There's no place like home

Heh, I forget how bad our club badge looks in metallic. Anyways, this is long overdue - and if someone could pick @Dan and @Shedender up off the floor I'd be grateful! I'll start with a disclaimer(s) - I don't really know what I'm doing in writing up a career, so apologies if it's clunky and boring! Also, my time on this is rather limited by work and having two young children who take up most of it. Enough of that though, click my heels together three times aaand...



...I've returned home to sunny Blackpool! As much as I loathe the owners, I couldn't resist the devil's handshake when he offered me my dream job. Hopefully in my time here I can make the club more attractive so that these vermin are bought out. Meanwhile, we all know their presence means low crowds, low funds and low investment. I'm going to have to wheel and deal in the transfer market, free transfers and loan deals here we come! It's not too difficult in the lower leagues to survive and even prosper this way, so for now we should be okay. A new outfit and some new lucky shoes, and I'm ready to see what a mess this club is in.

It's about time we're seeing a @Suffolk Seasider career on Susie, long overdue. Good luck with this though man!

Good luck with this matey!

Thought you'd think that @Shedender Thanks, and thanks @DNZY

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I forgot to mention earlier, I started this game with just the British, Irish and United States leagues loaded. I've since decided to add the Spanish, Italian and French top leagues too, though. It's been a while since I started a new game on FM and it turns out I forgot to update the Germany team fix so I have decided not to add the German top league as that will just add as an annoying reminder.




So where to begin? I suppose with my fellow back room staff. We didn't really have much of one, and those we did were really not up to scratch. I got rid of everyone I could, though unfortunately that could not extend to the owners! Ah well, at least I can get on with Valeri. A complete re haul then, probably happiest with Jason Dodd coming in as a coach. Begged the board for another coach position, and after much kow-towing I got my way. This meant I was able to afford the luxury of having coaches that would specialise in fitness or goalkeeping. For those that are interested, here's how my staff lined up:



Just to say, I didn't get rid of absolutely everyone as McCann has interest in him so I hoping to take advantage of that before replacing him!

The board had arranged some friendly fixtures already. True to life they were all away from home against lower league clubs, so I rectified that by adding a few home games to interrupt their concerts! There weren't many teams available, but i managed to persuade some of the Irish over and the Belgians. It was a rather dull and tedious experience overall, even if we were unbeaten. Cliftonville was the most infuriating, we pounded them but could not find the back of the net. Vassell was in worrying form too, not finding the net in any pre-season fixture.



I have been playing Vassell as a poacher in the middle of a front three, I am thinking that will change come the beginning of the season to be replaced by a target man like Gnaduillet (when he has recovered from injury) or Matt as most of the chances Vassell had were headers that went over. I'm trying something new for this season, a 5-2-3. Five at the back seems to be the current managerial trend sweeping England, so I'll see what all the fuss is about. I can't make too many changes in terms of players at the squad, as most were only brought in in the summer and will be hard to shift until the end of the season. We're very striker heavy, hence putting three up front. We have young Bright Oyasi-Samuel at the club who plays on either wing, so I will be using the classic 4-4-2 also. In fact, for the first pre-season we did indeed start with every English fan's favourite formation but Bright got injured in the 3rd minute and has been out for the remaining friendlies!




(Ignore the player roles, those were just the default ones when I set the formations in training and took the screenshot).

I'll update on transfers when the window closes and try to keep updates to in game months. Can't promise how regular they will be in real life!

The season ready to kick off, I'm informed there will be 1,545 scabs, sorry, season ticket holders this season but we're going to give away another thousand or so for free to artificially bump the crowd figures as we can count them even if they don't attend. Andy Taylor takes the club armband, with another new arrival in the form of Jack Payne taking the Vice-Captaincy. We head into our first game of the season after not the best of summers but determined to gain promotion.



Not a good start, especially for Slocombe in goal who just turned to watch their freekick fly nonchalantly past his head. Even just tilting his head slightly towards the ball would have saved it. Luckily, Vassell popped up late on to give us a well earned equaliser, neither side deserving of more. Weirdly in this game, both teams wore their away strips. It was not a pretty sight.



The EFL cup first round hand been kind to us in that we normally play well against Scunthorpe, albeit now they're in the league above us. History proved out though and two good goals saw us come out with a deserved victory and through to the next round away at Brentford.



A trip to fellow North-West seaside town Morecambe saw us run riot late on. Correia came off the bench to make his debut and didn't he do well. The fans soon learn your name when you bag a brace in your first game! Fonz played admirably too, setting up the goals he didn't score.



A trip to the Hive was obviously a trip too far, we may as well have not got on the coach down. Completely demoralised after what appeared to be a cross floated straight into the net for their third.



The games come thick and fast in the lower leagues in August and it may all have been getting too much for the team. That and my late transfers may well have to be blamed for interrupting the flow. Another poor game.



Maybe after those last two league games we should have seen it coming, but this cup game hurt. Fair enough we probably wouldn't have progressed if we were playing well, nor were we expected to progress...I would have liked a better showing all the same! They wrapped up the game with their three goals by half time, then gave us a pity consolation.



Things needed to improve, especially as this match was on tele! Did we though? Barely. A late goal from the Fonz got us a goal that we maybe just about deserved. It wasn't a loss though, and that was the main thing. I'd held a team meeting before the game to tell the lads we had the ability to improve, and to their credit they did eventually.



Ah, the competition everyone now loves to hate. First up in our group was one of the teams that has arguably caused this hate, Stoke U23s. Not because they are Stoke, but because they are an U23 side. The game was always ours, the stats seem to not show the whole story. We had the better of the ball for the most part and definitely the better of the chances, the win was well earned. Screw Radio 5 and their "fortunate to win" line.



Now, our goal of the month was scored by Jack Payne in our win over Scunthorpe in the League Cup first round. Good work by the leaders of the team as club captain Taylor cut it back to vice-captain Payne who smashed it into the top corner!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2qhVH3GIjM

Next up, transfer window and how it's impacted on my squad and tactics!

Remember how there was a 4-4-2 option I was looking to apply tactically throughout the season? Well that went tits up fairly soon! No more than two games into the season, Colin Daniel tore his cruciate ligaments and will be out for the season. Then, clubs started sniffing around young Bright who eventually left for pastures new as you will see. This meant I had no wingers at the club and so my tactics are now 5-2-3 as above and also with DMs if need be. Quite defensive, very counter attacking options. These changes were obviously all happening during a busy fixture list so I am proportioning some of the blame on that for poor form! This is how my transfer activity looked:



I probably overpaid for Joe Davis from Fleetwood, but felt I needed to have plenty of defensive cover as I always have poor luck with injuries. Went a bit continental too, Tiendalli eventually agreed to join us after a short trial and is Dutch. With Amenta bringing experience and hopefully some Italian control to the midfield. Tiago also brings some experience into the defence, and worldly know-how after playing in many countries before Minnesota released the old Brazilian. The big out going I already mentioned, the only other permanent transfer was that of McAllister but he is no loss and if anything was pushed through the door!

A couple of loaned out players, Des Pres joining our new affiliate: Barrow! Tried getting a Senior Affiliate but the board were not having it.



So, unable to add or sell anymore, the transfer window shut and left my squad looking like this:



Dean Lyness is in the U23s and transfer listed as he is no longer wanted at the club. I also moved Colin Daniel there as I didn't want to be reminded of him!

As it doesn't mention them in the transfer centre, and some of you may know from real life that they should be in the squad, I sent back Odelusi and Flores to Wigan and also terminated Danns loan so he went back to Bury! (Sorry @gfnx25 !)

Next, back to the football schedule and September's run of games.

Into September! We had a bit of a break from the closing of the transfer window due to Yeovil having international call ups but one of our goalkeepers was away too so I wasn't about to complain. Eventually game time came around and it saw us visit Colchester.



The media really don't like us winning when playing this way, even though we scored two good goals. The concession at the end was arguably more than they deserved, they may have kept the ball more and supposedly shot more but they never really threatened.



*yawn* this was not a good or exciting game. Our defence performed admirably, thankfully, because the forward players may as well have not been there.



More poor stats in terms of possession and shots, but a set piece proved enough for us to nick this one.



It was in this game where I lost my faith in playing with wing backs. My players obviously do not like it, even though they have it as one of their positions they should play well in. We were poor until I changed it to a back flat 5 with them set as "wing backs" in their role. This seemed to work and young Luke Higham set up Cullen for the winner.



I gave it one last go with wing backs, and it did not work. Portsmouth dominated us first half. Second half we at least had some more chances, Fonz could have got a couple to skew the scoreline even more but only managed to net one. This was the death toll for wing backs.



"Wake me up when September ends" is not one of Green Day's better songs, but it resonated with me this month. We may have got some victories but I think it was more down to me tweaking formations in game and just having better quality through the squad in some cases. I'm not playing wing backs anymore! Which is handy as Andy Taylor is now suffering from knee tendinitis and out for 5 months. I'd like to change to just having four at the back but I will stick to a flat back 5 for now and maybe make some squad changes in the winter transfer window. It's never the best time to do business, so we may see more loans!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHbiAxwhIro

Cullen got our goal of the month. Smashed in off the underside of the bar!

Right then, October!



Injuries continued, but this time to the front line. Through this month we had injuries to Matt, Gnanduillet and Philliskirk. Step up young Rowan Roache. What a start to his career here! A potential gem. His first goal for the club sealed the victory for us.



Things clicked for us in this game, but as a club we've always done well in this competition in whatever name or form its taken. Nice to beat a team in the division above, even if they are struggling! Think we've qualified for the next phase with a game to go.



Who needs Stevie G? We have Clark Robertson. A slip at the back in torrential rain saw ex-loanee Ikpeazu thump in a hell of a strike. Shame he never did that for us! Young superstar to be Roache stepped up late on to get us a point.



Another late goal saw us take all three points away at high flying Accrington. We seem to be defending well, even if the opponent has more shots. Higham taking the motm. Possession seems to gradually creeping up too.



A solid defensive approach once again allowed us to nick a one goal win over what I think is the strongest team in the division. I'm not liking the amount of shots we're facing though! We are overdue a good thrashing...



Ouch. There it is. I thought we might be able to get back into it but then Potts got sent off for persistent fouling and we crumbled. All of the team seemed to want to join Potts and as such we earned a fine from the FA for our card collecting.



This counter-attacking football is giving me stress and potentially heart failure. We manage to create some good chances and nick games, but the possibility of scorelines ending up like those against Cheltenham are all too likely every game. Hopefully I can see this out to January because then I will need to change how we play for the good of my health and the teams!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Emx8aZSm8k

A good pass from Payne sets up young Roache to continue his goal scoring streak in the first team.

Solid start, keep it up.

Remember, remember, the month of November!



It started with our entry into the FA Cup and we somewhat stole a win. Shouldn't be surprised really, it seems to be the story of our season so far. They gave us a penalty and thankfully we managed to hang on even when Higham was given his marching orders.



One cup game followed by another. Another game we were fortunate to win, @Shedender would have loved the goals though as they were both "Champions League"-esque in their deflections. We'd already qualified from the group but this result saw us sit top, if it means anything.

<Insert Notts County screenshot here!>

Whoops, obviously forgot for that one. Needless to say, another 2-1 win!



Finally! A game we truly dominated in both chances and possession. We did not have a good first half but the rocket I fired up their backsides meant we sealed the result we deserved.



Mansfield are doing well in the league, so to take the lead so early on was a real boost. However, much like my team talk proved the difference at half time in our last game, their manager had the same idea. Even though they gave us a penalty to boost our lead they were like a different side in the second half and punished us on set pieces.



For whatever reason, we could not keep the ball against Newport. We didn't need it too much though as when we had it we were lethal. I wasn't worried about this one even when we gave away the early penalty. It was nice of them to return the favour so our veteran Italian could score his first goal for the club.



So an unbeaten November, surely that is worthy of some recognition...





Just to mention, we brought in Dean Hammond as I look to meddle with our tactics yet again!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRV0QoW6QwY

Gave this goal GOTM as it amused me. Black smashes the free kick off the back of the head of Hammond and it falls perfectly for Vassell to score!