, I put Doyle in the CM position. As Mezzala, I chose Adams 30c. The other two new players are in the attack. Robert Jones retired and Lonsdale 28b left the team (), so I have Walcott 31k as Target Man and Magiola 28l as DLF. If they perform, they get to keep their positions, but there are multiple options right behind them in the pecking order. I'm still hoping to get a proper quick striker. Then I would move Scott 27c to DLF, which suites him a bit better. The 2nd XI is all about the potential. There are three players who are 20 or older, rest of the players are 17 or younger! Reputation. Our reputation is still obscure and I don't think that will change until we get promoted. Reputation-wise we are considered a bottom half team, but our home attendances tells us we are one of the bigger sides in the league. Transfers. We didn't have any transfers in, but quite many out. Almost all of them could have had a role in the team in the near future, so I'm not happy losing them. But the only major losses are transfers of Young 29e and Lonsdale 28b who both were starting players in the 1st XI. Neither of them got any better contract and now they both are considered as fringe players in their new teams, but at least they get to represent a team that plays in a higher division. Pre-season friendlies. Very good, very nice! Only loss against a League 1 side , we scored a lot of goals and conceded 12 in 8 games . The wins against Guernsey (1 level above us) and Halifax (3 levels above us) were the highlights of July as well as Ethan Walcott 31k's scoring record (9 goals in 7 games). Upcoming fixtures. First competitive game is in the FA Cup against Pickering Town, who are a mid-table side from the league below us. We should be clear favourites for the game. After that we face two tycoon-owned sides away from home, no points expected there. From the home games we need wins and it is possible to get them, but we need to be at our best as games against Mickleover and Leek Town have been really evenly contested.

Season 2030/2031 review, part 2. I continue the season review by adding some random screenshots that feel significant to me. Legend retiring. Robert Jones, who's been the target man for our team, decided to retire as 35-old club legend. He's been one of our most consistent performers throughout this save. In the end he was only a 1,5-star player, but he almost always played very close to his best capabilities. We have one or two options to take his place, but I felt that in Football Manager my target forwards are usually a bit older players, who have good mentality (and of course at least okay stats for TM role). I don't know if it just me but I feel young target men just can't play well in their natural role. Maybe it is about not being able to be consistent, maybe about their lack of physicality. Next season we will have a young target man, whether I want it or not Transfers. We had two players coming in this season. Monsterratian Lee Dyer was a good 2nd XI centre back and I hope he stays in the team as there are some contract offers from other teams on his table. When I signed O'Reilly 27i on loan to us I did just because I could. I didn't see him having a major role in the team. Three months later he was the only proper left back in the team and ended up playing almost 30 games. As Hyde United set him for release at the end of the season, I decided it was time to get him back to the club permanently. Professional status. I tried to ask us to go professional, but the board didn't agree with the need. No problem. But I thought the reason of rejection was so funny: "People love to root for the underdog." That is an excellent way of saying that they don't want to take this financial risk.

Season 2030/2031 review. I'm not going to do a deep dive, but I picked some stats that I find interesting. League progress. This might be our worst season in the Northern Premier League Division 1 West so far. Yes, we were better than media prediction or board expectations, but that's not interesting for me. For me the interesting thing is comparison between seasons. For me, it looks like we are not making progress in the league. Yes, we have a lot of high potential young players, but it doesn't benefit us if they don't develop and stay with us. I think now we are in a better position as I changed how we handle contract negotiations during youth intakes. All the players got youth contract until end of 2032/2033 season, so I think that will benefit us a little next season and a lot season after that. Player stats. Lonsdale 28b was our best player. There are two players with higher average rating, but Lonsdale 28b was the most consistent player of the season. He is playing as DLF (su) and he's numbers suggest he gets 0.82 goal contributions/90 mins, which is good for a 19-old player. As I'm looking at these numbers, I'm actually quite satisfied with them. No-one has elite numbers in the attack, and only disappointment is McCaffrey, who I think should do better in CM (At) role. I might try to use him in a more defensive role and put someone else as the attacking player of the midfield three. There are couple of younger players, who could be good in a box-crashing midfielder role. Tactics. I use the same 4-3-3 format, but I have made quite a bit of changes in the roles and team instructions. I've tried to simplify things, but I feel things are quite the same in the end. What we need to do is get better defensively as we conceded over 70 goals in the league. If we can keep scoring 80+ goals a season, but concede 50 goals or less, we would be in a good position. Maybe I can get one of the midfielders to help out more without losing our attacking threat? I think the biggest challenges are: we are letting opposition to shoot too much and some of our defenders are losing too many aerial challenges. As I would like to keep the 4-3-3 system we maybe need to change the roles of the players to make the difference. Maybe less symmetry so we can have three "defensive defenders" and one with more attacking freedom - and having one of the midfield three in a wider role? Or maybe we need to win the ball higher up the pitch which means more pressing with the forward line?

April 2031. This month describes our whole season very well. No consistency, too many goals conceded, but also surprising wins! The good form from March didn't continue, but that was somewhat expected as the oppositions this month were much tougher. I was happy to end the season on a positive note against Trafford. The win meant we overtake them (and Hanley Town) in the last round. Table. As said, we leaped over two teams in the last round and that meant we finished on the top-half of the table. The board had expected us to avoid relegation, so we did much better than that. I felt we could be able to be in the playoff fight, but we didn't have any consistency. This was the first season that two teams got over 90 points - and they went all the way to gain more than 100 points! I really hope Stalybridge get promoted as they have massive financial advantage (tycoon owner). xG table. We got the points our xPts suggested we should get. As we don't have too many solid players for this level (we have 6 players who are regarded as "good" players for this level) and our tactics haven't been excellent, we need a little luck if we want to get promoted. This season the xPts was positive for teams that were already doing well, maybe we can say they "deserved it" as they were playing well. Objective. Board is delighted that we got a top-half finish, but it's a bit sad that they're expectations have gone down for the last two seasons. Finances. Next season we will have more than 1m€ in the bank! I'm saving it so we can turn pro. It is a high risk, high reward strategy - and there's no guarantee the board wants us to turn pro - but it is the most interesting strategy for me. Transfer clause. We have first clause we can sell! 35k is nothing for us at the moment, so we will keep the clause. Bury just won the Vanarama North and Fagan played in 15 league games, so I think he's value will just go up. The only negative thing is that he's no longer getting called up for Ireland's U19s, but he's only 17 so no need to get worried (yet).

March 2031. We won four games, what is this?? Against Runcorn - who are going to get relegated - we couldn't get anything done until they had a player sent off, after that it was a smooth sailing. Clitheroe and Leek Town losses meant that our slim hopes of getting to 5th place were practically demolished. I don't know if that helped the team relax or that we got our best GK back from injury, but the latter part of the month was really good! Table. Five games left, 9 points to the last playoff spot (and 5 teams between us and the 5th). We are not going to make it to the playoffs, but we can get as high as 6th if the good form continues. Upcoming fixtures. The last month of the season is full of tough opponents. 5th, 7th, 1st, 3rd and 9th - that's some tricky run. In a way I'm happy that we are not fighting for the promotion anymore because these matches will get me nervous anyway