[FM10] Backwell United - Promotion, Whats that?

[mackemforever]

History

The club was established in 1911 and played in various local leagues, although activities were suspended during both World Wars. They moved to their current home in 1947, the Backwell Recreation Ground, on land given by local benefactor Theodore Robinson for the benefit of the residents of Backwell, although this is now leased from the local recreation ground trust, whose land was given to the community by the Robinson family in the 1920s.

At this time they played in the Bristol Church of England League, progressing to the Bristol and Suburban League in the 1950s. The Club's true senior football aspirations got under way with their promotion to the Somerset Senior Football League in 1970 when that League formed a First Division, the club finishing in third position. It was in the late 1970s that the club really progressed, ending up League Champions for the 1977-78 season and again League Champions from 1979 to 1983, equalling a record set by Paulton Rovers of four League Championships on the trot and also setting up a new League record of five Championships in six years.

A reserve team was formed in 1981, joining Division Three of the Somerset Senior League, and an 'A' team was formed in 1986 to play in the Bristol and Avon League, subsequently moving to the Weston super Mare and District League.

The 1983-84 season saw the first team elected to the Western League Division One, where steady progress was made with the club gaining the runners-up position for the 1989-90 season which entitled them to promotion to the Premier Division. This was denied, however, owing to the local authority's refusal to grant planning permission for floodlights to be erected. The club went to appeal, which they won, and floodlights were in place for the 1993-94 season, allowing the club to progress to Premier Division football.

Recent Years

Performance has been steady over the years and the first team reached the 5th round of the FA Vase in the 2004-05 season. For the 2005-06 season a change of manager and an exodus of experienced players resulted in a last-place finish and thus the club was relegated to Division One.

Club Information

Finances

Balance - £2,600

Loan Debt - None

Stadium

Name - Backwell Recreation Ground

Capacity - 1000

Seats - 60

Trainings Facilities

Senior - Basic

Youth - Minimal

Long Term Aims

Build the team up without excessive spending which could put the future of the club at risk.

I want to nurture local talent as much as possible and use players from the youth system as much as possible.

Be playing top flight football within 30 years.

Current Squad

The club has a good number of players and should have enough quality to be competitive in their current division, although it is lacking in certain key areas.

The club only has 2 central midfielders and doesn't have a single left back, however these are the only areas where new signings are desperately needed.

Current Staff

This is the weakest area of the club. None of the current staff are good enough for the club and will be replaced ASAP.

Season Aims

Get rid of any deadwood and strengthen the squad to a standard that is capable of pushing for promotion first season.

Replace all the current staff.

Secure at least a top 10 finish.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - Somerset County League Premier Division - 2009/2010

Pre Season

Transfers

Transfers - I havn't signed as many players as I expected to but I think that the players I have brought in should give me a good chance of promotion.

Star Players

Martin Bullock - A short term measure due to his age but I firmly believe that he will be able to do a good job of supplying my lone striker.

Dene Shields - Will be playing upfront by himself and I have high expectations. Is only small but is strong enough to hold play up and allow attacks to build around him. Could do very well.

Aaron Brown - Is the rock at the centre of my defence. Big, strong, and a good tackler. Will be very important this season.

Matches

As tempting as it was to organise a friendly every other day I restricted the team to only 6 friendlies this year. This was simply because I didn't want to run the risk of picking up lots of injuries and I wanted the team to have a good rest between the last friendly and the first competitive game.

All of the games were against English teams, all of them Level 9, so I was up against it in every match.

From the 6 friendlies, I recorded 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, scoring 13 goals and conceding 5.

Overall the results were very pleasing. In the last few games my team looked very good going forwards and my new signings seemed to be gelling quite well, although I did look quite shaky at the back. The defensive frailty should have been fixed after the final friendly though, as most of my defensive signings were completed after the final friendly.

[mackemforever]

*Dafuge, sorry about this, I know I have pinched quite a lot of your layout, I have no creativity!*

Backwell United - Somerset County League Premier Division - 2009/2010

Season Report

Competitions

League Table

Promotion Playoff Final

From this I think its fair to say that I managed to put together a squad that was by far and away the best in the league. The media thought we would finish dead last but throughout the whole season there were only a handful of games where the team looked shaky. Got handed a fairly easy draw in the playoff final too and recorded a solid win to end the season on a high.

FA Vase

Extremely happy with this performance. Being knocked out by a level 9 team in a close game was very respectable, and we beat 2 level 10 teams on the way.

Squad

Transfers

Squad

A good mix of youth and experience in my opinion. No players will need replacing due to their age, and as you can see, everybody, young and old, chipped in at some point throughout the season. I do believe that there will need to be some major changes for the squad to compete in a higher division next year.

Star Players

For those players who moved on during the season, I have pasted their stats from their time at Backwell United onto the screenshots.

Martin Bullock - During his brief time at the club he did a fantastic job, roaming around behind the striker and playing countless defence splitting passes.

Dene Shields - Another player who was pinched from me mid season and the one that upset me most. He was far too good for the league and it showed, and once he left I just couldn't find anybody who could hit the back of the net anywhere near as well as him.

Owen Kavanagh - Was brought in to replace Bullock and played the same role in a very different way. Didn't get many assists due to the poor quality of Shields' replacement however finished the season as my 2nd highest goalscorer, from midfield too.

Danny Keohane - Was an absolute rock in defence. Never injured and played just about every game, and was very solid in all of them. Made very few mistakes and routinely made great interceptions to prevent the opposition getting into a 1 on 1 situation.

Craig Bryan - The 3rd key player of mine who was stolen mid season. Wasn't the best goalkeeper in the league but was one of the least eccentric, and so while he was sometimes beaten where better keepers wouldn't have been, he very rarely did anything badly wrong or out of place. Saved my skin on many occasions and the league table could have looked very different if it wasn't for him.

Aaron Atcheson - The hardest working player in the team. Seemed to be everywhere at once, often making key tackles, and doing a great job of getting the ball forward into dangerous positions, as shown by his 19 assists.

Player of the Season

Owen Kavanagh - Was signed simply to fill an empty position and I didn't expect anything out of him, but his goals towards the end of the season secured us several vital wins and he played a huge amount better than I expected he would.

Club Status

Finances - Very nice increase in the balance this season, largely down to the fantastic cup run.

Takeover - The club was taken over by an existing board member in April, however no money was invested.

Club History

Season           League                                                   Position    Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division      1st          Promoted

[Nobby_McDonald]

Stalybridge and Weymouth in the promotion playoff finals?

[mackemforever]

Stalybridge and Weymouth in the promotion playoff finals?

It doesn't display their full names. Its actually their reserve teams.

With the level 11 patch you see quite a lot of reserve teams playing in their correct leagues, rather than just the generic reserve leagues you get in the normal game.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Ah, that explains it then.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Western League Division One - 2010/2011

Pre Season

Important News

Over the summer break Backwell United turned semi-professional, enabling players to be given part time, paid contracts. This is down in no small part to the high profile scalps the club claimed in the FA Vase last season.

Transfers

Transers - As with last season, I signed a lot less players than I expected to. Having had a proper look at my squad I decided that there was enough talent so that I only needed to reinforce the team in a few key areas, and so that was all I ended up doing. All of my new signings are on part time, paid contracts, and so hopefully won't be stolen like some of my players were last season.

Potential Stars

Steve Feeney - Not quite sure whether he will play as a DC or DM but I believe he will be a very solid performer this season. Is easily one of the best defenders in the league and I think he could do a very good job of organising my defence this year. Also has the joint highest wage at the club.

Sean Kerr - Having struggled to replace Dene Shields last year, I firmly believe this guy could be the one to fill the void left by his transfer away from the club. Is quite quick, can finish and run with the ball, and should hopefully fit into the team quite well. Also has the potential to be good enough for Blue Square Premier level in the future according to my coaches.

Robbie Martin - Will hopefully work well with Kerr. If used correctly I think that he could do a good job at both providing and scoring goals this season.

Hugh Davidson - Another player who is far too good for this league. Could do a good job of moving the ball out of defence and launching attacks. Could struggle for fitness as he has quite a bad history of injuries, but with a bit of luck he could turn out to be a very good signing.

Friendlies

The pre-season games were simply a money making exercise this year. I played 8 games, losing 6 and drawing 1, only scoring 4 goals while conceding 14.

While this won't have helped team morale at all, it has raised my bank balance from £10,000 to £25,000.

Season Aims

1) Finish in the top 4 in the league. While it is a big step up, I am one of only 4 semi-pro teams in the league and have enough quality to be able to finish near the top.

2) Reach the 4th round of the FA Vase.

3) Reach the semi-finals of the Western League Les Phillips Cup.

[bobatwal]

good story mate keep it up

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Western League Division One - 2010/2011

Season Report

Competitions

League Table - A very mixed season. On the one hand, I am very happy that I got promoted and with such a margin between me and second. On the other hand, I had far too many matches that were won by last minute goals, or where I was dominated and only just scraped a draw, also, in my opinion only scoring 48 goals in a season is absolutely awful, although nobody in the league scored many so it could have been worse.

FA Vase - Very disappointed with this. I was playing a better team and I had a large number of injuries, but it was still a game that I would have expected to win. Missed out on a decent amount of prize money by going out early too.

Western League Les Phillips Cup - I have no idea who Les Phillips is or why he has his own cup competition, but I don't really care as he paid me a good amount of money for winning it. I played a weakened team in a lot of the games and still didn't look even close to losing any of my matches.

Squad

Transfers - My first transfer income, yay! Downing was a player I really wanted to keep but for £14k I couldn't say no. Other than that the rest were players who were surplus to requirements or were being paid a wage and didn't look likely to get a game.

Squad - A good range of ages in my squad, like last season I am happy with the mix of age and experience, but unlike last year I managed to keep the number of players who are reaching the end of their career down. The squad isn't as big as I would like and could have caused problems if I had any real injury problems but I got lucky this year.

Star Players

Sean Kerr - A player who had me screaming in anger and jumping for joy. Almost every goal he scored was in the last 10 minutes of a game. He was easily capable of missing half a dozen clear shots at goal before beating 3 men and scoring a cool finish to win us the game. I want to get rid of him before next season due to his lack of finishing ability for the first 80 minutes of every match.

Robbie Martin - On the surface it doesn't look like he had the best of seasons, but he won so many corners and corners in good positions that I believe we would have really struggled without him. Also stepped up brilliantly when made to play as a striker for a few games. Only played 9 games as a striker but scored 7 goals in that time.

Hugh Davidson - The creative force in my team this season, seemed to be involved in every play, anywhere on the pitch. Hardest working player on the team.

Lee Gaffey - Saved my skin on so many occasions, as the 31 clean sheets shows. If it weren't for him I would been almost guaranteed to have come much closer to missing out on promotion.

Player of the Season

Sean Kerr - Despite the fact that I spent most of every game hating him for missing chance after chance, the fact of the matter is that he won me more points than any other player on the team.

Club Status

Finances - The most disappointing aspect of the season. I was around £200 over my wage budget and so was losing money every week, combined with my poor performance in the FA Vase and offering high bonuses to my players for each competition meant that I lost a huge amount this season.

Club History

Season           League                                     Position    Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2010/2011      English Western League Division One          1st          Promoted, Won Les Phillips Cup
2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division      1st          Promoted

[Nobby_McDonald]

A very good mixed season.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Western League Premier Division - 2011/2012

Pre-Season

Transfers

Transfers - A very quiet transfer window this year. I only signed a small number of players to reinforce the team in key areas, and I only got rid of one player as I released all the surplus last season. Kerr was sent packing, despite his good season last year, simply because he was being paid more than a player of his ability deserved.

Potential Stars

Paul McGowan - Should fit into my team far better than Kerr did. He is quick, strong, can run with the ball and can finish well. I have very high hopes for him this season.

Dominic Melly - Looks like he could do a good job, floating around infront of the oppositions back four, and will hopefully do a good job of playing McGowan in.

Alex Walker - Not exceptional in any one area but could be a useful utility player. I don't know which position to play him in yet but I think he could do a good job as an MC, DM or DC.

Friendlies

I played far too many friendlies, 14 in total, all against much better teams. This resulted in 2 things. First was a huge drop in morale, second was a huge increase in my bank balance. The problem with this could be that the low morale might make the first few games of the season very tricky as my team have been playing really badly in their last few friendlies due to their low morale.

Season Aims

1) Finish in the top 6 in the league.

2) Score at least 60 league goals.

3) Reach the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup.

4) Reach the 4th round of the FA Vase.

5) Win the Les Phillips Cup.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Western League Premier Division - 2011/2012

Season Report

Competitions

League - Absolutely fantastic season. Started very poorly and was only on 14 points from my first 10 games and was stuck around half way down the table. Then the team really started to put in some good performances, the high point of which was 14 consecutive wins. I also managed to achieve my target of 60 goals scored in the league which I was very pleased with.

FA Cup - Reached the 2nd round which was fantastic, far more than I expected. I was also very pleased with the manner of the defeat. While 2-0 may not seem great, it was to a Blue Square Premier team who were expected to walk all over me, and they were really made to work hard for their win.

FA Vase - Delighted with this result. I got some lucky draws, playing several weak or injury ridden teams in the earlier rounds, but the result was still thoroughly deserved. Was possibly played infront of the smallest crowd ever at Wembley though, only 731 people, which was a bit depressing.

Les Phillips Cup - The most disappointing part of my season. Going out in the quarter final was bad. Going out to a team I should have beaten by 3 or 4 goals was really bad. Being completely outplayed by them was unacceptable.

Squad

Transfers - The quietest season so far for transfers. I didn't need to sign a great deal of players to have a good enough squad for the league and I had almost nobody who wasn't able to do a good job if called upon.

Squad - Quite a small squad and as you can see I had a very small core group of players who started almost every match. Towards the end of the season this was causing some problems as my players started to get fatigued, however every squad member performed well when made to step in to the team.

Star Players

Lee Gaffey - As with last year he was solid as a rock. There were several occasions where he single handedly kept me in a game, most notably when he saved 2 penalties in the last 5 minutes of a game.

Paul McGowan - Did better than I could have hoped. The first time since season 1 where I felt like I had a player who could consistantly put the ball in the net and even when he had an off day still posed a danged to the opposition with his ability to bring others into play.

Jon Coke - For a slow, unfit, weak old guy he did a fantastic job. Started just about every match, although he only finished a handful, but made an impact in every game.

John Hayes - The most consistant player on the team. He was also one of the only players who performed from day 1, as shown by the fact that he was Man of the Match in my first 5 league games. Posed a constant threat with his attacking play down the wings but was also extremely solid at the back.

Player of the Season

Paul McGowan - Was the type of player I was missing last year and won me so many games that I couldn't possibly consider anybody else for this.

Awards

Manager of the Season - 1st place - Alex Shaw (me)

Player of the Season - Paul McGowan

Top Goalscorer - 1st place - Paul Mcgowan

Club Status

Finances - Excluding the money I made from Pre-season friendlies I made a profit of £19,000 this year which was great. I also managed to keep my wage costs well below my budget which was very pleasing.

Club History

Season           League                                     Position    Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2011/2012      English Western League Premier Division      1st          Promoted, Won FA Vase
2010/2011      English Western League Division One          1st          Promoted, Won Les Phillips Cup
2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division      1st          Promoted

[Nobby_McDonald]

Roman Glass St George. What a name.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Southern League First Division South/West - 2012/2013

Pre-Season

Transfers

Transfers - The busiest I have been for a couple of years. Got rid of every single player who was on a wage but not good enough to start games, unfortunately though I lost Feeney on a free transfer. Despite being a key player for me for the last 2 seasons he snubbed the offer of a new contract.

Potential Stars

Riteesh Mishra - Cost me £5k which is a lot for this level, and while he is terrible physically he is the most gifted technical player I have ever had in my side and I believe he could do a great job if used correctly.

Paul McGowan - Given his performance last season I expect more of the same from Paul. I am expecting a minimum of 30 goals in all competitions this year.

Dennis Telgenkamp - While it felt wrong to replace Lee Gaffey due to his great performances of the last few years, I couldn't pass up the chance to sign this guy. Is the best keeper in the league by an absolute mile and should easily be good enough to keep most strikers out.

Friendlies

Same as last year, played a huge amount of friendlies, 17 in total, however this time around I played a second string side for most of them. This means that fitness isn't a problem at the start of the season but my starting XI are yet to play a match together, so it could take a while for them to settle and start playing well.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Southern League First Division South/West - 2012/2013

Season Report

Competitions

League - While on the surface it appears to have been a brilliant season, I was very disappointed with the way we played this year. We were brilliant against the teams who were struggling a bit further down the table, but had far too many drawns and losses to the top 7 or 8 teams, and the few wins we did grab against them were lucky 1-0 or 2-1 wins. Still very happy to have gained promotion again.

FA Cup - The biggest surprise of the year. Reaching the 6th round was far more than I could have expected and there were some brilliant performances against far better teams, the best of which was definitely the 1-0 win away to Rotherham, who are a mid table League 1 side. I was also very pleased with the trouncing by Arsenal because while at first glance 4-0 is a terrible result, it should have been far worse than that.

FA Trophy - Another great cup run, beating several Blue Square South/North teams on the way, finally ending with a defeat to Oxford, a Blue Square Premier side. While I was expected to lose against them, I had achieved better results against better teams in the FA Cup so was expecting it to at least be a close match.

Southern League Cup - The one cup competition that I had a realistic chance of winning, as the best teams were only 1 division above me, and so I was pretty pleased when my side managed to live up to expectations, finishing off with a complete domination of Banbury, who were one of the best teams in the division above ours.

Squad

Transfers - No signings were made after pre-season, and only a few players were released, just a few who were complaining about lack of football and who I didn't think were worth their wages.

Squad - Very happy with the squad, large enough to cope with injuries or when players need a rest, yet small enough so I can have quality without being too far over my wage budget. Only a few players will need replacing due to their age next season, and I think that there are only a couple of positions that need a complete refit.

Star Players

Dennis Telgenkamp - Played every single match this season and as you can see, kept an extraordinary number of clean sheets. Was an absolute rock in goal and is worth every penny of the £600 per week he is being paid.

Riteesh Mishra - The Stationary God as I nicknamed him. I managed to find a way of playing him so he could basically just operate within a very small area of the pitch, which given his terrible physical attributes was very useful. Did an amazing job of setting up the lone striker and despite the fact that he never played more than 60 minutes of a match, he still managed to get more assists than any of my players has in the past.

Lukasz Bialozyt - Was bought as backup for McGowan however was flung into the first team when McGowan only found the net once in his first 6 games and he never looked like losing his place. His finishing was actually fairly poor but he scored a huge number of goals simply because he was so good at carving out chances.

Kjell Knops - The biggest surprise of all here. Was only meant to play as a defensive full back but despite being awful at running with the ball, he was a constant threat down the wings and was always causing trouble and never stopped working, averaged almost 2km more per 90 minutes than any other player in my squad.

Thomas Moen - At first glance he appears to have been pretty average, but I have included him in this list purely because of his age. Despite being 37 years old and coming to the end of his career he still played a part in every single match, even if he didn't make it past half time in any of them. He had a brilliant habit of not being involved in the match at all for 44 minutes and then scoring a wonder goal, or playing a key part in a goal, before being substituted at half time.

Player of the Season

Lukasz Bialozyt - I have chosen him as player of the season purely because of the fact that he was bought as backup but ended up being an absolute key player in my teams success this year.

Awards

Manager of the Season - Alex Shaw (me)

Player of the Season - Riteesh Mishra

Top Goalscorer - Lukasz Bialozyt

Club Status

Finances - Excluding the money from pre-season friendlies I made a profit of around £160,000 this season, thanks largely to the brilliant cup runs. For a club at this level we have a fantastic bank balance and hopefully next season I will be given a wage budget that will allow me to push for a 5th consecutive promotion.

Season Review

Absolutely delighted with this season. The league was a bit of a grind but we got the results we needed to gain automatic promotion yet again and we put together some amazing cup runs with wins over far better sides. I am also very happy with the core squad and would have absolutely no problems sticking with the same squad for next season.

Club History

Season         League                                                    Position     Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2012/2013      English Southern League First Division South/West         1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2011/2012      English Western League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted, Won FA Vase
2010/2011      English Western League Division One                       1st          Promoted, Won Les Phillips Cup
2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted

[Nobby_McDonald]

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

[mackemforever]

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Yep. I have no idea why I have been able to get through the leagues as easily as I have, I am normally terrible at lower league games but for some reason I have been able to sign players who were far better than the rest of the league and so its been quite easy so far.

[Nobby_McDonald]

I think you need to change your thread title.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Southern League Premier Division - 2013/2014

Pre-Season

Transfers

Transfers - My original plan was to keep most of the squad from last season, but that went out the window as soon as the window opened. I also got rid of a bit of dead wood, but then had a bit of a panic as I realisd that I had got rid of all of my backup central midfielders, so the last 3 signings of mine were done in a bit of a panic so I had some half decent backup.

Potential Stars

Dennis Telgenkamp - Was absolutely fantastic last season and I expect more of the same this year. Is one of the best keepers in the league again this year and I have complete faith in his ability to keep us in matches, even if we are the weaker team.

Jakub Ochman - Was signed to replace Mishra as the creative force in my midfield. Is not as technically gifted as Mishra but is stronger mentally and physically and so hopefully will be able to finish a lot more matches than his predecessor was.

Evandro Brandao - A shock signing for me. I wasn't even looking for a player to replace Bialozyt after his fantastic last season, but when I saw this ex Man Utd youth player on a free transfer I jumped at the chance to secure his signature. He has been on fire in pre-season, scoring 16 goals in 10 games, and if he doesn't beat Bialozyt's record from last season I will be very surprised.

Youth Prospects

Chris Cannon - The first outstanding player to come through my clubs youth system, and as you can see from his pre-season performances, he is a hell of a talent. My coaches all think he could be a good league 1 player in the future so I have very high hopes for him.

Dylan McGowan - The only youth international, and possibly future senior international player, in my team. Was a member of Australia's 2012 Olympic team and I believe he has a great future at the club.

Adam Pierce - Looks like he could be quite a good defender in the future. He is on a very heavy physical training schedule and I strongly believe that if he can improve physically then he could be a good player for the club for a good few years to come.

Friendlies

Like last year I played a lot of matches against foreign clubs who were better than us, although this year I put out a proper team in each game just to find out how good my team were. Played 17 friendlies, 15 of which I was expected to lose, but came away with 12 wins, 1 draw and only 4 losses, which I was extremely happy with.

Season Aims

My board expect me to gain promotion from the league, and yet again, I believe I have the squad to do it. Because of this I am not really putting much focus on the league this year.

I am aiming to reach at least the 4th round of the FA Cup and not to go out to any club below League 2. In the FA Trophy I expect to do at least as well as last year, that means reaching the semi-final at worst, and I also want to repeat my successful run in the Southern League Cup.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - English Southern League Premier Division - 2013/2014

Season Report

Competitions

League - Our performance in the league was better than I could have ever expected. A few standout players in my side meant that the core of my team was far stronger than any other team in the league and as a result we never even looked like losing a game, and in about 60% of our games we played our opponents off the park.

Southern League Cup - A pretty easy competition this year. I am in the highest league which enters this competition and most of my games were against teams in lower divisions, including the final, against a relegation contender from the division below me. Never even came close to losing a game in this one.

FA Cup - Another fantastic run in the cup this year. Beat a couple of Blue Square Premier sides to reach the 5th round, with the best result coming against League 2 Walsall. I was also very pleased with the way we played against Ipswich, a side pushing for promotion to the Premiership. We held them for 180 minutes of football but in the end their superior fitness gave them the vital advantage in extra time.

FA Trophy - The most dissappointing part of our season. Yes I was pleased to reach the final, and playing a Blue Square Premier side we were always expected to lose, but it was a game we could have easily won. The match was our last of the season and the Wembley pitch was far bigger than anything we had played on before and it took a good 40 minutes for us to adjust and start playing good football, by which time we were 3-0 down. In the second half we dominated the game and would have scored a 3rd if it wasn't for some fantastic stops by the Wrexham keeper.

Squad

Transfers - Only 2 transfers in January. The first was shipping out last seasons hero, Bialozyt, to League 2 Northampton. This was purely because he was costing me almost £1,000 per week in wages and there was no way he was going to get picked over Brandao. The second was loaning out a decent youngster to get him some first team experience.

Squad - Very happy with the squad. A strong core and with enough players to compensate for injuries or a busy schedule. I'm also very happy with the fact that the majority of my squad is fairly young so there are not many pairs of tired legs that need replacing.

Star Players

Jakub Ochman - A complete revelation and the best playmaker I have ever had at the club, as shown by his 52 assists. Seemed to be involved in every single play, no matter where on the pitch it was, and had some moments of pure genius.

Dennis Telgenkamp - Another great season. He did concede more goals than last year but in my opinion he played better. The way my team played this year left him with in a lot of one on one situations and with a poorer keeper in goal I would have struggled a fair bit and there would have been plenty of games where I would have conceded a couple more goals than I did.

Chris Cannon - A brilliant season for a youngster in his first year. Played almost every game and was always worrying the opposition back 4. To provide and score goals in the quantity he did was fantastic, especially for a 17 year old. The one thing that worries me is that he has technically got worse during the season, however for the first 7 months he was on a part time contract and wasn't being trained by any of my coaches, so hopefully he can improve next year.

Adam Pierce - Another good prospect. Was thrown into the first team very early on due to a bit of an injury crisis and never looked like losing his place. Has improved very nicely this year, especially physically, and looks like he could be a top notch defender in years to come. Impressively he also made less mistakes per match than any other central defender in my squad.

Player of the SeasonEvandro Brandao - The best thing to come to Bristol since, well, ever. God only knows how I got this guy to agree to come here but I am so damn happy he did. Was fantastic for this level when he joined the club, has improved a lot since he came here, and absolutely tore the competition apart. I get the feeling that his record of 96 goals in a season could be a club record for a long time to come. In January I was turning down offers from League 1 and Championship clubs and I will do everything I can to prevent him leaving. His contract has him tied down till 2016 and I intend to keep him till the end.

Awards

Manager of the Season - Alex Shaw

Player of the Season - Evandro Brandao

Top Goalscorer - Evandro Brandao

Club Status

Finances - A nice steady growth this season, largely down to me being well below my wage budget and the huge amount we earned from our performance in the various cups we entered.

Next Season

I will be keeping the core of my team the same, and for once I mean this. I intend to replace some of the backups so that I have more strength in depth, but I see no reason to make any serious changes to my first XI.

Club History

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2013/2014      English Southern League Premier Division                  1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2012/2013      English Southern League First Division South/West         1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2011/2012      English Western League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted, Won FA Vase
2010/2011      English Western League Division One                       1st          Promoted, Won Les Phillips Cup
2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted

[Nobby_McDonald]

Good Lord, this is insane.

[TIR669]

This is a brilliant carrer, I enjoy reading it. Amazing rise through the divisions, Brandao is really fantastic.

Keep it up, mate. And good luck!

[RichG]

is your challenge never to finish lower than 1st lol

Great start to your career

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - Blue Square South - 2014/2015

Pre-Season

Transfers

Transfers - Not very much movement here. I stuck to my promise at the end of last season and only signed players as backups. All of the players released were dumped because they were overpaid and not good enough to step straight into my first team. None of the new signings have a spot in my starting XI, which remains unchanged for this season.

Potential Stars

Evandro Brandao - Given his performances last year I firmly believe that Jesus has returned to earth as this guy, and I will be expecting more of the same this year. As you can see from the screenshot he has made an amazing start to the season, scoring 15 in 6 games, although I am now 7 games in and he has scored 19 from only 26 shots, so I get the feeling this season could be a good one.

Chris Cannon - Had a good, if not amazing, time last season, although I think that he could really shine this year. He has improved quite nicely during pre-season now that he is on a full time contract and is receiving proper coaching, and I expect him to do better than last season.

Adam Pierce - Another player who still has room to improve but is already a star for my side. He was ever present in my side last year and despite me having half a dozen people who can play in his position, he still has a guaranteed place for every match. I am going to try and improve his mental attributes this season because technically and physically he is league 1 standard, but he does make some daft mistakes and that needs working on.

Youth Prospects

Vincent Idahor - I young enough to still have room for improvement and should do a great job as backup this year. He can play in any of the midfield roles in my team and with a good season working on his mental side he could become a very useful little player.

Nathan Davies - A current member of the Welsh Under 21 side and not far off the standard of some of the backup players in the main team. A good years training and some first team games and I think he could improve quite nicely and while he probably won't be breaking into my first team any time soon I think that he could move on for a nice profit in a year or two.

Friendlies

Only played about half a dozen games this year, all against fairly evenly matched sides, and was very disappointed with the way it went. Despite my team being unchanged they just didn't click and we lost 5 out of 7 matches, although as soon as the proper games everything just started working.

Season Aims

I am predicted 14th in the league and my board just want a "respectable position" in the league this season however given the way we played last year I would be very upset if we didn't at least make the playoffs.

As for the cups, I am only playing in 2 this year, the FA Cup and Trophy, and I am expecting to reach the fourth round in both.

[I Luke I]

Excellent career. KeEp it up.

[mackemforever]

For anybody who is still following this, it isn't dead.

I will hopefully get hte next update done in a couple of days, just I have been out of the house almost all the time recently as my new motorbike arrived last week and I have been spending more time than is healthy on it (somewhere in the region of 1200 miles in 8 days).

[TIR669]

We're waiting.

[dudge7]

Just read through, absolutely awesome so far mate, kiu.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - Blue Square South - 2014/2015

Season Report

Competitions

League - Something is badly wrong here. I used the same starting XI as I did last season and despite this I still dominated the league. It wasn't as straightforward as it seems though, I spent every away match playing 8 or 9 guys in defence, with Brandao upfront latching onto any long clearance from defence. Without Brandao upfront I would have failed to make the playoff and would probably have been somewhere in the middle of the table, although at the end of the day, I don't care how I win, so long as I win.

FA Trophy - An easy competition this year. All of my games were against Blue Square Premier sides who were only around my standard and I didn't look like losing any games on the way to the final. The performance in the final was very dissappointing and I could easily have lost the game, although as I said before, I don't care how I win so long as I win.

FA Cup - Another great run in the FA Cup. Went one round further than last season, reaching the 6th round, which was fantastic, seeing as almost all the other teams to make it that far were League 1 and above. The best result of the competition, and probably of the whole season, was this thrashing of Oldham, at that stage pushing for promotion to the Championship.

Squad

Transfers - Only 1 change during the season. Luke Young was signed on a free last season and only started 3 games in 2 years so I decided to cash in when Hyde decided they wanted him.

Squad - This is the kind of squad I like. Plenty of youngish player who are approaching the peak of their career, and only a couple who are likely to start declining any time soon, and with a few who can only get better. As you can see, I relied very heavily on my first XI and very rarely rotated the squad and only had player step in due to extreme fixture congestion or injuries.

Star Players

Evandro Brandao - As you can tell by his current nickname, I have quite a good opinion of the guy. Every game we played, no matter whether we were playing brilliantly or just hanging on for a point, I was always confident that he would pop up to score. Equally brilliant in games where we were creating chances through nice passing moves, or games where we sat back and just thumped long balls up the field to him, for example this game against Hednesford. Also, for some reason that I couldn't get my head around at all, he signed a contract extension, meaning that I have a premiership standard player for a fair few years to come.

Jakub Ochman - Another good season, not as amazing as last year but was still very good. Solid defensively and capable of playing some fantastic passes to set up Brandao. He isn't technically the best midfielder in my team but he outperformed the other 2 central midfielders in my starting XI almost every week.

Chris Cannon - On paper he wasn't much better this season than last, but he had a number of small injuries and so he only played the first half in a lot of games while he was getting back to full fitness. Also, while it doesn't look like he was any better than last year he was involved much more often than before. He played a part in far more attacks and was a much more important member of the team overall. It also helped that he was on a good training schedule and improved very nicely this season.

Alex Walker - A hugely undervalued player, who has been ever present in my starting lineup since he joined at the start of the 2011/2012 season. Since then he has played 254 games and I could probably count on the fingers of one hand the amount of bad games he has had. He isn't an exceptional defender by any stretch of the imagination, but he is very solid and the fact that he is keeping players who are technically much better than him out of the team for the past 4 years must give you an idea of how consistant he has been.

Player of the Season

Evandro Brandao - 94 goals. Need I say more?

Awards

Manager of the Season - Alex Shaw

Player of the Season - Evandro Brandao

Top Goalscorer - Evandro Brandao

Club Status

Finances - There was no real change in my finances up until a couple of days after the season ended. They were sitting at around £530k. It would have grown but I was well over my wage budget for the season. The huge loss in the final month was due to an announcement I received a couple of days after the season ended.

New Stadium - Absolutely fantastic news. My average attendance for the season was over 950, which for a stadium with a capacity of 1000 was pretty good, and with the external funding for the new stadium it will only cost me around £500k in total and will hopefully have a much larger capacity than my current ground. The only problem is that I really don't want to wait a whole season for it.

Next Season

I intend to keep as much of my starting XI the same as this year, although most of the fringe players will be replaced. I'm also going to be optimistic for next season and say that I want to be promoted from the Blue Square Premier, as I have played a fair few BSP teams in various competitions and am yet to lose to any of them.

Club History

Season         League                                                    Position     Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2014/2015      Blue Square South                                         1st          Promoted, Won FA Trophy
2013/2014      English Southern League Premier Division                  1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2012/2013      English Southern League First Division South/West         1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2011/2012      English Western League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted, Won FA Vase
2010/2011      English Western League Division One                       1st          Promoted, Won Les Phillips Cup
2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted

[TIR669]

OMG.

Jesus Christ lol, Brandao is purely amazing. I reckon he could play for Barcelona as good as for you. Congrats on another promotion, we are looking forward to next update, they are great. Keep it up, mate, well done!

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - Blue Square Premier - 2015/2016

Pre-Season

Transfers

Transfers - Very little activity here. I feel that the squad was strong enough to cope with the higher standard of football and so I only signed 4 players (I'm not counting Adam Rooney as he was released less than 10 days later). All of them are aged 21 or under and are already good enough to slot into my first team and can all improve, so hopefully they can do a good job for a fair few years to come. I may end up signing a couple more defenders as this is the one area of my team where it would only take a couple of injuries to make things difficult, although for now I am very happy with the squad I have.

Potential Stars

Evandro Brandao - Not even gonna explain why.

Chris Cannon - Still improving nicely and I'm hoping for an even better season than last year. He has also been called up to the England Under 19 squad and so hopefully could pick up his first youth caps this year.

Santiago Diaz - After 3 years, 192 appearances and 122 clean sheets, Telgenkamp has finally been replaced in my starting XI. Despite being a regular in the Argentina youth team there was very little interest in him, possibly down to his personality. I have taken a big risk with this guy. He is very talented but it will be very easy to upset him and if managed poorly then could become very difficult to work with.

Vyacheslav Churko - A bit of a utility player in the middle of the park. He looks like he could be equally good in any of the 3 roles I use for my central midfielders and I'm certain that he will be a regular fixture in my side this year.

Balazs Kis - Another great coup. Under normal circumstances he would be first choice for any side in the league, and probably in the division above too, however due to Brandao he will spend almost all of the year sitting on the bench, although hopefully he will be able to take over as my frontman when Brandao eventually moves on.

Kevin Smith - I waited a long time to make my move on this guy. I spent the whole of last season praising him and telling the media that I wanted to sign him, however I was still amazed when this guy accepted a 5 year contract at such low wages. He will play alongside Cannon, sitting just behind Brandao, and hopefully can have a huge impact this year.

Season Aims

With the squad I have this year I am expecting another promotion. I mean, I don't normally believe in miracles but just looking at the teams in this league it is obvious that most of my team are by far and away the most talented players at this level.

I also want to repeat my success in the FA Trophy and reach the same stage in the FA Cup as I did last year, 6th round, and not to go out to any side below League 2.

[TIR669]

Waiting. :-D

£20 you'll get promoted. xD

[Dees-Blake]

Brandão belongs in the Premier League!

Amazing career so far, how on earth did you find him?

[mackemforever]

Brandão belongs in the Premier League!

Amazing career so far, how on earth did you find him?

He was on a free transfer, only wanting around £120 per week, so I offered him a crapload more than that, the biggest signing on fee I could afford and every possible bonus.

My training schedules combined with the fact that he must have a pretty high PA in my save, and probably quite helpful hidden attributes, meant that he improved pretty bloody quickly. I have been rejecting dozens of offers each year and he spends at least half of each season ****ed off at me for rejecting offers but I don't care

Next update should be at some point today or tomorrow and I have big new in the update.

[psychonaut]

Big news? Did you get relegated?

Lower leagues seem easy. I took a team from level 11 to League 1 with back-to-back promotions. I might have taken them to the Premier League if a big club hadn't poached me.

Good luck!

[mackemforever]

Big news? Did you get relegated?

Lower leagues seem easy. I took a team from level 11 to League 1 with back-to-back promotions. I might have taken them to the Premier League if a big club hadn't poached me.

Good luck!

It can be easy if you get a couple of good signings.

First season I had about 3 or 4 players who were far better than the rest of the league and so promotion was easy. That meant that my reputation was a bit higher than the rest of my league for season 2 which again meant that I could grab a few players better than the league and so walk it, but I don't mind

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - Blue Square Premier - 2015/2016

Season Report

Competitions

League - I think its fair to say that the foreign youth did the job. Despite the goal difference I actually looked quite shaky at the back, but my opponents so rarely got the chance to attack that this weakness was very rarely exposed.

FA Trophy - Pretty much a formality this year. I only had to play a couple of teams in the same division as me so it was very easy to win this year. I would have liked to avoid conceding any goals for the whole competition but unfortunately this was ruined within about 5 minutes of starting my first match, although I did play around 10 hours of FA Trophy football without conceding, which isn't too bad!

FA Cup - Went out one round earlier than I would have liked, although I am very happy with how I went out. Put in a very good performance away to Arsenal to force a replay and made them really work hard for their win in the second leg.

Squad

Transfers - So the inevitable finally happened. Throughout the whole of pre-season I was rejecting bids for Brandao, although every time I told a team to go away they just came back with a bigger bid. Eventually, a few weeks after the start of the season, Sporting CP came back with an offer that was accepted by my Chairman. While I would have liked to hang onto Brandao for a few more years, I can't complain at the paycheck I received for him.

Squad - Very young starting XI now, with plenty of energy and potential. As you can see, there were goals and assists coming from all over the pitch with every player contributing when needed. I will be selling some of the backup as plenty of them are unhappy with their fairly infrequent starts, although I am very happy with my starting XI and it will likely remain unchanged for next season.

Star Players

Balazs Kis - Had a hell of a job on his hands trying to fill the hole left by Brandao's departure and I was amazed he did it so well. He got flung into the first team as soon as Brandao agreed to leave despite Brandao still having a few months before leaving, as I wanted to get him as much experience as possible, as early as possible. Didn't have as many outstanding games as Brandao but was far more consistant and only had about 10 games where he didn't score.

Vyacheslav Churko - While on paper he doesn't appear to have had a great season, he was fantastic in the centre of my midfield all year. Very capable in both attack and defence and contributed all over the pitch, running around 13km per game. Still has plenty of room for improvement and so hopefully can remain a force to be reckoned with for the next few divisions.

Kevin Smith - Was being played out of his preferred position for the whole season, as an AMC, just behind the lone striker, but from looking at his figures you wouldn't know. A constant threat just outside the box and whenever he got the ball I was expecting a defence splitting pass from him, and he frequently delivered.

Chris Cannon - Still improving nicely. His performances this year were far better than before and he finally broke into the England youth setup, even if his only appearances were as a late substitute. He wasn't as consistant as I would have liked this season but he always made up for it with a stunning performance when we were under pressure.

Santiago Diaz - Absolutely fantastic last line of defence. While he wasn't tested very often, the vast majority of the time he came out on top. Clean sheets in almost 80% of his matches is absolutely unbelievable, and despite his relatively poor average rating, that was simply because there were a lot of games where he was only called into action a couple of time.

Player of the Season

Vyacheslav Churko - Not the best player performance wise but was involved so much, everywhere on the field, that I would have really struggled without him.

Awards

Manager of the Year - Alex Shaw

Player of the Season - Balazs Kis

Top Goalscorer - Balazs Kis

Team of the Year - Josh Kennet, Inigo Sarasola, Jakub Ochman, Vyacheslav Churko, Balazs Kis

Club Status

Finances - Very healthy due to the sale of Brandao. Hopefully it will be high enough for the board to consider expanding my new stadium straight away after I move into it, and possibly to do some work on my training facilities.

Takeover - A bit of a saga. My chairman was looking to step aside for most of the season and I had high hopes of a big cash injection when the takeover was announced and I was placed under a transfer embargo. Unfortunately the takeover fell through before it could be completed.

Club History

Season         League                                                    Position     Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2015/2016      Blue Square Premier                                       1st          Promoted, Won FA Trophy
2014/2015      Blue Square South                                         1st          Promoted, Won FA Trophy
2013/2014      English Southern League Premier Division                  1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2012/2013      English Southern League First Division South/West         1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2011/2012      English Western League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted, Won FA Vase
2010/2011      English Western League Division One                       1st          Promoted, Won Les Phillips Cup
2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted

[TIR669]

Ahh, ****.

Too bad for Brandao, but 15 million offer for a Blue Square Premier player... Congrats on another promotion, amazing season behind you, mate

Good luck in CCL2 next year. Oh and brilliant striker you got there. Kis looks great. Nothing compared to Evandro, but still amazing. KIU

[Nobby_McDonald]

Hmmmm...

Seven straight championships... lots of talented young foreigners in the English non league... and a £15,000,000 transfer from a Conference Premier team...

Did you have a tycoon takeover?

[NewportCounty]

i still dont understand how u got brandao in some lower league lol

[mackemforever]

i still dont understand how u got brandao in some lower league lol

He was ***** when I signed him (well, above average for the league but nowhere near even being called good), but for some reason he improved like hell on my training schedules.

[mackemforever]

Hmmmm...

Seven straight championships... lots of talented young foreigners in the English non league... and a £15,000,000 transfer from a Conference Premier team...

Did you have a tycoon takeover?

As I have said in earlier posts, with the lower league games I have done in the past its very possible to rise up pretty damn fast if you get a few players who stand out, its very much a case of being able to dominate a league simply because you have a few players who are better than average.

I also agree that its a bit odd that I managed to sign as much foreign talent as I did, but most of the players had been without a club for a season or 2, and I spent a lot of time praising all of them, to the extent that I was one of their favourite people before I offered them a contract. Also, what you can't see is that for the half a dozen or so youngsters I have signed, I spent a whole season praising and then offering contracts to around 90 different players, and almost every single one of them ended up being signed by far better teams, just a few slipped through the net.

As for the Brandao sale, the bids started off at around £500,000 and I had a couple of dozen clubs bidding for him. I was just rejecting every bid without even looking at the value, but Sporting kept on raising their bid every time I rejected them, and eventually it was accepted by their chairman.

Also, I have never got a tycoon takeover, I've had one takeover but it was simply an existing board member stepping up, and there was no money injected.

[mackemforever]

Backwell United - Coca-Cola League 2 - 2016/2017

Pre-Season

Transfers

Transfers - As with last year I only signed a few players, all foreign youngsters who had been without a club for at least a season. They are on quite high wages for this level and could cause a few problems in the long run, and some of them were passed over by bigger clubs due to having a very poor attitude, but hopefully can do well if managed correctly. I also got sent a player on loan by my new parent club, Bristol City, who thanks to a tycoon takeover a few years ago are now a dominant force in English football.

Angelo Perna

James Adjei

Clive Stevenson

Kyle Davison

Jose Carlos

Rob Henderson

Ryan Carr

Key Players

Balazs Kis - Will be playing against teams who are far better defensively than our opponents last season so will have to work much harder for his goals, although I'm still expecting good things from him and will be disappointed if he doesn't end the season as the leagues top scorer.

Vyacheslav Churko - The hardest working member of my team last year and put in some brilliant performances, although I will be expecting even more from him this season. If he plays well then we could easily dominate the midfield in any game, but we could struggle if his form drops.

Adam Pierce - Only 22 years of age but this season will be my most experienced central defender. Will be interesting to see if he can improve from last year, when he was quite error prone, and I would like to see him be a bit more consistant than in the past.

Santiago Diaz - Is going to be tested a lot more this season than last as we are playing much better teams and so are likely to have a lot more chances against us. Will hopefully be able to cope against the higher calibre of forwards in this league, and could be key to any success we have.

Other News

International Management - I have taken my first forray into international management, taking charge of Ghana Under 21s. Unfortunately there are no tournaments for us to enter so I am limited to around 8 friendlies a year, but hopefully I can eventually rise up the ladder at Ghana as they have some fantastic talent in my Under 21 side.

Season Aims

Well, I'm not really sure. I should have the players to push for promotion which is what I would like, although I'm not sure how my team will cope with the higher standard of football. As with last season I would also like to reach Round 6 of the FA Cup, not going out to any team below League 1, and I want to reach Round 3 of the League Cup.

[hamilton162]

Jesus ****ing christ this is some career!

Can i have a screenshot of your manager profile please? I'd like to see what your attributes are & what your reputation is. My theory is that you've started a snowball effect, by winning the first few promotions fairly easily, your manager rep and club rep has shot up, making foreigners that are amazing for the level you're at a lot easier to sign.

[crouchaldinho]

As I have said in earlier posts, with the lower league games I have done in the past its very possible to rise up pretty damn fast if you get a few players who stand out, its very much a case of being able to dominate a league simply because you have a few players who are better than average.

I also agree that its a bit odd that I managed to sign as much foreign talent as I did, but most of the players had been without a club for a season or 2, and I spent a lot of time praising all of them, to the extent that I was one of their favourite people before I offered them a contract. Also, what you can't see is that for the half a dozen or so youngsters I have signed, I spent a whole season praising and then offering contracts to around 90 different players, and almost every single one of them ended up being signed by far better teams, just a few slipped through the net.

As for the Brandao sale, the bids started off at around £500,000 and I had a couple of dozen clubs bidding for him. I was just rejecting every bid without even looking at the value, but Sporting kept on raising their bid every time I rejected them, and eventually it was accepted by their chairman.

Also, I have never got a tycoon takeover, I've had one takeover but it was simply an existing board member stepping up, and there was no money injected.

£15m! :eek::eek:

[Dees-Blake]

The thread title sure looks ridiculous now..!

[TIR669]

Not going to continue, is it?

[mackemforever]

Not going to continue, is it?

It is continuing, I am just starting to write the next update.

The reason its taken so long is because I had 2 weeks out of the country on holiday and am currently working 2 different jobs (30 hours per week each) to save up for University, and so havn't had any time at all to play the game.

The problem is, the foreign youth I have signed led to me dominating Leauge 2 and so I reckon nobody will believe that I have genuinely done this without cheating.

[TIR669]

I reckon nobody will believe that I have genuinely done this without cheating.

You've replied to a believer.

I doubt someone would write reports for 7 game years (or play for instance) while cheating... It's purely dumb.

[mackemforever]

For those who wanted to see my profile picture, here it is.

As you can see, I do everything myself, don't put up with any ******** from my players, don't give a damn about loyalty or domestic players, and very rarely change my tactics.

Backwell United - League 2 - 2016/2017

Season Report

Competitions

League - I need to explain here. Despite what the table looks like I didn't even come close to dominating many games at all. The vast majority of games ended with the opposition having the majority of the possession and us being roughly level on shots, but my youngsters were so brutally efficient when it came to counter attacking that they repeatedly tore defences apart and the end result was a huge number of matches which ended in a big win that were infact very close in terms of the statistics.

FA Cup - Not surprising that I lost to Preston, they finished mid table in the Championship and so they were expected to thump me, but my team put in a credible performance and overall I was pretty pleased with reaching the 6th round.

Johnstone's Paint Trophy - Our most disappointing competition this year. We completely outplayed Bournemouth for 2 hours of football but their keeper put in an unbelievable performance, including saving 3 penalties in the shootout.

League Cup - Fantastic performances in the League Cup this year. We beat a League 1 side, a Championship side and 2 Premiership sides, before finally being knocked out by the eventual runners up in the Premiership. The two best results were against Newcastle and Reading, both mid table Premiership sides. My team put in two of the best performances I have ever seen and were quite comfortable sitting back for 20 minutes at a time, soaking up attack after attack, before breaking unbelievably quickly and bagging a goal. I was also very happy with how we went out. We led against Man Utd from the first minute, with Kis scoring after 37 seconds, and held them off until well into the second half, but unfortunately they were just too strong in the end.

Squad

Transfers - No more signings after the start of the season but I did offload all of the youth players who had come through my academy this year as it was clear none of them had the potential required to play anywhere near top flight football. The one transfer that isn't showing here is my signing of Jose Carlos, who I have agreed to sign for £875,000 & 20% of future profit, and he will sign at the start of the summer transfer window.

Squad - As you can see, my starting XI is rediculously young, with the oldest 2 players only aged 23 and an average age of less than 21. Despite this almost every player contributed, both with goals and assists, and there wasn't really a poor player in the squad (except the few who didn't play!) In the next transfer window I am aiming to get rid of every player aged 24 or over, and hopefully from that point I will be able to keep a pretty much unchanged squad for a few years to come.

Star Players

Santiago Diaz - Is maturing very nicely and was rock solid all season. Had to work a lot harder than last season but could always be counted on to keep almost any striker at bay, combined with pinpoint accurate distribution, resulting in him setting off so many counter attacks. I could struggle to hold onto him this year as plenty of teams in higher division were struggling in the keeper department this season and he is good enough to easily get a place in almost every Championship team and some Premiership sides.

Kyle Davison - On paper he doesn't seem to have done much, with only 2 assists and a couple of goals, but he was fantasic in the center of defence. For a 21 year old he was so consistant, only making 72 mistakes in the whole season, compared to 117 for his partner in crime, Adam Pierce. Given that he was so solid at the back he was surprisingly poor at corners, where he got no shortage of chances but repeatedly put them over the bar or straight into the keepers arms, but its not the biggest problem given how efficient the rest of the team were infront of goal.

Clive Stevenson - Another player who on paper hasn't done much, but played much better than his stats would suggest. On average he covered over 13km per 90 minutes, and never stopped working. He was actually quite error prone at the back, but always seemed to put in a good tackle when needed. More importantly he always seemed to draw opposition players out of position with his runs down the wing and freed up lots of space to allow my central midfield trio time on the ball.

Chris Cannon - Fabulous season. Despite being played as a central midfielder rather than an attacking midfielder he managed to bag himself more assists in less games, and was only a couple of goals off last season. Always seemed to be able to pick out the right pass and never seemed rushed while in possession. Will probably be the hardest player to keep hold of this year as all season long I have been turning down offers for him and I have a nasty feeling that if the offers rise much further then my chairman might end up accepting them.

Ramazan Karakoc - My little super sup. Almost all of his starts were as an attacking midfielder, and he only scored 6 goals from that position, and almost all of his substitue appearances began after around 60 minutes of the match, so he scored on average a goal every 38 minutes he spent on the pitch as a striker, which is absolutely fantastic. Whenever I was involved in a close game and brought him on I expected him to score and he usually delivered.

Player of the Season

Balazs Kis - As with last season, he was playing as a lone striker, meaning that the majority of my teams chances fell to him, and he delivered in spectacular fashion. Is incredibly composed infront of goal for such a young player although does seem to falter a big in games against bigger teams, but hopefully this will improve over time.

Awards

Manager of the Year - Alex Shaw

Top Goalscorer - Balazs Kis

Team of the Year - Clive Stevenson, Rob Henderson, Kyle Davison, Chris Cannon, Kevin Smith, Balazs Kis

Club Status

Finances - Surprisingly good this year, given that I spend quite a lot on wages and had virtually no income from player sales, but I did have quite a bit of help at one point in the season from my new chairman.

Takeover - This was a complete farce from start to finish. When the takeover was completed I got a message from the new chairman that made me s**t myself. I genuinely thought I was going to get the sack despite the huge success I have had with the club. The next day I got another message which contained good news. I was very happy with the extra cash and the promise of improving my facilities, and was glad that he had changed his mind about sacking me straight away. Things then got even better when I got a message a week later telling me that I could keep my job and the transfer embargo (that I had been under for around 4 months) being lifted. Then the message that made me certain that my new chairman is an ass (I already had a suspicion given that he said he wanted to sack me), when he announced that he wouldn't be improving our facilities.

Club History

Season         League                                                    Position     Achievements
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2016/2017      League 2                                                  1st          Promoted
2015/2016      Blue Square Premier                                       1st          Promoted, Won FA Trophy
2014/2015      Blue Square South                                         1st          Promoted, Won FA Trophy
2013/2014      English Southern League Premier Division                  1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2012/2013      English Southern League First Division South/West         1st          Promoted, Won Southern League Cup
2011/2012      English Western League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted, Won FA Vase
2010/2011      English Western League Division One                       1st          Promoted, Won Les Phillips Cup
2009/2010      Somerset County League Premier Division                   1st          Promoted