FM20: The English Football League thread

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 minute ago, warlock said:

Looks like a pretty close match, but looks like your front 3 had a tough day against a solid Derby defence.

Think another year's development might be a good thing for Burton.

Yeah I only wanted to go up to the Prem for the boost to finances. Other then that I didn't want to get promoted.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Joe Powell was my best player this season for Burton. He got 21 assists.

I tried to tie him down to a new contract but I don't have the wage budget to offer him more then £6k a week and he wants £11k.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Burton Albion legend Lucas Akins has changed history at the club by becoming the all time league goalscorer with 76 goals. 

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

My newgen in my first season is developing nicely so far.

Gregory Bennett

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Burton Season 3 Mid Season Update

Transfers In

Summer Transfers

Josh McEachran - Free Transfer

Rolando Aarons

Declan John

James Bree

January Transfers In

Ronald Sobowale - £26k from Havant & W

Liam Millar - £1.3m from Liverpool

Transfers Out

I sold my newgen Gregory Bennett for £6m with it rising to £14.75m with add ons so it was a deal worth accepting.

Kieran O'Hara went to Wolves for £3.5m as that was his Minimum Release fee, I wasn't happy about this as he was a good goalie but nothing I can do.

Olivier Sarkic - £875k to Cardiff, He was my best player in League 1 and done well in my first season back in the Championship but the offer was too good to turn down and I had players like Rolando Aarons who were better then him.

Ryan Edwards - QPR for £500k. Another stand out player in my League 1 campaign but couldn't make the step up.

Kieran Wallace - Hull for £245k. Was never good enough for my first team. I was happy to get anything for him.

Reece Cole - £210K - Larne - He wanted first team football and I wasn't going to give it him.

I am currently top of the Championship come the end of January but you know what happened last season so I aint getting my hopes up just yet lol.

On loan player from Rangers Dapo Mebude has been a key performer for me this season with 16 goals so far and 6 assists.

Joe Powell continues to get better and better. 10 assists so far and 4 goals.

I have had a chat with just now to get him to improve in training as he has been slacking lately.

My finances are a lot better thanks to the player sales.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Absoulutely gutted right now. Joe Powell my best player is out for 9-11 months with a Compound leg and ankle fracture.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I only gone and done it lads. Promotion to the Prem with Burton Albion. I done it a lot quicker then I thought I would as well.

I am kind of unenthusiastic to do a season in the Prem as I feel like its come too easily for me.

Liam Millar is a special player, 10 goals in 12 games. Mostly on the wing as an Inside Forward as well.

Dapo Mabude was awesome again with 22 goals in 38 games.

Final League Table

Now what ?

Well I am thinking of doing a season in the Prem or I might start a new save with another team like Wigan, Exeter etc.

I will see how the pre season with Burton goes.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I have decided to do 1 season with Burton in the Prem to see how I do.

The board has decided to build a new stadium costing £14m to build and will have a capacity of 13,761

I also managed to convince the board to improve the training facilities and improve my youth level to Level 1 now.

[nextqprmanager]

Ronaldo Beckham

Be interesting what players` make the step up in The Prem?, I`m finding it tough.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Burton Season 4 Transfers In

Dapo Mebude - £8.25m from Rangers - After a few years on loan I managed to sign this man for a decent fee. 

 

Marcus Edwards - £6.25m from Vit.Guimarares. I wanted some bright, young English talent and I like to get players who weren't given a decent chance at big clubs like Edwards at Spurs.

Robbie Fraser - £4.3m from Rangers - Another young Scottish player who satsifies the club transfer policy.

This is what the lad looks like in real life.

566 kb · Done

Matt Olosunde - £1.8m from Rotherham. A good 24 year old centre back who can still become something special. 

Connor Gallagher - £1.2m from Chelsea. Another young talent wasted at Chelsea. I am hoping he becomes a key player for me.

Aiden O'Neill - £1m - Sydney - A bargain for £1m, He will play well just in front of my defense and will complement Gallagher well.

Here is a screenshot of my other transfers in, mostly regens or young players released from Prem teams.

Only major signing out was Kevin Long for £3m to Sunderland.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

15 minutes ago, nextqprmanager said:

Ronaldo Beckham

Be interesting what players` make the step up in The Prem?, I`m finding it tough.

Check above buddy as I just posted.

[nextqprmanager]

6 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Check above buddy as I just posted.

Good luck, I think I went a bit wrong buying / loaning random wonderkids?

[Jogo Bonito]

@Ronaldo Beckham Well done on promotion with Burton, I am sure The Brewers were raking it in with all the demand for alcoholic celebrations.

Good luck for next season, you're braver than I would be.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@Ronaldo Beckham Well done on promotion with Burton, I am sure The Brewers were raking it in with all the demand for alcoholic celebrations.

Good luck for next season, you're braver than I would be.

Yeah they definitely had a good drinking session that day lol.

Cheers buddy. Yeah it will be a challenge to keep them up.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Who would be the toughest team to take up to the Prem whether its starting squad or they are in a lot of debt.

I fancy a tough save to have as most saves I do lately seem too easy.

I might do a save with Peterborough and also manage the Republic Of Ireland national team as Peterborough's chairman wants you to sign Irish players.

[warlock]

3 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Who would be the toughest team to take up to the Prem

From the EFL? Macclesfield or Leyton Orient would be a long haul. Financially challenged, small grounds, lots of local competition for the fanbase. 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Just now, warlock said:

From the EFL? Macclesfield or Leyton Orient would be a long haul. Financially challenged, small grounds, lots of local competition for the fanbase. 

Cheers Warlock. Which one out of the 2 would be the hardest. I assume Macclesfield.

I might start a new save with Macclesfield tonight as I am getting bored of my Burton save now they are in the Prem.

[Rysen]

Not posted in here for a while but thought I’d drop in a little update and maybe get a bit of advice. No screenshots as I’m currently just on a short break at work but might post some later.

Now completed 5 season with Millwall and the last 3 have been successful ones in the Premier League. We’ve finished 9th, 7th and 9th. I was disappointed the 7th place finish didn’t get me into the Euro Cup 2 but I honestly have no idea how qualification for that works, it looked like 7th place would get it for me until about 25 games into the season and then it just disappeared? 

I think I’m reaching the end of this save for now. I want to be able to make that next step and get into European competition but feel like the gap is just too large, especially when teams around me are all spending £30-40 million on players. I have a decent budget but if I want to improve the squad rather than just one position I can’t be spending that much. As an example, Palace have spent £55 million (rising to £70 million) on one player, my record spend is £16 million. I just feel like it’s becoming a bit of a slog and the players to take me to the next level just aren’t available or are out of my price range (or would require a huge wage which I’m not particularly happy to pay).

Anyone have any suggestions on ways to almost revitalise the save to keep the motivation and interest? Not sure I can take another season of being close to a European place for a decent chunk of the season before falling away, or just boring mid table nothing to play for through the whole season.

[bendixkunert2]

13 minutes ago, Rysen said:

Not posted in here for a while but thought I’d drop in a little update and maybe get a bit of advice. No screenshots as I’m currently just on a short break at work but might post some later.

Now completed 5 season with Millwall and the last 3 have been successful ones in the Premier League. We’ve finished 9th, 7th and 9th. I was disappointed the 7th place finish didn’t get me into the Euro Cup 2 but I honestly have no idea how qualification for that works, it looked like 7th place would get it for me until about 25 games into the season and then it just disappeared? 

I think I’m reaching the end of this save for now. I want to be able to make that next step and get into European competition but feel like the gap is just too large, especially when teams around me are all spending £30-40 million on players. I have a decent budget but if I want to improve the squad rather than just one position I can’t be spending that much. As an example, Palace have spent £55 million (rising to £70 million) on one player, my record spend is £16 million. I just feel like it’s becoming a bit of a slog and the players to take me to the next level just aren’t available or are out of my price range (or would require a huge wage which I’m not particularly happy to pay).

Anyone have any suggestions on ways to almost revitalise the save to keep the motivation and interest? Not sure I can take another season of being close to a European place for a decent chunk of the season before falling away, or just boring mid table nothing to play for through the whole season.

Try to bring in some South American talents, develop them and sell them on for massive fees. That's how I did it with Ipswich. And then I was able to strengthen the team overall.  I had the same issue with the financial gap and still have and still I'm not a title contender but at least consistent top 6 finishes.

This is a REALLY tough league for teams like that, so I don't really understand how people are winning the league after 3 or 4 years with similar teams. Have to hope sponsorship deals improve over time to increase the transfer budget because the orginial top 6 are all spending 100M for 1 player.

[Rysen]

3 minutes ago, bendixkunert2 said:

Try to bring in some South American talents, develop them and sell them on for massive fees. That's how I did it with Ipswich. And then I was able to strengthen the team overall.  I had the same issue with the financial gap and still have and still I'm not a title contender but at least consistent top 6 finishes.

This is a REALLY tough league for teams like that, so I don't really understand how people are winning the league after 3 or 4 years with similar teams. Have to hope sponsorship deals improve over time to increase the transfer budget because the orginial top 6 are all spending 100M for 1 player.

I’ve been looking for some hot prospects to bring in and develop, mostly been picking them up from Eastern Europe so far as they’re much cheaper than what I’ve found in South America but no one to sell for huge amounts yet. I could probably try and move on a few of my better players now (Alena, Cook, Zirkzee or Wind) for big money and reinvest but I’m not sure if I’d get the kind of fee needed and then the replacements might not be at a price to make it worth it. The money and increased reputation from Europe/trophy wins would be a big boost as well for me.

Yeah it baffles me seeing people do that. I know I’m not the best at building world beating tactics but I can build a good enough one or bring in good enough players to get me so far, I’m sure other people are just better at the tactical side of things and finding the right players, I can get a bit lazy with scouting potential signings sometimes. The transfer fees are outrageous and it’s not even just the top 6 any more. As mentioned Palace spent a bucketload on one player despite finishing 17th on goal difference, Fulham are spending £40 million+ and West Ham are apparently bidding up to £100 million on a player too. Our financial status is “Rich” as there’s not debt and we’re raking in the premier league and tv money but transfer budget is such that unless it was a position that desperately needed strengthening and rest of the squad was fine I wouldn’t really be able to spend more than £15-20 million. It’s a frustrating position to be in

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I have decided to take a team I have always had a soft spot for since they first got promoted to the Prem. 

The team I am going to manage next is in the Championship. They are a Northern team with orange and black stripes.Of course the team I am taking over is Hull.  They seem like a challenge I can get stuck into.

To go alongside this I am also going to manage the Northern Ireland national team and try use Hull as a breeding ground for talented young Northern Irish players once their finances are a bit better.

 

Edited July 20, 2020 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Transfers Out

My only player out was forced by the board and I lost bright prospect Keane Lewis Potter for £2.3m to Crystal Palce but could rise up to £8m with clauses which aint too bad for a player I didn't even know of so I don't feel like it is a massive loss and helps the clubs finances as they aint the best.

Lets hope he does well for Palace so I can make some more money off him.

Transfers In

First signing in was skillful winger Angel Gomes on loan from Man Utd. He should dominate the Championship and get me some goals as well.

My next signing was 29 year old Norway striker Marcus Pederson on a free transfer. He has decent attributes and brings good experience to my youthful strike force. 

I signed another 29 year old, this one was from Portugal and looks like one hell of a player, I also signed him on a free transfer and his value is already £7.5m. He should play well just behind my other 2 central midfielders.

Another central midfielder signed was Billy Gilmour on loan from Chelsea, He is a bright young talent and like Angel Gomes is destined for bigger things. Hopefully he can perform for me at Hull.

As I said in my opening post I am also the Northern Ireland manager so I decided to scout the National team, Under 21's and Under 18's to see if there was any decent players I could sign cheap and I found a decent right back by the name of Conor McLaughlin who I signed for £500k from Sunderland.

 He should become my main Right Back for the season.

Another Northern Irish full back I signed was 16 year old Left Back Sean Stewart, I signed him from Norwich for £425k. Hopefully he can do well in the youth team and push on for first team football.

My DOF signed another good youth prospect in Flynn Clarke who can play as a right winger, attacking midfielder or striker. He cost £70k from Peterborough rising to £170k with add ons.

My last signing is another Northern Irish prospect who I am most excited about.

His name is Lee Harkin who I signed from Wolves for £650k compensation. He can play as a winger or striker. I am hoping to use him for club and country for a long time. I might even give him his debut in my next Northern Ireland game. He is only 16 and has plently of potential.

Lets hope he celebrates a lot for me like he does in this photo below.

This is my starting line up against Swansea

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Lee Harkin scores on his debut in a 3-0 win over Sunderland in the Carabo cup.

Get in Harkin.

Harkin also breaks a Hull City record becoming the Youngest player to score for Hull but also become the youngest ever Carabo cup goalscorer as well.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Ronaldo Beckham

[Ronaldo Beckham]

That's right Harkin scores again, again in the Carabo Cup against Crewe.

I am doing well so far with Hull, I am through to the 3rd round of the Carabo cup and currently 11th in the league with 7 points.

I have just called up Lee Harkin for my first game with Northern Ireland, I will bring him on in the last 20 mins and see what he can do.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Harkin made his debut for Northern Ireland coming on in the 50th minute but not doing much but I wasn't expecting him too on this big occassion.

He has broke a Northern Ireland and also Euro Championship Qualifying record by becoming the youngest ever player.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I have decided to post my progress with Hull and Northern Ireland in the Careers thread. 

 

[Unforced error]

Hi, I have been managing MK Dons and got them to the top of league 1 and have stayed there till now (March 2020). I did have a 11 point lead but thanks to the cup run - into the final of the unknown cup and quarter final of the FA cup. 3rd round against Derby and thought they would thrash us but no...we won 4-1!. Next round Bournemouth yes Premier League team and we are at home...won 1-0!!!  Now have only 4 point lead, and several injuries too. 

More detail when I am at my game pc 😁

Edited July 26, 2020 by Unforced error

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Unforced error said:

I have been managing MK Dons and got them to the top of league 1 and have stayed there

Sounds like a good start to a save. Looking forward to hearing more about your progress 

[Unforced error]

16 hours ago, warlock said:

Sounds like a good start to a save. Looking forward to hearing more about your progress 

Cheers Warlock

Here's more...

All was going well until New Year...

Thankfully he knows where the goal is!

We won We won We won 😜 Eddie Howe ain't happy

 

Beat Doncaster 4-1 too

This tactic still works...Got Felix Nmecha from City on loan from January, he does a good job at AMC, got Sibley on loan from Derby after we beat them in the FA Cup.Thompson was already on loan from Norwich when I took over in the summer. He does a decent job in midfield. His best moment was scoring a screamer against Bournemouth in the FA Cup

Edited July 26, 2020 by Unforced error

[Jean0987654321]

Crewe - Season 5
Ahh...yes. EPL here we come. It didn't take too long there. The transfer windows were headlined with the Bosman transfer of Asier Villalibre. The former Bilbao man was just what we need up top as we were starving for goals up top. We also saw the return of two legends in Nick Powell and Charlie Kirk. Former Benfica player Bernardo Silva and Former Dortmund playr Erik Durm also were crucial to the promotion. Silva was able to fill in the backline and then in midfield and Durm was immense as a winger.

Here is the tactic. It is a bit insprired by Bodalas of Getafe

And here are the results

And now some players

Top Goalscorer

Ok off the bench

Rock solid as a CB. Baby Steve Bruce keeps finding the net somehow

Had an ok season. Could be better

The other former La Masia graduate did pretty well with THB.

Shored up the LB spot. Gutted that we were beaten by Betis when trying to get him permanently.

Baby Busquets does it again

Former Benfica player was a bit of a hidden gem.

Stepped up big time this season as a BBM. Hopefully, he'll do well in the EPL.

Fagioli's second stint at Crewe proved better than his last. He scored some important goals for me and did the dirty work in midfield for both roles

Baby Cuadrado

Great solid SK

The legend keeps rolling along

Bargain. He proved to be a key player in our promtion bid. 10 assists!!

Some future transfers has already been aranged. I'm pretty hyped about these guys

This guy was cheap and man he looks like a good Ferran successor

Could be a good option in the wing and is free

Also renewed the loans of De Cruz and THB for another year. Hopefully, I'll have to funds to bring them on board permanently

Net spend was pretty good. We had the 5th lowest wage bill in the Championship


 
Other worthy notes

 

[Unforced error]

Wow well done getting Crewe into the Premier League 😁

Quick update from my MK Dons save, FA cup quarter final against Birmingham away, expecting to get thrashed...we won 4-1! We have Man City in the semi...😱

 

[Jean0987654321]

1 hour ago, Unforced error said:

Wow well done getting Crewe into the Premier League 😁

Quick update from my MK Dons save, FA cup quarter final against Birmingham away, expecting to get thrashed...we won 4-1! We have Man City in the semi...😱

 

The money will be worth it as you're heading to Wembley 🤣😂

[Unforced error]

Sure will, already made £1,000,000 from the FA cup so far so the board is very happy.

[torquayfmer]

Not posted in here for a long time! But finally have got back into a football league save  

Peterborough Season 1

We started by making some changes to the squad, helped by getting Man City as our senior affiliate. This meant we could bring in Eric Garcia and Erik Palmer-Brown on season long loan deals, both of which were fantastic. Jordan Rossiter joined on a free with potential to become a Premier League player, so it was a no brainer when he wanted to join. Liam Miller was signed for the left wing from Liverpool, and his pace caused problems all season. Herbie Kane and Conor Gallagher also joined on loan in January after we had a couple of injuries and I felt we needed an improvement from our midfield.

On the outs, Steven Ziboth, Darrell Mintus and Lucas Navarro all went straight out on loan after joining on free transfers, they were all a bit of a punt in case we could sell for profit in the future. I was pleased that the team I support, Torquay, came in for Navarro so I was able to help them out a bit! George Cooper was the only player to leave permanently in the first season, joining Derby in January. He never got in the side and just didn't fit with how we played, so to get nearly £200k for him, I was pleased.

The season went really well, winning the league by 11 points, reaching the 100 point mark. The Championship awaited us, and the owner was delighted we'd got promoted in my first season.

Notable performers from the season were some of the young prospects, Ricky Jade-Jones who forced his way into the first eleven towards the end of the season and at only 16/17yrs old, finished the season on 11 goals. Harrison Burrows on the left was absolutely brilliant and was first choice for the second half of the season.

Season 2

We definitely needed to strengthen the side if we were going to have a real go at The Championship. Our first port of call was to extend Eric Garcia, Erik Palmer-Brown and Conor Gallagher for a second season on loan from Man City and Chelsea. We needed to improve in goal and brought in Christian Walton from Brighton. Mitch Clark came in from Leicester for just under £1m, he becomes first choice right back and has really good potential. He played against us last season on loan at Bolton and then Oxford. Pietro Beruatto came in on a free transfer from Juventus after his contract expired to give competition for Dan Butler at left back. Other key signings were Tommy Doyle on loan from Man City to really strengthen our midfield, Rhian Brewster on loan from Liverpool, Arvin Appiah whose pace will cause problems on the wing and Harley Dean, who signed on a free transfer to take over the captaincy after being released by Birmingham. Paul Smyth was a late signing from QPR to give more competition on the wing.

On the outs, Harrison Burrows sadly left to join Everton, I think I probably could have got more out of the deal but the board took the decision out of my hands. We made a decent amount of money on players that didn't play much last season and when they did, didn't show they would be able to handle a level higher. We also loaned out Ricky Jade-Jones to keep his level of first team football high, he joined Exeter along with Bobby Copping for the season. Lucas Navarro stayed at Torquay for a second season and was then joined by Flynn Clarke.

The season has started really well.

And I'm delighted to be sitting in 6th place after 7 games.

[smplfc123]

Hi guys,

I've finally returned to the best thread on here. After completing an up and down 3 seasons with Derby County a couple of months back, I've only really enjoyed 1 save since which was with Palace and only lasted 18 months. I've been scratching around trying to find a team to start with in the EFL, but I just couldn't put my finger on who. So, I decided to start unemployed and see if any challenges would come my way and I think I've found the perfect one.

Struggling financially with a loss of £10m projected for this season and currently sitting at -£800k in the balance, the financial side of this great club is just one of many problems. The Owls find themselves in 23rd position and after letting Garry Monk go, I agreed a 2 year deal at Hillsborough. 

We have the 2nd highest average age in the Championship, with just 6 players under 25 in the squad (3 of which are only in on loan). There are some ridiculous wages being paid out, with us sitting on an average wage of £17,500 p/w, some £5,000 over the average.

Looking at the squad and players available, i'm going for a Simeone/Bordalas - esque hard working 4-4-2. My aim is to shore up the defence whilst still giving us enough options up front to get us out of this mess. 

The aim for the season is to avoid relegation then completely rebuild this squad on a tight budget, the kind of challenge I love.

I've already played 2 games, a 1-1 home draw against Swansea and then a 1-0 93rd minute defeat away to table-toppers WBA. It was devastating. But a solid start none the less. Wish me luck. Glad to be back.

[karanhsingh]

Hey fellas,

On my new journeyman save I have landed back in the English football leagues after a while

With Forest Green Rovers, who I have since discovered are quite the "hipster" team if I may say so. Look forward to contributing to this thread again and reading about all your careers 

[warlock]

And with the game heading into extra-time, there's sudden activity on the bench... 

Good to see we're still at it lads. For myself, after a couple of seasons in France I suddenly realised that for the first time in my history with FM I hadn't done either of my 'essential' saves: Manchester United, and Darlington. So I've remedied that - just completed the first season with United, which saw them finish as runners-up to Liverpool in the PL, runners-up to Man City in the Europa League, but we did bag some silverware with the FA Cup. And this afternoon I've embarked on a new save with the mighty Quakers. It's the usual non-league challenge: we start with just 15 fit first-team players, and very (very) little money to fill the gaps, so it could be a long haul back to the EFL.

Here's wishing us all the best of luck 

[smplfc123]

Good luck with Darlington @warlock

I'm now 11 games in and more importantly, just in to the January transfer window, so I thought I'd share a quick update. Here's our results since taking over:

Really excited by this task, I decided to embark on my quest for a dogged 4-4-2 style. I'm always a 4-1-4-1 (DM Wide) man, so the tactical challenge is just as enjoyable for me. 

As you can see, for a team that had conceded 25 in their first 15, we've managed to cut it down to just 9 goals in 11, with 3 of those coming in our worst performance away to Forest. It's at the other end where we're struggling. We've had plenty of shots in pretty much all of the games, but finding the right balance between the wide players and attackers who are all low on confidence is tough. I am however, happy that we've stuck with it and are now starting to get some good results. 

I've offloaded Odubajo for £800k and Nuhu for £400k, but due to the club's very poor financial position, I have just £200k and £22k available in the transfer and wage budget respectively.  

So going in to January, the table looks like this:

So we've moved up 1 place, but the big worry for me is that Barnsley in 20th have pulled away a little bit, meaning there's only 1 spot up for grabs outside of the relegation zone, so any slip ups could prove very costly.

I'm hoping to make a couple of moves if I can in the window to help me push out of the bottom 3, but some proper wheeling and dealing is needed!

[karanhsingh]

@warlock - that sounds interesting, look forward to reading more about it. On this save of mine before Forest Green I was at Llanelli Town in Wales - first time I have managed at that level and it was a lot of fun, I imagine a similar level to English non league. 

@smplfc123  - best of luck, Sheffield Weds is certainly a huge challenge due to the aging squad and the finances. Look forward to seeing how you get on and hope you can stay up.

@torquayfmer - good start with the Posh definitely a club with a lot of potential and some FM favorites. Dembele always seems to do well against my sides. 

[warlock]

26 minutes ago, smplfc123 said:

I'm now 11 games in... any slip ups could prove very costly

Yeah, there's not much margin of error there, and the recovery is always difficult when morale is poor. But it's a good challenge - I had a fine save with the Owls in FM19, but finding goals was always difficult. Do you still have Bannen? He carried us into the PL in that save.

[warlock]

2 minutes ago, karanhsingh said:

I was at Llanelli Town in Wales - first time I have managed at that level and it was a lot of fun, I imagine a similar level to English non league

I'd guess Llanelli would be marginally tougher - in England you probably have a much bigger pool of players to choose from - but non-league is never a romp in the park . Always enjoyable, though.

Good luck with Forest Green!

[smplfc123]

15 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

 best of luck, Sheffield Weds is certainly a huge challenge due to the aging squad and the finances. Look forward to seeing how you get on and hope you can stay up.

Thanks @karanhsingh 

15 hours ago, warlock said:

Yeah, there's not much margin of error there, and the recovery is always difficult when morale is poor. But it's a good challenge - I had a fine save with the Owls in FM19, but finding goals was always difficult. Do you still have Bannen? He carried us into the PL in that save.

Yep turning this around is proving rather difficult, especially with the old cliche of "There's no easy games in The Championship".

Yes Bannan is the main man for me. Our best technical player and i'm hoping his set piece delivery could get us a few goals.

[bendixkunert2]

 

Portsmouth season 1 2019/2020

 

Not really much to say here. We dominated the league, had some decent cup runs too. Sold a few players in the winter. Didn't add anyone because I thought the team would be good enough and we could save some money for the Championship.

 

 

 

Ellis Harrison was our best player.

 

 

Transfer wise not really much movement, just a few outs.

 

 

Our squad was razor thin in the 2nd half of the season but we were already 20 points clear of 3rd place so I thought it was a gamble worth taking.

 

Will be interesting to see what happens in the Championship. I do think we have to completely revamp the squad though to not only compete but I like to gamble and really try to gain back to back promotions. Our transfer budget is 7 million so I think we can improve quiet a bit. Issue is that the Portsmouth team from League 1 really doesn't have many Championship players.

[Unforced error]

Well, we did it....won the league with 3 games to go so MK Dons get to the championship 😁

Edited July 30, 2020 by Unforced error

[warlock]

4 hours ago, bendixkunert2 said:

We dominated the league

Indeed you did!

54 minutes ago, Unforced error said:

won the league with 3 games to go

Going well there.

Good luck to you both in the Championship 

[karanhsingh]

Great updates from Pompey & MK Dons! 

I hope to have one up tonight as well.

[karanhsingh]

Welcome to Forest Green Rovers, probably the world's greenest football club!

A bit of context, I am for the first time ever doing a journeyman save wherein I started off as myself with zero coaching badges or past experience. The leagues loaded up are essentially all the home nations, along with Italy, Spain & Germany. The aim is simple, to work my way up to become a Premier League manager.

The first team to take a punt on me was Llanelli Town FC in the 2nd division in Wales. We managed to get promoted on the last day in the first season, followed by a 3rd place finish in the Cymru Premier and a cup final defeat against TNS. This was my cue to end my time in Wales, and I left with an enhanced reputation of one whole star 

The following summer (of 2021) was actually long, hard and full of rejections. I was about to take a job in the Vanarama National when I got two interviews, at League Two Newport County and Forest Green, struggling towards the bottom of the League One table. This time I did the interviews differently, making bold promises to the owners of being able to not only match but also exceed their expectations. It worked, and I received a job offer from Forest Green Rovers!

A quick look at the league table (taken after my first game at the club as I forgot to take a screenshot on the day of the appointment).

I did also read up about the club and it is very interesting, under Chairman Dale Vince (who still owns the club for me in-game), they have become a very eco-friendly club with numerous innovations and also in fact a totally vegan club. Now IRL this would probably drive me away from them . That said the owner also seems to be quite ambitious as they have been slowly working their way up the leagues. The club hails from a tiny little town in Gloucestershire but seems to be very progressive, the stadium "The New Lawn" seems quite modern and boasts of the world's first 'organic' pitch. In-game there is also a stadium expansion currently in the works, with us meanwhile turning out at Swindon Town's stadium for a few months.

So that should do it for the introduction, let's see how the rest of the season turned out!

[karanhsingh]

On the pitch we managed to make an immediate impact and start putting some points on the board. My trusted 4-2-3-1 formation seemed to suit the squad well, with Aaron Collins particularly a big threat up front and Josh March on the right wing. We were soon comfortably away from the relegation zone, and slowly but surely climbing up the league.

Then came January and the winter transfer window. Off the pitch the club was having a tough time, the finances were in dire shape being almost 2 million in the red. Attendances were low due to playing in Swindon, coupled with stadium expansion costs & having to pay a rent on top as well. 

Sadly the only option that I saw was to lose one of our best players and team leaders, when Huddersfield made an offer for club captain Nathan McGinley I managed to get it close to the 1 million mark and off he went.

The Board managed to get us an affiliation with Chelsea which turned out to be a massive help, as we brought in 3 defenders on loan from them on no wages to really shore up our squad. The RWB Livramento and young CB Adrian King would go on to play key roles during the second half of the season.

My DoF also somehow spotted young Nigerian/ Polish forward Solomon Obi playing in his home-nation who was picked up for a paltry 250 quid and has also been quite impressive (screenshot of him in the next post).

So here are the fixtures for the rest of the campaign, as you will see we eventually managed to make it to the play-offs by grabbing 6th place in the league. It probably could have been even higher but for a period of 2 months wherein my players forgot how to score penalties, missing 4 out of 5 and we went on to lose every single one of those games. However to come in 6th from where we started was still a solid achievement.

In the month of March we also did move back into our home stadium which immediately led to a big boost in attendances and therefore revenues as well, with the first game back being a resounding 3-0 win over Bradford and the last home game of the season being the all-important play-off semi final 2-1 victory over a strong Ipswich side.

We would go on to face Luton Town in the play-off final at Wembley for a chance to get the tiny Forest Green Rovers FC into the Championship for the very first time. I was quietly confident having beaten them in the FA Cup and draw away in the league. Without further ado, this is how it all turned out.

Sadly, a crushing and very undeserved defeat. We were absolutely dominant and somehow just could not score. Then our right winger March had a moment of madness and got himself sent off in the 53rd minute. All of two minutes later their winger scores a scorcher from distance. From then on it was an uphill battle and while we fought bravely till the end, we could not find an equalizer. And so despite having 23 shots to their 7 and 12 corners to their 1, it is Luton Town who will be going up. The final league table for the season:

I am now in the off-season busy making transfers, unfortunately the Chelsea boys for some reason don't seem to want to renew with us. Vacancies popped up at Championship sides WBA & Cardiff which I applied for but have been turned away from both clubs, so we will now definitely be staying at the Rovers and looking to make another promotion push this season!

[Unforced error]

Hard luck losing 1-0 to Luton... frustrating! Especially as you did so well to drag them up to 6th 😁

As for my team, well we managed to score against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi final. Rhys Healey scored a scorcher that Bravo couldn't get close to. Unfortunately they scored 3. Still we got £900,000 for turning up. 

[smplfc123]

So with less than 10 games to go, it's not looking good:

What's so frustrating about this save is that we've done really well defensively, we've just drawn far too many games with our inability to score. I've tried all sorts of combinations but I just can't seem to get anyone firing up top. Aaron Connolly was brought in during the January window on loan from Brighton, he scored in his first game then caught the bug and hasn't scored since! 

As you can see by our form since January, we've been excellent defensively. But we generally are creating plenty of chances, it's just that every striker at the club is inept. Rhodes, Foristieri and Connolly have 1 goal each and Fletcher has 3. Adam Reach is our top scorer with 5!

I'm not giving up hope. We're still hanging on in there, I'm just afraid the board wont let me see the season out.