[FM19] BIG Glenn knows how to go BIG

[bestbrother]

BIGG'ericay Town

[bestbrother]

2018/19

There was only one outcome acceptable here and that was promotion, ideally via winning the League but if it came via the playoffs, so be it, 'Ricay need to be in the Vauxhall Conference as soon as possible.

Heavy investment was made (more on that later) so a quick start was needed and got as we topped the table with big wins against Truro and Concord Rangers, whilst ticking it over collecting regular points with 3-1 wins over St Albans, Woking and Hampton & Richmond. Ironically through all this our only defeats would come at home, the heaviest by Dulwich Hamlet 1-4 a team that would feature heavily in our future this season.

6 straight wins heading over the New Year, that included a pair of derby wins over Chelmsford (2-0 & 1-0) would place us in a comfortable top spot as only Dulwich were able to keep relative pace as we made the most of our strong squad depth. However our home frailties once again frustrated us, Welling and Torquay would come away from 'Ricay with the maximum, this gave Dulwich the advantage and as we headed into a crucial clash with our rivals, the table looked increasingly uneasy....

We had to win on their patch. It looked all too easy as we led 2-0 with 20 to play, but the pressure got to our star studded lineup and within 10 minutes we had been pegged back. A draw would have been as good as waving the white flag, fortunately we had the quality to put our foot down once more and revenge for our home hammering could not have been sweeter than this...

Dulwich still held the advatange but they would slip, whilst we gassed on with 3 straight wins before a draw at Dartford in our penultimate game would leave us needing just a point at home to Bath in the season finale. Dulwich meanwhile would travel to Weston Super Mare knowing that they had to win to make the most of any slip up..

Well that looked like happening, half time at 'Ricay and although we had led 1-0, we were 1-3 down... scandalous, near on 3000 fans had turned up, yet we were choking. The crowd murmurmed with discontent as those with wireless radios found out that Dulwich were leading 1-0 and if things didnt change, they would win the League and we would fall into the ignominy of a playoff place.

Jamie O'Hara would smash home a goal to rally the 'Ricay in the second half, but the biggest cheer would circle the ground when news trickled through that Dulwich had been pegged back, they now needed to score, whilst another goal for us would kill all momentum they had.

In the end both games fizzled out as they were, we would win the title on the back of a dramatic defeat but it mattered little as wild scenes would ensue with BIG Glenn rolling out the champagne and more to spark the wildest party ever seen in Billericay!

CHAMPIONS!

 

We had hoped to make the 1st Round Proper but it wasnt to be as comfortable wins over Willard and then Bognor Regis, would see us only to fall 0-3 at Barnet in the 4th Qualifying Round. There was money to be made but there were bigger fish to fry this year.

4th Qualifying Round

 

More realistic hopes here of doing something special and at one point it looked like we could. Wins at East Thurrock and Truro would push us into the 2nd Round. We then won a 5 goal thriller at Blyth, before losing out in a 7 goal thriller at Hereford as a chance of a Quarter Final place was squandered against a team well below our stature.

3rd Round

 

Transfers

Everyone knows that BIG Glenn loves a name, so it was only right we chased as many ex-Professionals as we could.  There was money available and it would have been wrong for the club not to spend it. Off we went around the UK recruiting anyone who knew the value of a £ and by the end of it, we had a squad that wouldnt have looked out of place in a Panini Premier League sticker album...

Our only 2 cash purchases saw Kane Ferdinand (of the famed footballing family dynasty) get his chance to get back into full time football, whilst Danny Rowe saw sense and the potential at the club dropping down from the Championship for a club record £100,000.

 

Squad Recap

 

Club Notes

• Left Back Callum Kennedy wins the National League South Player of the Year Award.
• Over £5000 in FA fines and a League worst 103 yellow cards / 7 red cards saw BIG Glenn feel the wrath of the league hierachy serving out a 3 game stadium ban for dressing up as a referee and booking all his players as they came out onto the pitch for the home game against rivals Chelmsford.
• The club would average a record 1244 fans across the league campaign this year, with the home game against Bath topping the charts at just shy of 3000 watching the club celebrate the Title.

 

Next Season

Preparations for our first crack at the Conference have already stepped up a pace. The squad is likely to face an overhaul, but more importantly is the news that BIG Glenn has not only pushed the club to full time status, but has confirmed his ambition in driving 'Ricay up the leagues with a BIG budget for the season ahead...

[bestbrother]

2019/20

As always promoted sides will start the year as underdogs, its a huge ask expecting anything other than survival going from a part time league to essentially Englands 5th professional football competition. BIG Glenn ensured we stood some sort of chance by turning the club full time, but even the most ardent 'Ricay fan would have been hard pushed to expect much from a division that contains bags of league experience.

None the less I promised the world, promotion as Champions, FA Trophy Winners and a run to the holy land of the FA Cup 3rd Round. Those promises helped BIG Glenn unleash the purse strings and with some creative accounting I managed to push the club to spend circa £200,000 per week on wages... something we needed to play catchup with the rest in our division.

On the pitch things started slowly with 3 losses from 4, before 8 wins from 9 propelled us up to 3rd in the table as our new strikeforce of Goodwillie and Ajose began to find their goalscoring feet as aspirations looked to turn into reality.

Sadly such is life in this division, we would only go on to muster 4 more league wins in 2019, leaving us in the chasing pack but still handily placed to over achieve and clinch a slot in the playoffs. The new year bought some respite with big away wins at Solihull and Boreham Wood, but it wasnt until the end of February and a 3-0 home win over doomed Eastleigh that saw us ignite on the pitch once more.

That result sparked an upturn in fortunes as we would end the season on a double-digit unbeaten run, including 4-1 romps over Maidstone, Grimsby and Chorley. Whilst our final game saw Orient get thumped 5-2 on their own patch as Goodwillie did enough to top the league scoring charts nabbing his 24th and 25th goals in the rout.

All that effort left us in an incredible 6th place and a shot at promotion via the playoffs, albeit the long way round!

6th (Playoffs)

 

Into the playoffs and we would face Grimsby, a club with vast experience throughout its ranks, but a team we had done the league double over with a 2-1 win at Blundell Park, before a late season 4-1 stuffing at the 'Ricay.

Alas 4-1 would crop up again, but not in our favor. A 3rd minute Jordan Mutch strike left us dreaming, but tired legs and shoddy officiating setup Grimsby for the undeserved win, leaving us outside and looking on.

A sad end to a wonderful season.

 

Well we made the 1st round but fell to Exeter City who just had too much for us on their quagmire of a pitch. A valiant effort and a taste of what will surely come for this club.

1st Round Proper

 

Probably deserved more here, we did continue our dominance of those clowns from Chelmsford overcoming them in a replay. But with our fixture list piling up, Ebbsfleet took advantage of our heavily rotated squad to down us in a replay.

2nd Round

 

Transfers

A overhaul was needed as the club turned full time for the first time. Money had to be offered out in order to entice the big name players to Billericay. A fair few failed to work out, Akinfenwa never played a game for the club before he left mid season to Gateshead, whilst 3 other key players from the title winning campaign last time out all left to ply their trade elsewhere.

We would spend over £1,000,000 on new signings but it was our free transfer additions that sent shockwaves through the footballing world as we added a raft of Premier League experience in January with Hatem Ben Arfa of PSG fame the most notable of those additions.

All this put our wage budget to its limit, something we needed to do in order to catchup the rest of the division. Contractual obligations are likely to increase that next year, but with BIG Glenn still commited to the club, it should only enhance our reputation in English football.

 

Squad Recap

*Ben Arfa is not pictured here as injuries and lack of fitness restricted him to 4 starts (18 apps overall) scoring twice and missing a penalty.

 

Club Notes

• David Goodwillie clinches the Conference's top scorer award with 25 in his debut season at the 'Ricay.
• BIG Glenn reassures fans and the banks that he will deal with the ongoing financial situation at the club. He has guaranteed that we can honour all current contracts and has personally invested another £300,000 to deal with the current £2,500,000 debt the club is running at.
• The club continued to break records with just under 1600 fans attending home games on average.

 

Next Season

Once again we will attempt to overcome the odds and put on a promotion charge. Financially I am hoping for a little wiggle room, there will be wheeling and dealing with a fair few contracts favouring the players over the club. However with a full preseason ahead with this bunch of players, there is an air of confidence that we can sustain a title push across the 46 games.

 

 

[bestbrother]

2020/21

We start this year with some disappointing news off the field as our financial excesses appeared to catch up with us. The press had a field day, assuming that the club would be wound up within days....

However a shrewd business move by BIG Glenn would ensure that the 'Ricay would continue on its current run of success as the club would sell off excess land to 'The BIG Tamplin House Builders & Co.'...

The latter would see the club scrap its youth team, something that we will never rely on as we push forward in signing some of the games biggest names.

Back on to matters at hand and we knew it was imperative that we started brightly, which we did going 8 undefeated and topping the table into September, before back to back defeats at York and then home to Chesterfield briefly curtailed our success. We soon got back on the wagon with new boy Omar Bogle shining as he scored the winners at Ebbsfleet and Orient sparking a 9 game winning run, leaving us top of the table at the halfway point with 51pts.

Alas things soon took a turn for the worse. 1 win from our next 10 left things looking perilous as we began to slid down the table, 6 home league games without a win soon saw the fans start to question the clubs policy of spending big money on big names. It wasnt until March that we finally found some sort of form, coming off the back of a crucial 0-1 loss at table toppers Aldershot, we had to get back to basics in order to at least clinch a place in the playoffs.

Mason and Bogle would find their scoring boots once more, firing us to 4 at Dover, 3-0 wins over Spennymoor & Fylde, as well as coming out on top in a 9 goal thriller at Grimsby. Unfortunately we needed to be perfect in order to overturn Aldershot at the top of the league, so when already relegated Solihull Moors turned us over, before Crewe came to 'Ricay and won, we knew that our only hope of promotion would be via the playoffs.

3rd (Playoffs)

This time we benefited from a bye into the Semi Finals and a home tie with Chesterfield, who had overcome York in the previous round. A club record 3919 expectant fans crammed the Arena, and with the 'Ricay leading 1-0 with 3 minutes to go, many were planning the Wembley day out. Then inexcusably and only be-known to the ref' himself, he managed to award a penalty to the visitors.

Stockton kept his cool and at 1-1 we were to head to extra time. The ground was now full of nerves, would our exprience team pay back the faith we had put into it? .... Of course they would, a pristine Nicky Ajose header in the 103rd minute would be all she wrote, the 'Ricay were going to Wembley and this time it was for a place in the Football League!

This was it, our shot at achieving one of the greatest fairytales written in English football. Colchester lay ahead of us, a club steeped in Football League history and experience. We were underdogs for sure and within a minute that panned out as a nervy start saw us slip a goal behind and face a mountain to get back on track.

However there would be one man who stood out, stood up for the money invested in him, that man...OMAR BOGLE. Big Bogle would run roughshod over the Colchester defence, bullying them at every turn before he equalised and then scored the eventual winner before half time. Colchester tried to get on terms, but they were never good enough... we had the lead and we had League football in our hands.

The 'Ricay were promoted, the 20000 fans there celebrated en masse... BIG Glenn almost reduced to tears, the club are now part of the fabric of English football.

 

Our best run yet probably most frustrating. We eased into the 2nd round and drew Conference North club Darlington at home. It should have been a bye into the 3rd round... we lost, 0-2 and crashed out with a whimper.

2nd Round Proper

 

Not overly fussed with this exit, its a shame it came to old foe Dulwich Hamlet, but we had bigger plans this year and a Trophy run could have caused more problems than it was worth.

2nd Round

 

Transfers

A big transition of players this year, not shown are the 5 that retired, so those that came in, essentially replaced those that left. Bogle and Winnall proved to be masterstroke signings, whilst the experience added in Danny Baath, Guediora and George Thorne gave the side a solid spine to build from.

It would increase our wage spending, though we tempered that a little by renewing and reducing a few current salaries by offering a larger bonus pot for various players.

 

Squad Recap

*Ben Arfa fans here may notice his absence... well thats because we didnt see him for the final 3 months of the year. It did save us a few quid as we continued to fine him, but he refused to train at the school field we shared with the local under 9s and as such appeared just 3 times and will leave the club this summer as a mere peck on our history.

 

Club Notes

• Sam Winnall clinches the 'Ricay Fans Player of the Year award, taking it away from back to back winner Callum Kennedy.
• BIG Glenn has put in a further £4,000,000 to help underpin the clubs ongoing financial commitments. This will roll into the Football League and hopefully the increased reputation will allow us to expand our commercial viability.
• Engorged by the whopping 3919 who turned up to our playoff win over Chesterfield. We would again put up record crowd numbers, averaging over 1640 as we say goodbye to the non-league ranks.

 

Next Season

We all know what this season will mean for the club. We have to spend, but it has to be in the right areas. Promotion isnt out of the realms of possibility here, but once more we will play catchup on those around us and begin the year as underdogs in every sense of the word.

 

[bestbrother]

2021/22

Our first crack in the professional ranks and although we would be odds-on to go down, 5-0 and 4-1 wins in our opening 3 games would set the tone for the first half of the season. The team played without fear, we would then go to Notts County and win 4-1, before another 5-0 win on the road saw us tear up Doncaster Rovers, all this with Omar Bogle running riot helping himself to 10 goals in the opening 11 league games.

4 straight wins in October (all without conceding) had put us firmly in the Top 3 and dreams of an instant bounce into League One were fast becoming a reality to cling on to. Consolidation of that place was key as we would win 3 and draw 3 of our remaining league games of 2021, but then the most dramatic month in the clubs history would unfold in January....

BIG Glenn had lost control of the finances, he had been on an extended break in Spain and before long the club spiralled out of control, with office staff running rogue and spending thousands on pot plants, instant coffee and ad hoc stationary. In the end it was the playing staff that suffered, punished for our success and now in danger of falling apart.

It continued to spiral, by the end of the month the players were being paid by the PFA... but the bad news didnt end there...

The team would sink from 3rd to 14th, a disaster that no one could for see. 3 years of hard work, spoilt in an instant. The club would appeal, but the Football League only favours the big clubs and we knew that to dig ourselves out of this hole we had to go it alone.

We had to dig in, sadly the vultures appeared and Millwall would sign our keeper (and only fit keeper) Jason Steele for a paltry £80,000, it left us in a hole and having to play a 'grey' keeper for 2 games... that saw us ship 11 goals and lose 2 on the bounce. Fortunately Henderson would find his fitness in time for our run in, as although we would lose on his return, the team would win 9 of its next 10 (drawing the other) to slot us back into the Top 7, just in time for this...

BIG Glenn had come back, a CVA was put in place, another Gift Loan topped things off and with 4 to play we had a chance to pull off a miracle and reach the playoffs against all the odds. We did just enough, a loss at Shrewsbury on the penultimate game left us nervy going into the finale at home to Wimbledon, however the point we took was more than enough as Carlisle failed to get the win they needed and we were there.

The irony is that without admin we would have gone up automatically, but the playoffs it was.

7th (Playoffs)

Aldershot had come from no where to wind up 4th in the table, giving us a chance to overcome the team that took the Conference title last time out. Home advantage first and a bumper crowd roared us home to a 3-1 win, Bogle adding that crucial 3rd in the 90th minute as late goals proved his trademark all year long.

We would score late again in the return, but this would just shore up our position as the 'Shots came up short in the 1-1 draw.

Back at Wembley for the 2nd year in a row, its becoming a theme now for the club. This time the stakes were even higher, a chance to get into League One! Thats right, 'Ricay in the 3rd tier of English football (possibly!)

A massive turn out from the Blue Army once more as we outnumbered those from Accrington, turning up the noise midway through the 1st half as Sam Gallagher proved his worth with the opening strike.

We had 45 minutes to hold out, Stanley pushed and probed but they never looked like scoring. We had a couple of good chances on the counter, but we failed to kill them off. In the end Accrington run out of puff and game management would win out as we secured the 1-0 win and PROMOTION!

Tears of joy and relief encompassed the 'Ricay faithful. In January we looked as if we could go out of business, by the end of May we had defied the doubters and climbed the ladder once more. BIG Glenn has committed to carrying on backing the club, but with a new office manager in charge to keep an eye on their spending.

 

Again we should have made the 3rd Round, but again we lost a winnable tie at home.

2nd Round Proper

 

Our first go at the Rumbelows Cup but we soon fell as after the excitement of a penalty shootout win over Swindon, Port Vale would bring us back down to earth in Round 2.

2nd Round

 

Group Stage

We best West Ham.. U23s and that was about it. Defeats in our previous group games had already left us out of the competition.

 

Transfers

Once more a clutch of players retired or left, whilst stalwart Goodwillie would go back to Scotland with our best wishes as he returned to Dundee United for his swansong. Coming in saw us add more Premier League quality but also youth, as the squad begans to shape up as a league outfit.

Jason Steele proved to be an inspired signing yet his time at the club was cut short due to our administration, leaving in January to Millwall. However we would manage to reduce our wage bill overall due to some shrewd renegotiation in our contract process.

 

Squad Recap

 

Club Notes

• I win the League 2 Manager of the Year Award
• Omar Bogle tops the League 2 scoring charts with 25 from his 40 appearances
• Omar Bogle also represents the club in the League 2 Team of the Year
• Referees had instruction to punish us once more as we topped the charts with 131 yellow and 11 red cards during the season!
• Over 2000 fans would break our average attendance, infact 2178 proud 'Ricay fans helped us fill 43% of our stadium in League 2.

Next Season

BIG Glenn has promised to back the club in League 1 so hope springs eternal. I cant imagine anything more than staying up to be our target here. Id love a huge budget to really stamp ourselves on the division but with admin a recent memory it may be a risk too far.

[Deisler26]

Great work man, but the Rumbelows Cup was 1990-92. It's the Carabao Cup currently (EFL Cup)

And the Auto Windscreens Shield was 1995-2000. It's is now the Checkatrade Trophy (EFL Trophy)

No idea if it was the idea to have those, but I thought I'd let you know

[ToMexico!!]

40 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

Great work man, but the Rumbelows Cup was 1990-92. It's the Carabao Cup currently (EFL Cup)

And the Auto Windscreens Shield was 1995-2000. It's is now the Checkatrade Trophy (EFL Trophy)

No idea if it was the idea to have those, but I thought I'd let you know

Its the bestbrother way! 

Always a good read bb  

[bestbrother]

Cheers for checking in @Deisler26 & @ToMexico!!

And To is right

[bestbrother]

2022/23

It seemed like a dream, a fairytale that was written never to be told, yet here we where in the 3rd tier of English football and ready to mix it alongside former Premier League behemoths such as Ipswich, Bolton, Portsmouth and Bradford City.

Again we made a commitment to the club by investing wisely in the transfer market, spending nothing on transfer fees, yet adding enough talent to help us navigate the tricky seas ahead.

Infact those additions seemed to spur the team on to even better things as we instantly adjusted to life in League One, winning 7 of our opening 8 games as Ashley Fletcher and Sam Gallagher would instantly click, scoring at whim as in a 7 day spurt we hit Fleetwood and Burton for 4 at home, sandwiching a 6  goal mauling of Portsmouth.

This run would last us into the New Year as although Plymouth usurped our place at the top, we continued to collect enough points to hold onto 2nd spot and a 7pt gap on the chasing pack.

Things turned on their head in a dramatic fashion, just 3pts from 15 in February allowed Portsmouth to edge us out of 2nd place. Couple this with a worsening disciplinary situation and we would win up collecting 6 of our 8 red cards in our final 10 games of the year. A 0-5 home stuffing by Bradford seemed to be a catalyst to some sort of revival, but when we would go on to collect just 1 point from our remaining 4 games, all hopes of automatic promotion were dashed.

3rd place was a stunning debut for the club at this level, but it could and should have been more. We head into the playoffs on the back of 3 straight defeats...

3rd (Playoffs)

3rd v 6th, it almost writes itself. We should have gone up automatically but blew it.. Bolton ramapaged their way into the dance with a dramatic late run. The momentum was with them and it showed as although we held them at 1-1 for the majority of the tie at the Reebok, 2 late Wanderers goals essentially sealed our fate.

We had to go hard at home, but it was never to be. Bolton scored 3 once more, we would lose our 5th straight game and hopes of Championship football would need to be put on hold for another year.

 

A penalty shootout humbling by Non League Dover Athletic. 

1st Round Proper

 

A penalty shootout humbling by League 2 Stevenage Borough.

1st Round

 

2nd Round

A tidy little run here as we got carried away and put out strong teams to try and progress. Disappointingly we lost out to Gillingham once the competition began proper.

 

Transfers

Honestly you have to pinch yourself when you realise who we managed to snag this year. The impression that Billericay are having on English football is so great that England I's Vardy and Cahill would sign their final contracts at the club.

We added foreign spice with Capoue, Krul, Defour and Forestieri joining the ranks... whilst the additions of future England starlets Kasey Palmer and Tyler Blackett proved the club was looking to the future.

All this added to our wage expenditure, but with zero fees spent on transfers, id say we came out on top this year in terms of the winners and losers in the transfer market.

 

Squad Recap

 

Club Notes

• Leandro Bacuna  represents the club in the League 1 Team of the Year
• 133 yellows, 8 reds... there is no surprise there, its 'Ricay they are jealous.
• We average a stunning 3431 fans this year, including the clubs first ever sellout of 5000 at home to Bolton in the League One playoffs, In just 5 years we have almost tripled our fanbase!

Next Season

We are nursing a net debt of around £15,000,000 at the minute. Its sustainable but I will probe the club to invest more as we need to add to our squad and not deplete it. The plan is to double the squad size in order to cope with the rigours of a 46 game season.

[bestbrother]

2023/4

Turmoil is a word probably used too often at the 'Ricay but it probably was as apt as ever this year with changes all over the club...

Things started well with the team struming their way to 3 straight wins, yet just 12 games later the team found themselves in the bottom 4 on the back of a 10 game winless run and with arguably the biggest shock yet to come.

Money had never really been an issue at the club, BIG Glenn funded the dream all the way to last years heartbreaking season finale. Yet with the Football League continuing to whinge about FFP etc, BIG Glenn finally had enough. The club was £15m in the can and with BIG Glenn finally succumbing to the fact that the EFL only want big teams to do well, he put the club up for sale.

The club running at an ongoing loss of over £1m per month, it was always going to be a hard sale, yet a local businessman would take on the club, add more debt to it and essentially try and strangle the life from everything 'Ricay.

BIG Glenn would part the club stating his love would never die, but now the dream would have to be achieved without him. Billericay needed more than a miracle, not only to achieve that, but just to stay in League One.

Somehow and someway everyone would unite (bar the owners). The players got behind me and from staring relegation in the face the team would go on a run that propelled us into the playoff race. Big wins at Coventry and Blackpool put us into the Top 6 going into April and although we lost 1-4 at home to Oxford on Bank Holiday weekend, 8pts from our final 5 fixtures would somehow be enough to see us nick 6th place on goals scored over Walsall.

The dream was alive, but Owner Cameron Hilliard hated it... that new Supermarket in Billericay would need to wait a little bit longer!

6th (Playoffs)

Here we were again, playoffs and a dream of Wembley. This time we came into it with a prayer more than anything. Oxford who had smashed us just a month earlier would be our foe and if there was ever you needed a 90 minutes from your players, then this was it.

Crammed to the rafters the 'Ricay faithful roared the team onto a 4-0 win and one foot and 4 toes into the Final. Our return in Oxford would be less than the formallity we hoped, yet once Fletcher scored midway into the 2nd half, it was done and the 2-3 loss was as harmless as it sounded.

Wembley our 3rd visit in 4 years and only Barnsley stood in our way of a 4th promotion under my charge.

Then with our half time oranges being readied, the team switched off and fell behind as Barnsley scored a pundits perfect opener. We poured forward in search of an equaliser, but nothing worked out and with tears beginning to fill the fans eyes and the club staring at the abyss of a huge restructure... Ashley Fletcher corked in a 90th minute leveller and forced extra time.

Momentum had now swung in our favor and we needed to make the most of it. Fortunately we did as Jordan Mutch stepped up to slot home to give us a 2-1 lead. We had 20 minutes to hold out and try as they might, Barnsley were unable to get back on terms leaving us in dreamland and a promotion to the Championship.

 

We lose out again early doors this time to Accrington Stanley, who are they? EXACTLY

1st Round Proper

 

QPR batter us in the Worthington Cup.

1st Round

 

Group Stage

Not much to see here as our woeful efforts in Cup competitions continues.

 

Transfers

Noticeably we were unable to add anyone after BIG Glenn left the club. 3 additions including £500k on Cameron Burgess would replace the same amount leaving. The loss of Sam Gallagher was disappointing but he wanted to try his hand at a bigger challenge, but as you can see, we would end up spending less across the year on wages as our new owners restrictions came into affect.

 

Squad Recap

 

Club Notes

• Leandro Bacuna and Ashley Fletcher represent the club in the League 1 Team of the Year
• Ashley Fletcher breaks the club record with 32 goals this year.
• With BIG Glenn leaving the heart of the club seemed to go with him. This would tell as we would lose an average 500 fans per game.

Next Season

Promotion to the Championship should be the most exciting thing to happen to Billericay, yet without BIG Glenn and with an owner wanting to sell the club ground to build a Supermarket, im a little bit miffed over mine and the clubs future. Money is bound to be tighter than it ever was, plus we have a few bad contracts that we are unable to shift.. notably:

Those 3 selfish footballers account for just under half of our wage expenditure at this stage, plus with annual 50% kickers tacked into their contracts, by the end of it Thorne and Ajose will be on over 60 grand a week a piece!

[bestbrother]

To give this a conclusion, sadly ive been sacked after 40 games and the clubs confirmed relegation.

It was always on the cards, we only had 12 players on the clubs books accounting for £200,000 per week in wages, which exceeded the new boards budget. This left us unable to do anything in the market of note and put us in a ridiculous situation.

However early 0-8 and 2-9 defeats set the tone as we were smashed from the get go, never leaving the foot of the table. At one point we lost 18 games in a row... and by the time my tenure came to a close we had 5 wins (somehow!) and 2 draws from the 40 games we played. On top of that we had conceded 149 goals and sat with a -97GD.

Days before I got the chop the board stated next year the club would be run on a paltry £12,000 per week wage budget.... impossible given that some players earned triple that and we even paid some players 12 grand per appearance as a bonus

The club is in absolute disarray and if im being honest, once BIG Glenn left, a part of me left with him and promotion to the Championship just delayed the obvious.

At the end of it the fans will thank me... they will overlook the £25,000,000 worth of debt/loans the club is saddled with, they wont care that the club dosent have a youth team, they will also forget that we sold both the clubs training facilities and youth facilities at one point..... but they will remember 4 promotions, 3 victorious trips to Wembley and the plethora of stars that adorned the blue of Billericay.

It may have been a brief blip in time, but I put Billericay on the footballing map and for that I will never have to buy a drink or pay for a meal in Billericay ever again 

 

[Deisler26]

I genuinely love this thread and what has happened.

So often, we don't see the results of overspending and the effect of a new board.

Will you carry on with the manager? (A good idea, IMO) or add a new manager to work with the current restrictions? (EVEN BETTER idea, IMO)

[Nobby_McDonald]

Christ, this is a world away from when I managed Billericay on CM01/02.

[bestbrother]

 

22 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

I genuinely love this thread and what has happened.

So often, we don't see the results of overspending and the effect of a new board.

Will you carry on with the manager? (A good idea, IMO) or add a new manager to work with the current restrictions? (EVEN BETTER idea, IMO)

Thanks for following, its a shame it went wrong... I think getting promotion to the Championship at the first attempt may have seen a different outcome as BIG Glenn may have hung around. However it wasnt to be and the club imploded.

I like your ideas and I do have the save still, however I normally play as I love the idea of doing something with that club and then generally go for it on those terms until it changes. Ive very rarely done a save where I kept the manager on, im more attached and play for the club rather than as an individual manager looking to forge a career.

Adding a new manager is an option though something ive never done. Not sure if that would be enough as chances are the club will fall straight back to where it came from

 

15 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Christ, this is a world away from when I managed Billericay on CM01/02.

It was a wild ride thats for sure! Thanks for reading albeit a brief save in the end

[Deisler26]

3 hours ago, bestbrother said:

Adding a new manager is an option though something ive never done. Not sure if that would be enough as chances are the club will fall straight back to where it came from

Surely, that would be a real challenge, to stop the club piledriving into the ground?

[Nobby_McDonald]

That would be the mother of all challenges.