FM19: The English Football League thread

[torquayfmer]

Well I think it is safe to say, the permanent signing of him is well and truly out the window!

[Carlf788]

@torquayfmer congrats on promotion! Best way to do it that as well. I would say don't get too downhearted if you do go down and I think a good tip is to not blow loads of money as I found going down and having 40m parachute payment to spend to add to an already good championship team allowed me to get in an even stronger position.

As @Jogo Bonito rightly said 38m is what I had to spend on promotion and it didn't go far at all and I kind of knew I was ill equipped for the PL after that first promotion 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Carlf788

[smplfc123]

Congratulations @torquayfmer on getting Sunderland back in to the prem. Interested to see what you do in the summer.

[DefinitelyTaylor]

23 hours ago, warlock said:

Coming up on the halfway point of the season and can't be anything but delighted with the way things have gone so far

Excellent start. You couldn't have asked for much more and you're picking up some cracking results, the win against Chelsea at Carrow Road will be a particular highlight. I'm surprised to hear of some of your star-performers, in particular Yanic Wildschut - who I would have deemed surplus to requirements in the Championship, let alone the Premier League! 

5 hours ago, Carlf788 said:

Thanks! Yeah we are flying 14 games unbeaten and 3 points clear in mid November.

Glad to hear that your rebuild in the Championship is progressing so well. You should be in a much better position when you ultimately achieve promotion back to the top flight.  

1 hour ago, torquayfmer said:

And we did it! A fantastic performance, my front three showing that they're really too good for this league and taking us up to the promised land!

Congratulations on winning promotion to the Premier League. Lots of success stories!  

[Carlf788]

Back up as champions! I expected nothing less with that squad. Butland and Rondon were the difference, 22 goals conceded in 46 league games is insane! So solid at the back and Rondon got loads of crucial winners. Only 59 goals scored all season is incredible too, so many 1-0 wins! Hogg and Douglas Luiz were like a brick wall in front of the back 4.

I have got 40m to strengthen to make sure I stay up next season. I am going to improve all the backroom staff and the training and youth facilities are getting upgraded. This squad is far better than the one I went up with last time. Think I will just make 2/3 quality additions in attack as not doing that is what got us relegated last time. Just turned down the Bournemouth job who have a lot of money and a far better squad than me but I feel im really building something here. So onto the summer window....

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Carlf788

[DefinitelyTaylor]

1 hour ago, Carlf788 said:

Back up as champions!

Congratulations! The transfer budget you've got at your possession should help to bring in the necessary players to ensure you survive this time round. You are going into the top flight with a significantly better squad. Looking forward to seeing who comes in, especially.

[Carlf788]

Thanks! The squad cohesion is really high and settled so it will only be 3 or 4 quality additions 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Carlf788 Congratulations, that's fantastic 'bouncebackability' as some might say. Incredible defensive stats, I used to love the FM days when I could keep clean sheets on such a regular basis.

I think I have settled on my new EFL team, and it's looking like my first L1 start of this version. Pre-season is over and I'm now preparing for the competitive opener. I've only added one player on loan and none have left yet, but once some of the injured players return, I think that should be enough until the winter transfer window. Now all I need to do is get the Chairman out...

[smplfc123]

Congratulations @Carlf788 on sticking with it and getting them back up. Be interesting to see what you do in the window this time around.

Good luck with your new save @Jogo Bonito, thought I had one going but struggling to get in to one at the moment.

[Jogo Bonito]

5 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

Good luck with your new save @Jogo Bonito, thought I had one going but struggling to get in to one at the moment.

Sorry to hear that and hopefully you find the right club soon. Have you considered L1 or L2? Or perhaps even a trip abroad for a quick change of scenery, maybe you can come back reinvigorated?

I just played my first league game of the season, checked the other results and saw Barnsley 9-2 Oxford

Edited May 18, 2019 by Jogo Bonito

[smplfc123]

@Jogo Bonito Yeah I've just spent the last 30 minutes looking through the lower leagues. I may have to look at a change of scenery in order to recharge my EFL batteries. 

[Jogo Bonito]

3 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

@Jogo Bonito Yeah I've just spent the last 30 minutes looking through the lower leagues. I may have to look at a change of scenery in order to recharge my EFL batteries. 

I do the same when I'm in need of a re-set - but I take just as long picking overseas teams though! I currently have SLB and some German teams in my mind as I've managed FC Porto & Sporting for a season each but have never tried SLB (and want to manage Felix in particular). As for Germany, now they are licenced it might be time to try a Bundesliga side but I can't narrow down on my final three. As for EFL matters, I think I'm going to enjoy my new League 1 club.

For you, I'm thinking Newport or Forest Green Rovers would be really good ones. If I hadn't done FGR before, I would have been back to them, but I quite like (most of) the squad and feel of Newport too. Perhaps we might even push each other along there some time? That kind of competitive edge helped @warlock in his time with Colchester.

[Carlf788]

I have had a bit of a FM binge the last 24 hours so going to have a couple days break now. Summer transfers are done and my squad is set for the PL season. I have spent peanuts as we are forking out a bit to expand the stadium and upgrade facilities and I didnt want to ruin the squad harmony. Hoping to stay away from the bottom 3 this season then invest more after another year of the big money. My best bit of business was keeping Butland away from Arsenal as he is a superb keeper. I have picked up some shrewd buys though too I feel.

 

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Carlf788

[Jogo Bonito]

The Club

Charlton Athletic was formed in 1905 by a group of local teenagers

The club history cites their rise to the top flight in the 1930s and winning the FA Cup in the 1940s as memorable moments in time

The club was forced to leave The Valley in September 1985, and went on to ground share at Selhurst Park for the next seven years

The fans fought long and hard to get back to their spiritual home in SE7, which was eventually achieved in December 1992

And 2019 will mark 100 years of The Valley, where the club first played way back in September 1919

However, it's almost certain that another on-going battle will stifle any celebrations of this milestone

This negativity surrounds the controversial ownership (since January 2014) of Belgian custodian Roland Duchatelet

Hated by the fans (who have boycotted and protested against him) the hope is that he won't be around much longer

Why The Addicks?

Charlton have had a number of nicknames over the years including The Valiants and The Robins, but The Addicks is the one that has stuck

Certainly one of the more unusual nicknames in football, it can be traced back to the club’s formative years

More specifically, back to East Street where the club was formed as it was there that a fishmongers owned by Arthur Bryan was located

Bryan supplied haddock and chips to players from both sides after Charlton’s matches

With South London linguistics coming into play, that became ‘addick and chips’ and thus The Addicks (haddocks) nickname was born

In recognition of this, the new manager of Charlton Athletic for this FM19 adventure is named as Arthur Bryan

The Squad

There wasn't much wrong with existing squad, although four of the 23 would be injured for a minimum of two months

In fact, one of those (and earning a sizeable £6k per week) was Jake Forster-Caskey who would miss the entire season

I decided to offer him (in the last year of his contract) a new deal at a reduced wage of £4k per week until 2021

Luckily he has accepted, so as long as he recovers from that injury, it should be a sensible move to protect a valuable asset

The other issue surrounds fellow midfielder Jonny Williams, on a one-year deal and earning a staggering £15k per week

He is a good player for League 1, but finances are insecure unless a new owner buys the club and invests some capital

Unfortunately, there were no takers at other clubs for the Welshman - either on loan or as a permanent transfer

The player himself wouldn't even talk about a new deal (I would offer 50% maximum), so I am stuck with him for a year now

,  I'd offered out Mark Marshall and Darren Pratley too, as both were over 30 and on decent wages, but again there was no interest

So this left a group of 23, with four of those already on loan at the club

As there was little transfer budget to call upon, I only had one loan slot to use, so changes were going to be minimal 

Noting that Igor Vetokele, Tarique Fosu and Ben Reeves would soon be back in training, I felt I could muddle through with just one addition

And as I had no wide players that I could rely on, I decided that young West Ham winger Nathan Holland would be a perfect fit for my needs

With no outgoings at all by the end of the transfer window, this left me with a final pool of 24 players for the season ahead (20 of them fit)

The only other business I had to take care of was another important contract renewal

 It's well known that the Charlton Academy is one of the best in the country, with 27 graduates representing the first team since August 2012

  Midfielder Joe Aribo (22) was one of those, but would be out of contract in the summer and could be approached as early as January

Luckily, I have been able to retain one of the club's brightest young talents, as he happily signed a new £2k per week deal until 2021

Now all I need is to keep him and striker Lyle Taylor fit, and I think I could be in for a fairly decent season

The striker had scored 44 goals in three years at AFC Wimbledon before joining Charlton on a free transfer in the summer

Expectations are high that he can follow in the footsteps of the popular Clive Mendonca and Derek Hales in scoring 20 league goals in a season

Talking of history, I haven't done much off the pitch, but I've kept the London theme I wanted to implement

So, returning to The Valley are Alan Curbishley (legend) as DOF and Mark Kinsella (icon) as U18 coach

The only other new staff to arrive are Eva Carneiro (Physio) and Dean Wilkins (Coach)

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Jogo Bonito

[BadAss88]

2 hours ago, Carlf788 said:

I have had a bit of a FM binge the last 24 hours so going to have a couple days break now. Summer transfers are done and my squad is set for the PL season. I have spent peanuts as we are forking out a bit to expand the stadium and upgrade facilities and I didnt want to ruin the squad harmony. Hoping to stay away from the bottom 3 this season then invest more after another year of the big money. My best bit of business was keeping Butland away from Arsenal as he is a superb keeper. I have picked up some shrewd buys though too I feel.

 

 

Sorry to say, but those transfers seem a bit weak, or am I completly wrong here? They seem like Championship-players to me..

Nonetheless, I admire what you have accomplished with the Bees!

[Carlf788]

They aren't great I agree but I only have 20m left over and 20m in the balance as we are spending a good chunk on facilities. There wasn't really many good players who want to come to Brentford at the moment anyhow. I still think that squad will be enough to stay up.  Couple of decent defenders in that lot and Vada has some great attributes for a playmaker.

Butland is in the top 5 keepers in the league. Badiashille, hogg, skhri are solid PL players. James Benrahma and Rondon all are too in my oppinion. 

Cheers for the praise though! 

[torquayfmer]

Great going @Carlf788, brilliant to get straight back up. While the transfers aren't amazing players, they will hopefully be solid enough to get you through the first season back up and starting to build. A season in the Premier League will help you to attract better players for the season after.

@Jogo Bonito best of luck with Charlton, definitely an interesting save!

I'm currently just getting through the transfer window with Sunderland, and decided I'd start from the back and work the way forward through the team, trying to make the defense as solid as can be. 

[DefinitelyTaylor]

16 hours ago, Carlf788 said:

Summer transfers are done and my squad is set for the PL season.

Definitely a lot stronger than last time you were in the division. Big fan of you signing Ben Davies, as he happens to have been born in my hometown, Barrow-in-Furness. Best of luck next season.

14 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Hated by the fans (who have boycotted and protested against him) the hope is that he won't be around much longer

Ahh, I was wrong in my initial guess - I thought you could have been heading to the Ricoh Arena! Good luck with Charlton, if you can replicate just a smudge of the success @Dong21 has achieved in his time there, you'll have done a great job. 

[Carlf788]

Thanks. Yeah 100% I have a better team than last time. Having Butland fills me with a lot of confidence his stats are insane. 

Ben Davies is a good buy at 4.5m, he's a good ball playing defender too which fits my system. I do have 22m left to spend so I am tempted to splash all that on one marquee type signing if I can find the right one to finish the team off and give us that extra quality, a number 10 would be top of the list I think.

[BeadyRoller]

Anyone had any experiences with Neil Maupay from Brentford? Just signed him for my Ipswich side. Attributes look good.

[Dong21]

Welcome to The Valley @Jogo Bonito! It's a great club and I hope you have as much fun managing them as I have had. I look forward to seeing how you get on.

Also I didn't realise I've been managing the haddocks all this time, so cheers for that!

 

[Jogo Bonito]

@BeadyRoller I've not managed Maupay, but Carlf788 must have done. He seemed to score well in the second tier when I was there with Swansea (I tried to sign him at one stage), so I guess it depends what league you are in with Ipswich.

Thanks @torquayfmer and good luck sorting your PL squad out.

@Carlf788 Best wishes on your top flight return with Brentford. Definitely a better group than you had last time around, although perhaps the best players are those that took you up rather than those you have signed for the new season. I hope it works out for you.

@DefinitelyTaylor Thanks. I've managed Coventry many times during the SISU years but don't fancy that again right now. The other contenders for me were Bristol Rovers and Southend, I quite like the look of their squads with much lower expectations upon them. I'm hopeful I can do well with Charlton, whilst at the same time hoping that Roland Rat gets out before he realises there may be a financial benefit in staying! The squad is definitely one of the best in League 1, which brings pressure to succeed. I can absolutely guarantee that I won't be taking them as far as Dong21 has though!

@Dong21 Your legacy at The Valley is certainly safe, I don't have the stamina to do what you have done (and wouldn't achieve all that you have anyway). Can you cast your mind back to your first few seasons and remind me where you finished in the years before the PL? What year did Roland get ousted, and what kind of takeover did you get? Up The Haddocks

 

Charlton Season 1 - Part 1

After a solid pre-season, in which I found and stuck defiantly to one single tactic and formation, I was optimistic for the new campaign

I was surprised to beat Sunderland comfortably in the season opener (in the BETDAQ Derby) and that set the tone for what followed

The only loss so far was in the Carabao Cup, with Millwall grabbing a narrow win at The Valley

In the league I have won six and drawn four of the opening 10 games, which is very satisfactory

If I want to be critical, I could point to home draws against Shrewsbury and Wycombe as points dropped - but that would be unfair

The boys are unbeaten on the road with other wins over a battling Southend side and Bradford, and a credible draw at high-flying Luton too

And at home, spurred on by the promise of post-match haddock and chips, I've looked unbeatable (so far)

You'll be surprised to see that Josh Parker is by far the most frequent scorer in my team, but there is a reason for that

After a great pre-season, Lyle Taylor scored on an impressive debut but then got injured in training before the Shrewsbury home game

His calf injury kept him out for more than a month, before he returned from the bench at Bradford

During his absence, Igor Vetokele was also still injured and I made some questionable decisions over who to select

Without wishing to disrupt the formation and tactics, I utilised natural wingers as the advanced forward alongside Parker

As Tarique Fosu was unfit for most of that period too, it often fell upon Nathan Holland to plug a gap for the team

And he, and then latterly Fosu, did the job well with their pace causing problems until Vetokele and Taylor became available again

In our Checkatrade Trophy game, I recall even having to pair both wingers in attack as Parker was on international duty

I also lost Naby Sarr to injury just before the new season, but had the dependable Jason Pearce to step in

Sarr has been back since the Checkatrade Trophy win over Plymouth, but the club VC did very well in his absence

Further forward, Aribo has also been in fine form, fitting nicely in to the role I assigned him

In fact, if you are happy with your 'keepers, defence, midfield and forwards (which I am), there isn't much to grumble about really 

This is how I have set the team up, and I've decided to shoehorn players in to these roles if absences force a change of personnel 

In other news, I'm hoping that the club ownership will be sorted soon, and ideally before the winter transfer window to avoid embargo effects

The latest word on this is best explained by news reports on 17th and 22nd September respectively, so watch this space

And I end this update with this headline, which may at first glance seem unremarkable

But I applaud FM for what I can only assume is a Thunderbirds reference attributed to Parker's match-winning display at Southend...

 

Now that I have Taylor back in the side, I look forward to seeing what the next few months brings for the club

I know that a defeat will happen, and probably soon, but I couldn't have asked for a better to start to my new job so far.

Edited May 19, 2019 by Jogo Bonito

[Carlf788]

4 hours ago, BeadyRoller said:

Anyone had any experiences with Neil Maupay from Brentford? Just signed him for my Ipswich side. Attributes look good.

He was a goal machine in the Championship big reason why I got promoted but then sold him to Villa for 14m before my first PL season. Regretted it a bit after but his level seems to be a very good championship striker as he didn't do much at Villa in the PL and is transfer listed now 

[Carlf788]

I took onboard the feedback about my transfers and agree I needed something more so I have spent the last hour or so working on deals for a marquee signing who is a level above anything I had. I had 32m to spend so I spent 5m on Chong and then 26.5m club record on this guy from Monaco. Really excited about him he looks a special playerand only 21 year old

 

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Carlf788

[Carlf788]

Fantastic start to our second coming in the PL, Rondon getting a first half hat-trick and a Bongiovanni assist on his debut to come from behond to smash Bournemouth. I feel a decent season coming on

[Dong21]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@Dong21 Your legacy at The Valley is certainly safe, I don't have the stamina to do what you have done (and wouldn't achieve all that you have anyway). Can you cast your mind back to your first few seasons and remind me where you finished in the years before the PL? What year did Roland get ousted, and what kind of takeover did you get? Up The Haddocks

Now you're testing my memory Jogo! Good job we write these updates, so I can remind myself. Looking back, I won League One in my first season, followed by a season of consolidation in which we came 13th in the Championship and then my third year we went on to win the Championship. Unusually I had two takeovers in the first season, both local businessmen. The first had no money, the second had a small amount of money. I see your potential new owner is described as a tycoon so it looks like exciting times could be ahead for you.

Great result that, @Carlf788 - Bongiovanni already making an impact for you. Talking of starts to the season, we have just started our eight season in style too:

Only problem is results can only really go downhill from here!

[Carlf788]

Nice! You have Chong as well. How much did Tymon cost as I always get quoted a fortune for him 

[Dong21]

3 minutes ago, Carlf788 said:

How much did Tymon cost as I always get quoted a fortune for him 

He cost me £9.75m in January 2022 - so relatively cheap really. He's always been solid for me. I've got a 21 year old Spanish left back who is currently pushing him for his place at the moment.

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks @Dong21 it will be interesting to see what happens compared with your early years. Great result against Man Utd, it's as if Ole was still at the wheel...

@Carlf788 A cracking start, pleased your new record signing is making an early contribution.

[john1]

1 hour ago, Dong21 said:

Now you're testing my memory Jogo! Good job we write these updates, so I can remind myself. Looking back, I won League One in my first season, followed by a season of consolidation in which we came 13th in the Championship and then my third year we went on to win the Championship. Unusually I had two takeovers in the first season, both local businessmen. The first had no money, the second had a small amount of money. I see your potential new owner is described as a tycoon so it looks like exciting times could be ahead for you.

Great result that, @Carlf788 - Bongiovanni already making an impact for you. Talking of starts to the season, we have just started our eight season in style too:

Only problem is results can only really go downhill from here!

Played at Stamford Bridge?

 

Going to start with Cheltenham Town as they are local.

Edited May 19, 2019 by john1

[Dong21]

@john1 The Valley is being expanded by 13k seats so we’ve moved into Stamford Bridge for the season. 

Good luck at Cheltenham! 

[john1]

Not a great start with Cheltenham, Lost 1-0 to Crawley, despite dominating the game, they got the winner with 3 mins to go  Again lost 1-0 to Tranmere Rovers, missed a chance to get a draw but penalty got saved, also dominated the game too. Started with 4-4-2, got West Brom next in Carabao cup, god help me.

 

EDIT: Lost 3-0, played well but they took their chances.

Edited May 19, 2019 by john1

[Jogo Bonito]

@john1 Good luck with Cheltenham, managing clubs like them will require time and patience so don't panic yet.

[warlock]

I see you've all been busy while I was away . Let's start with congratulations to @torquayfmer and @Carlf788 on their return to the Premier League .

@john1, good to have you with us. And as JB said, it's likely to be a tough gig there so give it some time.

@Jogo Bonito, an interesting choice of save... took me by surprise, not only because @Dong21 has set such a high bar there but because it's a bit of a dice-roll regarding the takeover. But it looks like you're off to a flying start, with an interesting choice of tactic, too. Looking forward to continued success! (I do wonder how many of us would have spotted the potential Parker reference?)

I'm only a few hours off the plane - brilliant weekend, thanks for asking - so haven't loaded up the Norwich save yet. But I might sneak in a couple of games before bed!

[DefinitelyTaylor]

6 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I know that a defeat will happen, and probably soon, but I couldn't have asked for a better to start to my new job so far.

Great work thus far, Jogo. You seem to have juggled all your injury issues well in order to continue to enjoy a strong start to the season. The midfield three of Aribo, Cullen and Williams is something a lot of League One teams will be envious of, especially working behind a lethal striker like Lyle Taylor.

4 hours ago, Carlf788 said:

Fantastic start to our second coming in the PL, Rondon getting a first half hat-trick and a Bongiovanni assist on his debut to come from behond to smash Bournemouth. I feel a decent season coming on.

Great result there. A lot of money was spent on Bongiovanni, so he has high hopes to live up to - but he certainly will if he continues to play like he did against Bournemouth. Hopefully you can continue to build on that. Confidence is key in picking up results and you'll certainly have that after such a strong result to open the season.

4 hours ago, Dong21 said:

Only problem is results can only really go downhill from here!

Not bad at all! Who knows, you might go to smash teams from this point on.  

[Jogo Bonito]

@warlock Welcome back and I'm pleased you had a great time, wherever you were lucky enough to go! I like to keep things interesting, so yes it's a bit of a surprising destination for me I suppose. Anyway, as things have taken a new direction, there is just time for a short update before turning off...

Charlton Season 1 - Part 2

A mixed bag of results in October saw three league wins and three league defeats

Scunthorpe handed out the first league defeat, but the Walsall game was even worse

The home form remains excellent, and an exciting 3-2 win over 2nd placed Barnsley and then Oxford pushed me back to the top

Last time out I gambled late on at Rochdale, but it backfired and they scored the only goal after 88 minutes

That means my team had suffered a third straight loss on the road, which is something that needs addressing

The league remains tight, with some very good teams at the top end of the table

This month I slipped from top to 4th, before returning to the summit, and then dropping to 3rd after the last outing

But bigger news can be spotted in the financial graph on the right of the below image

The takeover (and the end of Roland Rat)

On 8th October it emerged that Chinese investor Luo Chao was expecting to take control - and he had very ambitious plans

The takeover finally completed on 23rd October, with his £90m purchase approved by the EFL

After restructuring the finances, the club balance now sits at a massive (and healthy) £66m

The new owner also ended the affiliate link with Ujpest in Hungary (about time too, as it was worthless)

And he increased the % of transfer revenue from 0% to 100%

For some reason, even by the end of the month the transfer budget of £342,000 hasn't been increased at all though

Hopefully that will be the case if I'm still in a job at January, as that could be an interesting window

I am a bit sad to see Richard Murray leaving, he has been a great servant to the club before and during difficult times

 

Edited May 19, 2019 by Jogo Bonito

[DefinitelyTaylor]

2 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Hopefully that will be the case if I'm still in a job at January.

I would be extremely concerned if you weren't in the job come January, you are certainly enjoying a good enough start from my perspective - despite a little bit of a blip across the last few games. I'm confident you'll make the necessary changes in order to address that. The takeover certainly brings in a whole different narrative to the save and makes it an extremely exciting prospect. I'm intrigued to see how the investment will come and how these plans and ambitions of the owner will come to fruition.

[Jogo Bonito]

Thanks @DefinitelyTaylor I don't really know what will happen from here, but I will try to remain focused on the job in hand whilst the new owner settles in. There will be an increased expectation and pressure, so I'm not sure if this will turn out to be a good thing or not.

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

There will be an increased expectation and pressure, so I'm not sure if this will turn out to be a good thing or not.

Yeah, but I have no doubt you'll do fine.

1 hour ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

I'm intrigued to see how the investment will come and how these plans and ambitions of the owner will come to fruition.

Me too!

[warlock]

Norwich: Season 2, February

After a flying start to life in the Premier League, it was probably inevitable that we'd hit the buffers at some point. That point came shortly after my last update. Perhaps not surprisingly, it coincided with a long-term injury to Xadas who was out until late January with a sports hernia.

The losses against Tottenham and Liverpool bothered me not at all, but the defeats against Palace and a struggling Newcastle were immensely disappointing. A draw against Newcastle in the FA Cup was marginally better, and I'd targetted the game against Derby as a must-win to halt our poor form. The lads duly delivered with our best performance in an age, only to collapse in the cup replay, followed by a terrible performance against relegation-threatened Burnley. So I was expecting the worst when runaway leaders Man City came to town, but the team exceeded expectations again and held out for a fantastic goalless draw.

Despite that run of poor results, we've somehow managed to hang on to a top-10 position, as our nearest rivals continued to struggle (although the top 6 are opening up quite a gap on the chasing pack). Our next game is a visit to Fulham, which looks promising but they spanked Leicester 5-2 away in their most recent match so I'm less confident that I was.

The player stats show the root of our problem - we can't score. Xadas still leads the scoring charts with just 6, while the goals from elsewhere in the midfield have dried up. And our strikers are contributing little and nothing... little from Bautista who has 5 in 9(10) appearances, and nothing from Inglese who has not added to his tally in the 14 starts since his opening day debut.

The January window saw a little movement. DM Alexander Tettey, who was in rapid decline, drew a bid of £1m from Havre AC, which was rapidly accepted. He has been replaced by OL's Lucas Tousart, who joined for £10m. The only other change saw a struggling Angel Gomes return to Man Utd, to be replaced in a like-for-like swap by the (hopefully) more capable Mason Mount from Chelsea. The only downside of those changes has been a temper tantrum by club captain Grant Hanley, who wasn't happy with the loss of Tettey. Unreasonable and unprofessional, in my opinion, and he has been silently marked for assassination - or a transfer out at the earliest opportunity.

On my favoured list are Klose and Pinnock in defence, GK Horn who has 8 clean sheets in 24 games, and Xadas and Leitner in midfield. The youngsters in the squad - Aarons, Lewis, Godfrey and Cantwell - are doing well enough, although prone to a poor game as might be expected. Those subject to reevaluation before the end of the season include both strikers and the underperforming Onel Hernandez.

With the squad as it stands, I'm hopeful that we can secure a top-10 finish, possibly as high as 7th or 8th. I'd be hugely disappointed if we collapse from here and get sucked into a relegation battle.

[john1]

Brilliant to see you got tycoon owner   @Jogo Bonito

@warlock Decent position standing so far despite suffering defeats.  

Just lost 2-1 to Carlisle, despite taking the lead ffs.  Cameron Pring, constantly making too many mistakes and gifted them the winning goal   Made mistakes continually in first 3 games. Sitting bottom of the league  Personally, I don't think we are doing too bad at all despite losing so far, just need to tweak little bit and hopefully we can turn it around.

[warlock]

1 hour ago, john1 said:

just need to tweak little bit and hopefully we can turn it around

That's the spirit!! I recall one save where we lost the first six games of the season before going on to make the playoffs. Just takes a little spark - even a draw will often do the trick. Good luck!

[DefinitelyTaylor]

2 hours ago, warlock said:

After a flying start to life in the Premier League, it was probably inevitable that we'd hit the buffers at some point. That point came shortly after my last update.

A shame to see your form slid, however you're still in a great position in the table and also have a good number of points on the board, that should allow you to remain in the Premier League. It would require a complete meltdown for you to have any concerns, in my view. The lack of goals is a concern and therefore it's understandable that due to Xadas' injury, you have been unable to gain the necessary results. Having a vital player out of your side always requires somebody to step up and replace him - it seems nobody is doing that for you, unfortunately, at the present moment in time. Tousart's addition should bring some further quality to the midfield, alongside the loan addition of Mount, who can seek to aid your strikers by providing the service. Tetty's departure makes more a lot of sense, even if Hanley disagrees. Top ten is very much still a possibility, it would just require a couple of wins to get the momentum flowing once again.

1 hour ago, john1 said:

Just lost 2-1 to Carlisle, despite taking the lead ffs.  Cameron Pring, constantly making too many mistakes and gifted them the winning goal   Made mistakes continually in first 3 games. Sitting bottom of the league  Personally, I don't think we are doing too bad at all despite losing so far, just need to tweak little bit and hopefully we can turn it around.

Hard luck.. It seems Pring is someone you may need to drop in order to see an improvement in results; if he is costing you as much as you say. Small tweaks can work wonders, so I hope that it can bring some fortune to you! 

[warlock]

Fairy tales can come true...

Adam Idah is one of the bright prospects (among many) in the Norwich squad. Here he is:

I've been giving him a few minutes off the bench here and there. Including our most recent match, a home game against 2nd placed Man Utd. We were under the cosh for most of the game, as you'd expect. The defence played up a storm, denying the Red Devils at every turn, but we couldn't create much going forward. Until the 88th minute when Benrahma picked up the ball out wide on the right, raced past the United midfield and slipped a through-ball to the on-rushing Idah who took it in stride and...

Edited May 20, 2019 by warlock

[john1]

@warlockFantastic win  

 

Just put 4 past Burton  They are currently 6th in League 1. Would be brilliant if I can get to third round!

[warlock]

2 minutes ago, john1 said:

Just put 4 past Burton

There you go! That could be the springboard.

[john1]

Just now, warlock said:

There you go! That could be the springboard.

Hopefully! We are currently 18th after 17 games.

 

WIll be tough!

[DefinitelyTaylor]

1 hour ago, warlock said:

Until the 88th minute when Benrahma picked up the ball out wide on the right, raced past the United midfield and slipped a through-ball to the on-rushing Idah who took it in stride and...

Great stuff! Nothing better then when a youngster repays your faith in them - but what a great time to do so!  

43 minutes ago, john1 said:

Hopefully! We are currently 18th after 17 games.

Congratulations on a terrific win against Burton. You seem to get steadying the ship, so onwards and upwards hopefully! 

[warlock]

1 minute ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

Great stuff! Nothing better then when a youngster repays your faith in them - but what a great time to do so!  

One of the things I love about FM... yes, it has its issues, but moments like that make you jump out of your seat and scare the cat 

[warlock]

Norwich: Season 2, end of season

Well, that went better than expected!

As of our last update, I noted that Fulham had just spanked Leicester by 5-2 and feared the result. As if by magic they spanked us 5-2 as well. The next two games went to bookie's expectation as we beat struggling Huddersfield and then lost to high-flying Arsenal. And our form remained mixed through the next month - I was pleased by the win against Watford, but disappointed by the draws against Bournemouth and Wolves, both of whom were some way below us in the table. Going into April I made a tactical switch that proved to be a stroke of genius (he said modestly!). We had been playing with wingbacks on support, and a mentality of positive at home and balanced away. At the beginning of April I switched down our mentality to balanced at home and cautious away, but changed both FBs to fullbacks on attack duty, with the aim of making giving us more penetration from deep but lowering the level of risk overall. The result was four wins and two draws from our remaining 7 games, including that magnificent win against Man Utd.

Which saw us finish the season like so:

And our last game saw us secure European football, thanks to Leicester's drop in form as much as our results. As seems to be the case with so many of my saves, it was our defensive form that produced the goods; we struggled for goals all season long and never found the solution - Xadas finished as top scorer with 9 goals from midfield, although Bautista provided 8 and 2 assists in the end. Shoutout to Said Benrahma, too, who provided 9 assists and 6 goals of his own.

Which gives me a decision to make: should I stay or should I go now? The board have given me a generous £52m for transfers, and a significant uplift in the wage budget. Which is very tempting, but so is a challenge at the other end of the Championship: can I do better with Ipswich? Think I'll sleep on that one...