dafuge's FM18 challenge

[tajj7]

1 hour ago, DazRTaylor said:

From the first post, in the rules:

"Any form of international management is not allowed, until you have completed the challenge."

Cheers, must have missed that somehow. 

[jimmy_d]

   

 Decided to give this challenge a go. Never seen it before. Loved it so much , just flown through my first season. I really wanted one of my local surrey teams but settled for Kings Lynn . Started the season terribly, used every loan, and blew my wage budget, finished the season in magnificent form and got promoted via the playoffs. A lot of fun. Got in 2 strikers who were fantastic . Ive included some screenshots which sum up the season.

 

.

[Jellico73]

Not sure what's going on, third times a charm I think.

 

[Antwebb]

Lowerstoft Town 2022/23 VNLN - 7th - Playoff 1st round

Still not good enough to get promoted though

League Table - Tactics & 1st eleven - Transfers

For the second time, I do well in the league, then go out in the playoffs. We almost blew even getting into the playoffs, as our form in the 2nd half of the season was really inconsistent. Our attack was good, but the defence let us down at key times, and we threw away a lot of leads. I'm sad to say our once key man Adarkwa has fallen away due to a terrible run of injuries over past two seasons. He's just too crocked to rely on now, but he's a club icon so I'm keeping him on as a non-contract player. 

The biggest issue I'm having though is that no one good wants to move to Lowestoft. It's kinda frustrating.

Season		League				Position	Notes
2018/19		Vanarama National League Nth	21st		Sacked from Warrington, Hired at Lowestoft
2019/20		VNLN				17th		Not relegated!
2020/21		VNLN				5th		Playoff Semi-Finalists
2021/22		VNLN				17th		Suuuuuuuuuucks
2022/23		VNLN				7th		Playoff 1st round

 

 

[Jellico73]

And I Uploaded the wrong video.  

Nice thing about starting rock bottom, you can only get better!

 

Jellico73

[Thebaker]

Table | Squad | Transfers | Cups

 

This season was a struggle from the start as the team really didn't have the quality required to compete and no decent players wanted to join. I managed to beat the other teams at the bottom to keep in touch and hover around 21st. A  run in Mar  of 14 points in 7 games moved the team up the league, followed by a 5 match losing streak to leave the club needing a draw from the last game which they successfully did.

In the FA Cup the team played 2 lower teams before meeting L1 Fleetwood in a televised match. Easily matched them to win 3-1 and went on to play championship Milwall away in the 3rd rd. The team were well beaten in front of a sparse crowd so i only made 90K from the match. The team lost in the first match of the FA trophy to VNS Welling

Finances actually stayed quite steady over  the year thanks to the FA cup run and a slight increase in attendances - thanks entirely to away fans, 500 in a crowd of 750 in 1 match. Harrow has almost no away fans, just 2 turned up to an august match.

The squad needs improvement in defence generally and especially at RB, Brown is very poor even though rated as one of my best players. Up front i have high hopes for Murrell and Youngs was brought in as cover but ended as top scorer. Murphy was also very poor and i would have dumped him if i had more strikers.

 

Season       League            Position       FA Cup           FA Trophy                  Achievements/Notes               
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   Vanarama South         2nd         1st Round         1st Round                     Promotion 
2019/20   Vanarama National      19th        3rd Round         1st Round                  Avoided relegation                             
 

 

[StevenStorm]

Lowestoft Town FC - End of Season 2025/26
1st in Sky Bet League One

Final League Table | Squad| Transfers | Schedule 1+2 | Awards | Season Review | Finances | Dynamics
Best Eleven

 

Lookback
    I needed a break from FM since they game decided to crash on me after a very successful start to the campaign (I won the first game 7-1 and when I checked the stats it just crashed).
    So the whole pre-season I did like a month ago and the season over the last couple of days. So not much recollection of why I signed certain players. However it went magnificently and we managed to win the league.
    I'm still not able to field a decent defense ... therefore I was just not fielding any full/wingbacks. 75 goals conceded - 13 from corners. So "only" 17% - however it's less then last year so I'm a bit satisfied with that.
    Attacking play was simple and Raymond Lee whom I signed by loan turned out to have a blast of a season. 2x player of the Month, 3x young player of the month, 33 apps and 35 league goals plus 12 assists. 
    Cup competitions were nothing special this year though.
    Since I was doing extremely well at the start of the winter tranfer window I started selling some of my players already.
    Reiner Berger did just join at the start of the season and was most of the time injured. So I took the offer for 60k + 20k.
    Will Swan, Junior Tiensia, Joe Redmon and Sam Hornby weren't good enough for this league nor for the Championship ... was happy to collect 50k for them and no longer had to pay their salaries.
    Also I managed to force another improvement for training & youth facilities. Acutally managed to get 3 decent lads this time from the youth academy. Don't think that they can perform at Championship standards ... but hey I've signed them as backup players at least.

Outlook
    Well I'm already at the half of the season as of writing this.
    So just a quick preview: I'm going to sign a lot of new players to try an compete at this higher level. Budget-wise we're still a League One team at just 3,5 million.
    I guess the stadium is the biggest problem here. Crown Meadow with it's 2.216 seats ... it's not going to generate a whole lot of income. We have plans for a 10600 all-seater ... but that's not really progressing. Any idea how long I will have to wait for this?

 

[Jellico73]

OK, I am almost positive this is the right video, having sat thru multiple listenings to make sure.

As it's the first episode, it is a bit long, at just under 40 minutes.  I don't have a super high quality mic, but it's pretty good, and I edited out all the sneezes and the like.

Any feedback is appreciated, going to try for three updates a week, and I promise they will be shorter, and get better.

Sorry for the troubles earlier. :-)

Thanks for watching!

Jellico

[StevenStorm]

Lowestoft Town FC - End of Season 2026/27
19th in Sky Bet Championship

Final League Table | Squad| Transfers | Schedule 1+2 | Awards | Season Review | Finances | Dynamics
 

Lookback:
    So the first season in the Championship has just wrapped up. We did nicely and avoid relegation early with 52 points finishing 19th.
    Defending remains a main issue ... even though I think we got better after the winter transfer window. 
    I lost against Hull 9-5. They scored 5 with 5 chances in 12 minutes. Not sure if this is a engine bug or just ********.
    But hey ... I managed to beat Leeds that had a 50 million € wage budget vs my 3.4 million ;-)
    I hope I get some decent budget for the next season since most of my players already are looking to leave.
    That includes my main star of the season: Ugo Savi came from Italy and made an instant impact. 39 apps - 23 goals, 5 assists in the league. He is already rated a leading Championship player and could go Premier League. Initially suggestions are that I should ask for around 12,5 million for him. I really would love for him to sign a contract extensions (currently bound until 2028) ... but if he doesn't I need to look for another striker.

One special shout out to James Norman! He has been with the squad since 2021 in the National League. He's still my current captain ... and just made the "good enough for Sky League Two" assessment of my coaches ;-) 

Outlook
    Main target will still be to stay in the Championship. My great board signed a 2 year sponsor deal ... so I'm not hoping for an improvement regarding my income.
    I will need to sell main players and generate some income. I hope I don't have to sell Savi ... but should I really be able to get 12 million for him - that would be double my budget. So let's see.
    Still no news on the stadium ... we were sold out all season. Right now I wish we could just go to another stadium instead of building a new one...
    

     
 

[StevenStorm]

And just after writing that... we've a date & capacity for the new stadium:

 

Another 2 years in the dump we're currently in ... and most likely 13k will not be enough in 2 years O:-)
    

 

[Bruce Drundrige]

I despair with this challenge - or is it this version of FM - I really do. Long ball over the top of my defence = goal. Every game. Without fail.

I'm not someone who complains about Match Engines ever or quirks of the game but the long balls are getting very boring. My defence isn't brilliant of course, and I know I'm playing at a level where a long ball over the top is more effective than in the EPL, but it just feels too....obvious or basic.

Has anyone else experienced this? I saw an earlier post where someone had moved to a deep 4-2-3-1 to help combat it...is that the key? An anchor man - or men - to protect my vulnerable CDs?

[tajj7]

29 minutes ago, Edinton said:

I despair with this challenge - or is it this version of FM - I really do. Long ball over the top of my defence = goal. Every game. Without fail.

I'm not someone who complains about Match Engines ever or quirks of the game but the long balls are getting very boring. My defence isn't brilliant of course, and I know I'm playing at a level where a long ball over the top is more effective than in the EPL, but it just feels too....obvious or basic.

Has anyone else experienced this? I saw an earlier post where someone had moved to a deep 4-2-3-1 to help combat it...is that the key? An anchor man - or men - to protect my vulnerable CDs?

Yeh long ball seems too effective, I'm hoping the big update fixes it, IIRC someone raised it in the bugs/ME forum. 

Plus it still happens a lot at the higher level, from what I have seen it seems to be the way the defenders interact with the ball in the air, quite a few times I have seen big hoofs played from the back and my defenders are still moving forward rather than moving with the attacker. 

A guy in the career forum got Cambridge up to the PL and then won it play hoof ball. So yeh I think there are some issues. 

[Bruce Drundrige]

20 minutes ago, tajj7 said:

Yeh long ball seems too effective, I'm hoping the big update fixes it, IIRC someone raised it in the bugs/ME forum. 

Plus it still happens a lot at the higher level, from what I have seen it seems to be the way the defenders interact with the ball in the air, quite a few times I have seen big hoofs played from the back and my defenders are still moving forward rather than moving with the attacker. 

A guy in the career forum got Cambridge up to the PL and then won it play hoof ball. So yeh I think there are some issues. 

Thanks - maybe I'm just frustrated because I can't get it to be as effective as the AI...! It does happen in my favour occasionally, but I reckon the opposition get at least 1 clear cut chance from it per match..

[themonk9223]

we did it! 1st place, promotion and looking good doing it!

against even my expectations we ended up running away with the league in the last few games.

the highlight of the season though was our amazing FA Cup run even hosting the mighty Stoke! 

A complete overhaul of the squad, and most players i didnt expect to do to well but i REALLY overachieved this season. now most of my players are going to be too lower standard for the national league but i'm going to stick with most of them and hope my fm16 tactics will overachieve again.

 

and finally brexit is here.

also came across this during the youth intake.. bottom of the league and relegated and the got a decent looking 15 y/o already their key player!

 

 

[dkouv]

King’s Lynn dafuge Challenge
 

Season 7 – 2024/25 – Premiership

Transfers: A £20m budget was hefty compared to what I was used to, but given my small wage budget and players being reluctant to sign, I again made use of a couple of released players and signed a former loanee on the cheap. The big difference was being able to sign some non-UK players, mainly from South America, since I don't need work permits anymore. By January I switched to playing with wingers, and reshaped the squad a bit more, for the first time spending more than £10m on a player – a young Brazillian winger Valter Luis, who unfortunately didn’t play that well for us, but hopefully he’ll settle in during the next season.

League: I decided to ditch the 4-3-3 because of the unrealistic football it was producing on the current ME, and eventually settled on a 4-3-2-1 with wingers. This didn’t require much personnel change, but meant our results were patchy in the early season. The late season form was, however, absolutely brilliant and exceeded my expectations. We were floating around midtable until that late run brought us 8 wins in 11, and left us with a chance of a Europa league spot on the last day. Alas, we didn’t make it, but still finished in 7^th in the “best of the rest” position behind the usual top six, and miles ahead of Everton in 8^th. Poor old Arsenal finished 5^th with 80 points!

EDIT: we did make it to the Europa after the FA Cup winner was announced, so I have July qualifiers at obscure teams to look forward to

Cups: Tough draws ensured early exits in the Carabao (to Tottenham) and FA Cup (to Man Utd)

Best players: Ashley Pope can still hack it at the top level, finishing my top scorer with 27 in 35, and the 3^rd highest scorer in the Premiership (which is impressive given that he’s playing on the wing). Another old-timer Regan Slater had a great season in midfield, but the player of the season was the Japanese signing Sei Narita, who topped average ratings and finished with 14 goals and 15 assists in 32 games from left wing

Facilities: a bug ensured nothing got upgraded, but hopefully it will do next year, and I boosted the youth recruitment + coaching up one notch.

Next season’s aim is to give CL qualification a go, and replace some more of the League 1 standard players knocking around the squad. I haven’t managed to spend much on transfers, so have an absolutely obscene £100m budget for next season.

Congrats to @Swindon69 and @tajj7 on the progress in the Premiership, and to @Kaiserwatman on the promotion to top tier - good to see that perseverance getting paid off, and good luck in the next season

 

Season  |  League     | Pos.  |  FA Cup  | FA Trophy |  CL      |   EL       |  Top scorer        |  Top assists        |    Top rating        | Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |  Van Nth    |  5    |  R3      |  R1       |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Abioye (36)       |  Limb (17)          |    Limb (7.4)        | Lost in play-off final
2019/20 |  Van Nth    |  1    |  R3      |  won      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Obiero (34)       |  Hmami (18)         |    Doughty (7.8)     | Promoted
2020/21 |  Van Nat    |  1    |  R4      |  R4       |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Keaveny (48)      |  Keaveny (25)       |    Keaveny (7.9)     | Promoted
2021/22 |  League 2   |  1    |  R3      |  n/a      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Pashen (31)       |  Keaveny (18)       |    McDonagh (7.9)    | Promoted
2022/23 |  League 1   |  1    |  R4      |  n/a      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Pope (51)         |  Pope (31)          |    Pope (8.1)        | Promoted
2023/24 | Champ-ship  |  1    |  R4      |  n/a      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Pope (52)         |  Pope (43)          |    Pope (8.4)        | Promoted
2024/25 | Premiership |  7    |  R4      |  n/a      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Pope (27)         |  Narita (15)        |    Narita (7.6)      |Europa qualification
	
Season  |  Finances  | Training Fac.  | Youth Fac.      | Coaching     |   Recruitment    | Stadium
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |   £82k     |  Poor          |  Poor           | Adequate     |   Limited        | 8200 
2019/20 |   £392k    |  Basic         |  Poor           | Average      |   Limited        | 8200 
2020/21 |   £447k    |  Below Average |  Basic          | Average      |   Basic          | 5700
2022/23 |   £1.5m    |  Adequate      |  Basic          | Adequate     |   Average        | 5700
2023/24 |   £5.9m    |  Average       |  Below Average  | Adequate     |   Average        | 5700
2024/25 |   £107m    |  Average       |  Below Average  | Good         |   Above Average  | 5700

 

[cmaddict21]

Dulwich Hamlet season 2020-2021    

Great season. Started off super inconsistent. Finally settled on a more defensive tactic and we went on a great run, but AFC Wimbledon was too much for us. We are improving our youth facilities (finally), but the cost of those unfortunately led to a canceled training facilities improvement. Now for another total rebuild of the squad - have been lucky to have really good luck with loans from my parent club Ipswich. Hopefully that can continue into League 1.

[warlock]

Dafuge Challenge: Dulwich Hamlet

Season 1, January 2019

So having failed with Chesham (and failed again) I decided to try a team with a higher reputation - and the hipsters of Dulwich got the vote! That was Christmas Eve (It was Christmas Eve babe, in the dugout. An old man said to me...) and I'm now up to New Years Day 2019.

For a newly-promoted club, the board demand of a top-half finish seemed ambitious, especially since I inherited a barebones squad and no budget to speak of. Looking over said squad, my best strikers were a pair of wingers, and my best fullbacks were another pair of wingers. So it looked like a choice of strikerless, wingless, or three-at-the-back. I've had some success in FM17 and FM18 with a 4132 so that's how we set up. More by luck and circumstance than brilliant management, the tactic has been a stunning success. We went the first 20 games without defeat in all competitions, with 7 draws in the league. At the end of November we drew Mansfield in the FA Cup 1st round, and they promptly trounced us 3-1 at home.

Perhaps inevitably, the team fell into a bit of slump, losing our first league game away at Oxford City, immediately followed by a defeat to struggling Poole in the FA Trophy. At which point I feared the worst, but the troops rallied and we won our next four league games handily.

All season we've been nip-and-tuck with Havant & Waterlooville for first place - every time they dropped points, we would drop points. But New Year saw us beat Truro away, while Havant (hangovers suspected!) could only eke out a goalless draw at home to Maidenhead.

Clouds on the horizon include the fact that I appear to be overspending on wages, and there are some rumblings of discontent among the supporting cast, but if we can manage anything like the same form in the second half of the season I'm optimistic about our chances. So, for the moment, here we are:

[warlock]

14 minutes ago, cmaddict21 said:

Great season

Indeed it was. Congratulations!

[Peter G]

So, I started a game as Grays two divisions below the Conference regionals. As that wouldn't count in this challenge I'm debating whether to start anew save for this or just go with Grays and not post updates here but in the Careers Forum instead. I would like to do this challenge as written but, sadly,all the Essex teams that could get promoted, bar Billericay, got relegated. Unless there is a Thurrock save. Or Harlow or Brightlingsea

[warlock]

@Peter G

GDK has Harlow in his 'release Save 6' and Hendon in 'beta save 14' here:

@Sean Blinkhornappears to have a Thurrock save. As a fellow researcher he might share 

Edit: Ignore the reference to Hendon, obviously. But I'm sure I've seen Brightlingsea a couple of times.

[Jellico73]

Hi All,

Episode 2 is up.

I forgot how fun and terrifying Lower League Management could be...  :-)

Thanks,

Jellico

[cmaddict21]

14 hours ago, warlock said:

Indeed it was. Congratulations!

Thanks! Had to sell my "perfect fit" midfielder - board accepted the offer on my behalf. It's tough when you go straight up the leagues and Dulwich is a small team! God luck!

[blaaklint]

Hereford, 2020/21:

Season number three, and promotion again. Quite frankly, this was a bit of a miracle. Form was good until late November, after which it just dropped off a cliff and we couldn't win two games back-to-back. Then, somehow, our form got even worse: we won one match in eleven and the first few games of the season, when we had risen as high as second, seemed like a long time ago. However, we pulled it out the bag by winning our last three matches and sneaked into the last playoff place above Leyton Orient and Sutton on goal difference.

Fixtures (pt. 1) | Fixtures (pt. 2) | League | Past positions | Squad | Transfers

Season  | Pos.  | Division          | FAC   | LC    | ECC   | EC    | Top scorer        | Most assists      | Best player
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 | 13th  | Vanarama North    | 4QR   | N/A   | N/A   | N/A   | Luca Navarro (17) | Pablo Haysham (8) | Scott Shulton (7.11)
2019/20 | 4th   | Vanarama North    | 4QR   | N/A   | N/A   | N/A   | Luca Navarro (20) | Henry Cowans (16) | Henry Cowans (7.40)
2020/21 | 7th   | Vanarama National | R1    | N/A   | N/A   | N/A   | Neil Ross (21)    | Neil Ross (11)    | Henry Cowans (7.40)

 

[Peter G]

16 hours ago, warlock said:

@Peter G

GDK has Harlow in his 'release Save 6' and Hendon in 'beta save 14' here:

@Sean Blinkhornappears to have a Thurrock save. As a fellow researcher he might share 

Edit: Ignore the reference to Hendon, obviously. But I'm sure I've seen Brightlingsea a couple of times.

Thanks, had a look and someone uploaded a set of saves which had one of them on there. It had UK and Ireland all playable but I'll de-activate the other leagues.

[StevenStorm]

Lowestoft Town FC - End of Season 2027/28
6th in Sky Bet Championship (Promoted)
Final League Table | Squad| Transfers | Schedule 1+2 | Awards | Season Review | Finances | Dynamics

 

Lookback
    What an awesome season. I was pretty certain that I could avoid relegation easily ... but gaining promotion wasn't the plan.
    Let's start with the signings at the start of the season
        Simone Colombi (GK, 36): was signed so my young goal keeper could gain more Determination. Was my first goalie until December - afterwards my young Goalie took over. Since he cost us insane 300k/year he was loaned to Ajax Amsterdam who took over his wages.
        Ross Bradford (DL, 22): I needed more stability in the defense and he did a decent job there. Was also named Captain right away.
        Paul Jeffrey (AML, 23): I felt we needed at least a second option on the left wing. El Mhassani who I had already was having issues with injuries all the time and the English season is a long one. 13 goals + 13 assists: he was a key player in our promotion.
        Marcel Ahrenstedt (ST, 23): Came in as a backup option for Savi and potentially my first striker should I have to sell Savi. Since Savi stayed he didn't get as much play time - but developed nicely. His ratings look good to me. Got 11 goals.
        Arturo Tonetto (MC, 18, Loan): I wanted more depth in midfield since I was going to loan my own talent into lower leagues. Contracted players took the play time ... he was decent but had issues with half of the squad. No way I'm making an offer for him.
        Guychel Pambani (MC, 24): Main reason why Arturo didn't get much play time. He bossed the centre midfield area. I have my doubts that he can compete in the Premiere League though.
        Darren Bartlett (DC, 23, Loan): I couldn't find any centre backs for reasonably prices that really helped me. Since I needed to make something happen I loaned him from West Ham. No injuries and played the whole season.
        Sonny Crabb (D LCR, 23, Loan): Alround talent in the defense. Didn't get any play time.
        
    Besides that I sold centre back Karamousis and my beloved Llewellyn for around 400k. Deadline day was a bitch.
    I got an immense offer for Chris Adams - who was a determinating factor in our early rise in the table - got an offer from Rotherham. 1.3 million was too much to keep him consindering his contract came up this year. Since I wasn't dreaming of promotion I would most likely not have been able to keep him around. In his 5 league games for me he scored 6 times, assisted 3 times. Was relegated at the end of the season which is a shame since I had an clause of 300k if they would have remained in the league.
    Oliver Younger - one of my 3 centre backs - also got an offer that I wanted to make happen. But since it was deadline day I would not have been able to get an replacement. So I negotiated hard and told them 250k + loan back until January.
    Savi didn't want to extend his contract and I got an laughable offer of 700k for him. Denied that. Mid season I was finally able to convince him to stay. I went to my limits and got him an 530k/year deal until 2031 (+ 5% yearly wage rise). That's 11% of my spent salary. No release clauses though.
    
    In the winter break I signed Matthew Clarke as a replacement for Chris Adams for 46k. Finally I got a real right winger in my team again. Peter Tait who helped out as centre back and actually was an decent left back choice was transfered on deadline day to Rotherham. They still didn't manage to avoid relegation. Idiots.
    
    Performance wise I didn't have many complaints. We clearly weren't able to challenge for direct promotion spots and until February it looked like we would be able to finish between 12th and 8th place. Playing possession actually did the trick and we managed to got into the play off spots.
    Horrible match engine nearly got me to rage quit after losing 7-3 (was 4-0 behind after 20 minutes) against the then last placed Barnsley. Could have accepted such a bad performance in general ... but I just had won 2-0, 6-1, 5-1 and told them after the last game to not get cocky ...
    Even though I managed to pick up 4 points from the next to games (also against Walsall who destroyed me in the first game 7-1, was the only game not sold out) ... my form and my defense were really shakey.
    From the next 7 games I only managed to get 2 more wins which was enough for 6th place. In the end it was the usual picture: best offense (109) - worst defense (102). Only 12 goals from corners though. 
    
    Playoff games against Bournemouth and I really though I would go out there. However my team suprised me. Overall I was way better against better teams then teams at the bottom of the table.
    At home I was leading at half time 1-0 by goal from a corner. Bournemouth turned it around within 6 minutes to 1-2. Eaton equalized in the 86th minute and Savi got me the W in the 90 + 4 minute.
    Away I was actually dominating the game ... leading early 1-0 by Savi, got the equalizer with the first shot on target - but before the break Paul Jeffrey got us 2-1 in front again.
    We gifted Bournemouth a penalty in the 83th minute ... and they managed to force us into extra time by scoring a goal from 30 yards in the 90+2 minute. Not much happening in extra time and by pure luck I advanced in the penalties.
    Brighton was waiting in the final. The also needed penatlies to knock out West Brom. I cheated here a bit and mid game I employeed my 4-3-3 tactics since 4-2-3-1 wasn't working. Was in the lead until the 85th minute.
    Ahrenstedt managed to gain us promotion by scoring the 119th minute and avoiding another penalty shoot out!
    
Outlook:
    So promotion comes at least one season too early for us. The team isn't really ready for this kind of competition neither are our facitlities or finances.
    My original plan was to challenge for promotion next year or even the year after that (with the newly gained income from the new stadium)
    I was actually thinking of throwing the play offs ... but hey who knows when we would get that kind of chance again.
    So I'll try to somehow survive and stay in the league. Finances look very bad since we didn't get any bonus for reaching Premiere League.
    I guess we'll have to play this season somewhere else since our current stadium is not good enough for the league ...
    Savi most likely will have to stay here - wether he wants to or not ... the board just decreased my retained transfer revenue to 20%.
    Budget wise I got 20 million for wages, 25 million to shop. Most likely not going to spend all the money - at least not in the first window. 

 

[StevenStorm]

So ... we're playing in our old stadium. 2200 people can watch us play Premier League ... yay.

[Jellico73]

4 hours ago, StevenStorm said:

So ... we're playing in our old stadium. 2200 people can watch us play Premier League ... yay.

I was almost demoted out of Ligue 2 with my Dunkerque save because the stadium was too small.  Do you at least have a new one underway, or is one available to rent?

Jellico

[vikeologist]

4 hours ago, StevenStorm said:

So ... we're playing in our old stadium. 2200 people can watch us play Premier League ... yay.

Surely there's a 12,500 minimum capacity for the Premier League. I had to play 69 miles away in my ongoing FM17 save. Annoyingly that stadium capacity was 33% larger than our new stadium is.

Check the Premier League rules. This sounds like a bug.

[StevenStorm]

Well I do have a new stadium on the way ... it's coming at the end of the season (13.000). I guess the game is not able to handle 3 different stadiums at once for a club? I don't know.

I've checked the rules and that's why I assumed we would be going into a different stadium (we did this when going up to National League before) ... 

[RandomJozza]

Just started the challenge, team is Ashton United: 

[tajj7]

Just had this regen come through my youth intake -

[tremor]

Tooting & Mitcham United Season Overview 20-21

Back after a Christmas break, had a storming season in league 2, couldn't quite believe what was happening! started a bit rocky but as soon as the team got it's confidence we were pretty unstoppable. Lots of younger players coming through really helped by some old heads. Best thing that happened was my 20yr old keeper got poached by Derby at Christmas so i went out and picked up adam federici on a free!  

Dean is my team captain - amazing mental stats for a kid!

[Jellico73]

Hey everyone, episode 3 of the Enfield Town FC save is up.  Appreciate the views!

 

Jellico73

[Kaiserwatman]

Preparations commencing for Life in The Championship following relegation .  Just waiting for the fat lady to sing 

[thomas_e]

 

Season review 2024-2025

Premier League

Our second season in the Premier League and we made some good progress. Not extraordinary by any means, but overall I'm happy. We have a very young squad and it was obvious that having one year of experience in the Premier League paid off for plenty of our players, with a lot more stability, especially in defence. 

We finished 8th in the league, 16 points off Chelsea at 5th, illustrating how big the gap between the top teams and the rest are at this point. 

We made some really good signings this year, and the best one was probably the signing of the season in the Premier League! We got 21 year old Ricardo Vasquez for £825k from Paraguayan side Cerro Porteno. He managed 32 goals and 12 assists in 38 games, making him top scorer in the Premier League. I think he maybe performed a little bit better than what his stats says he should, but lets hope he can build on this form into next season! 

We signed wonderkid Marko Kolar, a 19 year old central defender for £5,5 from Dinamo. A wonderkid with a really bright future, and together with Shin Oyama, a 23 year old defender on loan from Man Utd, he really improved my defence. Unfortunately, I am not able to re-loan Oyama from Man Utd, and we need to sign a quality defender this summer!  

FA Cup & Carabao Cup

Dissapointing cup runs where we got knocked out by Southampton (0-1) in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup and an expected loss against Arsenal (3-4) in the 4th round of the FA Cup. 

Next Season

Hopefully we can build on this season and take a further step towards Europe next year. I might look towards a change of tactic, as our offensive 4-2-2-2 is leaking goals! I'm scoring a lot as well, but we do seem to be vulnerable against teams with top class strikers. 

 

Season  |        League         | Position  |      FA Cup     | Checkatrade Trophy | Carabao Cup |     
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018-19 |  Vanarama South       |    1st    |     4th round   |      1st round     |             |
2019-20 |  Vanarama National    |    1st    |     3rd round   |      2nd round     |             |
2020-21 |  Sky Bet League Two   |    1st    |     3rd round   |      2nd round     |  1st round  |
2021-22 |  Sky Bet League One   |    1st    |     3rd round   |      3rd round     |  3rd round  | 
2021-22 |  Sky Bet Championship |    1st    |     3rd round   |                    |  4th round  | 
2022-23 |  Premier League       |    13th   |     6th round   |                    |  semi-final |
2023-24 |  Premier League       |    8th    |     4th round   |                    |  4th round  |

[Kaiserwatman]

2035-36 (UK & IRE Players Only)

League - Squad - Dynamics - Transfers - Finances - Commercials

Where to start with this update as the initial season within the nations elite was horrendous, 4 wins and only 33 goals scored was always going to pose problems as Altrincham found the main elements of their tactic  - Inverted Left Wing  + Attacking CM been shut down against world class opposition leaving Paul McKnight isolated up top . Unable to come up with a viable solution to the problem we will need to take a step backwards and come up with alternatives.  A proper attacking left back to overlap the Inverted winger , stretch the defense and also provide an alternative option is something i would like to try next season but currently i don't have anyone viable at the club for this role. 

The only positive , well possible positive is the impending takeover as the current board are pretty much anti everything in terms of investing in new facilities and moving the club forward as a whole . Existing debts from stadium expansions have now been paid.  There is also nothing to report from cup competition , ran into Man United in the early rounds and provided their stars with some shooting practice. 

 

[warlock]

Dafuge Challenge: Dulwich Hamlet

Season 1, April 2019

So to the business end of the season - two games to play and it's all tight at the top. As I feared, our form dipped dramatically and we lost three in a row in late January, and were up and down throughout February and March. Fortunately, rivals Havant and Oxford City also stuttered, while Billericay came through with a late run of victories. So with two games to go, we're in first place ahead of Billericay by two points. We should finish with two easy-ish games - at home to Bognor, who are are fighting to avoid relegation, and away to already-relegated East Thurrock. But such is Billericay's form I don't think we can afford to drop a single point. Unfortunately, the team is a collective nervous wreck - strikers who have been brilliant all season are now struggling for goals, and too many others are 'nervous' or 'very nervous' in every game.

Having been tipped for mid-table, and set the target of top-half finish, I ought to be delighted, but having led the league for so much of the season, the play-offs would be hard to bear. I am far from confident - just don't tell my players!

[warlock]

Dafuge Challenge: Dulwich Hamlet

Season 1: End of season

As I feared, Bognor had everything to play for to avoid relegation; my team was paralysed with fear. Despite our home advantage, Bognor left with a 1-0 win and secured their place in the division. The football gods were on our side, however, and Billericay could only manage a home draw against St Albans. So going in to the last game of the season, we had a one-point lead and were in control of our fate.

Halfway through the week, star striker Faal was stricken with a near-terminal attack of the blisters and carried the 'injury' into matchday. Unhappy with the form of our third- and fourth-choice strikers, I made the bold (stupid, according to my coaches) decision to call up my best under-23s striker for his first-team debut. Ten minutes in to this nail-biter, Thurrock gifted us an own-goal, and debutant Alfie Rutherford added to the lead. No.2 striker Reise Allassani, despite a dodgy hamstring, added a third just after halftime, and although Thurrock claimed a consolation goal, we ran out comfortable 3-1 winners. Billericay, meanwhile, were succumbing to a 2-3 defeat away at Braintree, allowing Oxford City to sneak back into second place.

It's not in my nature to feel pressure, he quivered.

[StevenStorm]

vor 4 Stunden schrieb Kaiserwatman:

There is also nothing to report from cup competition , ran into Man United in the early rounds and provided their stars with some shooting practice. 

 

I can relate to that ... ;-)

[Jellico73]

Midtable at the moment, todays video is out Fourth Round FA Qualifying game against Tranmere.

Trying a new video editor and some filters, hopefully will make things sound better.

Appreciate any and all feedback!

Thanks for watching,

Jellico73

[Bruce Drundrige]

Fairing much better after 15 games with Salisbury FC than I did in both previous seasons combined! Just got my first away win in two seasons, an excellent 1-0 where - surprisingly - my goalie played well and we never actually looked like conceding.

To combat the long balls over the top I've moved to a disciplined Fluid 442  system with high pressing which so far seems to have done the trick. I think it's preventing the long balls from being hit which seems to be the key... 

What I'm most delighted about is the signing of a central midfielder who can tackle, and pass, and isn't slow. It's taken me two and a half seasons to find a proper defensive midfielder! 

[Warhawk]

Leaderboard should be updated, sorry for the delay.  Let me know if I missed anyone.  Normally I upvote posts once I have entered them into the leaderboard, but because I was a bit behind I hit my upvote cap for the day so I couldn't do that for the last 6-8 or so.

[13-gigi]

3rd promotion in a row!

We started little slowly but got the engine working and flying high on September and October where we went 10-1-1. Later on November our worst record of 0-0-3. After that little bump went 12-4-0 with where the first 7 were all wins. After that and from March on, we didn't find consistency but kept the first spot till the end. Think this inconsistency was also due to Hatton's twisted ankle on February the 20th which kept him out the pitch for 4 weeks.

Once again, Callum Hatton was our main threat with 29 L2 goals and 9 L2 assists in 38 games and extended his loan spell for another year.

Awards haven't been handed out yet but player of the year for fans is gonna be a tough decision with Hatton scoring week in week out and Elliott&O'Sullivan partnership cruising another year in the middle park of the pitch.

The 4th contender I'm sure will be our signing of the season: Sam Byrne overperforming on our right wing with 23 goals and 10 assists in 35 games, even been an striker.

[themonk9223]

INTO THE FOOTBALL LEAGUE!!!

tactics overachieving again albeit better players this year in what ended up as a transfer merry go round at Margate. learnt my lesson on signing non contract players in the hope of saving wages haha 

no idea what im gonna do next year going professional and all that business lmao.

got a few good enough players and hopefully just get a few loans and see what happens ...

 

 

[Thebaker]

Table | Squad | Transfers

 

This season was both a step foward and and disappointing. The team started on fire not losing in the first 7 games and scoring 23 goals. This was followed by only 2 wins in 13 due to no central midfielders and then only 3 losses in 16 to get back into the playoff spots. A bad march meant that wins in the last 2 games against Accrington and Port Vale  counted for nothing. The team seemed to play well against the better teams and then badly against team at the bottom.

This form against poor teams carried over to the cups with a loss at the first hurdle to VNN strugglers Brackley in the FA cup and defeat to Woking in the FA trophy.

The lack of cup progress has meant that the finances are looking a bit more worrying although not too bad. Moved into the new stadium at the very end of the season, its already looking small with such limited expansion capacity.

In terms of the squad i strengthened the defense with Purdy and Tanganga who i hope will be in place for a while. The FB's need improving and upfront as Murrell and Youngs did well in patches but are inconsistent. Beyond them there is nothing, Whittaker come in on loan and had initial success before tailing off.

 

Season       League            Position       FA Cup           FA Trophy                  Achievements/Notes               
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   Vanarama South         2nd         1st Round         1st Round                     Promotion 
2019/20   Vanarama National      19th        3rd Round         1st Round                  Avoided relegation    
2020/21   Vanarama National      8th         4th QRound        2nd Round                       None                         
 

 

[QSF25]

2020/2021

 

PROMOTION 2nd Place

 

 

Final match ended 3-3 in a last minute score but i was sure my boys would have won the penalties.

[thomas_e]

 

Season review 2025-2026

 

Season Summary

Another season with some decent, if not spectacular progress. But we were able to build on last season 8th place, and now we are qualified for Europe after a 6th place finish this season! Two games before the end of the season it was still very open, and we didn't secure a European spot before the 37th round, when we beat Chelsea 1-0. A great game and we were able to top it off with a 3-1 win away to Spurs, which was actually our first away win against a top 6 team . I shifted my tactic from 4-4-2 to 4-2-3-1 with two games left of the season, bold move before Chelsea and Spurs, but it paid off and hopefully we can build further on this formation as it might actually suit the players better than the 4-4-2 I've been using since the beginning! 

As expected, my top scorer Ricardo Vazquez couldnt build on his amazing first season. His 18 goals this year compared to his 34 last year was very noticeable, and the flaws of the 4-4-2 when the opponent can isolate your strikers and outnumber your midfield became very clear this year, and it made us struggle against better teams this year. 

Once again we are unable/uncapable to fight for any silverware in the FA Cup or Carabao Cup. We were knocked out 0-3 against Arsenal in the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup and a terrible 0-2 loss against Championship side Newcastle in the 4th round of the FA Cup. 

Next season

A big challenge when we will combine Premier League with the UEFA Europa League next season, but of course its a challenge that we welcome with open arms! The Carabao Cup will be a fringe competition, more a scene for our U19 players than anything. Hopefully we can maintain a European spot in the League (top seven), as well as making it to the knockout stages of the Europa League. We've already made a couple of good signings for next year, but our wage expenses are starting to be quite high and we need to keep progressing if we are to avoid financial problems. We have put a lot of money into facilities, which is a good thing, but £17,5 million for upgrading our facilities was a bit more than expected. 

 

Season  |        League         | Position  |      FA Cup     | Checkatrade Trophy | Carabao Cup |     
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018-19 |  Vanarama South       |    1st    |     4th round   |      1st round     |             |
2019-20 |  Vanarama National    |    1st    |     3rd round   |      2nd round     |             |
2020-21 |  Sky Bet League Two   |    1st    |     3rd round   |      2nd round     |  1st round  |
2021-22 |  Sky Bet League One   |    1st    |     3rd round   |      3rd round     |  3rd round  | 
2022-23 |  Sky Bet Championship |    1st    |     3rd round   |                    |  4th round  | 
2023-24 |  Premier League       |    13th   |     6th round   |                    |  semi-final |
2024-25 |  Premier League       |    8th    |     4th round   |                    |  4th round  |
2025-26 |  Premier League       |    6th    |    4th round    |                    |  3rd round  |

 

[Jellico73]

Despite some wholly self inflicted problems on the technical side of things, episode 5 of the Enfield Town FC save is up.

The current question is can we stay midtable before we run out of healthy players?  But it's been a fun ride so far.

Jellico

[tajj7]

Billericay First TWO seasons in the Premier League Update (2023/24 Season & 2024/25 Season)

I have been super busy so I am going to have to do these two updates together, apologies. 

 

2023/24 Season - First Season in the Premier League

The first season in the Premier League was a great success, if you had offered me 7th at the start of the season I would have bitten your hands off as we were predicted 19th (though after I signed our star loanee striker Mputu permanently I was pretty confident of staying up). However the season promised so much more, on a promotion high we were hovering around the Champions League places for most of the season before this happened -

5 wins from our last 15 league games, that lone bright spark of a win at home to Spurs surrounded by 5 losses including a 5-0 hammering at home by Swansea! 

Overall though, taken as a whole is was a very good season -

Certainly plenty to build on for the next year.

We were pretty poor in the cups -

Losing 1-0 at home to Burnley in the League cup quarter finals, who we beat in both league games, was very disappointing, especially as they went on to win it.  Away to Man City in the fourth round of the FA Cup was just bad luck with the draw. 

Stadium wise we borrowed Selhurst Park from Crystal Palace whilst our stadium that was originally built so we could enter the Football League was upgraded again to meet Premier League standards. No idea why the average attendance there says 100% full, as it has about 26k capacity so 16k does not sell it out, though we did actually fill in a few occasions and that average attendance is higher than the whole capacity of our new ground which is only going to be 13k.

In fact for our first season we had more season ticket holders than our new ground will hold full stop. I think a new new stadium might be in order but no idea how long that will take as I currently have no option to ask about expanding the stadium. 

Squad wise we performed well -

Though the poor form at the end of the year really dented the average ratings. Defensively we are poor and that is going to be my main area of focus for the next season. Mputu finished Premier League top goalscorer with 26 goals in the league and makes the questioning by my fans and board of his £26 million transfer fee look silly. 

Motoba is probably my best other signing, he is a 20 year old Japanese regen winger who has great pace and is very highly rated by scouts and coaches. He is also the one that came out as gay (see a few pages back) and already has like 40 caps for his country. He only cost me like £1.5 million and is now worth over £40 million. 

Sadly most of the promotions team are no longer here, Kehinde just about managed some appearances but has now gone out on loan. 

 

2024/25 Season - Second Season in the Premier League 

The second season saw us progress nicely from our first season, in the transfer window I addressed some major areas of concern that I think caused us our poor run of form last year. This was getting in better defenders in every position (though I really have struggled to find good full backs buying two wingers and converting them) and also adding to our attacking options so I could rotate more and have more cover for when players were injured or out of form.

I also tightened up my tactics a bit, playing more defensively away from home, especially against the better clubs. 

It worked pretty well -

Champions League football secured next year, it was very tight with four team from 2nd to 5th covered by just 4 points. Man Utd are way off in the distance, no one can catch them it seems and I have a lot of work to try and close that gap. I believe this was their fourth or even 5th title in a row and no one else but Man Utd or Man City have won league since the save started. 

We also had a much better go in the cups reaching our first ever FA Cup final -

Sadly we lost 3-0 to Man Utd, though were actually the better team for 70 minutes before they scored 3 late goals, the first being from a corner and then two counter attack goals as I tried to get back into the game. 

Our tiny stadium was obviously completely sold out every game. 

Squad wise Motoba really kicked on this season getting an amazing 22 assists and 11 goals from just 33 games. I think it is unlikely I will be able to keep him, both Monaco and Chelsea are interested in him and we have already fallen out over his agreed fee (because apparently wanting at least £80 million for my best player who is valued over £50 million is me being unreasonable!) 

Marcus Edwards, signed for just £5.5 million in the first Premier League season has also had an excellent season, he seems to be just hitting his peak and has also fully mastered the inside winger on the left position.

Mputu wasn't quite as good as his first season in the league, despite him developing nicely but luckily I signed a very good German re-gen on a free who provided quality back up. 

And probably my best signing was Jorge Chavez, a Mexican regen left-back, who I have converted into a centre-back because he was 6' 2" and had very good jumping, he added much needed consistentcy and leadership to my back line.

Overall I am very happy with my squad, the average age is like 21, my oldest players aside my back up keeper are 26, with most players 18-22 and have bags of potential. So I can't see much need to get new additions in, though we will need a bit more depth with the Champions League games.

The big issue I have is keeping them as the wages are already creeping up with some of these players now wanting £90 - 120k a week, which we simply can't afford, especially with a limited 13k stadium.  We have got to a very decent level of youth set up now though and have already had several quality youngsters into the club so I might be able to sell off a star player a season to balance to books and hopefully bring in the youngsters to fill the gaps. 

Closing the gap to Man Utd, Man City etc. is going to be tough, these clubs pay £250k a week to half their squads, have regens in their U23s that walk into my side (One of my best players this season is a 19 year old regen on loan from Chelsea who has got nowhere near their first team) and spend around £150 million a year usually on peak age regens who are world class. 

I will do an update on some of my better players, my best youth regens, my manager profile and the state of the club facilities wise etc. 

 

[thomas_e]

Impressive work @tajj7 ! Playing with Billericay myself, and finished 6th in the 2025/2026 season, so clearly you are a few steps ahead of me in the race!