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FM14: The Skrill Premier, North & South thread


CityAndColour

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Cheers! I'll take a punt on them then! Tbh, there are some I could stand to loose anyway, but there's about 7-12 I should keep on.

Lot of work to be done though, besides squad building, I'll need to get professional so my players can grow, lot of youth that mightn't kick on without full time training, and I probably need to upgrade facilities.

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I should say though, I probably only renew 2-3 key players when that December message pops up about players coming out of contract. Unless I am absolutely certain they are required, I'll wait until the end of the season to decide, especially as you have until the end of May before other teams can approach your out of contract players, and often their wage demands will be less by then.

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I got 5 key players signed on, Marshall and my keeper wanted way too much. I'm none too fussed about loosing them in the end though! I have other strikers I'm going to experiment with in Marshalls spot short term, and my keeper would likely need replacing anyway.

I ended up about £700 in the red, and asked the boss for more wages, and they boosted it to +£95, so it worked out very well in the end. Might even be able to get a new free agent LW that I could well do with.

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Margate FC - 2017/18 review - League Two

League table

Graph

Squad

Transfers

Our first season as a professional club, and we finished in a fairly comfortable 10th position. Despite spending most of the first half of the season in the bottom half of the table, we never really got sucked into a relegation battle. In fact the table was so tight that we were generally closer to the playoff spots than the bottom two at all times.

A good run in the new year had us as unlikely playoff challengers, however despite a final day win against Torquay ensuring we finished within two points of the final playoff spot, we were never higher than 9th throughout the season.

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Key players

Teenage striker Tom Fitton was released by Blackburn's academy and took the division by storm, bagging 28 goals. However, given the financial situation at the club, I couldn't turn down £350K from Motherwell and he will be playing his trade in the SPL next season.

Club favourite Shaun Jeffers continued to perform better than his attributes would suggest, and marquee summer signing Luke Berry was ever present in midfield.

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Career progress

2013/14 - Holidayed

2014/15 - Conference South - 1st (promoted as champions)

2015/16 - Conference Premier - 2nd (lost playoff final)

2016/17 - Conference Premier - 1st (promoted as champions, FA Trophy winners)

2017/18 - League Two - 10th

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Was there a patch in the last couple of weeks? My tactic has suddenly fallen apart. Previously I'd average around 45-50% possession but my team would be really efficient on the counter and would barely ever take more than 2 or 3 long shots per game.

All of a sudden possession has dropped by 10% and I'm taking 5-8 long shots per game. The only changes I've made are to un-click "more direct passing" and "hassle opponents", which should surely mean I retain possession better and keep my defensive shape a bit more.

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Didn't think so. I guess removing those two instructions has messed up my tactic then... maybe I'll try putting them back.

I'm trying to gradually change from a quick counter-attacking side to a side capable of controlling games a bit more as Stockport get more established in the Premiership - I figured it was better to make small gradual changes over time rather than making any major and sudden upheaval. But then I guess all sorts of factors play into your team's performances, including reputation, form, season predictions and of course players' stats, form, morale and personalities... I've not changed much personnel-wise but the team seem to be a bit less steady this season than last.

I did sell Ettore Racle, my Swiss/Portuguese DLP, in the summer to Ajax for £9.5m (not a bad return on a £100k signing who was worth £4.8m or so). He'd been hankering for a move for a while and I was fed up with it seeing as he only contributed maybe 2 goals and 3 assists in a whole season. I think this season has shown how understated his influence was though - clearly he used to keep possession ticking over nicely which is something we've struggled to do this season.

I'm in that awkward transitional phase at the moment. Our first season in the Prem was an unbridled success (finished 7th), with the tactic working beautifully in tandem with our role as perennial underdogs. This season though we're aiming for European qualification, but our reputation is still low, so I've struggled to attract better players (and I don't have crazy money yet so can't really afford them anyway). I'm caught in that middle ground where my reputation is high enough that we're no longer underdogs in a lot of games, but low enough that a top-half finish is still a slightly unrealistic aim as far as my players are concerned, and their performances often reflect that.

That said, we're currently sat in 6th position in February 2021, so I can't really complain. It's just the performances that I'm not happy with, they've really dipped in the past few months. I'm sure things will turn around when my reputation improves, although this is symptomatic of a real personal gripe I've had for years with Football Manager games - there are so many nebulous stats that have a major impact but it's difficult to say for sure how to influence them.

P.S. Damien McClements scored 24 league goals in his first Premiership season and is on 14 so far this term. He's now approaching 200 appearances for Stockport, and has has scored nearly 150 league goals, making him the top goalscorer in Stockport's history (beating Jack Connor's record of 132 which had stood for about 65 years). Absolute legend (which, awesomely, is also reflected in the Stockport "Legends" section) and he's only 25 - I think even when this Stockport team is the best in the league I'll have to keep McClements until he retires just out of respect for the man.

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Have managed to finally get a 4-5-1 working (DMC, AML/R) for the first time on any version of the game. Is producing some lovely football and a back four with an anchorman in front of it seems very solid defensively, particularly guarding against through balls down the middle.

I've found 14.3 has almost made playing a back three impossible.

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Having been waiting for the January update to go live, I have now started my Skrill Premier save. I am now the proud new manager of Chester FC.

Currently in pre-season preparation mode, but will update as the season progresses!

Anyone have any MLs or MRs they could suggest, I'm in dire need!...

Paul

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So my mate has just challenged me to take Southport from the Skrill Prem to the Premiership in 6 seasons.... and an addded challenge of winning the Champions League within 10 season. I told him challenge accepted and that I would actuallt take them to the Premiership in 4 seasons, get to the Champions League in the 5th season and win it in the 6th.... Game on!! :p

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Elliot Durrell - he played RM for my Stockport team right up to the Premiership even though he's a natural AMC.

He has just joined Wrexham on a full time deal in the data update so probably not attainable straight up, especially for a team like Chester.

Chester actually start with a young AMR/FC Sean Miller who turns into a very handy player.

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Guest El Payaso

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Hadn't played this one for a month but decided to play september away. We're doing surprisingly well and the board even gave me £20k per week more for wages and some money for transfers. Matt Ball is running the game for me now and generally we're playing quite well even though most of our games are really 'boring' (under 10 shots for both teams) but that seems to do the trick.

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Only problem for me are the facilities and attendances. Training facilities still are only adequate and that's badly limiting my players' progress to reach their potential. Like I've already told, we play our games at Millwall's home stadium but still aren't getting decent crowds: only something like ~3000 spectators per game. You don't make money with that.

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Canvey Island - 2015/16 review - Conference Premier

vq5o8x.jpg

League table

Graph

Squad

Transfers

After the final day dramas which secured the Conference South title, we looked to back things up. The start was decent; performances weren't fantastic but we ground out enough points to keep us primarily in the top half of the table. Out of both cups early, we could concentrate on the league with a small squad.

In the new year we then went on a real tear, losing only two games and getting all the way to the dizzy heights of third, and remarkably only six points from top spot. We met Grimbsy in the playoff semis, and after grinding out a tight 2-1 win in the home leg, we conceded six goals from six shots in the return leg to go out with nary a whimper.

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Key players

Former Chester attacker Sean Miller was the star man here, helping himself to 26 goals from a wide right position, being ably supported by striker Waide Fairhurst (20 goals and 15 assists) in a false nine role. Young Portuguese Fabio Saraiva was also excellent as an advanced playmaker, however a broken ankle limited him to 25 starts.

We also had one of last season's youth intake, Charlie Cader, establish himself in the anchorman role, starting 24 times.

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Career progress

2014/15 - Conference South - 1st (promoted as champions)

2015/16 - Conference Premier - 4th (lost playoff semis)

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Hi guys I have been admiring this thread for a while, but wanted to do a couple of seasons with Chelmsford City first.

The first two seasons went well, first season came second and knocked out of the playoffs in the skrill south.

Second season we came third and won the playoffs.

So now the excitement begins in Skrill Prem.

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Guest El Payaso

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Well we lost our form and identity of boring games. Don't really get what happened during that Bournemouth-game, after that were simply just allowing half more chances for the opponents and our defending looks soft and error prone, before that my boys were battling and blocking shots and dispossessing the opponents. Really good performances against Sheff Utd and Wolves but after that dominated in every game and especially inside our own penalty area.

I don't know whether the fans really are angry at me because of letting O'Loughlin go but we're certainly not filling the stadium up. I can't think any other logic to that because we are doing really well in this season also. With attendances that low, we don't have any chances to improve our facilities and if we would be in the Premierleague in next season... we would really be eliminated there because ME seems to be even more attacking there...

OUR STATS

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Still churning out enough results though. perhaps a promotion and relegation would fix your finances enough to build properly?

Also just sold a fairly average looking striker from my last intake to Inverness on deadline day for £50K plus 30% of any future profit. Maybe they saw something I didn't as while his physicals were good, his mentals were hit and miss and his technical stats woeful.

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Guest El Payaso
Matt Ball is already a full Northern Ireland international on my game and looks fantastic. Also looks like he no longer starts on loan at Boreham Wood on the update.
Yeah that was a six month loan so it apparently has been deleted from the database after the update? Quite all-rounded player but really slowly developed in my team as I didn't manage to get him a good personality, should become a decent Premierleague player though but that's not going to bee enough in the top flight. He got to the national team in last season when we played in League 1 and has been in the squad ever since. After the patch I'm finally getting some creative passes from him also and he's getting much more assists than in the previous seasons.
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rubbish ones haha

I've signed 14 players on frees, all are better than what I started with but most would just about make it in the leagues below. The club has no pulling power. It seems no tactic works for them, I am trying everything and when I do find something that works, it lasts about 3 games tops then they fall apart again, I can't get their morale up as they are so rubbish. Considering all that I am still 5 pts above relegation, almost half way through the season

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Hi guys! Great thread! Thinking of starting a long-term save with Boston United in the Skrill North as the clubs nearby! Never really done a lower league save so does anybody have any general tips or players I should look out for?

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Started with Whitehawk, got them promoted in first season. Going pretty good, finished 4th and after drawing and Losing to Sutton. We had a stunning 2-0 win to take the promotion.

1 Question is the following considered cheating:

Between season i set up my Pre-season Friendlies. I try to schedule 3-4 leagues against VERY LARGE opponents. Doing this gives me at least 1mil in money i can use to Expand my stadium/youth/training ground.

Anyone else doing this??? Or is it as asked considered cheating.

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No that's not cinsidered cheating, it's a good way to make some extra cash. I usually start off with a few bigger games for the money then arrange about 6 against very small teams to get the morale up ready for the new season :)

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Hi LordAEM, nice to have another contributor to this thread.

I don't really buy into the whole 'cheating' thing - it's your game, play it however you get the most enjoyment out of. Personally I wouldn't do that as I enjoy the hard slog of lower leagues and trying to make money with cup runs and player sales, but if the game gives you the tools then why not?

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So since my last moan, I have made some tactical changes, signed yet another freebie, this time a better keeper and we have won 3 in a row, scoring 7 conceding 0. SO much improvement and we are sat in mid table 10 points above relegation now :)

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Guest El Payaso
Hi guys! Great thread! Thinking of starting a long-term save with Boston United in the Skrill North as the clubs nearby! Never really done a lower league save so does anybody have any general tips or players I should look out for?
I played my first save in this version with the same team. As midfield's playmakers seem to work much better now and actually being a bit creative I'd say that you have one excellent one in Ian Ross. He doesn't look special but he's highly creative and has the right PPMs to do te job for you. Also good in set pieces.

Other good players that you already have: Sam Vince (nice potential, maybe League 2 level?), Carl Piergianni (certainly League 2 maybe even League 1), Michael Clunan (League 2) Ben Milnes (League 2 maybe League 1)

They all do need full-time training to reach the full potential and the abilities may have been changed after the latest update.

I think that the team has changed quite a bit since I played so really don't know which areas you should strenghten. I always leave the job for my scouts and believe me: the tranfer market is full of good candidates. Dele Adebola would be a great option when looking for a striker and if you want to play with two strikers get Lewis Putman to the team. That's all I can say. :D

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Pre-season got me 1.5m. Wage budget of 13k after promotion i went for the safe spot and choose Mid Table.

Think my best 2 buys so far must have been my GKs. Tomasso Trani beginning of my game and beginning of 2nd season Gines Guzman. Trani's potential being a good L1 GK, Guzman's being a leading L1 GK.

Knew Trani from a previous start so i knew he was good. Took me quite a while to talk him into talking with me (4 week trial, 3 x declared interest). Then finally i got him. Guzman was a scout find. Upgraded the team

slightly this season with about 5-10 new guys.

5 games into the season im the leader with 4 wins 1 draw. Some really nice results got our GD of +15 (17 scored, 2 conceded) winning the last game with 6-1 (after a red card for my team in the 36th minute)

Things are looking good, ill keep you guys posted

Just saw a fun Final Score on my U18 Cup match: 1-1 final score 18-19 after penalties

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So I have just finished the first season with Southport. After a promising start, it all fell apart after the 10th game and it was a struggle to get everything working again. Safety came down to the final game of the season. For the last 6 games of the season I had to change my style completely and delve deeper into the tactics to try and bring about a change which I managd thankfully. I have never been relegated on any version of FM nor CM well on any management game ever, so I didn't want to start now. Thankfully that record carries on as we won the final game of the season to stay up. Since the change we won 4, drew 1 and lost 1 to end the season strongly :)

We were predicted to finish 23rd and go down, so even though I was aiming for promotion(which to be honest was a tad bit hopeful, I always aim for that in the lower leagues no matter who I am), we still beat expectations and I keep my job.

The cups went about as thought, FA Cup 1st round knock out and same with the FA Trophy. But I didn't care at all about them, all I cared about was the league.

Southport_S1_LT.jpg

Onto next season :)

Most of my players are out of contract and all but a few of them I will release as they aren't good enough for the team. I need the wage budget to bring in new faces as I now hare a good idea on what I want tactic wise next season and I want to go for the play offs at least. SO major work ahead in the summer. Will probably have about 6/7 players left to start off with. I hope I get decent budgets this time round, although we don't have much in the bank so I doubt it. I have a feeling this coming season will be harder than the one just finished, so should be fun

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Apparently there are less penalties on 14.3 (to balance out the fact that they are never missed) but I've seen quite a few both ways. Probably had more for than against but then again I employ the "stay on feet" shout.

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Well 18 games in im in 5th with 33 pts. Just created a shocker in the FA Cup beating Carlisle (L1) at their place 1-2 (guess what my 2nd goal came from the penalties i never had so far).

So yeah i finally took a penalty in a real game.

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Canvey Island - 2016/17 review - Conference Premier

vq5o8x.jpg

League table

Graph

Squad

Transfers

A solid start pushed us well into the top half, and we stayed around the playoff spots all season without ever really establishing ourselves in them, however staying in the top ten for the entire season was pleasing. Going into the final day we were a point behind Halifax in the last playoff spot, with them holding a better goal difference and us both traveling to the top two. We did the business with an excellent counter-attacking display at 2nd placed Northampton, winning 3-1, while Halifax conceded two late at champions Grimsby to hand us the final spot.

In the playoffs we met Northampton again, losing narrowly at home in the first leg 2-3. We set up again to counter in the away leg, and a dour 0-0 resulted in another semi final exit. Northampton went on to lose to Forest Green in the final.

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Key players

Sean Miller was again the star, netting another 21 goals to finish as top scorer for the second season running, and James Constable and Waide Fairhurst also hit double figures alternating in the false nine role. Danny Waldren was the pick of the midfielders, scoring eight times and adding nine assists, and centre half Adam Bygrave contributed six goals and the best average rating of the defenders.

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Career progress

2014/15 - Conference South - 1st (promoted as champions)

2015/16 - Conference Premier - 4th (lost playoff semis)

2016/17 - Conference Premier - 5th (lost playoff semis)

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To be fair, you are doing well with what you have, maybe you just need a tweak with the tactics. I mean you are getting into the play offs, so you are mighty close. There maybe some good freebies to nab or some good loans that can make the squad a little stronger

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There are currently four free agents I am interested in signing, that have been released by a Prem club, a Champ club (both youth) and two League Two clubs. They have now been unattached for 18 months now and still won't even enter negotiations. That pretty much sums up my attempts to attract players that are better than what I have.

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Guest El Payaso

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Not a good month at all. We were in control in every match but the more chances we create the worse our finishing gets. One corner kick was enough for Barnsley. Stoke needed two floated crosses inside the penalty area, Charlton didn't produce anything but still we had to wait that corner at the end to score. Our defending went to even more off-mode against Blackpool; first own goal from a corner, then the whole team stopped playing when we lost possession during an attack and our centre back suddenly was alone against four opponents at the edge of our penalty area, he needed to foul and they scored from a free-kick. We managed once again to equalize with a debut goal from Doyle but then 'the full-back marking error (bug)' punished us in the 92nd minute.

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End of Season 2 Review.

So after last season's final day escape I had to change things. 23 players left in the end and I brought in about 30 to replace them. I think my squad size was at about 37 players for the first team at one point. But it was needed and well done

We were given a predicted finish of 14th, which was surprising considering where we finished last season, but as always my aim was promotion.

.The first 8 games didn't go amazingly, 2 wins, 3 draws 3 defeats, but it was something to build on. I realised the tactics weren't working so I completely changed them, meaning a few players weren't needed anymore, so they were shipped out.

After that things started picking up and we actually only lost 4 more times in the league. We drew far too many though and couldn't score enough goals for my liking. 7 teams scored more than us throughout the season, but thankfully the other teams found it very hard to get past our keeper and no one came close to our defensive record. We ended up winning the league on the final day of the season, where we had to win or hope Halifax lost. Thankfully we won.

Season_2_Final_Table.jpg

So considering our media prediction, we did fantastic, mainly down to our defensivve efforts. I made a point on recruiting the best I could for the back 5 and it certainly paid off.

We made it to the 3rd round of the FA trophy. During that little run I had already decided it wasn't an important competition so I played the youth and reserves in it and we lost the 3rd round 5-0 to Luton. But as I said not important so I wasn't annoyed or anything.

The final competition we were in was the FA Cup. Our run is a follows

4th Qualifier - W 2-0 away v AFC Liverpool

1st Round - W 3-1 away v York

2nd Round - D 0-0 home v Burton

2nd Round replay - W 4-1 away v Burton

3rd Round - D 2-2 away v Leyton Orient

3rd Round replay - W 0-0 7-6 pens v Leyton Orient

4th Round - D 0-0 home v Bristol City

4th Round replay - W 3-2 away v Bristol City

5th Round - W 4-0 away v Tranmere

6th Round - W 2-0 away v Huddersfield

Semi Finals - W 7-3 v Peterborough

And that brings us to the Final where we were to face the mighty Manchester United. Being a fan of them and having managed them many times on FM I knew what was coming......

Season_2_FA.jpg

Or so I thought, what a Final!!

They had a full strength side out, minus RVP, Rooney, Rafael and DDG, and when they went 2-0 through Kagawa and Mata, I thought christ here we go, we are going to get trounced. SO I made some changes straight away after the second went in, and as you can see we got back in the game and did amazingly well. We scored 3 but could of had a tonne more.

What an amazing way to end the season. Now onto the next!!

So we are now into League 2 and on with my challenge. I have to get promoted this season or I will fail the challenge set to me. But now we have the extra burden of European football to add to the already massive amount of matches. Not that that is a bad burden to be fair lol, means I have extra money to spend on players. But after looking through the player search, even getting European football hasn't opened us up to attracting great talent. Although we should be going full time any time now so that should help big time.

I am losing about 9 or ten players to retirement and free transfers, so I will have to replace them with much better players.

This is the current season players final stats: -

Season_2_player_stats.jpg

The future looks promising for this small club :)

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In my Boston save managed to win the Skrill North in the first season pretty comfortably. No luck really in cups but was not really expecting any at all tbh. Second season managed to finish 16th in the Skrill Premier and most impressively got through to the 4th round of the FA cup where we were hammered by Stoke but the money the run generated was ample compensation :D . Managed to get to the Quarters of the FA Trophy where we suffered a disappointing defeat. Overall pretty happy with the season! Woah Powello that is a great FA Cup run! Any players you would suggest to push for promotion in the Skrill Premier?

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