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[FM20] Derby County - Why manage the Rams? / How are you getting on?


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Looks like you've had a fantastic season (again...) @Stackalee! Especially with the performance of the youth, some of them look very different, as in worse, in my save

20 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

 

Bielik.thumb.jpg.b7abe00161cd3919daf6bd34b6ffe544.jpgLowe.thumb.jpg.203f6995e877ba93d006e022b2667584.jpg

My Lowe and Bielik look very similar. Lowe's almost identical, I've been training Bielik to play in the midfield so hes slightly better on the ball whereas yours is slightly better defensively. My Bielik is also much weaker physically (acceleration and agaility both below 10) due to injury.

20 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

 

Knight.thumb.jpg.d252d3ea56e7880b0c58cfac868d0b19.jpgSibley.thumb.jpg.de0ea7f639e9a908b765e2ecb3620228.jpg

And these are the boys that are worse, much worse - certainly neither will have the wonderkid tag. Sibley's barely played, he was very poor attribute wise when I started the save, such that he's probably only a League One player. How good was he when you started the save? I'm wondering how many random attributes he has. Knight's a similar story, although he has featured as a squad player, such that he's developed enough to play a rotation role in the Premier League. Is there any news on Bogle?

Out of curiosity, how have you got them to develop so well? Is it purely game time or are there other methods you've used?

Finally, this is question probably best directed at @Stuniverse. Of the youngsters, particularly Knight and Sibley but the others too, how many random attributes do they have? Are they likely to develop similarly in all saves, or has @Stackalee got lucky?

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1 minute ago, smplfc123 said:

That and the fact that it's nearing the end of July and I'm still nowhere near to finding anyone I'm remotely interested in signing that's also willing to come, has led me to recalling Mason Bennett from his loan spell. I'm hoping that his performances will be better than his technical and mental attributes suggest they will be.

I’ve not recalled him on any of my saves but he always seems to do ok for Millwall on loan though. Good luck 🍀

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5 minutes ago, OJ403 said:

Out of curiosity, how have you got them to develop so well? Is it purely game time or are there other methods you've used?

I think game time is the biggest factor, in particular Knight has been a nail on starter for me right from the start of the game. The other thing is maybe mentoring groups, both of them have been sat with Darren Fletcher since the begining of my save and I do think the mental gains from that help young players a lot.

Edit - also I think the "wonderkid" tag is reputation based, rather than ability based.

Edited by Stackalee
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27 minutes ago, OJ403 said:

Sibley's barely played, he was very poor attribute wise when I started the save, such that he's probably only a League One player. How good was he when you started the save?

Sorry I saw this question after the others I must be skim reading, can't edit my last post for some reason also.

I think he was the same as in yours honestly he definitely wasn't somebody who justified the game time he was given, he was just one of the players I thought could potentially become usable.

Included a screenshot of his development over time, which lets you see how he started I think, with passing highlighted as it's been his best gain (and the focus of his training).

17061661_Sibleyovertime.thumb.jpg.cb2ec2e33e7509136bd71c0e3c646fde.jpg

 

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2 hours ago, OJ403 said:

Finally, this is question probably best directed at @Stuniverse. Of the youngsters, particularly Knight and Sibley but the others too, how many random attributes do they have? Are they likely to develop similarly in all saves, or has @Stackalee got lucky?

[Note: I’ve edited the first paragraph of my reply to clarify why I was directing people to the rules]

Before I address that question, @OJ403, I want to direct everybody to the House Rules for this section of the Forum, because my answer will also mention PA and there the rules mention not posting a player’s CA and PA without first hiding the text in spoiler tags - I’ve shown an example below, but you can also use the eye icon on the text formatting ribbon above the text box. I know you haven’t asked about PA, @OJ403, but as my answer will mention PA I want to give everybody a heads-up about the rules in this respect.

 

[ spoiler ] (without spaces)

PA/CA here[ /spoiler ] (without spaces).

Back to the original question.

2 hours ago, OJ403 said:

Of the youngsters, particularly Knight and Sibley but the others too, how many random attributes do they have? Are they likely to develop similarly in all saves, or has @Stackalee got lucky?

The answer to this question is that the youngsters are likely to develop differently on different saves for three reasons:

i) what you as manager do to help or hinder a young player’s development within your save. Irrespective of the attribute values (whether set in stone, or randomised) a player isn’t going to develop unless he’s given playing time at an appropriate playing level.

ii) random attributes, as you say. Off the top of my head, I can’t remember how many random attributes each player has but you can see for yourself in the pre-game editor. Any attribute with a zero will be a random attribute. Obviously, I try to provide as complete a player profile as I can but, in order to do this, I need to have seen a player play a good number of games to do so. The youngsters who are established in the first-team squad (Bogle, Lowe, Knight, Bird) should be close to having a full profile, Sibley and Buchanan will probably have more randomised attributes as they haven’t played that many first-team games yet (I try to avoid rating attributes too highly until I’ve seen a player playing a good few games in the first-team). The players in the U23 and U18 squads are likely to have even more random attributes.

iii) the Potential Ability (PA) set. Again, you can check these in the pre-game editor should you wish, but please adhere to the Forum Rules about not posting CA and PA values unless in spoiler tags. Most of the young players will have a minus PA set rather than an absolute value. A minus PA effectively puts the player somewhere within a range which means his PA for each save will be randomly set within that range at the start of each save and will, therefore, vary from save to save.

Edited by Stuniverse
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3 hours ago, OJ403 said:

Finally, this is question probably best directed at @Stuniverse. Of the youngsters, particularly Knight and Sibley but the others too, how many random attributes do they have?

I’ve now had a chance to look at this, @OJ403 and in terms of the youngsters and randomised attributes:

  • Max Bird = 0
  • Jayden Bogle = 0
  • Max Lowe = 0
  • Jason Knight = 1
  • Louie Sibley = 5

I will be looking to complete the profiles of Knight and Sibley ahead of FM21.

The other youngsters will have more randomised attributes as I’ve not seen them play enough yet at a competitive level.

Edited by Stuniverse
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That's interesting, I've no idea how much those guys have played but 5 is quite a lot of random stats.

I was just wondering - is there some sort of interaction between random stats, or are they entirely random? For example, would the potential exist for a player with 5 random stats to have all 5 of those come out at a 1 or a 20? Or are they somehow normalised (if that makes sense) to fit within the framework of the players CA (which I assume you give as a set value? Or is this wrong and you give attributes then a CA comes out based on those?).

Edit - actually this is probably too far off topic and no longer relates directly to Derby County, but I can't work out how to delete a post sorry!

Edited by Stackalee
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14 minutes ago, Stuniverse said:
  • Max Bird = 0
  • Jayden Bogle = 0
  • Max Lowe = 0
  • Jason Knight = 1
  • Louie Sibley = 5

Thats very interesting, although from the players game times at the time of the last data update makes perfect sense. Seems like we can put the lack of development of Knight and Sibley in particular down to poor work from me...

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45 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

Edit - actually this is probably too far off topic and no longer relates directly to Derby County, but I can't work out how to delete a post sorry!

You’re right, @Stackalee, we are getting into territory that belongs on a different section of this Forum, probably the General Discussion section: https://community.sigames.com/forum/25-football-manager-general-discussion/

45 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

I've no idea how much those guys have played but 5 is quite a lot of random stats.

Actually, given the number of attributes and data fields in the FM database for each player, five isn’t many at all. And for younger players, like Sibley, who only made his league debut as a sub in December 2019, is perfectly reasonable. For example, I can’t allocate him an Important Matches attribute if he hasn’t played any big matches or started any league games (which was the case when the data lock came in).

45 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

I was just wondering - is there some sort of interaction between random stats, or are they entirely random? For example, would the potential exist for a player with 5 random stats to have all 5 of those come out at a 1 or a 20? Or are they somehow normalised (if that makes sense) to fit within the framework of the players CA (which I assume you give as a set value? Or is this wrong and you give attributes then a CA comes out based on those?).

I’m not an SI employee, so I don’t know for definite, but my understanding is that the random attributes are randomly allocated at the start of the save to complement the CA of the player and their preset attributes. So yes, they are effectively ‘normalised’ as you say.

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31 minutes ago, OJ403 said:

Thats very interesting, although from the players game times at the time of the last data update makes perfect sense.

Exactly 👍

 

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58 minutes ago, Stuniverse said:

Actually, given the number of attributes and data fields in the FM database for each player, five isn’t many at all. And for younger players, like Sibley, who only made his league debut as a sub in December 2019, is perfectly reasonable. For example, I can’t allocate him an Important Matches attribute if he hasn’t played any big matches or started any league games (which was the case when the data lock came in).

Sorry I didn't mean that to sound critical at all I completely understand why there would be attributes left as 0, it was more just on the face of things players have what ~50 attributes? So in game play terms rather than thinking about researching ~10% of that players attributes are randomly allocated, which leaves for quite a big swing! Although as you say, within their CA so in reality probably makes very little difference. 

Also Important Matches is easy surely, the biggest game of any players career is their Derby debut. ;)

Edited by Stackalee
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Only managed a couple games today couple with the international break..

Sitting in 11th after 5 games.

Managed a nervy 1-0 win at home to Leicester which I was bloody chuffed about until we went to arsenal next...

1-0 down after 30 mins. They were peppering out goal but Farinez was adamant he wasnt conceding again and then in the 85th minute, Success scored! They had about 4 real good chances in added time alone but we held on. United at home next.. and then Wolves (reigning Europa League winners) 

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36 minutes ago, Luke6 said:

Sitting in 11th after 5 games.

That's a good start to life in the EPL, @Luke6.

36 minutes ago, Luke6 said:

Managed a nervy 1-0 win at home to Leicester which I was bloody chuffed about until we went to arsenal next...

Great win against Leicester. As the footballing cliche goes: one game at a time.

36 minutes ago, Luke6 said:

1-0 down after 30 mins. They were peppering out goal but Farinez was adamant he wasnt conceding again and then in the 85th minute, Success scored! They had about 4 real good chances in added time alone but we held on.

That's a brilliant result. Was it one of those where  late equaliser felt like a winner?

36 minutes ago, Luke6 said:

United at home next.. and then Wolves (reigning Europa League winners)

Welcome to the Premier League. Good luck.

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@Stuniverse let's just say I celebrated that equaliser more than I did the play off final goal! 😂 

I really feel like this is the calm before the storm and I will be brought back down to earth very shortly and with United and wolves next it is very possible it will be soon! 

Hows yours going?

I was stuck between Robbie Brady and Patrick Van Aanholt for back up to Max Lowe on deadline day.. went for PVA in the end. Hes 30 but was transfer listed for 4.2mil. Brady would have set me back almost 7mil which I thought was a little steep considering I only wanted a back up.

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6 hours ago, Luke6 said:

let's just say I celebrated that equaliser more than I did the play off final goal! 😂 

LOL 😂

6 hours ago, Luke6 said:

I really feel like this is the calm before the storm and I will be brought back down to earth very shortly and with United and wolves next it is very possible it will be soon!

Good luck 🍀. The EPL can seem very daunting with its fixture list when it comes out. Trust your instincts and what got you there last season.

6 hours ago, Luke6 said:

Hows yours going?

I’ve been playing my main save, where I’m managing in Scotland, so my Derby save hasn’t progressed. I hope to get back into it this week. Thanks for asking.

6 hours ago, Luke6 said:

I was stuck between Robbie Brady and Patrick Van Aanholt for back up to Max Lowe on deadline day.. went for PVA in the end. Hes 30 but was transfer listed for 4.2mil. Brady would have set me back almost 7mil which I thought was a little steep considering I only wanted a back up.

Sensible. £7M for a back-up does sound a steep fee.

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Consider asking selling clubs to pay wages when buying in older transfer listed players in particular. Watford were so desperate to get rid of Troy Deeney in my save they are paying him £40k p/w to play for me.

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1 minute ago, Stackalee said:

Consider asking selling clubs to pay wages when buying in older transfer listed players in particular. Watford were so desperate to get rid of Troy Deeney in my save they are paying him £40k p/w to play for me.

Good tip, @Stackalee. I’ve never tried that. How, exactly, do you do it?

Edited by Stuniverse
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When making an offer it's one of the options under "additional clauses", called "selling team wage contribution". It leaves them paying an agreed amount for the duration of the players current contract with the selling club.

In Deeney's case I thought he seemed like quite a fun signing and a good old head to have around my young squad, but was reluctant to give him the ~£55k p/w he wanted as it's smashing my wage structure for somebody who isn't actually that good. So I put on that clause and locked the negotiation at 40k p/w, Watford went for it. Then on contract negotiations Deeney only asked me for £15k p/w, but you can later see that his wage is supplemented up to £55k by Watford's payment. I'm still investigating how this interacts with giving the player new contracts later as the ui is slightly strange when it comes to the deal you initially give the player.

I've not used it a lot but I think for newly promoted teams it's a really nice way to open up options like Deeney, and seems to work best when used with players who are transfer listed. The only downside I've really spotted is that the selling club do tend to ask for a little more cash up front, but in my Deeney example this was I think about £100k, which still leaves the clause heavily in my favour.

I'd never tried it before either, but it's something you might notice the AI annoyingly locking in to loads of deals for players you try to sell. That's the only reason I knew about it anyway.

Edited by Stackalee
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8 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

When making an offer it's one of the options under "additional clauses", called "selling team wage contribution". It leaves them paying an agreed amount for the duration of the players current contract with the selling club.

In Deeney's case I thought he seemed like quite a fun signing and a good old head to have around my young squad, but was reluctant to give him the ~£55k p/w he wanted as it's smashing my wage structure for somebody who isn't actually that good. So I put on that clause and locked the negotiation at 40k p/w, Watford went for it. Then on contract negotiations Deeney only asked me for £15k p/w, but you can later see that his wage is supplemented up to £55k by Watford's payment. I'm still investigating how this interacts with giving the player new contracts later as the ui is slightly strange when it comes to the deal you initially give the player.

I've not used it a lot but I think for newly promoted teams it's a really nice way to open up options like Deeney, and seems to work best when used with players who are transfer listed. The only downside I've really spotted is that the selling club do tend to ask for a little more cash up front, but in my Deeney example this was I think about £100k, which still leaves the clause heavily in my favour.

I'd never tried it before either, but it's something you might notice the AI annoyingly locking in to loads of deals for players you try to sell. That's the only reason I knew about it anyway.

Thank you, @Stackalee, I’ll remember that for the future. Thank you for sharing.

And great negotiating skills on display there.

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I have not been playing FM since FM2016, due to being a father and work. Now that I have a bit more time and FM 20 was on sale at steam, I decided I will get annoyed again at how bad I am at this game and buy it. After reading up the Internet on good teams to play, one recommendation came up with Derby. I decided to start a save game because (i) the youth team is exciting and I want to bring up young players, (ii) I like to start a Championship team with decent aspirations and (iii) there's Rooney and I am a Manchester United fan.

So when I first started the game, I tried to do what I did in FM2016, which is to scout out potential wonderkids, only to realise something quite different from historical FM. Wonderkids will actually snub Derby because they are not good enough, or require a significantly high wage compared to how it is easier in FM2016. That was a huge shock to me because they would not even enter any negotiations with me. The scouting, training and tactics interface is also significantly changed, and I took quite a bit of time to understand the default settings before starting to edit it. I attached my eventual formation that I go to, which is a very standard 4-1-4-1 formation for vertical tika taka. The default settings caused me a lot of confusion, and I started dropping the "play through center" and "underlap". I try to keep it simple and let my players express themselves. Rooney is so good as a regista!

 

formation.jpg

 

So in terms of players I purchased, I did try to make a few changes. I noted that for vertical tika taka, my goalkeeper, central midfield as well as striker need a bit more beefing up. The goalkeeper was covered by Ivan Villar, which I spent 5.75 million. I believe that he can continue to play at EPL level, and he fits the young profile I wanted. He has saved my hide a few times already, and has a lot of good clean sheets.

ivanvillar.jpg

I also bought Lewis Ferguson for more depth in central midfield. He was cheap at 1.5 million and he's Scottish. What's not to like?

lewisferg.jpg

Then the mistake (of sorts) is me deciding to way overspend and overreach for Mergim Berisha at 9.75 million pounds. He was good, but he took a long time to adjust and there was a period where he failed to score in 18 games straight. Also, it's a very bad idea to blow up all 10 million of your budget on 1 striker when Jack Marriot honestly isnt that bad. Waghorn can also do a decent job. I actually wanted to get Jacob Wind because he was recommended to me by my scout. Within me filing a transfer for 3.3 million, he decided to get injured for 12 months. So Berisha was a panic buy.

berisha.jpg

 

Anyway, I have played all the way to Feb and is currently first. Derby actually is quite a see-saw team under me, because we have stretches where we are almost invincible with 5-6 win game streaks, and then I will fall to some random teams and have a bad draw-lose streak of 3-4 before I bounce back. I also got to the Carabao semi finals, thinking of glory as a Championship team. Well, that was until Manchester City decided, oh no, you don't. Gave me an aggregate 1-11 hiding. I gave up when the first leg at home was a 6-0 shelling.

standings.jpg

Lastly, during the winter window, I went all out, requested for the board to bring in defensive star power because I sold Curtis Davies and loaned George Evans. The board came through and got me the insanely talented Rick Von Droghelen. I have been unsettling the poor bloke for the whole autumn/winter and he came to me at 8.75 million. Now, I am dreaming of promotion. :)

rickvondrog.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Impz82
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3 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

Very cool way to use Rooney, hope you get longevity out of him that way.

Not sure how long he will last honestly. For this season, he's absolutely outstanding with one of the best average in the league. He is my corner kick taker, free kick taker and penalty kick taker (yes, overkill). Every once in a while, I see his patented hollywood passes reach my inside wingers/forwards for a CCC. It's good, I just wonder how much he can do in the PL.

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1 hour ago, Impz82 said:

have not been playing FM since FM2016, due to being a father and work. Now that I have a bit more time and FM 20 was on sale at steam, I decided I will get annoyed again at how bad I am at this game and buy it. After reading up the Internet on good teams to play, one recommendation came up with Derby.

Welcome back to FM and I hope you enjoy your Derby save. FM20 has a different look to FM19 so I imagine it’s changed quite a lot since FM16.

1 hour ago, Impz82 said:

I attached my eventual formation that I go to, which is a very standard 4-1-4-1 formation for vertical tika taka.

A bit like what Steve McClaren did whilst manager at Derby, except he liked his wide frontmen to stay out wide and not cut inside too much.

1 hour ago, Impz82 said:

The goalkeeper was covered by Ivan Villar,

Good choice. I always recommend either signing a GK or recalling Carson from Man City. Looks like you’ve made some other good signings too.

1 hour ago, Impz82 said:

Derby actually is quite a see-saw team under me, because we have stretches where we are almost invincible with 5-6 win game streaks, and then I will fall to some random teams and have a bad draw-lose streak of 3-4 before I bounce back.

I’m glad it’s not just me that finds that happening to them... 😂

1 hour ago, Impz82 said:

Anyway, I have played all the way to Feb and is currently first.

That’s a great position to be in and Carabao Cup semi-finals as well. Ouch! Unlucky to get Man City.

1 hour ago, Impz82 said:

Now, I am dreaming of promotion. :)

Good luck 🍀

Let us know how you get on.

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image.thumb.png.dd4f0417da291161129369d308af39b3.png

So here we find ourselves at the end of pre-season, one I was fairly happy with overall. Some decent wins mixed with some lacklustre ones, but wins nonetheless. Mason Bennett returning from Milwall on loan has been my only piece of business so far, with my frustration in being unable to find the right player/strike a deal starting to rise with time running out.

So it's on to Huddersfield away to start the season, wish me luck!  

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That’s an impressive set of pre-season results, @smplfc123

Would you have liked to have done more transfer business than you have by this point?

Good luck 🍀

Come on you, 🐏s

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Thanks!

Yes most definitely. I'm not a deadline dealer at all, in fact one of my pet hates in football is mr smug himself Jim White and 'his contacts' making a meal of deadline day only to find out the biggest move of the evening is along the lines of James McCarthy to Crystal Palace.

I'm still working every day scouting, but i'm also not one to buy just for the sake of needing to fill a spot, so something is going to give come August the 8th.

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I won't be doing this for every game, but as i'm ending my FM shift tonight on the first game of the seaosn, I thought i'd throw in an opening day match report:

 

image.thumb.png.5e64476f57002b09c261beb3898cd1ee.png

A great start to life as Derby manager with an away win at newly-relegated Huddersfield. The home team showed little desire to muster anything other than a bore draw to get that illusive first point on the board. As their tactics became more apparent, I switched from the counter style 4-1-4-1 I employed to one the looked to stamp more control. Try as we might, we still couldn't get the breakthrough. Then, on 72 minutes, Whittaker and Bennett are subbed on, with the latter meeting a Rooney free kick to head us home just a few minutes later. Bennett has performed brilliantly well since being recalled from loan, hopefully this can continue.

A good start will hopefully be capped b bringing in 1 or 2 new faces before the next league game, a home fixture against Swansea.

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9 hours ago, smplfc123 said:

Yes most definitely. I'm not a deadline dealer at all, in fact one of my pet hates in football is mr smug himself Jim White and 'his contacts' making a meal of deadline day only to find out the biggest move of the evening is along the lines of James McCarthy to Crystal Palace.

We agree on that, @smplfc123. Glad I’m not the only one 😃

9 hours ago, smplfc123 said:

I'm still working every day scouting, but i'm also not one to buy just for the sake of needing to fill a spot, so something is going to give come August the 8th.

One of the things I love in FM20 is I can just leave my Recruitment Team / Scouting Team to just get on with it and they find me some real gems, players I’ve never heard of. But if I want a player scouting, I can prioritise that player, or players, and get a scouting report pretty quickly.

I always keep a list of players Derby have been linked with in real-life under the current manager (Phillip Cocu), add them to my shortlist at the start of a Derby save, and get scouting reports on them early in the save.

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9 hours ago, smplfc123 said:

A great start to life as Derby manager with an away win at newly-relegated Huddersfield. The home team showed little desire to muster anything other than a bore draw to get that illusive first point on the board. As their tactics became more apparent, I switched from the counter style 4-1-4-1 I employed to one the looked to stamp more control. Try as we might, we still couldn't get the breakthrough. Then, on 72 minutes, Whittaker and Bennett are subbed on, with the latter meeting a Rooney free kick to head us home just a few minutes later. Bennett has performed brilliantly well since being recalled from loan, hopefully this can continue.

A great start to the season, @smplfc123, matching the away win Derby achieved in real-life. I hope your away form stays good, and doesn’t go on the drastic decline we saw this season. Well done on reading Huddersfield’s game plan and changing your tactics positively to capitalise on that.

If you’d asked me to guess the goalscorer, Bennett would have been nowhere in my guesses. Hopefully, you can continue to get the best out of him.

9 hours ago, smplfc123 said:

A good start will hopefully be capped b bringing in 1 or 2 new faces before the next league game, a home fixture against Swansea.

Good luck against Swansea... hopefully with some new players.

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Thanks @Stuniverse I've recently started taking control of scouting assignments in my game, deciding what leagues and regions I want searching in, so i'm hoping something crops up before deadline day.

I'm keen to blood as many youngsters as possible this season too, hence starts for the likes of Sibley and Bird (albeit the latter covering RB), with Knight and Whittaker on the bench too. 


Watch this space for a deadline day update (Not like Jim White style) later on!

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31 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

I'm keen to blood as many youngsters as possible this season too, hence starts for the likes of Sibley and Bird (albeit the latter covering RB), with Knight and Whittaker on the bench too. 

Bird covering RB during this first part of the season is what I tend to do as well, although in real-life, Cocu brought Buchanan in at LB and moved Lowe across to RB. I hope they all develop well for you.

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Whilst still continuing my Dulwich Hamlet career, the thriving thread here did finally inspire me to save that old game when I managed Reading and Derby were relegated to League 1. I was curious to see what I could do to build a squad for 2020/21 using all the youngsters (none of them had been sold in season 1) and off-load the older players where possible. For League 1, that would be a nice challenge I think.

The latter point is proving tricky! Try as I might, I cannot upset Rooney to the extent that he wants to leave. So far (I took over in mid-May 2020 and haven't started pre-season yet) I have told him his time is up and that he has no future and won't play, transfer listed him, stripped him of the captaincy, put him in the reserves, offered him out on a loan and/or free transfer. In chats his mood is still 'good' and I'm running out of ideas how to make him want to clear off. The only blessing is that all the players on big contracts that I haven't yet been able to shift have taken a massive relegation wage drop (for example Rooney's £50,000 drops to £37,500). This helps quite a bit, and finances are very good for League 1 with around £20 million to spend and a sizeable wage budget left over after my massive cull. 

The other senior players I haven't yet managed to clear out (and keeping Rooney company in the U23 squad) are Carson, Davies, Huddlestone and Bennett. The latter has both Milan clubs and FC Porto after him for £150k (bizarre), whilst Davies is under offer from promoted Sunderland (free transfer). Martin and Anya were released, and I have sold five others. New arrivals so far are all on free transfers, being Mike te Wierik and three others. The first team squad is currently 20-strong, with a first choice striker and right-back understudy for Bogle (Christie is wanting too much at the moment)  the only holes to fill. I gave Bogle a new contract on £11,500 per week until 2023 and no buyout clause so that is good news.

I've deliberately turned down some players I could have signed (Molumby £1.6m, Dowell £4.2m, Ferguson from Aberdeen £3.1m and Gayle £1.1m being some examples) as I didn't want to make the squad too strong and nudge the young guys out of contention. A proper update will follow when the squad is finalised.

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11 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

Isn't Rooney paid by a sponsor or something? So fairly harmless in U23 unless it's just a point of principle to purge the elderly.

I believe there is a deal like that in place. It is probably more because I don't like or want him and won't use him. It's an awful lot of money to squander away each week.

Interestingly he could not be transfer listed unlike all the others, so some special coding must apply to him.

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1 minute ago, Jogo Bonito said:

It's an awful lot of money to squander away each week.

I might have misunderstood but I thought it didn't come out of the Derby budget? So was just thinking this aspect of him shouldn't cause any problems.

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Not sure on that. Assumed it would be added to the budget if he left, but I don't plan on spending money in the first season so not a big deal.

P.S. I think the fans will be happy, not necessarily because I am the new manager, but more because I replaced a well-named Dutch guy called Foeke Booy, who took over in December 2019 and steered them to relegation. However, he did appoint a former Derby player from yesteryear as his Assistant Manager, in the form of Paul Williams who played for the club from 1988-1995. I am sure that would please @Stuniverse

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31 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Whilst still continuing my Dulwich Hamlet career, the thriving thread here did finally inspire me to save that old game when I managed Reading and Derby were relegated to League 1. I was curious to see what I could do to build a squad for 2020/21 using all the youngsters (none of them had been sold in season 1) and off-load the older players where possible. For League 1, that would be a nice challenge I think.

That’s a very nice challenge, @Jogo Bonito, and congratulations on becoming Derby County Manager. Did the AI manager do much transfer business last season?

34 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

The latter point is proving tricky! Try as I might, I cannot upset Rooney to the extent that he wants to leave. So far (I took over in mid-May 2020 and haven't started pre-season yet) I have told him his time is up and that he has no future and won't play, transfer listed him, stripped him of the captaincy, put him in the reserves, offered him out on a loan and/or free transfer. In chats his mood is still 'good' and I'm running out of ideas how to make him want to clear off. The only blessing is that all the players on big contracts that I haven't yet been able to shift have taken a massive relegation wage drop (for example Rooney's £50,000 drops to £37,500). This helps quite a bit, and finances are very good for League 1 with around £20 million to spend and a sizeable wage budget left over after my massive cull. 

I’m not 100% sure, but this may have something to do with the fact that Rooney’s a Player / Coach, not just a player.

36 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

The other senior players I haven't yet managed to clear out (and keeping Rooney company in the U23 squad) are Carson, Davies, Huddlestone and Bennett. The latter has both Milan clubs and FC Porto after him for £150k (bizarre), whilst Davies is under offer from promoted Sunderland (free transfer). Martin and Anya were released, and I have sold five others.

The AI must’ve offered Huddlestone a new contract last season. Bennett has done well for other Derby managers when he returns from his Millwall loan both in the Championship and the Premiership during 202/21.

38 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A proper update will follow when the squad is finalised.

I look forward to it.

Good luck 🍀 managing the Mighty Rams 🐏 in League One.

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32 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

Isn't Rooney paid by a sponsor or something? So fairly harmless in U23 unless it's just a point of principle to purge the elderly.

Yes, he is.

19 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I believe there is a deal like that in place. It is probably more because I don't like or want him and won't use him. It's an awful lot of money to squander away each week.

Interestingly he could not be transfer listed unlike all the others, so some special coding must apply to him.

I’m only speculating here, as I don’t actually know, but given that Rooney has “100% of salary paid by sponsors” set, this may have some special coding effectively tying him to the club for the length of his contract. Until Derby signed Rooney, and I discussed with my Head Researcher how best to set him up in FM20, I wasn’t even aware the salary paid by sponsor option existed.

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9 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

However, he did appoint a former Derby player from yesteryear as his Assistant Manager, in the form of Paul Williams who played for the club from 1988-1995. I am sure that would please @Stuniverse

I remember Paul Williams fondly and watched him play for the Rams many times. Williams is from Burton-on-Trent, like me, and came through the Derby County Academy. Have you retained him as your AM?

Edited by Stuniverse
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17 minutes ago, Stuniverse said:

I remember Paul Williams fondly and watched him play for the Rams many times. Williams is from Burton-on-Trent, like me, and came through the Derby County Academy. Have you retained him as your AM?

I remember watching him play too, left-footed player IIRC? I have retained him as AM, it seemed wrong not to and his stats were decent enough. I always like to bring back former names at clubs I manage anyway.

The Rooney thing makes sense, and it looks like I am stuck with him. It's a shame Huddlestone got an extension from the previous manager but at least I didn't have to endure a year of Anya and Martin.

The appeal was that the AI manager only did minimal business, loaning out Anya and Forsyth (both now gone) and only signing two players on loan (Christie and a Dutch guy from AZ in Holland) plus a youth team 'keeper on a free transfer.

 

Edited by Jogo Bonito
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23 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I remember watching him play too, left-footed player IIRC? I have retained him as AM, it seemed wrong not to and his stats were decent enough. I always like to bring back former names at clubs I manage anyway.

Yes, I believe he was. In FM terms Williams would’ve been MC, DM with the ability to cover at DC and DL. He left us for Coventry I believe. Glad you’ve kept him on as AM.

24 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

The appeal was that the AI manager only did minimal business, loaning out Anya and Forsyth (both now gone) and only signing two players on loan (Christie and a Dutch guy from AZ in Holland) plus a youth team 'keeper on a free transfer.

Ah, that makes sense and, like you say, you’re pretty much starting with the Derby County squad intact.

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Just now, Stuniverse said:

Yes, I believe he was. In FM terms Williams would’ve been MC, DM with the ability to cover at DC and DL. He left us for Coventry I believe. Glad you’ve kept him on as AM.

Ah, that makes sense and, like you say, you’re pretty much starting with the Derby County squad intact.

I remember him at centre-back and midfield, good player and yes he went to Coventry after Derby. Pretty sure he played U21 level for England but not certain.

Yes, a full squad more or less, and additions have been modest to give the young guys a chance. If I don't land Christie (loan or permanent) I might just use Bird as cover for Bogle as he may struggle to get starting time in midfield. Benno Schmitz almost joined on loan but turned the move down. In attack, I've failed in loan bids for Delap and Idah but have another ex-Derby forward considering a loan move (bid accepted by club, now down to him).

The three arrivals so far are all free transfers and the highest earner amongst them is on £10,000 per week:

  1. I'm not particularly in love with my new back-up 'keeper, but he was free and he is capable at the level. Now valued at £1.2 million and earning less than Roos, he has experience at a club in the same region as Derby. Hopefully Carson will be out soon.
  2. A central midfield player released by his Championship club and valued at £4.2 million upon signing.
  3. A left-sided central defender who has played with one of the other central defenders before (I signed him after Sean Raggett chose Huddersfield over Derby on a free transfer)
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4 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Pretty sure he played U21 level for England but not certain.

He did.

5 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I've failed in loan bids for Delap and Idah but have another ex-Derby forward considering a loan move (bid accepted by club, now down to him).

The three arrivals so far are all free transfers and the highest earner amongst them is on £10,000 per week:

  1. I'm not particularly in love with my new back-up 'keeper, but he was free and he is capable at the level. Now valued at £1.2 million and earning less than Roos, he has experience at a club in the same region as Derby. Hopefully Carson will be out soon.
  2. A central midfield player released by his Championship club and valued at £4.2 million upon signing.
  3. A left-sided central defender who has played with one of the other central defenders before (I signed him after Sean Raggett chose Huddersfield over Derby on a free transfer)

Ooooh, I wonder who they could be?

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

A proper update will follow when the squad is finalised.

I’m looking forward to this even more now 😃

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2 minutes ago, Stuniverse said:

He did.

Ooooh, I wonder who they could be?

I’m looking forward to this even more now 😃

Cheers, I am liking the very active thread in here and look forward to reading more of everyone's adventures as we all appear to be at different levels and using different players.

I'll be rotating this with Dulwich Hamlet so will hand the baton back to you guys for now :lol:

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Finally hit April with 3 games left. The previous match was a thorny affair against West Brom, of which we needed a late equaliser to draw. 8 points clear, 3 games to do. Surely nothing will go wrong?

Well, we barely scraped a 1-0 win against Brentford at home, scored by my top scorer Tom Lawrence. We are Champions! With the board giving me 38 mil pounds to work with, I am already starting to scout out the players I need for next season.

champions.jpg

I probably need another quality young left back to cover Max Lowe because Lee Buchanan isn't doing well whenever he comes on. I also need to start buying a first team deep-lying playmaker (regista if it's even possible!) because Rooney is getting old while I am letting go of Huddlestone as I think I can get better quality at lower wages. I actually like Huddlestone when he was in Tottenham a long time ago but he never really went beyond a promising teenager. He still did good though. Berisha does good as a striker, but I do need a good pressing or deep lying striker. I might go back to Jonas Wind, now that his horrific 12 month injury is over.

Lastly and most importantly, I need a top notch inside forward on the right who can destroy Premier League defenders. I am struggling now to scout anyone usable currently, but who knows. Maybe someone will pop up. Harry Wilson at 8.5 mil maybe (when I try proposing a price)?

So a back up left back, 1 deep-lying player (of which Rooney and Max Bird can provide cover), a top notch right inside forward and another striker. 38 mil suddenly looks so little :(

In terms of out. I sold Duane Holmes for 3.1 mil++ as I wasn't able to give him enough game time for his liking. Good bloke though, did decent whenever he played. Kelle Roos was also sold for some pennies so that I don't feel that poor and I usually pray for divine love that they do not injure my goalkeeper. I am still trying to move on Jozelbon (sic) and Anya (he is such a pain in this FM because he is on huge wages but not useful at all). I probably have to suck it up til they are gone.

Edited by Impz82
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551261266_MatejVydra.thumb.png.cdb59cc49a69ce6d07b5237e127a04de.png      1175101643_LiamDelap.thumb.png.d27cfd1e11247befd055e99a8a9ab613.png

The striker choice was going to be Vydra, but for a wage saving of £31,000 per week, I think the vote goes to another ex-Derby man Delap. As an understudy to Marriott and with Waghorn, Whittaker and Brown on the books, I don't think Vydra is strictly necessary. Any thoughts?

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I was considering Delap (although I didn't realise he'd been in the Derby academy, I was only making the connection through his dad).

Had to laugh when I saw that his dad doesn't have him as favoured personnel - wonder what he did wrong? :lol:

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1 minute ago, Stackalee said:

I was considering Delap (although I didn't realise he'd been in the Derby academy, I was only making the connection through his dad).

Had to laugh when I saw that his dad doesn't have him as favoured personnel - wonder what he did wrong? :lol:

That's not good family bonding is it :lol:

I'd like Vydra, but Delap is a low-risk deal and should be sufficient for League 1.

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9 minutes ago, Stackalee said:

Delap fits better with your policy of using youth too? No idea if you have any chance or desire to make the deal permanent though.

Vydra is an ex-Derby player and is first-team ready, but I'd like to use Marriott and as you say, Delap fits the age philosophy and is so much cheaper. Man City rejected a loan earlier in the window but he is now transfer listed by request so i would make some offers during the course of his loan. I think this chat has convinced me to take a punt on him.

Meanwhile, Carson, Davies and Huddlestone have all rejected moves away. Bennett is still not quite gone, and I've given up on Rooney. I forgot to mention Malone was also free to go (another I can't yet shift), as I will use Buchanan as back-up to Lowe and 4th choice central defender.

The last move to make is back-up to Bogle. Christie isn't going to happen, so it is either Bird for that role (with Jordan Brown behind him) or Darnell Fisher for £1.5 million on wages of £7,000 per week. 

 

Edited by Jogo Bonito
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