FM16 - The Sky Bet Football League thread

[OrientTillIDie]

Still going well as Orient. Got a few more games in just now and I'm sitting 3rd currently. Too many draws meant I slipped down a place but on the plus side, I'm unbeaten in 10 league games since that defeat to Stevenage early in the season. My main issue currently is conceding goals. I haven't kept a clean sheet in 8 games which is a bit of a worry. Simpson is back from injury and scored in his second game back. He's still blasting the ball which is annoying the hell out of me. No one from SI has an answer for me as to why this is which is doubly frustrating.

Managed to extend Stephen Arthurworrey's loan for another 3 months after he won Young Player of the Month. He's been very much a happy accident as I wasn't planning on bringing a defender in until Brisley got injured. Dean Cox has been sensational. And chipped in with 9 assists already this season. Blair Turgott has been the surprise package with 3 goals. Kevin Nolan also grabbed his first goal with a tidy finish in my last game at home to Oxford.

[Jakarooney]

R.I.P. Sam Morsy

R.I.P Sam

[lewis999]

Perkins has been playing brilliantly for me! No I'm just playing 451, 1dm 2 wingers and 1 up top! I just took Power off to get a standing ovation and put a flat back 5 for the last couple minutes just to hold out for added time! Pretty sure Wabara is only 23!

Who are the other Wigan players playing in goal? Jussi or Lee? How do you get the best from Grigg?

No mate i'm a Barnsley fan, those three players played for us. I didn't mean old in the age sense of the word I just meant they 'used' to play for us.

[Nottingham Forest]

Just been robbed by Leicester . Absolutely gutted.

[Gizmo7]

How's life at Forest going for you?

[Nottingham Forest]

Considering I raged quit the last one because nothing was working and then failed to get into saves with Yeovil and Crawley I'm going well. Started again as Forest as I'm determined to get things to work at Forest. I have to say it's going well.

[Gizmo7]

Good to hear

I've picked up Tyler Walker at the start of the 2020/2021 season with Morecambe in League One and he's going alright for us.

[Nottingham Forest]

Tyler Walker is a great prospect in real life. Gets goals if you give him game time. He's done alright for me but I think he's just a bit too young at the moment to make a complete impact.

[Gizmo7]

Does anyone have a decent corner routine setup? For both attacking and defending? I'm conceding tons of goals at corners and scoring none

[Nottingham Forest]

Nottingham Forest FC

2015-2016 Season

Sky Bet Championship

Pre-Season-End of December

Pre-Season

The start of pre-season is tough as Forest boss as you have no money to sign any players and you're under a transfer embargo. Due to the difficulty SI have faced coding it, Forest can only sign free agents and not loans. So there is a slight difference to real life restrictions. Countering the previous comment, SI haven't coded the fact that we can also have only 24 senior players over the age of 21 who have played 5+ games and we're restricted to paying no more than £10k per week in player wages. The squad also contains a number of key players on long term injuries. Some of which won't play a game all season.

With this in mind, my squad was going to remain largely unchanged unless I could get rid of one man. That one man was Danny Fox. I don't rate him as a footballer and I somehow managed to get £250k for him and shift his £20k per week wages from the club. Ipswich the unlucky party involved. With us now being able to sign 2 new players with the free spaces. Dorus de Vries also kicked up a fuss about leaving for Holland so when FC Twente made a suitable offer of £235k, I happily accepted.

Four new players eventually joined and they were Abdul Razak(MC), Will Packwood(DR/MC/DC), Dale Jennings(AML/R) and Luke Simpson(GK). Luke Simpson will be no more than a back up after I enjoyed managing him on FM15. The rest will provide us with some good options even though they're not the best players in the world.

The squad is blessed with a number of good youngsters so I allowed quite a few to depart on loans for the season in order for them to gain first team football. However, there are quite a few still remaining within the first team squads. The best youngsters at the club are: Oliver Burke, Ben Osborn, Tyler Walker, Dimi Evtimov, Anel Ahmedhodzic, Ben Brereton and Kieran Hayes. The following players are out on loan: Frederik Nielsen, Alex Iacovitti and Joe Worrall. One youngster who could be leaving us is Dylan Burns as he's unable to gain a work permit for his new deal. Recently I've persuaded to look for clubs when I can send players on loan to gain work permits so hopefully that proves successful.

With transfers limited, I felt that we'd be best of trying to arrange as many friendlies during pre-season as possible. My preferred pre-season set-up is to play games on Saturday and Wednesdays in order to get the squad match fit and accustomed to my tactics. I decided that we'd set up with three possible tactics and they were 4-3-2-1(Wingers), 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1. We'd look to play a defensive, fast counter game where we'd put the opposition under pressure. In total I was able to play 9 games as we won 7 and lost 2. Admittedly all games were against 'lesser' teams but within them games we had a training camp in Albufeira where squad morale increased.

League

In the league we've done better than expected. We're sat 5th in the table having picked up 37 points from our first 24 games. Despite having a defensive mentality for most games, we've only managed to win 9 of our 24 games so far whilst we've drawn 10 and lost 5. The two results you can't see are the 1-0 victory against Leeds and the 2-0 loss to Cardiff. There have been some good results in there but there have also been some stinkers where we haven't turned up. The three that spring to mind are the Bolton, Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff games.

Capital One Cup

In the Capital One Cup we had a great run to the quarter finals where we eventually lost to Leicester in extra time. As expected, Leicester dominated the early stages of the game before we gathered moment to become the better side. We took the lead on 56 minutes through Ben Osborn before Jamie Vardy equalised on 69 minutes as Leicester had a good 5 minute spell again. Despite us regaining control the game went to extra time where Vardy scored with a great volley on 108 minutes. Jamie Ward had the chance to equalise late on for us but a quality save from Kasper Schmeichel saw them progress where they'll face Villa in the semi-final. If Nélson Oliveira hadn't of gone off injured then I'm confident he would have scored to take the tie to penalties.

Other News

In other news, I got an notification after the first game of the season that Jamie Ward was considering retirement due to an ongoing medical condition with his hamstrings after he picked up an injury. Financially we're losing money but we're still expected to come out of the transfer embargo at the end of the season. Chris Cohen, Ben Osborn, Eric Lichaj and Oliver Burke have all signed new deals whilst Kelvin Wilson is considering a new deal. We're still struggling with injuries as Bojan Jokic, Dexter Blackstock, Oliver Burke, Jamie Ward, Ryan Mendes, Nélson Oliveira and David Vaughan all miss large parts of the season. Nélson and Oliver are still out for a considerable time yet.

[Jogo Bonito]

Some good updates there, including a very nice one from NF. Unlucky on your situation Gizmo, I'd love to say I can help on the corner front but I really can't!

Is the new 16.3 version fairly similar to the previous one (database excepted)?

[MichaelBrown]

Does anyone have a decent corner routine setup? For both attacking and defending? I'm conceding tons of goals at corners and scoring none

I've seen one on strikerless

[Nottingham Forest]

Nottingham Forest FC

2015-2016 Season

Sky Bet Championship

January-May

League

Results - Table

The second half of the season couldn't have gotten off to a better start as we managed to beat Charlton 2-0. This sparked a 7 match unbeaten run. A lucky 4-1 win for Hull caused us little issues as we managed to put another 8 match unbeaten run together to sit top of the table. Unfortunately we then decided to lose 5 of the last 6 games of the season as we collected 1 point to finish 12th in the table.

FA Cup

We got a tough draw in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup as we were expected to face Sunderland. Despite them being in the Premier League I was confident of getting a result. Despite an even game in the first match at The City Ground we could only muster a 1-1 draw. At The Stadium of Light we weren't at the races and they won comfortably 2-0.

Other News

I allowed Jamie Ward to depart for £750k to Brighton as he was moaning about a lack of first team football and I couldn't give him that. Matt Mills departed to Aberdeen on loan for the rest of the season for the same reason. Just after the season had finished, Fawaz decided to pull the plug on the training and youth expansions due to a lack of funds before agreeing to the youth expansion again a week later when we'd got a bit more money after his cash injection of £4.8m. Our youth category remained at level 2. Financially up until Fawaz's cash injection we were over £4m in the red. The board have set the initial budgets at £300k per week for wages and a transfer budget of £278k.

Next Season

There's going to be a major overhaul of the squad as all of our loanees will be departing and they don't look like they'll be returning. There's going to be some tough decisions over Andy Reid and David Vaughan as I don't think we have the ability to carry them for the coming season. I've got my eye on a number of players so I'm hoping I can shape my squad with some quality in order for us to attempt to reach the play-offs.

[Jogo Bonito]

Nice update NF, shame you lost form at the end there but a realistic finish given the difficulties you inherited with injuries and the embargo. Good luck for next season, and may you enjoy a productive transfer window!

[Nottingham Forest]

Nice update NF, shame you lost form at the end there but a realistic finish given the difficulties you inherited with injuries and the embargo. Good luck for next season, and may you enjoy a productive transfer window!

It was really frustrating as I thought we were going to finish in the top 2 at one stage, or even the play-offs. The league was close last season and I think this will be even more harder this season. I need to hit the ground running as the board will be quick to pull the trigger if I don't hit form. Got one new keeper joining. When I saw he was a available for a snippet of what he should be I felt I had to sign him. I also managed to snag Arsenal as a parent club last season which I should hopefully be able to use to good effect.

[Jogo Bonito]

Coventry City - Season 3 Update (July to September 2017)

Time for an overdue update from Coventry. Following our promotion last year, we started the third season with Championship status. With Rico Henry, Romaine Sawyers, Tom Bradshaw, Oliver Norwood and Sam Clucas amongst my transfer dealings in the summer (see post #583), I felt we should be capable of a top-half finish, and a good pre-season enhanced that opinion.

Then the league campaign started, and our early struggles were compounded by injuries at the same time to my 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice strikers. I've been playing a lone front man for the last two years, so having any of them available would have been fine, but we really found it tough without all three! As soon as they returned, I then lost a couple of key midfielders, so it never really got going.

Hovering just above the relegation zone, I decided that a change of formation might yield better results, and without any training on the practice pitch, I sprung my tactical 3-5-2 (wing backs, with three central midfielders and two strikers) surprise on Sunderland. Conceding a penalty after three minutes made me fear the worst, but amazingly we fought back to lead 5-1 after just 23 minutes, and finished up departing the North East with a comfortable 5-2 victory. I followed that up with a nervy 1-0 home win (and rare clean sheet), before finishing the month with a late solitary goal defeat at home to Middlesbro.

We aren't quite hitting the heights I expected, and I still feel we have the potential to really do better than this. I'm sticking with the 352 for now, and will see if that allows us to pick up some momentum and confidence.

[PhroX]

Cambrige - January 2019 update

Well, my second season in the Championship is well under way, reaching the halfway point last night. And things are going pretty well.

Our defense is a bit shaky, hence the number of draws but we're fantastic going forward this year. New signings Dahle and Jensen are a huge part of this, setting in right away, with the former on 13 goals so far. Not bad for a 18 year old who's previous first team experience was about a dozen games in Norway. And that good league form has just been topped off by a 4-0 hammering of Sunderland in the FA cup. I'm still using a 4-4-2, though I've started mixing things up style wise, retaining the counter attacking style which has served me so well for matches against the top teams in the division, but using a much more attacking, pressing game against the weaker teams.

So, the future is looking pretty bright for Cambridge. Playoffs are a real possibility, and maybe even an outside shot at automatic promotion. What could go wrong? Well, the answer to that is probably gonna be me.

Yeah. Just relegated last season, with a good squad and lots of money, Bournemouth want me to kickstart their rather disappointing season which has them currently sitting in 12th. It's been fun at Cambridge, but this is the kind of job offer that will really take my career forward, so I'm gonna have to accept.

This is how my three and a half years went stats wise, accompanied by two promotions, including winning League 1.

Still, Bournemouth are most definitely in the Football League, so I see no reason for me to stop updating here

[Gizmo7]

Unlucky there Jogo - although a tiny little part of me is glad to see someone else find the Championship as hard as I did Such a tough league!

Which makes it even more impressive how well you're doing PhroX, amazing achievement there, and nobody can really blame you for taking the Bournemouth job in all honesty, a big step up for you in your career there, although technically, Bouremouth aren't a Football League club in FM16, but I'm sure we're all interested to see how the season finishes for you and how Cambridge do without you there, so keep us posted in here!

[PhroX]

Unlucky there Jogo - although a tiny little part of me is glad to see someone else find the Championship as hard as I did Such a tough league!

Which makes it even more impressive how well you're doing PhroX, amazing achievement there, and nobody can really blame you for taking the Bournemouth job in all honesty, a big step up for you in your career there, although technically, Bouremouth aren't a Football League club in FM16, but I'm sure we're all interested to see how the season finishes for you and how Cambridge do without you there, so keep us posted in here!

Yeah, I was a little surprised just how well we ended up doing. This year, I wasn't expecting to really be in a relegation fight, but I was thinking maybe mid-table at best, but it seems like everything just clicked. The first half of my first season in the Championship was tough, but we went on a great run of form during the winter which got us clear of the drop, then we pottered along to the end of that year with reasonable form. To some extent things were the same this year - the start wasn't bad by any means, but it was a little slow with a lot of draws, before really picking up in November and December (I won manager of the month for the former). The big difference this time round was really having a quality striker. In half a season, Dahle has 3 more goals than anyone managed in the entire of the previous season, and he's joint top on the team's assists list. I would recommend him to everyone, but unfortunately he's a regen

And though they might not be a FL club at the beginning, Bournemouth sure as hell are now (though hopefully not for too long). How things were 3.5 years ago ain't that relevant any more

I haven't played any games with them yet, but I've had a look over the squad, and it really appears the AI has trouble with squad rotation (half the team need a rest, the rest have 100% fitness....), which might help explain why things tend to start to pick up for me a few months into the game. Bit torn on what to do tactics wise. On the one hand, there's a temptation to just keep what was working for me at Cambridge, but at the same time, I've been using that for a while now, and feel like something different. Maybe a possession based 4-5-1/4-3-3, which would seem to suit my new players reasonably well. I'll probably need to bring in a couple of players - they're a little light on central midfielders and creative strikers - but there's a lot of budget left. Maybe see if my scouts think my old protege Felix Myhre would be good enough.

[Gizmo7]

I haven't played any games with them yet, but I've had a look over the squad, and it really appears the AI has trouble with squad rotation (half the team need a rest, the rest have 100% fitness....), which might help explain why things tend to start to pick up for me a few months into the game. Bit torn on what to do tactics wise. On the one hand, there's a temptation to just keep what was working for me at Cambridge, but at the same time, I've been using that for a while now, and feel like something different. Maybe a possession based 4-5-1/4-3-3, which would seem to suit my new players reasonably well. I'll probably need to bring in a couple of players - they're a little light on central midfielders and creative strikers - but there's a lot of budget left. Maybe see if my scouts think my old protege Felix Myhre would be good enough.

Always play to your strengths. Pick out your best 2 or 3 players and base the team around their strongest positions. That would be my advice

[PhroX]

Always play to your strengths. Pick out your best 2 or 3 players and base the team around their strongest positions. That would be my advice

I'm not that kind of manager really. I set the system based on what I want to see my players doing, not who my best players are. I won't completely ignore what I've got available to me (e.g. I won't play a back 3 if I've only got 2 half decent centre backs), but the players fit into the system, not the other way around.

My problem currently is I can't decide what system I want to play

[OrientTillIDie]

Short update on my Orient save...

Managed to scrape a couple of 2-1 wins against Morecambe and Luton after going a goal down. Also got a good win against Accrington but then things went south. A few injuries (including Jay Simpson again for another 6 weeks) meant I had to go looking for cover up front. I signed Andy Little on loan from Preston for a month and 32 minutes into his debut he strained his thigh and was out for 6 weeks. This meant having to bring Scott Kashket into the fold and rotate him and Nolan as a partner to my big men. I got drawn against Torquay in the FA Cup at home and couldn't break them down. Drew 0-0 and have a replay at Plainmoor coming up. The carrot is a trip to Altrincham or Barrow (I think) so hopefully I should make it to the third round. The biggest disappointment though was losing my 14 game unbeaten run away to Hartlepool. I went 2-0 down after 25 minutes but managed to grab a goal back just before half time through Nolan (scrappy set piece tap in). 10 minutes into the second half Nolan scored again from a yard (total distance the ball covered from his foot to the goal in both instances totalling less than 2 yards!) and I looked like I was in the ascendancy. 5 minutes later though Hartlepool went back ahead through Brad Walker completely against the run of play, then with 10 minutes to go they countered and Walker scored an absolute screamer to make it 4-2. I'm top of the table but only just after losing that. Happily Simpson is back from injury so I'm hopeful I can turn my form around.

[Reedy_1988]

Finally got round to starting a save having had the game since release!

Started as Wolves and I'm doing ok, we sit 6th after 10 games. We've also had a takeover and you'll never believe who our new chairman is... It's only Mr. Goldenballs himself, David Beckham!

[Jogo Bonito]

Welcome Reedy, good luck with Wolves under your interesting new owner! I'm at Coventry and Graham Taylor is in charge of us!

[Spiegel]

Just finished 8th in League 1 with Hartlepool (Season 2) - will post a proper update when I get a chance.

Florentino Perez is leading a Yeovil takeover bid here!

[Jogo Bonito]

Look forward to seeing your update with Hartlepool. Not sure that Perez at Yeovil is an entirely realistic scenario

[Reedy_1988]

Well I certainly wasn't expecting that...

[OrientTillIDie]

Rather long update on my Orient save. Had a fair amount of free time over the weekend so did almost a years worth of in-game time.

15/16 Season Summary

In short, I won the league (just!!). Had a bit of a blip with about 10 games to go. I'd only lost 2 games up until that point but then managed to lose 3 in a row and followed those up with a draw. This allowed Plymouth to jump ahead of me on goal difference. Happily though my next game was at home to Plymouth and I managed to get my players fired up and we beat them 3-0. Won the rest of my games to win the title with a game to spare so happy days. Dean Cox got League 2 Player of the Year(11 goals and 13 assists). Jay Simpson finished with 25 goals (1 behind Lennell John-Lewis). Blair Turgott was a surprise (9 goals and 12 assists).

Summer Transfers

Fair amount of movement in and out, as follows.

Outs

Nicky Hunt (released) - didn't really cut it in League 2 so got rid ASAP.

Shaun Brisley (loan end) - ditto above.

Connor Essam (released) - didn't play a single game for me. Loaned him to Tranmere for 6 months before releasing.

Fraser Shaw (released) - just wasn't quite good enough. Binnom-Williams is a monster so Shaw couldn't dislodge him.

Jobi McAnuff (retired) - did a good job as cover for Cox but I wasn't planning on keeping him.

Calaum Jahraldo-Martin (loan end) - again did a good job but Turgott was a revelation so I didn't need to keep him.

Lloyd James (released) - tough decision but he could barely make it through an hour of a game so I moved him on.

Jack Payne (loan end) - couldn't afford the £150k fee so he went as well.

Sammy Moore (Crawley - free) - Nowhere near good enough for League 1.

Nigel Atangana (Chester - free) - again, not good enough for League 1.

Paul McCallum (Cheltenham - £10k) - goalless since December so moved him on.

Ollie Palmer (Grimsby - free) - didn't bother playing him. Only managed to score 2 goals in a season in the U21s.

The rest released were youngsters.

Ins

Allessandro Vinci RB (free) - took him on trial and he did a good job.

Stephen Arthurworrey CB (loan) - did a magnificent job alongside Baudry last season so got him for another year.

Rhys Williams CB (free) - bit injury prone but did well in his trial and he's versatile.

Jerome Binnom-Williams LB (loan) - same as Arthurworrey. Quality left back so took him for another year.

Luke Conlon LB (free) - Cover for JBW.

Liam Feeney RM (free) - found him on the free agents just after the season started. Took him on trial and he was sensational.

Neil Danns CM (free) - goal scoring midfielder with bags of experience.

Oscar Gobern CM (free) - did well on trial as my DLP.

Jonathan Douglas CM (free) - experienced cover for Gobern.

Kyle Dempsey LM (loan) - versatile and good all round midfielder.

Joseph Dodoo ST (loan) - luckily Leicester are my parent club. Good cover/competition for Simpson.

Daniele Paponi ST (free) - all round Italian striker. Did well on trial.

Youth Intake

Got a couple of potential gems. A possible 4 to 5 star centre back called Chris Marshall who looks promising. Also a possible 4 to 4.5 star striker called Samuel Nyarko. Supposedly a Target Man but not massively tall or strong. Excellent finisher already so I'm hopeful.

16/17 so far

I had the first game of the season at home to Sheffield United. Mega start; went 2-0 up after 20 minutes and then got a third on the hour. Comfortable 3-0 win. The last game I did was my First Round FA Cup game which I drew (again!!) so have another replay. In the league I'm sitting 2nd having only lost 3 games so far. Goals coming from all over. Turgott has continued his excellent form, Cox is still brilliant, Simpson still prolific, JBW an absolute monster and Cisak regularly makes game changing saves.

All good so far!

[Jogo Bonito]

Rather long update on my Orient save. Had a fair amount of free time over the weekend so did almost a years worth of in-game time.

Nice update, well done on the promotion and keep up the good work in League 1.

I'm just at the beginning of the January transfer window (season 3) with Coventry, and will pop an update on later if possible.

[Jogo Bonito]

Coventry City - Season 3 update

Having switched to 352 in September, our results have picked up a bit over the last few months. It now looks like we are capable of holding our own - the defence has tightened up, and we seem to be more than capable of scoring too. Some of the passing and switching of play recently has been nice to watch, and this is how I had been expecting us to perform after our promotion to the second tier. Most of our young squad now have plenty of experience for their age, and the form of Armstrong, Norwood, Maddison, Nelson, and Henry has been particularly encouraging.

With the board just asking us to avoid relegation, we look to be doing more than enough to meet their requirements. That means I'm not under any pressure from Graham Taylor, and can look forward with cautious optimism. I'm well aware that a poor run of form will drop us back in to the relegation mix, as there aren't any teams below cut adrift - but all we need to do is keep this level of form up!

There hasn't been much movement in the transfer market since the summer. I picked up defender Paul Dummett on a free transfer in November, although he has only played 135 minutes so far, having just returned from an eight month injury that prompted his release by Newcastle. I have one deal lined up for January, with striker Will Grigg joining for £75,000 from Wigan. He'll be a rotation option, but is accepting a modest wage and should be a decent third or fourth choice striker.

On the staffing side, I recruited Steve Stone (coach) and Ian Harte (U18 coach) in the summer, and have just recently added the lovely Eva Carneiro as an additional physio, and ex-MK Dons boss Karl Robinson as another first team coach (with Andy Garner being removed to facilitate the latter deal).

[OrientTillIDie]

Good additions on the staff Jogo! That's one place I'm struggling at the minute because Mr Becchetti won't let me have any more staff members at the moment (due to our "current financial situation". Not sure what that means because as far as I can see we're not too bad). Paul Dummett should prove to be a great bit of business.

Good to see that you've moved away from the drop as well. Hopefully you can stay clear comfortably this season and then build on that next year.

[Citizen Sandman]

first ever time as Blackburn I didn't get promoted in 1st season (last few versions anyway)

Felt was realistic to an extent, without Rhodes the squad is pretty average and I lost in the promotion semi's to Boro. I am also a sunday league, no badges rep so it was difficult. This season is going well however.

[Jogo Bonito]

Good additions on the staff Jogo! That's one place I'm struggling at the minute because Mr Becchetti won't let me have any more staff members at the moment (due to our "current financial situation". Not sure what that means because as far as I can see we're not too bad). Paul Dummett should prove to be a great bit of business.

Good to see that you've moved away from the drop as well. Hopefully you can stay clear comfortably this season and then build on that next year.

Cheers. Yes I always try to get some quality staff in at my clubs, and those I have are all good now. I'd like to have a few more of them to be honest, but don't currently have that option. I agree that Dummett adds to a squad with some ability, and feel we should finish mid-table otherwise I need to ask myself some questions! Good luck with your crazy Italian...

Welcome Citizen. To get to the play-off semi final with Blackburn wasn't a bad effort at all, they're hardly one of the best squads and financially it's not easy there either.

[Gizmo7]

Morecambe 2020/2021 - Sky Bet League One

Very disappointing. We lost in the play-off semi's against Colchester 2-0 at their place and 0-0 at ours. The board are still happy with this, but it's left our finances not good, as I was banking on bouncing back to the Championship at the first time of asking. The board have decreased our transfer revenue retained to a measly 5%, and slashed our wage budget so we're now £10,000 p/w over. Things are not looking good here at Morecambe, and it's with a very heavy heart, that I have decided to resign as manager of Morecambe.

What next? Who knows. My overall goal has always been to manage at the highest level, so i'll be searching for a club who I believe will be a better match for me.

[Gungner]

Will Grigg was my topscorer at Wigan, both in League One and The Championship.

So great signing there Jogo!

[Jogo Bonito]

@Gizmo. Very unlucky there, but I can see how tough the next season would be. Credit to you for a great service to Morecambe though. Will you continue that ssave with another club, or take on a new challenge on version 16.3?

@Gungner. Thanks, I was chasing him since season 1 but after finally grabbing him I'm sorry to say he hasn't performed very well when called upon. I have four fixtures left of season 3, and hope to finish that and update soon.

[Gungner]

After my Wigan save went out of the window, and cannot be loaded, I took a readthrough of this thread and I'm really tempted of starting my next save with either Barnsley or Coventry... A decision needs to be made!

[lewis999]

After my Wigan save went out of the window, and cannot be loaded, I took a readthrough of this thread and I'm really tempted of starting my next save with either Barnsley or Coventry... A decision needs to be made!

Barnsley it is then! Now that's been settled come over to the thread I made.

[Gizmo7]

Well, it didn't take me long to get another job, and it's a definite step up in the footballing world compared to Morecambe.

Derby have just finished 19th in the Premier League, and are looking for someone to get them back up this season. At first glance, the squad seems very good, and I have money to play around with, so it should be a good challenge here at Derby. They've become somewhat of a yoyo club, with their last 4 seasons being promotion, relegation, promotion, relegation... next season, promotion?

[Gizmo7]

@Gizmo. Very unlucky there, but I can see how tough the next season would be. Credit to you for a great service to Morecambe though. Will you continue that ssave with another club, or take on a new challenge on version 16.3?

Thanks, it would have indeed been a massive struggle next season at Morecambe.

I'm trying not to start a new save at all with this FM, going to hop from club to club and see how far I can get!

[Jogo Bonito]

@Gizmo, good luck at Derby!

@Gungner, good luck with Coventry

@lewis, that's blatant poaching!! But fine by me - Barnsley are a good choice

[Gungner]

Barnsley it is then! Now that's been settled come over to the thread I made.

I've started up with Barnsley... Have posted in the club-thread, and will keep updating in here as well.

[lewis999]

I've started up with Barnsley... Have posted in the club-thread, and will keep updating in here as well.

Fantastic choice. When I get chance to play a bit more i'll update too. I'm trying to get us playing like we do in real life in our 4-4-2.

[Jogo Bonito]

I've finally finished season 3 with Coventry, and I'll admit to being quite disappointed. I still feel I have assembled a very good squad of players, with decent ability, a nice balance, and strength in depth. Unfortunately we didn't get the results I expected though. I'll do an update in a day or two with all the images and news, but it might be time to upgrade to 16.3.

[Jogo Bonito]

Coventry City - Season 3 - End of Year Update

Final results & league table

So, as you can see, season 3 really didn't finish in a very positive fashion. Whilst the board's requirement to avoid relegation was easily achieved, results from the turn of the year were really disappointing. Despite setting a club record of six clean sheets, out of nowhere we suddenly had difficulties scoring. We also found it even harder to win matches, and on those occasions we looked like doing so, something went wrong to stop it from happening. If there were prizes for drawing games of course, we would have been without equal.

Player reviews

Here are the squad stats for the season, with the best players for the third successive year being loan striker Adam Armstrong and midfield talent James Maddison. Armstrong's scoring record over the three years on loan at the club is staggering, whilst Maddison has blossomed in to a £5m player after three impressive campaigns. Other noteworthy contributions came from playmaker Oliver Norwood (picked up on a free transfer in the summer), and central defender Curtis Nelson, who enjoyed a second fine season at the club. Rico Henry showed signs of quality in his first season, Paul Dummett will clearly be an asset, and Romaine Sawyers probably would have done better if he had more opportunities to fit in to the same team as Maddison. I was a little bit disappointed with the performances of my other new signings Tom Bradshaw and Will Grigg, although they may have delivered more if the club hadn't been stuttering along like it was.

Club status ahead of next season

As you can see, the club are now the proud owners of their own stadium, something that in real life anybody connected with Coventry would be delighted to see come true. Unfortunately, the initial budgets indicated for season 4 are not that great, and despite having a really good squad at my disposal, I am not sure what I can to do to get them all performing to the levels I expect. I'm going to have a think about my future, and may decide it's time to move on to version 16.3 and my next challenge.

[IgnorantLobster]

Question - when in League 1/2, what do you guys think is the best way to find players to sign? I generally don't like to use Genie Scout. Maybe I just need to learn how to utilise them better, but I've never found the in-game scouts to do much good personally. Also, a lot of the time when I set an assignment it never gets started, which is clearly something I'm doing wrong which I'll try to find out.

[Jogo Bonito]

Good question. I don't use my scouts to be honest, as the players I want to sign are in my head (and then shortlisted) when I take a club on. I just keep an eye on this same small pool of players until I am able to bring some in (L1 & L2 generally don't have much cash to spend, so patience is required). In the winter window and towards the end of the season I might occasionally check players in specific positions whose contracts are about to expire, as I like to pick up quality free transfers when possible.

If you're trying to make the most of your scouts I wouldn't be the best one to answer, but I imagine you can set them to scout certain competitions (e.g. L1/L2 and non-league players), or perhaps scout UK & Ireland as a region. The list of players that automatically appear in the 'scouting' range of your club probably gives you the best database to work from in the beginning. Hopefully somebody else can help you better than this though.

[lewis999]

What a day out! I'm about to start my save properly now i'm all proud, teary eyed and have no voice left.

[Gizmo7]

Saw the result and thought of you Lewis, congratulations mate

[BJG123]

Having an incredible save as Peterborough. In my 3rd season, back to back promotions as champions. Lee Angol has been incredible, 22 in League 1 followed by 29 in the Championship. Finances have been tight so I've been scouting the lower french leagues for bargains and sticking with the players that got me there, so Taylor, Angol, Payne, Baldwin, Anderson, Forrester and Otzumer are all still regulars for me. I'm 3rd in the Prem after 16 games which is pretty incredible!

One thing I'm finding incredibly frustrating is no clubs coming in for my players at all. Anderson attracted bids in the first window but since then I haven't had a single club interested in a player, yet alone a bid. Angol has 7 in 13 in the prem after 29 in the Champ, in real life he'd be attracting big offers. Same goes for Forrester and Otzumer who both had average ratings of 7.7 in the Championship and 7.4 in the Prem. Part of my plan was to sell players to raise revenue, luckily promotion to the Prem saved me from huge amounts of debt...

Signings I recommend for league 1 and the Championship are Adama Diakite (£275k from the French 3rd tier) and Christopher Glombard (£400k from Reims)