[FM20] Dag & Reds Premier League Adventures

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 11, 2019

Dear Diary,

 

So this is it.

I have landed in eastern London. Dagenham. Doesn´t look like a nice spot really. And it´s raining. But that was to be expected, we are in England. Man, who would´ve thought that I´d end up here so quickly? The call from their chairman came yesterday and here I am, ready to take over a football club named Dagenham & Redbridge. They are playing in the 5th tier of English football, the National League, I should add. Not a lot of great history there either.

Not compaining though. It´s nice to be back in the business. However, Dag & Red were the only ones who offered me a chance to get back into the game, at least they hadn´t forgotten my success with Toulouse years ago in the French Ligue 1. Time flies, man.

Dagenham East Station finally. The rain has stopped. I should be going, it should not be far now. Time to meet the chairman and sign the contract. It runs until the end of this season. You gotta prove yourself in this world.

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 13, 2019

Dear Diary,

Today I was introduced as the new manager of Dagenham & Redbridge. I was very happy when the Chairman shook my hand in front of not too many local reporters, almost every seat was empty, the media didn´t cover it at all it seems. Nice, that´s less pressure from them then I guess.

 

The first training went well. I met the team and one of the leaders, Mitch Brundle introduced me to the players. These lads seem a good bunch.

 

The stadium, Victoria Road, looks adequate for a team in that division. With a capacity of about 6000, I hope we can play good enough to attract these fan figures soon.

 

Edited October 15, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 15, 2019

Dear Diary,

 

This night I dreamed of our team destroying our rivals one at a time (I think we only have one rival tbh but who cares). In doing this, we used a simple and plain 4-4-2 tactic just like our grandfathers did before the war. It all seemed so easy and logical to me. When I woke up, I had to write it up which did not take very long.

 

From now on, we will play this tactic. And ONLY this tactic. 

Great times lie ahead.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 17, 2019

Dear Diary,

 

After long talks with the board about how to finance them, we brought in 2 new players today. One is a central defender from Ireland and the other one is a young talented goalkeeper from Scotland. I thought we needed to bolster our defence and we only had 2 goalkeepers when I arrived.

 

July 22, 2019

Found out today that we do not have a youth academy, not even a youth team. Nope. Nada. Nichts. I confronted the chairman, demanding we should build for the future, but to no avail. He reminded me - in a very calm manner- that this is my first month at the club and that he has the last say in things like this. For now, it´s a No.

 

July 27, 2019

The bookmakers see us in 12th position, which matches my impression of the strength of this team. We will try our best to reach a mid-table position this season. The pre-season friendlies were a rollercoaster ride though.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

September 3, 2019

Dear Diary,

 

The start of the season lies behind us and we managed just about. My impression is, we can do much better but we somehow fail extremely in the dying minutes of the games. Maybe it´s lack of stamina and we should work harder on that in training. Or it´s lack of concentration. Or maybe both. Point being, we lost a lot of points because of that.

 

There were at least 3 games where we could have come away with 3 points instead of just the 1 for a draw. Against Stockport, we conceded in the 94th minute. Hartlepool scored the equalizer in the 90th and Sutton managed to snatch a point in the 86th minute.

I think it really is time now for individual talks and stamina training.

 

And if our luck wasn´t bad enough, our new signing gets injured in training and will be out for around a year.  

 

And on top of that, the media is speculating about a takeover. We really do not need distractions like this at the moment. Hopefully the next months will bring an improvement.

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

October 30, 2019

Dear Diary,

 

Things did get better. We managed to shut down the late conceded goals and started to score them ourselves. That helped us to a pretty decent progress in the National League and the FA Cup. So we are in 9th position now and will face Notts County in the first FA Cup round. What else happened? Ah yes, we loaned out 2 youngsters who didn´t play a role for the first team anyway.

October was a great month if you exclude the home loss to Bromley. We should not get ahead of ourselves, that´s what I am preaching every day in training.

 

Slough Town didn´t pose a big thread and so I could play Cup keeper Alex Crean and a few other bench players and we still prevailed pretty easily.

 

The takeover now doesn´t seem so likely anymore. But you never know. Things can change so quickly in football.

Oh, and England qualified for the EURO. Let´s hope they do better this time!

Edited September 19, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

December 31, 2019

Dear Diary,

 

As I reflect on the past year, I cannot stop being confused by how we play. One day we play like the world champions, the next day we lose against some country side club. This has to stop. Let´s take this as a new intention for next year: Be more consistent. 

The facts don´t lie. We sit on 11th after half of the season. This is what we wanted. And the board is pleased, too. The real highlight is our run in the FA Cup. We managed to get through to the lucrative 3rd round and we will face no other than Chelsea FC! This will be an away fixture, but should get us some money anyway! 

 

I guess that´s your fate when you got no real youth team. Only crap youngsters. Maybe, just maybe, a decent goalkeeper will arise from this. But only maybe.

 

Nice story, bad ending. I declined the first offer. Then he came and complained to me and when I asked why he wanted to leave, he answered "There is no doubt that FC Andorra are a bigger club than the Daggers". I agreed immediately to this move. Good riddance! The he signed for Toledo 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 4, 2020

Dear Diary,

 

the day of the big match came quickly. Everyone was excited, the fans, the lads, even I felt a bit anxious. Then the bad news came in: Mitch Brundle won´t be able to play as he injured himself in training this morning. Well, it all went pretty much downhill from then on: We conceded pretty early, Brundle´s stand-in Graham was way worse than I expected, we collected 6 yellow cards because we were too slow and in the end it was 5-0 for Chelsea FC. Nevertheless, a great run in the FA Cup by the lads. And we got some decent money.

 

At least the yellow cards show we got stuck in. That´s ok for me. Now let´s get back to the National League business again.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

March 1, 2020

Dear Diary,

 

What a difference a 2 months make! Our form peaked for this season I guess. We had such a good run we during the last weeks we ended up on 8th position! The run to the 4th round in the FA Trophy was impressive too, until... yeah until Harrogate -of all teams!- stopped it. We lost at home. To Harrogate!! I´m still angry.

 

Harrogate!!! I can´t believe it! Maybe next time we play them I will field a team consisting of first teamers, not bench-warmers.

 

Oh, good news! After getting on the boards nerves every month, they finally agree to allow a U23 team ! Yay! The Future is bright!

 

 

World News: No changes following the Brexit. Good to hear.

Edited September 20, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

June 12, 2020

Dear Diary,

 

Aaaaand the season´s over. And it went better than I expected! We finish 8th, just outside the playoff spots! And we were even in contention for that playoff place until the last match day when we lost away at Chesterfield. But who cares, this is already an achievement. We are celebrating!

 

We are a force at home, but a mouse when it comes to away games. This will be something we have to work on for next season.

For the record: Aldershot got promoted, Man City won the EPL and the Champions League, while rivals Man Utd won the Europa League.

France won the EURO, England went out in the quarters against them.

 

That was a great season for us, but we will lose BOTH our strikers as they were only loan players. And although we got around half a million for that FA Cup tie against Chelsea in January, the money is already gone...

 

A Freund in need is a Freund indeed. The chairman helps out. A welcome contribution! 

 

See you next season, Dear Diary!

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 30, 2020

Dear Diary,

 

Tonight our transfer activities came to an end.  It was time to get rid of players who did not get enought playing time or just don´t have the quality to warrant their salary. And deadwood, of course. All in all it came down to eight players. Skipper Zakuani maybe the most prominent name, but he is already 33 and I can see the decline coming. Will Wright wanted to much money we just didn´t want to spend.

 

We signed six players on free transfers. These included 1 goalkeeper, 2 central midfielders and 3 attackers. We had to strengthen our attack because the two guys who scored our goals last season were loanees and are now gone. Turner is a young Welsh talent, who already got some caps for their U19. Charman is a Newcastle United academy product who didn´t make the grade there but maybe he will at Dagenham.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

October 31, 2020

Dear Diary,

Nice start to the season. What had started as a defence-heavy style of play from us, turned into a free-scoring extravaganza during the last month. And you know what? This seems to happen because I switched to a DEFENSIVE mentality after that 1-4 loss against Chesterfield! Looks like this is working great for the moment.

Ever since that defeat against Chesterfield we did not lose a match. This will of course happen sooner or later but for the moment our defensive mentality works. Luke Charman is developing into that striker that I originally was looking for. He does not score much but he often gets the assist and that´s what makes him so precious to our game at the moment. And his partnership in attack with Danny Williams starts to get better and better as Williams already scored 7 goals.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 2, 2021

Dear Diary,

 

Happy New Year! No league defeat in 2 months, but 6 (!) draws! I don´t know what to make of it. We are playing defensively solid but we don´t win in the end. Still, we are playing above expectations and that is definately a good thing. In the FA Cup, we lost against QPR in the 1st round, but that was no surprise.

 

2 months without our number one keeper and still we managed to reach 5th place and get 10 points clear of a non-playoff position. Alex Crean and Matthew Turner were great stand-ins, conceding only 2 goals in 9 league games!

 

Williams scored a ton in January. Nice to see he gets the recognition he deserves.

 

"Don´t expect much" blah blah blah! It does not sound too bad I think. Wait and see.

 

A League Two club is interested. No, I don´t want to leave what I have started here.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

March 2, 2021

Dear Diary,

 

The team is progressing. At least no draws in the last 2 months... Our playoff chances are rising as we establish ourselves in the top 5. Our only 2 defeats came across Teams I never expected to beat us: First ist Barrow, second is our most likely bogey team Harrogate again. More good news on the Cup front! We made it through to the semi finals of the FA Trophy! There we will meet Chorley in a 2 legged tie.

 

Luke Charman is finally banging in the goals we expected. He scored 6 times in as many games in February. No surprise he is the Player Of The Month.

 

 

Our finances are something to worry about. We keep making losses constantly. This year there is no big FA Cup revenue and it shows.  Mr. Freund?

Edited September 27, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

May 2, 2021

Dear Diary,

 

After some lesser results in the remaining league games, we manage to finish 3rd and qualify for the playoff semi finals. I did not expect the season to end that successful and there is still more to achieve. Plus, we reached the FA Trophy final against Dover Athletic!

Our league form declined a bit towards the end but still we made the playoffs relatively comfortably. What more is there to come? Only time will tell.

 

New signing Williams had a great season, scoring 22 goals in the league. Only that talented 18 year old newgen from Maidstone scored more.

 

The youth intake was slightly better this year.

 

The board is delighted with the progress and so am I. The new contract was a no-brainer.

Edited September 23, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

May 19, 2021

Dear Diary,

 

Time flies. And we concluded the season with a triumph and a tragedy. 

First for the triumph.

We won the FA Trophy against a mostly harmless Dover Athletic.

 

We dominated the final. Williams finally scored the opener after 68 minutes, then captain Brundle sealed the victory in stoppage time. Congratulations, lads!

 

Now for the tragedy. 

We lost the playoff final in the most heartbreaking way possible.

It all looked bright after the demolition of Maidstone in the semi final. We completely outclassed them (ok, the early red card helped a lot there) and it showed in the result. What could possibly go wrong in the final against Barrow?

Turns out, a lot. We took the lead early on, just to be equalized some minutes later. The match was all about nervousness, bad passes, late challenges, nearly no shots at goal. All in all: Not nice to watch. Then came stoppage time and in a late attempt to cast a miracle, Barrow just pumped the ball into our box when Will Wood misjudged the cross and Joshua Kayode suddenly found himself with the goal at his mercy. He made no mistake.

 

I refuse to say that this season was a miss. I think it was a success.

 

Better luck next time, it´s easy as that.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 30, 2021

Dear Diary,

 

Pre-season time, transfer time! There had to be a big clear out. Some familiar names didn´t get their contracts renewed as I thought they don´t help us anymore as we want to progress further as a club. Brought in 8 new players, some are released academy products from bigger clubs.

 

Yes, that´s Robbie Savage´s son! He didn´t make it at Man Utd, but we will give him the chance to prosper.

 

The chairman injects some more money. I comply by lowering the wages for this season. That´s a start.

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

September 26, 2021

Dear Diary,

 

What a difference a day tactical change makes! I spent the whole pre-season thinking back and forth and ended up using the default Gegenpress tactic because I wanted us to pile up the pressure on our opponents and we have the players for that I thought. Turns out, I was right! The new players fit in right away and the team has already gelled greatly. I know it´s just our moment right now, but still.

 

Damn Carlisle United! If it wasn´t for them we would have had a 12 game winning streak by now! Okay okay, calm down... Top of the League! The only sad figure at the moment is last seasons topscorer Danny Williams, who lost the race for the only place in attack to Luke Charman and Charman justified that decision. I wonder how long it will take until he knocks on my door and asks for more playing time.

 

The tactic that started the miracle journey. I wonder how long this will last, I mean we are tiny Dag & Red. The board is ecstatic.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 1, 2022

Dear Diary,

 

Happy new year! And what a year it was! We sit confortably at the top of the table after 27 matches. The downside of our league progress is we are out of both cups. 

 

In the FA Cup we go out in the first round against League One side Portsmouth, after a goalless draw at home. This was a good effort and I really can´t fault the lads. And we broke our attendance record as a bonus. Worse was our exit against National League South outfit Boreham Wood. We were not able to score at least one goal against the lower league side in 2 games! I gave them the hairdresser treatment after the match. It seemed to work, at least against Carlisle. After that we lost our first match in the league against Yeovil Town. Still, we retained a 17 point lead.

 

Luke Charman leads the goalscorer charts. He adapted perfectly to our new playing style.

 

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Carambau

[Bitner]

Good Luck! Hope you get the promotion this season start's deserve!

Cheers,
Bitner

[Carambau]

Just now, Bitner said:

Good Luck! Hope you get the promotion this season start's deserve!

Cheers,
Bitner

Thanks mate

We should do it this time!

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

June  2, 2022

Dear Diary,

We have done it! No one was able to stop us and we win the National League by a mile. We only lose one more game, at home against Dulwich Hamlet of all teams! But we don´t complain, now it´s time to celebrate!

Luke Charman is the Player of the season. He scored 32 goals, 10 more than second placed Tom Heardman. 

 

And finally a decent future prospect! James Miller looks like he can develop into a good player. The new season can´t come soon enough.

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July  13, 2022

Dear Diary,

 

Our transfer activities are over and I think we have done an adequate job. Finally we are able to get rid of Angelo Balanta who basically contributed nothing for the last 2 years. Brown and Gordon don´t get their contracts extended. McQueen left for Finland, Gorman went to Larne and Anthony was loaned out to Fylde.

We continue our way of signing failed youth graduates from the big clubs. The exception is inside forward William Shaw, who joins from Darlington for a small fee.

 

Luke Charman gets a lot of credit before this season. Let´s hope he can live up the the hype!

Edited September 28, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

August 30, 2022

Dear Diary,

 

The dream is alive! Somehow we kept up last season´s fantastic form and after 7 games in League 2 we are top of the table. This is even more special, as our Topscorer from last season, Luke Charman injured himself before the first match and could not take part until the end of August. But his replacement Blair Henderson and especially J´Neil Bennett did a good job. Also, this season saw a premiere for us: We took part in the Carabao Cup and even made the 2nd round, where we went out against QPR. Another new cup is the EFL Trophy which sees us play in a group with League One team Gillingham, our league rivals Cheltenham and Chelsea´s U23s. I don´t think we have a chance there. We lost the first match against Gillingham already.

 

The Carabao Cup match against Queens Park Rangers was close. But in the end they deserved their win.

 

But the season began in a very controversial way: Every team in this league MUST have at least ONE player trained at the club in the match squad. How many did we have in our first team at the beginning of this season? Only ONE - youngster Graham Roper who is far from getting many minutes. So what could we do? I promoted 17 year old goalkeeper James Miller from our U23s to the first team. He replaced Alex Crean who in turn went on loan to Dartford. Now, when I put Miller on the bench for a league match, this counts into that rule. Problem solved. Let´s get on with the season!

 

 

*thanks to @Ruh Roh for his fantastic work as I am using his Newgens facepack now

Edited October 1, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 1, 2023

Dear Diary,

 

Happy New Year! The last months have been a real rollercoaster for Dag & Red. I think we might hold a new record: In september we drew ALL games. Then, in october, we mangaged to snatch 13 points from 6 games, 2 wins in november and then only 3 points in 4 games in december. Holy moly, we are still 2nd in the table but it has become a very close race up there.

 

In the Cups, we mostly fielded bench players and maybe that´s why we are out of both the FA Cup and the EFL Trophy. At least we managed to beat the Chelsea U23s on penalties. But this also means we are out of all the cups for this season already.

 

It is time for the World Cup in Qatar. As usual England went out in the Quarter Finals (against France this time). But what I really enjoyed was watching an outsider walk into the World Cup Final: The USMNT! Who would have thought of them? The USMNT of all teams! And the road to the final was a tough one - Brazil, Nigeria and France are no lightweights! Then, they played the final against Italy. Italy were dominating the game, but the USMNT scored first. And then they scored again. Congratulations to the USMNT!

Edited October 1, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

April 5, 2023

Dear Diary,

 

We are holding on. 4 matches to play and we have already secured a playoff place. Now it´s all about direct promotion for us. The last 3 months went well, I don´t see any reason that our form would decline now all of a sudden. We are confident. We are Dag & Red!

 

It was nice to see Charman starting to score goals again. He got his contract renewed, maybe that was a factor in that.

 

We went through a takeover! A shady gentleman named Blofeld is our chairman now. He invested 1 million upfront to get us out of the red, but now we have to pay the price for it monthly. And I am still not sure if he is related to this Blofeld:

 

Youth intake? Meh.

 

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED

 

June 8, 2023

Dear Diary,

 

We are promoted! League One here we come! In the end, it was easy. That´s 2 promotions in a row now. I guess the level of League One is gonna be much harder for us.

 

Our defence won it. No surprise 3 of our players are selected into the Team Of The Year. Only the right back is missing. Gotta dive into the (free) transfer market to find a better one...

 

Edited October 2, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED

 

July 20, 2023

Dear Diary,

 

Here we are in pre-season and with a lot of new signings. Many fresh but talented faces, mostly youngsters who didn´t make the grade at the big clubs´ academies. With one exception: This time we loaned a player form a big club: Florian Wirtz from Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. His wage contribution looks a bit much, but we manage. 

 

A closer look at the new players. Talented, yet unproven. We will have to wait, play them and see. But I am sure they can contribute a lot to the team.

 

On the backside, we had to let go of some prominent players like Justham, Wood or Henderson. Eleftheriou got a good offer from Lincoln so we agreed. Williams gets loaned out for the season.

 

A look at the whole team that will play in League One now.

 

It was time for a new Director of Football.

Edited October 2, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 1, 2024

Dear Diary,

 

Happy New Year! Playing in League One is great! We get to enjoy some big name teams, great away stadiums, bigger media coverage and what most important: Success! We are in the top 3 after half a season.

 

 

There was not much time to adapt to the new league and even less time for the team to gel so we just did it in no time. Charman upfront is banging them in again although we don´t score as much as in the lower leagues, but our defense is rock solid again. Loanee Wirtz is a dream playmaker and both Hume, Wiggett and McGuinness form the wall behind him. In December however, we seemded to lose steam as the goals dried out and the draws flew in and we even lost another game, against Cambridge United. Hope that this trend is not going to last. In the cups there were early exits in the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup, but we are in the 3rd round of the EFL Trophy!

 

There were some transfer dealings in the meantime: Breen, Crean and Graham were loaned out to get playing time and Quansah got sold to a team from Ghana. Maybe he was homesick.

 

Enter our new 3rd choice goalkeeper and mentor for the younger keepers: Scottish ex-international David Marshall! I hope, he can help our young players to grow.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

April 13, 2024

Dear Diary,

 

We are holding on. 2nd place and 4 games to go. MK Dons seem relentless and uncatchable and we can seriously fall back if we don´t keep up with the other teams so we need to push on. In the EFL Trophy Quarter Final Arsenal 23s were too strong for us but it is still an achievement.

 

So its the big ones Bolton and Coventry first, then the weaker teams Cambridge and Peterborough. But who can say who is big and who is weak these days anyway? We will see that on the pitch! A dream would be to win them all but I see that this is very unlikely.

 

2 players sold in January: I was happy to get rid of Onariase, who kept complaining about not playing but I was sad to see Norris go. But the money was too good to decline.

 

Belgian International and ex-Manchester United player Marouane Fellaini joined us for the rest of this season to help us keep pushing for promotion.

Edited October 5, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

May 25, 2024

Dear Diary,

 

Promotion! We continue our rise with the next promotion to the Championship! Well done lads! I am proud of you!

 

Two wins were enough to secure our direct promotion. The other teams were just too weak to catch up. Wow, the Championship is a different level. I hope we can cope.

 

In other news, England became EURO Champs. Congratulations.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

no pics showing?

 

Edited October 11, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

Any reason why the pictures dont display anymore? Does it have to do with the size about what @Jimbokav1971 wrote in the FMCU thread above? 

How do you solve this?

[Jimbokav1971]

59 minutes ago, Carambau said:

Any reason why the pictures dont display anymore? Does it have to do with the size about what @Jimbokav1971 wrote in the FMCU thread above? 

How do you solve this?

I don't know mate. I know there have been lots of updates to the forums. 

I use Gyazo rather than Imgur, but I can see that your older pics are still there. Perhaps you could try and post some of them again and see if it works? 

[Maw74]

 

58 minutes ago, Carambau said:

Any reason why the pictures dont display anymore? Does it have to do with the size about what @Jimbokav1971 wrote in the FMCU thread above? 

How do you solve this?

I just tried your pics and. 

 

[img]https://i.imgur.com/C2eYJKS.png[/img]

All I did was delete [img] & [/img]

 

 

 

[Carambau]

@Maw74 & @Jimbokav1971 Thank you so much for your help, guys!  

Edited October 10, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 26, 2024

Dear Diary,

First things first - We finally get some good money for our efforts! The TV cash gives us much more options on the transfer market. Though I will still go for free transfers...

 

Keep it coming!

 

We had to let go of talented Peter Nairn. The money was too good to refuse (said the chairman...). It was clear that Fellaini was only there to help us get promoted (which he did) and Danny Williams is just not good enough for the Championship.

 

A lot of players coming in this time, but then again we have to prepare for a hard fight against relegation and so the more the merrier! And we got Florian Wirtz back on loan! 

 

Kusu joins from Rochdale and will be our central midfield engine.

 

Latvia International striker Gutkovskis comes from Poland. Chances are he will be our new number one striker as Charman is starting to show that he is maybe not up to the level of the Championship.

 

Left Winger Adams joins from Oldham. He should be good enough to get into the first team straight away.

 

Here is the team for the new season. They say "You can´t win anything with kids" but let´s wait and see.

Edited October 11, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 13, 2025

Dear Diary,

 

Happy New Year. This time I will make it short. We sit mid-table after mid-season. A pretty good effort I would call that considering what an unexperienced squad we have. Gutkovskis scored 10 goals, he looks the signing we needed for our attack. We are a force at home, only lost once to a strong Leeds United.

Just some words about that Newcastle match... It was crazy. We had only 10 men left on the pitch after the first minute. They had 8 shots in stoppage time alone, 2 of which hit the post! I guess this was the very first time I really FM´d the FM! Nice win for the lads. 

Edited October 25, 2020 by Carambau

[Bitner]

Em 15/10/2020 em 13:42, Carambau disse:

DAG & RED 

 

January 13, 2025

Dear Diary,

 

Happy New Year. This time I will make it short. We sit mid-table after mid-season. A pretty good effort I would call that considering what an unexperienced squad we have. Gutkovskis scored 10 goals, he looks the signing we needed for our attack. We are a force at home, only lost once to a strong Leeds United.

Just some words about that Newcastle match... It was crazy. We had only 10 men left on the pitch after the first minute. They had 8 shots in stoppage time alone, 2 of which hit the post! I guess this was the very first time I really FM´d the FM! Nice win for the lads. 

What a day!

Cheers,
Bitner

[Carambau]

@Bitner

 

Indeed!

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

May 10, 2025

Dear Diary,

 

It went better than we all expected. A fantastic winning streak in the last games of the campaign secured us a playoff spot! 

There were some pretty crazy matches in the second part of the season. We lost 4-5 against lowly Luton Town at home for example, fielding the reserve players against a supposedly far inferior team proved a costly mistake. I guess we (or I) learned from that!

 

Of course Leeds are the clear favorites here. I think I am gonna tell the lads to just go out there and enjoy these 2 matches. We got nothing to lose. On the other hand, I think promotion would be far too early. Then again... the money ... the money...!

 

Striker Shane Hughes looks a great prospect here. I will probably pull him up into the 1st team for next season already.

 

I asked and they agreed. Thank you, Mr. Blofeld...

Edited October 25, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

May 17, 2025

Dear Diary,

 

Well, the expected outcome, though much closer than I thought it would be before. Leeds go to the final, we go on holiday.

I said after the game that a draw at home would not be enough...

 

...and I was right in the end. We will never know what would have happened if Gutkovskik had not been injured after 14 minutes though. Leeds went on to lose the final against Derby County. I liked that, somehow.

 

The stats speak for themselves. Gutkovskis proved to be the sighning of the season.

 

Well this is highly appreciated, as our facilities desperately needed some improvement. Very welcome, Mr. Bennett!

 

And our stadium gets some more seats, which raises Victoria Road´s capacity to 5521. Well...ok.

Edited October 27, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 15, 2025

Dear Diary,

 

The pre-season has just begun and we are confident we can build on last years´success. To push for more glory, we signed 6 (actually seven, but Wilkin came in to bolster our newly formed U19 team) new players. Let´s hope they gel with the team fast.

 

 

A lot of players had to leave. Luke Charman is not a Championship striker, long-time captain Mitch Brundle got too old for that level, former Scotland Number One David Marshall retired and the others were just not needed anymore for quality reasons.

 

The new season can come. We (think we) are prepared!

Edited October 27, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 1, 2026

Dear Diary,

 

Oh what a new year! We are able to conserve our performances from last season and are lying on 2nd place after half of the season. Much of this success is owned to the marksmanship of our lone striker Vladislavs Gutkovskis. He scored 19 times in the league.

Only 3 defeats. This is looking good. Let´s push for promotion this season!

 

Not much to say about our Carabao Cup performance. We beat Charlton, then we lose to Aston Villa.

 

January signing Jovanovic joins from Malmo. A very versatile player in defence. 

Edited October 29, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

May 25, 2026

Dear Diary,

we have reached the promised lands! After 7 years our rise through the leagues finally brought us to the EPL! Keep the money coming!

It was a close call right until the end. Aston Villa was chasing us the whole season but we managed, thanks mostly to Gutkovskis and his 26 goals. He went on to become the Top Scorer of the Championship this season. Villa made it too and got promoted through the playoffs. EPL here we come!

 

Here is a look at the seasons stats.

 

For our first EPL season it was decided that we move to The Den, Millwalls stadium, for our home games as Victoria Road is just too small and does not meet the regulations. I wonder how this will affect our home advantage. 

 

France remain the leading force in world football as they win the 2026 World Cup against Italy. England? They went out against Senegal. Brazil even lost a round earlier against Uruguay.

 

I thought this was funny...and they even snapped up Fitz-Jim!! (whoever that is...)

Edited October 29, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

July 20, 2026

Dear Diary,

 

Our first season in the top flight is about to start. We finished pre-season, finalized our transfers and got the lads up for it. At least I hope so.

 

Once again, I had to clean up. Deadwood out, be it on a free or on loan. The only player I might regret later could be Charlie Wellens but I think we have better players in his position. Time will tell.

 

We have to see if our way of snapping up released youth players from the big clubs and relying on free transfers is enough to bring in sufficient quality into a squad that has to compete in the EPL now. At least for once we took a bit of money in our hands and brought in a player from Inter Milan. Sparrow is still too young and immediately got loaned out to Sollihull Moors. Finlay Armstrong will only be a backup for both sides in defence.

 

Michael Wright from Man City. Could help Luscietti rest more games.

Robert Wright comes from Shamrock Rovers. Young, but already well experience in top flight football in the Irish and Welsh leagues.

I know we have Gutkovskis but I just could not say no to this bargain: Modou Gomez is a great prospect for only 2.6M! 

As both our keepers Turner and Miller are stagnating, I decided to bring in a reliable Number One for our EPL adventure: Baley Peacock-Farrell was released by Burnley but has 39 caps for Northern Ireland under his belt. Experience is important in goal.

 

And thats our team for Dag & Reds maiden EPL season. Hope is our best friend now.

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by Carambau

[Bitner]

Good Luck on EPL!

Cheers,
Bitner 

[Carambau]

2 minutes ago, Bitner said:

Good Luck on EPL!

Cheers,
Bitner 

Thanks mate

It´s not gonna be easy though...

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

January 1, 2027

Dear Diary,

 

Happy New Year! And a happy year it has been for us. We sit comfortably on 10th, 12 points clear of the relegation spots!

What can I say? I am speechless! Never thought we could cope that well with them big guns in the Premier League! A massive home win against Manchester United and it was not even undeserved as we had them under control the whole match. Might have helped that United were playing some kind of a youth team against us, but again it shows: Never underestimate your opponent! We even got 3 away wins thanks to our counter attacking tactics. On the other hand, we experienced how big the gap is between the top teams and us. I guess we have to learn fast.

 

You just gotta love my ass man Steve Gritt 

Edited November 2, 2020 by Carambau

[Carambau]

DAG & RED 

 

May 17, 2027

Dear Diary,

 

It´s over. The rollercoaster ride is over. The downward spiral is over. The nightmare is over. We survived. But only just.

The second half of the season was horrible. We only managed one single win in the league, against also-strugglers Aston Villa. The rest was very forgettable. We didn´t score. We didn´t create many chances. But in the end we drew against the right teams, keeping us in secure distance to them. This was the key to our survival. We have to improve a lot otherwise we will go last next season, by a mile.

 

Our January transfer window signing and at the same time record signing Ibrahima Gueye. We paid 4.2M to Watford. He was not able to shine yet but that wasn´t his fault.

 

Stats to forget. No one excelled. Our keeper Peacock-Farrell got the best average rating which tells the whole story of the season. New striker Gomez was a disappointment as he only scored 3 goals, but Gutkovskis showed that he is still there, scoring 7 times. We need more quality in our squad.

 

The Youth Intake is as bad as ever.

 

61M! We cannot complain about the profit we made though. Let´s hope we can invest in more quality for next season. 

 

Edited November 2, 2020 by Carambau