[FM18] The Dynamics of telling you to shove your transfer request up y- a journeyman career

[noikeee]

Derby - 2024/2025 - Season review

Derby County finish straight in the top 10 on their return to the Premier League - the last time this had happened was 26 years ago, in the 1998/1999 season, when Derby finished 8th. We could've done a little better on the cups though.

Statistics, best 11, and top 5 players of the season

 

5. Diego Fratucello (MR, ML) - I was expecting a little more from this superb winger than 5 goals and 5 assists, but the high ratings show the way he progressed through the season, finally revealing himself as one of our most dangerous players later in the year. He did have to deal with an initial bedding-in period in the IW role that wasn't fitting him; and then an injury that stopped him for 3 months midway through the season.

4. Mark Taylor (MC) - Well on the way to become a superstar, Man City has got to thank us for our role in developing their exciting young player. In a tactic that tends to bypass the midfield a little, it's remarkable that he got 5 goals and 8 assists - he can play a through-ball spectacularly well.

3. Ahn Chang-Ho (ML) - Our finest signing this season, the Korean international proved an instant hit from the beginning on a ML position that was completely new to him, and grabbed 6 goals and 13 assists. I'm a little surprised he excelled more as a creator than as a finisher due to his attack role, but it makes sense for his attributes. My staff say he's "fairly inconsistent" but from what I see he doesn't seem to know how to play badly.

2. Alex Ratnage (ST) - The Spurs loanee is another player on the path to stardom, excelling with 15 goals and 12 assists. We inserted a 20M€ optional buy clause on his loan deal, if I can raise the money and he agrees to the deal, I will do it as he's absolutely worth it, is already valued at 25M€!!

1. Mason Bennett (ST) - 27 Premier League goals and 11 assists! (and 1 FA Cup goal). This was an insane season for him, I knew a pacey player upfront was absolutely key this season due to our underdog status, but Mason surely must be the overachiever of my career so far. My staff now rate him just at 2 stars, yet he was the 2nd top scorer of the Premiership!

Major youth prospects

Warren Jenas (19, ENG) (ST) - A world class striker on the making, on paper. Much better already than Mason Bennett, on paper. Yet he just doesn't give me the same guarantees upfront, just doesn't score as many! 6 goals and 6 assists was okay, but by comparison to our star striker it's not good enough. Unless he can improve on his consistency he's not gonna fulfill his immense potential.

Kristian Bradley (18, ENG) (DC) - Broke into the first team! A very good season from our young CB with some of the highest ratings amongst our (admittedly crap) defence. Like Warren Jenas he's "inconsistent", but unlike him this doesn't seem to affect his game?

Career progress table

Season   League                  Cups                              Continental                    Other
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Panserraikos (Greece)
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17/18    League - 15th           Kupello Hellas - 1st round                                       Relegated, sacked 1 match to go
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Naestved (Denmark)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18/19    2.Div - 3rd G2, 3rd PS  DBU Pokalen - 1st round                                          Lost promotion on goals scored
19/20    2.Div - 4th G2, 1st PS  DBU Pokalen - Quarter-finals                                     Champions, promoted
20/21    1.Division - 1st        DBU Pokalen - Semi-finals                                        Champions, promoted
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amkar (Russia)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21/22    Prem'er Liga - 7th      Kubok Rossii - 6th round
22/23    Prem'er Liga - 5th      Kubok Rossii - winners                                           Won the cup
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Derby (England)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
23/24    Championship - 2nd      FA Cup 4th rnd, Lge Cup 3rd rnd                                  Promoted
24/25    Premier League - 9th    FA Cup 5th rnd, Lge Cup 3rd rnd   

[noikeee]

Holy ****!!!!

 

[SmileFaceGamer]

20 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Holy ****!!!!

 

F***** hell man. Who you gonna buy for that Europa League push

[Rikulec]

Not bad at all for the first season in the Prem! You really deserve to splash the cash now.

[john1]

Superb season  Massive budget for next season  

[noikeee]

European football - 2024/2025

UEFA Champions League

For the third time in the last 4 years, it's PSG-Chelsea in the final, and the winner is... Chelsea, for a change! It's a glorious first season in England for Massimiliano Allegri, taking the Blues to English and European titles. 

You might notice that yet again, Barça and Real Madrid fail to register, both falling in the round of 16. How things change. For whatever reason, Atlético has been the Spanish team most consistent in the CL the last few years. Bundesliga dominators Leverkusen represent Germany, and Italy is nowhere to be seen.

 

England

 

It seems impossible to win 2 Premier Leagues in a row, heh? It's Chelsea's turn, and like I said it's an incredible first season for Allegri (who replaced Bruno Genésio), dominating the league and winning the CL. The stories this season were Leicester (just missed out on a CL spot), the Jorge Jesus saga leaving City for Liverpool who seems to have ruined City more than anything else, as they tank to 7th, after sacking Klopp midseason and replacing him with the season's 3rd manager in Zidane (who left Arsenal); and the surprise package Derby County and their wonder striker Mason Bennett.

Spain

 

Marcelino does work magic! The Spanish manager has been building an incredible career the last few years with league titles with both Napoli and Leverkusen, and now he stops Barça's run of titles, dominating La Liga with Real Madrid! The surprise is Real Sociedad who finish a great 3rd, ahead of Atlético - perhaps Atlético is missing Diego Simeone who is now at Man Utd.

Italy

 

Milan re-take the league under Ernesto Valverde, but it's a close fight against Juventus, led by a returning Antonio Conte.

Germany

 

The Leverkusen era is over! In Europe's tightest league, Dortmund emerges fairly clear of a numerous chasing pack, winning their first title in over a decade. Bayern remain relatively weak with a 4th place finish.

France

 

Total domination by Guardiola's PSG this season, with Monaco unable to launch a close challenge. Neymar-Mbappé still continue to be a terrorizing duo for all other Ligue 1 sides.

Portugal

 

At last! Porto suddenly emerge to win the first title in 12 years, managed by the unlikely Ronald Koeman, on a return to Portugal 18 years after managing Benfica. He comfortably wins the battle of the Dutch managers over Benfica's own Frank de Boer, I'm not entirely sure how de Boer's still in the job...
 

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, SmileFaceGamer said:

F***** hell man. Who you gonna buy for that Europa League push

Everyone. I'm buying everyone.

34 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

Not bad at all for the first season in the Prem! You really deserve to splash the cash now.

Cheers!

18 minutes ago, john1 said:

Superb season  Massive budget for next season  

It's a decent budget. 

[kidthekid]

Nice first season in the EPL. Don't get all cocky though, see what happened to some manager called Michael King.

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

3 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Nice first season in the EPL. Don't get all cocky though, see what happened to some manager called Michael King.

The PL is pretty unforgiving. You'll crush it though Noikeee, especially with that budget.

[noikeee]

4 hours ago, kidthekid said:

Nice first season in the EPL. Don't get all cocky though, see what happened to some manager called Michael King.

Gotta admit took me quite a while to understand the reference. 

1 hour ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

The PL is pretty unforgiving. You'll crush it though Noikeee, especially with that budget.

The question is how well can we use that money, can we improve the results on the pitch with it.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Hopefully the start is just a case of the side getting used to new tactics and obviously the new faces, well done in Denmark 

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, Dexter_Morgan said:

Hopefully the start is just a case of the side getting used to new tactics and obviously the new faces, well done in Denmark 

Think you're delayed by a few pages mate. 

[Dexter_Morgan]

41 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Think you're delayed by a few pages mate. 

I don't know what the heck has gone on there  I didn't see the Derby bit until I seen your reply for some reason  Suppose I better read the rest then   

[noikeee]

Today, in the latest WTF news...

2025 is a weird world.  He got there after relative success managing Crystal Palace for the last 4 seasons, after being sacked by West Ham earlier. That's all his connections to English football.

[noikeee]

Pre-season 2025/2026

 

Time to splash the cash! It's a once-in-a-lifetime transfer window as we spend a record 80M€ on signings. First thing I did was to sort the loaned players we had, and I managed to keep them all 3, that's because I renewed Mark Taylor's loan, and bought permanently both Francesco Di Nolfo (he's no longer a starter but 2,3M€ was too good an opportunity) and Alex Ratnage (for a club record 20M€, totally worth it as he's already valued higher than that).

Leaving the club there's a bunch of players that were good for us at Championship level, but not really up to the standards anymore here, the main story there is that George Thorne leaves after over a decade playing for Derby County.

Here's all the other signings, beyond Di Nolfo and Ratnage who were already here:

 

15M€ is quite a bit for a keeper but I'm still confident this was a really good signing, about time we get a serious option for the position with a really well rounded GK.

 

Our new superstar striker in an attempt to bench Mason Bennett! "Shoots from distance" PPM scares me, but hopefully he'll unlearn it. He can become a seriously dangerous pacey striker once he gets rid of that.

 

This American forward was available pretty cheap (6M€), so I thought it was a good business opportunity. Can be an alternative to Ratnage upfront as the 2nd striker / false nine, or I can see him adapted to inverted winger on the ML position, even.

 

Quite an unique player that can do everything from DC to AMC, he's probably best fitting as a free roaming, complete MC, but given the bigger struggles in our backline I'm planning to use him as centre-back. Super cheap for his talent too (5,25M€).

 

The best deal of them all as I grab a wonderkid for 1,8M€, except he couldn't get a work permit. It's frustrating, but I was already expecting it as he's got no caps yet, so I sent him on loan to China. Hopefully he'll get a couple of caps and then return soon - I see him as a very rare regen CB that I can trust on the ball.

 

Our 2nd most expensive deal after Ratnage, he is an absolutely excellent attacking-minded midfielder but I am slightly concerned he could be too lazy in our 4-4-2 tactics that ask a lot from the MCs duo. However, he could also be adapted to play upfront as the false nine - he's got superb physical skills.

 

The shittiest signing of them all, I picked him up on loan from Brighton (!) just to have some extra cover for the LB position. Necessary because I decided to sell Declan John...

 

 

Squad
 

 

It's a serious upgrade here as we boost the central spine, with a new GK, CB, MC and ST all expected to start. It could be no other way after splashing 80M€ on players. However, I still think our back 4 looks rather suspect, specially compared to the rest of the starting 11.

 

Fixtures
 

We smashed everyone except on the Butland testimonial, but I used instant result, the credit goes to the assman.

I told the board and my players that we're aiming at a midtable position, but in reality after such an investment it'd be disappointing to not improve on last season's 9th place. I wonder if we can start making the top teams uncomfortable, but two things make me think this is not yet the season we challenge the big 6: the way we really struggled in all the big matches last season (it's unlikely we'll have improved dramatically there); and how dodgy our backline still looks even after all these signings. So what I'm really aiming at is something like a 7th or 8th place, a small but solid step forward.

[noikeee]

Still paying off 2 years later.

[noikeee]

August 2025

A good start. We should've beaten Bournemouth on the opening day, but we've looked unstoppable since. Both our new strikers, Erwin Spruit and Dan Dickinson, have started scoring goals immediately, which is a really good sign.

Against Shrewsbury, Carabao Cup specialist Ollie Watkins scored another 2 goals. He seems to have a special talent for shining in this secondary competition, which is almost the only reason why he's still in the squad, as he's no longer good enough for us really (he's versatile, though).

 

[noikeee]

I finally found an AI manager that likes the media as much as I do, and presses the same buttons that I do. We could be friends.

[noikeee]

September 2025

Goals! Goals! Goals! Bags of goals! It's a crazy month with 4 crazy open matches. We took our first big win of the season shocking Man Utd; but then we were a bit poor away to Arsenal. Against Southampton, suddenly Ratnage and Spruit clicked perfectly as a pairing, as Erwin Spruit assisted Alex Ratnage twice, and Alex Ratnage assisted Erwin Spruit 3 times! It's early to look at the league table, but we're 4th.

In the Carabao Cup, Charlton are gone, but the draw put us already against Man Utd away next. Damnit.

 

[SmileFaceGamer]

On 08/01/2018 at 09:46, noikeee said:

Gotta admit took me quite a while to understand the reference. 

The question is how well can we use that money, can we improve the results on the pitch with it.

Depends, are you Bornemouth or West Ham

[SmileFaceGamer]

On 08/01/2018 at 22:17, noikeee said:

Pre-season 2025/2026

 

Time to splash the cash! It's a once-in-a-lifetime transfer window as we spend a record 80M€ on signings. First thing I did was to sort the loaned players we had, and I managed to keep them all 3, that's because I renewed Mark Taylor's loan, and bought permanently both Francesco Di Nolfo (he's no longer a starter but 2,3M€ was too good an opportunity) and Alex Ratnage (for a club record 20M€, totally worth it as he's already valued higher than that).

Leaving the club there's a bunch of players that were good for us at Championship level, but not really up to the standards anymore here, the main story there is that George Thorne leaves after over a decade playing for Derby County.

Here's all the other signings, beyond Di Nolfo and Ratnage who were already here:

 

15M€ is quite a bit for a keeper but I'm still confident this was a really good signing, about time we get a serious option for the position with a really well rounded GK.

 

Our new superstar striker in an attempt to bench Mason Bennett! "Shoots from distance" PPM scares me, but hopefully he'll unlearn it. He can become a seriously dangerous pacey striker once he gets rid of that.

 

This American forward was available pretty cheap (6M€), so I thought it was a good business opportunity. Can be an alternative to Ratnage upfront as the 2nd striker / false nine, or I can see him adapted to inverted winger on the ML position, even.

 

Quite an unique player that can do everything from DC to AMC, he's probably best fitting as a free roaming, complete MC, but given the bigger struggles in our backline I'm planning to use him as centre-back. Super cheap for his talent too (5,25M€).

 

The best deal of them all as I grab a wonderkid for 1,8M€, except he couldn't get a work permit. It's frustrating, but I was already expecting it as he's got no caps yet, so I sent him on loan to China. Hopefully he'll get a couple of caps and then return soon - I see him as a very rare regen CB that I can trust on the ball.

 

Our 2nd most expensive deal after Ratnage, he is an absolutely excellent attacking-minded midfielder but I am slightly concerned he could be too lazy in our 4-4-2 tactics that ask a lot from the MCs duo. However, he could also be adapted to play upfront as the false nine - he's got superb physical skills.

 

The shittiest signing of them all, I picked him up on loan from Brighton (!) just to have some extra cover for the LB position. Necessary because I decided to sell Declan John...

 

 

Squad
 

 

It's a serious upgrade here as we boost the central spine, with a new GK, CB, MC and ST all expected to start. It could be no other way after splashing 80M€ on players. However, I still think our back 4 looks rather suspect, specially compared to the rest of the starting 11.

 

Fixtures
 

We smashed everyone except on the Butland testimonial, but I used instant result, the credit goes to the assman.

I told the board and my players that we're aiming at a midtable position, but in reality after such an investment it'd be disappointing to not improve on last season's 9th place. I wonder if we can start making the top teams uncomfortable, but two things make me think this is not yet the season we challenge the big 6: the way we really struggled in all the big matches last season (it's unlikely we'll have improved dramatically there); and how dodgy our backline still looks even after all these signings. So what I'm really aiming at is something like a 7th or 8th place, a small but solid step forward.

I am starting to get a little excited about this team. The start of something special?

[noikeee]

October 2025

A pretty poor month. We looked awful against both Spurs and Man Utd, who kicked us out of the League Cup, and even against a motivated, on-form Stoke side. Our defence has looked horrendous recently. However, this was also the same side that could beat Liverpool convincingly as the clear better team on the pitch. Eh?

Despite the setbacks we're still a pretty nice 6th in the league.

 

 

[deltablue]

Good set of signings

[Fola]

Great signings- especially Morales!

Europe the aim for this season?

[noikeee]

2 hours ago, deltablue said:

Good set of signings

I like them too. 

2 hours ago, Fola said:

Great signings- especially Morales!

Europe the aim for this season?

Morales weirdly has been a bit crap, but I think that was because he was pissed off I didn't "improve the defence" like I promised. Apparently Yangel Herrera doesn't count as a new defender since his natural position is MC.

I think on current form Europe is acheivable but only if one of Utd/City/Spurs/Liverpool/Arsenal/Chelsea drop the ball. That's what the current league table shows as we're only 6th because City and Arsenal started poorly (and Stoke are the other anomaly, above us). However, I know that if we get into a positive spiral of good morale, with a couple of wins and a league position above the midtable expectations (which surely should happen), we can get some really good momentum, and that's not happened yet as players are a bit down after these defeats. If we can shake that off and get into a rhythm we could surprise a little, and maybe sneak into an Europa League spot.

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

Zikic looks like a class talent. Shame about the work permit.

[noikeee]

6 minutes ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Zikic looks like a class talent. Shame about the work permit.

I feel like beating Serbia's manager with a stick, just call him up quickly and give him caps you moron.

He'd be our best defender...

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

1 minute ago, noikeee said:

I feel like beating Serbia's manager with a stick, just call him up quickly and give him caps you moron.

He'd be our best defender...

Between @oriole01's associates and @ManUtd1's chairman, I feel like that might actually be a viable option.

[SmileFaceGamer]

22 hours ago, noikeee said:

 

October 2025

 

 

 

A pretty poor month. We looked awful against both Spurs and Man Utd, who kicked us out of the League Cup, and even against a motivated, on-form Stoke side. Our defence has looked horrendous recently. However, this was also the same side that could beat Liverpool convincingly as the clear better team on the pitch. Eh?

Despite the setbacks we're still a pretty nice 6th in the league.

 

 

 

 

ThIs FoRm Is MoRe Bi-PoLaR tHaN mY tYpInG iN tHiS pOsT

[SmileFaceGamer]

4 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Between @oriole01's associates and @ManUtd1's chairman, I feel like that might actually be a viable option.

Might be a half (back) decent idea

[oriole01]

4 hours ago, Fer Fuchs Ake said:

Between @oriole01's associates and @ManUtd1's chairman, I feel like that might actually be a viable option.

Many talent.

[noikeee]

November 2025

Almost a perfect month, but we couldn't beat a very well parked, very large bus that West Brom fielded against us. This is becoming a recurring pattern lately, we also struggled to beat an extremely defensive Leeds team, our opponents are starting to fear us! I actually think this plays into our hands a little, we struggle more against teams that attack our very dodgy defence.

We continue to be in the mix for European places, remaining 6th, just 1 point behind Liverpool and Stoke (?!) and 2 points behind Spurs. However, Man City are recovering and catching us.

 

[kidthekid]

Nice run of form to make up for the early blip

[noikeee]

5 minutes ago, kidthekid said:

Nice run of form to make up for the early blip

You might notice that the calendar was a wee bit easier now.  That's what there really is to it.

[noikeee]

****ing hell, it's still early December. 

I almost don't even remember Mason Bennett existed anymore, this new guy is that good.

[noikeee]

 

City's world famous playing-out-of-the-back, still going on with Ederson and Stones by 2025.

they still smashed us in this match

[Ellandroadhero]

39 minutes ago, noikeee said:

 

City's world famous playing-out-of-the-back, still going on with Ederson and Stones by 2025.

they still smashed us in this match

I find goals like that so satisfying. Great work by the scorer. 

[noikeee]

 

Erwin Spruit, ladies and gentleman. Just get the **** out of his way.

[BoxToBox]

[john1]

21 minutes ago, noikeee said:

 

Erwin Spruit, ladies and gentleman. Just get the **** out of his way.

 

[Fer Fuchs Ake]

7 hours ago, noikeee said:

 

Erwin Spruit, ladies and gentleman. Just get the **** out of his way.

Bennett who?

[Rikulec]

What a player.

[Dexter_Morgan]

Easy for him

[SmileFaceGamer]

20 hours ago, noikeee said:

 

City's world famous playing-out-of-the-back, still going on with Ederson and Stones by 2025.

they still smashed us in this match

I,guess Guadiola is not in charge

[noikeee]

Worth it.

[noikeee]

 

Woohoo! Well done Alex! I think those stats are bugged, but as far as I remember (I could be missing something here) it's the first time one of my players gets this award. Alex's gonna be big, I think he recently got called up by England but then didn't play.

[noikeee]

Ballon d'Or 2025

 

Huh? File this under the "didn't see it coming" category. Belotti was certainly class this season, but Man City had an horrendous season finishing 7th, and didn't do much in the Champions League neither did Italy in any competition or anything. I guess this was an award for the actual performance not the trophies, which is fine, but really rather surprising as Belotti's not been around this level of recognition yet. Suddenly bursts into a Ballon d'Or at the age of 32.

Meanwhile Escudero is the first newgen to make the top 3, he's going to be around the top 3 for the next decade I reckon, proper striker.

[noikeee]

December 2025

 

I had a break from this career for a few days, but from what I remember, I think I can summarize this update like this: Goal by Erwin Spruit. Goal by Erwin Spruit. Goal by Erwin Spruit. Goal by Erwin Spruit. Goal by Erwin Spruit. Goal by Erwin Spruit.

We're on fire, Palace fans cried all Christmas lying on the fetal position, and only moneybags Man City and.... uh, West Ham could stop us (the lads were starting to get cocky after all those wins, and karma paid us back). We were very briefly 2nd (!!!!!) but have now dropped to 5th. Just 3 points off the leaders Liverpool though, even if we have played one extra match. It's incredibly tight at the top and we're part of this tight bunch!

 

 

[BoxToBox]

This Spruit lad might be handy.

[noikeee]

5 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

This Spruit lad might be handy.

So far he's on 19(1) apps, 22 goals, 5 assists, 9 POM awards, 7,91 ratings.

You think he's okay, heh?