Jump to content

dafuge's FM17 challenge


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 1.5k
  • Created
  • Last Reply
2 hours ago, LeProfIamNot said:

I'm rooting for you.  Be careful with your finances.  If you lose another 180k without promotion or cash injection from the owner, you'll be in a pretty big hole.  In the past, when I've hit the 300-400k mark the players start getting worried about the club's future and the moral tanks.

I really enjoyed how you signed a horrible keeper for 7k just for his hair cut.  That alone makes me reply to root for you.

Good luck!

Thank you!

I too am worried about the financial situation. I'm doing my best to control it but it's still an issue and my board are not helping whatsoever. He keeps rejecting my request for to get a parent club for a bit of monetary income which seems crazy to me.

I'm hoping for a takeover. About halfway through my second season so far but probably won't be an update before the weekend.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Starting out this season with Dorchester Town FC. 

I'm hoping for a postive start to this seasons challenge and will endeavour with all my might to get us to the Promised lands. Up The Town!!!!

Here is my screenshot and i will be giving a few updates per season.

http://imgur.com/a/MqZG8

 

Good luck to everyone out there and if there are any guys willing to give some tips to a newish LLM then it would be appreciated :).

I won't be trying to keep it on the deck my first season if i can find a pacey striker or winger haha.

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Sheep said:

Thank you!

I too am worried about the financial situation. I'm doing my best to control it but it's still an issue and my board are not helping whatsoever. He keeps rejecting my request for to get a parent club for a bit of monetary income which seems crazy to me.

I'm hoping for a takeover. About halfway through my second season so far but probably won't be an update before the weekend.

I'm also getting financial issues, though the chairman problem for me isn't that he won't allow us to look for a parent club, but that we've tried twice and haven't been able to find a club willing to take us in :/

Link to post
Share on other sites

Season 2025/26 Review - Burgess Hill Town in the Sky Bet Championship

League Table | Squad | Transfers | Finances | Season Review

I feel like we've been sat in 7th for a small eternity by now; the worst kind of tease just outside the playoffs! I guess I can't really complain - whenever we went on a good run, the teams above kept pace. Besides, I'm really happy with our late-season form after a shaky 1-5-1 W-D-L start and an inconsistent Christmas period. I sure wouldn't have said no to just a couple more points from the very last few matches, but them's the breaks. We took a while to find our footing - now I have something to build from.

And perhaps the loss of our old squad cohesion played a part here, given I more than doubled the club's wage expenditure replacing most of my preferred starting 11. Most notably Haseldin and Martínez form the new attacking duo - Sorry Çetinkaya, you served us well! - with Ohen and Doran manning the flanks and Henderson and Eyoma shoring up the defence. It's a stronger side, and I'm sure we wouldn't have managed this well any other way!

When it comes to signings though... Despite our EU work permit woes, I couldn't pass up on Ibrahimovic. No, not that Ibrahimovic. My scouts were singing this guy's praises from well before he was willing to come, and after half a season on loan at RB Leipzig and another at Hamburg with their superb facilities he's now described as "well-suited to Premier Division football". My only five-star player. He's contracted to 2029 so my hope is that we'll somehow get a work permit within that time frame. Until then, development at foreign clubs will have to be the plan.

Oh yeah, and it looks like Mike Ashley wants off this ride. Perhaps the threat of another Premier League venture has scared him off. :D

Aim for next season: Small tweaks now.

Season    League                 Finish   Achievements
2025/26   Sky Bet Championship   7th      -
2024/25   Sky Bet League One     2nd      Promoted
2023/24   Sky Bet League One     9th      -
2022/23   Sky Bet League Two     1st      League winners
2021/22   Vanarama National      1st      League winners
2020/21   Vanarama National      8th      FA Trophy runner-ups
2019/20   Vanarama South         1st      League winners
2018/19   Vanarama South         4th      Playoff semi-finalists
2017/18   Vanarama South         6th      -

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Swindon69 said:

Can anyone explain why when I'm 5th and playing a team that's 20th I'm classed as the underdog?

Because of your reputation. It's kind of like last season in the Premier League. When Leicester played Man Utd or Liverpool they were still underdogs even though they were top of the league.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Enfield_Town_F.C._logo.png

Enfield Town FC - Sky Bet League 2 - 2026/27

After playoff promotion last season I was looking forward to another crack at League 2 after our previous relegation. I felt we were more prepared this season with our squad after keeping the best players from last season whilst bringing in some decent new players. We started fine in mid table before a great run in mid October pushed us up the table and into the playoff positions. We kept going into the automatic promotion places and despite a small blip in January and early February where we fell out of the playoffs we got it back together and made it back into 3rd position and held it to get a comfortable final position of 3rd and automatic promotion which was well deserved. 


League Table

Past Positions
 

Cups - Early exits in the league cup and the checkatrade but we made round 3 of the FA Cup where we drew 1-1 at home with Premier Division Wolves before taking them to a replay and losing 2-1. In both games we went 1-0 up but couldn't hold on. 

Squad - Squad was reinforced with some strong signings including bringing back Griffiths on loan who I sold for £500k last season. A few positions still have some players I have had for many years who will need to be replaced, namely at right back and in goal. 
 

Finances - £358k in the bank. Mainly due to player sales, FA Cup run and a takeover who put money into the club. First time I have had money!
 

Key Player Profiles:

Neil Brock - Grumpy player who is always unhappy but top scored with 23 joint with Boateng.

Wayne Davies - New attacking midfielder who scored 21 and assisted 22. Also managed to score 2 hat tricks this season.

Michael Blevins  - Signed for £22k from Barnet. Worth every penny as had a solid season and I finally have a decent defender. 

Next Season

After successive promotions I hope we survive.

Career Overview

Season          League                      League Finish     Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18         Vanarama South              9th                  
2018/19         Vanarama South              7th
2019/20         Vanarama South              8th
2020/21         Vanarama South              2nd               Playoff Winners
2021/22         Vanarama National           3rd               Playoff Finalist
2022/23         Vanarama National           7th               FA Trophy winners and FA Cup round 4
2023/24         Vanarama National           5th               Playoff Winner
2024/25         Sky Bet League 2            24th              Relegated
2025/26         Vanarama National           5th               Playoff Winner
2026/27         Sky Bet League 2            3rd               Automatic Promotion

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

19 hours ago, Superowl90 said:

Starting out this season with Dorchester Town FC. 

I'm hoping for a postive start to this seasons challenge and will endeavour with all my might to get us to the Promised lands. Up The Town!!!!

Here is my screenshot and i will be giving a few updates per season.

http://imgur.com/a/MqZG8

 

Good luck to everyone out there and if there are any guys willing to give some tips to a newish LLM then it would be appreciated :).

I won't be trying to keep it on the deck my first season if i can find a pacey striker or winger haha.

Good luck to you too!  I tried Dorchester with my first go all my players had 6 & 7's for attributes.  I tried really hard but was sacked by January.  I hope your players are better than mine were.

Link to post
Share on other sites

 

Well after an unfair second season sacking in my opinion with AFC Sudbury, I've decided to go back to Weymouth and had a decent enough first season there. We had the tactics down pretty well, but our whole season we were consistently inconsistent. Our last third of the season we lost 5 straight games, then we won 5 straight games and then we failed to win the next 5. Basically, we had a 7-2 win and a 7-2 loss. Enough said. 

Financially, we bleeding pretty bad and I don't think we'll be able to fix it by cutting down player wages only. I think if we can bring in a couple of first teamers and keep most of our squad from this year, we might be able to make a playoff push if we can stay consistent.

Team of the Season

Martin Herdman

Charlie Hawtin             Stephane Zubar             Addison Garnett              Jake Llewellyn

Dom Thomas      Jordan Jones       Fabio Saraiva

Reece Connolly       Lee Hughes      Jordan Simpson

 

Career Overview

Season    League                       Position    FA Cup          Capital One Cup     Johnston's Paint Trophy  FA Trophy       Achievements/Notes           Top Scorer             Most Assists            Highest Avg Rating 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   Vanarama Conference South    16th        4th Q Round     N/A                 N/A                      3rd Q Round     N/A                          Simpson/Connolly (19)  Simpson (16)            Simpson (7.12)  

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Feel a bit p155ed off with this challenge - was doing ok in first season in conference with Lowestoft after promotion - 41 points after 32 games and comfortable in lower mid table......and then the new patch was downloaded and my season instantly crashed. Seems 3 at the back was totally ruined by the new (undisclosed) match engine changes.

So I then proceeded to lose 4 games in a row, conceding 14 goals in the process from about 7 CCCs.....I changed some bits about and thought I had craked it and picked up 7 points from 3 games, leaving me with 48 points from 39 games.......and then I lost the last 7 games conceding 22 goals and scoring just 8.

Before the patch
P32 - W12 D5 L15 - F66 A79
Post patch
P14 - W2 D1 L11 - F20 A39

I was subsequently sacked and currently have no interest in starting back up again as am frustrated with the game. Was really enjoying the challenge and felt I was making good preogress and building a good squad which would have gone on to be succesful.....but when it was based around 343 and I had no full backs it was hard to make any changes to the style and I was buggared

Link to post
Share on other sites

Staffordfc_zpsq2sddsjd.png

Stafford Rangers

Season Report 26-27

League  Finances  FA Cup   EFL  Checkatrade 

Freak season I don't know what this patch has changed as tactics wise I have changed nothing and with only a centre half in on loan from Crewe Alexandra that made any impact on the proceedings . I just watched Devante Rodney  simply rip the League apart .With strike partner Cameron Peters banging in 21 league goals the duo were simply too hot to handle as Stafford rocketed up the League Table and broke clear but a wobble closed the gap to Barnet who chased hard but eventually the games ran out. My defence is ranked 17th where I finished last season in the league and ranked 19th for clean sheets which makes tough reading considering I will be playing sides a lot better than Crewe Alexandra who hammered me in the EFL Cup.  Money will have to be spent and I am not sure i will be able to recruit the necessary locally either though that will be the main focus but may have to dip into the country of my birth for extras if needed.

The club managed to reach the third round of the FA Cup for the first time edging out Grimsby Town before a nice little earner against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on my 500th game in charge. As expected I got battered but it was nice see Rodney get on the score sheet against his old club. Another thing I've noticed in this patch is I didn't appear to get an update for the Best XI this season , hopefully it returns against next season as it's something i like viewing as the seasons go by.

 

Season	|       League	      |     Position	   |    Europe	  |      Top scorer        |    Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18	| Vanarama North      |       16th	   |      N/A 	  |  Harvey Knibbs  (15)   |   Avoided Relegation
2018/19 | Vanarama North      |       16th         |      N/A     |  Harvey Knibbs  (11)   |   Avoided Relegation 
2019/20 | Vanarama North      |       11th         |      N/A     |  Harvey Knibbs  (27)   |   Mid-table
2020/21 | Vanarama North      |        5th         |      N/A     |  John Sampson   (29)   |   Lost in Playoffs     
2021/22 | Vanarama North      |        1st         |      N/A     |  Jason Davidson (25)   |   FA Trophy Finalists
2022/23 | Vanarama National   |       14th         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (33)   |   Avoided Relegation 
2023/24 | Vanarama National   |       10th         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (22)   |   FA Trophy Winners
2024/25 | Vanarama National   |        1st         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (29)   |   Champions
2025/26 | Sky Bet League Two  |       17th         |      N/A     |  Cameron Peters (23)   |   Avoided Relegation
2026/27 | Sky Bet League Two  |        1st         |      N/A     |  Devante Rodney (41)   |   Champions   
Link to post
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, XaW said:

Because of your reputation. It's kind of like last season in the Premier League. When Leicester played Man Utd or Liverpool they were still underdogs even though they were top of the league.

Ah - thank you, that means counter intuitively they set up in a different way then one would expect from their position.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Sutton Coldfield Town.png

Sutton Coldfield Town - 2017/18

Mid-Season Report

Well...I had no idea how challenging this would be! Upon taking my place as the Royal's new gaffer, I immediately assessed that our squad was destined for the drop without some drastic changes being made (in the pre-season meeting, they got demotivated and felt it was unrealistic to achieve a battle against relegation!). We struggled in preseason, especially in defence - I realised that this season would be all about survival, and placing the emphasis on patching the defensive gaps as best I could.

With limited options and a very tight budget of £2,500pw I have been able to build a squad with 11 part-timers that ideally will comprise my first XI. The issue comes with injuries (and we've had a few!) as the backups left from the previous regime really aren't good enough. Everyone is out of contract at the end of the season, where I can ditch the deadwood and start to freshen the team in preparation for moving up the levels...if we survive this campaign!

So far we're doing just enough to get by - not helped with kamikaze goalkeeping and losing my best CB for 3 months before the latest poor run started in earnest. I've set a target 40 points which should be enough ideally. Hopefully I'll be back to post a full season report should we survive!

Formation, Results, League Table

form.pngsched.pngtable.png

Link to post
Share on other sites

Kettering Town F.C

Season 2020-2021

Profile| Squad | Table | Team Stats | Player Stats

Cs0CKyf.jpg

Season Review

This season started great, not only by winning matches but my team finally got around and played on counter attacks. I was looking for players who could withstand attacks and send one quick pass upfront to where the single striker was waiting to score.

My best player was Robert Colkin, which by the way I will buy a shirt of Kettering and put his name in it by the time I end up with this challenge.  Here  it is before I signed for free: Robert Colkin 17 years old.

This year was his break out breaking several records like club top scorer with 73 goals in all competitions and top scorer of the league with 31 goals.

We had great defenders but the goalkeeper was my peace of mind when they let the ball through. 

Kendell Pierre: His job was done perfectly winning 16 shutouts and only conceding 19 goals.

 

It took me around 4 seasons but I finally got promoted to Vanarama National League!!

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Swindon69 said:

Ah - thank you, that means counter intuitively they set up in a different way then one would expect from their position.

Yeah, to my knowledge the AI uses reputation to figure out if they are going to attack or defend against you. Note that in previous versions the reputation was once or twice a year, but the last few ones have had changes more often. That it it sometimes why your tactic suddenly aren't working as it did before. If you are over-achieving for a while other teams react to it and don't attack you as they did at the start. Then they are more conservative and defensive. If your tactic at the start was to soak up their attacks and counter, then that might not work against the new approach the opponents take.

You can often notice this if you read general discussion here. About lower ranked teams who have won a lot, then suddenly start losing to poor teams in their league about half way into the season. There are a lot of complaints about this, but more than often this is a failure to realize the opponents try to beat you and when they realize it's not viable to gung ho your team, then they might have a better chance.

I've noticed though, that you can see this coming if you look closely. It happens while you are still winning, but the odds of victory are improving, not by a lot, but some. At the same time the wins you get are more "scrapping" and narrow. Then it's about time to make sure you have a backup plan for more defensive opponents.

This is at least how I play. Not that I'm a tactical mastermind, and I still fail at this more than I catch it, but at least I've realized it's more down to my management then a biased ME! ;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, XaW said:

Yeah, to my knowledge the AI uses reputation to figure out if they are going to attack or defend against you. Note that in previous versions the reputation was once or twice a year, but the last few ones have had changes more often. That it it sometimes why your tactic suddenly aren't working as it did before. If you are over-achieving for a while other teams react to it and don't attack you as they did at the start. Then they are more conservative and defensive. If your tactic at the start was to soak up their attacks and counter, then that might not work against the new approach the opponents take.

You can often notice this if you read general discussion here. About lower ranked teams who have won a lot, then suddenly start losing to poor teams in their league about half way into the season. There are a lot of complaints about this, but more than often this is a failure to realize the opponents try to beat you and when they realize it's not viable to gung ho your team, then they might have a better chance.

I've noticed though, that you can see this coming if you look closely. It happens while you are still winning, but the odds of victory are improving, not by a lot, but some. At the same time the wins you get are more "scrapping" and narrow. Then it's about time to make sure you have a backup plan for more defensive opponents.

This is at least how I play. Not that I'm a tactical mastermind, and I still fail at this more than I catch it, but at least I've realized it's more down to my management then a biased ME! ;)

Win the ball in their field. Got it!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah, reputation can develop slowly or more rapidly, if somethings happen. A cup run will give you a slight rep boost, as will winning TV matches I believe (though I might be mistaken, I've just feel I've read it somewhere). I also think that when I got the tycoon it gave me a rep boost. The reason I believe it is because I suddenly could attract more (and better) players after the takeover.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Harrow Borough Football Club - Season 2018/19

download.jpg

Vanarama National South

Media Prediction - 16th

Final Position - 1st

League: Wanting to push on from last season and maybe push for the playoffs i made a few signings after keeping the majority of last seasons squad. Was very happy with the depth we looked alot stronger in all areas. We started well and after 10 games we sat with the record 6 wins 1 draw and 3 losses we sat 5th in the league. We carried on our good form for the rest of the first half of the season and we found ourself sitting second behind Ebbsfleet who had a good 7 point buffer over us. Remembering last season and how we massively fell away in the second half of the season i went out and brought in a few first team additions. Two wide midfielders in Mikolaj Kwietniewski from Dulwich Hamlet and the experienced Hogan Ephraim on a free transfer after being released by Braintree. Left back Rian O'sullivan and central midfielder Alfie Lewis.  We stayed 2nd and after a run of 13 games without losing we leap Ebbsfleet into 1st place with 3 games left. Going into the last day of the season we were level on points with Ebbsfleet but second on goal difference we were up against Margate at home Ebbsfleet against Dartford. Halftime we were 0-0 they were winning 1-0 but down to 10 men. After failing to creat much against Margate we finished 0-0 and our fat was left to the hands of Dartford and hoping the managed to turn around the 1-0

Harrow Borough v Margate_ Analysis Post-Match.png

2-1 Darford we are Champions!!!


Cup: FA cup we had a great campaign reaching the first round proper losing in a tight game away to league 2 Cheltenham. FA trophy we lost to Oxford City in the 3rd Qual round

We are building a new 4000 seater stadium............... Yay?????

Screenshots

Squad - Tactic - Schedule 1 / 2 - Vanarama National South - Comps - Transfers - Finances

Seasons Awards

Fans Player of the Season and Young Player of the Season - Ronaldo Jones

Top Goalscorer - Connor French 18 goals

Next Season

* Survive

*Improve squad 

 

season	competition			pos		achievements														
2017/18	VNS				12th	
2018/19 VNS				1st		Champions

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Great second season IainWhite. The stadium news is a real bummer though. How bad is your current stadium? If you get to League Two they'll still have to upgrade it and I doubt the maximum expansion capacity reaches the 12500 needed for Premier League football. Luckily you have loads of sharing options near Harrow.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mixed feelings about my past ingame months. Dropped from 2nd place to 12th due to a string of losses and got kicked out of the FA Trophy in the 1st game. However I did also qualify for the 3rd round proper of the FA Cup and hence am finally in the black (but my Chairman still thinks that more than 1 scout or more than 2 coaches is too expensive...) 

Link to post
Share on other sites

50 minutes ago, Harryseaess said:

What are the odds on Warrington getting promoted? Literally having no luck, 300 reloads in.

Does anybody have a save they could upload?

has pretty good rep you might just need to keep trying. Real hard teams are below 1300 rep-

Link to post
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Harryseaess said:

What are the odds on Warrington getting promoted? Literally having no luck, 300 reloads in.

Does anybody have a save they could upload?

I had them come up once early on (didn't save it sorry) and have been reloading a fair bit since the Beta came out. Still trying to get a team no one has seen yet before I start. So I would say Warrington are rare, but not impossible.

Link to post
Share on other sites

During the course of the last season, I probably scouted around 2000 players with their contracts expiring in the next year. All that scouting paid off, when we were able to bring in multiple important first team signings (albeit not very good for our finances). Defensively, we brought in Tom Lovelock in goal, who was a much needed improvement to that area. We also brought in Ben Morgan to partner Zubar in the center of our defense, both of whom averaged over a 7.00 rating. We actually dropped one of our central midfielders back to the defensive mid position to make room for our most expensive signing in River Allen. His wages were worth it however, since he averaged a 7.27 rating in the BWM role. Attacking-wise, to partner Simpson and Connolly, we brought in Harvey Knibbs from Hungerford and he repaid our faith with 27 goals and 13 assists to partner the 33 and 14 from Simpson. Towards the end of the season we brought in another striker, Yiannis Constantinou, who replaced Connolly and scored 9 and assisted 5 in his 15 games. 

All in all, those signings proved to make us way to good for this level as we strolled through the league never being below 1st place for an extended period of time. Our attacking tactic scored us 108 goals which put us by far in first place in goals scored. Quite interestingly however, it also conceded us 74 goals which was the third most in the league.

 

Obviously, these signings hurt our finances quite a bit, but I feel like we have no choice since we need better players if we want to improve.

 

Next season I'm optimistic that we can finish somewhere in the top half of the table and maybe even challenge for promotion, but I certainly think our team is strong enough to avoid relegation.

 

Team of the Season

Tom Lovelock

Kyle Scarisbrick             Stephane Zubar             Ben Morgan              Jake Llewellyn

River Allen     

Jordan Jones       Dom Thomas

Yiannis Constantinou       Harvey Knibbs      Jordan Simpson

 

Career Overview

Season    League                       Position    FA Cup          Capital One Cup     Johnston's Paint Trophy  FA Trophy       Achievements/Notes           Top Scorer             Most Assists               Highest Avg Rating 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18   Vanarama Conference South    16th        4th Q Round     N/A                 N/A                      3rd Q Round     N/A                          Simpson/Connolly (19)  Simpson (16)               Simpson (7.12)  
2018/19   Vanarama Conference South    1st         3rd Q Round     N/A                 N/A                      3rd Q Round     Champions!!                  Simpson (33)           Simpson/Thomas/Jones (14)  Constantinou (7.42)  

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Balahara said:

Scout constantly and don't trust the 'ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets' option in the player search. Also use non contracts as much as possible so you have the availability to upgrade your squad.

I agree with "ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets"

I mean, I have spotted many really good players willing to sign for my club but he filters out, is it bug or what I don't really understand why..

Link to post
Share on other sites

Just now, Wells said:

I agree with "ask assistant to filter out unrealistic targets"

I mean, I have spotted many really good players willing to sign for my club but he filters out, is it bug or what I don't really understand why..

I have read scouting guides and all but how do you get the most of your scouts? do you ask for report card only and if they have 3+ stars you scout them to full knowledge or for 2 weeks? 

 

Do you guys go team for team? 

Link to post
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, QSF25 said:

I have read scouting guides and all but how do you get the most of your scouts? do you ask for report card only and if they have 3+ stars you scout them to full knowledge or for 2 weeks? 

 

Do you guys go team for team? 

I followed this guide, maybe it can help you. 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...