FM18: The English Football League Thread - EFL in FM18

[Jogo Bonito]

1 hour ago, AccyScott said:

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.

Welcome and thanks. It's always good to see new, active contributions and I imagine you might have good insight in to L2.

@Mr_Demus I'll see if I can do something, but it won't be a complete re-write as that's very time consuming. What sort of updates were you looking to see?

[Mr_Demus]

51 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Welcome and thanks. It's always good to see new, active contributions and I imagine you might have good insight in to L2.

@Mr_Demus I'll see if I can do something, but it won't be a complete re-write as that's very time consuming. What sort of updates were you looking to see?

An update on media predictions. As far as I can see, they have changed. And perhaps if any clubs made any key signings, they could be included in the text

[Jogo Bonito]

35 minutes ago, Mr_Demus said:

An update on media predictions. As far as I can see, they have changed. And perhaps if any clubs made any key signings, they could be included in the text

OK, I have added some updated info on all 72 clubs which might help your choice of clubs. I have also added the updated media predictions and title odds for all three leagues.

I'll attempt to do something on transfers but will need a bit more time for that. I hope this helps in the meantime though.

[Jogo Bonito]

Club profile

Season 1 transfers (summer)

Staff

Early results

Progress so far

I've had a really enjoyable start to my managerial career with Fulham on the 18.3 update. Sadly my first effort with them prior to the winter update had to be deleted when I was forced to uninstall and reinstall, but hopefully this attempt will last longer.

The starting transfer budget of £5m was generous, especially as the club had just added both striker Aleksandar Mitrovic (Newcastle) and left-back Matthew Targett (Southampton) on loan from Premier League clubs, and signed Middlesbrough right-back Cyrus Christie permanently in the winter transfer window. They had also freed up some wages by off-loading winger Yohan Mollo (who remains a free agent if anybody fancies looking him up). The club started with six loan players on the books, so whilst the squad was strong, I had to work smartly to keep the balance between loans and permanent players in order.

Squad analysis

Goalkeepers

Marcus Bettinelli and David Button are both good quality English options who will compete for the starting spot. The former has been at the club for a decade despite only being 25, and also has his dad on the staff. The latter came from West London neighbours Brentford at the beginning of last season and has been a regular starter for the last four years. There was absolutely no need to enter the market here, although I did check out how much it would cost to bring in a youngster as third choice. This was interesting research, but the asking prices for Karlo Letica and Sondre Rossbach were too high for such luxury at this stage. Instead, I'll just monitor their situations as I progress. 

Right-backs

The club already had one of the best attacking right backs in the division in Ryan Fredericks, so it was a bit of a surprise that they added a very similar type when picking up Cyrus Christie in this last window. Much like the goalkeeping position, I now have two players of equal quality for this position, which is a very nice feeling.

Left-backs

The club had also captured left-back Matthew Targett on loan from Southampton in this window, a very good player for this level. However, they allowed youngster Rafa Soares to return to FC Porto as his loan hadn't worked out, so I had to make some choices here. Whilst Targett is a player I would have liked to keep, his £35,000 per week wage was very high, and I needed a second option in this role anyway. Seeing that his loan had a termination option, my first plan here was to exercise that clause and sign Tunisian international Ali Maaloul from Al-Ahly in Egypt to take the starting position. A deal of £650k was in place for the new man, but a work permit was refused despite him having 40 international appearances for his country. That was disappointing as (despite the modest fee and low wage) I was really looking forward to seeing him as my starter in that role. Had that signing materialised, I had Croatian teenager Borna Sosa (Dinamo) lined up for a £1k per week loan move as understudy, with a view to a permanent deal being negotiated at the end of the season. 

As it turned out, the Maaloul situation forced me to think again, and I realised this position was going to be my major outlay for the summer. I looked at quite a few possibilities for this slot in the end, but eventually chose QPR man Jake Bidwell over Joe Bryan, with a £3.2m deal seeing the one-time Brentford defender join his third West London club. With his wage being only £12.25k per week, I'd saved over £20k p/w by returning Targett, but having spent so much on the transfer I knew that I couldn't bring in a loan man as the second choice if I was going to strengthen other areas of the squad how I wanted. As a result, I plucked Joe Bennett from the reserves at Cardiff for a very reasonable £1m as the back-up option. With Bennett on a wage of only £8.75k per week, I now had two solid options on the books, with a weekly wage saving of about £15k too. 

Central defenders

The club already had Tim Ream and Tomas Kalas (on loan from Chelsea for a second season) here, with Denis Odoi also being used more frequently in the centre of defence these days. Odoi's versatility to play anywhere at the back was good to have, but his ability to play at the heart of the back line wasn't being picked up well enough here, and I knew I definitely needed one more option to limit that exposure. The man picked for this job was Aden Flint of Bristol City, and I feel hopeful that the giant could be the modern day version of former fan favourite Brede Hangeland. A fee of £2.7m and wage of £10k per week was agreed, and the depth I needed was now sorted. I had been tempted to release Kalas from his loan and get somebody else in (due to his £25k per week wage), but as he had been important to the club in real life, I decided to let that go and maintain the realism of having him on board.

Central midfielders

This area of the pitch was fairly well stocked, with Kevin McDonald, Stefan Johansen and Oliver Norwood (on loan from Brighton) decent enough for my needs. I also had captain Tom Cairney capable of playing here, although I had originally planned to use him just behind the lone striker where he could influence games with a bit more freedom. Beyond this, there was Ibrahima Cisse, who could plug some gaps in defensive midfield, but he wasn't one that I fancied for starting any games. As my plans evolved, I decided that Cairney could play a bit deeper than I had initially thought (I'll use him as the more advanced of three in the centre, just off to the right like in real life). This just left me looking to bring one more man in (with the view of selling Cisse), somebody with a bit more physical presence, power and strength.

I had a deal lined up for either Joe Ralls (Cardiff) or Abdoulaye Toure (Nantes) for some time, but with the issues at left-back taking most of my cash, the deal got called off when I asked for my third delayed confirmation due to lack of funds. As a result, I decided my next best option was Guessouma Fofana (Amiens), as his club were more willing to trade than RB Salzburg were for Amadou Haidara. I eventually managed to get this over the line hours before the deadline passed as I struggled to free up the £1.3m (potentially up to £1.9m after 50 appearances and promotion) needed to complete the deal. I've not yet had the opportunity to use him in my team, as he was injured before joining me and is only now recovering fitness. I'm very confident that he will add good quality to my team when available, and again feel that his wage of £12.75k per week was good value for money. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attract any teams for the services of Cisse, but he might surprise me if I ever need to call on him I suppose.

Forwards

This area covers attacking midfielders, wingers and strikers. I generally play with one up front, and go for pace on the flanks to support that tactic. I then threw in a curve ball in order to give myself a bit of flexibility in case I needed something different. I've already talked about a few new players, all of them purchased on permanent deals. These moves forced me in to becoming creative with outgoing players, and here is where I made my shopping list a possibility. On joining, the club had six loan men, but one of them was Chelsea's attacking midfielder Lucas Piazon. I've seen quite a bit of the Brazilian in action, and he's one of those skilful but lightweight types that can show flashes of goodness, but is generally ineffective. He also starts off on a whopping wage, and is injured for around 10 months of the season. It took literally seconds to realise that this loan needed terminating, and that's exactly what I did.

Slightly harder calls were required in respect of two more lively wingers at the club though, namely Floyd Ayite and Neeskens Kebano. The former has played quite an important role for Fulham, but had a high value and I needed to use that to my advantage. As it turned out, I couldn't find somebody to pay the top whack I was seeking, but Toulouse did agree to pay his wage in full and £120k per month for the loan on top, so I let him go back to France for a year. I didn't rate Kebano quite as highly, and was more than happy to accept £4.4m from Preston for his services as this allowed me to bring in a couple of players.

Fulham had recently added Aleksandar Mitrovic from Newcastle on loan, and this was something they really needed to do as their striker options had been very poor until this point. Whilst he was perfect to lead the line on his own, the real gem in my squad is undoubtedly 17 year old Ryan Sessegnon. Initially introduced as an attacking left-back, he's been flourishing as a left-winger this term, and is the first name on the team sheet for me. Given licence to stay forward and run at defenders at all times, this precocious talent is an absolute joy to watch. For the other wing, I needed to replace the departed Ayite and Kebano, and was delighted to pick up another promising English teenager for this role. I had looked at some alternatives here, but despite doubts over having two teenage wingers starting every week, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to have Jonathan Leko join me from West Brom for the season when it became possible for just a £1.3k per week wage contribution. In exchange for doing this, I sent Sheyi Ojo back to Liverpool as he was of similar quality and was earning more than £4k per week if he stayed with me.

With three loan men terminated, this left me one more slot to fill, and I knew very early on who I wanted that to be. As back-up to Mitrovic, I already had young French striker Aboubakar Kamara on the books (one for the future, maybe) and former Arsenal flop Rui Fonte, who had a decent season with Braga last year but doesn't have my confidence at all. I'd desperately tried to sell the latter, and then tried to loan him out, but there wasn't one single club interested at any price. To make matters worse, he then broke his ankle and is going to be out of action for three months. Being honest, that's not a problem to me at all, but it makes him unavailable for anybody that might be foolish enough to consider taking him away.  

So, to the final piece of the attacking jigsaw. The man I gambled on was none other than Ross McCormack. Odd right? Well yes, but the Scot had been sensational for Fulham in two seasons from 2014 to 2016, grabbing 38 league goals in 89 Championship matches, with 28 having come the year before when he starred for Leeds. His £12m move from Craven Cottage to Aston Villa hasn't gone well though, and he had been on loan in Melbourne until this window came around. That signalled a return to Villa (who clearly don't want him), and he was available for transfer at a mere £1.2m. That sounds great, doesn't it? But no, he wanted me to pay a wage similar to the whopping £38k per week salary he was 'earning' at Villa Park, and there was just no way I could do that. In the end, I had to agree a £200K per month loan fee (no wage contribution) for a seasonal loan, equivalent to £2m just for 10 months - but overall I am making a saving as I don't have to pay a massive wage on top of the £1.2m purchase price, signing on fees, appearance fees and any other bonuses he might demand. He has the ability to play a variety of attacking roles, but I am using him off the bench as a shadow striker, just to the right of Mitrovic (usually taking off Leko from the right wing to do so). He can also play as an inside forward from the left side, so if Sessegnon gets injured he can do a good job for me there too - and of course he could deputise for Mitrovic as the front man (F9) if that became necessary at any point too.

Some of the other names that I had considered for the supporting roles were David Brooks of Sheffield United (Ioan agreed but was too expensive to justify), Eberechi Eze (was by that time an unwanted sixth loan man), Chiedozie Ogbene and former winger Ashkan Dejagah (both rejected by their clubs), Fousseni Diabate and Samir Nasri (both rejected by the player), and about 30 strikers as I struggled to find a deal I could afford for McCormack early on.

Conclusion

Now that the window has 'slammed shut' I feel very happy with what I have done. I've made good use of my wage bill, I've trimmed the loan numbers from six to five, I've added greater depth and quality at left-back, centre-back, and in defensive midfield - and given myself a broader spread of attacking options to cater for different conundrums.

[kroshot]

started my Birmingham save  here is what has happened so far.

transfers out

ndoye rangers 1m

maghoma wigan 2m 

jutkiewicz preston 1m

lowe rangers exchange

Jenkinson loan return 

boga loan return

bramall loan return

transfers in 

Tavernier rangers 750k plus lowe

ahlmann  aab 375k

flint Bristol city loan 75k

vrhovec Maribor 600k

Valente arouca 500k

khaloua Almeria 800k

sold 4m spent 3.8m balanced the books and lowered the wage bill lets see how we go.

[smplfc123]

13 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Club profile

Season 1 transfers (summer)

Staff

Early results

Progress so far

I've had a really enjoyable start to my managerial career with Fulham on the 18.3 update. Sadly my first effort with them prior to the winter update had to be deleted when I was forced to uninstall and reinstall, but hopefully this attempt will last longer.

The starting transfer budget of £5m was generous, especially as the club had just added both striker Aleksandar Mitrovic (Newcastle) and left-back Matthew Targett (Southampton) on loan from Premier League clubs, and signed Middlesbrough right-back Cyrus Christie permanently in the winter transfer window. They had also freed up some wages by off-loading winger Yohan Mollo (who remains a free agent if anybody fancies looking him up). The club started with six loan players on the books, so whilst the squad was strong, I had to work smartly to keep the balance between loans and permanent players in order.

Squad analysis

Goalkeepers

Marcus Bettinelli and David Button are both good quality English options who will compete for the starting spot. The former has been at the club for a decade despite only being 25, and also has his dad on the staff. The latter came from West London neighbours Brentford at the beginning of last season and has been a regular starter for the last four years. There was absolutely no need to enter the market here, although I did check out how much it would cost to bring in a youngster as third choice. This was interesting research, but the asking prices for Karlo Letica and Sondre Rossbach were too high for such luxury at this stage. Instead, I'll just monitor their situations as I progress. 

Right-backs

The club already had one of the best attacking right backs in the division in Ryan Fredericks, so it was a bit of a surprise that they added a very similar type when picking up Cyrus Christie in this last window. Much like the goalkeeping position, I now have two players of equal quality for this position, which is a very nice feeling.

Left-backs

The club had also captured left-back Matthew Targett on loan from Southampton in this window, a very good player for this level. However, they allowed youngster Rafa Soares to return to FC Porto as his loan hadn't worked out, so I had to make some choices here. Whilst Targett is a player I would have liked to keep, his £35,000 per week wage was very high, and I needed a second option in this role anyway. Seeing that his loan had a termination option, my first plan here was to exercise that clause and sign Tunisian international Ali Maaloul from Al-Ahly in Egypt to take the starting position. A deal of £650k was in place for the new man, but a work permit was refused despite him having 40 international appearances for his country. That was disappointing as (despite the modest fee and low wage) I was really looking forward to seeing him as my starter in that role. Had that signing materialised, I had Croatian teenager Borna Sosa (Dinamo) lined up for a £1k per week loan move as understudy, with a view to a permanent deal being negotiated at the end of the season. 

As it turned out, the Maaloul situation forced me to think again, and I realised this position was going to be my major outlay for the summer. I looked at quite a few possibilities for this slot in the end, but eventually chose QPR man Jake Bidwell over Joe Bryan, with a £3.2m deal seeing the one-time Brentford defender join his third West London club. With his wage being only £12.25k per week, I'd saved over £20k p/w by returning Targett, but having spent so much on the transfer I knew that I couldn't bring in a loan man as the second choice if I was going to strengthen other areas of the squad how I wanted. As a result, I plucked Joe Bennett from the reserves at Cardiff for a very reasonable £1m as the back-up option. With Bennett on a wage of only £8.75k per week, I now had two solid options on the books, with a weekly wage saving of about £15k too. 

Central defenders

The club already had Tim Ream and Tomas Kalas (on loan from Chelsea for a second season) here, with Denis Odoi also being used more frequently in the centre of defence these days. Odoi's versatility to play anywhere at the back was good to have, but his ability to play at the heart of the back line wasn't being picked up well enough here, and I knew I definitely needed one more option to limit that exposure. The man picked for this job was Aden Flint of Bristol City, and I feel hopeful that the giant could be the modern day version of former fan favourite Brede Hangeland. A fee of £2.7m and wage of £10k per week was agreed, and the depth I needed was now sorted. I had been tempted to release Kalas from his loan and get somebody else in (due to his £25k per week wage), but as he had been important to the club in real life, I decided to let that go and maintain the realism of having him on board.

Central midfielders

This area of the pitch was fairly well stocked, with Kevin McDonald, Stefan Johansen and Oliver Norwood (on loan from Brighton) decent enough for my needs. I also had captain Tom Cairney capable of playing here, although I had originally planned to use him just behind the lone striker where he could influence games with a bit more freedom. Beyond this, there was Ibrahima Cisse, who could plug some gaps in defensive midfield, but he wasn't one that I fancied for starting any games. As my plans evolved, I decided that Cairney could play a bit deeper than I had initially thought (I'll use him as the more advanced of three in the centre, just off to the right like in real life). This just left me looking to bring one more man in (with the view of selling Cisse), somebody with a bit more physical presence, power and strength.

I had a deal lined up for either Joe Ralls (Cardiff) or Abdoulaye Toure (Nantes) for some time, but with the issues at left-back taking most of my cash, the deal got called off when I asked for my third delayed confirmation due to lack of funds. As a result, I decided my next best option was Guessouma Fofana (Amiens), as his club were more willing to trade than RB Salzburg were for Amadou Haidara. I eventually managed to get this over the line hours before the deadline passed as I struggled to free up the £1.3m (potentially up to £1.9m after 50 appearances and promotion) needed to complete the deal. I've not yet had the opportunity to use him in my team, as he was injured before joining me and is only now recovering fitness. I'm very confident that he will add good quality to my team when available, and again feel that his wage of £12.75k per week was good value for money. Unfortunately I wasn't able to attract any teams for the services of Cisse, but he might surprise me if I ever need to call on him I suppose.

Forwards

This area covers attacking midfielders, wingers and strikers. I generally play with one up front, and go for pace on the flanks to support that tactic. I then threw in a curve ball in order to give myself a bit of flexibility in case I needed something different. I've already talked about a few new players, all of them purchased on permanent deals. These moves forced me in to becoming creative with outgoing players, and here is where I made my shopping list a possibility. On joining, the club had six loan men, but one of them was Chelsea's attacking midfielder Lucas Piazon. I've seen quite a bit of the Brazilian in action, and he's one of those skilful but lightweight types that can show flashes of goodness, but is generally ineffective. He also starts off on a whopping wage, and is injured for around 10 months of the season. It took literally seconds to realise that this loan needed terminating, and that's exactly what I did.

Slightly harder calls were required in respect of two more lively wingers at the club though, namely Floyd Ayite and Neeskens Kebano. The former has played quite an important role for Fulham, but had a high value and I needed to use that to my advantage. As it turned out, I couldn't find somebody to pay the top whack I was seeking, but Toulouse did agree to pay his wage in full and £120k per month for the loan on top, so I let him go back to France for a year. I didn't rate Kebano quite as highly, and was more than happy to accept £4.4m from Preston for his services as this allowed me to bring in a couple of players.

Fulham had recently added Aleksandar Mitrovic from Newcastle on loan, and this was something they really needed to do as their striker options had been very poor until this point. Whilst he was perfect to lead the line on his own, the real gem in my squad is undoubtedly 17 year old Ryan Sessegnon. Initially introduced as an attacking left-back, he's been flourishing as a left-winger this term, and is the first name on the team sheet for me. Given licence to stay forward and run at defenders at all times, this precocious talent is an absolute joy to watch. For the other wing, I needed to replace the departed Ayite and Kebano, and was delighted to pick up another promising English teenager for this role. I had looked at some alternatives here, but despite doubts over having two teenage wingers starting every week, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to have Jonathan Leko join me from West Brom for the season when it became possible for just a £1.3k per week wage contribution. In exchange for doing this, I sent Sheyi Ojo back to Liverpool as he was of similar quality and was earning more than £4k per week if he stayed with me.

With three loan men terminated, this left me one more slot to fill, and I knew very early on who I wanted that to be. As back-up to Mitrovic, I already had young French striker Aboubakar Kamara on the books (one for the future, maybe) and former Arsenal flop Rui Fonte, who had a decent season with Braga last year but doesn't have my confidence at all. I'd desperately tried to sell the latter, and then tried to loan him out, but there wasn't one single club interested at any price. To make matters worse, he then broke his ankle and is going to be out of action for three months. Being honest, that's not a problem to me at all, but it makes him unavailable for anybody that might be foolish enough to consider taking him away.  

So, to the final piece of the attacking jigsaw. The man I gambled on was none other than Ross McCormack. Odd right? Well yes, but the Scot had been sensational for Fulham in two seasons from 2014 to 2016, grabbing 38 league goals in 89 Championship matches, with 28 having come the year before when he starred for Leeds. His £12m move from Craven Cottage to Aston Villa hasn't gone well though, and he had been on loan in Melbourne until this window came around. That signalled a return to Villa (who clearly don't want him), and he was available for transfer at a mere £1.2m. That sounds great, doesn't it? But no, he wanted me to pay a wage similar to the whopping £38k per week salary he was 'earning' at Villa Park, and there was just no way I could do that. In the end, I had to agree a £200K per month loan fee (no wage contribution) for a seasonal loan, equivalent to £2m just for 10 months - but overall I am making a saving as I don't have to pay a massive wage on top of the £1.2m purchase price, signing on fees, appearance fees and any other bonuses he might demand. He has the ability to play a variety of attacking roles, but I am using him off the bench as a shadow striker, just to the right of Mitrovic (usually taking off Leko from the right wing to do so). He can also play as an inside forward from the left side, so if Sessegnon gets injured he can do a good job for me there too - and of course he could deputise for Mitrovic as the front man (F9) if that became necessary at any point too.

Some of the other names that I had considered for the supporting roles were David Brooks of Sheffield United (Ioan agreed but was too expensive to justify), Eberechi Eze (was by that time an unwanted sixth loan man), Chiedozie Ogbene and former winger Ashkan Dejagah (both rejected by their clubs), Fousseni Diabate and Samir Nasri (both rejected by the player), and about 30 strikers as I struggled to find a deal I could afford for McCormack early on.

Conclusion

Now that the window has 'slammed shut' I feel very happy with what I have done. I've made good use of my wage bill, I've trimmed the loan numbers from six to five, I've added greater depth and quality at left-back, centre-back, and in defensive midfield - and given myself a broader spread of attacking options to cater for different conundrums.

Loved the transfer update there @Jogo Bonito , definitely caught me off guard with the McCormack deal. 

Liking the 2 lads brought in at left back, although surprised a little that bidwell was picked over Bryan, was that down to finances on the deal?

I'm doing well and still with Sheff Wed. A few games in to the season, I'll update come the end of the first month.

[Jogo Bonito]

@smplfc123 Thanks for the comments. I enjoyed laying out my thought process and also felt a few name checks might help some people looking for players.

I picked up Bryan & Flint in my first Fulham effort that had to be deleted. This time around Bidwell was available for a much better wage than Bryan, so I cancelled and let him stay at Bristol City instead. The fee itself was virtually the same, I think Bryan was costing £3.5m compared to Bidwell at £3.2m.

McCormack scored a late winner from the bench on his debut after we battled  back from 2-0 down against Norwich, but he hasn't had a chance to start a game yet.

I look forward to reading about your effort in due course. 

[smplfc123]

@Jogo Bonito It was a great read mate. I hope bidwell does well for you. Good to see McCormack starting well.

So here it is, September the 1st and what a very interesting first month in charge of the Owls.

With transfers turned off, it was going to be a struggle being able to get my favoured 4-2-3-1 DM's or 4-1-2-3 DM to work as the squad had Hutchinson, Abdi, Butterfield and Lee all out injured in the centre of the park. So, with the large pool of strikers, but only 3 fit centre halves, I felt I had no choice but to set up a 4-4-2. I have one for attacking, one for countering and i've got a 4-1-4-1 for tough away games.

Pre-season went well with us winning 6 out of 6, with the best result coming in the form of a 4-1 home victory against Slovan Liberec. With the 4-4-2 working well, I decided to trial it out in the first league game against Preston.

Preston 2-7 Sheff Wed ( Rhodes 2, Reach 2, Fletcher 1, Joao 1, Pelupessy 1) - WOW, what a first game in charge this was. We took an early lead to settle the nerves, with a second following 2 minutes later for us to be 2 up inside 10 minutes. A goal back from Maguire on 18 mins made me think the good times were already over, but we raced away with the balls out wide from Pudil (lb) and Matias (rm) proving to hard for them to handle. We lead 7-1 going in to injury time, with Maguire getting a consolation with the last kick of the game. What a start to the season.

Sheff Wed 2-1 Lincoln (Hooper 2) - 2 goals from Hooper was enough to see my 2nd string team comeback and get through to the next round of the cup.

Sheff Wed 2-0 QPR (Fletcher 1, Pelupessy 1) A straightforward victory in my first league home game. We controlled the game and never really gave them a look.

Sheff Wed 0-0 Sunderland - A game which could have gone either way, with Sunderland looking more dangerous than their real life form suggests. Another point in the right direction and another clean sheet.

Fulham 0-0 Sheff Wed - This was probably my favourite result so far. Even more so than Preston away. I deployed my 4-1-4-1 with my sole intent being to stop their attacking options which are very impressive. We did it perfectly, with Joao given his first start to play the role as a lone defensive forward. I was very happy with another clean sheet, despite people thinking i'm just a small time Mourinho.

Sheff Wed 1-1 Notts Forest (Sheff Wed win 5-4 on Pens) (Matias 1) Matias' second half goal was cancelled out late on by a Dowell equaliser, with my mainly second string team taken all the way to penalties by fellow championship opposition. A sudden death win on penalties has booked us an away draw to Stoke in the next round.

Burton 3-3 Sheff Wed (Flecther 2, Joao 1) The final game of the month was a thriller. Burton were exceeding all odds sitting in 6th. Despite this, I went there with a 4-4-2 counter instead of my boring 4-1-4-1, confident that I would still beat them. After less than 20 minutes I was 2 down. A change to my attacking 4-4-2 had us level by the break thanks to Stevie Fletcher. A goal around the hour mark put Burton back in front, but thankfully substitute Joao grabbed us a 3rd and have kept us unbeaten for the season so far.


Without transfers on and my reputation just as a Semi Pro footballer with a National B Licence, I felt this would be a tough challenge and although we've started well, I know it is still going to be a tough challenge.

I'm still keen to move away from the 4-4-2 as a permanent formation, but the form of some players means its worth while keeping it for now. Pudil (LB), Matias (RM), Pelupessy (CM) and Fletcher (ST) have been excellent.

On to September and hopefully staying in the 4th spot I currently occupy. 

[Jogo Bonito]

@smplfc123 Wow, what a start. A little bit hit and miss since then, but still unbeaten despite your injury problems is very commendable. Not happy you shut out Fulham of course

@kroshot Good luck with Birmingham. I admire your enthusiasm to manage your usual club again, despite their awful season.

 

[Dan McCullough]

Charlton Athletic - Season One: August.

I've been reading these forums and this thread for a while, I'm not sure why it's never occurred to me to actually sign up and contribute but hey, better late than never? I've decided to take the challenge of Charlton and attempt to get them back to, first the Championship and then the top flight of English Football - where they last played in the 2006/07 season. With Karl Robinson leaving to take the Oxford United job, now is a good time to take the job, alongside the fact Katrien has left. Hopefully Roland will follow suit soon! 

The squad when you load the game is very small. This meant that I needed to bring in a few options to bolster my ranks in certain areas, however with a small budget of £100,000, I could only really make loan and free signings for now. In the back of my mind I have to consider the fact I have a number of clauses for ex-players I could sell in due course, such as Joe Gomez's, however I will probably let them run their course as surely a decent fee will be made. Below are the four signings I made:

Beni Beningime

My first piece of business was the loan signing of Beni Beningime from Everton. The young midfielder will provide as an option at both central midfield, alongside just in front of the defence, providing as competition for Ahmed Kashi. 

Sam Field

I was quite surprised I was able to tempt Sam to the club, considering he has made a number of starts for West Brom and arguably is a good option for Championship clubs. I'm not complaining though as he will be a strong part to the heart of the midfield this season, lining up alongside either Jake Forster-Caskey, Johnnie Jackson or Joe Aribo. Both Field and Beningime were found by getting a team report on all twenty Premier League sides, something I highly recommend as you get a list of players available for loan for each club.

Abdoulay Konko

Konko will provide as a rotation option on the right-hand side of the defence. Having played ten games for Atalanta last season in Serie A and playing most games for Lazio over the years, he certainly has the experience to do well here in his last few years as a player. He is on a one-year-deal, however this could be extended. He will be a great tutor for young players, especially Lewis Page.

Sean Kavanagh

My final signing of the window was none other than Sean Kavanagh on loan from @Jogo Bonito's Fulham (in another universe anyway .) Although he isn't rated too highly by my scouts, he will be a solid option if called upon, however is very much a second/third choice with Jay DaSilva and Lewis Page both arguably capable of playing on the left-hand side of the defence.

Tactic

This is what I lined up with in August and will most likely be what I look to stick with this season. I will show you the results to August below, however this is just a brief overview of what I have been using to good effect thus far. As you can see, Josh Magennis is currently injured and will be sidelined for a further 2-5 weeks after sustaining the injury against Northampton. Jake Forster-Caskey is also out, he broke his ankle on the opening day and will be out for 3-4 months of action. Other than this we have had a clean bill of health, minus a few minor knocks and a short spell which ruled Sullay Kaikai out of the opening two games of the season. 

Results

I couldn't have wished for a better start. We have won our opening four games of the Sky Bet League One season, with wins against Bristol Rovers, Plymouth, Northampton and Rotherham. Alongside this, we have also progressed to the Third Round of the Carabao Cup, setting up a tie against Premiership opposition in Stoke, after first beating Forest Green 2-0 in a dominant performance, where we recorded 23 shots to their two. We then shocked Fulham with a 1-0 win, Sullay Kaikai scoring a last gasp winner in the third minute of stoppage time to send us through, rather deservedly, as Sam Field came the closest beforehand as his long range free-kick found the bar and went behind.

The performances in the league have been very positive. The only real threat we faced was in the game against Rotherham, as Michael Smith had a number of chances to equalise but failed. The Northampton game was quite frustrating as well, we couldn't seem to find a way through and needed two penalties to secure the win - which had me worried as Magennis was taken off in this game, making me feel like we would lack a goalscorer in his time out. I did lose 3-0 to Portsmouth in the CheckaTrade Trophy, however this was due to mass rotation - as I personally hate the competition and didn't manage the game, in protest (because why not!)

August saw a number of awards come our way also. Firstly I won the Manager Of The Month award in my debut month as a manager. This coupled alongside Ezri Konsa's terrific achievements as he won Young Player Of The Month and came second in the Player Of The Month award. Winger Tarique Fosu also impressed, coming third in the Young Player Of The Month award alongside his team-mate Konsa. Hopefully this is the start of an impressive season for the Addicks. ROLAND OUT.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Dan McCullough Welcome, and that's a great first post.

In one of my two EFL saves, I am pleased to say Roland was ousted from the club early on, so hopefully you will get a takeover very soon too. I tried them early on in FM17 (due to Lookman) and was trying to force the Belgian out by criticising him left, right and centre - sadly it didn't work and the enjoyment soon went. It's such a shame what has happened to them and Blackpool, so hopefully you'll be the man to lead them out of their troubled times! I'm a bit surprised you didn't go for a back five, defensive options there are very good and Pearce on the bench seems like a bit of a luxury. Agree about Field, a very good loan deal there - and Fosu has some ability too.

Best of luck, and feel free to pop over to The Cottage any time you feel like taking Rui Fonte off my hands

[Dan McCullough]

1 minute ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@Dan McCullough Welcome, and that's a great first post.

In one of my two EFL saves, I am pleased to say Roland was ousted from the club early on, so hopefully you will get a takeover very soon too. I tried them early on in FM17 (due to Lookman) and was trying to force the Belgian about by criticising him left, right and centre - sadly it didn't work and the enjoyment soon wen,t. It's such a shame what has happened to them and Blackpool, so hopefully you'll be the man to lead them out of their troubled times! I'm a bit surprised you didn't go for a back five, defensive options there are very good and Pearce on the bench seems like a bit of a luxury. Agree about Field, a very good loan deal there - and Fosu has some ability too.

Best of luck, and feel free to pop over to The Cottage any time you feel like taking Rui Fonte off my hands

I was very tempted to play a back five actually, it's funny that you mention it. However, Kashi is mostly only able to play just in front of the defence and I could probably re-train him, but I felt I needed to get him into the squad really, thus fitting a tactic around him. Pearce has come off the bench a few times in September, arguably pushing for a start if one of the two defenders drop in form (most likely Bauer at the moment.) Field has been absolutely brilliant so far and I would love to get him permanently, but I don't think I'll stand a chance. Fosu provides a good option on the bench, his pace is very beneficial going into the last fifteen minutes or so of a game.

I think I'll pass on Fonte, but my two strikers (Ajose and Umerah) aren't exactly firing in the goals in Magennis' absence! 

[Jogo Bonito]

Yeah, I see where you're coming from on the selection and formation. I don't mind you taking Kavanagh as he went to Ireland in real life (after data lock), but sad you don't want Fonte. I'll even drive him across town myself...

I guess the transfer window has closed now?

 

[Dan McCullough]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Yeah, I see where you're coming from on the selection and formation. I don't mind you taking Kavanagh as he went to Ireland in real life (after data lock), but sad you don't want Fonte. I'll even drive him across town myself...

I guess the transfer window has closed now?

 

It has, yeah. Hopefully they'll step up, but I only have to cope through September without him, thankfully.

[Dan McCullough]

It wasn't to be, but we certainly made a good account of ourselves. Well, except the front line. 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Dan McCullough Very unlucky there, a tight game but a very good effort.

 

Season 1 results (September & October)

Progress so far

Next up - the big one!

As you can see, excluding the disaster at home to Middlesbrough, we have been ticking along quite nicely. I've only got a senior squad of 21 players (although there are reserves I can call on if needed), and for the last month or so, I've suffered quite a few injuries. Fofana still hasn't recovered from his broken leg, Mitrovic hasn't featured much at all, Fredericks has only made a handful of appearances all season, and Kamara has been unfit a few times too. All of this has afforded more starts for McCormack, and to be fair he has done quite well until now.

The win against a strong Spurs side in the Carabao Cup was clearly a great result for us, and I have to confess that this is the best league cup campaign I have ever had in FM. I've had decent FA Cup runs before, and even won at Wembley in the various forms of the Mickey Mouse cup, but this competition has never been a good one for me. I'm expecting to crash out soon, but a home QF tie against West Brom isn't the most daunting challenge we could face next.

My favourite result however was probably the win at Aston Villa. It doesn't look special at first glance, but with Mitrovic injured, McCormack ineligible against his parent club, and promises to Sessegnon and Leko that they would have a one game rest, I was delighted to go there and win with a clean sheet. You may notice from the stats that my two teenage wingers have been excellent so far - Sessegnon has scored the most goals (including a hat-trick) and won most MOTM awards (not to mention the Championship young player of the month in August), whilst Leko has the highest average rating within my squad due to regular goals and assists. It's not all about the attack though, I am absolutely delighted with the run of five consecutive clean sheets.

It's no real surprise to see Wolves keeping pace at the top of the table, and next up is an absolutely massive fixture at Molineux!

[smplfc123]

@Jogo Bonito Thanks mate, the form has got better since too, which I will do an update for soon. Good luck for the top of the table clash against Wolves.

@Dan McCullough Great start to your Charlton save there mate, keen to see how you get on.

[smplfc123]

Well what a run since the last update, with September bringing us 6 wins from 7 and progress through to the next round of the Carabao Cup.

Steven Fletcher has been in brilliant form up top, moving on to 8 in 10 for the season, not bad for a deep lying forward charged with linking the midfield to the attack. Joey Pelupessy has been incredible in centre midfield as a Carrilero. He's scored 5, assisted 2 and picked up the player of the match award 3 times. Marcos Matias has nothced up 2 goals and 6 assists. 

We certainly know how to find the net and to be fair, apart from the crazy game away to Preston and the 3-3 at Burton, we've not conceded more than 1 in a game. This is how we sit in the league:



I'm still playing with my 4-4-2, with the 4-1-4-1 being deployed in the odd away match or to try and maintain the lead. 

GK: Westwood             DEF: Hunt, Lees, Venancio, Pudil               MID:  Matias, Pelupessy, Jones, Reach             ATT:  Fletcher, ?


That's my usual set up, with Rhodes, Joao and Hooper all not really holding down that spot next to fletcher. Bannan has come in for Jones in a few games, with not much between them and Boyd and Wallace getting some time on the flanks.

I'm not sure how long we'll keep this unbeaten run going, but the longer I can keep that gap between myself and 7th, the happier I'll be, as my aim is still to get a play off spot.

[kozmik]

Great to see so much activity in this thread!

I finished season 10 yesterday. Pretty much the same as the previous season, 2nd place in the league, still no trophies:

Main difference was that midway through the season I was around 6th-7th place, and only strong form in the second half of the season saw us push that high, only pipping Chelsea to second place on the last day of the season.

Champions league: knocked out on penalties vs Barca in quarter finals. They equalized in the second leg with pretty much the last kick of the game to take it to extra time.

FA cup: knocked out 1-3 at eventual winners Chelsea in the 5th round.

League cup: knocked out 2-3 at Liverpool in the 3rd round.

We also played in our first community shield thanks to our 2nd place league finish as United won the double last season. Lost 2-3.

Also, third... I mean fifteenth time's the charm:

So, after a record of P14 W0 D3 L11 GF10 GA43 I finally, finally managed to beat them. And not just beat them, they were actually under the cosh pretty much the whole game. I'm not sure how we only scored 2 as we had 5 ccc's and 5 hc's. They hit the post late on so could've been different but would've been extremely harsh from our pov. The best part was seeing Mourinho, who absolutely hates me for whatever reason, moan about us being lucky after the game. Can't wait for him to retire though, their superiority is tiresome.

Transfers:

Had to sell Tcheco as he was desperate to leave and I couldn't really justify turning that fee (114 million) down, world class though he is. I'm having the last laugh though as he'll be playing Europa league next season. Bellerin was snapped up by Real and then I made a complete mess of replacing him. I was after a regen DR at Leicester but couldn't get him to request a transfer and couldn't get Leicester to lower their demands below 100 million. I ended up loaning Lefranc from City to act as backup to Ralston and kept on trying to unsettle the Leicester guy, but he ended up signing a new contract a couple of months into the season, so I ended up buying Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool. Then around March I see Leicester have transfer listed the guy I was after and he's available for 25 million Right winger Eduardo Tamai was definitely the buy of the season, no idea how I got him so cheaply. Got 21 goals and 17 assists in 43 games. A special mention for this guy:

I was looking for a young DM and came across this guy in VDG's reserve team. From what I could see of his attributes he looked decent and he was on a youth contract, so I got him for 925k. Didn't even bother to scout him further. He was 17 at that point, so only joined in January. I completely forgot about him in the meantime, then when he actually arrived my assman rated him at 2,5 stars CA and 4,5 stars PA.

As for next season, I'm looking to move Berkay Ozcan on to make way for a young regen in the first team squad. I'll release Sterling at the end of his contract and Irazoqui will take his place in the squad when he returns from his loan at Barca. Other than that I'm not really sure I need to do anything. CB is the only area where I could make serious improvements, but first choice pair Leitjen-Oxford will be difficult (not to mention extremely expensive) to improve upon and backups Phil Jeffrey and Ariel Outerelo are homegrown, so selling either of them will cause problems with champions league squad registration. On the other hand, I do play with three at the back in maybe one third of the matches so having three top class CB's would be good. Will have to see what I can do.

And finally, the world cup. Didn't manage to win it, but ended up finishing third. I suppose that winning the European Championship, Confederations cup and getting bronze at the World cup means I had a successful tenure. I resigned after the world cup. Have to share this match from the world cup, quarter final against Spain. One of the most epic matches I've ever taken part in:

3-0 to us after 23 minutes, Spain score just before half time, early second half we get a penalty but Rashford misses, then Spain immediately score again. Then they equalize at 86 minutes, get a penalty from their next attack and take the lead. Stoppage time of four minutes. Just before that stoppage time is up Kane scores a complete fluke, a mishit lofted pass into the box that their keeper somehow fumbles into the net. Spain go into the attack immediately at the restart, lose the ball and a long ball from our defense puts Rashford through one on one to score the winner.

[kroshot]

January window just shut sold gardner to sunderland for 1.5m and grounds to millwall for 375k brought in a couple of youngsters vodisek and svendsen for 250k each.

[Jogo Bonito]

@smplfc123 Great progress with SWFC. With transfers disabled, you're clearly getting the best out of your players with your choice of tactics, formations etc.  

@kozmik Well done on another 2nd place finish and for finally beating Man Utd! Good success with England too. Are you ever tempted to start somewhere else or you still get lots of enjoyment out of Lincoln?

@kroshot In my game, Birmingham have been doing quite well. You've changed a lot of those players, and it's usually not easy getting the new men to gel quickly. Most people are better FM managers than me though, so maybe it's fine for you!

[kozmik]

@Jogo Bonito Thanks. I've been tempted a few times, but it's been mainly related to being frustrated with the team being too inconsistent. In the end even if I jumped ship, unless it was to a huge club, the same challenge would still be there. Keep on improving the team until you win. The only difference would be that in Lincoln I have a squad that's been built to my taste for a decade, anywhere else I would just have to start over. Now that I'm yet to win any major trophy beyond the championship title back in the 20-21 season there's a great deal left to achieve.

I doubt I'll lose interest until I win the premier league. I just hope I won't have to wait for Mourinho to retire for that to happen.

[Armistice]

Hi, looking for suggestions for a club, preferably in League One or League Two, with a good starting squad and low board expectations, low pressure so I can build them up slowly.

[onionbag]

I'm playing Port Vale, who had enough quality to achieve back to back promotions. I think the first year expectations were top-half, but sorry I no longer recall. It was less than gain promotion anyway.

The good starting squad requirement is a bit sketchy in League Two

[warlock]

6 hours ago, Armistice said:

with a good starting squad and low board expectations, low pressure so I can build them up slowly.

Bit of a conflict there, I think. If the squad is 'good' most boards will expect them to perform so probably looking for playoffs, at least.

You might be better to look for clubs that have the potential to develop - large capacity stadium, good level of support. Portsmouth and Notts County, perhaps? Coventry, Wigan and Blackburn are also good candidates, but their boards will probably expect promotion.

[Armistice]

Fair enough, I don’t necessarily want a quality squad for the league they’re in, but more like not having to bring in lots of players because I have no idea who to bring in, as it would be the first lower league club this year.

I also like to take over lower ranked clubs, because I feel the pressure is less and thus I have bigger chance to overachieve.

[smplfc123]

I've won 10 games out of 16, drawn 4 and lost just 2 games, scoring 35 goals in the process. But because my reputation is semi professional footballer and I've only got a national B licence, the players don't respect me at all. 

Despite picking up 34 points in 16 games, I'm sitting outside of the automatic promotion spots with the Owls as Wolves and surprise package Ipswich have racked up 35 and 37 respectively.

I've had Hutchinson, Lee, Palmer, Hooper and Bannan all already request more game time, which i'm trying to accommodate as best as I can. 

I've finally lost a game, which in a weird way was almost a relief.  Derby beat us 2-0 at Pride Park, with us then going on to lose 2-0 to Leicester in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup. We have also lost 2-0 to Villa away since then, which is no real shame.

Currently in November, starting to eye up some potential in's and out's for the January transfer window.

[Jogo Bonito]

8 hours ago, Armistice said:

Hi, looking for suggestions for a club, preferably in League One or League Two, with a good starting squad and low board expectations, low pressure so I can build them up slowly.

Take a look at Stevenage. Not a big club at all and no high expectations, but a squad with plenty of good young players.

@smplfc123 You're doing a great job. It's a shame about the losses, but we all have to endure them occasionally my friend! Amazing to see Ipswich doing so well, hopefully you'll be in the mix and can add a few in the winter transfer window.

There's two ways of arguing the reputation issue really. For realism are you managing as smplfc, imagining yourself in the hot seat? Or would better realism be to think, as manager of Sheffield Wednesday, what kind of level manager would you need to be to get that job? If you can succeed with that reputation, you are officially a better manager than me!

[Mr_Demus]

Finally got a good game going. With Bristol City. I am not from the UK, but something about Bristol being rather big made me research, and I found it odd that such a big city didn't have a PL team. I am trying to change that.

Brought in Scott McTominay from ManU and Connor Roberts from Swansea on loan and bought  Will Grigg to replace Bobby Reid. 15 points from 11 games is decent I think

 

[Jogo Bonito]

1 minute ago, Mr_Demus said:

Finally got a good game going. With Bristol City. I am not from the UK, but something about Bristol being rather big made me research, and I found it odd that such a big city didn't have a PL team. I am trying to change that.

Brought in Scott McTominay from ManU and Connor Roberts from Swansea on loan and bought  Will Grigg to replace Bobby Reid. 15 points from 11 games is decent I think

 

A very nice choice. Bristol is a thriving city and it's a good club with the potential to sustain top flight existence. They have a really decent squad to start with, and were a team I seriously considered myself as I had great times with them before. I am surprised you have allowed Bobby Reid to go though, he's a real talent that came through the ranks. Enjoy!

[Dan McCullough]

Keep up the good work here lads, you are giving me content to read during work! 

Fair to say things have gone a bit **** at Charlton. Firstly Ahmed Kashi suffered a six month injury which lowered an already small squad down further. However that hasn't been the issue, as we have been around the top two for most of the season. In mid-November, Roland stated he would sell the club to a businessman and began talks. I was placed under an embargo and looking forward to having a new owner who would pay off the huge debts left by the current owner of around £3,000,000. Time went by and we got into mid-January and guess what? Talks broke down. All that, just for this to happen? I was annoyed. Again, that's not the least of my worries. Ezri Konsa was upset I had turned down numerous offers from Premier League clubs, so I reluctantly accepted a £3,000,000 offer from Leicester. Thinking I would get his replacement in, I looked to Sean Raggett and was just waiting for the deal to go through - it did. However, no funds were made available, the debts weren't lowered at all. No, Roland had pocketed it. Now I've been left with a small and injury plagued squad and a huge battle to make the playoffs, as the stuff on the pitch is clearly affecting us on it. Frustrated isn't the word, it really has ruined a very good save for me. Hopefully we can sort it out soon.

[Jogo Bonito]

@Dan McCullough Ah, that's tough. But very much reality for Charlton to go through times like that. Hopefully you can calm things down and get back in to the top six. If not this year, assuming Roland gets booted out, you should be even much stronger in your second season. 

[Mr_Demus]

24 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A very nice choice. Bristol is a thriving city and it's a good club with the potential to sustain top flight existence. They have a really decent squad to start with, and were a team I seriously considered myself as I had great times with them before. I am surprised you have allowed Bobby Reid to go though, he's a real talent that came through the ranks. Enjoy!

Reid never looked a first choice in my tactics and I wasn't actively looking to sell, but Boro made an offer that was too good to refuse (around £2,5 million). Seeing how my strikers have struggled for goals (besides Grigg, who is on fire) I regret the sale somewhat

[Jogo Bonito]

Will Grigg always seems to be on fire! Shame you did that with Reid for only £2.5m, but still plenty of other players there to admire. Best of luck.

[Dan McCullough]

Back to the drawing board it is... I put the blame entirely on the board, as soon as the debt starting to pile up and the horrendous window occurred it went downhill. Roland out. 

@Mr_Demus: Will Grigg is the man, I certainly know a lot about him.  

 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Dan McCullough Oh dear. Roland 1-0 Dan. Will you try again or go with another club? If the latter, might I suggest you don't pick Blackpool

[Dan McCullough]

42 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@Dan McCullough Oh dear. Roland 1-0 Dan. Will you try again or go with another club? If the latter, might I suggest you don't pick Blackpool

Yeah I think it will be a new club and Blackpool are definitely not at the top of my list. 

[smplfc123]

@Jogo Bonito Exactly that mate, I want to do it with my current reputation and licence's as it realistic to me in real life. So i'm just going to have to win them round despite my age and lack of experience.

@Dan McCullough Sorry to see that you've been sacked mate, hope you get going with another club soon.

[Jogo Bonito]

@smplfc123 Understood, I always admire you doing it like that. Keep up the good work.

 

Latest results

Progress update

Ryan Sessegnon, smart lad...

Well, things are going OK with Fulham. We have edged in to the Carabao Cup semi finals after a home win against West Brom. Their late consolation worried me a bit, but we were quite comfortable for the most part. I was delighted to see the draw, as Championship rivals Millwall would appear to be a more favourable opponent than Liverpool or Newcastle, who meet in the other semi. Unfortunately, there isn't going to be a money-spinning FA Cup run to go with it, as we have been drawn to host Liverpool in Round 3.

As we enter the winter transfer window, we now sit 4th in the Championship table. Not bad, but we had been neck and neck with Wolves until the last few matches, and have dropped from 2nd to 4th as a result of no wins in four league matches. This is the lowest position we have been in since the opening day of the season, but hopefully I can adjust one or two small things to put us back on track.

Ryan Sessegnon continues to delight, and he has added a Player of the Month award to his list of achievements already. Unfortunately, his ability is there for everyone to see, and Manchester City are now trying to turn his head. My first chat with him about that went very well, but I am guessing City won't give up easily. Premier League clubs are also interested in Cairney and Johansen, so it's been a bit of a testing time for me.

I'm not looking to do too much in the transfer window, but if I can pick up a couple of permanent players on pre-contract agreements or for modest fees, I might do so. If that happens, I would probably end the loans of Kalas and Norwood as I'd probably be able to use the £37k per week wage saving to cover the transfer fees incurred. I'm aware that I still only have 21 men in my first team squad, although I do have some reserves to call upon (including Rui Fonte). Somehow I've just about managed with this number of players until now, but a couple more could be useful. Financially, we are still doing OK in terms of balance, but it's dropping all the time and cutbacks will need to be made somewhere soon.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I have signed a new contract too. The board seem happy with me, and in turn I have raised the bar a bit by saying we should now attempt to mount a challenge for the play-offs this season. I said this when we were 2nd, and now feel maybe I shouldn't have done that!

[luke4387]

I have decided to take the reigns at Barnet again as I do every FM.  There is no money and I am going with the players, in particular the young players, that I have in the squad with the addition of the odd player on loan.  Barnet have a decent squad and I am looking forward to trying to develop so of the young talent by giving them as much game time as possible and trying to build a team with those that do well.

A quick overview of the squad:

In goal, we have a good no1 in Jamie Stephens and a good solid backup in Craig Ross  However, I have Kai McKenzie-Lyle, 19yo and standing at 6'7'' tall ready to take over during the course of the season or next season at the latest and be no1 for a long-time.  Kai's brother Renell is in the youth team but is not as good nor as tall as Kai.

My two starting fullbacks, right back Richard Brindley and left back Elliott Johnson, are injured long-term.  At left back there is sufficient cover in David Tutonda and Andre Blackman who is pacier than Tutonda.  They will battle it out in pre-season to be the starter in place of Johnson.  At right back, I could drop Mauro Vilhete back from the wing to cover for Brindley but I am going to give the chance to 16yo Dwight Pascal to earn some playing time.  Able to play at right back or centre back, he is one of the best young players at the club and a very exciting prospect.  At centre back, Ricardo Santos will be someone I will be looking to build the defence around.  Barring injury, he will be playing every week.  Alongside him, Charlie Clough likely gets the nod but we have a veteran leader in Michael Nelson as an alternative.  Youngsters Darnell Smith, and in particular Joe Payne, will be given a shot where possible too.  Payne is a left footed centre half which is something I like for balance.  We also have a decent left back prospect named Loic Hernandez who I will be hoping to give a chance to where possible.  I will also be getting Nelson to tutor one of the young lads.

In midfield, there is the experienced Curtis Weston in the middle, along with Ryan Watson and two youngsters in Jack Taylor and Nana Kyei.  Taylor is the best young player at the club and will be the main man in midfield to build our shape around him.  Kyei is versatile and we also have a young lad named Wesley Fonguck who is a defensive midfield/ball winning type who will also be given opportunities this season.  I am also keen to try develop two further youth team players in Tobi Coker and a very intriguing German/Ghanaian youngster named Ivan Agyaakwah.

As mentioned above, Mauro Vilhete will be my starting right winger and I will be looking to bring in a loan player for the left side.  We have an abundance of young attacking midfielders/wingers but none play naturally from the left.  Decent youngster Ephron Mason-Clark will be around the first team, likely on the bench initially.  I will be hoping some of the youth, such as Malaki Hinckson-Mars, Funmaya Shomotun, Dan Francis, Arale Mohamed and Rio Connell develop.

Sadly, our main man, striker John Akinde is out injured for the first few months of the season.  He will be a big miss.  We do have ex-Tottenham prospect Shaquille Coulthirst who has recently signed and I looking to pair him with Akinde when he returns.  Experienced non-league goalscorer Dave Tarpey has recently signed too and will be the primary back up.  I may look to bring in another striker on loan but also have more youngsters available who are worth a shot.  Benjy Aghadiuno will definitely be given some game time, he looks like a good prospect.  Another is Javaan Campbell to keep an eye on too in the u18's.

Two players I have identified as potential loan signings are right back Richard Bakary and striker Olufela Olomola both with bags of pace and both from Southampton's u23 squad.

I have mentioned the younger players a lot and that is something I want to build at Barnet - a young, attack-minded, pacey, athletic team.  I will update this where real-life commitments lets me!

[Jogo Bonito]

@luke4387 Welcome, I really like that review of the Barnet squad. They've been catching my eye (in FM terms) for the last couple of years but I've never been brave enough to accept the challenge. It would be great to see your story unfold, taking them on from virtually rock bottom of the football league, and being happy to give all the youngsters plenty of minutes. It's a shame about Akinde being injured as he has been a very reliable source of goals. I guess you would probably agree he has virtually single-handedly preserved your league status over the last few seasons? I've got lots of time for Tarpey, a non-league legend around Berkshire and hopefully he can step up in game. The injury sustained just after joining was a real blow to his chances of making it, but I hope he will go on to do well (as with Akinola, who always impressed me in non-league). Best of luck with this - but I have to ask, will you be doing it Mad Dog style? I have some fond memories from knowing him when he was number two to Pardew at Reading years ago, he's more astute than people give him credit for.

[luke4387]

Cheers Jogo Bonito. I’m a longtime lurker of these threads and enjoy reading about how people are getting on.

I will be playing a robust and direct style to Akinde (when he returns) and bring others into play from there.

It’s a challenge but with the large amount of youth to blood, something I am looking forward to! Will give an update later hopefully!

[luke4387]

On 28/03/2018 at 15:57, onionbag said:

I'm playing Port Vale, who had enough quality to achieve back to back promotions. I think the first year expectations were top-half, but sorry I no longer recall. It was less than gain promotion anyway.

The good starting squad requirement is a bit sketchy in League Two

You playing Joe Davis/Nathan Smith cb combo? 

[Jogo Bonito]

5 minutes ago, luke4387 said:

Cheers Jogo Bonito. I’m a longtime lurker of these threads and enjoy reading about how people are getting on.

I will be playing a robust and direct style to Akinde (when he returns) and bring others into play from there.

It’s a challenge but with the large amount of youth to blood, something I am looking forward to! Will give an update later hopefully!

That sounds like a good plan. Best of luck with it, and it's nice to see a different team being given some thread time!

[duds]

Dave Tarpey was brilliant for Maidenhead, some of his goals were unreal.

Just YouTube him.

I live in Bracknell (not far from Maidenhead) and mostly watch Bracknell and other local sides play Hellenic League (step 5).

I do try to get to other games and have seen Maidenhead a few times these past few seasons both at step 2 and now step 1.

It was a real shame about Tarpey’s injury especially given his age but I really hope he can bounce back although I suspect himself and Barnet will be back at Confetence (step 1) next season.

This is a great article about him and the life of a part time footballer:

https://www.thenonleaguefootballpaper.com/latest-news/20069/boss-lets-dave-tarpey-leave-work-early-to-travel-225-miles-and-bag-four-goals/

Good luck with your Barnet challenge.

Duds

[Jogo Bonito]

@duds Thanks for sharing, good insight in to Tarpey. Perhaps luke4387 will be the man to give his pro career the stage he deserves

[smplfc123]

18 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@smplfc123 Understood, I always admire you doing it like that. Keep up the good work.

 

Latest results

Progress update

Ryan Sessegnon, smart lad...

Well, things are going OK with Fulham. We have edged in to the Carabao Cup semi finals after a home win against West Brom. Their late consolation worried me a bit, but we were quite comfortable for the most part. I was delighted to see the draw, as Championship rivals Millwall would appear to be a more favourable opponent than Liverpool or Newcastle, who meet in the other semi. Unfortunately, there isn't going to be a money-spinning FA Cup run to go with it, as we have been drawn to host Liverpool in Round 3.

As we enter the winter transfer window, we now sit 4th in the Championship table. Not bad, but we had been neck and neck with Wolves until the last few matches, and have dropped from 2nd to 4th as a result of no wins in four league matches. This is the lowest position we have been in since the opening day of the season, but hopefully I can adjust one or two small things to put us back on track.

Ryan Sessegnon continues to delight, and he has added a Player of the Month award to his list of achievements already. Unfortunately, his ability is there for everyone to see, and Manchester City are now trying to turn his head. My first chat with him about that went very well, but I am guessing City won't give up easily. Premier League clubs are also interested in Cairney and Johansen, so it's been a bit of a testing time for me.

I'm not looking to do too much in the transfer window, but if I can pick up a couple of permanent players on pre-contract agreements or for modest fees, I might do so. If that happens, I would probably end the loans of Kalas and Norwood as I'd probably be able to use the £37k per week wage saving to cover the transfer fees incurred. I'm aware that I still only have 21 men in my first team squad, although I do have some reserves to call upon (including Rui Fonte). Somehow I've just about managed with this number of players until now, but a couple more could be useful. Financially, we are still doing OK in terms of balance, but it's dropping all the time and cutbacks will need to be made somewhere soon.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add that I have signed a new contract too. The board seem happy with me, and in turn I have raised the bar a bit by saying we should now attempt to mount a challenge for the play-offs this season. I said this when we were 2nd, and now feel maybe I shouldn't have done that!

Nice update there mate. Good to see you in the play off places and nice to see you being able to hold on to Sess for now!

I will do my next update at the end of the January transfer window.

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks mate, looking forward to your next update too. I'll do another at the end of the window myself.

[smplfc123]

WINTER UPDATE:

So when I last updated you I left you with the news that we were sitting in 3rd, having only suffered a couple of league defeats.

Fast forward to the end of January and a slight injury crisis coupled with a drop in form, sees us sitting in 6th having now suffered 7 losses. 



The loss of my main golascorers Fletcher and Wallace to long term injuries really did hurt us. We went 8 games without a win, although I wasn't too displeased with draws against Ipswich and Wolves as both were above us.

Thankfully on the turn of the year I managed to turn it around for a few games. Like I said we currently sit in 6th:



3 points separating 5th and 8th, with us up against Birmingham in the next game, the race for the play offs is going to be tight, especially when you throw in those 1 or 2 teams who always have a late surge up from mid table.

I had to do something about my squad. It was a little unbalanced with quite a few players requesting more game time. The squad is an old squad, may be even the highest average age in the league. Loovens and Lee were shipped out as they weren't regulars and didn't have time on their side. I was given a £0 budget so had about £2m to play with from the board after I sold them 2 along with the moaner Joao who was sadly just so inconsistent.



I've brought in Venancio on a permanent deal as he has been excellent so far and with the final agreement being near £3m, I snapped him up for £1m in January instead. Youngster Jack Stobbs bagged 11 assists and 2 goals on loan at Aldershot, so with wallace out and me wanting to invest in youth, I recalled him. Young CB Querios has been brought in loan from Koln as 4th choice CB cover for the departing Loovens and Lys Mouset has been brought in charged with finding the goals that Rhodes and Hooper just aren't getting in Fletchers absence.

The squad are still not on board with me and with them upset about the sale of Lee, it's a tough battle getting an average and ageing squad to stay in those play off positions, but i'm loving every minute of it.

Up the Owls.

[onionbag]

7 hours ago, luke4387 said:

You playing Joe Davis/Nathan Smith cb combo? 

Yes, or I was first season, but now in the Championship and only Smith has the required quality. Davis is no longer a Port Vale player.