Some Amateur's Unemployed Thread (expect shenanigans)

[tastaiwan]

March 2017



Look how sad everyone is, isn't it cute? It just makes me so



At least we managed to turn things around, but not without a few casualties.



We're still ahead by a bit.



Nice little signing. How we can afford him? No idea.

[Jason the Yank]

10 points clear with 18 left on the board. Would take a major collapse to lose the title. No pressure then!

[tastaiwan]

10 points clear with 18 left on the board. Would take a major collapse to lose the title. No pressure then!

How many games are there, 42? Oh, and I accidentally cut out last place in the league, no idea who it is. It looks like we should be fine

[Rikulec]

Progressing well, good luck in the final games.

[tastaiwan]

April 2017 - Nuneaton

So first thing's first, I knew our star players were going to leave us, but not without me having a final say in how they go.





Now, this actually has loads of positives. One, I get a nice transfer profit that I can reinvest in more Armenians. Or not. Probably not. Definitely not. Secondly, my wage budget just opened up a ton and I finally have some wiggle room. Three, both those transfers have a 25% profit from next sale slapped onto them. I really hope that they don't end up as duds and get me pocket change.

In other news...





Sensational. We were letting it slip at the end, I think it was the tactic's fault because when I changed it we went back to winning, but we took it. Look at that glorious payroll, that's about 500k more than last year that I intend on using. It also means we're going to be making a profit in the next few years which should maybe help with the debt. And as a direct result of our promotion:



My man Steve Chettle wants to stay. I didn't know if I could afford it, but I tried.



He ended up staying because I gave him 42.5k against the 50k that he wanted with an extra 4.1k slapped on if we make the playoffs, which I'm pretty sure is a long way off. I'm happy I can keep a man of Steve's quality though.





Now to trying to make sure we don't get beaten senseless next season...off to work!

[glennuk]

Nice updates, and good to see you doing well with nuneaton. Interested to see where your career takes you.

[tastaiwan]

The 2017 Summer Special Extravaganza

I don't even recognize the team anymore. I know you're supposed to make small scale changes to keep everyone balanced, but I've thrown that out the window. If I get punished for it, we'll see, probably, but it's going to be a great season! I'll be going through all the updates chronologically, because that makes the most sense to me. I want to put everything in the order I experienced it. The theme of this summer seems to be youngsters, specifically early 20s. Everyone has great potential, but their current rating is a little on the low side. I think we'll do fine though.



Right before the end of last season, the board came in and decided to offer me a new contract. I tried to tell them to not give me a new contract and invest it in better training, but they said they couldn't afford it...so I just went with the new contract.









I just have one problem with Aaron Williams being the Fans' Player of the Season: He's kinda bad. I mean, he was fantastic last season, but I've brought in a whole string of new players that have put Aaron down to a two star rating and no where to grow. The fans love him though, so I think I'll just keep him until he retires. Maybe I'll make a profit off it or something? Billy Heath got Manager of the Year...Okay.



First transfer news is I moved on David Morgan and Jack Lane. Had I known I was getting a massive budget, I would have kept him, but too late. Also, side note, TNS has bought three of my players in the last one and a half years. Is there a way I can make specifically that club my senior affiliate? They might as well, they keep buying my players, they might as well give me some loan players in return.



Morazzi came in to replace Ivan Yagan and to give Tyrone Marsh a cover/challenge for the first team spot. Mulraney replaces Dinanga, the loan player. I'm trying to wheedle myself off loan players, this year I plan to use two, a defender and a goalkeeper, but I'll get to that in the end.

Jeroen Vanderputte. I'm not sure if you guys recognize the name, but he was one of my star midfielders at VW Hamme, and he's miles better than the players at Nuneaton. He cost 7k, which is an insane bargain, because VW Hamme got relegated to the fourth division. Suckers.



Another player for the future, an Algerian. I have a personal preference towards non-local players; that is, players that come from a very different nation from the one I'm in. I'll jump for any Portuguese, Moroccan, German, etc, as long as they're good enough. And this guy is quite good.



Look at that potential. Except now I've bought three midfielders. I hope that won't become a problem. I did, however, loan out Elliott Whitehouse because he's fourth pick midfielder this season and it's better if he gets experience elsewhere for now.



My own keeper! Amazing! I've always wanted one of these!



I'll be frank...good riddance. He never turned out to be the goal machine I wanted him to be.



I'll be honest here: who is this guy? I don't remember signing him. He has good potential, but still...who is he.



I finally have a good full back to play on the opposite side of Sam Westley.



My best defender, and he has great leadership so I think I'll make him captain the season after this one. For now, I just want him to settle in. These last two players should really help us concede a lot less.



This guy is my best AMC. While that is a little depressing, it's also great because all that first team football will hopefully make him blossom into a fine player.



We all saw it coming.



A back up player for Mulraney, he's quite good.



Great potential player, but just not as good as all my other options, so I decided to cash in. Also, he's worth 23k, so that it's a fantastic chunk of money coming in right there.

Now, at this point I was taking a good long look at my squad. My payroll was at it's max, and now I was just searching for gaps in my squad that I can fill. I let Zeus de la Paz go out on loan because he's not cut out for the team, but no one wants to buy him because he's not good enough yet, so I needed a goalkeeper to play backup. I also wanted a first team defender to really tighten up the back.



I don't have a goalkeeper yet. Of course, this means I'll have a total of three loan players, not two. Oh well. Still less than last year.

[tastaiwan]

August 2017

Tyrone Marsh has left us, which is actually okay because with the new additions, he's dropped to one star, so...yeah. His potential also dropped, so I thought it was best to offload him when an offer came in. To replace him, we brought in quite a decent 19 year old who is, according to reports, good future material that will probably be sold next year.



So I think I've finally nailed down the squad, and here it is.



Now, we've only just been promoted into the Vanarama National, so I know we're gonna need to work to survive. As long as we avoid relegation, we can use this year to build and really challenge next year.





Or, you know, we could just do it this year and save a lot of time.

[Rikulec]

Quite a good summer you've had there, I remember Okuonghae being quite a beast a couple of FMs back.

[tastaiwan]

Quite a good summer you've had there, I remember Okuonghae being quite a beast a couple of FMs back.

I can see why, he scored in his debut against Wrexham.

[tastaiwan]

September/October 2017

Rather straightforward two months, nothing too mind-bending, so I thought what the hell, might as well do two.



My 4-2-3-1 tactic is starting to falter, so at this point I've decided to create two back up tactics, a 4-2-2-2 Wide AMs and a 4-3-1-2 Narrow tactic. At the end of September, the table was looking a bit like this:



Okay, I've gotten used to the prospect of making playoffs this year, and for the team to drop points like this is appalling.



Holy crap, I should have done this earlier. Hopefully this tactic holds out a few months.



Right outside the playoff door, looking in.

I have noticed one issue, however. I was going to look for some more players just to stay updated on the world, but suddenly there is no one in my scouting pool. My shortlist is fine, but my scouting pool and scouted section are completely empty.



I've also noticed I can't make any board requests. Anyone have any insight one what's going in?

Edit: The chairman said recently that he wants to step aside and a local investor wants to take over the club. Has this process taken away certain actions I usually have?

[tastaiwan]

I've also lost the ability to alter my payroll vs my transfer budget, even though I'm not overbudget.

[Rikulec]

At a certain point during the takeover process a transfer embargo is usually imposed, this could be a similar story.

[tastaiwan]

At a certain point during the takeover process a transfer embargo is usually imposed, this could be a similar story.

That's most likely it, but does it really not let me see anyone in the scouting pool?

[tastaiwan]

November 2017

So yeah, there's been a takeover going around, and I'm afraid I might lose my job because of it, and the results I've been getting are not helping in any way, shape, or form.



At this point I was thinking, "Oh, hey, I love Swedish people, they're nice :D"



And then it was more like, "oh crap :eek:". Is this something I should be worried about?



Nice job being vague. Still don't know if I'm going to keep my job.



Now I'm a bit more sure that I won't be.



And even more.



Why now? Of all the times in the world, why now? I got the top teams all in one month, and it's definitely not making me look good,



In other news:



I mean, I have a permanent chairman now, I feel like the players should be coming back. I really hope nothing's broken with my game.

[noikeee]

Are you sure you don't have any filter on, in the scouting pool? Check in the top right corner "Show Filters" and see if none of those boxes are checked. I'd be going nuts without that screen, my transfers absolutely depend on it.

Anyway, very easy job last season, and doing more than fine for a newly promoted club this year.

[tastaiwan]

Are you sure you don't have any filter on, in the scouting pool? Check in the top right corner "Show Filters" and see if none of those boxes are checked. I'd be going nuts without that screen, my transfers absolutely depend on it.

Anyway, very easy job last season, and doing more than fine for a newly promoted club this year.

Thanks! It was a transfer embargo, it just got lifted and I can see everything again, which is great I haven't tried to get a coaching course or any other board requests yet but I assume I can now, but the new chairman put about 800-900k in the club finances, meaning we're 150k in the positive. Now I just need to make sure I stay there. I can see it now, good youth facilities, a field that every single team we face ever doesn't complain about... *sigh*

[DavidBeckham]

Tough month there for you, but I'm sure results will improve as you face the lesser teams. KUTGW mate!

[tastaiwan]

December 2017



Halleluja! I get to stay!



And I can finally use my scouting pool again. Oh, how I've missed it.



Finally hit a minor milestone with Nuneaton, but I'm getting worried with our form when I look at the results we've been getting.



Interesting career choice for Rafa Benitez.







No surprises.





I don't know what to expect, especially with how January went.

January 2018







:(

[tastaiwan]

February 2018

Huh.



I think I need to switch up my tactics. What if I move my AMC to DC?



Everything got postponed to hell. The Gateshead game got postponed by a month. It was supposed to be right after the Port Vale game, but they postponed it three times or so. Same with Port Vale, but it's hard to postpone an FA Trophy game over and over again.

[tastaiwan]

March 2018



Oh boy, how exciting!



But...but I can see them all individually...



This makes it really hard to compare them head to head...



If inconsistency were consistent, then we've hit a solid patch of consistency. We lose random games but tie against the top of the table if the team is feeling lucky.



We're gonna hit mid-table. That was the goal before the season started, and the board is pretty happy with me, so I'll take it.

The Final Stretch



Not bad? We didn't have a good keeper for the last match, my main keeper, Luke Simpson, is out for 4-5 weeks. Zeus de la Paz finally makes his debut! After two years...







I wish people would stop loving Aaron Williams. Oh, how I'd love to sell him. Also, Jeroen is getting lazy, old, or both. He'll do well for another year but then I'll have to offload him.



Matt Robinson barely played all season until I starting using a DM because my main midfielders never got injured. He got a remarkable pass rate in the games he did play, though. Marozzi is projected to get better in the next few years if I can afford to keep him. Sam Smith signed a new deal with us, so hopefully he'll be here a while!



Our season was so distinctly...average.



Holy crap.

[tastaiwan]

I don't know if I should stick around another year or maybe make a move for a new club...

[tastaiwan]

Months of Eternal Chaos - Nuneaton

I literally have too many pictures, so I took out the title picture.

Fair warning, there are a lot of screenshots so if you're overwhelmed, too bad. I also got really, really frantic and hyped up during one part, only to be let down by my director of football who hates giving contracts that players actually like. Tbf, he's probably saved me tons of money...

I'm staying at least another year, so there's that to look forward to! I also have two tactics ready this time for when my 4-2-3-1 fails. Now I can fluidly switch to the tactic that worked last season near the end. Hopefully a similar pattern occurs in terms of tactic success.

As a precursor to my signings, I'm going to forewarn that a lot of my signings are non-English signings. Now that I've put in a sign young players philosophy, I'm spending a lot of time looking through international youth teams in the lower half of the world rankings, around 100-150. I haven't found too much, but what I have should maybe help me out. I've also made one terrible international signing that I thought would grow more than it turns out he will, so...bollocks. Also, this update, none of the pictures are cropped. There are just too many.

Bob Moseley joins from Salford; we finally have a decent first pick choice at left back, which should help us out.

A versatile Guinean signing that can play everywhere on the right wing (where I need him, I don't use wingbacks). He joins from FC Halifax, which I personally believe should be in Canada, but whatever. The international transfer fest begins.

Herein lies my dreadful mistake. The Zimbabwean looked pretty good on paper, and he was only 19, which led me believe he would grow more. He won't.

Nikola Vukanac, a Maltese, joins from relatively unknown club Birkirkara. I found him on my search through the rankings.

Here it was less that I made an offer from Andrade, it was more like he made an offer for me. It looked like he really, really wanted to join my club, and after I scouted him I wasn't going to stop him from getting what he wanted.

Aaron Bentley returns, this time permanently after his club released him on a free. What a waste! Let's take a quick break from the transfers for the World Cup, which Portugal managed to win.

And you know what's the most shocking?

It wasn't Cristiano Ronaldo who led them to glory, apparently!

And yet he still kinda did...he scored the most goals in the competition.

Now I was starting to get a few offers from other clubs, the first of which was for...

He had to leave. He was old, wasn't as good as I needed him to be, and I got him on a free anyway, so he left.

The other person who was being dreadfully underwhelming was...

I think he was just getting old. All his physical stats were going down, and every time I told him his training level was crap, he'd tell me to stuff it somewhere else.

Anton Walkes comes on loan from York to make up for the lack of DMs we have currently.

The Gambian Solomon Sambou joins from Kidderminster to offer another option at DM.

Zeus de la Paz's contract has run out, so here's our backup goalkeeper.

$210,000 for Marozzi, bought for 28k. That's a massive profit margin. It might have been wiser to keep him, but I could easily reinvest that money.

Or could I?

At this point I was frantically looking through all the leagues looking for replacements.

Both great options, but the salary wasn't good enough for them.

Italian-Algerian youngster joins us to play rotation with Sam Smith.

I'll post a quick snap of my squad once I get back.

[tastaiwan]

I think next time I'll split up transfers and things like World Cup next time to make everything more flowy and easier to read.

[tastaiwan]

August 2018

It's been an interesting month. We started off on a rough patch, but then Sam Smith broke through for us and we've started to have a decent run of results.



I gave Smith a break against FC Halifax because they were in 23rd, and gave Menaour Belkheir his debut, but he didn't convert any chances for us, so I'm thinking I'll keep him as a backup this season. I have yet to see if our new signing Ryan Loft is any good.



The problem I see is that he's a target man. I don't really need a target man. I'm considering trying a formation with two up top, one advanced forward and one target man, to use him.



Lee Fitzgerald returns on loan for yet another season. I hope Mulraney doesn't become unhappy again. Then again, he's had some very good games this month so he might get the starting spot.





Should I be worried that Smith has scored 6/7 of our goals?

[noikeee]

There is absolutely zero chance Gonçalo Guedes will ever be a World Cup Golden Ball winner. He's a good player but absolutely not that level. Specially in just 2 years time.

Decent start there to the season, closer to the top than the bottom.

[tastaiwan]

International Mishap

It's been a very eye opening month in Nuneaton. My poaching of international talent has come back to bite me, with both my starting defenders being called off to fight on the foreign front, leaving me with...nothing.



The transfer window has already passed, so I was forced to bring in a free transfer. I mean, he's not bad, and that's the point. He's supposed to be a backup for my starting backline.



See the one game that really pops out from the rest? That's where my defense left.





Holy cow Jimmy Camps, what team have you been playing for, because I swear it's not mine!

[tastaiwan]

Time For A Tactics Change?

It's actually been a good month. It's hard for me to believe as I speak those words, but if you look at our general run of results, we've been doing good! Jimmy Camps is still somehow tearing things apart, even though he's probably our youngest or second youngest player.





Now here's where things get interesting. Either I made a tactical mistake against Southport or the tactic is already failing. Wrexham is a good enough result, they're first, but Southport should have been better. Jimmy Camps was injured for that game too, so I wonder if that had an effect. I might be trying a new tactic while Jimmy Camps is out that doesn't utilize an AMC to see if that works...

[tastaiwan]

Jimmy Camps

So I've started picking my starting squad based purely off recent form, and I've noticed something that's completely blew my mind. Jimmy Camps is a 19 year old regen who has two and a half star current rating and four star current ability. Point is, he's not especially good.

Yet.



Holy cow, this kid is on a roll. Recent form has a sky-high average rating, and over the half season that's passed so far, he has an average rating of 7.89. I have no idea what's going on! This kid came out of nowhere, I signed him two years ago as an afterthought and he's popped himself straight into the first squad! If you look at his stats, the only impressive thing he's got is 9 assists in 17 starts. He's gotten a whole treasury of PoMs to go with his sudden brilliance. I don't know if I should have high hopes for this guy, but he's definitely forced me to keep my 4-2-3-1 formation, he's annihilating in that AMC role.

[tastaiwan]

Ffs Jimmy, you didn't even do anything! I don't understand! How are you Man of the Match!?

[tastaiwan]

December 2018

Wow. Already 2018. This might be the longest I've ever held on to one single save.

Quick update on Jimmy Camps. Since his first appearance on the Young Player of the Month award, he's won it twice (November and December), and he's gotten second place both times as Player of the Month. I was getting worried when he got injured for 10 days. When I show you the results, I bet you can pinpoint exactly when it happened.



It seems like our success is completely reliant on a 19 year old boy. Fantastic.



That gap is way larger than it looks. I've been having some pretty good results and I don't seem to be getting any closer to breaking the top seven. Maybe next month?



How creative.



Cool appearances from Geronimo Rulli, Adrien (who?), and Paulo Oliveira. Good on them to make the team among a bunch of world team regulars.

[tastaiwan]

I've made a horrid mistake.

[tastaiwan]

Drogheda United

I can count myself extremely lucky. I didn't realize that no one would give a crap about me, and Drogheda United from the Irish Premier Division (I've made quite a big step there) have come in to give me a job.









I need to bring in some defensive players ASAP.

[Edit:] That logo is way too big. I think I'm never going to use it again. Just imagine it.

[noikeee]

Why did you resign? That came a bit out of the blue. Didn't even finish the season?

[tastaiwan]

The finances were getting destroyed even though I wasn't doing anything to overspend. The payroll suddenly dropped, and it really bugged me. I resigned out of frustration with the finances. Big mistake, not doing that again :/

[tastaiwan]

Drogheda United - Preseason 2019

Experimenting with tactics, seems pretty promising but I don't know if it'll translate into the league.

[tastaiwan]

Drogheda United

That name is incredibly easy to forget.



I can't really fault the team, I've constructed a tactic that I think the team will be good with once they get comfortable with it, but right now they're learning. I think one can see the progress, we narrowly lost to Bohemians (just kidding, they still dominated the stats table). Right now, I want to climb out of the relegation zone, find my footing, and get to mid-table by the end of the year.

[tastaiwan]

Safe to say we lost.



And so I leave Drougheda Utd without a single competitive win.

However, a little later, I got job offers from three different Vanarama North/South offers, the best of which was Braintree, who finished last season in 7th. It was quite a nerve racking affair, Braintree were the last to give me a job interview, and I had to delay the two other job offers as long as I can to see if I would get the job offer. I did on the last day, luckily, so...









Now, I have no money, so I'm going to try to fight my way up with loan signings. Also, we're semi-pro.

[sherwinriga]

Well, did you hate sacking at Drougheda Utd? Hope you would go back to Ireland by advance past Braintree Town F.C. in England. Will you have a chance to go back to Drougheda Utd in the future?

[tastaiwan]

Well, did you hate sacking at Drougheda Utd? Hope you would go back to Ireland by advance past Braintree Town F.C. in England. Will you have a chance to go back to Drougheda Utd in the future?

I doubt it'll be at Drougheda, but I do want to try and make a move back to Ireland. I need to spend a bit of time building my reputation though, which I should have just done at Nuneaton

[tastaiwan]

Preseason 2019 and First Impressions

I'm at a loss for words. For some reason, the English leagues like treating me really, really, unreasonably well, and everyone else is like, "Nope, sorry, leave, now." I was going to update when the transfer period ended, but apparently it never ends, which is actually really nice unless I'm missing something.



A sight for sore eyes. Unless we get a repeat of Nuneaton in the first season of Vanarama National League football, looks like we're on track to give promotion a go. The 4-4-2 is really serving me well.



It is very early in the season, though...





I'm looking to bring in one more loan striker so I can offload Joseph Wain. I can't see him being useful now or ever, I can easily bring in better backups and his potential isn't especially good. Also, quick note, if you look at this squad and my Nuneaton squad, I have a serious tendency to bring in really young players with insane potential. I don't know if that will help me at this level of football considering it's so hard to keep your players as a semi-professional club.

[tastaiwan]

Just a heads up, I'll be spreading out the updates so that they're a little less frequent and more leisurely. It is a casual save, after all. It's been a great season so far, I'm just before the beginning for December and it's been intense. Cheltenham and us have been trading off the top spot the whole time, I'd lose one and they'd take the spot, but then they'd lose two games later. Darlington 1883, one of the teams that offered me a job, have crept up on us and even beat my team in a league game () and Harrogate also find themselves on a sudden winning streak.





Nothing's really happened transfer-wise, I've been scouting all over the place so I have a nice, large database of scouted players when I need to find myself a player, mostly full of youngsters that are projected to be a lot better. My payroll has 2.4k left, so I doubt I'm bringing anyone else in permanently until I offload a few players this summer.



I did bring in a backup midfielder, however. He's actually good enough to be my starter, but this makes it easier to pay him.

[tastaiwan]

It's been a close month, I really hope we can hold on to first place but it's gonna take a lot of tactical guile. Also, my right back got poached because he was a non-contract player, so I tried picking up Aaron Bentley from my old Nuneaton side. Strangely, Nuneaton decided to release a lot of the players I got them even though they were very strong players, and now they've dropped down to 17th place. It's really a shame but that will make it easier for Braintree to get them. However, I didn't have the money to fulfill Aaron Bentley's wage demands, so that never happened. However, I got an update on who's out of contract in 6 months, and because I've released a few, I now have the money to pick up Aaron Bentley. He shouldn't have too much of a problem of moving down a league because Braintree are winning the league and I'm under Bentley's favored personnel Now he doesn't want to go into contract talks though, so I'll try again in the summer. I have gotten Solomon Sambou to discuss getting a contract with Braintree, and it looks like he's on track to join Braintree soon. The only problem is that he wants 50k per annum. I can afford it, but it means I only have 30k left to bring in other players, so I might cancel the deal and try to get a better deal later down the road.

Signings:





End of 2019 Awards:



Holy crap, same players as last year, amazing!

[tastaiwan]

I've finally gotten to updating, and I'm halfway through March. We've had a good season so far, on track to get first, but we've had a turn in our fortunes.



We went a long, long time without getting a glimpse of a win. We got a ten day break near the end and I decided to arrange a friendly against a really weak side to get us back to winning form. I've dropped the 4-4-2 tactic since the last league game and have started using my backup 4-4-2 Diamond. The 4-1 win looks promising, but I don't know if we can replicate that in the league. Nathan Ashmore is actually getting games now because I'm sick of Lynch letting in goals. He's been doing okay, he has better technical stats than Lynch, so I might keep him there a while.



The point lead we built up over the season has been our saving grace.



Okay

[Rikulec]

Woah, this could be the worst youth intake I've ever seen.

[tastaiwan]

Woah, this could be the worst youth intake I've ever seen.

I'm kinda forced to take them in, my youth team is full of fake players. I kept taking only the youth that might make the first team in a few years, but then my youth team never had a full real team. I've decided to give contract renewal responsibility to my DoF, he'll hopefully do the right thing there.

[tastaiwan]

Quick question, what's preferred, monthly updates, longer updates (3 or so months), or does it not matter?

[Rikulec]

Monthly updates seem to be more organised, but ultimately it's up to you which you find the most comfortable.

[tastaiwan]

I'll just try things out for a bit and see what I like, my Nuneaton updates looked nice and easy to read so I think monthly is the way to go. Thanks

[tastaiwan]

March 2020 - Braintree

I've returned to monthly thanks to input from Rikulec It does make things more coherent.



Here's the rest of the games from March. Very close games, lots of mid-game tactical tweaking to try and keep us in front after early goals.



Things have really heated up in the league table as Guiseley have an absolutely stunning month.