deltablue

Yep, the Latvian league is new for this version.

Nicely done.

Great start to the season. I know club and country saves can be a lot to handle sometimes.

Price is still no Carl Hawkes

Hopefully Europe beckons.

Good going so far at Hartlepool.

Summer 2030 Well after a busy and exhausting week it was finally back to it for pre-season yesterday. After player departures we had almost 8kpw to spare (out of a total wage buget of 33kpw for context) and just a few squad gaps to fill and I knew I had plenty for a few good players at this level. That formulated the first part of our transfer strategy and thankfully we could still find what we needed with free agents, though getting such players of a sufficent standard is hard to come by. A new keeper was easy enough with Adams becoming our new first choice. The Croat defender Stojan wasn't an upgrade (with some weaknesses in mental attributes) but he's on a close enough level so he'll do. A midfielder was harder, especially as I was looking more for a defensive one, so I had to see if I could find a playmaker instead and did at least come across Lozano from El Salvador (who thankfully got a work permit), maybe the first player from that country I have ever had. That perhaps could (and should from a squad-cohesion perspective) been enough but we still had plenty to spare. We have tended to be a better defensive than attacking team so while we already had a full compliment of forwards, I got two more. It's like what I did at Cadbury Heath with getting in forwards each year until I finally had a few that worked, though the situation isn't as bad now. Hawkes is still a legend but he is almost much of an all-rounder when it comes to his roles while Shields demonstated the benefit of a specialist poacher last season. That was the logic for getting in Walker, slightly better and more experienced than Shields. McDonald was a surprising find as a free-agent, already better than Parr (now obsolete) and equal with Zandjak as a Target Man. Moran was brought in to try and help out with the troublesome left-back position as someone who doesn't look anything special but has decent attribute distribution and is still young. Finally I agreed to let the DoF loan Argentine winger Fischer from Leeds, a player with a decent amount of Premier League experience. I made a lot more of the wage budget than expected, even if I might have sacrificed the opportunity to have a more gelled squad in the process. The squad does look a bit better than last season and it needs to be as the board expect promotion! That actually matches what I want as well, though after all I've done for the club it means the board confidence (previously untouchable) has been reset so I am probably in real danger of being fired if we're not at least in the playoff places from early on! The financial situation did actually improve to the point that I would be more willing to stay and try again if we don't do it this season, but would I get the chance? This is definitely a club and a squad that has the potential to be promoted one more time if things just come together a little bit more so it would be a shame to leave without doing it. From a more selfish career prespective it would also make a massive difference to where I could move to afterwards. Adams Fischer Lozano McDonald Moran Stojan Walker

Well they were decent cup runs, mainly due to getting some higher division scalps so losing to relegation battlers in the Football League Trophy North final (thereby missing out on the actual final) was a shame. As for the league, it's a good result for a promoted team but we had promotion very much in our hands with just 4 games to go and a run-in where we could have gotten the points we needed. Still the occasional failure is just part of football and FM. I am still playing on and off, though I haven't touched it since I finished the season last weekend. The actual update was a little late as I had forgotten to take a couple of screenshots. Hopefully this weekend I can at least get through pre-season though I won't get far into the season for a few days.

May 2030 Arghhhhhhhhhh! I guess I should be delighted with 4th and a good cup run (claiming a handful of higher division scalps across all the cups) but promotion was within our grasp. Feb was a slightly disappointing month with a defeat to Wrexham in the Football League trophy and just 2 wins out 5 in the league, though all the other results being draws helped us keep in touch with 3rd. March started with a strong win at Kings Lynn Town which helped pull us closer before our unbeaten run ended against Crewe. Two last gasp wins against Weymouth and Doncaster followed, then a draw against Port Vale was enough to edge into the top 3! We extended the lead against Oxford City and I must admit that with a decent run-in I was imagining that we could finish the job and open up a lot of exciting possibilites for the next club but the rest of the season didn't go so well. Barnsley away was the trickiest game left and we only needed a point to hold on to 3rd for now. Unfortunately after getting close to a winner they hit us with a devastating late goal of their own. We easily beat Birmingham which meant being able to save ourselves a little for what should have been an easier game against Torquay that turned into a disaster. Defeat coupled with Wycombe not dropping points meant we didn't even take it to the last game. We at least beat bottom club Kidderminster though at the cost of injuries to both Hawkes and Parr leaving us without any spare forwards for the playoffs. In my experience your form going into the playoffs is everything and I knew it wouldn't go well this time. We were painfully second best in the first leg against Oxford City even before the defence suddenly crumbled. We were somewhat better in the second leg but not effective enough up front and they hit us with another goal to sum up how weakly we ended the season. They then beat Barnsley to secure a second consecutive promotion after taking the last playoff place. Could we have gone up? Yes. Did we deserve to over the course of the season? Probably not. It's also been a while since we were in a serious promotion race and failed and you can't win them all I guess. We only added a few hundred pounds a week to the wage bill with contact renewals which should hopefully leave us with a decent amount to work with to strenghen a little for next season. However I think it will finally be my last season at the club and it would be a shame if we weren't in the hunt again. Star Player: Shields' career was a slow burner for the early months but the former Villa youngster hit serious form to end up with a good haul of goals and a particularly good goals per game ratio. Not bad for a player who hadn't played any first team football before now. If he can keep it up next season than we should hopefully mount another promotion challenge. Squad Stats

Seems like a tight race to survive.

Invincible Eleven seem to be well named

I tried to look to see if you explained it in the OP but what does the 'Overall' rating mean?

Nice one.

Jan 2030 November was not a very good month. We had beaten Altrincham in the FA Cup but only got 2 points from 4 league games afterwards. The turning point came with a lucky win against Birmingham with Hawkes scoring the only goal at what the time was very much against the run of play. This is why he's so valuable to us. He gets lots of goals but since a lot of our games tend to be narrow and low-scoring affairs, whether he scores or not can often make a big difference. That win seemed to get us going as cup wins over Staines and Hartlepool (the latter being yet another League 1 scalp this season) was followed by three more league wins where both Hawkes and Sandjak scored. From dropping down the table in November we were now close to third. Just as a narrow win turned the tide in our favour, the opposite happened on Boxing Day. I was getting frustrated with our inability to finish off MK Dons (as we could have drawn level with York in 3rd with a win) only to lose late on. That was followed by a point in our next three league games and a heavy defeat in the cup. The only positive was coming back from being 2-0 down against York in the League Trophy to reach the north section final, a 2-legged affair against strugglng Wrexham that gives us a good chance of making the final proper. The pendulum swung back in our favour with a narrow win against Accrington Stanley, followed by a surprisingly easy win away to table-topping Oxford Utd (whose second goal only came at the end) and managing to come back from a disappointing start to beat Wrexham. Once again we had dropped down the table only to bounce pretty much right back to where we were at Christmas. This time it feels more like we're in a proper race for the playoffs at least though yet again a small blip could see us tumble down into mid-table.

That would be amazing but unfortunately I don't imagine being able to get anywhere near that. I doesn't help that the financial situation has been a long downward spiral. I always imagined this career as one where I would be regularly changing clubs as I rise through the leagues and it would probably take a couple more to reach the Premier League. As things stand I might stay another season on a potential 'promotion or leave' basis though I also find myself thinking about the potential clubs available. There are only a few who would seem like even a modest step up but they are there and Sheffield Utd look likely to come down.

That was a tricky group.

That didn't take long

Nice work in the CL.

It's nice to have such a comfortable gap to 3rd.

Good going so far.

Good luck getting out of trouble.

Oct 2029 So far so good-ish. We have actually been in or around the playoffs almost all season long but we haven't really played like it. Consistency has been in short supply for a lot of teams this season and we just happen to be marginally better than a lot of others. I am fully aware that unless we clearly improve we're not going to be anywhere near the playoffs later on which makes it hard to get excited about that potential battle. In general it's hard to feel motivated by this season at all as we're comfortably surviving and don't have the pressure of a promotion push for focus on. We'll have to see how things pan out later in the season to see if there is anything to aim for. At least we can say we've beaten higher division teams in all three cups. Championship Shrewsbury was first in the League Cup followed by League 1 Sheffield Wednesday and Altrincham in our only other cup matches so far. We have Staines at home next in the FA Cup which gives us a good chance of going through and facing the big boys. This could well be my last season at the club. It's hard to decide either way but it feels a lot like my last Cadbury Heath season where after 3 promotions a dull mid-table season (as it's been form-wise if not league position) seemed like a good point to move on, though I would have to stay in League 2 this time around rather than jump to another regional league and there might still be a tiny bit more potential in Grimsby left. Ipswich have been struggling for a few seasons in League 1 but usually find a way to save themselves late on. That leaves me in the unusual position of wanting to see them go down so they're eligible to go down I would still like to see this project through to the end (probably meaning winning the Premier League) and enjoy seeing how much more the leagues can get mixed up. Everton were championship regulars from early on and are now down in League 1 so they would be interesting at some point.

Summer 2029 It's been a while. I was going to stop updating this due to a lack of interest but there was also the fact that a mix of health issues and my dissertation meant that yesterday was my first proper FM session for a while. Running through the pre-season signings quickly... I was able to hit the expiring contract market quite a bit, starting with a couple of promising youngsters from Aston Villa. Brownhill is a potential first choice winger but had to wait a bit to get his chance while Shields is technically Hawkes' backup but with enough potential to be able to earn his own run in the team occasionally. With central midfield being a weak issue I also got the Chad international Lobo (probably the first player I've ever had from that country) along with Mirfin in defence. I wanted to upgrade the midfield further so brought in the Nigerian playmaker Jibrin as well as Elwell as a player who looked more or less equal to Lobo (though so far the latter has been first choice. As it happens I managed to hit the wage budget exactly, well £1pw over Signings

May 2029 Wow! My concerns about running out steam seemed to be coming true when we could only draw against bottom club FGR. We showed that we weren't done yet with a big win against Crawley though a defensive disaster against Cheltenham handed Jarrow the lead in the promotion race. The pendulum immediately swung back in our direction as we beat Staines and Jarrow lost while we retained the FA Trophy against Chester. After we beat Maidstone in the Conference League cup and Southend (who we would meet in the final, meaning we'd play them in all three cups this season) in the league, Easter weekend proved to be key with two games in 3 days. Things were chaotic against Leatherhead. We took the lead in the first minute then found ourselves 3-1 behind after 15! We made it 3-3 before going behind again and even when we made it 5-4 we weren't safe and they leveled it late on with one of the longest-range goals I had ever seen. Our chance to win seemed to have gone but Hawkes wasn't done yet and grabbed a stoppage time winner that allowed us to extend our lead over Jarrow, who had a rather more boring 0-0 draw. That appeared to be the break we needed as snatching another late winner against Burton 2 days later extended our lead further to 6 points with just two games left, giving us a foot in League 2. With the conference league cup final ahead we sat back and took it easy against Boston to secure the points we needed and even broke the 100-point barrier with a win against Chester on the final day which denied them a playoff place! As for Jarrow, they lost in the playoffs against Oxford City who then beat Maidstone to set up an Oxford derby next year in League 2. So a hectic 63-match season ended in promotion No. 7 (just 3 to go) and a non-league treble, even if promotion favourites Jarrow pushed us almost all the way in the league. It also proved that you don't need to sacrifice the cups for the league though I admit that unlike last season we got really lucky with injuries, with on-loan midfielder Ajah as the exception with a 3-month injury at the start (and also missing some of the climax at the African U20's championship). That meant that we always had fit players to step in even with such a hectic schedule. Hawkes returning to form was a big factor in the treble success though you don't have a season this good without everyone stepping up. Star player: Talk about a return to form! Hawkes follwed up his worst full season in the league with his first 30-goal league season (still narrowly missing out being on top scorer). He may just still be 21 but he already has 184 goals abd 54 assists in 296 appearances for the club. Squad Stats

This was a chaotic match for sure!