shakey.bridge Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 19 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said: Keep me posted how you get on with Burton please mate. Will do mate, good to see you doing well, I have settled on a 4-3-3 wide formation with a flat midfield 3 with Matty Palmer holding as a DLP(D), using O'Grady up top as a Target Man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Yeah I finished my first season with Burton, managed a 17th league position, very happy with that, got my 50 point target with 3 games to go. O'Grady, Lucas Atkins, Jackson Irvine and Federico Macheida who I signed on a free on January and got 5 goals in 10 games were my best players, I kept trying to get Irvine to sign a new contract but every time I tried he kept wanting more then I could offer, so sold him to Lorient for 1.5m and got Alex Gilbey on loan as his replacement. My finances are really good now as I have been very prudent with contract bonuses for current squad and signings. I have 5m in the bank with Burton from selling Irvine and getting 5m for a decent position of 17th in the league, really enjoying this save with Burton. Spent 135k on transfers in, signed Lewis Vaughan for 11k and 11k a month for Gilbey loan, sold McFadzen and Irvine to get 2m. Roll on season 2, my aim is to try get 55-60 points but if I get 50 points again I will be happy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shakey.bridge Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Well done on your League position, and some good shrewd business too, I take ages as I micro manage and watch full highlights so I will give you an update after the 1st month, one thing I have noticed is if you take your time setting up attacking corners it will get you some crucial goals as Burton have a lot of tall good headers. what formation did you play? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 My main formation is 4-4-1-1, O'Grady playing as a DLF or Target Man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 At long last, the text of the club guides has been added. I might add a bit more gloss at some stage (and perhaps transfer budgets), but hopefully it gives a few ideas to prospective EFL managers in the meantime. Obviously there will be a data update coming after the winter transfer window closes, so I can adjust some bits and pieces after this data is in the game. I hope you all enjoy managing your teams, and please keep the reports coming! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirManager Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 9 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said: At long last, the text of the club guides has been added. I might add a bit more gloss at some stage (and perhaps transfer budgets), but hopefully it gives a few ideas to prospective EFL managers in the meantime. Obviously there will be a data update coming after the winter transfer window closes, so I can adjust some bits and pieces after this data is in the game. I hope you all enjoy managing your teams, and please keep the reports coming! Awesome work mate. I Have had very little time to play and have promised updates regarding my blackpool save. I'll try tonight or tomorrow to get it up. I can say Payne, Cain and McCalister are the trio to go with. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 Thanks, hopefully it will be worth my effort. I'll look forward to hearing about your Blackpool experience in due course. They're definitely one of the more appealing League 2 sides to take on this year - it's just those owners that sour it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirManager Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 11 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said: Thanks, hopefully it will be worth my effort. I'll look forward to hearing about your Blackpool experience in due course. They're definitely one of the more appealing League 2 sides to take on this year - it's just those owners that sour it! They ain't that bad in game. I just get every request I make denied. Other than that I hear nothing lol. Oh and too add to that Oyston won't leave the club of his own volition. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 9, 2017 Author Share Posted January 9, 2017 It's bizarre that they won't just sell up, but they're just never going to let go are they. I tried an experiment at Charlton with their hated owner, and wanted to see how it would pan out if I kept bugging him and slating him in interviews. I couldn't force him out, but imagine the sack might have come along if it continued for too long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirManager Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 15 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said: It's bizarre that they won't just sell up, but they're just never going to let go are they. I tried an experiment at Charlton with their hated owner, and wanted to see how it would pan out if I kept bugging him and slating him in interviews. I couldn't force him out, but imagine the sack might have come along if it continued for too long. I'm going to try it aha. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted January 9, 2017 Share Posted January 9, 2017 2nd season syndrome at Burton, only just stayed up in the Championship on the last game of the season, but happy overall as my aim every year is to at least stay up, I recommend everyone try a save with Burton at some point, very hard challenge but very rewarding as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flase9 Posted January 12, 2017 Share Posted January 12, 2017 Started a new save with Mansfield in League 2. Media prediction was 18th at the start of the season which appealed to me as a challenge and would give me the a chance to grow into the game rather than be under pressure for a promotion from the get go. I was quite surprised with quality i found in the starting squad and i seemed to be well covered in most areas. As a result i have been fairly quiet in the transfer market so far. I have got too the first week in February so far and we are performing well above the expectations in what is proving to be a very competitive league that is very congested. We are 29 games into the league and we lay just out side the playoff spots. Cup wise we have been fairly poor and suffered a swift exit in all competitions. Which in hindsight has probably helped my league form. My biggest disappointed was the 1st round loss to my big rivals Notts County because who doesnt love a good FA fairy tale? The standout players so far has been by far my front 2 of Matt Green and Danny Rose who have formed a great partnership scoring 40 goals between them so far!! Only negative is Matt Green has now picked up an injury and will be out for 4 weeks so it will be interesting to see if we can keep the up the same form without him and if the ever green Darius Henderson can fill the void. All in all i am really enjoying the save and hope we can maintain our goal scoring form in the season run in and finish as high up the table as we can. The only negative is the finances don't look to great at the moment with a balance of 300k in the red and only getting worse!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty_boy Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 Started a save with Gillingham in league 1 and below is a few screens as to how we're getting on. Managed to sign a great striker in Julien Toudic on a free and is currently sitting top scorer with 8 in 5. Happy days Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFuller Posted January 13, 2017 Share Posted January 13, 2017 MILLWALL - SEASON 4: 2018/2019 THE SEASON SO FAR (PART 3): I probably came across as a bit whiny in my previous two updates. Now that the season's finally over, I'm feeling a bit better - and slightly happier about how things have panned out. The first fortnight of February was quite awful... but then I finally found a way to rectify our shocking form at The Den. When we were at home, attack seemed like the best form of defence, as the likes of Derby, Preston and QPR were crushed by a resurgent Aiden O'Brien. The Republic of Ireland international scored in six successive games before we came a cropper against Aston Villa. The draw with West Brom was a real smash-and-grabber, while victory over Birmingham saw Ryan Christie begin a fantastic late-season spurt. Sadly, that was not replicated by most of his team-mates, as we spluttered badly and threw away any ambitions we had of finishing mid-table (i.e. 16th or above). That 4-0 home loss to Sheffield Wednesday particularly rankled with me. Shaun Williams, one of my former favourite players, got a first-half red card in that game and would never play for me again. We secured our survival by scraping past bottom club Bolton before a more convincing win at Fulham and a creditable draw at Forest concluded our season on a high. CHAMPIONSHIP: 17th 17th is quite a comedown compared to last season, but at least it's 'consolidation'. To be frank, we've been quite poor since January of last season, and I've put that down to a lot of our players only being League One quality at best. In that respect, our defence was particularly suspect. It's hard to say whether my tactical systems have played a part in our underachievement (I say 'underachievement' - we still finished a few places higher than we were predicted to at the start of the season). Much of the dead wood is being replaced over the summer, and I'm bringing in some quality replacements. Next season will probably be a better indicator of how good we are as a team, and how competent I am as a manager. FA CUP: Round 4 (lost to Swansea City in a replay)EFL CUP: Round 3 (lost to Tottenham Hotspur) SQUAD (END-OF-SEASON): [You might be wondering what happened to right-back Shaun Cummings. I sold him to Houston Dynamo for £300,000 in mid-April.] On paper, this squad doesn't look too bad. Attacking-wise, we're actually quite strong, with O'Brien enjoying his best season yet, Long starting to come good again, and Christie really showing his true quality late on. Cain continued to deliver the goods in midfield but Thompson was a little underwhelming. Nelson was solid at the back, as was captain Webster in what proved to be his final season with us. Credit should go to Adam Smith, too - he only conceded 38 goals in 31 league games this season, compared to 50 in 32 last time around. He's quashed my doubts about his consistency and is a really strong candidate to be our captain next season. Our wage bill looks quite low for the Championship, but in truth, it's actually too high for a club of our stature. As things stood, we were paying our squad close to £250,000 per week, and our average attendance of 12,492 was the lowest of any club in our division. If you're a keen mathematician, like I am, you can work out straight away that those figures are unsustainable. Our owner John Berylson is having to invest millions into the club annually to keep us afloat. I'm now in a bit of a catch-22 situation. We don't really have the financial solvency to attract real-quality players, but we need said players to improve our performances and get our attendances up. To be painfully honest, unless we get into the Premier League soon (let's say within two years) or some mystery billionaire buys us out, Millwall are going to be up the proverbial creek once Berylson leaves (he's currently 'happy to stay', so I fear he might not be around for much longer). TACTICS: Nowadays, I generally like to play with an Attacking 3-5-2 or an Attacking 4-2-3-1 when at home, while a more conservative 4-4-2 seems to work away from The Den. To be honest, though, I'm no tactical guru. MOST GOALS: Aiden O'Brien (18)MOST ASSISTS: Aiden O'Brien (8)MOST CLEAN SHEETS: Aiden O'B... no, sorry, it's Adam Smith (9)HIGHEST AVERAGE RATING: Aiden O'Brien (7.12)MOST MAN OF THE MATCH AWARDS: Aiden O'Brien (8) FANS' PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Take a wild guess. Yes, that's right. Of course it's centre-back Sid Nelson. (We had the 7th-worst defence in the Championship, so that makes sense.) NEXT TIME: I'm going to take a break from FM17 for the next few weeks, probably until the next patch comes out. (Also, my little sister gets married next month, so I doubt I'll be playing much more before then.) I'm going to sort out all of my transfer business before our first friendly of next season, and then I'll put this save on hold. There's already been plenty of movement at The Den, with some familiar names sadly leaving us. Nadjim Abdou has retired, Byron Webster has been sold, and Shaun Williams also looks to be on his way out. From my original squad, only a handful of players remain - Sid Nelson, Ben Thompson, James White, Aiden O'Brien, and Eze Ebuzoeme, who's a reserve midfielder (he'll probably be gone soon, though). Oh yes, and this has happened... Boring. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smplfc123 Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Good evening Gents! Due to work commitments I've only recently been able to purchase the game. After a couple of days spent getting used to 17, I've decided to take control of manager-less Grimsby. With just a national c licence and semi-pro background, this should prove to be an interesting challenge. Aim for the first season is to find a tactic that I can get used to and keep them in the football league, giving me a base to build on. Wish me luck. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarrovianTaylor Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Starting a save with Yeovil Town, I have done previous saves with them which I heavily enjoyed so I thought I would try again with a club that I have developed somewhat of a soft spot with! COYG! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 Really happy to see new managers at Mansfield, Gillingham, Grimsby and Yeovil. Best of luck to you all! @CFuller A special mention to you for another superb write up on your time at Millwall, very enjoyable reading. Best of luck with all those things coming up and look forward to your return at a later date! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Currently in my 4th season as Burton manager, I managed to get 17th first season, 2nd season only just survived coming 21st in the league in the last game of the season, I then ended up 16th last season. My main aim to stay in the league and to make money for the club which I have done through transfers, my biggest achievement in the transfer market was signing a Welsh right back regen called Dylan Bennett for 77k and selling him for 13m rising to 19m after clauses within 3 years of him being there. Managed to splurge the cash on his replacement for 2m, in the last 4 seasons I have made the club just over 30m in transfers but yet I am still projected at -17m for next season, -36m in the following season and -56m in the 3rd season, could do with a promotion to help my finances but hard to do that with the squad I have. I have a a good young youth gen from Gibraltar but his contract is up soon and I can't get a work permit, so frustrating if I lost him on a free. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flase9 Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Mansfield Town Update Our good goal scoring form had continued from my last update and had actually fired us into the title race with 3/4 games to go. Unfortunately we finished the season on a poor run that saw us fail to win any of our remaining fixtures. In fact we where lucky results elsewhere went our way on the last game of the season as we only just about managed to hang on to 7th place and sneak into the playoffs. We would have without a doubt taken 7th at the start of the year but after being in the title hunt with a few game to go it was a bitterly disappointing to finish with a whimper. Anyway it was on to the playoffs we went to face a very good Wycombe side, although he had already done the double over them home an away this season so we fancied our chances. Ultimately the tie was over as a contest after the first leg. We where embarrassed at home by one of the best counter attacking displays i have ever seen. 5-1 down after the first leg at home basically signalled the end of our season and although we went to Wycombe and produced a gusty display the damage from the first leg was just too big a task to overcome. Overall it was a very productive season despite the playoff semi final defeat. We played a standard 442 throughout the season switching between an attacking and counter versions depending on the opposition. we ended the league campaign the high scorers in the division with 91 goals. It was at the other end of the pitch that let us down with us conceding 65 and this is the area we must strive to improve next year as well as maintaining our attacking swagger if we are to have a successful campaign. Player wise we dominated the the awards with Mansfield favorite Matt Green picking up top scorer and the player of the year award. His striker partner Danny Rose pushed him all the way for both awards and along with on loan winger callum Roberts joined Green on the League 2 team of the year. Going forward our aim is to keep the squad together along with trying to get some of our impressive loan signings back again for another year. If we can do this as well as add 1 or 2 more players I think we will be in a strong position to push on next year. The only worry is the club finances and with a proposed reduction in the available wage budget I may face a fight to keep hold of my star men if they start to attract attention. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 @Ronaldo Beckham Excellent work at Burton, a real struggle but very rewarding. @flase9 A very good effort with Mansfield, unlucky in the end. I'm pleased to see the Green/Rose partnership working well, nice to see my guide is sometimes accurate! Hopefully with some defensive improvements you will get over the line next time. I enjoyed managing them myself a year or so back. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flase9 Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Mansfield Town Update Its been a fairly busy off season at Mansfield with quite a big turn over. It started out with the board reducing our wage budget from the previous season. This meant that all my fringe players that where out of contract had to leave the club and with not much wage budget left or transfer funds i found myself filling the squad up with youngsters who had been released by some big clubs. Our two loan stars from last year (Callum Roberts and centre back Lacovitti) also rejected the chance of another season at Field Mill which was a big blow. Thankfully i did managed to hold on to all of my big players from the previous season which was one positive. As mentioned we where very restricted in terms of finance to try an improve the squad and had to go for a scatter gun approach on a lot of young prospects that had been released by teams further up the football pyramid. I would have liked to add some more experienced players to the squad but finances simply wouldn't allow me to do so. Although i am quite happy with some of the talent we have been able to hover up and feel that we have now quite a few very high potential players that will get game time at this level. I am very excited about 17 year old Conal Morgan who my scouts found in the 2nd tier of Northern Ireland and i feel he can come straight into the first team squad an offer some competition to the rose/green partnership. Looking at the season ahead we are predicted to finish mid table and the board are expecting mid table but i do hold hopes of at least reaching the level we did last year. Although i am still searching the market for some defensive upgrades as so far we have missed the boat on a few of our targets in this area. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flase9 Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Probably my best ever FM result Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarrovianTaylor Posted January 21, 2017 Share Posted January 21, 2017 The Yeovil dream came to an abrupt end quickly, with a lot of injuries and no budget I was left with nothing almost and was sacked due to poor results that followed. I will probably return to them once the winter update comes out but for now I've started a new save with Barnet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 21, 2017 Author Share Posted January 21, 2017 @flase9 Good luck in the new season, looks like it might be tough. Smashing result against City though! @BarrovianTaylor Sorry to hear about that, it's tough at Yeovil. Good luck with Barnet, in Akinde you should be scoring plenty. By the way, you will be surprised to hear that I watched Barrow this season...in Somerset...but not at Yeovil Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevio11 Posted January 24, 2017 Share Posted January 24, 2017 Hi all, just a quick note to say my Middlesboro team are top of the championship in the 18/19 season after missing out the season before, I will post what happens at the end of the season regardless of what happens as I am being head hunted by EPL teams trying to stay up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 25, 2017 Author Share Posted January 25, 2017 Just to let you know, I've added transfer budgets to the opening posts of all 72 clubs now. I've also highlighted clubs in League 1 and League 2 that have significant transfer clauses. I was wary of doing this because it's not going to be very realistic to have a £4m budget in League 1 or more than £1m in League 2, but there may be a couple of smaller clubs that now have a bit more intrigue around them. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahtanv Posted January 27, 2017 Share Posted January 27, 2017 Just finished 1st season with Crewe. I have to start again from beginning as my previous save got corrupted. Crewe is a decent team & predicted 12th by the media. Developing youth is the club philosophy & I’ll try to follow that also. During finalizing philosophy with the board I asked to play possession based attacking football. So the journey begins. James Jones, Callum Ainley, Perry Ng, George Cooper & Callum Saunders are the ones who should be tied down with a long contract at beginning & I’ve done that. Jones & Ainley will put on good display & Saunders will provide goals & assists. Ben Garratt is a good keeper & he’ll be reluctant to sign a new contract. For the whole season I kept trying to convince him to sign & finally after getting he agrees to it. The first team is decent but needed some backup, so I’ve utilized the 30K which was allotted to me as transfer budget. Again I’ve signed some players for tutoring purpose also. Large portion of my transfer budget were taken out by Halvor Hovstad & Mathew Knox. Both have been brought on 48 months’ instalment & Hovstad was sent on loan for development. Knox is a good goal scorer & chipped with 18 goals from 54 games (42 games as sub). Ibrahima Sy was brought ast backup to Garratt & he delivered when called upon. Felix Myhre Horn was pretty consistant. Finally, Peter Gwargis was brought in for the future. League Table: Promoted to League 1 Team Stats: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted January 27, 2017 Author Share Posted January 27, 2017 Well done with Crewe, winning League 2 was a great start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiigman Posted January 28, 2017 Share Posted January 28, 2017 Has anyone played as Bolton this year? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarrovianTaylor Posted January 29, 2017 Share Posted January 29, 2017 Barnet - Season One (Part 1 of 2) It's been an amazing start with Barnet, if you would have told me that we would be in the playoffs halfway through the season I would have bitten your arm off. For a club like us, with very little money and not much depth because of this, it's been a wonderful story. The things I did expect from us were a lot of goals, we brought in Harry Cardwell from Reading on loan (the other transfers are later on in this update) and obviously had the main man John Akinde supporting him. Both of these have been in prolific form and are the deadliest strike partnership in the league, going by goals scored. However, the problem with us that has cost us a few points so far is the leaky backline. Jamie Stephens, our keeper, in particular hasn't adapted well to life in League 2 having joined from Gloucester the season previous and our backup goalkeeper, Josh Vickers isn't good enough to become a regular. You will see the table is surprising in all elements, the likes of Notts County, Accrington and ourselves are all up there whilst Doncaster, Portsmouth and Carlisle are all down the bottom end of the table. As stated, you can obviously see a large amount of goals scored and conceded so our plan is to outscore our opponents, we don't really seem to have a choice! We have struggled against some of the sides down the bottom which is frustrating so hopefully we can sort that out and ensure we pick up comfortable victories to these type of teams. My favourite result so far is beating top of the table Plymouth 4-2, it was a great result and we could have scored even more however we were denied by the post and bar a few times. We crashed out of the FA Cup to Accrington in the 1st Round after losing 3-1, it was a poor performance and they seem to have our number having beaten us at the start of the season too. We are also out of the Checkatrade Trophy (thank god,) I wasn't fussed and skipped all the days in protest. As you see we brought in four players all on loan - we only had a measly £10k available to spend and thus we didn't see anybody available that would bolster our squad worth buying. I mentioned Cardwell earlier and he has done an amazing job supporting Akinde, we also brought in Matty Foulds and Jonjoe Kenny from our senior affiliate Everton who haven't set the world alight, in fact Foulds especially has been rather poor and has a tendency to hoof the ball aimlessly when other options are available. Finally we loaned Charlie I'Anson from Valencia, who they bought from West Brom and he has partnered Bira Dembele in the heart of the defence and done a great job, despite the poor keeper. Injuries have been few, Nelson has been out for most the season thus leaving us with just I'Anson, Dembele and N'Gala in the centre-back position. So here's to a great 2017 and second half of the campaign. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedromanuelpinto Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Hey, Anyone have a list of good players that you can bring for League One? Thanks Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
flase9 Posted January 30, 2017 Share Posted January 30, 2017 Mansfield Town Update So i have manged to complete season 2 of my Mansfield town save.....We are going up say we are going up! As you can see we managed to finish in the final automatic promotion spot in league two and go one better than we managed last year. It was a pretty similar season in fairness with the Rose and Green partnership to the fore again as we finished the leagues top scorers with 101 goals. Danny Rose was in outstanding form all year which saw him pick up League 2 player of the year and top goal scorer award. The big difference this year to help us get over the line was that we had 4 strikers who could and where all scoring goals at different parts of the season. As mentioned Danny Rose stole the show but was assisted very well by the rest of your strikers and I am growing a soft spot for our young Northern Irish striker Conal Morgan who is improving with every game. Mackail-Smith was brought in more for tutoring purposes had a great effect on our young strikers. Cup wise we made a vast improvement this year than the previous year with a great FA CUP run which as previously posted saw us knock out Man CIty after a reply and helped to generated some much need money for the club. Overall the season was a great success and we seem to have an 'we will score more than you' identify about the club club now, which am not sure how will work further up the leagues. Again over the break we will try and hold on to our key players and also look to add some quality where we can. The finances have been improved slightly by the FA cup run but still the transfer & wage budgets don't look up to much so there will have to be some wheeling and dealing done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finners Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Late to the party this year having sworn off FM for good. That lasted. Given the omnishambles that is Leicester atm I want a distraction so it's time to take Bradford back to the big leagues. Going crazy for free transfers all over the place at the moment. Jordan Spence and Sinan Keskin look promising. Want to sell some chaff and try to push the budget for Thierry Ambrose if I can, looks like he'll only cost a couple hundred K. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFuller Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 On 01/02/2017 at 07:30, Finners said: Going crazy for free transfers all over the place at the moment. Jordan Spence and Sinan Keskin look promising. Funny you mention Sinan Keskin. I really wanted to sign him for Millwall in my first season, but I couldn't complete the transfer as I'd turned off budgets for the first transfer record. Whoops. Anyway, it sounds like you might have a very good young midfielder for League One. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 @craiigman I don't think anyone has mentioned managing Bolton in here, but personally I think it would be really enjoyable before the update as you still have Clough. @BarrovianTaylor Nice start with Barnet. Good to hear that Akinde is doing well, have you had any offers for him? @flase9 Well done with your free-scoring Mansfield, and subsequent promotion! Good luck in League 1. @Finners Best of luck with Bradford, massive potential with that club. @CFuller Still on a Millwall break? Along with Scunthorpe, they're definitely appealing to me after the new update. In the meantime, I think I am back in League 2... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFuller Posted February 2, 2017 Share Posted February 2, 2017 @Jogo Bonito I've not touched the save since shortly after my last update. In the meantime, pretty much all of my FM time has been spent on my long-term FM13 save. Now that I've just completed another season in that game, I feel like returning to FM17 and playing through the next season with Millwall. I can't wait to show you who I have brought in. Watch this space... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted February 2, 2017 Author Share Posted February 2, 2017 7 minutes ago, CFuller said: @Jogo Bonito I've not touched the save since shortly after my last update. In the meantime, pretty much all of my FM time has been spent on my long-term FM13 save. Now that I've just completed another season in that game, I feel like returning to FM17 and playing through the next season with Millwall. I can't wait to show you who I have brought in. Watch this space... Splendid, I will look forward to reading! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
craiigman Posted February 3, 2017 Share Posted February 3, 2017 11 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said: @craiigman I don't think anyone has mentioned managing Bolton in here, but personally I think it would be really enjoyable before the update as you still have Clough. @BarrovianTaylor Nice start with Barnet. Good to hear that Akinde is doing well, have you had any offers for him? @flase9 Well done with your free-scoring Mansfield, and subsequent promotion! Good luck in League 1. @Finners Best of luck with Bradford, massive potential with that club. @CFuller Still on a Millwall break? Along with Scunthorpe, they're definitely appealing to me after the new update. In the meantime, I think I am back in League 2... Clough is amazing, but feels a bit cheap now I know he's left IRL. I think ALF is quality anyway, but may be a bit harder after the update. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammie B Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 Carlisle Season 1 Finished the season as champions comfortably, breaking the points record and equaling the wins record for the league. Dominated most of the team statistics through possession and pressing tactics - roll on League One! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty_boy Posted February 4, 2017 Share Posted February 4, 2017 5 hours ago, Sammie B said: Carlisle Season 1 Finished the season as champions comfortably, breaking the points record and equaling the wins record for the league. Dominated most of the team statistics through possession and pressing tactics - roll on League One! Great work there Sammie. Be interesting to see the tactics you used 👏🏼 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammie B Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 10 hours ago, matty_boy said: Great work there Sammie. Be interesting to see the tactics you used 👏🏼 It's a very fluid 433 with individual pressing instructions. The mentality and TIs will change depending on the situation. I only buy or select players with high work rate and teamwork - which led to me selling my "best" player who didn't meet this criteria. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CFuller Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 MILLWALL - SEASON 5: 2020/2021 Just a warning that this is going to be a short update. The reason for that will soon become clear. TRANSFERS: As promised, I made significant changes to my squad for the season ahead. I was very excited about some of our new signings, particularly Ismael Bennacer - a French-born ball-winning midfielder we bought from Arsenal. Naughton came in to bolster our options at right-back, and Senegal international Kara would provide more experience in the centre of our defence. I also signed Radu as our new deputy to Adam Smith as soon as it became clear that our previous second-choice keeper, Enock Mawete, wanted to join a bigger club. Our new additions up front were Álvaro Román - a 19-year-old Spanish loanee from Stoke - and the very experienced target man Rudy Gestede. A bit later on, in the first few days of the league season, we signed a new backup left-back (Denton) and added some more midfield depth by loaning O'Connor from Southampton. The rest of our signings were all young prospects for the future, and all were newgens - with the notable exception of Marcus Edwards. I know how highly Tottenham rate him in real life, so I was very surprised to see his name crop up in the pre-season exit trials. I signed him up on a free as soon as I could and then loaned him out to divisional rivals Peterborough until the new year. There were a few big names amongst the departures - Webster, Hesketh and Williams all left, while Abdou and Clichy retired. We made a small profit on Quitongo, who joined non-league Stockport for £250,000 (no, that's not a misprint). We also got £1million+ for three players - Mbabu joined Rotherham, Mawete went to Middlesbrough, and Watford signed our very promising left-wing prospect Bienvenu Mutombo. Those sales left our finances in a very rosy position - but with such a high wage bill and such low attendances, they're not likely to stay that way for very long. RESULTS: Pre-season was great. We looked solid at the back, the goals were flowing in at the opposition end, and we remained unbeaten. Then we reverted to our old ways. As soon as the Championship began, all the work we did in pre-season quickly unravelled as we choked on leads left, right and centre. We took and lost the lead in each of our opening four league games, and went on to win only one of them. We also crashed out of the League Cup to third-tier Oxford. Appropriately enough, the first lead we threw away was against Leeds, who equalised in the 79th minute and went ahead in the 85th. At home to Bournemouth, we were 1-0 up until one centre-back - Darnell Johnson - got sent off and the other - new captain Sid Nelson - gave away a penalty. Bournemouth equalised from the spot, but a draw at home to newly-relegated opposition wasn't a dreadful result. The Swindon game was really up-and-down. They took an early lead, but then our new strike partnership of Rudy and Román came alive. They set up goals for one another to put us 2-1 up before the Robins levelled in the second half. Gestede then struck again in the 78th minute, assisted by Román once again, as we clinched a much-needed victory. When another stunner from Gestede put us 1-0 up at home to Brighton after 11 minutes, I felt that we would coast to victory. What actually happened was the choke to end all chokes. Sam Baldock scored for Brighton with 12 minutes to go... then he scored again in the first minute of injury time... and again in the second. We'd gone from 1-0 leaders to 3-1 losers in about a quarter of an hour. After four games, Millwall were 15th in the Championship with four points. It wasn't as bad a start as we'd made last season, but all the hallmarks of another relegation battle were still there. We were losing too many leads (particularly late on), we were wasting too many scoring chances, and our defenders were making too many silly mistakes. I'm sure I've made a few tactical blunders along the way as well, but when you're struggling and you really don't know what to do next, that's when FM can feel like a chore. I didn't want to go through the toil of last season all over again. So, with the heaviest of hearts, THIS was what I did next. You might think that I was a bit hasty. At the same time, though, you probably sensed in my recent posts that I really wasn't enjoying this challenge as much as I had enjoyed it earlier on. I can become very emotional when it comes to FM, especially when managing one of my favourite clubs, and when things do go bad, they can easily spiral out of control before they get better. My aim when starting this save was to take Millwall into the Premier League within five seasons. That clearly isn't going to happen any time soon, especially with our financial situation as it is. That's why I felt it was time to knock this challenge on the head... before it did my head in. I'm still in charge of Northern Ireland, although I've only managed them for one game (an extra-time loss to Sweden in the Euro 2020 play-offs), so I'm not sure if I really want to carry on with them. It might take me a few days to decide whether to resume this save (either focussing on the Northern Ireland role, or taking another club job outside of England), or wait until the next update before starting a completely new save. Either way, I guess it's the end of my updates in this thread. Thanks for reading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted February 5, 2017 Author Share Posted February 5, 2017 @Sammie B An amazing first season at Carlisle, those tactics must have been really well adopted by all of your players. I can never get success like that. @CFuller I feel your pain. I'm much more likely to have a run like this than a season like the one I talked about above. When it all looks good with the squad, pre-season goes like that, and then league points are much harder to gain than you think they should be, it's a really tough time to keep going. After several seasons enjoyment, I can't blame you for doing what you did, and it's better to do it then rather than wait until any satisfaction from your spell in charge there has been evaporated. Personally, I don't like regens and newgens which is why I do shorter bursts with more clubs. That's just me, but I look forward to hearing about your new challenge after the update. I've been stumbling around a few different L1 and L2 clubs, but inspired by their recent form have gone back to my 'demo' game where I was managing Exeter. I'd left them in 18th spot in League 2 leading up to the first Christmas period. Ironically, this was much better than their 24th position in real life at the time I stopped. I'd not played it for a few months because it hadn't been a very pleasurable experience, but with Paul Tisdale having turned their fortunes around to drag them to 4th spot after a superb run of form, I thought it was time to continue and see whether I could also propel the team towards the top half of the table myself. I've won more games since returning, largely helped by a solid defence. Most of the defenders had been injured at the start of the season and, just like the real manager, I found it tough during that period. I'm now at the start of February in season 1, and just reached a rather impressive 7th in the table (although it's very tight). Our last two league games (spanning a 10 day period) saw us jump from 13th to 10th, and then 10th to 7th, which makes a massive psychological difference to the players and to myself too. I know that 42 points from 28 games isn't anything to brag about, but the recent progress has been good after spending three months in the bottom eight! Sandwiched between our last two league wins was a 2-0 home defeat to Charlton in FA Cup Round 4, but getting that far (when doing so poorly in the league) was a surprise even to me. The draw had been kind to us, in fairness, with home ties helping us secure wins over Oldham, Stevenage and latterly Rochdale. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammie B Posted February 5, 2017 Share Posted February 5, 2017 8 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said: @Sammie B An amazing first season at Carlisle, those tactics must have been really well adopted by all of your players. I can never get success like that. This is the first time I've had success like this for a very long time. I was ruthless in getting a squad with higher than the average for the league in terms of teamwork and work rate. Result was a close knit squad, prepared to fight for each other. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahtanv Posted February 12, 2017 Share Posted February 12, 2017 Crewe Season 2: Continuing after promotion My first aim was to tie down the existing contact as soon as possible. Premiere League vultures were sniffing around the core of team which was developing youth. Just when the domestic transfer window open I've started offering contract to Saunders, Jones, Ainley, Pickering & Knox.Then comes the strengthening of the team. The board has given me 227K as transfer & 47K as wage budget. During the first season, though Saunder's have scored majority of our goals but I need someone who can partner him & share the load with him. Adam Armstrong have been brought on loan from Newcastle for that purpose. Andre Ceitil came in & will partner Carbonell in central defence. Paul Digby will cover them as well as Halvor Hovstad, who returned from loan. Alessio Lo Porto came on free from AC Tuttocuoio for free & will be used with Nugent as leftback. George Byers will be rotated in the midfield & experienced Jose Semedo will provide tutoring & backup for the young defence. Felix Myhre Horn returned from his loan to Wrexham & looking good for starting role. He'll be used as BWM. The season begun with 8 new faces. I intend to use 4-2-2-2 with fast counter attacking & pressing. Chris Dagnall has been sold to Yeovill Town for 155k, while others have been released on free. Season So Far: 1st Half After 25 games we are sitting comfortably on top with 55 points. Bolton is trailing by 7 points. At the start of the season, the team was not performing due to the new formation & lack of team cohesion. The forwards are not scoring & leaking goals in almost every games. Though they were doing okay in the EFL cup but we have been on a win less streak for straight 7 games. During that period my attackers forgot how to score. With some fruitful team meeting & some word of encouragement for that period after every game, finally the whole team responds & this is what we have achieved till now. We have already knocked out of the EFL Cup at Quarter Final by Manchester United. Still fighting in the worthless Checktrade Cup & in the FA Cup. My aim is to go as far as possible in the FA Cup & maintain this good form for the rest of the season. May be we'll be promoted but can not guarantee as again the Big Fish are lurking around my players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jogo Bonito Posted February 15, 2017 Author Share Posted February 15, 2017 Exeter City Season 2016/2017 Results & Scorers League 2 - Final Table Season Review & Financial News Player Stats I recently completed my first season with Exeter City in League 2. I started in Devon with the demo, but was languishing in the bottom eight for several months and halted things before the game was actually launched. Inspired by recent progress made by the club under Paul Tisdale, I recently returned with the hope that I could also haul myself in to the top half of the table, giving me something to build on in season 2. As you can see from the early graph, it wasn't going well at all to begin with. However, upon my return - largely thanks to my defence - the form improved quite significantly. Ironically what in reality is the strong part of the team (attacking) was the weakest part of my side. On the other hand, the defence, which I thought was a bit ropey, was remarkably solid. As we got on a good run at the turn of the year, confidence seemed to grow and we kept climbing the table. Eventually we crashed in to the play-off spots, but we were some distance away from the three automatic promotion places. Spring victories over three teams who were leading League 2 when we played them - Accrington, Cheltenham (wtf?) and Yeovil - helped narrow the gap, but I never imagined we could get above 4th. That's where we were as we went to Doncaster for the 45th fixture, a club managed by none other than our former manager Paul Tisdale. Well, I don't know what he was thinking, but out of nowhere we blitzed them 6-1 in Yorkshire, which took us in to 3rd with one game to go. All we had to do was match Yeovil, and we held our nerve to earn a comfortable 3-0 victory over a very ordinary Carlisle side. Those last two victories also boosted our goal difference considerably, and we even managed to pip Accrington to 2nd spot by virtue of that on the last day of the season. I'd been given a new contract until 2018 in March, and I negotiated an automatic year extension for the slim possibility of being promoted, so I am secure until 2019 now. In terms of the finances, I didn't really have anything to spend - but the club is stable, so that's a good thing. After a few sales, I spent a few quid, but nothing to write home about. The transfer budget for next season is only £115k, with a wage budget of £43.5k per week too, so that isn't very encouraging either. I didn't really have any stand-out performers last season, but collectively the defence was my main strength. Reuben Reid's goal tally looks decent, but six of those goals came in the FA Cup run and he only grabbed a few goals in the league towards the end of the season. Summary of Activity 2016/2017 Transfers In - Jordan Rideout (OKC Energy, £12k), Chris Atkinson (free), Daniel Alfei (free), Dave Tarpey (Maidenhead, £2.5k), Bob Harris (free) Transfers Out - Craig Woodman (Bristol Rovers, £4.8k), Ryan Harley (Shrewsbury, £18k), Joel Grant (Portmore Utd, £4.5k) Staff In - Jason Dodd (Coach), Russell Osman (Asst Manager), David Tuttle (U23 Manager), Chris Cummins (Scout), John Ireland (Fitness Coach), John Hartson (Coach) Staff Out - Simon Hayward (Portsmouth - HOYD), Paul Morgan (Bolton - U18 Fitness Coach) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealpete Posted February 15, 2017 Share Posted February 15, 2017 Took my side (Sheffield) into first place, secured promotion to the championship. Any tips for staying up next season? The board wants me to avoid relegation.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kozmik Posted February 17, 2017 Share Posted February 17, 2017 After having spent three years on a United save and 8,5 years on an Ebbsfleet save, I've now started a Football League save. Went with Peterborough. Not a particularly big challenge, but for whatever reason I found them pretty interesting. Good young players with potential to improve, decent facilities and never been in the top flight. I replaced most of the backroom staff but in terms of transfers I did very little. Da Silva is the only regular starter, he's basically my first choice DM with Anderson, Da Silva-Lopes and Forrester competing for the CM spots. Lainton is a backup GK, Harper provides cover up front and on the left wing and Diallo is an 18-year old who'll be emergency cover for RB, as there really was none at the club initially. In terms of tactics I'm going to be using a philosophy I developed in the Ebbsfleet save which saw me gain four promotions in four years (conference title, L2 title, L1 runner up, championship runner up). In short it's based on the idea that as long as the gulf in quality isn't too wide, you can win almost every game provided you pick the right formation, mentality and fluidity for the occasion. So, rather than developing a particular playing style I'll change things on a match-by-match basis. Not played that many games, but a great start nonetheless: Shaquile Coulthirst has, rather surprisingly, been the star man so far, with six goals in 6+2 apps, mainly as IF/A on the left. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan9Maguire Posted February 18, 2017 Share Posted February 18, 2017 Been tempted into doing a Cambridge United save, should be interesting. Will make sure to post it here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Beckham Posted February 19, 2017 Share Posted February 19, 2017 What makes Cambridge United tempting to you then Dan, I am thinking of doing an Oxford United save. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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