Addickted To Winning (A Charlton story) IIIIIIIIIIII

Also, look at those appearance numbers for the players in the squad screenshots. I did some badass player rotation, only had the backup GK and Donati come to me moaning about playing time throughout the whole season.

Believe in the process.

Arrivederci Palermo. 1 Uefa Cup, 1 Supercoppa, 1 Coppa Italia, 1 Scudetto. And £200m in the bank. Lucky swines.

Ukraine has been added, may remove it after 2 seasons, dunno, fancied it, felt like it, leave me alone, you're not my real mom.

The condor has landed.

Where?

Serbian second division.

Why?

Cuz.

Fancied China or the MLS as I said, thought about it a bit longer and I think I fancy somewhere with minimal resources to offer a contrast to my Palermo stint, so that ruled out the MLS. Was looking in China but truth be told absolutely none of the available jobs interested me, the Chinese season is also half-way underway and that put me off a little. It was just a question of timing.

Of the jobs that were left I wanted Serbia the most, I'd have liked to have given it a few seasons for the leagues to settle because I only added it last season, but I can't be had floating about in other leagues all the while waiting for Serbia to sort itself out. So we're in.

We have good money for this level, £300k in the bank, mainly due to sponsorship deals which equate to £330k, both deals are due to expire next season. Fully expect them to be slashed as that £330k seems obscene and seems like an FM issue. Or maybe I'm just being a pessimist?

Hopefully I don't fall victim to the previous FM bug of you going from a big club to a small club, your rep then getting slaughtered and you being unable to land another job anywhere.

Happened to me on FM12 or 13, I'd won the World Cup, the Asian Champions League, Copa Libertadores, Euros, etc, went to Malaysia, left after a season or two, could not get another job anywhere for love nor money. Eventually had to add the Welsh league and got a job with a newly promoted team. Don't do this to me again FM.

I'll be implementing the ol' 433/4231 combo with BSK (or do we call them Borca? lets take it to a Twitter vote), gonna have a look at getting my staff set up asap too and then we start to analyse the mighty squad that led us to 11th last season. I'm hoping at this level that I can live off my youth academy, want to actually get in some youth batches I can use, unlike my stint with Palermo.

We're paying 4.7k a week on wages (been given a 10k budget) and our wage bill is the 4th highest in the league. Disgusting that, these goon bars could only finish 11th?

Staff wise what we have is semi-acceptable, what is available to me is atrocious. No staff replacements at this point, hopefully once this season is officially wrapped up a few Serbian players will retire and add to the pool of potential staff signings for....drum roll......please........BORCA. Hooray. The vote is in, I counted it, counted it again and then announced the result that I wanted anyways.

What else have I looked at in the last five minutes? Did a player search for Serbian players, 1300 in the player search, 300 interested in joining, 23 currently free agents, a further 54 due to have their contracts expire at the end of this month. Gotta get my scout out and about in his Honda civic and scouting these Serbian back villages.

Shame to see the Palermo stint over man, but hopefully this will be another strong run, definitely a contrasting one this time around!

Always the first port of call for me at clubs, getting some investment into the junior coaching. I've found this is one of the best ways to get a decent youth batch in, it won't guarantee stars, but it helps.

My first big decision will be as to whether I will renew this guys contract or not, he's gonna cost me nearly £38k a year in wages and right about now he accounts for about 16% of my wage bill. He has great physical stats for this league, is the right age and his pace will be a god send for my poacher role. However, is he worth the cost? Am I not better off going out and getting a young Serb who could potentially get me 20/25 league goals for £50-100 a week? There's no guarantee a cheap Serb will get me those 20 goals, but Duda is also an unknown commodity in my system.



Just look at the wage distribution in the squad, its skewed. Duda is a big part of that, I could really free up some money and get a more balanced squad if I do let him go. However...



Uptop we have nothing, I need two STs even if Duda stays, if I let him walk then I'll have a whole new strike force at the club. The squad also needs a rehaul at MC and down the wings. This is going to be a very busy summer, going to make an effort to minimise the disruption as possible through promoting some players from the reserves and under 18s.

Good luck in Serbia.

How on earth did you manage to pull off such staggeringly good deals for players you sold at Palermo?

Now I'm in Europe bids for players I want to sell are borderline derisory.

Stood my ground on prices I thought were fair, there were a few players who I ended up hanging onto for too long and missing out on bigger fees. Martin Wind was a good example of that, think he went for 14m to Chelsea but at one point he was valued at 24m. His form slipped and his value went with it, I should have sold him a season earlier.

I set an asking price for every single first team player, if he's a star I normally put an asking price of more than double his value, if its a rotation player I normally ask for about 50% of his value and for backups its normally just slightly more than their value. I made a point of signing young players as I knew I'd always be getting sell on value. When clubs would bid for my players (I never offered out Assas, Casella, Meurs, etc) I would remove as many dodgey clauses as I could and target on getting a decent fee upfront but also good money set out over 12, 24, 48 month. Then I'd just keep hitting suggest terms until the club backed out or we settled.

With players entering the last year of their deals who I did want to shift (Neto and Sneijder) I just offered them out for double their value and waited to see what clubs came back with, if no club came back with a bid I liked I'd either lower the asking price or just wait a few days and try again. A lot can change over the course of a few days in FM, asking prices can drop, wage demands can drop, clubs can have new needs, etc

So more of a case of not specifically earmarking out players to sell as being prepared to sell anyone (with exceptions, I suppose) and having plans in place to replace them?

I suppose the problem I'm having, too, is that I'm attempting to shift players from the old regime who tend to be on a lot more money than I think they should be which I guess is a limiting factor on my ability to sell them.

I'm really struggling to shift anyone though, but thats a fairly normal FM gripe.

Aye, every player has their price in my mind, I'm always looking for replacements for my existing players. So I'll seek to either snap up youngsters and loan them out, or I'll track certain players over a number of seasons. I keep wages as low as possible so I rarely have problems with players demanding money to move, and that also helps in whipping up some interest.

With former regime players just keep offering them out, do it daily, maybe even try dropping the asking price to 0 to just try and get some sort of interest in them. Towards the end of the window I normally get to the point whereby I'd rather have those players gone rather than them rotting in the reserves, getting paid a shitload and disrupting my squad.

Who are you managing?

I'm liking the standard of youth player in the reserves and U19 team, I actually think I'm going to give them a real shot at it and see how things go in the first half of the season. Worst comes to worst mid-season I'll pad the squad with some quality loan players and ditch some of the younger players.

I'm looking for some CMs at this point but I'll probably just get some in on loan as I can't see much talent about at CM, just in the process of sorting out our pre-season. Want the players to be fully match fit come day one as I want to hit the ground running. No idea what to expect for the season, our media prediction is 12th out of 16 teams.

Lots of injuries for the start of the season, already committed to loaning out my better youth players who aren't involved in the first team. Other players will now get a chance to step up.

I'll be starting with a 433, mainly because I have a badass DMC (Predojevic who is out injured for a month) and I want a bit of defensive stability in light of our youth. The 4231 is plan B, Predojevic or no Predojevic, lets get some flying wingers up in this mug.

Man United.

I tried to promise myself I wouldn't go there, but they were languishing 11th in the league (Pep Guardiola has had jobs at United, City and Bayern (again) and taken them all into the mid-table) had an unsustainable wage bill and were about £40m in debt so I thought it might actually be interesting.

I've cleared about £1.5m a week off the wage bill its just selling the stragglers on too much money but who are actually worth something still I'm finding hard.

A look at the lads I've brought up from the U19s, also promoted some players from the reserves but I can't be chewed posting all of them. Just the 17 year olds, gives you a taste of the quality level we are at;









All of them will either be first choices in their position or 2nd, so they will all get game time and a great chance to develop

Business is done, Luptak was agreed prior to me even joining the club, a backup CM at best. On the outs the 26k lad was a backup GK and the 4 loanees are my better youth products who are just shy of being in the first team, looking to promote them potentially next season. Duda also went, couldn't justify spending £700 a week on him in the end. Happy enough with the business, as I said before, I'm turning to our academy products to get us through this season.



Straight in as the starting ST, £670 a week cheaper than Duda and I like his pace and finishing stat. Easy as that, need a big season from him.



Starting AMR, wanted a pace option for my right wing and he will definitely offer me that. Petrovic will be my starting AML (2nd from bottom in the post above) so I think I have a good front 3 for this level.



Wanted to sign him permanently but I didn't fancy forking out 50k, will just have him for the season and see how things go.



Season-long cover, I'd have liked two permanent CMs so I could build but I couldn't find anyone on the cheap. Gives me some flexibility and some quality at my core

#Golhovac

Got through two rounds of qualifying and made it to the Serbian cup 1st round, got drawn away to Red Star, went down 4-0.



Look at that though, just shows the power of the cup for clubs like ours. Takes my balance up to 160k, essential money as beyond that and our sponsorship deals we are making nothing.

Having loads of problems with my Algerian CB Hamid Kracheni, he started the season injured and after his injuries he came in briefly and flopped. Since then he came to me bitching about lack of game time and wanting to start, I said no, he wants out. He's now skipping training. Need him shifted before he spoils the squad.

He's worth just under 20k so I'm hoping in Jan I can pull at least 10k for him, at this level its hard to shift players with little interest in them and you also have to take into consideration the money of the potential buying clubs. Will a first division team buy him? No, so I think I can rule out pulling in 30k+ for him

Halfway stage, really happy with the season. Early doors we came out like a house on fire, had an unbelievable start and then things started to slow. If I'm being honest I don't want to get promoted this season, I want to get my feet under the table properly and build my squad up. Top 2 go up, 3rd goes into a playoff, so we're only six points off top but also only five off going down.

I'm not too worried about that at this point, injuries have decimated us and I've had absolutely no joy with anyone I play at DMC. I thought Predojevic would be my best player coming into this season but he's been a total flop to date (6.64 in seven starts), his shit form and anyone else I've put at DMC has forced me to move to the 4231 in certain games.

I may look to add some players in January, we now have a 4 month break so I have plenty of time to plan. A starting RB, starting MC and possibly another option at AMR would be my main targets. Most likely all loanees.

Loads of contracts coming up at the end of this season, a few players on £600/£700 a week are due. Could be a good opportunity to cut the wage bill right down, if we get a good youth batch I could focus my summer on just bringing in a handful of experienced players to supplement the youth.

This is the problem with being at a club with no steady income from TV, ticket sales or season tickets. Once I can get the squad settled and my better youth players tied into long term deals I reckon I'll be able to find some success in raising the money we need to stay in the black from player sales.

Its hard now to raise any sort of money as many players are entering the last few months of their current deals, that Algerian CB is a great example, he's now worth under 10k as his deal is up in six months.

3 players in, got what I wanted;



Almost signed him in the summer, was put off by his wages though. Will come in as a starting MC/AMC



A backup pacey option for AMR, will mainly come from the bench to start with



Starting RB, would have liked someone older but my two targets both got long term injuries

First game back from the winter break and we dismantle the league leaders. My starting team featured all 5 of my loan players and also 4 17/18 year old youth products. For the long term that's not totally ideal, but for now I have to be happy with it. Squad building doesn't take place over night, my moves for next season will be fully dictated by this years youth batch. I want it in asap, let me run rule

Youth batch is in, I can dig. Some good prospects in there, would have liked a few players capable of immediately coming into the setup but that wasn't to be. Hopefully come the start of next season after some time in the reserves and training I'll be able to promote some of this lot into the first team fold.

The promotion push looks to be dead. I think this is a blessing in disguise really, we would have got slaughtered getting promoted this early. Need time to build and consolidate.

FM is a war of attrition.

Good season overall, board wanted us to avoid relegation and at the end of it all we were only a few off promotion. The leaky defence and lack of consistency killed us in the end, but as I said before, that's for the better. We aren't ready to go up



Just look at how great we were going forward, sadly its a team game and we can't expect to give sole promotion responsibility to two or three great attacking threats. Efforts will be made this summer to solidify our defence and give us more options from the bench, I'm looking for a mix of academy promotions, young talents on frees and a few experienced old heads to pad out the numbers.




Lots of contract decisions to be made, I may retain some of my weaker players solely for the responsibility of being our experienced heads. I don't want to hit the detonate button but at the same time change will occur because of me not wanting to meet certain players' demands.

Brilliant decision in the end to bring in Grahovac on much cheaper wages.

Do you expect players such as him and Petrovic will be subject of bids from higher clubs now after that impressive season?