Football Manager 2021

[igor_balis]

I thought my manager's reputation was too high - 5000 current rep, 4000 home rep and 1200 world rep. To more fairly represent Igor Balis, I have triangulated the reputations of some other early 00s West Brom players on the database editor - Richard Sneekes, now Redditch United assistant manager, Brian Jensen, now Shrewsbury's goalkeeping coach, and Danny Dichio, now managing the Toronto FC Academy.

We're now looking at 2500 current, 3250 home and 500 world (all out of 10,000, of course). I feel like Igor Balis being called "a respected manager", in the Gambian second tier, after playing some premier league football and having 40 Slovakian caps is fair enough, but being offered the Austrian u21 job before Immigration FC came knocking was not.

[igor_balis]

Not even at half time in the first home league game, and a key problem with my squad has been exposed. Shit. Pray for Jadama.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

General question for all of you - do you play with attribute masking on?

I've had it on for the entirety of my Slough Town save and it's driving me nuts now. I can't even scout outside the UK so if I want to buy/sign anyone from a foreign league, I'm buying completely blind.

Off for me.

[Giggles]

What do you see when it’s on?

[thommo]

What do you see when it’s on?

It depends on the reputation of the player. I can pretty much see each stat for world-class players like Mbappe et al.

But I literally see zero attributes for players of my level that I haven't scouted or played against. If I play against teams and players or do an initial scout report, I'll get a range for each attribute, and if I scout them fully you begin to see the correct value after about 2-3 weeks of scouting (also dependant on the ability of the scout).

[igor_balis]

What do you see when it’s on?

something like that. that's someone at my divisional rivals Steve Biko - if it was some random swedish league player for example it'd all be -

[igor_balis]

yeah what thommo said

[Dquincy]

Having retired the FM11 save, here is my final update.

Started the season with winning the Charity Shield. Wasn't a great game and did worry me that we may struggle in the season coming.




Next up was the European Super Cup. Needless to say we won convincingly.




Next up was the Club World Championships where we faced Corinthians in the final. Again, we smashed the granny out them.




At the point of retiring, the league table looked like this. We were dominating.




And finally, a special mention for my star striker. Look at those goals so far this season.




I look forward to updating you chaps with FM22 where no doubt I'll be dogshit.

[Yevrah]

Oxford City 2027/28 League Two Mid-Season Update

4th season in league two has reached the halfway stage so it's time for an update. Realised I neglected to post the finances at the end of last season, so here they are.



Not really any exceptional items in there, so if we don't sell players or have a decent cup run, we lose money over the course of a season. Not that one year of doing that is too much of an issue as we're still pretty well set due to the Max Roberts sale for £1m.

Transfers

We're starting to get more highly valued and decent players appearing in the interested list, which is nice and there were a number we went for that would have improved the squad significantly. Sadly, we still have the reputation of a radio DJ now who operated in the 70s so we lost out on all of them and were left with this chap as the only cash money signing:



£96k from Boreham Wood (a record signing) - I like his pace and dribbling a lot, but not much else.

These two also joined on free deals.





With a number of the original Oxford City players leaving on frees (they were too shit to stay) and Stockport finally seeing sense when it came to loaning us Georgiou again (they wouldn't), the squad was a tad threadbare, so once again we moved into the loan market, bringing in four players who I really liked.









This left us with in my mind the best squad we'd had so far and a real chance of going up. So how have we fared?



Frustratingly would be the honest answer. We've played excellently at times and then really poorly at others. Perhaps most annoyingly though we have a real habit of chucking in a two footed lunge to kill a good patch of form. I'm still quite hopeful we'll at least make the playoffs though.

Onto the cups, they've been very interesting.



The league cup gave us a nice home attendance vs. West Brom and the EFL Trophy continues to be a complete waste of time (I've been playing the reserves in it to preserve morale for the last two seasons now), but the FA Cup has been cracking. Through to the third round for the first time and we play Jose Mourinho's Tottenham (reigning Premier League champions no less) in our next game. I should rest the first team as we'll get humped whoever we put out, but I can't do it to the lads, so they will all start if fit.

[Baz]

Well we've 10 games left and need 10 clean sheets, after conceding goal number 9 against Southampton in game 27.



It's looking less and less likely we'll concede less than 10 goals, given we've got Chelsea, Arsenal and City left to play.

Also still in all the cups, including the league cup final against Man Utd.

Virgil van Dijk just scored a hat-trick of headers.

[Yevrah]

Spurs put their kids out and we got humped, but look at that attendance.



£1.4m in gate receipts, less £300k VAT.

We've also sold a player. Didn't want to, but he was whinging badly.



And that little lot takes us to this in the bank:





Now to get promoted.

[Yevrah]

Holy shit.



We've lost our last two league games and selling him will do nothing for our promotion hopes this year, but fuck me, that deal (even after the fee to Bromley) is equivalent to six years of our wage bill.

[Yevrah]

Roberts out. We now have £6.4m in the bank and a transfer budget of £2m.

[Spikey M]

Yevrah outing himself as Daniel Levy is a move I didn't see coming.

#TheGameIsAboutProfit

[Shindig]

I did the same when Spurs came in for David Romo. £7m in 2001 money was a lot for Swansea.

[Yevrah]

Yevrah outing himself as Daniel Levy is a move I didn't see coming.

#TheGameIsAboutProfit

Given I'm seemingly consigned to a life of mid-table in League 2, the profit aspect of this has been the most enjoyable aspect for ages. Sadly.

[Dquincy]

The non-masking of attributes has rocked me fellas, I'm not going to lie. Surely switching this off takes away from the realism of the game?

Presumed we all 'masked'.

[Baz]

The non-masking of attributes has rocked me fellas, I'm not going to lie. Surely switching this off takes away from the realism of the game?

Presumed we all 'masked'.

So does having your staff sort out training schedules, attend press conferences, play all your friendlies and probably loads of other stuff. I want to play a game not have a second job.

[Dquincy]

So does having your staff sort out training schedules, attend press conferences, play all your friendlies and probably loads of other stuff. I want to play a game not have a second job.

But then what's the point of the scouts if all the attributes are visible?

[Baz]

For star ratings and nothing else, for me.

[Shindig]

And they might find something else out like him being accident prone or a BOTTLER.

[Baz]

Gah. Game 29 and a Newcastle penalty sees us concede our 10th goal. Also ended our 37 game unbeaten streak with the 1-0. Shucks.

Will go again next season now everyone can speak english, play the correct roles and have useful player traits. Hopefully I can win some silverware to raise enough money to buy Sergej Milinkovic-Savic off Lazio cos he's 5 star everything with 100 scout recommendation. Will push Kimmich from CM to DR, and play Trent at right mid (and bin off Dani Alves).

EDIT: Also James Rodriguez on a bosman is a must!

[Yevrah]

Oxford City End of Season 2027/28 Update - League Two

So our 4th season in League Two drew to a close and we'd finally managed to string enough form together to have a serious chance of the playoffs and an outside chance of going up automatically.



More injuries and nonsense red cards hampered us somewhat, but we made it, a playoff berth at the 4th attempt.



Given we were 4th in the second half of the season table, I really fancied my chances going into the semi-final against Fleetwood.

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A cracking and comfortable win to set up a final against Gillingham, who we beat in our last game of the season.

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Gutting. Absolutely gutting and if I'm honest, we were never really in it despite equalising twice. A fifth season in League Two awaits.

[Baz]

Five seasons, crikey.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Sod that, I want to see the end of year accounts.

[Yevrah]

Sod that, I want to see the end of year accounts.

They're coming and it's a special year.

[Kikó]

Managed to find it by thinking of old, shit English defenders... Clint Hill... Dawson. 2nd guess

View Tweet

This was superb.

[Shindig]

Was that Warnock story at PSG as well or was that Barcelona?

[Yevrah]

Oxford City Summer Business Update - Season 2028/29 League Two

Long post is long.

Starting with the finances, a cracking year's business for us, with two key things that finally brought us FINANCIAL STABILITY.



The Max Roberts transfer was huge, bringing £5m in (albeit we had to pay £800k to Bromley for their sell on clause), which was also then supplemented by selling Keano Shaw to QPR for £550k (+ clauses). Biggest lol about Roberts is that after basically whinging for two years about playing in the Championship he now finds himself in the national league on loan at Swindon. Third round FA Cup bants at Tottenham also pushed our gate receipts higher than they've ever been before and all in all we ended the season with over six million quid in the bank. Leading to the following WARCHEST:

Transfer Budget of £4.8m and a Wage Budget of £38k p/w.

It was time to go shopping and nicely timed at that as our appearance in the playoff final also raised our rep to two stars.

Players Out

While the first team is pretty good, the squad itself still had more than a whiff of Vanarama about it so it was time to be brutal and cut ties with the players that had served us so well over the last 4 to 8 years. Contracts were expiring, so out went Ben Erickson (who was so upset by the news he quit football altogether - once you've had Yev you never go back I guess), Josh Ashby, Alex McSkeane, Joseph Hungbo, James Roberts, Fenton Green, Amarie Brown, Thomas Angell, Alex Sharpe and Ciaran Jones. Jayden Harris (£20k) and Sam Cartwright (£7.5k) also left for actual money.

This left us with a first 11 give or take, which I then (out of an abundance of caution) added to with loan renewals for the five players who'd joined us the season before. I'd hoped I'd be so successful in replacing the shit that I wouldn't need to use these players much and instead spend the season fending off their arse hole managers whinging about them not featuring. Better than being moaned at for playing them in the wrong role I guess (what a feature that is btw).

As it turned out, we had a splendid summer window of INs, to the point where I'm not sure what my best eleven now is.

Players In



Joined from Rochdale for £170k. 16 finishing and 15 determination for a twelve year old looked seriously promising. Now just need to get him to use his right foot.



A £300k signing from Premier League Fulham. My board went nuts and rated the deal an F, but the fans loved it and I managed to get him without a sell on fee percentage. Which, for the type of operation we're running here, is the motherload.



A former Millwall youth product who was picked up (and then binned off) by Man City. I seem to struggle to attract decent left wingers, so he had to do. £43.5k from Hull.



Made in Man City (where he failed), moved to Southampton (where he failed), he now joins the Oxford City PROJECT for £26.5k as our joint highest earner. I think that made him feel special, but what I didn't tell him was our board now allow wages of up to four grand a week.



Former Man Utd man who joins from Swindon for £425k and becomes our record signing. Central midfield was an area we had to shore up with wank so much last season and I loved his key stats.



Listed by Champinship Blackpool for £59k. His well roundedness made the deal a no brainer.



One for the future I hope. Joined for £2k from Boreham Wood.



Ball Winning Midfielder from Blackburn, who didn't win many balls for Blackburn. Signed for a bargain £6.75k.



Continuing our trend of signing Premier League rejects, Starkey (released by Liverpool) is the first of five free transfers we did over the summer.



And was joined by his mate from Liverpool, Davison. Tried to get this dude on loan last year and he turned me down. How the mighty have fallen.



From Chelsea's academy.



Released by Ajax and no English heritage so I wasn't expecting him to get a work permit, but he bizarrely did at the first time of asking. Lovely stuff.



This guy didn't get a work permit, but a recent experience I had (more on that below) made a punt on him potentially worthwhile.

Which leads me on nicely to perhaps our best addition and not a new signing at all:



Signed in 2024, this lad was my first pain brought about by Brexit as he sat in our reserves for two years, failing appeal after appeal. I guess playing for the international powerhouse that is Indonesia wasn't enough to swing it. He then spent the season before last in Hungary at Ferencvaros and then at Real Valladolid, improving hugely. With stats that don't belong in league Two I'm hopeful he can spearhead us finally into League One. Only downside is that he wants to leave and won't sign a new contract.

And that is it, business done. I won't try and start all of these new players at once as that would be insane, but if I can integrate them in an even semi-decent fashion we should be set for promotion this year, at the 5th time of asking. Now is the time. I can feel it in my bones.

[Baz]

Considering van Dijk has 13 freekicks and scores them for fun, Fred Laly should get one a game.

[Raoul Duke]

Laly looks mega, as does Zak Brown. Looks like you won the goat herder transfer window

[thommo]

Those outgoings were utterly mental. How good is that Roberts bloke? £5m seems an utterly ludicrous fee to be paying a League 2 side. My record sale for comparison is still £135k!

In terms of your summer signings, you definitely have a squad fit to go up there. Dynamics will now be the important thing - integrating them in with your current squad. I reckon that Shaun Hines should get 25+ goals at League 2 level if he's the first choice man. Is Bugarin still your main man up top?

[Dquincy]

Oxford City End of Season 2027/28 Update - League Two

So our 4th season in League Two drew to a close and we'd finally managed to string enough form together to have a serious chance of the playoffs and an outside chance of going up automatically.

Goals against...74.

I think we know where your problem might be.

[Baz]

Just lost the FA Cup final cos Alisson rolled it out to Che Adams in the six yard box in the 85th minute.

[Yevrah]

Goals against...74.

I think we know where your problem might be.

Yep, we are a sieve. I've tried three or four different approaches and it doesn't make a difference, we just concede for fun.

[Baz]

And we've got absolutely nowhere near conceding less than 10:



Seasons done. Champions League final to play, having already won the League Cup and lost the FA Cup, so a good season, but failed my one and only target. Thinking of trying to buy Skriniar to tighten up at the back, with my initial budget set at 107m lol.

[Yevrah]

Those outgoings were utterly mental. How good is that Roberts bloke? £5m seems an utterly ludicrous fee to be paying a League 2 side. My record sale for comparison is still £135k!

In terms of your summer signings, you definitely have a squad fit to go up there. Dynamics will now be the important thing - integrating them in with your current squad. I reckon that Shaun Hines should get 25+ goals at League 2 level if he's the first choice man. Is Bugarin still your main man up top?

Here's Roberts now:





He was a starter for us, but certainly dispensable for £5m. IIRC one team came in with a bid for £2.5m, which I accepted and then I offered him out for £5m and Roberts' first choice of Watford matched it.

[Baz]

He's trash.

[Yevrah]

Oxford City Mid Season Update - League Two 2028/29

Halfway point reached in our 5th season in League Two and just before the window SLAMMED SHUT there was another twist in the tale with another too good to refuse bid being received for one of our players.



At this point I'd say we've won the game in terms of lower league financial management, having over £9m in the bank (was over £10m when we sold) as we do. Sadly that's the only thing we're winning.



Not too bad I suppose, but after a succession of draws to start the season we hit our stride and were top for a bit before the shit set in AGAIN. This time it's our strikers. I have four good ones now and they've all stopped scoring.

We're through to the third round of the FA Cup again, with Cambridge away - an eminently winnable game, but I don't care, I just want to get out of League Two.

[thommo]

That is obscene money. If you get yourself out of League 2 this season, go crazy with the facility upgrades. If you can get the youth recruitment and facilities up to speed, you could have a conveyor belt of homegrown talent into the first team within a few seasons.

As for Slough Town, we're now just into January in our League 1 campaign. Our fixtures since the last update have been as follows:



The two 0-0 draws with Aldershot and Oxford were a little worrying as we couldn't really break down two of the worst teams (and defences) in the league. Charlton then really tonked us in the next league game and I was wary that that was to be the start of the slump. But we responded brilliantly despite the congested schedule (9 games in 29 days) with 4 consecutive wins over Christmas. Our most recent defeat to Nottingham Forest came out when our left-back was sent off for an innocuous challenge inside the opening half hour. We were bombarded, they hit the woodwork about 4 times, and yet we still almost stole a draw at the death. That leaves the table looking like this:



Playoffs is definitely possible, but we need more goals out of the strikers. The midfield is great at chipping in with important goals, but Aaron Jones had a period of about 10 games without scoring, and David Williams is a little inconsistent with his performances. The club in general is in a great position - £1m in the bank, and new training facilities just completed, plus a youth level upgrade planned for the summer which will hopefully see our Under 18s enter a league at last.

[Yevrah]

I should definitely be asleep by now, but this season is turning into a classic. After not being able to score I've gone into every game since January with a cautious mentality and it seems to be working.



Tightest finish I can recall in sight.

[Yevrah]

A loss to Aldershot, then wins over Northampton and Grimsby leave the table like so.

[Giggles]

You better not have went to bed.

[Dquincy]

Yev, completely sorted out the defence this season 👍🏼 Well played.

Love a save that stops you from going to bed. I still remember a Dortmund save with Pablo Aimar running riot (must have been back when it was CM rather than FM). Not much sleep was had then.

[Yevrah]

Two absolutely horrible games followed, the Port Vale one in particular properly hurt.





My team used to shit the bed when we reached the dizzy heights of the playoff spots, now they do it when we're in the automatic promotion ones, so I guess that's progress.

However, results elsewhere went our way and we're still in 3rd.



Albeit, it's now out of our hands.

Walsall away and Tranmere at home to finish.

[Yevrah]

Port Vale drop points, but Leyton Orient win to overtake us.

[Giggles]

Poor Tranmere.

[Yevrah]

Starting to think the game hates me. At 2-1 up and just before they equalised Bugarin went clean through, rifled a shot past their keeper and it hits the bar. Hines then went clean through in injury time too, only to see his shot saved.



Any one of six teams can clinch the last automatic promotion spot and any one of the six can also miss out on the playoffs entirely.



You'd have to think neither Crawley nor Leyton Orient will blow it, albeit I can still finish ahead of the latter even if they win.

[Yevrah]

And with Scunthorpe playing Port Vale and the goal differences involved, we're all but guaranteed a playoff spot.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If you lose 4-0 and they draw, you've had it. Set up to defend and accept the playoffs. This is the mature approach to life.