higgins Posted December 27, 2017 Share Posted December 27, 2017 As you could imagine this is not related to Stalin's famous economic plan, it's my FM18 project with PNE, the historical English club well known for their invincible season back in 1888-89, now I'm going to bring back those glory days to Deepdale, I set a quite ambitious goal for this challenge, winning the Champions League in five years from the start of the game. A promotion in 1-2 season would be highly needed, then I'll have 4-3 years to qualify and finally win he UCL, not easy and probably it will take more than five years but if you aim high you won't shoot your foot off... I'm using the last official database to play this. Quick facts Transfer budget: 2.5M euro Wage budget: 11.3 M Deepdale stadium: 23.400 all-seater Great training facilities Average youth facilities and recruitment I started the save some days ago and I'm in February while I'm writing this opening post, so a quick recap regarding our transfers is needed, I only spent 575k, but in January some big offers arrived for two of my players: Jordan Hugill (St) and Ben Pearson (Dmc), I was glad to sell Hugill cause he was only a rotating option in my squad but I refused the money for Pearson, surely one of my best players and a leader in the dressing room as well, unfortunately the board accepted the 20M (could become 26) offer from Leicester and sold him. After that some young players joined PNE on loan, I'm going to test them carefully and see if they could have a future here. Anyway the team is still competitive as we're doing well in the league with my 2-4-4 tactic, our current style of play is mainly focused on scoring more than our opponents and the overall record confirms that: 78 goals scored in 34 games (51 conceded). We're leading the Championship right now even if is still a tough affair with many teams really close, I really hope to avoid playoffs (I hate them...) but everything could happen here. Thanks for reading and feel free to ask if you want to know more, more updates will follow here and on twitter: @Armchair_Gaffer , by the way, the title of this thread is an obvious homage to sir Tom Finney, a true PNE legend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 27, 2017 Author Share Posted December 27, 2017 This is my team hierarchy, not sure what your thoughts are about this new feature, personally I found that when you have players moaning for the lack of game time or begging for a new contract, if you have competent team leaders they help a lot to improve your dressing room atmosphere and keep players happy. I often ask Cunningham and Maxwell to intervene and fix these usual problems with very good results, this way you only have to worry about your team leaders happiness... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 27, 2017 Author Share Posted December 27, 2017 Well done Sean! My complete forward Sean Maguire just scored 2 vs. Reading in a brilliant 4-0 win far from home and reached 21 goals over this season, top PNE scorer. ...and this is the table with 5 games left: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted December 27, 2017 Share Posted December 27, 2017 You can do it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 27, 2017 Author Share Posted December 27, 2017 Two games to go but we already won promotion to the EPL, nicely done ! But the season is not over, we can win the league... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 27, 2017 Author Share Posted December 27, 2017 13 minuti fa, john1 ha scritto: You can do it Done! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted December 27, 2017 Share Posted December 27, 2017 Well done mate Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 A brilliant season, you already know about PNE promotion but we did even better, we won the league and we did it with the best attack (107 goals) and the best G.D. (+39), surely a good start for building something important and reach our main goal: the UCL in five years. Many players had an outstanding season, the system I'm using (2-4-4 tactic) served them well, obviously they're now knocking at my door to ask more money and even if PNE finances are in a good state, I'm going to be careful here as some of them are not premiership material, on a positive I don't have players with expiring contracts so I have time to evalute things properly. Quick stats Goals Sean Maguire (23) Leon Marinic (16) Daniel Johnson (12) Assists Daryl Horgan (14) Tom Barkhuizen (14) Darnell Fisher (7) Av. Rat. Tom Barkhuizen (7.39) Darnell Fisher (7.34) Tommy Spurr (7.31) Interceptions per 90 min. Ben Davies (7.33) Tommy Spurr (7.17) Raphael Diarra (6.47) My best signings this year have been Diarra and Marinic, two bargains that are growing well, I'm curious to see how they could cope with the EPL. Raphael Diarra (Dc) Leon Marinic (Fw) This is PNE squad at the end of season one, some of the players on loan have an agreed price clause, for example I could sign Morgan Gibbs-White for 1.8 M, he didn't play too much this season cause he only joined in January but he should have some potential, plus he's English. Maitland-Niles could leave Arsenal on a free, it would be another decent business... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 Well that's quite a start, well done. At the moment we seem to be doing similar-ish challenges (I just took over a few seasons in with Derby - and just got beaten by Preston!) so will keep an interested eye on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 5 ore fa, noikeee ha scritto: Well that's quite a start, well done. At the moment we seem to be doing similar-ish challenges (I just took over a few seasons in with Derby - and just got beaten by Preston!) so will keep an interested eye on. I just read your thread, brilliant career so far and good luck with the Rams, English championship is always a challenging league but going up is really rewarding Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 I'd like to mix more traditional career updates with something tactical, here I'm going to give you some info about my tactical setup. Here you have the "with the ball screen" average positions or wibble, if you're old enough, and you see the 2-2-4 in all its splendor, up top the trequartista drop more but both my central attackers are creative players, so they often try to play in the hole to open up spaces for the inside forwards; at the same time my two complete wingbacks play very high being able to put pressure and recycle possession in our opponents half, when the inside forwards cut in they try to reach the byline and deliver some dangerous crosses. Defensively the complete wingbacks, in spite of being on attacking duties, are still capable to protect the flanks (we're somehow still sensible to quick counter attacks when we lose the ball during offensive transitions though), the trequartista retreats and help the central midfielders to block the lines of passage, here the complete forward is more isolated but try to put pressure on the defensive line. This tactic is based on short passing and possession, but playing it mainly on standard mentality we have more time on the ball in deeper zones of the pitch and we can still launch quick counter-attacks which often surprise our opponents, unable to cope with my fast wide flankers. We already know that having players capable to cross the ball is vital in FM 18 and the stats say we're slightly better than our opponents doing that, what's more interesting is that through balls are the second source of goals for PNE and here we're a lot better than the other teams (24 vs.10). I'm only using 6 TI's currently and I don't feel the need to add more of them, the goal is to keep a narrow shape: In the Championship we had decent players skilled enough to quickly move the ball around and keep possession but we'll probably have to face some problems next season, when we'll have to do the same things with less time on the ball available. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 28, 2017 Author Share Posted December 28, 2017 It seems a takeover saga suddenly started in Preston, for now no transfers are allowed... Business tycoon Matt Finch? I don't know him, to be fair I'm not sure this was needed right now, our financial situation isn't that bad, furthermore after our recent promotion was improving... This month red is mainly due to our newly installed undersoil heating, but wage and transfer budget were decent, let's see what could happen now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 29, 2017 Author Share Posted December 29, 2017 I'm in the summer before my EPL debut with Preston, recently the club was involved in a takeover, things went well at the end, I'm still here and we have a new owner, Mr. Matt Finch, who just added 11 M to our transfer kitty, now we have 47 M for the market, contract renewals and transfer moves will keep me busy. Meanwhile Daryl Horgan, my Irish inside forward was voted Best player of the Championship, but he wasn't the only one to achieve something... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajcardall Posted December 29, 2017 Share Posted December 29, 2017 Good luck! My Grandfather-in-law (that is, the wife's Grandfather) played for Preston for several years so got a soft spot for them. Hope you meet your aims! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 29, 2017 Author Share Posted December 29, 2017 12 minuti fa, ajcardall ha scritto: Good luck! My Grandfather-in-law (that is, the wife's Grandfather) played for Preston for several years so got a soft spot for them. Hope you meet your aims! Thanks, I'll do my best Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
higgins Posted December 29, 2017 Author Share Posted December 29, 2017 There's a problem at PNE, it's about Ben Davies unhappiness for no apparent reason, I delayed his contract renewal and he's upset since then. Some months ago I offered him a new deal and he accepted, unfortunately he's still unhappy cause "I broke too many promises" and nothing has changed during these months. Moreover other players are strangely supporting him against me, this thing is starting to ruin our dressing room atmosphere. Ben Davies comes from PNE youth team and this will be useful when we'll qualify for Europe due to Uefa registration rules, what should I do? To sell or not to sell? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobby_McDonald Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Very good first season Higgins. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted January 1, 2018 Share Posted January 1, 2018 Decent budget for the Premier League season Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 On 29/12/2017 at 19:20, higgins said: There's a problem at PNE, it's about Ben Davies unhappiness for no apparent reason, I delayed his contract renewal and he's upset since then. Some months ago I offered him a new deal and he accepted, unfortunately he's still unhappy cause "I broke too many promises" and nothing has changed during these months. Moreover other players are strangely supporting him against me, this thing is starting to ruin our dressing room atmosphere. Ben Davies comes from PNE youth team and this will be useful when we'll qualify for Europe due to Uefa registration rules, what should I do? To sell or not to sell? I'd get rid of him, dressing room atmosphere makes a huge difference in this FM and a recurring problem like that will hurt you. You could try waiting it out as sometimes player unhappiness goes away with time, but I'm not sure that happens to "too many promises broken" guys. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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