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SELKIRK FC - SEASON THREE - 2019/20

League Table - Transfers - Finances - Cup Results - Squad - Youth Intake

 

We finished a place higher once again, we are slowly making steps to improve but injuries hit us hard with the lack of quality, a nice cup run would be nice to improve finances so we can improve the facilities.

 

Next years update will be more in depth.

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27 minutes ago, Pippadoc said:

@makovn Good luck! Romania sounds like it should be an interesting country to manage in.

Thanks! my start has been bad my only two goalkeepers will miss the first month of the league so i predict goal galore and not for me

Edit: more injuries quarter of my squad is injured and i haven't even finish pre- season

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4 hours ago, Sanno11 said:

@MCPlay Great season mate, well done on the Champions league win. Out of interest what sort of attendances do you get in the home fixtures in the Champions league?

Thanks!:) For the big teams we sell out our loaned stadium of 14.500. Our regular stadium holds 3.500, and we average about 450 in the league

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Hapoel Herzliya

End of Season 1 (2017/18)

Liga Leumit (Israeli 2nd tier)

150px-Hapoel_herzlya.gif

My Profile - League Table - Club Facilities - Finances - Transfers

 

The Season - Our pre-season saw us get trounced 5-0 by a lower level club, and mostly playing aweful. Our first competitive matches were played in the Toto Cup (the secondary cup of Israel. there's a separate Toto Cup for the 1st tier and a different one for the 2nd tier) - and they where no better. We were beaten easily, only producing 2 shots on goal. Obviously, we where handed an early exit, finishing bottom of our group of 4 teams with one point.

The League was a different story. Our failures in the pre-season led me to adopt a rather defensive 4-1-2-3 tactic, which quickly changed to a contain 5-men defensive line whenever we had a lead. This new approach led us to an incredible start to the campaign, collecting 13 points in the first 6 matches, and briefly leading the table. However, these days of glory where numbered, and were followed by a streak of just one win in 7 matches. We then added two wins in a row, and the accumulated points meant we where never in danger of relegation battles, but rather dwindled on the edge of the top-8. During the first half of the season, we where hands down the best defense in the league - but also the second to last offense. The second half of the season was miles off - we only managed 4 wins out of 15 matches, and got hammered 2-5, 2-4 and 0-4. We finished the regular season in 9th place, just a point shy of the championship group. The 7 matches in the relegation group were just a short wait for the end of the season, as our margin meant we were safe from relegation from the get go. In the end, we finished the season in a respectable 10th place, crowning us as the league overachievers. However, it must be said that our performances towards the end of the season were absolute rubbish - even when we won, it was through parking the bus after an early lead, with the opponent collecting something like 15 shots on goal more than us.

We also had a disappointing early exit from the State Cup, Losing in overtime to Hapoel Acre. I felt it was one of our better games this season, but we just couldn't make it count.

 

The Squad - in terms of squad news, we had two bits of bad news. First of all, our star GK and best player, Snir Dori, refused to renew his contract, wanting to move to a bigger club. I couldn't change his mind, and he went on a free transfer to Bnei Yehuda from the 1st tier. It's a massive Blow. Dori had a great season, leading the Liga Leumit in clean sheets, with 17 in 35 appearances. We had no substitute goalie, and it means I will have to rely on a sub-par youth intake GK next year. The second bit of news came from the front. We had big trouble there during the season, with two of our 3 strikers combining for 37 hours of football without scoring. The only consistent performer was Mikhail Kirtava, who led our scoring with a whopping 7 goals - and he decided to go on and announce his retirement from pro football and retreat to the minor leagues. The youth intake did not provide any strikers, so I'm left with only two clowns as my goalscorers. Other then that, no immediate concerns, as all players have contracts for two more seasons at least.

The honorable mention is that I have a U21 international already! however, it's not in Israel, and he's not a youth product. Yair Shpungin featured 4 times for the Estonia U21. I'm thinking of retraining him as a poacher to help with the offensive troubles.

 

Facilities and Finances - the board was kind to us, and despite our finances not being great, they allowed for two junior coaching updates, prompting us to adequate junior coaching to go along with adequate youth facilities. My finances are poor, losing quite a bit every month. The fact the I have absolutely no fan base doesn't help (I average like 5 fans for an away game, and my opponents usually have more fans than me in my home matches). Even the successful season did not bring about a rise in season tickets.

 

Home Grown Watch - So, in my first update, I said that I have two homegrown players from the intake before I took over. Eran Tsarfati (18a), who I thought could be a rotation player, actually became one of my first choices. He featured 34 times, returning 2 goals, 4 assists, and handing out delicious passes that my crappy offense couldn't capitalize on. Boaz Farhi (18b), whom I deemed rubish on my first post, actually progressed really well. He had 21 apps (6 starts) as a CD and as a newly trained DM.

 

Youth Intake - For some reason, my screenshot from the intake didn't work, so I'm using one from the start of the next season. The Intake gave me some much needed backups for the squad for next years and a couple of talented guys to look for as they develop. I tagged 9 of them. Most notable guys are:

  • Oren Jerasi (19a) - Nice potential in CD, my coaching staff adore him. Will only turn seventeen in December, so just U19 for him in the first half of the season. Could challenge for first team in January if develops well.
  • Kobi Yehezkel (19b) - Looks a promising DM, who could also help in set pieces. Will start as my backup DM. Could very well become a starter as my first choice DM prefers sleeping to training.
  • Uri Buskila (19c) - I have two great options in DL right now, but they are entering their 30's and are starting to decline a bit. Uri will only turn 17 in February, so he has a lot of time to "cook" in the U19. I can see him becoming my first choice DL in a couple seasons.
  • Moshe Uzan (19h) - He would not get mentioned in normal circumstances, but the Snir Dori situation means that Uzan is now my first and only GK for this season. A glimmer of hope is the meteoric jump he made from 4 to 14 determination in just 5 months.

 

Next Season Objectives: Again, I just want to survive, and give some of the youths their first chances. With the move from Dori to Uzan in goal, I reckon survival is going to be a lot more challenging this time around.

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Bilderesultat for county haverfordwest

Season 16

European Qualification

After two straight years in the Champions League our expectations were to keep that streak going. After beating a team from the Faroe Islands and one from Malta vi faced RB Salzburg in the play-off. We beat them at this stage last year, so they were out for revenge. We went up 2-0 at home, but a horrible ending to the game saw them going home to Austria with a 3-4 win in the bag. We played magnificently in the away fixture, but the 4 goals we conceded at home was to much to overcome. We won 2-3, meaning we were knocked out by the away goal rule. This means we are heading to the Europa League, hopefully this can be a blessing in disguise as we might be ready to win some games and maybe fight for advancement in the group.

We are drawn against Napoli, Dnipro and Viktoria Plzen. Napoli will of course be very hard and Dnipro is a solid Ukrainian team, but Plzen we have beaten in qualification play before. It will be hard, but my expectations are to pick up at least 5 points, with advancement being a real chance this time around.

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Hi guys! Long time, no post. Real Life has taken hold of me. Working, doing a teacher training course and studying for a Masters at the same time is pretty gruelling. I should have some time to post up the season ive completed on the train, plenty of catching up to do too!

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Greek Youth Adventure - Season 6

htMf2.png

A much shorter update this time, as real life started to get to me. We did pretty good in the League showing consistency as we finished again in 4th place, but we didn't do that great in the European Places Play-offs where we finished in the last position. But that was due also to the fact that we won the Greek Cup for our second time (and thus qualified for Europe again), and once the Champions league spot was out of our reach I played mostly rotation and prospect players. In the Europa League we lost in the first stage we entered, the 3rd qualifying round, so no groups or money for us this time.

Our Squad is now dominated by youth products, what worries me is that most of the key players are starting to claim the promise of treating the club as a stepping stone and laughable low release clauses for foreign clubs to their contract renewal. So far no one come sniffing around them, but I think that is just a question of time. Season awards go to our regular customers: Z Zonas and C Ntoupis. Our Youth Intake wasn't that spectacular this year.

Won again the manager of the season award, and also this interesting Offer. As I declined they decided to hire this dude - picked straight out of the park or something. Awkward silence moment. We are now the 4th club in Greece in term of finances also (around 10 million), behind only PAOK, Olympiakos and Panathinaikos. Regardless of my opinion we now have two feeder clubs, one from Serbia and one from Malta. Thinking about sending some guys to Serbian to gain some match experience. Finances looking decent and facilities slowly increasing, while the board expects us to still avoid relegation. 

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Loving all the updates!  I have just caught up on too many to be able to single out any for :thup:'s and not feel bad for those I do not mention  :(

 

So, my updates......

I have played 2 seasons since my last update, and I have to be honest, I am just not feeling it with Aachen currently.  I always loved putting together the update reports and this time around it feels like a chore.  I think it is because they were too big of a team for my liking to start with.  Their stadium was majestic and I have not touched it.  Their youth recruitment started out at average, which is great for most of the clubs we begin with and I have not had the chance to upgrade it yet.  It kind of felt like everything was handed to me, instead of building it myself.  So I have shelved them for now.

So last night I got three new saves set up for reloading in countries I have never played before.  Switzerland, Austria and Wales (I would be lying if I did not say how much I am enjoying @MCPlay's updates).

I then invited my 7 year old over and we decided to reload each country 3 times and then he would pick the team he liked the best.  All went according to plan, we reloaded Switzerland and Austria 3 times and had a favorite team for each picked out.  We then did the first Welsh reload and it was game over.  He went nuts when the following team appeared, and you will probably see why when you see the news item.....

porttalbot.png

So I am now manager of Port Talbot, nestled just off of the M4 wedged between Swansea and Cardiff......

Side note, and the more I say this the more you guys will hold me to it!  This entire save is going to be strikerless.  I had a very nicely working strikerless set-up going in the final season at Aachen (and I still didn't fall in love with them!) and I will be using that from the get-go in Wales.

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@Braumiller Welcome to Wales. I am very excited to see you taking over Port Talbot, and looking forward to reading about your strikerless endeavours! Port Talbot actually managed the great feat of winning the Welsh Cup in my first season, while they were still not promoted to the Welsh Premier League. So you've got a team of potential giant-killers there!

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2 hours ago, Braumiller said:

Side note, and the more I say this the more you guys will hold me to it!  This entire save is going to be strikerless.

Yay strikerless! Before I got distracted by factorio again (worse time sink than football manager!) I was working on a strikerless + libero tactic for maximum hipster value to go with my second attempt (which I have still not worked out where since every nation either wont load the clubs I want or loads them with too few players). I really should get back to it. :) 

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2 hours ago, Braumiller said:

Side note, and the more I say this the more you guys will hold me to it!  This entire save is going to be strikerless.  I had a very nicely working strikerless set-up going in the final season at Aachen (and I still didn't fall in love with them!) and I will be using that from the get-go in Wales.

While real life has been getting in the way this week (should finally have some free time from tomorrow afternoon to really play thank god!) I too have been using a striker less system in the little game time I've been able to play as my only senior striker done his cruciate after 7 games and my 16 and 17 year olds just aren't ready to lead the line yet. Been working OK so far. 

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Bilderesultat for county haverfordwest

Mini-update Dec 31. 2032

After I told Jacob Davies 10D about the Danny Roberts challenge and what I wanted him to achieve he has had a couple of great seasons for me, scoring 55 and 51 goals total. This season however he has kicked it up a notch, and at the end of the calendar year he already has notched 52 goals, 36 in the league. The league record is 37 goals, so he will surely smash this. He has also gotten his Wales-debut, becoming my second ever international player. He is now at 193 goals total. Having just turned 22 it will require a lot more seasons like this for him to reach 1000 goals, but nothing and everything is possimpible

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I originally intended to stay away from FM17 until after my written assessments is due, but after spending my time reading every single career-thread on this and other forums, my power of will disappeared. I have decided to give this challenge a go, playing as my home town club from Norway. They got relegated from the 2nd division(3rd level) this season, so I started up in april 2017 and went on holiday until 12. january 2018. Only had to reload three times, and there it was. 

My profile - Club facilities - Squad - Youth intake - General club info

The facilites is pretty basic, not very good, but not very bad. The club finances is not very good either, so I doubt there will be many investments until we get promoted atleast one division. The names in the squad doesn't tell you much, but a lack of an assistant in the beginning made it hard to get reports. Thanks to some poor research on the club Alexander Ødegaard is still playing at the age of 36 and is the best player in the squad, alongside the defender Attila. Both the goalkeepers are pretty good for a team of my stature, as is the strikers Myrkaskog and Kvalvågnes. In the midfield positions there are room for improvement, as is the case when it comes to fullbacks. To my surprise we even got a youth intake the first season, with some very promising youngsters. The two at the top will be introduced to the first team immediately, while a few of the others with decent personalities probably will get a chance during the season. 

The season

Mid season - End of season - Stats

We were expected to battle against relegation, so we went at it in a careful fashion, playing a defensive or counter-attacking 4-3-3(or 4-1-2-2-1 with wingers). It wasn't very entertaining, but we got the results. After the first half of the season I event thought that we could go up, but a few injuries and some experiments with a 4-4-2 put and end to that. Most of the teams in the league play the same way. Away from home it's 4-5-1 and defending all the way, at home it's 4-4-1-1 and a bit more attacking. Breaking down the 4-5-1 at home caused us some problems, as you can see on the goal-difference. We lack the ability and creativity to break down defences in our current structured form, so I might try a bit more creative freedom at home next season. Defensively things was ok, but we have a job to do on defending set pieces, especially corners to the far post. Close to half the goals against was after set pieces, so something has to happen there. 

Development-wise it's not much to report. Eikeskog played when he was fit, but suffered a torn harmstring during the season and missed a few months. Zetterdal was more in and out of the team, due a few bad mistakes and bad performances. During the season Jørgen Berge got promoted to the team and played in the DMC-position, doing okay, but nothing more than that. Next season Eikeskog will be more of a playmaker than the box-to-box role he's had this season. I have a few problems with the squad personality, especially the lack of determination. Ødegaard is the only player with decent determination with 10, the rest is stuck around 5, so for the youngsters it is dropping all around. Next season I might let some of the more experienced players with low determination (>5) go, to see if it can improve the squad average. Trouble is Ødegaard is 38 years old, so someone has to take over his job in keeping the determination up. Will probably have sign up the youngsters with good personality, even though their CA and PA is low, just to improve squad personality. 

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I stayed up waaaaay too late last night playing my first season! :) 

Still have a handful of games to play tonight, but there have been storylines and narratives written all over the place :thup:. Some good, some great and some not so good :D 

Side note, I am definitely stealing @Duroliponte's Excel style tracking of progress for my Port Talbot updates :thup:

 

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Hello all! I've followed from the sidelines in the past but looking forward to finally joining the challenge myself this year on FMT. I will be taking my managerial talents abroad and starting my first save in Switzerland. Upon my first reload, I've taken the helm of FC Stade Nyonnais. They seem to be a pretty legit squad and the team looks promising. I will upload my manager and team info later, hopefully with some season updates as well. Looking forward to creating the next La Masia in the land of the Swiss!

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Dulwich Hamlet - Vanarama National - Season 2019/20

Dulwich Hamlet Badge.png

League Table - FA Cup - FA Trophy - Transfers - Squad - Finances

 

On paper it's another solid season, we were predicted to finish bottom but ended 10 places above that and were never even close to be in the relegation battle, however I can't help but feel frustrated at how this season went. 7 games in and we lost our only senior striker Dan Carr for the rest of the season with a cruciate ligament injury. A change in formation was required as our young players were not ready to lead the line, the change went well and around the turn of the year we won 8 out of 9 games (7 in a row to set a new club record) and found ourselves in 2nd place. We then hit the worst run of form I've ever encountered, after our win over Sutton on Jan 7th we would only win 3 of our next 17 games, losing 11 of them. The positional graph makes for rough reading. The lack of striker really told as the goals dried up and we sank. I was glad when the season was over. The only bright spots were a couple of young players getting some good game time with James Daly YP02C pushing to make the RB slot his own and Vangelis Bosganas YP01A tying down a regular place in the side.

Cups

The FA Cup we got to the first round where we played league one Bolton at home, a near sell out crowd saw us nearly snatch the win but the 2-2 draw meant a replay, another tight game saw Bolton squeak through with the winner coming in extra time
In the FA Trophy we just had one of those days, 2-0 up after 22 mins and we threw it away to lose 3-2.

Youth Intake

Another pretty solid intake here, we seem to produce CBs and wingers but not much else right now.

Ben Nightingale YP03A - CB and the highest rated prospect in out U18 team. Made his debut towards the end of the season once Playoffs were out of our reach
Jordan Woodward YP03B - RB that should help push Daly on.
Kevin Williams YP03C - left winger to give us needed options there
Stewart Carter YP03D - A DM where we have no one natural, needs some work though

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		VNS		1st		Champions
2018/19		VNL		7th		
2019/20		VNL		14th 

Next Season

Arrest this slump in form or we are going to be in serious trouble.

 

 

 

 

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Aaarrgghhh!!! My iPad crashed while saving and as a result I've lost my current Switzerland save :(. I will have to restart but now need to figure out what nation Id like to test out. Will hopefully have a new post later tonight...

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IMG_0057.PNGe

First Vienna Football Club 2017/2018

Following the bitter disappointment in Switzerland, I travelled to Austria and discovered this gem in my reload. FVFC is the oldest club in the country and has a storied History.  While their successful days are far behind them, the phoenix aims to rise from the ashes when they decide to hire their new American Manager. The club has a decent enough setup given their finances, professional status, and Facilities in order to give this save a proper go. My Squad is pretty thin and injuries could hurt us badly with so little depth, but that's what makes this a challenge! Of course no Transfers, but I was able to hire some really great back room staff ( 3+ stars ) to make up for that, so we'll see where it takes us. I'll update at mid season, so let the fun begin!

 

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8 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

@darren1983 Not a bad season, not sure if your team is  prepared anyway to go up, so I guess a steady growth is preferable to avoid the sack :) Good luck and hang in there. 

It was a fine season yeah, just frustrating to be 2nd at the turn of the year and hit that run of form. I think the key to success in England is hanging in there really, it's a like a war of attrition, just gotta keep going. I have set myself a target of around 5 seasons per division so gave myself 10 seasons to get out of non league football, winning promotion in my first season just meant it gave me 9 attempts to get to league 2 :D 

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Bilderesultat for county haverfordwest

Season 16

League Table | Transfers | Season Review

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

11 in a row. Went unbeaten for only the second time, racking up a career best 92 points.

Cup runs

Won both. Forget trophy cabinets, we need to get something bigger. I'm thinking something along the lines of Scrooge McDuck's Money Bin.

Europa League

Fixtures

After disappointing play-off loss to RB Salzburg it was off to the Europa League for the first time in some time. After seeing the draw I felt like this could be our european breakthrough, was this assumption correct?

We started out losing away to Viktoria Plzen, which was very disappointing, as they were the weakest team in the group. Then Napoli came to visit, and we were unable to cause an upset. 0 points after 2 games, but we were still adamant about our chances. We then travelled to Ukraine, and grabbed 3rd european group stage win of all time, 1-2! When Dnipro came to visit us, we felt confident based on our match-up in Ukraine. That confidence turned into a slaughtering of massive proportions. And for the first time, it wasn't ut that got slaughtered in europe, incredibly it was we who won the game 6-1! Felt so good to be on the right side of one of these hammerings, as god knows we have endured some harsh results in the group stages in years past.

We now had the chance to secure advancement when Viktoria Plzen travelled to wales, but we couldn't keep the win streak going and settled on a 1-1 draw. This meant that we most likely needed a point in Napoli in the last game, a tall task. But we delivered! Somehow we were dominant from start to finish, and the 1-1 draw flattered Napoli. For the first time we have advanced past the group stage!

We drew Zenit St. Petersburg in the first knockout round. We were once again dominating the game against a much bigger foe, but as in Napoli we were unable to find the cutting edge. The home game ended 2-2, but we had all the chances to win it. The game in Russia was far tighter fought, but their quality became the decisive factor as they put away both their chances, resulting in a 2-0 loss. It was a bit disappointing losing a tie were we actually felt like we were the better team, but this european campaign will of course be seen as a resounding success!

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

 

Poor intake, nothing here really.

 

Big Fat Goalie Challenge:

Owen 14B had a decent season. He was injured for two months which of course hampered his goal scoring, in the end he got half the amount of last years 8 goals. He converted 3 of 4 penalties which is good, but the real cherry on top was his first free kick goal. He decided to take matters into his own hands (feet?) when we were struggeling for a goal against Connah's Quay, and smacked a 25 yard free kick into the top corner to secure a 1-0 win!

Dave Owen 14B - 13 Goals. 4 this season.

Richie Price 11D - 4 Goals

Longevity Challenge:

The aim in this Challenge is to get players to 1000 appearances for the club. We're currently playing just over 50 games a season, so it will require an incredibly injury-free player 20 Seasons to do it.

Most appearances:

Emyr Boyle 2D - 482 Appearances - 12 this season

Huw Price 4A - 471 Appearances - 52 this season

Ones to watch:

Dafydd Davies 7A - 383 Appearances - 48 this season

Callum Hart 12A - 152 Appearances - 51 this season

Rory Cooper 12B- 132 Appearances - 34 this season

 

Danny Roberts Challenge

The aim in this Challenge is to get a player to score 1000 goals during his career, national team goals count.

Most goals:

Huw Price 4A - 339 goals in 471 games. A bit of a bounceback season saw Huw bang in 30 goals. He also assisted 28 times, mostly to his goaltastic partner

Jacob Davies 10D - 220 goals in 177 games. 79 goals this season. 79 goals this season! 79! And he doesn't even shoot penalties. Could Jacob be the guy to get to 1000? He regularly draws interest from lower end Premier League clubs, but he doesn't kick up to much of a fuss when I tell him that he won't be allowed to leave. This guy is pretty good. His 52 league goals in 30 games absolutely demolished his old record of 37. He was only injured for 2 weeks this year, hopefully he can keep being an ironman in years to come.

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Dulwich Hamlet - Vanarama National - Season 2020/21

Dulwich Hamlet Badge.png

League Table - FA Cup - FA Trophy - Squad - Transfers - Finances

 

Another tough slog this season but finished around same as last year (1 place lower and 2 points less) but again were never really in danger of going down (closest we got was dropping to just above the bottom 4 for 2 game but even then we were 7 points clear) we were played and finished like the team we are - inconsistent. We'd go 6 or 7 without loss then 6 or 7 without a win, biggest issue is goals, Daniel Carr seems to have lose something after his cruciate injury last season and we've yet to produce a forward who can (or even looks like) score on an even semi regular basis, the brightest spot is again the form of Vangelis Bosganas YP01A with his best season yet, ended as our top scorer with 12 (10 in the league) and 4 assists. In the run in we went 7 games without losing (only conceding 1 goal and setting a new club record with 6 games without conceding) so I fully expect not to win any of our opening 7 games next season.

Cups

The Fa Cup saw us get to the 1st round but beaten by League 2 Accrington. In the FA Trophy we had a nice run to the 1/4 finals before eventual runners up Gateshead were just too strong on the day.

Youth Intake

Another OK one, still seem to only produce full backs, centre backs and wingers. Going for a change in personal in the summer when my HOYD contract expires. Did tag 4 players though

Duncan Sonner YP04A - versital defensive player, already 2* CA so will look to give him game time soon
Kamohelo Gwala YP04B - another CB, not a fan of his personality so trying to get him tutored 
Greg Brown YP04C - another fullback, able to cover on both sides
Aeson Ndayisaba YP04D - Another wide player

Career Overview

Season		League		Position	Achievements

2017/18		VNS		1st		Champions
2018/19		VNL		7th		
2019/20		VNL		14th 
2020/21		VNL		15th

Next Season

Get to 50 points again as soon as I can, then try and kick on. Top 10 finish is the aim.

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@MCPlay - I think Jacob Davies might be possible for the 1000, what may hold him back is he's not quite good enough to be regularly scoring for the national team, most recent Danny Roberts completions have fallen over the line with the help goals for the national team. Of course if he can keep the form up in the league it might not matter!

@darren1983 - Tough run of luck with the youth intakes positions. The finances there in England look tough as usual, seems like you're going to be forced to rely on youth sooner rather than later because they'll be more affordable.

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Port_Talbot_Town_FC_logo.png

Season 01 2017-18

The Season As It Happened....

Preseason
In addition to the two usual pillars of my preseasons (lots of easy games at home to increase fitness & morale) this was also used to start several retraining projects.  Most important was to get myself someone who is relatively decent on the ball at DM (which was initially had zero) and then get more people comfortable in more roles with which we will be using.

August
A surprisingly good start to life at Port Talbot.  League and cup saw us go unbeaten for our first 5 games, to give us a great starting point for the season.

October 21st 2017
Our first game against TNS.  They were all over us as expected, but we gave them a complete and unexpected mugging.  We had 3 shots to their 17 and ran out 3-0 winners....

December 18th 2017
A 5-7 week injury to our only goalkeeper at the club!  Disaster struck and we had to play an outfielder in goal for 7 games.  This spanned the last 5 league games before the split and also the end to our MG Cup run.

January 13th 2018
Our second game against TNS.  This was during our outfielder in goal run and our form was understandably poor.  We went in at HT 0-3 down as they were extracting revenge for the hit-and-run game earlier in the season.  After some hairdryer treatment, the lads went out in the 2nd half with a different mindset.  We pulled it all the way back to 3-3 and then in the 85th minute unbelievably went 4-3 up!  We went turtle shell to protect this, but a soft goal in the 86th minute made it 4-4.  Still, a good result and we left things alone.  Then we cemented our status as TNS's early bogeyteam by getting the winner in a 9 goal thriller in the 89th minute!

January 21st 2018
The very next week was the MG Cup final, against....... TNS.  We were on a high after last week and carried straight on.  We went on to win 4-1 and took home our first ever silverware for the club!  3 for 3 against TNS so far....

February 2018
Our main goalscorer Luke Bowen announces he is going to retire at the end of the season!  He is only going to be 30 and I was not able to persuade him to reconsider.  This is going to be a big loss.
Additionally Jamie Rewbury also announced his retirement at the end of the season.  A first choice central defender we are now going to have to plug gaps at both ends of the pitch......

March 4th 2018
Injury disaster #2!  James Loveridge went down in a game and afterwards we got hit with the news he damaged his cruciate ligaments and is out for approx 11 months :(  A key outfielder, who excelled at right midfield but I have my eye on for AMC moving forward, with the news of Luke Bowen's retirement.

March 10th 2018
Youth Candidates 2018!  A decent first intake with some workable kids.  7 tagged in total with hopes for 2-3 to make claims on 1st team spots going forward.  Apart from one exception a little concerned over the low determination in the group.  Hoping this is not a sign of things to come.
Michael Shrimpton 2018-A - A very nice looking player.  Natural at MC, but has ability at AMC and FC as well.  Due to his height I will probably groom him to be my MC, but I will retrain him as an AMC until he is accomplished to give me flexibility.
Rob Martin 2018-B - A natural striker, which we do not use.  Will be retrained as an AMC in the hope he is our main goalscorer in the near term future.    Nice pace and decent finishing and composure for our low level.
Conah Howells 2018-C - Great versatility here, able to fill in at 4 positions in our tactic.  Not sure on a final direction for him yet, but he will see games due purely to being able to play in a lot of positions    .
Jordan Martin 2018-D - A decent pacey, flair wide man.  Saw immediate action due to James Loveridge's long term injury and should get the first half of next season at least as well
Liam Coleman 2018-E - A second GK at the club!  Will not immediately challenge for a first team spot, but great to finally have cover
Gareth Pugh 2018-F - Can play either flank and therefore provides good options from the bench
Michael Saunders 2018-G - A full back who lacks technicals.  Hoping his potential equals decent stat progression

March 26th 2018
So, our chairman out of the blue announced he was selling the club.  A (thankfully) very brief period of news followed before we were bought out by a local investor, Tom Jones!  I presume not THAT Tom Jones, as he just took out a 61k loan to clear our debts and no initial or future plans for additional cash for the club.  We reestablished our youth philosophy with him, so all looks good going forward.

Championship Group Split
Despite the highs of the unexpected TNS wins, we were suffering from the lack of GK and our league form dipped.  Even when he returned, we struggled to regain form.  TNS whooped us twice as well!
We went into the last game of the season knowing a win would get us 3rd and a Europa League spot.  We were winning with 2 minutes left, but we conceded late on to make it 2-2 and fall to 4th.  Then in the 93rd minute we conceded a penalty and lost 2-3!  This put us bottom of the split table (6th) and an away game in the European Playoffs, instead of a home game which 4th or 5th would have afforded us.  Here we lost.  That is all I want to say about that! :)

End of Season Screenshots
League Table
Results
Transfers
End of Season Awards
* Player of The Year 1st Place - Luke Bowen (34%)
* Player of The Year 2nd Place - Thomas Silva (29%)
* Player of The Year 3rd Place - James Loveridge (24%)


Season 02 Targets
* Fill in the gaps made by our two retirees.
* Retrain the youths to fit into our system
* Begin giving the youths first team action
* Aim for mid table again

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After scratching around for inspiration I finally found the club I was looking for in Pontassolense. They're kind of rubbish for this challenge: they start with crap facilities in a tiny resort town of Ponta do Sol  on Madeira, with less than 9000 people in the entire municipality. But I managed them in the FM12 edition of this challenge - picked them blindly based on them being formed in the year I was born - and got them to a double cup win, Europa semi and 2nd in the top league before FM13 dropped. I always felt like I had unfinished business there but it's hard to go back in versions, especially given I played FM13 down to the wire! So after I found they were again available for this challenge i had to play them. Unfortunately I wasted a lot of time before working out there must be some bug that doesn't let them come up in the first window, so I holidayed two years to get them. They even still have some of the same players from last time I played them. :)

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Pontassolense - Pre Season - 2018/19 Campeonato de Portugal Prio

Ponta do Sol | Stadium | Facilities | ManagerSquad

Starting squad looks close to average for this level so should be capable of survival. I know from experience coming from a tiny location with rubbish recruitment the intakes wont be world beaters so I'm glad we have something to work with. The main concerns are having only one keeper, and lacking good central midfielders - we may have to retrain and improvise. Wish me luck that I don't butcher this and can do my first love of this challenge justice! :D

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On 08/11/2016 at 03:22, MCPlay said:

I've now played 10 seasons and still haven't got the chance to upgrade the youth recruitment, anyone know why this is? Seem to remember that I had a problem with this on FM 16 aswell

You're in a very rural region with a tiny pool of youths to pick from. 

 

I'm really enjoying following your reports. I'm doing my own Youth Academy challenge, but I'm using DanBHFC's 22-level file and used the editor to create my own club and give all the players, who are 14-year-old starting youths CA1, so I can't contribute here.

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First Vienna FC 1894 Mid-Season Report 17/18

The season started off decently, preseasoned against some weaker sides and tinkered with my vision for a sustainable tactic. As expected, the first few games were an eye opener as far as how thin our squad was and whether they could compete at this level. The injury plague hit and we were out our top scorer, central defender, two wingers, AND our goalie!  This forced me to find a tactic to play with these losses. The end result- pure inspiration! Our team stepped up and as the players got healthy we began to wreak havoc upon the league. We have reached the mid season break and here is where we Stand. The board was so thrilled they gave me an Extension and have been singing my Praises! Looking forward to the second half of the season but here are the FVFC Golden Boys:

Goalkeeper- Kostner ; our only keeper, so no real competition lol. He has been solid between the frames though so no complaints.

Defender- Posch ; Decent enough left full back. Not really a shut down defender but he can hold his own if need be. Has been healthy and consistent which is all I can ask for.

Midfielder- Emmerling ; absolute monster. Scores goals and leads in assists. A true difference maker and can change the game at any time. Media has been loving him.

Forward-Shibany ; best player thus far. His absence hurt us at the beginning but he is a poachers dream. Has been on a rampage scoring and a big reason why we're sitting pretty at #2

All I got so far, will wrap up at seasons end. Good luck everyone!

@Braumiller that's great to hear about your "retirees"!

@MCPlay love the posts. Insane goal tally!

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Season 17

European Qualification

After easily dispatching Lincoln(GIB) and FH from Iceland we drew Sparta Prague in the Champions League Play-Off. Our super-striker Jacob Davies 10D unfortunatly picked up a injury in the first game against FH and was as such unavailable for the play-off games. It turned out that we didn't miss him as much as feared, as we outplayed Sparta Prague at their own turf. We missed a late penalty before they scored an late goal to make the result a 1-2 win.

At home the game came easy to us, an early goal settled our nerves. And we later added a second winning the game 2-0 and securing our easiest qualification to the CL yet.

We drew Man Utd, SLB and Leverkusen, a pretty difficult group. We are looking to build upoen last years great Europa League performance, and even though it seems difficult our goal for this group is grabbing the third place. This may prove unrealistic though, and winning even a single game could be a tall task. Time wil show!

Jacob Davies 10D scored 8 goals in 3 games before his 5 week injury. Hopefully he will stay healthy from here on in.

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@Shakes yeah finances are always tough in England, only thing that kept us out of debt has been the 400k we got in season one for selling a young GK, what I've started to do is get as many of the fringe players on non-contract deals so if they don't make the match day squad then I don't have to pay them :D 

Good luck with Pontassolense, should be an interesting challenge and test on an island with so few people. Good luck.

@Braumiller congrats on a fantastic first season. TNS usually really tough to get the better off in Wales but guess striker less is working well? 

@Chantu9Y good first half of the season there, good luck with the 2nd half

@MCPlay tough group there, good luck.

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@Shakes Great club choice. Having such a unique team is a great start to a challenge like this. Good luck

@Braumiller Great first season, Rob Martin looks like a great talent.

I will have to write this up when I get a moment but I have just finished my third season at Ilkeston and we have been successful. I couldn't help but share this immediately.

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Season 17

Mini Update

After two games and two losses in our CL-group we travelled to Old Trafford to take on the mighty Red Devils of Manchester. If you recall our last trip there, 9 years ago, we were handed the biggest loss of our history(and also in CL-history), 12-1. We were trembling when we stepped out of the tunnel an into this historic stadium. They produced several big chances early, but we played well and were able to threaten their goal aswell. After 21 minutes the leader of our defense rose from the pack and headed a perfectly excecuted corner into the net. We are up 0-1!

The game kept going, United had the best of the play, but couldn't score. When we went into halftime leading 0-1, I told my boys that the dream was just 45 minutes away. 6 minutes into the second half, Jacob Davies 10D sped away from his marker an rolled the ball past the United goalie, 0-2!! The ulled one back in the 65th minute on a beautiful solo effort, and my heart rate jumped 50 paces. For the remainder of the match they pinned us back, but they couldn't put the ball past todays amazing goale Griffiths 7B. The ref blew his whistle and it was over, 1-2 win!

A theatre of dreams indeed

 

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Hello guys, after trying this challenge in past versions and coming far once with Turkish side, I'm going to take part again.

Now I'm holidaying game in Slovakia, which is also my home country, so I hope I can do something there :-) Best of luck to all of you.

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So, I took hold of a club FK Inter Bratislava, which is a club from my hometown. They were Slovak champions in years 1999 and 2000 and had some success afterwards but financial trouble has seen the club drop leagues.

Now, they are promoted again into playable leagues and look to restore their former name.

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Manager | Club | Facilities + Stadium | Squad

 

Manager: As expected, I started with lowest stats, hopefully I will be able to evolve into a pro.

Club: Valued at 95k and loan at 75k, the financial situation is not ideal, but I should be able to handle it.

Facilities: Everything is basic apart from junior coaching - this situation is one of the first things I will be looking to improve when I get the opportunity

Stadium: Currently with 1500 seats which at this level I will never fill, maybe only with top club in a cup, but we are due to move to 566 capacity "STaRZ" stadium :lol: great name!

Squad: Very few players, I will have to play with greys for this season, because it looks I won't even have 11 players on contract this year...at least the youngsters from intake have something to look forward to, because the talented ones will become first team players. Also, don't get fooled by the star rating, most of them are not even remotely that good :herman:

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Season 17

League Table | Transfers | Season Review

Dafabet Welsh Premier League

12 in a row. Closing in on 100 matches unbeaten.

Cup runs

Won the Welsh Cup. Lost the MG Cup 2-1 to Airbus thanks to a last minute winner by a former academy graduate of ours.

Champions League

Fixtures

As chronicled in a mini update we lost the first two games before winning in astonishing fashion at Old Trafford. United then visited Wales with vengance on their minds, and by golly they got it, winning 1-5. We then drew the last two games, against Leverkusen and SLB, having held a lead in both games. Great results, and 5 points was a good achievement in this tough group.

 

Youth Setup:

Youth Intake

 

*********. Two horrible intakes in a row, with absolutely no quality. It's safe to say that the Head of Youth Development wont be around next season.

 

Big Fat Goalie Challenge:

Owen 14B had a great season. He scored 8 of 9 penalties, and added a freekick. A great situation occured when he banged a freekick into the crossbar, and then collected the rebound after a defender headed it away. Owen dribbled a defender and was brought down in the penalty area, and the ref whistled for a pen, which he calmly put away. It was quite awesome really, you rarely see something that you've never seen anything like in this game.

Owen has developed very well, and was called up to the national squad for the first time.

Dave Owen 14B - 22 Goals. 9 this season.

Richie Price 11D - 4 Goals

Longevity Challenge:

The aim in this Challenge is to get players to 1000 appearances for the club. We're currently playing just over 50 games a season, so it will require an incredibly injury-free player 20 Seasons to do it.

Most appearances:

Huw Price 4A - 511 appearances - 40 this season

Emyr Boyle 2D - 492 Appearances - 10 this season

Ones to watch:

Dafydd Davies 7A - 329 Appearances - 46 this season

Callum Hart 12A - 200 Appearances - 48 this season

Rory Cooper 12B- 176 Appearances - 42 this season

 

Danny Roberts Challenge

The aim in this Challenge is to get a player to score 1000 goals during his career, national team goals count.

Most goals:

Huw Price 4A- 367 goals in 511 games. 28 goals in 40 games this season. Good scoring rate for his standards, but he was a bit injured this year.

Jacob Davies 10D - 264 goals in 219 games. 44 goals in 42 games this season. Disappointing season coming off of last years amazing goal-o-rama. He did score 3 goals in the CL-group stage, including the game winner at Old Trafford, proving his mettle on the top stage. He has been unhappy all season long, angling for a move to England. He has overcome these worries before, but it seems he wont let it go this time around. His contract lasts 3 more years, so I'm not in a rush. However it would be nice if we could see the real Jacob next season, as he definately was holding back a bit this season.

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@MCPlay - I bet you can't even get enough for Davies to make it worth selling him, money from Europe is probably dwarfing what his fee would be, so you may as well ride him and hope he changes his mind. Looks like he's peaked attribute wise though, so may not be quality enough to go for 1000 anyway?

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Season 17

Mini Update

My left winger Dylan Rees 10B was named in the CL Dream Team. Amazing to get a player in such a team, apart from the goalie all the other players were from the teams competing in the CL-final. Sadly Dylan is leaving us for Bolton, as he wouldn't renew his contract. He will be the second academy graduate to compete in the English Championship. We managed to get 1 million pounds for him, the first real transfer fee we have gotten. Best of luck to him in the future!

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@Shakes yeah, selling him is useless as I really don't need the money. I think he could possibly get glose to 1000 goals if he were motivated every season, seeing as he was able to score so many last year and is already a quarter of the way at 23 years old. Doing the math in my head it seems more unlikely that he will make it than I wanted to believe though:onmehead: But if he refuses to play to his maximum ability because of his ambitions to go abroad I suppose a better striker will come around in the future anyway

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I think the problem he'll have is that his attributes are heavily weighted towards his physicals and that means he's going to fall off rapidly after 30. Needs to consistently hit in 75 every year until then to have a shot I think, just judging from the past players dafuge has had complete it?

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First Vienna FC 1894 17/18 Update

I had to post this update, as we just pulled off one of the biggest updates in our club history. We were projected to be kicked out of the Austrian Cup after the 2nd Round, however we have continued to defy expectations and made it to the quarterfinals where we were pitted against Premier League side SV Mattersberg. To make matters worse, we lost our starting left fullback and central midfielder to injury. Needless to say, the guys were feeling discouraged prior to the game. However after a great pep talk from their resilient manager, they came out on the pitch ready to topple the Austrian status quo. After a few minutes, we shocked the home side by going 1-0 up following a great bit of group play. As confidence grew, chances multiplied and we doubled our lead before half time! The stadium was dead silent at this point. We held our heads high coming out at halftime but the lead was not to be. Before we could gather ourselves, the Premier side showed their class and quality with a 8 minute double salvo :( We desperately held on till extra time. I was subbing in greys at this point due to fatigue and waited for the hammer to fall. Then the hero Emmerling took things into his own feet and after a fantastic individual effort, blasted us into the lead 3-2! We held on for the Victory and are on our way to the semis! Along with the fame came much needed money, and after months of me begging, the board could no longer resist after this win and have awarded me a youth Upgrade :). I'm almost at the seasons end and will hopefully have more good news to tell.

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League Table ~ Europe ~ Facilities ~ Finances ~ Transfers ~ Player Ratings ~ Euro Places

Quick update here from me as I've almost forgotten about this season, completed over a week ago! All I remember was how terrible it started, we were bottom of the table abbout 6 games in. Luckily we turned it around and slowly crept up the league to win it, but there was a fair amount of worrying early on.

Youth Intake ~ Bosilkov 24A ~ Mihaylov 24B ~ Relations

One part of the season I do remember - an excellent intake! Vladimir Bosilkov is an outstanding prospect and already a key starter. It was also very interesting to see that he is the brother of Veselin Bosilkov, who now plies his trade at PAOK. Mihaylov will also jump straight into the first 11.

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League Table ~ Europe ~ Facilities ~ Finances ~ Transfers ~ Club Info

Well, this was the year it happened :D. About 5 seasons earlier than I thought it would even be possible. Firstly, on the domestic front we were completely dominant gaining 87 points in 36 games, smashing Ludogorets' 84 point record from 2012/13. Then, in the Champions League. It was just incredible. We won all of our home games in the group to sneak through to the knockouts, where we went unbeaten. The teams we faced were far superior on paper, but we were like a machine. I'm going to do a full update of the Champions League run when I have a bit more time, so keep your eyes peeled :thup:

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