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FM18: The English Football League Thread - EFL in FM18


Jogo Bonito

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There is at least one thread on Wolves tactics, which is in the tactics forum but the search here is a bit rubbish and I can't find it.

I did activate Diogo's buy option but he refused to sign, saying he wanted Champions League football back at Madrid, but Arsenal signed him later in the transfer window. It's been mentioned in a couple of places that it is possible to make his deal permanent, but that was some time ago and his attitude might have changed in the various updates to FM.

I'm now in January of season 2 and pretty much running with the original Championship squad, apart from the signings mentioned in my earlier post. Everyone has performed far above my expectations and we're sitting 6th in the premiership, and through to the knockout stage of the Europa Cup, having won our group with six wins from six. Here's the squad as it stands:

vx1FVAu.png

Sadly, I'm just about to lose Cavaleiro to Athletic Madrid and I'm desperately trying to find a replacement with less than a week of the transfer window left.

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Thanks mate, that's helpful. Why are you losing Cavaleiro? He wants to go? Offer cannot be refused?

Iorfa looks a star. What did Cutrone's loan cost if you recall? Where do you play Hause? Hoping he makes the grade, would simplify the transfer roadmap. If you don't mind, are there any players on that squad who really aren't top flight material? I see Enobakhare hasn't made a first team appearance. Still too raw, or simply not going to be good enough? I'm hoping he turns out well too.

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As soon as A. Madrid came sniffing Cavaleiro announced he wanted to go. Tried to persuade him to stay, or at least stay until the summer - he wouldn't have it. Eventually agreed to let him go for £28m, and Madrid paid that. So I'm sitting on a war chest of £60-odd million but can't find a suitable replacement. Established players still don't want to come to Wolves, despite the league and Europa Cup performance.

Cutrone is a loan bargain - no fee, £4k a week when he plays, £8k a week when he doesn't. I couldn't get Milan to agree a future fee, but I'll be moving heaven and earth to sign him in June.

Iorfa is a star - I rotate him and Fredericks as WB on the right, either attack or support. Hause is better as a CB, although he's a great option to have on the bench because he's also pretty good in the WB slot on the left. Enobakhare really struggled in pre-season and so far neither Cutrone or Sierhuis has had an injury so he hasn't had the opportunity. If we get a couple of easier ties in the FA Cup I'll give him a chance there.

I sold Zyro at the end of season 1 because he didn't convince in the Championship, let alone the Prem. Marshall has done OK but he's not really Premiership material. Doherty has been fine, but nowhere near the level of Iorfa and Fredericks. Centreback is the position of greatest concern. Batth is OK, but Bennett and Miranda have been pretty inconsistent - great in some games, really poor in others (I've used Coady as a DM pretty much exclusively and he's been excellent there).

If you compare the season average ratings across the team with the ratings for the last five games you can see we're starting to struggle a bit. Classic FM: as newly-promoted dogmeat everyone underestimated us, allowing our counter-attacking style to rip them apart. Now everyone treats us with a lot more respect and we're struggling to break teams down - just one win in the last five games. Which is why Cavaleiro is such a loss, not just the goals but the assists.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

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Too bad about Cavaleiro, he's really done a job for you.

I extended Jordan Graham's contract, and I have yet to see him play. Looks like he's a solid rotation player for you. Haven't seen Iorfa either, and looking at his ratings for you, I see he'll be a direct upgrade once he returns to the club.

I expect to earn promotion barring a collapse, but I'm struggling to see how I will fill all of the holes if we go up. I saw someone said they got a 35 million transfer fund for their first season as Wolves in the Premier League.  A loan like Cutrone is so valuable. You can fill that hole for a song and strengthen other areas of the pitch. It's only a temporary fix, but it's hard to overhaul this roster in a single window on 35 million isn't it?

I'll be banking on the league saying 'It's only Wolves' for the first half of the season and hopefully steal enough points to stay up.

It appears you are also having trouble getting any end product out of Neves. His attributes are excellent, but he rarely gets on the scoresheet for me. Has 2 goals and 3 assists despite being ever-present. I played him in the center of the park mostly, but now moved him back to DM.

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1 hour ago, onionbag said:

It appears you are also having trouble getting any end product out of Neves. His attributes are excellent, but he rarely gets on the scoresheet for me. Has 2 goals and 3 assists despite being ever-present. I played him in the center of the park mostly, but now moved him back to DM.

The Neves situation is a bit odd. He was stellar in the Championship, winning loads of PoM awards without ever getting on the scoresheet. In the Premiership, I don't think he's had PoM once, and his ratings are consistently around 7.2-7.5. I play him as DLP in the DM slot, so he doesn't get forward much. Delivers a great corner, though, and regularly racks up 85-90% pass completion. And he's only 21, with room to improve according to my coaches.

Because I sold Zyro at the end of season 1, I started life in the Premiership with around £43m in the transfer kitty. You can sign N'Diaye for £8m and he's been brilliant for me. In retrospect I kind of wish I'd signed Boly, but with Hause coming back off loan he seemed like a luxury. But he'd have been better than Bennett or Miranda, I think. So you definitely don't need an overhaul - I'd say keep Boly, or bring another CB, and you definitely need a striker or two, but otherwise the squad is more than capable of staying up, and should make mid-table comfortably.

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16 minutes ago, Pandemicplanet9 said:

@warlock suggested deep-lying forward? Accomplished. I need someone good to come to Cardiff. In third season of my first ever save.... 3rd season, won europa league last year and top half finish, fa cup win, promotion and elf cup win the year before that. Anyone whose good now that they’ve aged a bit?

Well, you're a year ahead of me, so I don't know about DLFs who've aged a bit. With Wolves, I had Bonatini and Mousset in first season and they were both fine, if not spectacular. Current season, I have Cutrone and Sierhuis, and again neither is spectacular - or even natural in the role - but both have done very well. I do think that DLF is one of those roles that almost any decent striker can perform well, as long as they're not out-and-out goal hounds - in other saves I've had natural TMs and AFs who did a good job. Hell, in one Man Utd save, I've had Mata, Rashford and Martial play that role - and the best of the lot was Lingard. Apart from obvious striker-like attributes like finishing and anticipation, you want probably want someone with a bit of creativity, teamwork and passing because I'd want him creating as well as scoring.

There's a really good blog post from Cleon about the role here:

https://teaandbusquets.com/forged-steel-deep-lying-forward 

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21 hours ago, warlock said:

 you definitely don't need an overhaul - I'd say keep Boly, or bring another CB, and you definitely need a striker or two, but otherwise the squad is more than capable of staying up, and should make mid-table comfortably.

Yes, perhaps I overstated it a bit. I managed to secure promotion, and am top, 2 points clear of Leeds with 2 to play. I was handed a 34 million pound war chest. If I were to activate the clauses for Boly, Diogo (assuming he'd sign) and N'Diaye that would be 29.5 million right there.  Maybe best to move on from Diogo, but then again, could I get a player of his quality for 15 million in the open market?  The other two are each approaching 30 years old. But they are quality. This will be an interesting summer.

Do Wolves not have an Academy? It says Excellent Youth Facilities, but no intake? Gutted, really, as this is one of the mechanics in FM that keeps you going year after year. If that's the case and I didn't just somehow miss the arrival of a dozen new players, is there a way to restore the Academy? I see no related board requests, and we have no youth team.

I was surprised to be handed the transfer funds as soon as I secured promotion, with four to play. It will carry over past July 1st correct?

 

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If Diogo signs, brilliant. If not you'll have the money, but he's a bargain if he'll sign. Transfer budget will be there in July, but you'll also have the chance to increase it a bit when you agree board expectations for the coming season. But the board is ambitious and they'll want mid-table or better.

Now that you mention it, I don't remember getting a youth intake in season one, but I've just had one in March 2019. But I definitely had both U23 and U18 squads from the beginning.

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Hmm, that's not a good sign. I have only the senior team and the reserves, unless I am somehow looking in the wrong places . Any clue as to why that may be, and how I can rectify it? Did you start your save on an earlier patch?I have to have a youth intake every year to keep me going :)

Mid table expectations first year up? Good grief.

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On the left hand toolbar the U18 should be right at the bottom:

Home / Inbox / Squad / Dynamics etc all the way to the U23 and U18 at the bottom.

If not there then I don't know what has happened.

I''m playing as another team (first season) but Morgan Gibbs-White is in Wolves U18 squad. Try searching for him on your game and see exactly where he is.

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I have him, but in the reserves. There is no U18 or U23 squad in my save. Unless somehow I don't have it selected to be displayed. But it does not exist on the left. The reserves are the bottom option.

 

Bet the answer lies in the fact this is FMT. No intake in FMT?

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1 hour ago, onionbag said:

Bet the answer lies in the fact this is FMT. No intake in FMT?

I believe you'll get a small intake in FMT - I know I have in past versions of FM, but I haven't played much in Touch this year. Because Touch only includes a compressed 'reserves' team (basically U23 and U18 combined) you'll only get three or four new youngsters each intake.

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Thanks mate. I got no one, and no notification of an intake. I should get a message that it's occurred and so and so is the pick of the litter.

Could it occur on a date other than March 5? I think I'll start a Wolves thread for discussion.

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2 hours ago, Pandemicplanet9 said:

Is there a way to cancel transfers? I don’t want a guy and he doesn’t have a work permit. Do I have to just sell him?

Right up to the point where you confirm the transfer you can cancel it. You usually have this option when the WP application (and appeal) have failed. If you confirmed the transfer after that - and he's now listed as one of your players, then you can't cancel. And yes, you'll just have to sell him.

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Regarding the youth intake on FMT.... on May 7th I received a message that it was time for the annual youth setup audit. It required a Head of Youth Development (which we have), would cost 2.5 million for the season, and would remain Category One. Nothing changed. Then on June 12th we got our intake. Not sure how many players arrive on the full version, but we got in 8, including one amazing prospect. He's your typical Midfielder (Central) / DM, M (R), AM (C) from Birmingham with a Driven personality and 18 determination. So all's well that ends well, and I just didn't understand how it works on FMT.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hello all, how are you getting on with your FL72 careers?

I've had a few issues with free time and a game crash, so I had to uninstall and reinstall FM18. I'm now back in the game, as they say, and selecting which teams I want to manage on the 18.3 database. The plan is to manage one bigger and better club to run alongside a League 1/League 2 team, as this means I can switch the difficulty levels up a bit.

So far I'm tempted by Championship clubs Leeds, Fulham (had a really good start with them on the original database), Bristol City and Cardiff for a chance to manage teams with more quality than I am used to. Whilst I am sorting out who to go with in the second tier, I've set up at Peterborough because they have a decent base squad to work with, and it also gives me pleasure to put Steve Evans out of his 'dream job' just after he has taken charge.

I've played a couple of friendlies so far, and haven't done much in the transfer market (the starting budget is £400k). I have, however, dismissed every single member of staff at the club (including Barry Fry) and built my own backroom team. I'm quite pleased with what I have done on that front, and now look forward to improving the club on the pitch.

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Looking to start a save in the Championship, leaning towards starting as Ipswich Town.

Any reccomendations for players from League One, Two or even the National League who are capable of playing in the championship?

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I`ve started my with my club Birmingham it`s tough no transfer money and hardly any wage budget,at the moment ive changed most of the backroom staff and sold ndoye(the worst player ive seen in 35 years at the blues).will update transfers later

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Finished 1st season with Crewe. Got promoted to League One with 2 matches in hand and finished the league in 2nd position by trailing 8 points to Lincoln.

Promotion.jpg

Transfers:

Transfer.jpg

At the start of the season signed 4 regen from free transfer market in order sell them later for profit as a way of maintaining positive cash flow. Bought only one  Markus Slobakken as he was really good for me in FM 17. Others are all through loan contract. Those 4 regens were sold to various club for a total of 7.25M $ during Jan transfer window. Again signed 3 regens for same purpose during Jan window.

Point Table:

Point_Table.jpg

Tactics:

Tactics.jpg

Mainly used 4-4-2 for majority of matches. For matches against bigger teams used 5-2-2-1 with counter mentality.

Performance:

Callum Gribbin was sensational with assists and goals. But Chris Dagnall and Jordan Bowery, just surprised me with their performance. Dagnall scored 28 times with 11 assists while Bowery scored 24 times with 9 assists. Gribbin assisted 11 goals while scoring 7 times. But the total surprise package was Ryan Wintle with 13 goals and 13 assists, also with an average rating of 7.43.

Future Plans:

I will try to extend Gribbins loan for the next season. Need strong option for the back four also. They were leaking too many goals and occasional below average performance. Their performance cost me during the cup matches. So strengthening of defence is the main priority along with backup for the midfield. Walker, Jones, Ainley can do a decent job for league 1. I will also look for good loans and free transfer also. Given a transfer kitty of 3.94Mil $ with 55K as wage budget.
 

 

 

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After the 18.3 update I am thinking of going for a Championship team. I can't settle on a team though. Front runners are Fulham, QPR and Derby with Norwich, Wolves and Ipswich in the mix as well...

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It's good to see a few managers going with football league clubs,  or planning to.

I've had a good pre-season with Peterborough and the first few competitive games have gone quite well. It's one of the club expectations to play attractive football and I'm doing that so far with the abundance of good attacking options in my squad. Defensively hasn't been quite so good, but I'd still like to get another player in to help out with that.

The biggest disappointment so far was having Leicester agree a loan (no wage or fee contributions) for Fousseni Diabate, only to find the player reject the opportunity three times to date.

I'm almost at 50/50 on the Championship club I will manage concurrently, with Fulham just edging Leeds in my mind at the moment.

 

 

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Peterborough United - Season 1

5aa9aba23c400_Profile1.1.thumb.png.0e70e862a030712c35764346ecf5f603.png

Results - Pre-season until end of summer transfer window

5aa9abc84fc7a_Results1.1.thumb.png.6c95396a80d82a51eeea7ca33549036d.png

Early progress & club summary

5aa9abd6150f5_Progress1.1.thumb.png.850f095cb71d47cafff3612a18da09a2.png

Season 1 summer transfer window

5aa9abea233d4_Transfers1.1.thumb.png.c2a91c120e55a026965cbe67da2c4b5f.png

Staff changes - only the chairman survived  

5aa9abf969c9f_Staff1.1.thumb.png.f97e793f3ebe0c5b729e7e7113190f8b.png

It's early days at London Road (ABAX Stadium) but it's been a promising start. I was given a transfer budget of £400k but had little free wage allowance so there wasn't much room to bring in any real quality. I like to run a first team squad of about 24 (which is what I now have) and didn't want to bring in too many loan players. 

Teenage central defender Ben Wilmot arrived first, as one for the future. He's unlikely to get too many chances in season 1, but I had hoped to offload veteran defender Steven Taylor who earns a staggering £6k p/w wage in order to buy my preferred centre back. That didn't work out yet, so I had to find a free transfer to line up at the heart of the defence instead. For that role, I felt the strength and power of Cedric Mongongu would probably be more than adequate in League 1. My favourite deal, however was signing French striker Joseph Mendes on loan from Reading for the season. He has good finishing ability to supplement his pace and power, and I'm expecting him to be explosive at this level. I've staked quite a bit of money on that loan deal, but I feel confident it will be justified. 

I was ruthless with the staff, and terminated the contracts of every person at the club - with the except of the chairman. Booting out Barry Fry wouldn't be possible in the real world, but his role here as DOF made it possible. His stats were lacking, so he had to go with the others. I'm very happy with the quality of staff that I recruited, with many of them having lengthy experience at Premier League clubs. I've also given opportunities to some decent ex-pros, who would probably be well known to many from their playing careers.

The chairman insists on the team playing attractive and attacking football, and so far I have been able to do that. Goals aren't in short supply with Mendes and Jack Marriott leading the way in attack, but I have great back-up options beyond that pair anyway. I also have an abundance of riches in central midfield and on the flanks, whilst I feel that central defence now has more strength and depth to support captain Jack Baldwin. The only real areas of weakness to address in the winter will be both full-back positions, but so far the players I wanted to bring were out of reach, injured, or unable to get work permits.  

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1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

The chairman insists on the team playing attractive and attacking football

Does he still want you to sign Irish players? I had an enjoyable half-season with Peterboro just before the winter update when I was lured back to my annual Man Utd save. But I'll certainly be returning to the Posh at some point - a good squad of players, including some real young talents.

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12 hours ago, warlock said:

Does he still want you to sign Irish players? I had an enjoyable half-season with Peterboro just before the winter update when I was lured back to my annual Man Utd save. But I'll certainly be returning to the Posh at some point - a good squad of players, including some real young talents.

Yes he does. I'm hoping that as things move on, I might be able to get one or two of the better Irish players in. At the moment, there weren't any targets that seemed to offer value for money in terms of their quality. Mad ole' Darragh also wants to develop players through the club's own youth system. This is commendable and I always try to move the young players through the ranks, but they really don't have any impressive looking prospects that make this seem likely. The Posh are of course masters in spotting young talent from other clubs, particularly at a level or two below their own status. I have no issue with this, as long as they can cope with the standard of football that they will be brought in to.

Hopefully you do come back to the club, and update in here. As you say, it's a pretty decent young squad to start with.

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I've neglected posting updates for a while... I've played three seasons since my last one. I'll post a combined update of those, sorry for the long post.

2023-24 season:

Kj3IgvX.png

Europa league: knocked out 3-1 on aggregate in the semi final by Villareal

FA Cup: Knocked out by Cardiff in the 6th round 4-3. Especially annoying as our nemesis United and most top sides had been knocked out so would've had a chance to win the thing.

League cup: runners up following a 1-0 defeat by a late Rashford penalty against United, who had a player sent off at 20 minutes. :(

Transfers:

vvAS1kM.png?1

Key purchase: Johan Leitjen, 19 year old CB, solid starter when signed, has since then become world class.

2024-25 season:

xrbywVG.png

Europa league: knocked out 4-1 on aggregate in the semi final by Real Sociedad

FA Cup: knocked out 2-0 in the semi final by United

League cup: knocked out on penalties after a 2-2 draw in the quarter final by Burnley

Transfers:

taZ4Dqf.png?1

Key purchase: although we signed several important players the key signing was Bellerin in Jan after Arsenal had transfer listed him. Wouldn't have finished top 4 without him. Honorable mention to striker Jackson, who scored 36 goals in his debut season.

2025-26 season:

Z4r0eqq.png

Champions league: knocked out 4-1 on aggregate in the semi final by PSG, after we'd turned a 2-1 deficit around against Barca in the previous round to win 4-3 on aggregate

FA Cup: knocked out 2-1 in the 3rd round by Liverpool

League cup: knocked out 2-1 in the quarter final by Liverpool

Transfers:

dQ6iTYO.png?1

Key purchase: Not a single one of the transfers was a great success, at least so far, although Javier looks extremely promising. GK Adessa in terms of quality, Lewis Cook in terms of bang for the buck.

We've also built a new stadium with a 23k capacity, with the option to expand to around 40k iirc. Average attendance was 94% of capacity with 10 sellouts, so won't look to expand just yet. Also after finishing 2nd and getting to UCL semis our rep is finally up to continental level and 6th highest in England, although overall we're still behind the likes of Nantes and Hamburg. In terms of transfers, I'll definitely need new backup full backs on both flanks. Barca and Real are interested in Bellerin, wouldn't mind selling him to get his wages off the books as I now have the rep to replace him with a proper player. New first choice AMR is definitely on the list too, which means either Sterling or Irazoqui will have to be sold. Sterling is better (and English), Irazoqui is considerably younger so it's a tough call. I might also look to move Cook on to replace him with a left footed CM, which would suit my tactic much better. Also as it looks that Tcheco might be leaving as he's angling for a move to City, I might need a new striker as well. Most importantly I need big game players. Too many of those I have aren't.

I mentioned United are my nemesis, here's my record against them: P12 W0 D2 L10 GF6 GA38 :lol: The only top team I'm yet to beat. Chelsea and Liverpool are tough too, but United really are something else. There's simply no weakness in either their team or their system. Even when I manage to play well they just score the goals somehow. In a 4-2 home defeat against them they scored a fluke (mishit cross that somehow went in), a deflected long shot and a penalty and I scored an own goal.

Not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I've been also managing England for a few seasons. Have done pretty well:

dZZcGtb.png

Will resign (or get sacked :D) after the upcoming world cup though, as it's getting pretty tiresome and there's a huge need for an overhaul with several key players 30+ years old and in decline. World cup is the only trophy I'm yet to win in any FM but I can't be bothered with a four year project working towards that.

One last thing, not really related to me but a huge shock from the bottom of the table this season...

qmAR6V0.png

I really don't know what has happened to them. They were a solid top 6 team with a couple of top 4 finishes for the first 7 in-game seasons, then did really poorly in the 24-25 season, sacking Jorge Jesus, who had been there almost 5 years, in December, replacing him with Roberto Mancini who did even worse, ending up at 16th. Sacked Mancini, hired Conte who did poorly, sacked in December, replaced him with Guardiola who did even worse and got them relegated. They won only ten games in the whole season, and that includes Cheltenham in the league cup and Hartlepool in the FA cup. Guardiola won only 3 league games in his time there. And it's not like they have a bad team, there are several players I'd like in my team.

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15 hours ago, FMunderachiever said:

I think im going to start with Portsmouth

Dont think ive seen them mentionned on this thread, surprised at that

 

A good choice, lots of players I like there and a club with potential to be grown very well.

 

@kozmik Amazing progress with Lincoln. I admire you for your ability to stay interested for so many years too!

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4 hours ago, Blood On The Quad said:

anyone suggest what the best role / position is for Leonardo Da Silva-Lopes? (of Peterborough)

Thinking of buying him for Wigan given his potential but not sure how to develop him

He's very versatile, which brings benefits and disadvantages. I'm only in September managing him at Peterborough, and have generally used him as a central midfielder with the 'mezzala' role as the left of my central midfield pairing. I chose that duty for him because I have an advanced left winger and like Leo's energy to plug the gaps.

Since taking over, I have been trying to re-train him as an attacking full-back though, given that he can play either side as a wing-back already. That's where I would love to see him play for me if he learns the position successfully (either RB or LB).

I'd say he was a low risk signing for a team like Wigan, with their financial ability. If you do sign him, let me know how he developes for you please.

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On 3/18/2018 at 17:17, Jogo Bonito said:

He's very versatile, which brings benefits and disadvantages. I'm only in September managing him at Peterborough, and have generally used him as a central midfielder with the 'mezzala' role as the left of my central midfield pairing. I chose that duty for him because I have an advanced left winger and like Leo's energy to plug the gaps.

Since taking over, I have been trying to re-train him as an attacking full-back though, given that he can play either side as a wing-back already. That's where I would love to see him play for me if he learns the position successfully (either RB or LB).

I'd say he was a low risk signing for a team like Wigan, with their financial ability. If you do sign him, let me know how he developes for you please.

Bought him, gong to try training him as a CM, possibly mezzala, BBM or RPM - not sure yet. Wasn't sure he's got enough pace to make it on the wing but i'd be interested to know how he does for you there.

My record of developing players is terrible so though.. here's hoping his natural ability shines through

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Hello @Jogo Bonito and all.

So i've finally got myself a working laptop after 5 painful months of not being able to play FM18.

I'm loading her up as we speak, with the plan to get in to my first save this weekend.

Any suggestions on a good fun save in the Football Leagues to get me started?

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@Blood On The Quad How much did you pay for Leo? Best of luck developing him, keep me updated if you don't mind. I'll let you know if I can turn him in to my first choice left-back or right-back - or whether I fail miserably there.

@smplfc123 Welcome back my friend, What kind of challenge are you after? Name a division and we can throw a few ideas your way.

I'm in season 1 at Peterborough and Fulham, both very enjoyable so far :cool:

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@Jogo Bonito Thanks mate.

I'm looking for either higher League 1 or Championship, probably prefer a championship club with a below play off right down to relegation expectation so I can get used to the game and try and tactics without the pressure of expecting to get in to the top 6.

A nice start to your Pboro save mate. You still in second?

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@Jogo Bonito Total of £3.7m for Da-Silva-Lopes, £2.8m upfront + additional installments and 30% sell on. Porbably overpaid but what the hell, the board gave me £8m to burn.

@smplfc123 If you go for League 1 both Blackburn and Wigan have championship quality squads that you can walk this league. Players are good enough to enable experimenting with tactics and making a few mistakes,

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@Blood On The Quad Quite a fee but hopefully it works out for you. I agree that both Blackburn & Wigan have excellent potential to shoot up the leagues.

@smplfc123 I should get a few more fixtures in tonight and over the weekend with both Peterborough and Fulham. They're doing alright for me so far but a long way to go! In terms of clubs that might be good for you, maybe also consider Brentford, Bristol City or Oxford in League 1? Possibly even Scunthorpe or Bristol Rovers?

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Oxford also have a new owner (who had been heavily involved at Reading) and it would coincide nicely with a new manager taking them on IRL. With Curtis Nelson, James Henry and loan men Todd Kane and Alex Mowatt also in the squad, it wouldn't take much to get them going in the right direction. I managed them a couple of years back in L2 and enjoyed it a lot.

I've just had to make my 4th signing at Peterborough - totally out of the blue. My first choice 'keeper Jonathan Bond got a six-week injury just outside of the summer transfer window, and I only had Irish rookie Conor O'Malley to call upon. With the chairman wanting to sign Irish players, I had already shortlisted Shay Given as a potential future member of staff, but have now been forced to bring the 41 year old free agent to the club on a playing contract until the end of the season for a weekly wage of £900. Luckily for me, he should also be a good tutor for young compatriot Conor too. Hopefully the young man grasps his opportunity over the next few weeks and can keep the veteran on the bench.

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Cheers for the suggestions guys, please don't take my choice as me ignoring them, but something drew me to 9th place predicted Sheffield Wednesday. Although I was a little disappointed to see that the ambitious chairman wants a play off finish along with attacking football. They've had some mixed fortunes recently and with an older than average squad, I feel there is some work to do there with decent enough players to help me bed in to the game. I've started with transfers off.

Nice experienced signing there @Jogo Bonito


 

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25 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

Cheers for the suggestions guys, please don't take my choice as me ignoring them, but something drew me to 9th place predicted Sheffield Wednesday. Although I was a little disappointed to see that the ambitious chairman wants a play off finish along with attacking football. They've had some mixed fortunes recently and with an older than average squad, I feel there is some work to do there with decent enough players to help me bed in to the game. I've started with transfers off.

Nice experienced signing there @Jogo Bonito


 

Best of luck with The Owls mate, hopefully it will be a hoot for you! A fine, traditional club with great history :)

I've completed another month with Peterborough, and have managed to get myself back to the summit. The home form had been a bit concerning until the last game, as we had been without a league win there since the opening day. A formation change ahead of the Oxford game - to a back three, with wing-backs (Leo on the left), and a central midfield pairing behind Maddison (who should be effective in the hole), might just have sorted the balance between attack and defence now. On the road, I couldn't be doing any better, and that's normally where my teams really struggle.

The main men continue to be Marriott and Mendes. This striking partnership are linking up well and firing lots of goals, often making the difference between us and our opponents. It's a shame for the likes of Morais and Bogle that they can't get a look in really, but I am sure injuries, tiredness, loss of form and so on will give them opportunities. You'll notice the name Idris Kanu on the score sheet at the end there too. The 17 year old striker has scored 19 goals in my U23 team from 9 (+1) appearances so far, and came off the bench to add our third on his league debut for me. It's odd to see that most of his stats are declining whilst doing this, but he looks like one to follow. Final word goes to our rookie goalkeeper, and I am pleased to say that O'Malley has performed steadily in his six starts since he came off the bench to replace Bond at Doncaster. Our regular keeper is nearing fitness again now, but I will probably stick with the Irishman until he has a howler or concedes heavily.

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Hey Lads,

                Great thread, I've decided to throw my hat in the ring of an EFL Club and decided to start with Mansfield, watching L1/L2 goals every week it was either between them and Shrewsbury for me to start with as both seemed like a good challenge and I like both teams kits but in the end starting in L2 felt a better challenge.

 

Looking through the squad I don't think i'll need to strength the team that much as in the majority if not all positions the squad looks very strong and hopefully this will stand me in good shape to push for promotion and take them back to L1 where they have only been once in recent years.

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Loving the activity in this thread at the minute, obviously as an Accrington fan I love the EFL. I think you lot have tempted me round to contribute myself, the team I will start a save with... personally I'm not too sure yet. Feel free to give me a couple of names in L1/L2. Keep it up lads.

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