Football Manager 23

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Miyagi Sensei 2025 Season:

League:





Well we've won it. Judging from the rules tab we have been promoted to the next tier, however when I check on the leagues in the next tier most of them haven't been played since 2022 so I have no idea what this means for us.

I also don't know if it's going to be a season with just cup games.

Cups:



Couple of cup games, probably should have done better in the first cup but in the second we had no chance against the J1 side.

Squad:



What is going to come first? A Youth Academy (still getting rejected despite £220k in the bank) or a team full of greys?

[Raoul Duke]

Are you playing with some modded league? It looks like it's borked

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Yeah, it's Japan down to tier 7.

The author says it's working as intended on the Workshop so fuck knows, maybe Japan is just fucked in the head more than we knew.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The save might be over.

We've passed the date where fixtures for the next league should have been released and I've just had a news item saying we're the favourites for the league, that we just won...

[Adramelch]

Second season in the Prem is done and dusted. After a solid first season, the plan has been to consolidate our position in the top tier and slowly but steadily rise up through the ranks. Before the season had ended I'd already identified problem positions that we'd have to address, those being the full-backs, the defensive midfielder and the striker. With the money we had available we couldn't find a good right back, so we went for the other three positions and those are the players that joined us:



Great piece of transfer this lad, as he joined us from Red Star for just 7.5m. Tall, fast and good at crossing, what else could we ask for.



This guy was also a major coup. Found himself transfer-listed at United, so we were able to get him for only 15m.



A physical beast with a 20 for determination? Yes sir. Cost 14m.

We signed another three players to add to squad depth (or rather, they came to slot into the first team and underperformed). With that out of the way, let's start from the big stuff:



We had a great run in the League Cup, which involved wins at home against Liverpool (1-0) and over two legs against Arsenal (0-0 at home and 3-0 away after they had a player sent off in the 15th minute). The final was a very boring affair, save for our goal with Cundle, the only player to have stayed this long at the club (in his 5th season at the moment), who only really played due to suspensions yet scored his most spectacular goal ever for us. And with that, we will be playing in Europe next season (albeit in the playoffs so hopefully we make it to the groups).

As for the league:



We finished one position lower than last season, albeit with the same points total. It was a very frustrating season to watch in many respects however. I've never had a team perform that way below their stats since xG was introduced in the game. Presumably we should have scored 9 more goals and conceded 10 less, although in fairness it would have resulted in just 5 points more and just 1 place gained. It was just very frustrating to watch it happen again and again. The other source of frustration is how incompetent we are at defending set-pieces. 25 out of the 76 goals we conceded came from set-pieces and penalties with 14 of those being from corners. It's been a real issue for us for the last few seasons now and nothing I've tried seems to be working so I've mostly just conceded and accepted that it's how it'll be for us. Very deflating at times. We were also horrible in terms of discipline this time around, with 84 yellows and 3 reds in 38 games. To put that into perspective, the second highest was Tottenham with 70 yellows. A bit bizarre, as it hasn't been an issue before.



Very average across the board, with Atkinson the only exception. He's been a beast for us for three seasons straight and we only had to pay Hull 400k for him. Just mental. I'm even contemplating playing him up front (he's just as good there) to see if he can sort out our striker problems. Peña also found his form again, after a very bad season last time around. I would like to say that our squad is coming along nicely, although it mostly consists of "decent premier league" players and we have a few starters that are championship level, such as Abrefa (his average rating is inflated because of the goals he grabbed from set pieces) and possibly Guerrero (I might look for a new goalie but I do have my doubts as he didn't do that badly). We also need to solve our striker issue asap. Even the 10 goals Rangel scored don't paint the whole picture as four of them came against lower league sides in the cups. If we find someone who can score say 20-25 goals, I could see us finishing higher and higher. Oh well, let's see what this summer will bring.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I believe this is a first for me, we are currently playing on a clay pitch:



This db is absolutely mental.

[Mike]

That's brilliant.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Holy fuck, I'm actually going to be able to do a YA in this YA only save!

Fuck knows what's going on with the league though, I think this might be a cup only season again.

[Baz]

Your chairman is Wheeler Yuta.

[Baz]

Moron.

[Baz]

What on earth

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[Gray Fox]

@Adramelch Red Star always seem to produce 2 or 3 top players like that on every save. Absolute goldmine.
@Baz Get that lad tested for multiple personality disorder.

[Adramelch]

@Adramelch Red Star always seem to produce 2 or 3 top players like that on every save. Absolute goldmine.
@Baz Get that lad tested for multiple personality disorder.

I routinely do my rounds in the Eastern Bloc for such players. Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic being the top contributors usually.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

[Raoul Duke]

It's the hope that kills you...

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's the hope that kills you...

At this point I don't care if every single one is dogshit. It's taken me 3 fucking years to get an intake.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Miyagi Sensei 2026 Season Update:



FIVE whole cup games this year with two of them being played on clay

Bit disappointed that we lost to Tohoku Uni as we were 1-0 up and looking good but they scored in the 76th minute and then got a bullshit pen in the 93rd to send them through.

More importantly though we've had the youth recruitment bumped up again.

[Raoul Duke]

What is with the ominous black void between the games? Does you team enter the spirit realm to fight demons during that period or something?

[Adramelch]

Would Messi be able to do it on a cold rainy night in Japan's clay pitches? That's the real question.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What is with the ominous black void between the games? Does you team enter the spirit realm to fight demons during that period or something?

I've never asked my team what they do in their months of downtime. I assumed they were practicing Miyagi Karate but maybe they're now proficient in it and are using it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Our first youth intake is finally here! Strap in lads because it's a good one:



Here is everyone rated at 4.5 CA or higher:















Feels so fucking good to have some players. Now hopefully we actually get some league games.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

So, we have officially changed league to "TOHOKU FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION TWO SOUTH" however it still has not been scheduled, there are no fixtures and there is nothing listed in our competitions tab...

[Raoul Duke]

Katayama with 12 finishing is going to be like Pele's regen out there. Also, it's good how authentically Japanese they all look

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Well assuming we actually get some competitive fixtures.

[Mike]

That intake is the stuff of dreams! Worth the wait

[Adramelch]

I think I might have signed the worst goalkeeper I've ever managed. Played 6 games against mostly inferior opposition and has conceded 11 goals from 20 shots, the majority of which should definitely have been saved.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's another cup season and I just played our first one. We were the underdogs (3.4 odds for us) and this is what happened:



Katayama got a goal (and he had a fucking beautiful strike ruled out for offside) and the youth I played in general were just fucking amazing.

[Mike]

We're flying!

[Mike]

Don't save clips of many goals, but I enjoyed this one.

https://streamable.com/ucd0ws

[Adramelch]

We really do love a collapse.

You could say we held a grudge:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Miyagi Sensei 2027 Season Update:

Cup:



That 1-1 draw and loss to pens was absolutely gutting. We were looking so good and they equalised in the 91st minute before winning on pens.

Squad:



Tsuchiya was fucking beastly in the 4 games and the new youth lads did really well.

Intake:



Another good crop but not as good as last year (I imagine because we had such a shit squad last year that they looked better) but here are the two 5* lads:





A bit shit on both fronts as we play with AMR/L so Koizumi is wasted and we already have a quality RB.

Youth recruitment is going up, as is Junior coaching which is nice. Will we have league games next season though?

[Adramelch]

Another season done and it was a doozy. Let's start with the transfers:



This is the big one. He came to address our striker problem and he only cost 7.5m. What a steal.



With Peña finding his form again we didn't quite need another right winger, but he was available for 24m, he is homegrown and he is a bit of a beast so in the end I thought it was good business.



Yet another great bargain as he joined us for just under 10m. Heaps of potential as well, so I could see him becoming a staple in our squad for years to come.



Joined to be our first team goalie, costing just 5.5m. Had a bit of nightmare start, but soon found his footing.



While we have a great ball-winning midfielder in Veliz, we had no real backup for him whatsoever so in came Poves for just 5m.



One more for the future, but he could be our answer for our right back predicament eventually. At 5.5m he wasn't a big gamble anyway.

And with the players sorted, let's go to the season's big news:



I expected us to struggle just a bit but we did nothing but. We won every game bar one (where in true Dorking fashion, we were 2 goals up in the 75th minute and then proceeded to conceded three goals out of nowhere), and we did so very, very, very handily. To give you an idea, the record for most goals in the competition was 54 from West Ham six seasons back. We scored 68 in 15 games, including an 8-2 win over Genk in the group stage and a 7-1 aggregate win over Wolfsburg in the semis. The only real big team we faced was Roma in the final and they took an early lead, but from there on we just dominated the game and it could have very easily been 6 or 7 but we stopped at 4 before they clawed one back. Peña was the star in the final but he was also voted as Player of the Season for this competition.

We also retained the League Cup, beating Liverpool in the final after knocking Newcastle out in the semis (both ties settled in extra time but we were by far the better team), while we also made the semis in the FA Cup, before getting eliminated by Arsenal in a narrow 1-0 defeat. An almost flawless season cup-wise.



We didn't do too bad in the league either. In fact, I'd argue we should and probably could have finished a few places higher, but 9th, ahead of United and Chelsea is just magnificent so I won't complain. We also finished the season as the top scoring team, with 84 goals, but we still proceeded to concede 60. Better than last season's 76 I guess. We still managed to concede 20 goals from set-pieces and penalties mind you, but I might have found something that works a bit better. The biggest highlight was of course the 7-1 win at Chelsea, but we also beat United at Old Trafford and City, Newcastle and Spurs at our place.



Incredible performances all around. Obviously the stats get inflated by our dominant performances in the Conference League, but I'm genuinely very happy with my squad. Lecourt definitely sorted our striker issues, even though he initially had issues getting into the first team, as he picked a 3-month injury and Rangel decided to start scoring for fun (ended with 24 goals himself). Aizawa also proved to be an amazing signing, with double digits for both goals and assists. In the end we had seven players with more than 10 goals, twelve players that were involved (as in assisted or scored) in more than 10 goals and even more impressively twenty-two players that scored at least once throughout the season. That's every single outfield player we have for those keeping track. I don't think I've ever had that happen before.

[Baz]

62 apps is insane. And 62(2)!

[Adramelch]

Bueno is not even that good a player, it's just that we had four central defenders, one of which was Novotny who I eventually started playing at right back and another one that ended up often playing in midfield due to injuries/suspensions so Bueno didn't get to rotate at all.

As for Atkinson he's been legitimately the first name on the teamsheet for 4 seasons straight.

[John Arne]

Champions League football

[Adramelch]

Which season are you in?

[John Arne]

Erm.. not sure, I guess around 2032

Finished 14th last season, was hoping to crack the top 10, but managed to be pretty consistent all season.

[Gray Fox]

If Lino Lecourt has 0 international appearances, I'd love to see who Chile have playing ahead of him.

[Adramelch]

Erm.. not sure, I guess around 2032

Finished 14th last season, was hoping to crack the top 10, but managed to be pretty consistent all season.

That's a quite the step-up, big props. How did Brentford make it up there as well?

@Gray Fox: He's since been capped, it's a World Cup year so I'm assuming there weren't many games and he also missed the first 3 months of the season through injury.

[Adramelch]

That's quite the effort:

[Gray Fox]

Good lord!

FSG surely are not still in charge?

[Adramelch]

Someone else took over 7 seasons ago.

[Baz]

Won National league, won league two, what are the chances of winning league one to make it three in a row with Oldham?

[Dquincy]

Won National league, won league two, what are the chances of winning league one to make it three in a row with Oldham?

Cracking effort. Are you still milking loan players from Mike? Bloody hope so.

[Baz]

Cracking effort. Are you still milking loan players from Mike? Bloody hope so.

Yeah from Mike (Man City) and my mate (Leicester)

I asked for a senior affiliate and got this broken message:

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So I clicked yes for lols and got this:

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Next season should be a cakewalk.

[Mike]

Cracking effort. Are you still milking loan players from Mike? Bloody hope so.

I got told off for buying rubbish off him for millions too.

[Mike]

Spezia still at it.

[Dan]

I’m still on FM23 but have been messing around with a few saves on a custom database where I’ve added most of the main summer transfers & tweaked a few things. I’ve also been going to a lot of Pompey games this season, and given they’ve started the traditional turn of the year collapse it seemed like the ideal time to do a Pompey save for the first time in a while.

I’d planned to make it harder by handing off transfers, contracts etc to the staff, but when we were a few months in & only had two GK coaches in our coaching team, and every time I tried to loan someone in it said they can’t because of some imaginary rules, I’ve already binned most of that off & gone back to doing it all myself.

Zipped through the 23/24 season keeping the team as it is in real life & we won the league pretty comfortably by engaging Man City mode around Xmas then not losing another league game for the rest of the season. We also won the EFL Trophy & beat Southampton in the FA Cup before getting knocked out by Fulham.

In terms of key players, Colby Bishop & Ronan Curtis scored almost 80 goals between them, but to be honest most of the squad will be phased out over the next couple of seasons as it’s basically all just good League One players who’d be limited in the Championship - I think Alex Robertson, Joe Morrell, Paddy Lane & Regan Poole are the only ones who might stick around for a few seasons.

I’m coming to the end of preseason & I feel like we should have a decent shot at staying up, but we’re also likely to take a few kickings from the better teams - we’re predicted 21st in the season preview & that would be just fine with me.

[Dquincy]

I got told off for buying rubbish off him for millions too.

Well played, has to be done in these types of saves.

Baz is happy to take the Arab blood money.

[Adramelch]

That's one unfortunate schedule right there: