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Season 2: 2014/15 - Scottish League One
July - November

So here comes the first part of my second season, thought it would make it a bit more interesting to break it up into two parts, especially as I have already played up until this point...

Transfers

One of the joys and challenges of working with a semi professional team is the fact that contracts are limited to one season only, which essentially means you are constantly reviewing what you have got, and whether you want to keep the same group for the next season. With us winning promotion, this was an ideal time to take stock, and reduce the squad size down with a lot of players being released. Sixteen players were released at the end of the season, and only one of them has since found a new club. This to me is probably a good enough reason to let them all go, and we had chance to bring in some new players.

Owen Ronald was signed on a permanent deal from Dumbarton after a very successful season on loan with us last year. The young right winger was in impressive form in League Two, and was available on a free transfer. Former Rangers midfielder Dylan Dykes was next to arrive, with the youngster not playing a game at Rangers, he was a risk. However at just 18 years of age, he has a lot of a career ahead of him, and should feature as a squad player this term. Another 18 year old Botti Bia-bi was signed from Falkirk on a free transfer, and again he had no first team football to his name - but what a name?! He will rotate with our other strikers this term and should get plenty of chances.

Jordan Leyden made the step up from Cove Rangers, and arrived for free. The ball winning midfielder was exactly what we were looking to add, and at 23 years of age, this season could be make or break for him at this level. Steven Meechan arrives in a similar mould to Leyden, and moved from Annan in League Two. At 23 he already has 105 appearances to his name, and began his career at Motherwell before moving to Kettering and back to Scotland.

Brad Tomlinson becomes the second player on the list (after Bia-bi) not to be Scottish. The Northern Irish striker arrives from St Johnstone, but started his career at Sheffield Wednesday. According to the game, he made no appearances for either. At just 19 years of age, he is worth the risk. Back to the Scots now, and Stirling Smith arrived from Cove Rangers. Smith made 33 appearances for the club last season, and had been drifting down the leagues since leaving Aberdeen in 2010. The attacking full back should fit well into the style of play we are looking for here.

Jack Leitch spent some time with us on loan last season, and when the opportunity arose to secure him on a permanent deal, we secured the defensive midfielder for this forthcoming season. Stephen Tulloch rejoined the club after we scraped around for central defenders in the summer break. Tulloch is the first time I have broken the rule of signing young players, but he did well last season, and was happy to return to the club with much lower demands than when he left! We then added former Peterhead defender Dean Richardson, and we went from no cover at the back, to having a strong three players we could rotate. Very happy with the signing, but likely to be a squad player this term.

Joe McGovern arrived from Dundee United to become understudy to Gastal in goal, and hopefully we can get the Northern Irish stopper some game time this season, as he has a lot of potential, and I'd love to have a British player in goal to keep the dynamic of a young British side together. Finally, David Syme arrived on loan from Kilmarnock for the season, and again adds some much needed competition at centre back.

Apologies that this is a lot of text so far, but future updates will contain screenshots when the game goes live.

The Season so far...

So just to get you right upto date, we have completed 14 games of the season, and we are currently 3rd, which is a fantastic start for us. The league form is good, having won 8, drawn 3 and lost 3. We're six points behind Morton who are currently leading the table, but with plenty of games still to come, we have a great opportunity of securing a play off finish at least.

We had a slight dip of form during November, but we have clawed it back with back to back wins, and also we have won the Challenge Cup! We knocked out Rangers in the semi final 3-2, before beating Falkirk 3-1 in the final. A massive achievement for us, and hopefully it will spur us on for the rest of the season.

We face Dumbarton away in the fifth round of the Scottish Cup at the end of January, and it's all good income for us at the minute! Player wise, Darren Lavery is currently our top goalscorer with 10 goals from 14 appearances, and has the highest average rating of 7.51. Summer signing Owen Ronald has created a massive 16 assists in his 23 games so far in all competitions, which is very pleasing, but with his contract up at the end of the season, I am worried he might leave!

So that's where we are, next update will be the end of the season, and be less text... again apologies for all the words!

Season 1: 2013/14 - Scottish League Two

So I inherited the Berwick Rangers side in very good shape, and looking at the media speculation and predictions, they were one of the favourites for a play off position. Thankfully, we managed to maintain that, and pushed forward in a very good season! In a season of 36 games, we won 24 of them... as you can probably guess from that - we won the league! We actually only lost four games all season, and finished 17 points clear of Queen's Park in second place. Not bad for in a league where most teams were fairly even.

Transfers wise, nothing much was added in Season 1. Berwick had a good set up, but we had a look around and found a couple of areas to improve on. Arnaud Gastal was brought in from Dumbarton on a free transfer, with the young French keeper looking likely to be our number one for the season. Ryan Stott was brought in on loan from Cove Rangers to add some depth in the wings, and Neil Gauld was added from Inverurie Locos to be a backup striker. Two players left during my reign in the first season, with Scott Daziel and club captain Lee Currie both refusing to sign new deals, they left fro Cove Rangers and Macclesfield respectively in January for free, but with 25% sell on clauses just in case.

Our League Cup adventure was over before I had arrived, with Berwick losing 2-1 to Dumbarton in the first round, whilst Airdrie knocked us out of the Challenge Cup in Round 3 in my very first game in charge. Elgin City knocked us out of the Scottish Cup in Round 2, and it was a bit of a disappointing season on the cup front. However, we were promoted comfortably, and we will look to push on from that.

Our biggest victory was a 6-1 win over Stirling in the league, whilst our heaviest defeat was the 2-0 loss to Airdrie in the Challenge Cup and the 2-0 defeat to Stirling in the return fixture in the league.
So that's season 1 in a nutshell, and we're into the Scottish League 1! Just in case anyone was interested:

SPL - Celtic won the league with Kilmarnock and Hearts relegated
SCH - Queen of the South won the league, and Dundee were promoted alongside them. Morton and Alloa were relegated
SL1 - Rangers made very light work of League 1, and were promoted with Dunfermline, whilst Forfar and Stranraer were relegated
SL2 - Ourselves and Elgin City were promoted

St Johnstone won the Scottish Cup beating Celtic on penalties, with Inverness CT winning the League Cup. Rangers beat Raith in the Scottish Challenge Cup.

Brilliant stuff guys, keep it going! Just read the whole thread through - night shift at work is very quiet!!

Good luck in the league, will be keeping track of this.

Amazing work so far, the layout and pace of the story is brilliant! Good luck with Lazio, I still don't fully grasp the co-ownership thing, but I've never managed in Italy.

Keep up the good work

Another transfer arranged



Young central defender Reginald Lucas will sign in the summer after we managed to complete another deal. He is one for the future, and will more than likely spend next season on loan in the Championship. He will remain with Lyon U18s for the rest of this season.

Tamer Walker will not be signing for the club though after his transfer fell through.

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Transfer Window Update

The English transfer window has closed and teams across the country have been busy in the transfer market, spending in excess of £359M.

Chelsea saw enthusiastic full-back David Alaba leave the Premier Division and join Serie A outfit Juventus for a fee believed to be close to £18.75M. Explosive striker Theo Walcott moved from Arsenal to Chelsea for a reported fee of £21.5M.

Full-back José Enrique moved from Liverpool to Tottenham for a reported fee of £14.25M. Winger André Ayew joined Liverpool from Ligue 1 team OM in a £15.75M deal.

Man City saw one of their players head abroad as full-back Pablo Zabaleta departed for Serie A team A.C. Milan for around £8.75M.

Chelsea were the biggest spenders in the country, running up a total transfer bill of around £92M.

Meanwhile, Blue Square Bet North side Solihull Moors were the most active team during the window, strengthening their squad with no fewer than fourteen players.

Transfers Out:

Might be an odd one to start with, but I thought I'd start with the transfers out. The first player to leave the club was Wilfried Zaha who has moved to Tottenham on a season long loan. They are paying his wages and £350k per month, so it's ideal for all parties.

Next up, sixteen players left the club at the end of their contract. This included Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs. I offered all three a one year extension with an automatic one year deal if they played twenty games, but their wage demands were far too high. All three are still on the Free Transfer List.

Continuing the form from last season, I loaned out every player I could see that wouldn't fit in the first team squad this season. Nick Powell has moved to West Ham United on loan, whilst Scott Wootton and Tom Cleverley have been loaned to Watford and Everton respectively.

Finally, we have loaned Andreas Pereira, Michael Keane, Federico Macheda and Angelo Henriquez to FC Twente under the recommendation of Director of Football Damien Comolli.

Transfers In:

Only one player has been signed at the moment, with 16 year old goalkeeper Dan Foley joining us for £675k from Middlesbrough. He will be an asset in the future, and if he continues to improve, he could push David De Gea for a first team spot.

I have also set up deals for eight players, all of which will sign at the end of the season. I decided this would benefit us as they would remain at their current clubs for the season, and get plenty of first team football. Max Clayton will arrive for £5m from Crewe Alexandra, whilst Tommy Holban for £6.75m. Clayton is purely a personal signing as he has looked good in real life, whilst I hope Holban to eventually replace Nemanja Vidic.

Next up, Will Hughes will arrive from Derby County, and I see him as a long term replacement for Michael Carrick. Leandro Paredes has been signed for a bargain £3.5m for Boca Juniors, and will provide the link between midfield and attack. Nathan Redmond will arrive from Birmingham City for £6m and will replace Antonio Valencia or Luis Nani.

Nicolas Tagliafico will arrive from Banfield for £4.5m, and will replace Patrice Evra. I am undecided whether to keep Evra past the end of this season when his contract is up. It would be a big gamble, but if I can get the wages right, Evra would be good to keep. We also have Alex Buttner available, should Evra leave.

Next, we've set up a deal with Nottingham Forest for Tamer Walker. I am unsure if he'll ever make the first team, but he has potential to compete in the Premiership, and is worth £350k of anyone's money. Our last signing (for now) will be Ron Waters, another goalkeeper but again an investment at only £100k.

So that's the transfers for now, we are at the end of August, and I've tried to sign a few other players too. Unfortunately, we were massively priced out, proving that British talent is really expensive!

I'll report back on August's fixtures when it's done!

Hansen: You can't win anything with kids

It's mad to think that the now infamous quote from Alan Hansen was uttered 18 years ago, but with that statement ringing in their ears, Manchester United went on to record the double in the 1995-96 season, despite losing their first game of the season to Aston Villa 3-1.

That day, the "kids" in question were Gary Neville (20), Lee Sharpe (23), Nicky Butt (20), Roy Keane (23), Paul Scholes (20), Phil Neville (18), David Beckham (19) and John O'Kane (20). Their average age in that game was just 24 years old, and they lost to Villa goals from Ian Taylor, Mark Draper and Dwight Yorke. I imagine most of the readers here will be too young to remember the first two! David Beckham scored the goal for United, but by then the game was over.

So what does all this mean for my FM game. Well I thought I'd give this a go with Manchester United's current crop of youngsters and see how I get on. I've simulated the first season, meaning that my career will officially start in the 2013-14 season.

In the 2012-13 season, Manchester United secured the Premiership title, but didn't get further than the quarter finals in any other tournament. Before going on holiday, I sent as many of the kids out on loan as possible, hoping that first team football would spur them on. Unfortunately, I neglected three players whose contracts were set to run out in Reece Brown, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Tom Thorpe. I am particularly annoyed to lose the latter two players as they have high prospects in reality.

So how am I going to do this... well I am going to limit myself to not making any major transfers. This means I will have to rely on my current squad of players, and the players coming through the ranks to the first team. This isn't really a challenge at all in the early days, but hopefully this move will force me to focus on the players in the squad already.

The only transfers I will look at are players who are eligible for under 19 games, particularly focusing on English players.

At the end of the first season Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs are all set to leave the club, so there are places in the matchday squad becoming available already.

So that's my intended career path. It will be seen as an easy game for some, but it's one I hope to get into and see the players developing in my squad.

Thanks for reading, updates likely to come after the Bank Holiday weekend.

Mid-Season Update: January 1st 2020

Well we've reached the mid-point of the 2019/20 season, as we try to build on our fourth placed finish last season. Our first season in Europe along with the League Cup and FA Cup will make this a long and testing season, but I hope we can do well in every tournament.

I've signed quite a few players over the summer, but nothing massively of note, and the core squad from last season has remained with us.

Charity Shield

As winners of the FA Cup, we got to face Arsenal in the Community/Charity Shield whatever you want to call it. They didn't take it seriously, but we did, and we won the game comfortably 3-1.

Trophy number 1 won.

Premiership


We started teh season fairly well, six points from the first 9. Defeat to a full strength Arsenal wasn't too disappointing, but then we just started firing!

Back to back 4-0 wins over Liverpool and Fulham, then 10 goals in the next two games against Burnley and Southampton. Fantastic form, and it's continued all the way up to the end of December.

The only blip was an away game with Sunderland where we took a 2-2 draw, but we haven't lost since Game 2, and we've got ourselves into a lovely position in the league.

Eight points clear, but City have a game in hand. We will happily take this, and hopefully we can continue this fine form into the new year.

Liverpool and Everton have both offered me the manager's job this season, and both were turned down. Everton turned to Kaka, and sacked him a few weeks ago, whilst Liverpool have turned to David Moyes!

All going to plan so far...

League Cup


The bribe to the FA is obviously working, not sure we could've had a much easier passage to the semi finals, and League One side Morecambe over two legs shouldn't be too much of an issue.

We got to the semi-finals last season so I want us to win this tournament this year.

Champions League


After smashing Roma to pieces, a draw in Moscow wasn't too worrying. We followed up with a win over Bayern before the inevitable loss to Valencia in front of our own crowd.

The reverse fixtures saw us take all nine points, conceding only two goals on the way to the group title.

We face Paris St Germain in the next round.

January Transfers

One was lined up before the window, Milan Sundalic joins us for £10m from Stuttgart. He's been scoring for fun in Germany, so hopefully his form will carry to England alongside compatriot Bein.



So that's about it for now, crazy times at Chester!

Well I pushed on with the career, I think I'm more tuned into seasonal updates than monthly ones. Season 8 culminated with a fantastic league finish, and another trophy in the cabinet.

League Table



Fourth place finish in our first season in the top flight is just ridiculous, and I debated resigning at the end of the season to look for another challenge. However, the chance to play in the Champions League with the club I have built from the ground was too much of a pull for me to stay.

In addition to the fourth place finish, we had two trips to Wembley, and were close to another. In the League Cup we lost to Manchester United on aggregate in the semi final, whilst we got to the FA Cup Final, facing Championship side Southampton.



So we step into next season in Europe. We will have to go through the qualification stages after finishing fourth, but the additional revenue and increase of our reputation should help the club to grow.

Great to see Leon Best and Gary Gardner back at the club, both should do a great job for you in League One! Good luck this season buddy.

Surprised you got £1m for McSheffrey though, decent sale that!

Great to see a Coventry career, so will keep an eye on this one. We're a faltering side in real life, with appalling finances, so it'll be interesting to see how this game goes.

Good luck mate, enjoyed reading it so far!

I've just read this story from the start, and with you securing the Coventry job, I was excited for the next installment to see what you'd do with the team I support... sad to hear it's dead, and good luck with your next career.

Derby would be an interesting career, Forest and QPR should have some decent financial backing which would make them attractive challenges too.

I've not got FM13 yet, so didn't realise Inter had debt issues. I wonder what affect that would have on the team?

Good luck with whichever career you choose.

Fantastic work as always Dan, really impressed with how you can go into a completely unknown league and deliver results! Keep up the good work mate, really enjoy reading your updates.

Apart from the obvious teams, I know nothing about Austrian football so it's great to see something completely different.

Just caught up. Good luck in your next step on the journey!

I love it when the deciding game is the next month, it certainly adds some drama to the thread... I'm just glad you posted them close together time wise, you could've had us on the edge of our seats all afternoon!

Congratulations mate, looking forward to next season!

Thanks for the reply mate, it looks as though for Spanish speaking South American countries, it is 2 years, otherwise it is 4 years in Spain.

http://footballmanagerwiki.co.uk/index.php?title=Work_Permit

I've used the search facility, and can't find another thread that answers my question, so hopefully this isn't a duplicate...

I am still playing FM12 (see my Chester career), but I would've thought this will apply to FM13 too. I have a feeder club in Serbia to help me get around Work Permit issues, but I noticed on one of my players that he was nearing earning his Spanish passport when he was playing there.

For Spain, it said that he needed to complete 770 days (just over 2 years), and he had completed 440. I signed him from a Spanish side, so he'd spent just over a year there.

I didn't realise that Spain was a possibility to allow clubs to get around Work Permit regulations, but it appears from this information that it is, but I have also read that this only applies to South American players (my player is from Ecuador).

Any ideas on this one? Wouldn't mind a Spanish feeder club if the ruling is 2 years (ish) rather than my players disappearing off to Serbia!

Thanks in advance...

The table is really close in both directions, so the next few games will change the face of the table quite significantly. Good luck Dan, any team stringing a sequence of results will certainly move up the table substantially, and we're all hoping it's Guiseley!

So with our new players in place, we start our very first campaign in the Premiership!

August

EPL: Newcastle United 2 - 1 Chester FC
Goals: Marconi

A tough start at St James' Park, but we fought valiantly to try and gain something from our first big game. Sadly, the Magpies had too much for us, and we came home with nothing/

EPL: Chester FC 0 - 0 Everton
Goals: None

A fantastic result, as we hosted Premiership stalwarts Everton. We gave as good as we got, and the shot count suggests that maybe we should've got something from the game, but unfortunately we weren't quite good enough to kill the game off.

League Cup: Chester FC 2 - 1 Sheffield United
Goals: Bein x2

We rotated the squad to keep things fresh and players fit, and our "second string" had enough in the locker to take the win against Championship side Sheffield United. Andreas Bein opened his account for us, scoring both goals.

September

EPL: Liverpool 2 - 1 Chester FC
Goals: Marconi

Into September, and again we started with a tough away game, this time traveling to Anfield. This is one of the biggest games for the fans, and we gave a very good account of ourselves. Similarly to previous ties, we failed to score enough goals to secure any points, but delighted Marconi continues his form in front of goal.

EPL: Chester FC 4 - 0 Wigan Athletic
Goals: Anele (o.g.), Bein, Bekoe and Faccioli

Our first game in our new stadium, and boy did we give our fans something to cheer about. We worked hard, and finally our scoring touch returned. Delighted with the fantastic result, and hope it can be a rock to build on for the season.

EPL: Bolton Wanderers 1 - 3 Chester FC
Goals: Marconi, Bein and Bennett (o.g.)

Goals bring confidence, and a three goal foray at the Reebok was just what we needed after the fantastic win against Wigan. Back to back wins for the first time this season, and we're finding some form.

LGC: Sheffield Wednesday 3 - 5 Chester FC
Goals: Marconi x3, Bekoe and Rossetti

Another Championship side, and we made very difficult work for ourselves. Despite scoring five goals, we never looked comfortable, but I am happy to be in the next round, as all money is vital to the club. Both Sheffield sides knocked out now, onto Round 4!

October

EPL: Chester FC 1 - 2 Tottenham Hotspur
Goals: Faccioli

Back to reality, and in front of the TV cameras, we were brought back down Earth with a bump. Spurs were far too good in all departments, and only a massive performance from our goalkeeper kept the score down. This season is going to have a lot of ups and downs!

EPL: Arsenal 4 - 2 Chester FC
Goals: Marconi and Boyata (o.g.)

Ouch, we went to the Emirates, and we got smashed. They worked us all over the pitch, and I was worried how many they would score. Four makes it look worse than we'd hoped, but the last two games are a real shock to the system. We aren't going to pull up trees this season, so defeats like this can be taken.

EPL: Aston Villa 0 - 1 Chester FC
Goals: Rossetti

A solitary strike from Rossetti was enough to give us a massive win. Villa are a side who I'd hope we can compete with this season, and winning in their own back yard is fantastic. Add to that my roots as a Coventry fan, and it's an even better result!

EPL: Chester FC 3 - 1 West Brom
Goals: Bein x2 and Rossetti

Fantastic result, the Baggies are in the same group as Villa. We hope to compete with these sides and avoid relegation, so another massive three points. Again, Coventry fan

LGC: Blackburn Rovers 1 - 2 Chester FC
Goals: Rossetti x2

Our League Cup run continues, and it was another great win. Three wins in three games is amazing news and we are filled with confidence.

League Table



Ninth will do me very nicely after the first 3 months of the season; four wins, a draw and four defeats with a plus four goal difference is very happy reading!

Player of the Quarter

Andreas Bein



Six goals in twelve games, and an average rating of 7.28 is a great showing as we start the season. He's been in great form, and I hope it will continue for a long time to come!

Next update at the end of January!

St. Louis-Hamilton... Are SI Games big F1 fans?

Good luck with this dude, shame you didn't get the job in Austria, but I think the club's name would have made me chuckle every time I read one of your updates!

League Table

League Table

League Table

League Table