tobiahabramson

They are a team-owned club, but league stats do have their finances listed as "rich" and the are spending $22.5m a year on salary, compared to the 2nd highest team in League One Bristol spending $15m

Macclesfield Town FC Sky Bet League Two Season 12 2036-37 Results League: Champions - 1st place FA Cup First Round: Win 3-1 v. Harrogate (National League) Second Round: Win 3-1 v. Mansfield (League One) Third Round: Win 4-1 v. Swansea City (Championship) Fourth Round: Loss 1-5 v. Bournemouth (Premier League) Carabao Cup First Round: Loss 1-2 v. Cardiff (Championship) Bristol St. Motors Trophy Northern Section Group Stage: Win 2-2p v. Wrexham (League One), Loss 0-0p v. Carlisle (League Two), Win 4-3 v. Derby U21s Second Round: Win 4-0 v. Walsall (League Two) Third Round: Win 1-1p v. Morecamb (League Two) Quarter Final: Win 0-0p v. Newport County (League Two) Semi Final: Win 1-0 v. Manchester United U21s Finals: Loss 3-3p v. Chesterfield (League One) I wish all seasons could go like this! My first and last season in League Two was a great success. Our regular beating of League Two and League One sides in cup games the past few seasons gave us an inkling that we would do well with the step up, and we did not disappoint. We did have a rough first month, including a game where we conceded 4 penalties in the first half, but eventually found our footing. We hit first place by New Years and stayed in first the rest of the season, in what turned out to be a fairly tight table with 3rd-9th places only separated by 6 points. We ended the season going 27-8-11 with 89 points, clinching the title with 3 games left in the season. We haven't drastically changed our tactic and have had minimum turnover through the past few years - with our finances allowing us to reject high offers for players and pay our stars respectable wages. We had our highest offer yet for our star Diego Mustoe from Oxford United that really really tempted me - but he had no interest in joining them anyways and he is a key cog in our machine and success. Big Offer In the Cups we also did fairly well in the FA Cup, fairly easily beating League 1 Mansfield and Championship Swansea, and getting to the 4th round before an away loss to Bournemouth. The Carabao Cup was a tough one with a draw to Championship Cardiff in our era of poor form. In the Bristol St. Motors Trophy we played almost entirely backups, getting ourselves into the semi-finals, where we finally played starters to reach the finals and our second chance to get our first cup trophy. In the end we lost a tough one to League One side Chesterfield, where we lost 3-3 on penalties. Through the whole Bristol St. Motors Trophy we ended up going to penalties in 5 different games, winning 3 and losing 2. Tactics and Squad View Our Key Players this year were our striker pair of Diego Mustoe - 7.21, 15 goals and 17 assists, and Sean O'Connor 7.38, 20 goals and 13 assists. (Sean actually started playing as a CM halfway through the season to allow more striker prospects to get match experience). Fiacre Bennett has been a regular starter in the team for a few years but had a standout year for himself with a 7.23, 15 goals and 8 assists. Key defender Aeon Vassallo continued his good run of form with a 7.2 average, and contributing 8 set piece goals. Key Players Departures We said goodbye to one long-standing player who just couldn't cut it anymore, midfielder Ryan Cross who had 220 club appearances and 24 goals, did a decent job for us in the lower leagues and was given on a free to South Cross to return somewhere where his poor physicals would better suit. He was our top rated prospect in the 2027 intake class, but we were never able to shake his unambitious personality and he did not have the greatest development. Still, he will be missed. Macclesfield also had a record sale for Central Midfielder Charlie Poscha. Championship side Portsmouth bought him for $1.2m, rising to $2.1m on installments and appearance fees, and a 35% profit sell on clause. I did this mainly to give a little boost to our budget for a player who wasn't featuring as a regular starter. He does have good mentals and physicals yes, but I just couldn't make him fit with those technical into a midfield role, and he certainly isn't striking for us with a 5 finishing - so when Portsmouth came in with offer, it seemed like an opportune time to cash in. He was our top prospect in the 2033 intake class, and ended up featuring in 18 games with 1 goal for Macclesfield. He will be missed Off the Field Off the Field we had a decent year, but our finances are definitely tighter with the transition to a professional team. All in all, with prize money and the cup run helping us a lot, we managed to just break even with $131,000 profit on the year. The big news we had was upon getting into League One, our board announced plans to build a new stadium, including an $11 million loan that we took on to fund it, which is really going to wreck the operating expenses with a $130,000 a month repayment schedule. The new stadium has a 13k capacity, which will help once its built, replacing our 8,500 capacity, 100+ year old home. Youth Intake Another dreadful year for a Youth Intake that will probably see me looking for a new HYD. This year saw no elite talents come in, with a crop of bad personalities in the top few talents (despite my HYD's James Milner's Model Citizen personality). Our top prospect, English (who has already changed to Ghanaian) striker Evans Asamoah does have decent attributes, but they are combined with a fickle personality, so we will have to see if he develops.

I think our Macclesfield youngsters are a little nervous in League Two - 3rd game in we somehow conceded 4 penalties in a half...

@XaW What are the rules for senior affiliates? Can I accept one for the money and friendlies and if they give me a loan player just not play him?

I had the same issue with a post I tried to make... ended up using imgur

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League Season 11 2035-36 champions Results League: Champions - 1st place FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round: Win 4-1 (replay) v. AFC Telford (National League) First Round: Loss 2-4 v. Cambridge (League One) FA Trophy Third Round: Loss 1-2 v. AFC Fylde (National League) Overview A very stressful season, where it felt like at any point we were starting to slip up and would have the inevitable choke that would keep us out of the football leagues - but that never happened and we emerged as champions, confirming our league win on the final game of the season. We went 26-9-11, finishing with 87 points, After a start to the season with a few close draws and loses, we managed to keep winning 1-0 and 2-0 close games, where our defence and goalkeeper really shined, before getting outselves into first by December, a position from which we would not slip. A key 2-0 beating of 2nd place Stevenage in March all but confirmed it for us, opening up an 8 point gap. I nearly pulled my hair out at the end of the season, where we had two back to back games featuring a player of ours getting a double yellow red card, giving us two losses and letting Stevenage pull 6 points closer. It was all for naught as on the final day we beat Radcliffe 2-0 to confirm the championship. Throughout the season we had the best offence and the 4th or 5th best defence. Cup-wise it was actually a fairly dismal year, we went out in the first round of the FA Cup to a League One Cambridge side that would go on to finish 22nd in their league, and then lost to fellow National League side Fylde in the FA Trophy 3rd round. I do think leaving these cups early helped us down the stretch with player fitness and game congestion issues. We had a new player of the year and top goal scorer this year in Sean O'Connor. He had been lurking around the club for a few years as our 3rd striker, and had just been crushing it in that role, providing significant goal contribution. Giving this contribution, I felt it was time to give him a full-time chance, and he did not disappoint with 19 goals, 11 assists and a 7.3 average. Diego Mustoe, our star striker had somewhat of an off-year compared to his usual self, but still managed to get 18 goals, 9 assists and a 7.08 average rating. Our other new star player was central defender Aeon Vassallo who definitely emerged as the core of our defence and was just an incredible stopper. His 19 jumping reach and 12 heading is also a godsend for us on set pieces, and he finished as a tied-3rd best scorer, netting 10 goals and adding 3 assists. This makes our 3rd trophy in the cabinet (including two Vanarama North League Titles). I managed to win my 2nd manager of the season award for my efforts. Off the Field To make room for Sean O'Connor, I made the difficult decision to sell on long-time stalwart and fan icon Davide Santangelo. He had been with us since the 2026 intake and has been a starting striker since then and was our leading youth appearances and goals player. When he left the club he had 321 club appearances, 143 goals, 54 assists and a 7.17 all time average rating, I'm still not convinced it was the right decision, but O'Connor had better stats, Santangelo was throwing a fit anytime he missed the start of a game and was starting to show cracks against better teams. He was sold to League One side Torquay for $400,000 - and only managed to feature in 5 games off the bench for them, failing to score. He is sadly on the transfer list there now, for much less than we sold him (RIP our sell-on clause). Nonetheless, he will be missed. We also sold starting/squad defender Ben McGowan. He was from the same intake as Santangelo and was a starting CB for a while, but he was just overtaken in talent by younger youth prospects and eventually fell out of the team. I was just happy to get him off the payroll for a bit of money, and ended up selling him to League Two Morecambe for $10,000, where he featured in 34 games but had a dismal 6.54 rating. For Macclesfield, he featured in 280 games and had 11 goals. We had no major facility improvements this year, but with the league win, we of course went Professional, and had our youth rating upgraded to a 2. I am definitely worried about the financial situation for next year, and will report back on what that looks like. Youth Intake A pretty dismal intake again, with only 1 elite player, a GK coming through, and 3 top talents. Intake Preview Youth Intake Elite Talent Next Season Our board want us to immediately become established in League Two, so I have my work cut out for me. I think our team is up for it. Onwards and Upwards!

Loving the graphics and stuff - out of curiosity how are you downloading and tracking player stats - do you do it manually or is there a way to do it with the FM system?

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League Season 11 2034-35 Results League: 5th Place League Playoffs First Playoff Round: Loss 0-2 v. Welling FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round: Win 2-1 v. Basford (National League North) First Round: Win 2-0 v. Cheltenham (National League) Second Round: Win 2-1 v. Preston (League One) Third Round: Loss 2-3 v. Ipswich (Championship) FA Trophy Third Round: Win 2-0 v. Hartlepool (National League) Fourth Round: Loss 0-3 v. Curzon Ashton (National League) Overview 2nd year in the National League went about the same as the first. Last year we finished 3rd and made it to the playoff finals, only to lose. We had lost no major players over the summer and I had high hopes we could repeat that success and make it through this year. The media had us finishing mid-table, but we did have a quite successful first few months, which saw us leap to first place through to the end of October. There were some worrying signs through that stretch - we had a tendency to concede in the last ten minutes of the game, including two back to back instances of conceding a penalty in the final minute of stoppage time, turning a win into a draw and a draw into a loss, that nearly made me through my computer through the window. We continued to have good form, staying within a game of the top place two teams through to the new year. Then something clicked - or some voodoo curse was put upon us by an opposing team. We lost our 3rd round FA Cup game to Championship side Ipswich (for the 2nd year in a row to the same club). Already getting some notifications about players needing rest, I took the opportunity to play a reserve side for the 4th round of the FA Trophy against 24th place Curzon Ashton - a big mistake. We had 0-3 walloping, which tanked our morale and was the start of an absolutely horrid February. For the next 11 games after that FA Trophy loss, we won only 1 game, drew 4 and lost 6, blowing any chance of winning the league (in what turned out to be a fairly tight and weak championship battle - the league winner finished with 87 points, where last season it was 100). We were able to rebound with a tactical switch to a 5 at the back (and cliched high pressing style) that saw us only lose 1 more league game in march and april. We ended up finishing 5th, before promptly losing in the first round of the playoff. I did get fairly FMed in the playoff game with 24 shots and a 2.7 xg vs a 1.3 xg, I have not decided which tactic to keep for next season, and whether I should start selling off a few of the players who are desperate to leave. In transfer I keep denying offers for them and they (probably rightfully so) get upset and cranky that they are denied a chance to move to a higher league. I think this was a big contributor to our February run of form. Our key players included perennial powerhouse Doug Mustoe - who won League Player of the Season with 19 goals, 9 assists and a 7.2 average rating, his partner Davide Santangelo, who had an off year for us but still put up 12 goals and 3 assists, and goal keep Caspar Brabin, who averaged a 6.95 and made several key penalty saves this year. Bad Run of Form Tactics and Squad View Key Players Off the Field It was a successful off the field year with lots of goings on. A wonderful thing happened (twice!), the board approached me and asked if they think we should upgrade our youth facilities and our youth level - to which I of course agreed. We had our training facilities downgraded, but then the board immediately agreed to improve then again. We also had a stadium expansion - which included moving to an off site stadium for the year. Our new capacity is about 8.5k. Internationals We had one new player this season called up to a senior international team, back-up Left Back Francis Joseph switched his nationality from English to St Lucian and had his first cap this year, ending up with 9 for the team. Youth Intake A decent intake this year, better than we have had for a while. We continue to scream for centre-backs to come through through, we had a few decent defensive prospects but nothing mind blowing. (I again forgot to take a snap of the actual intake, but we had 3 elite talents)

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League Season 10 2033-34 Results League: 3rd Place League Playoffs Semi-Final: Win 3-2 v. Eastleigh Final: Loss 0-2 v. Newport County FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round: Win 2-1 v. Blyth (National League North) First Round: Win 4-1 v. MK Dons (League Two) Second Round: Win 2-0 (replay) v. Eastleigh (National League) Third Round: Win 1-0 v. Wigan (League One) Fourth Round: Loss 0-1 v. Ipswitch (Championship) FA Trophy Third Round: Loss 2-3 v. King's Lynn Town (National League North) Overview This was our first season back in the National League, and I had high expectations with the team I have so far been successful in building. All in all it was a fairly good year, we were predicted to finish mid-table, and ended up finishing 3rd with 84 points, going 25-9-12 and a +41 goal differential (Hereford won the league with a cool 100 points). We never really pushed Hereford for the title, but stayed strong throughout the season. The biggest problem we had was with fatigued players for the last month of the season - our bench is still not the strongest and rotational opportunities aren't all there at this point. In the playoff semi-finals we edged out Eastleigh with a 90+ minute goal that we probably didn't deserve. The other side of the bracket saw 5th place Newport County beating 2nd place Chester, so we had as good a chance as we were going to get at making it into the Football League - this year it wasn't meant to be, we played like absolute ******* in the finals and lost fairly easily 2-0 at Wembley. Once again I was was able to re-sign all my star players, so I am not losing anyone major. The board is already asking for a playoff finish for next season, so we will have to continue to produce at a good pace. In the Cups, we had a good run in the FA Cup, beating two higher division teams before eventually losing a fairly close fourth round game to Ipswich, who ended up finishing 8th in the Championship. Between heavy league fixtures and an FA Cup run, I played an all reserves side in the FA Trophy and lost King's Lynn. Tactic Our key players this year have been the key players for a few years now. Our striker partnership of Diego Mustoe (13 Goals, 13 Assists) and Davide Santangelo (23 Goals, 3 Assists) continue to really produce and impress, with our off the bench striker Sean O'Connor also racking up the goals (17 Goals, 2 Assists). A key part of our recent success has been a shoring up of the defence - Left Back and Captain Keelan Fitzmartin has been a big part of that. In International news, we had several players called up u-18s and u-19s of Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We also had two more players get their first senior international caps this year, Bernard James (who was on loan away from the club) for Dominica, and squad player Vincent Siraj getting a call-up for Kenya. Our other senior international had his 21st cap for Antigua and Barbuda, but just wasn't progressing well enough for us - he accepted a transfer to the Antiguan premier league and will be leaving the club. Youth Intake All in all a mediocre intake. We had no players rated as elite talents this year, although a few of the top talents look promising, but are far off from the team. As a Canadian, it was really exciting to get my first Canadian youth intake, and I signed him solely for that fact. All Time Youth Intake Maps

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League North Season 9 2032-33 Results League: Champions - 1st place FA Cup Second Qualifying Round: Win 5-0 v. Dereham (Eastern Premier) Third Qualifying Round: Win 1-0 v. Morepeth (Northern Premier) Fourth Qualifying Round: Win 4-2 v. Hartlepool (National League) First Round: Loss 0-2 v. AFC Telford (National League North) FA Trophy Second Round: Win 2-1 v. Blyth (National League North) Third Round: Win 2-1 v. York (National League North) Fourth Round: Win 1-1p v. Kidderminster (National League) Fifth Round: Win 2-1 v. St. Albans (National League) Quarter Final: Win 0-0p v. Warrington Town (National League North) Semi Final: Win 5-2 v. Billericay (National League South) Final: Loss 0-3 v. Newport County (National League) Results Holy smokes what a season. From being so frustrated last season and almost quitting this save, to going 35-6-5 with 111 points in the league this season was such an incredible turnaround (and of those, 3 losses and 2 draws came at the end of the season, after I had already clinched the title and were playing 2nd stringers and youth). For the first half of the year, up until new years, I went undefeated, only drawing 2 games while winning 24. I was already 20 points clear of 2nd place at that point and felt pretty sure I was going to win the title easily, which came true. I continued to take a hard line approach to not letting my top talent get poached by upper league teams, which paid off, despite a few grumpy boys. I was able to resign all of my top players to multi year contracts, just waiting for them to be happy to stay at the club around their grumpiness, and clearly the atmosphere didn't affect the club all too much among all the winning. We also had good runs in both the FA Cup, making it to the competition proper for the first time, and the FA Trophy, where we made it all the way to the final! Our first cup final was not to be, as we lost rather disappointingly 3-0 to Newport County, who had finished 5th in the National League. The experience was a good one and I hope our players learned from it. This will be my 2nd time in the National League as part of this save (we were promoted in 2025 and relegated in 2027 last time). I hope this time it sticks - my team feels much much stronger than it did the first time, with a strong core of youth. If I do get relegated, I will actually likely start over with a new save. Striker Diego Mustoe is still far and away the top player at the club right now, already reaching icon status among the club's fans. I've gotten offers for $1m+ for him, but will not give in yet. He was our top scorer with 19 goals and our player of the year with a 7.2 average. His strike Partner Davide Santangelo also continues to put in good efforts, giving 15 goals and 14 assists Our young Irish keeper continues to grow into himself, putting in 21 clean sheets this year, a club record. The difference maker this year though was our midfield and defense really stepped up - we had the best defense in the league, conceding 43 goals in 46 matches. Our offence was also amazing, scoring 109 goals in 46 matches. I guess having the best offence and defense is a good combination? I'll keep trying to do that. Some crazy how I failed to win Coach of the Season, despite winning coach of the month for August, September, October, November and December. I will never forgive the fellow coaches for that, I hope they all burn in hell. Best XI Youth Intake A fairly average youth intake this year, a few good midfielders came through, giving us somewhat of a glut at the position. Not much to say about it. (forgot to grab a snap of the intake - I had 2 elite talents).

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League North Mid-Season Update 9 2032-33 I don't usually post mid-season updates, but I just can't not gush over how great our form is after so many frustrating years in the VNL North. After the Boxing Day fixtures, Macclesfield Town have yet to lose a league match, going 25-2-0. Our only loss so far has come in the FA Cup First Round, a disappointing loss to fellow VNL North side Telford. At this point, we are over 20 points clear of 2nd place and are already nearing our club record for wins in a season. After years and years of extremely shaky defense, a few of our youngsters have really stepped up and grown as players, leading us to be the defensive team in the league this season, conceding only 21 goals in 27 matches. We also have the best offense, scoring 70 in 27 matches, in the league with two strikers who our assistant coach rates as being League One level. If I don't go up this year I am going to throw my computer in the microwave and quit FM forever. Edit: Of course I'm an idiot and as soon as I posted this I lost my first game 3-0... microwave here I come?

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League North Season 8 2031-32 Results League: 11th Place FA Cup Second Qualifying Round: Win 3 -1 v. Worcester (Hellenic Premier) Third Qualifying Round: Win 2-0 v. Marine (Northern Premier League) Fourth Qualifying Round: Loss 2-3 v. Buston (National League North) FA Trophy Second Round: Win 3-2 v. Blyth (National League North) Third Round: Win 1-0 v. Hartlepool (National League) Fourth Round: Win 1-0 v. Maidenhead (National League) Fifth Round: Win 1-0 v. Fylde (National League North) Quarter Finals: Loss 1-3 v. Cheltenham (National League) Season Overview Another year of playing, another year of wild inconsistency and a midtable finish. Maybe I'm just bad at the game :). We had again a streaky, up and down year that saw us finish solidly in mid-table, though we underperformed our xG, which had us around 7th. We tried not to mess around with tactics too much, but injuries and central defender lack of depth saw us move out of a 3 at the back system to a more traditional 4-4-2 (which I almost never play). We did have our first real cup run of the save, which saw us getting to the Quarter Finals of the FA Trophy, sneaking a few wins against national league sides. We fought hard against transfer requests for our star striker, who was getting offers left and right from Championship teams. He is under contract for another 2 seasons and I'll be damned if I give him up beforehand. At the beginning of the season, we did sell a key defender to Luton Town - who offered us $600k cash and a 40% sell on clause that I just couldn't resist. He's now worth $8-10 million but only appeared twice off the bench for Luton this season. Our defensive core is slightly improving, but it is still what is letting us down time and time again - with opposing attackers seemingly just walking around them and finding easy shots on goal. I'm really not sure how aggressive to go on attack to try and outscore opponents but I feel my backline which is already weak would just get so overwhelmed. In off the field news our Board did agree to another upgrade to our youth facilities at a cost of $2,000,000, which completed right at the end of the season. One great thing about Macclesfield is it's got a rather large stadium and average attendance for this level, so money has really not been a major obstacle for us. Tactic: Squad View: Youth Intake Our intake this year was rather average, and I don't have much to say about it. I am hopeful about our c player Rob Dunn, who can hopefully help fill a chronic gap we've had at right-back.

I had my first player get a senior international cap! It may be Antigua and Barbuda but damnit I'm so proud of him

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League North Season 7 2030-31 Results League: 4th Place League Playoffs: Loss 1-1 (p) v Southport FA Cup Second Qualifying Round: Win 4 -0 v. Lowestoft (Southern Premier League) Third Qualifying Round: Win 2-0 v. Alfreton (Northern Premier League) Fourth Qualifying Round: Loss 1-2 v. Doncaster (National League) FA Trophy Second Round: Loss 2-2 (p) v. Long Eaton Season Overview This save can be characterized as a slow burn of improvement. Another year, another maddeningly inconsistent performance, with our defense letting us down. We finished 4th overall with 89 points, making it to the playoffs in a tough season that saw two teams earning over 100 points. As is becoming Macclesfield's signature move, we had a late season drop, failing to win any of the last 5 games of the season, leaving us to have morale issues into the playoff game. We actually finished number one in xGf, but 9th in xGa. I will be trying a more defensive minded tactic next year, its just unsustainable. We did move our youth prospect GK into the starting role as the old goalkeeper, now 35, was declining and not performing well. The youth did show, but he did an alright job in his first season, and I hope he will continue to develop. This did mean that we had the first time in the save a starting 11 of all players that came through the youth academy. We did have a few wonderful bright spots, with both our starting strikers and attacking midfielder having spectacular seasons. Striker Davide Santagelo averaged a 7.49 and ended the campaign with 30 goals and 9 assists. With a departure last year of a key striker, we had an 18-year old Diego Mustoe step into the role, who performed amazingly with 23 goals and 18 assists. He is getting major interest from Championship-side clubs, but we have him under contract until 2034 and I am hoping to hold them off. our AMC/Backup Striker Robert Bolton also turned in the goals, with 22 goals and 9 assists. Our key defender also continues to progress nicely and is wanted by a few Championship sides. Our finances are actually doing really well as we have the highest attendance in the league (averaging 4,500 fans a game), so I feel I can take a more aggressive approach to keeping players and rejecting offers from higher league teams as I don't need the cash. Youth Intake We had a decent youth intake again. I was particularly excited to see a right back in the elite talents as that has been a particular hole. While his attributes look good, he is 5'1, and I absolutely dread playing short players in a defensive role like that, so I will have to see how he develops and possibly move him up the field.

Macclesfield Town FC Vanarama National League North Season 6 2029-30 Results League: 8th Place FA Cup Second Qualifying Round: Win 4 -1 v. WroxhamTown (Isthmian D1N) Third Qualifying Round: Win 6-0 v. Barwell (Southern Premier League) Fourth Qualifying Round: Loss 0-1 v. Stevenage (National League) FA Trophy Second Round: Win 1-1 (p) v. Bishop's Strotford (Isthmian Premier League) Third Round: Loss 0-2 v. Solihull Moors (National League) Season Overview At what point do you give up on a YA save because it feels like you're making no progress? Macclesfield had another largely successful season, until a 2nd year in a row late season collapse that saw us drop out of the playoff positions on the final game of the season. We went 2-1-8 in our last 9 games of the season. We had 2 devestating injuries (including an 8 month spinal injury) to 2 of our key 3 strikers that left our offence struggling, and a defence that although improving, is still too slow and young and quite leaky. Our squad has largely moved on from the original players that were at the club when I took over, with GK Connor O'Keefe the only one that still commands a regular starting position. This year however, his physicals began to noticeably decline and I think his time as our starting GK is nearing an end, I am hoping to get another year out of him and start to rotate my backup, an 18 year old who needs work but isn't awful. Tactically, we generally stuck with a 3-5-3 or 3-5-1-2 that at least saw us scoring a decent amount of goals most games Due to our relegation two years ago, a few of our players remained upset and declared that they would leave as a free agent at the end of the season. I was holding out hope that we could earn promotion and last minute convince them to stay. A couple of them did end up re-signing contracts, but we are unfortunately losing two key players to frees. Dean Whelan and Alex Cunningham: We had our first major sale this season as well, selling striker Prince Debrah to Championship-side Middlesborough for $50k with a 30% sale clause and a friendly. He was in the last year of contract and was also not interested in resigning with us. We had three more players gain international u18 callups, including a callup to the England U18s for our defender Leone Hollyoak Youth Intake