dafuge's FM18 challenge

[paulskln]

Now im nearly finished my 6th season playing this challenge....I was sacked by Margate after failing to get them promoted, now nearing the end of my 4th season in charge of King's lynn Town im in 17th place and have been given 5 games to save my job....Damn i suck at this challenge...

UPDATE...Well the board set me a target of 8 points from 5 games.... I got 7 points from 5 games was never going to be relegated but now im going on holiday until the new teams come up....

[Emprix]

Meet the new manager of The Rebels

[KVJ92]

I hate this game. 

Before these 8 games I was battling for the 1st place. Now I'm just below playoff and 16 points after 1st. I don't get it.

[paulskln]

Question about the rules of this challenge.....

I have been using the same manager for my 7th season now.....I was sacked by Kings Lynn....This is what i do . I holiday until the 25th June and see that the clubs that come up from below the National Leagues South and North and are managerless are Dagenham & Redridge, Havant & Waterlooville, Hayes & Yeading, Morecambe and Weston- Super-Mare... Basically Dagenham and Morecambe have been in the 2nd division but been relegated down before this time.....Am i allowed to take over as manager with them still?

[dafuge]

5 hours ago, paulskln said:

Question about the rules of this challenge.....

I have been using the same manager for my 7th season now.....I was sacked by Kings Lynn....This is what i do . I holiday until the 25th June and see that the clubs that come up from below the National Leagues South and North and are managerless are Dagenham & Redridge, Havant & Waterlooville, Hayes & Yeading, Morecambe and Weston- Super-Mare... Basically Dagenham and Morecambe have been in the 2nd division but been relegated down before this time.....Am i allowed to take over as manager with them still?

If the club has played in a playable league during your save game, then they are ineligible.

It must be a club that has not played in a playable league after the start of your game.

[QSF25]

Quick question does anyone know of a logo pack for this?

[QSF25]

@michaeltmurrayuk I have a question how did you manage scouting? were you  using trials? also are you wings providing support or just plainly attacking?

[michaeltmurrayuk]

41 minutes ago, QSF25 said:

@michaeltmurrayuk I have a question how did you manage scouting? were you  using trials? also are you wings providing support or just plainly attacking?

Note that much different from past versions (should be a guide at the start of one of years threads) - add a couple of new views to the player search screen - main ones last club (for released players) and division (for loan players).

Then sort by last club and trial in anyone who is interested who was released from a prem/champ side, if CA is less than 3 stars discard, otherwise let the trial run and renew for 4 weeks until enough attributes are revealed to see if the player is worth signing. If there is a position I need then I first filter for that position.

Also set the scouting inbox to daily when actively after players, otherwise weekly as I've found the game is now a lot more pro-active about offering you unattached players, so I just trial in anyone who's mentioned.

For scouting I just used that to scout loan players initially as it takes a week now and costs money (though the patches have brought it down I spent £6K in first season and just spent £8K this season - I started using scouting more as the season went on as we were making money, though I don't think I ever scouted anyone to 100%).

At this level I don't tend to use scouts that much as my staff tend to be better judging and having the players on trial allows me to sort them better, though in my second season I'm just finishing I used my scouts more as I wasn't in a hurry for players so could let my scouts weed out some players first, also use them to scout players who are set to be released to get a head start on the better ones before other clubs get them.

For the scouting packages I haven't used them, as from a quick test the league one doesn't increase the number of unattached players shown so there was no point in getting it and couldn't afford the higher ones. Though I'm not quite sure how this will work once I've got to the Football League which is the point where you are generally able to sign non-english based players but in the past relied on you having a staff member to give you knowledge of the country to get them showing up, but if it now requires a higher package it should be fun, though the packages are charged monthly so you can take out a higher one shortlist the interesting players and get rid of it before the start of the next month.

For the Wing Backs they are just standard Wing Backs on Support - but if I'm defending a lead late on I'll switch them to Defend, though if the AI is using attacking Full-Backs that look to give me problems I tell my STCR/STCL to man mark the DR/DL positions which seems to stop the fullbacks from going forward often.

[Andrew Haines]

St Neots Town

National League North– 2018/19 – 6th

 

Overview

A solid first season in charge. Promotion was not achieved but pleasingly my new tactic worked effectively. The key thing I was looking for from the tactic was that it would work okay for a weaker side. My previous issues were that my tactics worked well when I am aiming for promotion but looked brittle when the team was transitioning to that position.

I am hoping that it won’t be a massive stretch to push for the championship this season. I need some strengthening in midfield but may be able to achieve it.

Key Players

Anthony Jeffery – Pacy winger who I am utilising as a striker. Signed after release by Sutton following a good loan spell at Dover.

Alex Cochrane – ex-Coventry youngster who had a good season on the left wing. Scored 8 goals and contributed the same number of assists.

 

Record

Season          League                          Position          Europe                        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18         Conference North                6th         

 

[Bruce Drundrige]

On 14/04/2018 at 14:58, KVJ92 said:

I hate this game. 

Before these 8 games I was battling for the 1st place. Now I'm just below playoff and 16 points after 1st. I don't get it.

 

I had something similar, where I got to January/February and my table-topping (and massively overachieving) side seemed to run out of gas, and wins started to dry up. I did my usual and started tinkering and experimenting with other formations without a great deal of success until ultimately coming back to the system that go me top in the first place...and lo and behold our form returns in time to secure a Play-Off position. 

Out of nowhere we smashed Maidenhead 0-5 to get to the Semi-Final but couldn't get past eventual Play-Off Winners Bath.

As frustrating as this challenge or these slumps can be, i constantly have to remind myself that it wasn't until the fourth season that I actually managed to complete a season so finishing 7th after a pre-season prediction of 18th is pretty good...

[Boyd The Beast]

I've decided to jump in to this as my youth challenge has become kind of stagnant. So meet the new manager of Metropolitan Police. Actually already into November of the season and reckon I'll around mid table at the end of the year.

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Altrincham - National League 2019/20 - Season 2

So after claiming promotion in our first season I was hoping for back-to-back promotions to get us to the Football League, though the Board were happy for us to avoid relegation, but the Media Predicted an 8th place finish, with the Bookies predicting a playoff finish but at the same time they reckoned newly promoted Billericay would win the league.

Reputation - Not much surprise that we have the lowest rep in the league, though Billericay's rep actually went down on promotion.

Transfers - Not that busy of a season as I concentrated on quality over quantity, I also got the remaining overpaid existing players off the books, whilst the AI decided to poach most of my N/C squad players, with some of them who couldn't even get into my side going to bigger sides, whilst Wilson dropped down to take the money from York.

National League Table - Another excellent season as we again stormed to the title setting new records for Most Points, Most Wins, Most Team Goals and Highest Scoring Game.

Though the season got off to a slow start as my new players settled in and we got used to the slightly better quality opposition, which saw us draw three and win three of our opening six games, needing injury time winners in two of the games, but then we clicked as five straight wins pushed us to the top of the table.

However our defensive frailities were a bit of an issue as we needed to come back from 3-0 down against bottom side Boreham to claim a draw, but eventually suffered our first defeat in game 15 to second place Torquay, but we responded to that by thrashing Morecambe 9-2 in the first of our two TV games this season.

This was the start of a seven game winning streak which was ended as we lost to second placed Eastleigh but had opened up a 10 point lead but was cut as we draw our next two games.

Going into the New Year we lost to Dagenham before winning six in a row, but then the long season started to take it's toll on my small squad as injuries started to mount up (we didn't actually suffer that many injuries this season they just all seemed to hit at the same time) and we suffered back-to-back defeats against Billericay and Guiseley, which meant with 10 games left our lead over Billericay had been cut to just four points.

We at least responded with three straight wins before losing to Morecambe, which took us into April and some good news as my Star Striker was back from injury and his partner who'd given up over the last 11 games after I refused to let him go had decided to start performing again as he grabbed a brace against Wrexham to keep our five point lead with just five games left.

With my Strikers back (along with pretty much everyone else) we pushed on and claimed the title with two games to spare as Billericay fell to pieces over the last few games before responding by winning the playoffs thanks to an injury time goal and thus will join us in the Football League next season.

FA Cup - A solid run as we made it to the Third Round beating League One Bradford in a replay along the way, before Championship side QPR proved too strong for us. It was also a bit of a shame that the QPR tie only earned us £100K a bigger team would have been nice, considering we got ~£250K from the Bradford ties.

FA Trophy - We made it to the final for the second time, this time facing Salford setting a new record Win Streak of 15 games. The Final was again a cagy affair with my Striker Lander grabbing a 90th minute winner (Salford losing the cup and promotion in injury is rather ironic considering who they are owned by :)) in what is likely to be his last appearance for the club, though their was still time for on loan Striker Comber to miss a pen in his last appearance for the club.
 

That video pretty much sums up our main method of scoring this season - defence launches ball down field, Glatzel's pace gets him in behind the defence and he puts the ball in the box for one of my other strikers to score.

Also the board didn't seem all that impressed with us retaining the FA Trophy as we won it for a record fourth time.

Squad, Stat Pack and Overview

In goal I brought in Irishman Conrad Logan to try and shore up my leaking defence, as whilst Brad Watkins did okay he's not really good enough for this level.

In Defence was Morgan Feeney who had a solid season but went missing in a few games, playing to his right was Nathan Guru and on the left was Irishman Jimmy Dunne and both did okay but I'm going to need better defenders next season.

At Right Wing-Back was Ethan Laird who had a solid season and is highly rated by my staff, on the left was George Smith who was in good form and proved to be a good deliver of my set-pieces, providing cover was Loanee Hayden Coulson who was a dependable option down either side.

In the Centre Midfield playing as my Deep Lying Playmaker was Thomas Scully who had an excellent season and was a bit of a coup as he turned down Newcastle to sign for me, playing alongside him as my Box-to-Box Midfielder was Jack Thomas who after a slow start stepped up with some fine performances, though of course this meant Nigerian Tosin Kehinde dropped back to a squad role as he just struggled to get going at the start of the season but proved a solid understudy, whilst my Academy graduate Arron Bradley is developing nicely as I tried to get him more games this season.

Up front on the Left of my attack was Paul Glatzel who had a fantastic season as his pace just tore apart teams that gave us any space with his average rating being a new league record and we really missed him during his six week injury, in the Centre was Garry Lander who was having a great season until his head was turned in Jan after several Championship and League One sides tried to snatch him on the cheap however his goals were more important than the £500K they were offering, though I'll have to decide whether to cash him on him next season or keep him and let him go on a free, unless I get lucky and he withdraws his request and signs a new contract. On the Right of my attack was Jordan Greenidge who moved over from the left and ended up being the only player from last season to finish the season as a starter, and weirdly all three of my Strikers somehow ended the season with exactly the same amount of goals.

Academy - I got two highly rated players this season Striker Arran Weatherall who looks like he could be a quick replacement for Lander and Centre-Back Alex Cox which is just the position I need a player for, though his lack of aerial ability and pace is going to be an issue unless he can improve them so I'll see how he develops and I might convert him into a Wing Back instead.

Best XI - I'd agree with that though I'd swap Watkins for Logan and Kehinde for Thomas.

Overall XI - Poole and Levingston are pretty much the only un-used players to keep their places, though Kehinde is in defence despite barely being able to play there.

Finances - We again made plently of money, though most of that comes from our cup runs, whilst we actually had a lower wage bill this season.

Facilites - Looking good as I got the board to increase our Youth Recruitment three times this season which means it's the same level as Utd and City whilst our Junior Coaching becomes Excellent (which I think is it's max), I also got our Youth facilities increased with another improvement on the way, though training improvement fell through as future ones will cost ~£1m each so will need to stagger them. We also got our Youth Level on the board which I'm hoping will give us a chance to actually enter our U23 and U18 teams in the league as I didn't get that option this season.

The board also decided to Expand our ground (well convert standing to seating to meet the league rules) rather than build a new one which is good, though they still seem to be planning to build a new staduim hopefully that will drag on so we can get a decent sized one instead of being stuck with a small one in the Prem.

Profile - My attributes continue to increase as I grab my National C and B Licences, with my reputation nearly reaching two stars, I also claimed Manager of the Year again. Whilst I started to get linked with jobs, first the press linked me with the Chester (who are in the league below) job, then the Bolton one (League One), whilst Forest (Championship) were the first and so far only side to offer me an interview.

Plans For Next Season

So with having made it to the Football League the club have turned pro (though I was worried for a bit as the initial news item said it would take affect in a year but looks like it the game forces it on promotion anyway) so first off I need to get my better players onto full time contracts, as well as try to keep hold of them as they are started to attract attention.

On the plus side Lander has signed a new contract - he went on trial to Derby for a week and when he came back he asked to be taken off the transfer list so I promptly offered him a new contract whilst he was happy for me to reject bids, and whilst he was considering that one offered him a new full time one on update day as we went Pro.

Transferwise top of my list are a couple of new Centre-Backs, whilst some squad depth would be nice otherwise it depends on what we can find and how my existing players fair.

Short-term there isn't much hurry to get out of League 2 especially if we continue to make money, as it's a safe league to sit in to build up the club, though long-term I'd like to be as high up as possible before the new stadium goes through.

State of The World

Premier League - City become the third side to claim the title, with 106 goal Utd second, holders Arsenal finish in 5th, as Chelsea and Spurs make up the top four. At the bottom Bournemouth, Derby and Swansea all go down

Championship - Leeds go straight back up, with Wolves and Sunderland following them.

League One - Former Prem sides Ipswich, Wigan and Sheff Utd all get promoted, though Portsmouth and Swindo will be joining us next season.

FA Cup - City claim the double thrashing Bournemouth in the final.

League Cup - Though in fact City make it a clean sweep coming from 2-0 down to beat Arsenal.

Champions League - Barcelona beat Arsenal to retain it for Spain for the 7th season in a row. With Arsenal knocking out Spurs (SF) and Utd (QF) along the way, whilst City lost to Barcelona in the Knockout Round and Liverpool lost to Napoli.

Europa League - Paris hammer Bayern with both sides having dropped out of the UCL. Burnley made it to the Quarters before losing to Inter, who also beat Leicester in the previous round, with Chelsea going out to Sevilla.

Euro2020 - England lose the Final to Ukraine in Extra Time. With England knocking out Spain, Germany and Holland along the way. Wales and Scotland both went out in the Groups along with Kosovo(!)


Leaderboard points (FM Mode)(My Steam Username is same as here if anyone wants to add me)
(points / position)
Single Game: 1,958,787 (150,718)
Single Season: 1,090,552 (161,460)
Single Season England: 1,090,552 (82.173)
Single Season National League: 1,090,552 (153)
Single Season National North: 868,235 (94 :cool:)

Career Overview

Season	League	League Finish	Achievements	Leaderboard Points	Av. Attendance
18/19	National North	1st	Promoted & FA Trophy Winners!!!	868,235	1,927 (31%)
19/20	National League	1st	Promoted & FA Trophy Winners!!!	1,090,552 / 1,958,787	3,022 (49%)

[KVJ92]

18 hours ago, Edinton said:

 

I had something similar, where I got to January/February and my table-topping (and massively overachieving) side seemed to run out of gas, and wins started to dry up. I did my usual and started tinkering and experimenting with other formations without a great deal of success until ultimately coming back to the system that go me top in the first place...and lo and behold our form returns in time to secure a Play-Off position. 

Out of nowhere we smashed Maidenhead 0-5 to get to the Semi-Final but couldn't get past eventual Play-Off Winners Bath.

As frustrating as this challenge or these slumps can be, i constantly have to remind myself that it wasn't until the fourth season that I actually managed to complete a season so finishing 7th after a pre-season prediction of 18th is pretty good...

This is January and February, so sounds similar. Will try to revert back to the original tactic. 

And yes, according to pre-season prediction I'm still above that. 

[KVJ92]

Marine - Vanarama National League North - 2020/2021

 

I'm not going to write a long update. 

Ended 8th. Because of this: (Game against Boston United is a cup game) 4 wins in 2021. Ended 3 points below playoff. I don't get it.

Career Overview:

Season          Team              League                                     Position     Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/2019       Marine            Vanarama National League North             12th         n/a
2019/2020       Marine            Vanarama National League North              5th         n/a
2019/2020       Marine            Vanarama National League North              8th         n/a

Next Season:

Promotion. If I'm not promoted next season I'm done with this challenge in FM18. 

[Jellico73]

2021/2022

 

Started Strong, stayed strong.  Finished......not so strong.

Billericay ran away with the Vanarama, finishing 16 points ahead of us. Despite our defensive woes our offense was strong, and we broke the League record for goals, with 124.  Jaanai Gordon, Tom Ashton, and Cedwynn Scott had 37g/21a, 26g/19a, and 26g/17a in our 3-4-3.

After beating Wrexham in the semi finals, we played AFC Wimbeldon on the finals, and were down by 4 at the half.  The second half was a heartbreaker of a game, with three disallowed goals, the last of which I am still getting over.  Check out episode 40.1 for that.

Anyhow, Season Five is now underway, and this year, 1st place is ours.

Maybe.

 

[Bruce Drundrige]

Just started my third season with Salisbury FC, my fifth in total in the challenge. Last season we won the first seven games of the season and remained top until Christmas, before faltering in the New Year and eventually finishing seventh and losing in the Play-Off Semi.

Similarly, we've started this season with three wins out of three but this time without conceding a goal and looking fairly comfortable compared to last season's winning run where we conceded a goal in each game.

I'm trying to stick to a new back-to-basics, don't over think things policy. Moved away from a Structured setup and use Fluid with 'More Disciplined' ticked, and rotate between a 4-4 (f*cking) 2 and a 4-1-4-1.

I've stopped trying to be clever or idealistic, and sticking to systems that play to the strengths of my better players -

• I have two quick and effective wingers, so both systems have attacking wingers included.
• My new Left Back is also quick so both setups involve him supporting or overlapping the left-winger
• My DCs aren't brilliant, but I now have a big, solid DMC hence the use of a 4-1-4-1 to help protect them.
• Traditionally I like my GK to roll it out so we always start with the ball, but it's Tier Six, so he's now instructed to kick it long over the opposition defence. No messing about.
• My best striker, also very quick, doesn't have brilliant technical skills but makes an excellent defensive forward, so that's what he is
• My previous system relied on an Advanced Playmaker but didn't have much of a Plan B (or alternative for the role) if he didn't perform)

So far, so good, and I now find playing more easier if I have a process to stick to.

 

[Boyd The Beast]

 

Season 1 - 2018/19

 

League - What started off as a decent mid table season took a drastic downhill turn after the new year. Our already bad defense became non existent and we struggled for points big time. While we scored 87 goals this year which was 3rd best our defense allowed a record number of 111 goals! Any kind of ball over the top they seemed to lose all ability. I tried making changes but it didn't seem to matter. We didn't lose a single preseason game(including a 1-1 draw vs Stoke). Safe to say I dropped this 433 and and have settled on the classic 442(Have played almost a month into next season and is going much better)

FA Cup - Lost in 4th Qualifying Round to Leyton Orient, hopefully we can get into the proper round next year and get some money

FA Trophy - Was not too bothered by this competition this year and used this as chance to rotate players with the fixture congestion and crashed out in just the 1st round against Harrow

Transfers - Brought in loads of players to fill out the squad. A majority are back with us next year and looking to add more quality in key spots

Finances - Lost money all year and hoping for a cup run to bring us in money. Our attendance is very poor and need to start winning to bring more in.

Best player this season was on loan striker Harry Warwick who led the team in goals(26) and average rating(7.46). He joined us a month and a half into the season and played a big part in us ultimately staying in the league which saw him get voted as our fans player of the season. His club would not loan him back to us as they wanted him to play with higher quality next season so looking for someone to step up

[clemo]

Here we go boys



Let's do this....

[13-gigi]

Premier League, round 2!

[clemo]

There was only one choice being a Welshman.

[paulskln]

Im starting afresh with this challenge....I give you the new manager of Staines , Luap Samot....

 

[Andrew Haines]

Sacked again... after a good first season were again pushing for the playoffs. A bad run still left us in a reasonable position but the board asked for a dreaded meeting. Not the time to get avante garde with me responses.. I should have asked for a points challenge but ended up getting myself sacked outright.

Anyway, going to have another crack with Stalybridge.

profile

[michaeltmurrayuk]

Altrincham - League Two 2020/21 - Season 3

So after back-to-back promotions we reached the Football League in the min. time required and the Board wanted us to stay there expecting a Top Half finish, though the Media Predicted we'd finish 16th, but a month later the Bookies expected us to go straight up.

Reputation - No surprise we are rock bottom and are the only Local side in the league.

Transfers - A quiet season on the incoming front as I struggled to find better players so mainly just brought in players to provide some squad depth. Outgoing was another story as Prem Wolves paid a club record £13K for my backup GK Watkins which seemed a silly move, but in Jan my Chairman decided to step in and sell my Star Striker Lander to Prem Brighton over my objections and because I'd just given him a promise to try and keep him I couldn't even offer him a new contract to stay (nor did the game give me any time to offer him out for more) and to make matters worse he refused to return on loan I also let midfielder Shaw leave on deadline day as I couldn't turn that amount of money down for a squad player, I also lost Centre-Back Feeney but at least got his transfer delayed until the end of the season.

League Two - An excellent season as we just walked the league winning our first four games before drawing against Carlisle after conceding an injury time pen, and then won our next six before suffering our first defeat to Rochdale and a couple of draws allowed Plymouth to catch us.

We then suffered a poor December losing to struggling Mansfield before drawing to Plymouth and Doncaster which left us two points behind Plymouth at the half way stage. However an excellent run into Feb that saw us win seven in a row and quickly get over the loss of Lander to open up a nine point lead at the top and make us safe from relegation with 15 matches left.

With nine games left we secured our place in the playoffs and opened up an 11 point lead at the top of the table and then secured promotion in our next game after thumping pre-season favourites Portsmouth 4-0.

We eventually secured the title with five games left thanks to a last minute winner from Academy Striker Weatherall who was set up by another Academy Striker Scott. Though of course after we secured the title we suffered our first home defeat of the season to Wimbledon and ended the season in style thrashing Plymouth with a double from Weatherall.

Along the way we set a new records for Most Points and Most Wins, but missed out on the goals record which was set in 1961 by five goals, we also surprisingly had the second best defence in the league.

Whilst Lincoln gain promotion after thrashing Colchester 6-0 in the Playoff Final.

League Cup - We made our debut and promptly went out to Championship Sheffield Utd thanks to some poor finishing from my Strikers, though I did rest players as this comp is a distraction at this level.

Checkatrade Trophy - This is an even bigger waste of time, with the new rules making things even worse as the group stage see's you play once a month for three months, you are also required to start four players you used in the last match and you need a fifth one on the bench that the game doesn't bother to warn you about so I got a fine after the Liverpool game. We made it through the Group Stage thanks to big wins over Liverpool and Hartlepool before losing in the Knockout Round to Preston.

FA Cup - An excellent run as we hammered VNS side Welling and Billericay to set up a Third Round tie against Championship Barnsley who are managed by Fernando Morientes and have a couple of £10m Strikers but we got off to a great start as Glatzel hammered home a close range volley from a Lander nod down, however Lander then gifted Barnsley a goal with a poor pass that opened us up on the counter and this spurred Barnsley on as we were left hanging on, but later on Glatzel struck again as this time we countered and sub Greenidge put the ball across the box to give Glatzel another tap in and minutes later we secured the win with Kehnide scoring after Barnsley failed to clear their lines.

In the Fourth Round we drew another Championship side Brentford and put up a good fight but some poor defending let us down.

Squad, Overview and Stat-Pack

Irish GK Conrad Logan had a solid season at the back and did enough to earn himself a new contract for next season.

In the Centre of Defence Morgan Feeney had an excellent season until he demanded out in Jan, but I at least got the transfer delayed until the summer. Playing to his right was Nathan Guru who did okay but isn't really going to be good enough going forward, and on the Left was Terence Vancooten who had a slow start but improved as the season went on, providing cover was Loanee Sam Graham who had a solid season coming in for each ever of the others was out of form.

The other option I have is Academy player Alex Cox who hasn't really developed so far and whilst he has potential his attributes don't really suit any of the roles I use.

At Wing Back on the Right was Ethan Laird who had an excellent season, as did Loanee Hayden Coulson who played down the Left.

In the Centre of Midfield as my Deep Lying Playmaker was Thomas Scully who had another excellent season though he now appears to be unhappy as apparently playing 60+ games over the last two seasons doesn't count as enough first team football for him :confused: Partnering him as the Box-to-Box Midfielder was Jack Thomas who was also in good form but is another player itching for a move. Providing cover was Nigerian Tosin Kehinde who did well when called upon but struggled to displace my first choice pairing. I also tried to give Academy prospect Aaron Bradley some matches though long-term I've decided to convert him into a Left Wing-Back, whilst he has also decided to represent Wales picking up a few U19 caps.

Upfront on the Left was Paul Glatzel who was in fine form with his 21 Assists being a league record, down the Right was Irishman Glen McAuley who is also a former Liverpool youngster and had a storming season breaking our record for most goals, most league goals and average rating and according to my staff is playing at a Championship level so I really need to keep hold of him. Playing down the middle was Garry Lander who was having an insane season and still ended the season as the third top scorer in the league despite only playing in half of it. Providing cover was Jordan Greenidge who stepped up when Lander went and is a sold understudy. Whilst Academy prospect Arran Weatherall is developing nicely and whilst he struggled at the start of the season ended the season strongly as I gave him a chance to replace Lander with the title all but tied up.

Academy - We produced what the game is describing as a Golden Generation this season with the best of the bunch being Midfielder Lamar Best, Striker Daniel Scott and Defenders Paul King and Michael Tandy which should give us a bright future if I can develop them. There was also another guy that popped up at Crewe but came through my academy.

Best XI - I'd agree with that, with Lander still being named even though he missed the second half of the season.

Overall XI - This is still a little broken as Vancooten somehow gets in, whilst Kehinde is in defence and Glatzel is in Midfield.

Dream Team - We utterly dominate this, with just the departed Lander and a Centre-Back missing out.

Finances - Looking fine as we just about make money as we made an extra £500K from both TV money and transfers and a further £100K from sponsors, main expense was the £1m we spent on our Youth Setup.

Facilities - Youth Facilities reach Below Average, whist the board agree to improve our training facilities next season, and while I can ask for improvements to Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment I'm not really sure we need to improve them at the moment with the money better spent elsewhere.

Expansion - The board continue to mess around with my stadium this time they are putting back in the standing area they just took out to put the seats in to get us back upto the league requirements, as the addition of the seats near enough halved our capacity though that did result in us selling out the Stadium for the last few months of the season, whilst apparenty they are still looking to build a lower capacity new stadium.

Profile - My reputation leaps upto 2.5 stars (or Okay) as I make my way through the Continental badges most of my attributes are now into double digits. Whilst at the end of the season the press have been linking me with the vacant Man Utd job

Plans For Next Season

I didn't really plan to walk League Two, so I have no idea what to expect in League One so staying up should be fine.

Transferwise looks like it will be a season of rebuilding as I pretty much need a new defence, a new GK and Left Wing Back would be nice as well, but on the plus side Lander has returned on loan and I also need to try and keep hold of my better players whilst hopefully my Academy players can provide some squad depth.


State of The World

Premier League - Chelsea make it four different winners, with City, Arsenal and Utd making up the top four, Spurs are fifth with Stoke 6tth, at the bottom Leicester, Wolves and Sunderland all go down.

Championship - Mboro, Bournemouth and Villa all go back up, whilst Forest, Fleetwood and Wigan will be joining us in League One next season.
League One - Former Prem sides Ipswich, Wigan and Sheff Utd all get promoted, though Portsmouth and Swindo will be joining us next season.

FA Cup - Palace beat Championship side Swansea.

League Cup - Arsenal beat City in a reverse of last seasons final.

Champions League - Juventus beat Barcelona in Extra-time to end Spanish domination, Utd went out to Barcelona in the SF, with Spurs (Juventus), City (Bayern) and Chelsea (Barcelona) all losing in the QF.

Europa League - A crazy final saw Liverpool beat Kyiv on pens after Kyiv had a man sent off after 60 mins, lost another to injury on 64 mins with no subs left and then were reduced to eight men for extra-time, though Liverpool were reduced to 10 men first after losing Henderson to injury after also having made all their subs. Arsenal went out to Lpool in the QF, with Soton losing to Kyiv in the 2KO.

France - Monaco claim the title with 101pts to Paris's 98

Leaderboard points (FM Mode)(My Steam Username is same as here if anyone wants to add me)
(points / position)
Single Game: 2,707,852 (117,088)
Single Season: 1,090,552 (161,460)
Single Season England: 1,090,552 (82.173)
Single Season League Two: 749,065 (1,360)
Single Season National League: 1,090,552 (153)
Single Season National North: 868,235 (94 :cool:)

Career Overview

Season	League	League Finish	Achievements	Leaderboard Points	Av. Attendance
18/19	National North	1st	Promoted & FA Trophy Winners!!!	868,235	1,927 (31%)
19/20	National League	1st	Promoted & FA Trophy Winners!!!	1,090,552 / 1,958,787	3,022 (49%)
20/21	League Two	1st	Promoted	749,065 / 2,707,852	3,920 (87%)

 

[Boyd The Beast]

Metropolitan Police FC

Season 2 - 2019/20

 

League -  With our 433 being a defensive disaster last year we switched to a classic 442. We hit our stride early and kept pace with the leaders until Christmas. After the New Year we dropped of the pace but comfortably stayed in the playoff positions. We had a bit of a rough patch in March but we started finding our stride again at the right time heading into the playoffs. We had some hard fought games but we stepped up when needed and saw us win promotion via a 1-0 win again Concord.

FA Cup - We made it to the 1st round of the FA cup this year before losing to League Two Notts Co. 

FA Trophy - After crashing out in the FA Cup and having a good position in the league In was able to make a push in this cup. We made a good run into the 4th round but unfortunately lost to the runners up York 0-3

Transfers - Added wide players for my 442 and added better quality in some positions as well. 

Finances - We actually managed to make money this year but are still in the red, hopefully win our good season we will see an increase in attendance next year.

With our good season we saw our player Hunter win the players of the season award in the league. Just announced we are expanding our stadium by a capacity of 1,297 even though we only averaged 381 fans last year. Luckily we did get a good grant to offset a good chunk of this cost but this will hurt the finances for sure.

 

Career History:

Season	League	Position	FA Cup	Achievements	Top Scorer
2018/19	VNS	19th	4th Qualifying Round		Harry Warwick (26)
2019/20	VNS	5th	1st Round	Promotion via playoffs!	Cameron Ebbutt (27)

 

Club Information:

Season	Stadium	Avg Attendance	Training Facilities	Youth Facilities	Youth Level	Junior Coaching	Youth Recruitment
2018/19	3000	301	Poor	Poor	0	Minimal	Basic
2019/20	3000	380	Poor	Poor	0	Fairly basic	Fairly basic

[fcunitedfan]

Got a couple of questions. Has anyone tried this challenge on Football Manager Mobile? Would it be viable to do so?

Edit: Just got to June 24th and did a days holidaying and reloading until I got a team I want to manage, then realised I can't retire my manager and add a new one... ☹ I have found though, that the newly promoted clubs quite often get promoted without a manager. This means I could do the holidaying again from the very start with a manager who I'll be using for the career, and then I can apply for a job with the newly promoted sides. Another thing to note is that the newly promoted sides don't seem to have any real players, as the ones they have when promoted have their names greyed out.

[fcunitedfan]

Well, here it is! I'm now manager of Slough Town F.C.

In my first season in charge, the board expect a mid-table finish. My transfer budget is £50K, and my wage budget is £1.91K. Our current wage bill is £1.2K, so this will be fun. I'll have to make some cut backs and release two of my overpaid players.

[Andrew Haines]

Stalybridge Celtic

National League North– 2018/19 – 15th

 Overview

A reasonable start. The key thing in the first season is survival and that was successfully achieved. I brought in striker Raul Correia at the end of the season who will lift the quality of the squad. Hopefully that is a good sign that I will be able to start bringing in players next season to push us up the table and maybe have a run at promotion.

Key Players

Oliver Roberts – Midfielder who was a key player incumbent when I arrived. Hit double figures in goals.

Bilal Sayoud – 22 year old winger signed after his release from Coventry. Was impressive on the left wing.

 Record

Season          League                          Position          Europe                        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18         Conference North                15th        

 

[fcunitedfan]

I bought a tablet, which I'll be getting tomorrow so I'll be able to play FM Touch from tomorrow! Can't wait to give Dafuge' s Challenge a proper go. I'm already a bit bored with FM Mobile lol.

[fcunitedfan]

Here I am, the new Rushall Olympic manager!

 

[fcunitedfan]

Not a bad start to the season!

[Andrew Haines]

Stalybridge Celtic

National League North– 2019/20 – 1st

 

Overview

Promotion was achieved as champions in our second season. Although we finished as champions, it was a weak showing with only 86 points. Bad spells at the start of the season and in December meant that we had to battle for top spot. We came out of the traps slowly and promotion form didn’t look likely. Key signings over the first three months of the season helped matters. Darnell Johnson, DJ Buffonge, Troy Brown and Boris Mathis arrived by mid-October and added real quality. Form improved and we climbed the table. A bad run in December was also arrested by new signings. Stephen Henderson, Duckens Nazon and Craig Garder came in giving an almost complete re-build of the side.

We should have enough strength to do okay next season. The board have set the goal as finishing top however. Hopefully my weak defence doesn’t get me sacked before I can bring in some more players to aim at that objective.

Key Players

DJ Buffonge – Pacy winger signed in September. Had a great first season at the club.

Will Keane – Ex-Man United striker arrived towards the end of the season from Hull. Hit seven goals in his ten games.

 

Record

Season          League                          Position          Europe                        Achievements
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017/18         Conference North                15th        
2019/20         Conference North                1st                                             Champions, Promoted       

 

[paulskln]

Staines Town ( 4th In National League South , 1st Season)

My best season doing this challenge after failing with Margate and King's lynn...

I chose Staines and managed to finish 4th ,finally lost in the Playoff Semi-Final to Ebsfleet a team that i lost to everytime we played them...

Managed to score over 100 goals, using a 3-4-3 wing back formation....

I used a really settled team ,

Goalkeeper

Luke Frew ... was already with the team since 2014....

Central Defender's

Sam Blake ... signed at the start of the season on a free...Previously with Bristol Rovers...Really a full back and only 5'5" , but he has good pace and heading , did well on the right side of 3 CB's.

Mitchell Gough ... Been with Staines since 2016, Not the best attributes , not great at Heading for a tall centre back , but he has high determination and strength, plus a good leader....His style of play is to either foul often outside the box...or lump the ball over everyone to our three strikers to run on to..

Joshua Pollard ... Signed on loan from Colchester, easily the most talented of the 3 CB'S, Marking , Tackling, Pace, Acceleration all high for this level, will try to sing him again or permanant if i can next season

Wing Back's

Tommy Brewer ... Right Wing Back... Now in his 5th season with Staines, has made 139 Appearances for the club...Had a brilliant season making 13 assists...

Max Worsfold ... Left Wing Back ... Max is really a left Winger , but as i dont use wingers he fitted in well at Wing Back... Max has played 226 times for staines , his stats are average, but his work rate is very high and at this level he works well....One big problem with him is he is confrontational, and he was the only player that i fell out with...

Central Midfield

Tyrell Miller-Rodney ... Carillero ... Been with the club for 4 seasons, and his work rate and physical skills are all high....Perfect player for this level, complimented the more attacking Ben Dempsey superbly.

Ben Dempsey ... Central Midfield Attack ... Was on loan from Charlton , played 36 times and was the main play maker, brilliant until he broke his ankle in a match against Concord Rovers and was out for 4 months...Recalled by his club and this could have killed momentum and chances of promotion....

Forwards

Decarrey Sheriff ... Deep Lying Forward ... Signed on a free from Colchester , made 38 Appearances, scored 25 goals, and an average rating of 7.43 ... Has tons of pace , something i looked for this season in all my strikers....

Jeremiah Dasaolu ... Poacher ... Signed on a free from Grantham, he made 43 Apps , scored 24 goals and made 12 assists, his average rating of 7.26 included 5 Man of the Match awards.... Has great pace, good heading and  good finishing, one of my better signings....

Elliot Buchanan ... Deep Lying Forward ... In his 2nd spell with the club, he was the supporter's player of the season, National League South player of the season, National League South Golden boot runner up with 31 goals .....

Plans for next season

To tighten up the defence ...

Get into play offs again...

I have during the last season signed several players that should improve the team, as things where going well with a settled team i never wanted to disrupt things..

Jamie Reynolds a young midfielder formerly with Spurs played the last few games when Dempsey was injured , and he looks good..

Yiannis Constantinou , a young striker who signed after being released by West Ham, has tons of potential, hopefully he will become more consistent ...

Kosovar Sadiki , a young centre back with all the attributes should slot into the defence .... 6 feet 5 tall , heading, marking , tackling , determination are all good....looks a star at this level....

 

 

 

[fcunitedfan]

After a great first game, things went downhill fast. The board doesn't seem happy with five losses straight. Hopefully I can save this before I get the sack.

 

[fcunitedfan]

Great first season, paulskln. Unlucky that you just missed out on promotion, but I'm sure you'll do it next season.

[fcunitedfan]

This is going so badly! Ten games into the league, and we've lost nine in a row! I'm not far off being fired. The only good thing is that we've reach the 3rd qualifying round of the FA Cup.

[fcunitedfan]

After loss number ten in a row against 20th place Kettering, I was fired... 🙁 This save was a disaster. I'm going to reload and start again with a higher rep team.

[fcunitedfan]

I thought I'd give it a go with a team I stand a chance with, so I've taken the hot seat at Kettering Town. Wish me luck, as my Rushall disaster shows that I might need it!

[paulskln]

12 hours ago, fcunitedfan said:

Great first season, paulskln. Unlucky that you just missed out on promotion, but I'm sure you'll do it next season.

Thank you fcunitedfan, im hoping so....

[paulskln]

9 hours ago, fcunitedfan said:

I thought I'd give it a go with a team I stand a chance with, so I've taken the hot seat at Kettering Town. Wish me luck, as my Rushall disaster shows that I might need it!

Good Luck

[fcunitedfan]

Thank you. I've only just started looking for players to sign, but I can already tell that I'm going to do better with Kettering. The players who are interested in signing for my team are much higher quality.

[KVJ92]

Marine - Vanarama National League North - 2021/2022

 

League Table - Great season. 

FA cup - Not good. Lost in 3rd qual round. 

FA Trophy - Lost in 2nd round. 

Squad - Have to find out who is good enough to stay

Transfers

Finances - Not much left, as there were no good cup runs

Key Player Profiles:

Sean Connerton - top scorer both club and league wise. 

Matthew Vernon - 20 assists and 19 goals from the inside forward. (Loaned from Bolton, whos manager keep complaining that he isn't playing ML) 

Ethan Kershaw - 43 games in central midfield with an average rating of  7.62 including 8 goals and 11 assists. 

Career Overview:

Season          Team              League                                     Position     Achievements
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/2019       Marine            Vanarama National League North             12th         n/a
2019/2020       Marine            Vanarama National League North              5th         n/a
2020/2021       Marine            Vanarama National League North              8th         n/a
2021/2022       Marine            Vanarama National League North              1st         League winner

Next Season:

Survive!

[fcunitedfan]

Congrats KVJ92, on achieving promotion. Good luck next season. Hopefully you stay up.

[superdad]

Hi all. It's been a couple of years since I played FM, but I decided that I'd give it a go this year. I know I'm a bit late to the party, but better late than never! I'll be playing on FM Touch, so and it's my first time playing FM on a tablet so I have no idea what to expect.

My next post will be to introduce myself as the new manager of a club. I have an idea who I want to manage. I've just got to get them promoted. Let the reloading begin!!

[superdad]

I'd like to unveil the new Workington manager, me!

[KVJ92]

5 hours ago, fcunitedfan said:

Congrats KVJ92, on achieving promotion. Good luck next season. Hopefully you stay up.

Thanks! 

Apparantly I'm expected to end near the top.. 

 

[superdad]

10 hours ago, KVJ92 said:

Thanks! 

Apparantly I'm expected to end near the top.. 

 

Interesting that two of the originally unplayable teams are predicted to finish in the top three. Good luck this season. Fingers crossed you can finish around the top half of the table.

[Andrew Haines]

Stalybridge Celtic

National League– 2020/21 – 7th

 

Overview

7^th place in our first season in the National League following promotion was a decent result on the face of it. The board had tasked me with not only winning a second back to back promotion but doing it by winning the title. I had a core of players who might have been up to that task but a poor defence, average keeper and being short a midfielder or two meant the task would be difficult.

Form was patchy at the start of the season. I had a massive issue in the right wing playmaker position which I arrested by spending over the odds on wages for Bobby Grant who had been released by Fleetwood. Grant actually had a really good season but massively cut into my available budget. This helped but we were still not showing form that would push us up the table. In October I was able to go out and bring in players who could arrest the slide. Midfielder Oliver Shenton and striker George Thomas arrived who had really quality. They were joined by defenders Anthony Stewart, Cameron James and Scott Golbourne who weren’t going to set the world alight but filled positions in which I was really lacking.

These changes saw us improve greatly but we were two far off the pace. A player revolt in March over the clubs perceived underachievement saw morale disintegrate and we were terrible in the run in. We eventually scraped into the playoffs in 7^th place but faced Stevenage away in the 1^st round. We were 3-0 down at half time but brought this back to 3-2 and almost grabbed an equaliser. Not to be however.

My position was showing as very insecure and I assumed sacking was on the cards. I almost threw in the towel at this stage but decided to run it through and see what would happen. I wasn’t sacked (as of the 1^st of July) and my position is now showing as stable so I think I am still in the game. I will need some improvements though if I am to avoid losing my job next season.

As a side note, Bobby Grant’s form was so good that he attracted a 450k bid from Notts County at the end of the season which I accepted. This essentially cleared all of the debts I had run up so far and gave us a clean slate.

Key Players

Oliver Shenton – 23 year old midfielder signed from Stoke. Almost certainly the best player in the squad.

George Thomas – Ex-Leicester striker hit 28 goals in 42 games having signed in October.

Will Keane – The Irish striker signed at the end of last season. He had a decent season scoring 20 goals.

 Record                            

Season          League                          Position          Europe                        Achievements

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2017/18         Conference North                15th       

2019/20         Conference North                1st                                            Champions, Promoted      

2020/21         Conference National             7th                                      

 

[superdad]

I'm so annoyed! I just finished pre-season and was a day away from my first league match when I had to pop to the shop. I saved my game, but when I got home and tried loading it, it won't load because it's corrupt!  Hours of pre-season stuff wasted... I'm pissed off, but I'm going to start again anyway as I really want to do this challenge. I'll reload for a little while and try to get Workington again, but if I can't get them I'll choose another team.

[superdad]

Workington weren't up for it this time round. I reloaded my holiday save about 20 times, but each time I took a day's holiday they weren't promoted. I've chosen a different team now. This time, I'm managing Altrincham! Fingers crossed this save doesn't mess up, like my other one did.

[superdad]

Six matches to go, and it's so tight at the top. We've played brilliantly, but Salford aren't giving up the top spot easily.