deltablue

It really is going down to the wire! January saw a mild swing in our favour as Jarrow started to drop a few points meaning that even winning their games in hand would leave us in front. At the same time we got by in the cups by trying to strike a balance between still winning and expending the least energy. As you can see that backfired a couple of time as if we had tried harder we might have avoided the Harrogate replay and penalties against Macclesfield. Whoops! In February it was our turn to stumble. We had coped very well with fixture congestion earlier in the season but hopefully we weren't starting to run out of steam. The big disaster came against Jarrow at home. I thought we could turn that to our advantage to at least maintain our lead over them but we proved to be just as bad as earlier in the season to fall to back to back league defeats. We at least bounced back against Morecambe (having gone behind) but there's no margin for error now!

Dec 2028 December started off with a bit of a wobble. A draw at Chester wasn't too bad in isolation as it was a tricky game but drawing a blank at home to Leatherhead was less acceptable. That also meant that Jarrow returned to top spot even without having played their game in hand. We easily won our only cup match of the month against Exeter City before losing in another tough trip to Stevenage. Thankfully we were able to bounce back with 4 wins in a row to retake top spot, though they have a game in hand again (they played the one they had before). While we have a trip to Yeovil just two days after Barnet, they're not playing in the league at all right now because aside from us both being in the FA Trophy, they're also still in the FA Cup and are taking Championship Shrewsbury to a replay. This could be brilliant for us as we can extend the lead before they play again and they'll have multiple games to catch up on, perhaps more depending on their FA Trophy run. If we beat Yeovil we will actually match our total points from a couple of seasons ago already. Off the pitch there was more good news. When I was renewing contracts I noticed that a lot of players were willing to take small pay cuts, knocking the wage bill down from around 25kpw (which is still in the bottom half for the league) to 22kpw and below the budget even before the two 6-month loans end soon. Not only that but Hawkes is now signed on again! I was resigned to losing him but having dropped his demands a bit from the start of the season (over 5kpw), a £1m release clause allowed him to drop them still further from 3kpw to the max 1.7kpw I could offer! That all means that it looks like it would be worth staying on longer even if we don't go up.

Nov 2028 October didn't start well. Oh sure, we easily beat Morecambe (who were fighting to return to the Football League) but then could only draw against Harrogate. That meant we remained 4 points adrift of Jarrow ahead of having to face them away. As you can see from the score it went badly. They had played (and drawn) in midweek as well (as our prospective opponents had a cup replay) which meant that while we had a game in hand, an 8 point gap really didn't look good at all. However things improved from there as we have won 7 league games in a row since then. That actually gives us a 3 point lead though Jarrow are now the ones with a game in hand and while other teams are still fairly close, it looks like it's going to be a tough battle for top spot between the two of us. The cups seem even more like something to be endured this year, not helped by having only drawn teams in our division or above so far this year (and Southend twice as they're our next Conference League Cup opponents as well!) It is not my thing to deliberately try and lose these games or change the team (though a few players were rested against Chester) even in seasons like this where the league is the main focus and there is still some value in getting keeping up morale and momentum with cup wins as well though it did create the odd situation in the first FA Trophy game with Southend where I was almost hoping they'd score each time they attacked. We seem to be coping fine with all the games for now anyway.

Sept 2028 Well it's fair to say that I didn't expect to make such a strong start to the season. It's just a shame that a few other teams have as well and it would just be typical if Jarrow (who were third last time with over 100 goals scored) ended up being one of those teams who just run away with it at the top. Hawkes had a particularly amazing start, with a hat-trick in the first two games giving him half of his total last season for the league already. After being the only team to win the first 4 games, we stumbled at home to struggling Barnet then and otherwise excellent defence had an off-day against Woking. That left us chasing top spot and another draw and defeat in September leaves us trailing Jarrow by quite a bit already. We at least beat them in the Conference League Cup and they have lost a couple of times in the league so we'll see how things develop.

Summer 2028 This was a more productive summer than expected. The initial budgets dropped the wage budget from 26kpw (which we were using all of) to 22kpw, though increasing expectations to 'promotion' meant being ablee to roughly split the difference. That still meant having very little even after the departing players left at the end of their contracts and the focus was on having to fill the gaps in the squad, this despite forgetting to renew staff contracts at the end of last season so a whole new staff team had to be assembled from scratch. The defence was where we were short, so after Palmer was signed to strenghten us a little, it made sense to go for someone on lower wages, even if they'd just be a back-up, to leave more room for a third signing, hence accepting the new DoF's Bright deal. Although most of our central defenders could play on the right, we needed another specialist full back to go up to having two players for each position (and a lot of versatility) and while a left-back was prefered (due to Gudgeon being right-footed),the only good one available as a free agent was out of our wage range so we had to make do with Harrington on the right. That seemed to be it, especially as we were now peeking over the wage budget, but the DoF meant that the transfers screen had to be screenshoted twice more thanks to a couple of late loanis (for 6 months each). This is why you let the DoF look for players even if you have to veto the vast majority of deals. Ajah looked like an excellent central midfielder, while Stevenson took a lot more thought about accepting but in the end it was a case of 'why not?' by a whisker. As mentioned above, 5 new players (even if two were loans for just half a season or so) was more than seemed realistic with a squeezed wage budget, even if making sure we had a big enough squad meant that we weren't really any better on paper than last season. The focus is obvious as it has to be promotion. Another wage budget squeeze (without obvious 'excess' players to release) will be hard to deal with if we don't. We are also set to lose Hawkes, who was actually set to be sold this year if here had been any interest as he wants far to much to renew his contract and it seemed better to try and get a potentially valuable fee for him, though that didn't work out. That's why it fells like a case of going all in. Given the good form in the second half of last season we should be strong challengers, especially with a mostly consistent squad. We should also avoid the same problems we had with injuries during hectic runs of fixtures. Signings Ajah Bright Harrington Palmer Stevenson

Apr 2028 My concerns about a wobble at the end of the last league update seemed to be born out at the start of March. We had consecutive home games against Dunstable and Hanworth Villa which should have been a comfortable 6 points but we had to rescue a draw in the first game and only narrowly won the other. Then we lost our unbeaten record in an admittedly tricky trip to Kettering which seemed to revitalise us for the rest of the month as we won our remaining games (mostly) comfortably. However by this point all the injuries and the hectic schedule was taking its toll, to the point of even having to make use of a couple of central defenders who were 'competent' in midfield among formation changes and having to play players who otherwise would have been subbed or rested. We lost a '6-pointer' to Southend with the only shot on target of a poor match then fell by a narrow margin to Maidstone. When we beat Woking we went up to 4th but after 2 defeats we were back to 6th and 3 points adrift with 2 games to go, however we had finally gotten a couple of weeks without a midweek game which gave us the change to rest and most of our injured players to return. A win over Dudley Sports and a defeat for Southend set up a final day where we were level on points but they had a goal difference advantage of 4 and more goals scored. We were very excited when Parr gave us the lead in a tough final day at Bradford but it was crushing when they equalised with around 15 minutes left, after we had missed a few chances to extend the lead. We still had enough time to really go for it but couldn't quite get the winner as Southend drew 0-0 to pip us to the playoffs. Given the season we'd had it was probably for the best that the players didn't have even more to deal with. This was a season of two halves. We were mediocre before January but really came to life after that, even if it wasn't quite enough. That Southend defeat was costly but there was also the acceptance that we relied on a lot of late goals along the way and had a big deficit to overcome so it still felt great to get so close to the playoffs in the end, especially with a dramatic last day to enjoy and being 12 points better off than last season. There was also our cup expoits, reaching the 4th round of the FA Cup and going all the way in the FA Trophy. Next season the target has to be promotion, though we'll have a smaller squad and very little for new signings (though that stablity might work in our favour). Star Player: Our Algerian forward Sandjak was our top scorer, got into double figures for assists and ended up as the division's player of the season. Hawkes who? Squad Stats

FA Trophy Final The most interesting thing about this match happened in the league match before. Hawkes went off injured and was replaced by Parr. Then Parr went off injured and was replaced by Dunlop to play as a defensive midfielder. He then went off injured as well and all would be out for at least a couple of weeks. The fact that the match came at the end of a particularly hectic run of league games kind of dulled the sense of occasion unfortunately. The match itself wasn't anything special apart from the goals. Turner gave us an early lead but while we sat pretty comfortably for the rest of the half, we failed to really take the game to them. That wasn't helped by yet another forward going off, Sandford this time. Since we lost Stevens before that league match and Turner after this, we're running very low on attacking players! A soft defence allowed them to equalise early in the second half, but later on in the game we started to hit our stride again. We couldn't stop the game from going into extra-time but Sandjak (who is actually our top scorer for the season ahead of Hawkes) slotted home nicely just before the halfway point to give us a deserved triumph. Oh and here is the league table at this point... Our league form has been a bit hit and miss but we've done enough to still be in contention with six games left, being 3 points behind with the FA Trophy final restoring a game in hand. We still have a busy schedule ahead, packing the remaining games into the next month or so to the point that we actually play our last match a couple of days after what should have been the final weekend! However the way things are going we have a decent chance of sneaking 5th at least. You have to admit that it's quite a turnaround from the end of December when we were 12th, 17 points adrift with just 2 games in hand at most over any of the teams above us. The playoffs really seemed out of reach back then so it's nice that as well as our cup win, we still have that to play for as we enter the climax of the season.

Things continue to move in a positive direction as Boxing day remains our last league defeat (with Leeds being our only defeat in any competition since) and the last time we went multiple league games without a win. The Yeovil win was played before the real-life hiatus so the effective return was with the Harrogate Town win. More on them later. We had to work hard to maintain our aforementioned records as we got a last gasp equaliser away to Boston, with the same happening in what should have been an easier game at Staines. We only just kept up the 'not going multiple games without a win' thing aganist Barnet as well. However they all count, and that leaves us with a chance of making the playoffs after all if we keep it up, being 7 points adrift with 2 games in hand. The FA Trophy gave us something else to play for. We had a seemingly tricky tie against Boston but got into a comfortable 2-0 lead in the home leg. When they got a goal back it seemed like the tie was in the balance but we pulled off a surprisingly comfortable 2-0 win in the away leg as well. With the league game later in the month, that meant that we ended up beating them 3 times in the same month! That sets up a final against Harrogate Town, a first trip to Wembley of the career. That gives us a good chance of claiming perhaps the biggest trophy of the career so far.

Yep, it's been a really positive turn. Sorry for the gap, other things (including other games) are competing for my attention right now. Even the update below is coming a few days after the actual session it relates to.

I don't know how far the old thread has been lost in the mists of time but maybe it's time for a new one. It's not worth reviving my own thread but I have been hitting FM a little harder over the past couple of weeks, my best playing spell in years. I thought this thread was a good way to avoid clogging up the GD thread with anything I wanted to update about. It is almost time to leave Schalke at last, having joined in November 2018 according to my career thread posts! I'm glad i kept on going trying to really hit the heights with this team, being rewarded not just with a 2nd CL title after 7 years but a 3rd the following season. That previous triumph pretty much made me decided to leave two seasons after that and I'm currently in the middle of that last season, my 16th in Germany. Unfortunately having won a bunch of doubles I'm not going to go out with another with a second early exit from the cup in a row, but that's not the biggest of blows. Even if we don't win a 3rd European title in a row (which I don't expect us to) we're utterly storming the league... That sole defeat (to Koln) is one of the only blips this season, aside from a European Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid and the early cup exit. We already had an 'invincibles' season (getting a record 92 points out of 102) and even if we don't win anything else, crushing the league in spectacular fashion with 10 titles in the bag already would be a nice way to bow out. This year would make it 7 in a row and 10 in 11 seasons. Deliberately not making any signings in the summer (aside from a continuing project from earlier in the save to fund a Danish team with a £5M signing each window) no doubt has helped alot after a less dominant season last time out (which Bayern thankfully couldn't take advantage of). Our run to European glory last season is worth telling, because it was absolutely crazy. After being 2nd in the group we faced Betis in the last 16 and found ourselves 2-0 down at home, turning it around to win 6-2. In the second leg we held firm for a while but then came back to the point we were just a single goal away from going out on away goals. The quarter-finals against Feyenoord got off to as comfortable a start as I expected with 2 early home goals though a 3-2 win was narrower than I'd have liked. In the away leg we actually bagged 3 goals but again had to cling on at the end, this time only going through on away goals. The semi-final was against a PSV team who had caused us trouble in the past. They had been the last team to beat us at home until that January (Dusseldorf of all teams being the first and so far only team to beat us in our current stadium after 4 1/2 years) and won 7-4 the last time we played. We lost the away leg 2-0 and were still at 0-0 after 70 minutes at home, despite a disallowed goal and a missed penalty. 2 quick goals managed to give us extra-time where we scored 3 more times. The final against Valencia was also heading for extra-time (and we were a man down after a red card) before an 89th minute goal gave us the lead, and we even had time for another in stoppage time. It may have not been the most convincing winning Champions League campaign ever, but it was a heck of a wild ride!

The forum gremlins claimed the old thread so I thought I would put up a replacement. General discuss away!