Burton Albion

Euro 2016

Some surprising results, Germany losing on penalties.

I started this save on http://fmfan12.wordpress.com/ which has also past saves I have done FM12 and FM14

This preseason should help the club in building momentum of the first few games of the new Championship season.

For £250k will get you this....

This is a good result for my team and Rangers have some good players that should do well in the Championship if they were playing in the Championship.

Here the rest of the preseason friendly results

Hopefully the players can continue this form into the first few games to give them a good foundation to build the season on.

Second of three straight away games

I was forced to make a couple changes due suspension of Jordan Baillie and Daniel Johnson not being fit enough to play. QPR have struggled since being relegated from the Premiership.


I have found my best 11 now with John Sinnott replacing Adam Reed. Adam McGurk ended a run of 3 league games without a goal.


I hope to have more friendlies during international breaks to give a boost of confidence and game time to those who need it.



The wins over QPR and Middlesbrough shot the club up 9 places which shows that put if you a run together in the Championship it can take you up the table in with a shout of Playoffs.

Capital One Cup

Frist Round



Second Round

Shocks from Notts County and Sheffield Wednesday.

Third Round


I am hoping that the 2 wins over QPR and Middlesbrough will lead to a run of good results should cement a place in the top half with a possible chance of making the Playoff's

The season is starting brew very nicely.


The midfield have been the main reason for the success so far the season especially Sinnott of the left of a midfield 3; Sinnott (BBM) Johnson (DLP(s)) Dyer (BBM) also when Johnson is away the Jamican squad then Jack Byrne steps into the midfield very nicely and he shows signs of being a good Championship player. The defence has vastly improved since Jordan Baillie has replaced Maksimenko at the heart of the defence alongside Veseli.

Manager of the Month

September


October



Those 2 amazing months sees the club climb from 14th to 2nd and hold that position. Being at the Pirelli Stadium for the start of the season has helped the club to build momentum which was lacking this time last season before we moved back once the conversion was completed.

Nico Perrey

Signed on a free transfer. He looks like he could be a decent defender for Championship sides and a good leader once he has gets more experience.

Capital One Cup

4th Round Results


Quarter Final Draw

This is the best run the club has had in the League Cup and to make it to the Semi Final would great plus a top Premier League team, ££££'s.

In Janaury there might be a couple of players leaving but no new faces arriving unless there is an injury crisis. I will be looking for for players, Right Back, Central Defender, Central Midfielder Striker, for next and will try to secure them on precontract signings in their final month of their contract if they are from the English clubs. I hope to able pick up one or two Premier League players which should take us to another level.

Thanks for reading

Welcome back,

Took a small break and got a new machine replacing a rubbish hp windows vista 1.8ghz 2g ram 32bit pc with a windows 8.1 2ghz 8g ram 64bit 1g graphics card laptop.

Back to the Burton Albion save, this has to be the most enjoyable one I have had since my Wigan, Everton and Southampton saves on FM12.


This season so fa has seen a massive improvement across the sqaud especially when Sinnott and Baillie got regular starts in the starting 11. The addition of these 2 players saw us string some amazing results together despite the 2-1 defeat against Bolton. The only major concern is the inconsistant goal scoring form of McGurk where we need him to be on the scoresheet on a regular basis as I believe that my midfield cannot maintain their goal scoring form.


A dozen or so games to play and everything is still to play for from the Championship title to the relegation battle. There are so many teams that are underachieving and a few that are overachieving this is down the managment of the clubs.

FA Cup 3rd Round


This is the first time that we did make it past the 3rd Round since my arrival. This maybe dissappointing but it does allow us to concentrate on the Championship and League Cup.

Capital One Cup
Jose Mourinho talks a lot about clubs playing 19th Century football or parking the bus but he parked the bus in the wrong place against Atletico Madrid so I decided to see if my idea of the parking bus is better than the not so Special Grumpy One.



The 5-5-0 offers more balance and protection than Big Sam's favourite 4-6-0 coupled with the most defensice instructions available.


We lost the 2nd Leg 2-1 despite this great 1st Leg result but it ensured that we would not get hammered over both legs.

This season's Capital One Cup has been fantastic for us and I hope have another run next season depending on which League we are in.

Very interesting formation mate! Good career so far! Keep it up!

Thanks, I was looking for the most defensive setup but I normally play with a fast direct attacking setup.

It has got better, I will be updating the story soon.

We have come to the end of the 2016/17 Season and it has been an eventful one.


The title was officially won at Fratton Park and Jack Byrne created history also at the same time becoming a cult hero for the club. The only downside was the lack of goals from McGurk which will not be tolerated next season. Naim Sliti has been sensational since he joined us and he did not need that much to adapt to the English game and conditions.



We could have easily finished in the Playoff Places after spending so much of the season at the top which would be every disappointing. If that happened we would not get promotion via the Playoffs.


The board took some convincing to make funds available to expand the Pirelli Stadium however the local council had other ideas when they rejected our plans for the expansion of the Pirelli Stadium. If we manage to avoid relegtion from the Premier League then I hope we are allowed to expand the stadium.


Improving the youth team facilities is vital to the long term success and survival of the club. I need to see the club producing players for the senior team rather than bringing players each season which puts financial pressure on the club also it cost effective to produce our own players even if the start up costs are high.


Where the hell did the board get £20.50m for transfers and wages from? I know the club got £50m for TV spread of the season but that is about £4m a month. I am hoping to spend only half of it while looking for players on free transfers. I am keeping faith the players that are currently at the club except those that I have not offered new deals to new.

The 2017/18 Season is going to tough but hopefully fun and we stay up.

Well done mate! Good promotion and fantastic budgets for next season!

Thanks, I know. The first 2 seasons I had £0 has it went on bonuses and wages then the first season in the Championship was given £100 then the 2016/17 promotion season I was £1m which half went to boost the wage budget to allow to renew player's contracts. I have only spent £3k on getting to the Premier League, Josh Carson from York City however he would have cost £750k in compensation if I signed has a free transfer signing but they transfer listed him for £3k and now he is worth £1m so nearly all of it is pure profit if I sold him. This is the first season where I will be spending money but it wont be all of the budget has I want to keep some back just in case there is an emergency over the winter months where I would need to get someone on loan.

The first 10 games have been played and I will be posting an update in the next few days.

This save is now officially my best one and probably the most enjoyable one on FM or CM. It is great to get a club, one of the smallest clubs, from the bottom of The Football League to the Premier League.

I am doing a preview of the 2017/18 season.

I nice tip to pass onto people is that you dont need big names to succeed but the right players. It is the sum of the parts that counts not the parts.

The players have come back from their holidays and the players from last season are being introduced to the new players.

Cole Stockton, £2.5m from Crystal Palace

I hope he can handle being the club's record signing and the focal point for our attacking play. I also hope that he and McGurk can form a deadly strike force if I decide to play 2 up front. I am very tempted to play 4-2-3-1.

Jake Forster-Caskey, Free Transfer from Brighton

I have scouted him few times since we got promoted but did not have the money to sign. Now that his contract was due to end at Brighton and no compensation fee was a big bonus. I would like to se some improvement in his physical stats but I can see him pulling the strings like Pirlo does for Juventus and Italy in front of the defence (I am not saying Forster-Caskey is good as Pirlo but wanting Forster-Caskey to play a similar role to Pirlo).

Jason McCarthy, Free Transfer

I hope he can become a a decent central defender and he could be a starter straight away but he has to displace the impressive young talent Jordan Baillie.

Neal Eardley, £1.5m from Birmingham City

An experience full back with Premier League experience that is just as good as or better than Montayne with a few extra years.

Preseason Friendlies

Plenty of games to get the whole squad settled and to get know each other. Hopefully they can some form and momentum into the first few games of the season.

Capital One Cup 2nd Round


This the draw I was hoping to get has it would allow to play my back players and keep my starting 11 fresh for the next game.

2017/18 Fixtures (First 19 games)

If I lose all four games in September and are cast a drift from the rest of the bottom half than I could get sacked. The September games are not I wanted at the start of the season especially after just being promoted.

I have already planning for a new save just in case I get the sack from Burton Albion. I am thinking of doing a MLS save with either with Portland Timbers, New England Revolution, Toronto FC or Chivas USA as they finished as the bottom 4 clubs in 2012.

The 2017/18 Season is now here after a summer of searching and hopefuly got the right players intot the squad.


September was not too bad with 2 draws and 2 loses which were ok considering who were the opposition while the 2 draws were fantastic results. The friendlies between matches provide much needed morale, confidence, fitness and form boost. This period has now provided a solid foundation for me to build on over the remaining games that could filter into the FA Cup. The wins have come against clubs that are on the some level as us which is important has we fight against relegation, it is more important to beat the teams that we are going in and around if slip down the table.


Blackburn are in the process of being taken over as they occupy bottom spot which might not prove to be a worthwhile endeavour. I wonder if we finished above Derby County will we get the expansion to the stadium? We might have another first season of mid-table safety like we did in 2015/16. I would like to see us be the club that disrupts the top4 in the next few years without spending a lot of money. It would hilarious if we got Champions League football at the first attempt with a stadium with the capacity of less than 10,000 and the money would help pay for the bank loans.

Jannik Landwehr, Free Transfer

He has the potential to be a decent Premier League central defender. Hopefully I can pair him with his fellow countryman Nico Perrey to form one of three centre back pairings.

The firrst 10 games need to count for something has we could easily waste this good start if we lose focus and start to worry where the next point, win or goal comes from, if that happens then we can kiss any chance of staying in the Premier League. I hope that do not have to bring in any more players in January but I do have around £5m left. The only major decision is what to with McGurk whose contract expires this season.

Thanks for reading.

I am now getting on track with this Burton save after having a bit of a break due to boredom of the save and the World Cup but a few games later it has started to get quite interesting which has grabbed my interest and attention.


We have not been able to gain traction with results and started losing games that we should be getting points and vice versa. Not even the FA Cup could give us the opportunity to find some form to take into the league. The best result was the 2-1 win at Anfield using 5-5-0 which was the first win using that formation.


I think we are pretty much safe now and the aim is to finish within the top 10. Arsenal could be sucked into the relegation battle if they are not careful.


Florian Madlamyr arrived on deadline day from Hoffenhiem for a low price of £48k. He should be pushing Eardley hard for the right full back position also Madlamyr's versatility is big asset for the team.


Javier Bolanos will be arriving from Herediano for £160k on 1/1/20 after he has turned 18. I hope to see physical stats improve over the next 2yrs and has some experience of first team football before he arrives has he will be going straight into the senior squad.


Jeremie Bela from Lens for £400k will be replacing Daniel Mayor and may also replace Sliti has the first choice right winger. He can also play behind the striker and on the left wing which will be very beneficial for us.

World Cup 2018



Look who is in Group A. I wonder if the draw was rigged.

I hope the club gets permission to expand the stadium at the end of season and by the end of the year the stadium is around 14,000.

Welcome back,

It has been a few weeks since the last update.

The season is over and we have another season of Premier League football plus an extra £50m from the TV rights.


There were some good results and performances however there is room for improvement especially at the back has there were only 2 cleansheets in 14 league games. The positives were that Cole Stockton was scoring on a regular basis while the wingers and central midfielders chipped in with goals. I would lik to see the games against the top clubs to spread out a bit more next season. I hoping the experience gained from this season will help the players to perform better next season along side the players I will be bringing in over the summer.






It was only goal that seperated Stoke, Wigan and Cardiff which saw one of the tighest relegation battles in Premier League history which span across 7 teams with it going to the final game of the season to settle the final 2 places. We have not been out ofthe top 10 since game 7 or 8 and have been 7/8th for the rest of the season which shows that we were hard to beat and consistent in picking up points. I think the only way we will get European football is if we won the League Cup, FA Cup or be runners up in the FA Cup if the other team has already qualified has it take a few good years to get the club to be top 6 that is if we are not relegated next season.

FA Cup


Capital One Cup




In the space of 24hrs 4 managers were sacked for poor seasons.Some were given the chance to turn their seasons around but failed to do so even though Spalletti managed to get Arsenal to 7th after being 16th or 17th at one point.

Bigger and better

This will bring the Pirelli Stadium to 14,122 when it reopens in Feb/ March 2019 and I hope to see at least 10,000 at the King Power Stadium for every home game until Feb/March 2019. It would be great to be in the top 10 and still be in both Cup competitions when we go back to the Pirelli Stadium.

Big Spenders

After 4 seasons of next to nothing to spend on players now I have been given £30m to spend in 2 seasons. I will still be looking to get the right players at the right price. I think the money will be spent on getting a decent keeper and central defender. There will be at least £50k going into the wage budget at the end of June has there will be a few players leaving when their contracts expire.

The 2018/19 season is going to interesting has the fans are expecting us to repeat what we did this season that is why it is important to get the right players into the club not necessarily the best players. The keeper has to have experience of the Premier League or top flight football at one of the top leagues and it is the same for the central defender.

Thanks for reading.

It has been a while since I have update this career and I have completed 2018/19 which is my 6th season with Burton Albion.



Ivica Medic was the star of the season and he was only going to be my second choice striker behind Cole Stockton but he stepped in when Stockton got injured for 3months and managed to retain his place in the line up when Stockton returned. This led Medic to score 22 goals in 33 games and was the league's second highest scorer for the season.

There were 3 results that stand out for me, the 5-3 win against Everton on the opening weekend of the Premier League Season, the 2-0 win against Manchesrer United in November and the 2-0 win over Liverpool in March.





We only just finished outside theTop 4 by 2 points and 3goals has the race for the 4th place went to the final game and we needed to have a goal difference of 3 or more against Norwich while hoping that Arsenal dropped points. At one point the relegation battle had around half the table involved but has the games go by it becomes easier to see which teams will be relegated.

Capital One Cup


FA Cup
3rd Round


4th Round

5th Round to Final

This is out first major Cup and it secured our place in the Europa League regardless of the League positions. This season it became a very open competition thanks to the big clubs being knocked it rounds 3 and 4.

Aaron Kuhl, Reading £400k
I think he will add something to different to the midfield and I hope he can establish himself in the squad.

Filipe Lima, Free from Steau Bucharest
He could replace Malliaritsis had my number one keeper and he has he potential to be a very good keeper.

Bigger and Better

We could end with a higher average attedance than the host Leicester City has we spend the whole of 2019/20 Seaosn at the King Power Stadium.

The aim for 2019/20 Season is to finish in the Top4 and win the Capital One Cup while doing well in the Europa League..

Thanks for reading.

Impressive win over Stoke to win Capital One Cup

Not the Capital One Cup but The FA Cup.

Ah my bad Thought it said Capital Cup. Hopefully the club will earn more income for playing in Europa

I will continue to play FM 14 until the end of November and will start a new save on FM 15 therefore the 2019/20 season with Burton Albion will be the last for a while, I will not be deleting it but will play on it from time to time.

I am considering MLS, Brazil, Argentina, Holland or Belgium.

This is the final post of this career and will be starting a new one soon. I will explain at the end.

Premier League


The first half of the season was stop/start with us getting a run of good results then we lose to a "top team" then we get that confidence and momentum back then lose again. Fedorchenko was a shining light and was repaying the £5m that was spent on getting his services. Throughout this period I had rotated the squad a lot due playing in the Europa League on Thursday nights then playing on Sunday which left very little time for the players to recover properly. Since 28th of December we had not lost a league game and go into the 2020/21 season unbeaten in 21 games and looking to break the record.


Since game 16 we have not dropped outside the top 2 and with 4 games to go went top thanks to Wigan beating Manchester City. We were more defensively sounded and converted draws into wins.

Capital One Cup


FA Cup



Europa League




We had good campaign depsite the 2-0 lose over 2 legs against Real Madrid. I could not believe how good we were in the group stages and picked up 2 wins over Ajax which is a big achievement has they are a very good side.

Champions League



Group C might the deadliest of Group of Death in ChampionsLeague history.

There are 3 question which will not be answered:
1. What will the squad looklike after the summer when the transfers have taken place.
2. Will Burton Albion be able to keep getting into the top 4 each season we stay in the Premier League.
3. How will we get in the Champions League or Europa League if we finish 3rd.

The new save will be see what a World Cup has impacted certain countries having surprised success like Chile, Australia, USA also the how it changed the host country, the list of countries include Brazil, Argentina, Japan, South Korea and South Africa. I will play in each country until I get bored or fired therefore it will stay fresh and unpredictable

Thanks for reading and following. I hope you will join me on this new journey.

There is something wrong creating careers so I am using this one, this is a reboot of the save.

I have felt for a few weeks that I have done all I can with the RB Leipzig save and was not getting the same satisfaction I was getting from Wigan, Southampton on FM12 and Burton on FM14. I have been thinking about doing another save on FM15 but decided to go back to FM14 and start a new with Burton using the 14.3 update that means I do not have Jordan Pickford on loan, Zambrotta is a manager of a Swiss club, Rory Delap is now a coach, Rene Howe is at Newport and one of my top players Adam Reed is at York.

I will be posting a preview of the club and I what I want to achieve with Burton.