retired_lydia shalaby

ya know the funny thing is, i really only have three players who i perceive to be tempermental ( eastwood, khoumas, and houssam Ghali) i might have to look into that in terms of checking out who can mentor whom. For some reason most of my players are either "determined" or professional, most of em being determined. I tried to shy away from the tempermental ones (cant recall if by choice or by accident). But i didnt seem to sign too many of em.

I honestly hadnt thought about loaning in a player. I think will have to check that out. Especially since eastwood is going to be out another 3 weeks (injury now). So down to two strikers (not counting my reserves, or youths who i dont think are readdy to be prime time players.

Also do you leave training on full year round? Well except the vacation part. I have been lazy and havent turned off the training every X amount of matches.

Also good to know what you use in terms of players and strikers. After having looked at my dubious 5th (diomsys Kamaru), i think he will be a good striker. So basically am playing the pyramid one, and rotating the strikers in and out, hoping for the best till i can get some stability back in the lineup.

retired_w0lfpack1

*blink* You're trying to earn promotion and hadn't looked at loaning IN a player?!

I'm shocked you won promotion two years ago, then!



Seriously, "loans in" are the first thing I look at each season, if I'm not a Premiership club. They can really make a huge difference .. take a look at the difference in York's form before I added John Fitzgerald, and after he left on loan, from that story-hour post to get an idea what a huge difference they can make!

As a non-Prem club, I'm looking to make the maximum allotment of 'full season loans in' every single year .. and then I'll save one or two 'short term loans' for injury crisis such as you've got going up front.

Training - yeah, on year round, though I will vary the intensity: intense in July, middling strong in August, 'routine' from September to November, 'mild' for December and January, then back up to 'routine' once the fixture congestion abates in the spring.

with regards to your "dubious fifth", I might be inclined to loan him out to League One or Two if you don't see him as a short-term benefit, maybe even replacing his slot on the roster with a loan-in from a Premiership club.

retired_Merle L. Thomas

Even as a lower-end Premiership club, you might want to loan in a few people, though it may be harder to do. The big clubs will see you as "competition"! For what it's worth, my enduring memory of the year West Brom made that miraculous last-day jump from 20th to 17th was Kieran Richardson (on loan from Man Utd) being carried around the field in the post-match celebrations. That doesn't really prove anything, but, hey, I'm sure he was worth at least one point in thirty-eight games, and in the end, that's all it took.

Even the top clubs will loan players in (see: Baptista, Larssen, etc.) but generally not for the same reasons.

In game terms: you can start by looking at players who are actually listed for loan; there's a search filter for that. In practice, almost anyone who isn't in their first-team is available if you're willing to pay their salary. (Whether they'll agree to join you is another story!) Try skimming through the reserves teams of the bigger Premiership clubs and see if anyone catches your eye. You'll mostly be looking for younger players who still have affordable salaries, but you might even find that veteran leader (see: Woodgate).

retired_w0lfpack1

That's true IRL, but I haven't had much luck with it in FM.. I've found it very tough to loan in a player who is good enough to contribute once I reach the Prem. Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

retired_Merle L. Thomas

No, I think you're right, it is easier in real life. Once a player hits about 23 years old he starts to think he's "too good to be loaned out" and doesn't seem to consider that there are other reasons why he might want a loan move. As an established Prem side you might have more luck loaning players from other countries, and maybe with future transfer fee agreements. Beyond that, I don't really know the answers either.

retired_w0lfpack1

Oh! Y'know, I've never tried the future-fee arrangement as an inducement for the player.

I've definitely been able to 'loan out' older players by marking them 'Transfer Listed', 'Listed for Loan', and 'Not Needed by the club' - Championship sides, for example, are quite willing to give somebody a shot, and the player understands that he needs to "put himself in the shop window", as it were.

Maybe the player-AI is putting too much emphasis on what his listed "squad status" is when deciding whether or not to accept a loan move?

I mean, basing it on 'listed status' rather than 'am I actually seeing playing time'.

retired_lydia shalaby

Well, i have results to report!

I started tinkering with tactics again, this time i went away from what i tried previously, and in all honesty i cant recall the inspiration of what drove me to it. Anyway i found a tactic that worked wonders for me. Basically i brought width down quite far (about 1/3 of the way from the left and the middle mark), then i also brought down tempo and passing. And for some odd reason that worked. I was using almost exclusively a 4-3-1-2. I was absolutely amazed, all of a sudden my striker came alive and i went on a roll. Probably the best placement i did was tying chelsea in the FA cup (they were ranked #2 in the premiere league at the time, the second go round i lost 2-0). After a few wins it was a race till the end of the season, where I eventually caught up to the leaders, but they kept a slight advantage, through the most parts of the season (they had like a 10-12 point lead in mid december, and they were hot all season). It came down to the last game of the season (both my team and the other team were tied for 1st), and I played that match as i normally did (why rock the ship eh?), well i tied, but so did the other team....it went to goal differential which I had a very, very comfortable lead in.

Also another thing i did was substituted players after every game, and just kept on trying to rotate players in and out, and using the schedule approach that you mentioned Amaroq. I think that helped.

So now, i wont he championship, and I was eagerly looking forward to the new budget they would propose. Alas, no, they only made about 1.2 million available for transfers, but i do have about 100K salary space (i actually had no choice in the matter, since i figured out that new budget choices were available on June 14th). We're in debt for about 3.5 million. Not really sure how i managed that one. But also i didnt see any "winnings" for winning the championship league. It's about june 20th.

I tried to arrannge a few friendly cups and leagues, but none of the clubs wanted to come. Well i had one team willing to come, but i wanted about 4 teams. I tried a bunch of teams before I got tired of trying, and just arranged a bunch of friendlies at home. Figure we need the cash as much as possible. I also arranged a small tour of Belgium, hoping it will broaden the boards horizons.

So here I am, in debt, about to face a mammoth task in fighting off relegation, with a wee bit of salary space. I know my weak spots on my team, i need another striker, one MR/ML player, and Defender left. The defender can be a sub. But, still am hoping to get a player. But the good news is, i have salary cap space, and i have about 10 days before the start of the new season. I hope, i hope I can survive relegation this time around. i figure i need about 35 points to fight off relegation.

Anyway, wanted to give y'all an update on where i was. I won the league, but i guess i jumped from the frying pan into the fire, and back into the frying pan.

Thanks for all your help. I will be looking at the free transfers and especially the loans ASAP!

retired_lydia shalaby

Uhm make that about 40K salary space. Oh, another thing though, I resigned my contract, and I was in the championship league, i wonder if that caused me not to be able to choose the new budget.

retired_w0lfpack1

Sweet!! Sounds like that was an enthralling run-in!!

Congrats on the win .. and scraping a draw with Chelsea! :thup:

One thing to remember tactically for the upcoming year - your current tactic may not do for every club out there. I'm imagining running into a Manchester United or a Chelsea who simply outclass you at every position (through no fault of your own), where really the best result you can hope for is nil-nil - take whatever you learned from those two Chelsea games and your last trip up to the Prem. If you can nick a point off of the top teams, and the other relegation battlers can't, that'll make a big difference!

"Consolidation, here we come!"

retired_lydia shalaby

am just glad it worked out. but i honestly dont know if i am in a better position. I barely have any salary space and my transfer pool is small. The best i can hope for i think, is maybe sign a few free transfers. i think i might have a striker lined up (which i think is where i need the most in terms of back up and a DL, as i mentioned before). I have been able to keep the squad relatively in tact though. I think if a team comes a knocking with a few good offers might be tempted to trade em away, simply to get myself some salary space.

Yeah, am also worried about my strategy, i wont have as large a room for error this go around, so am hoping this strategy works decently. I figure i will need about 36 points to avoid relegation, which means about 12 wins (optimism i know). But am hoping though that i can knock off some of the mid table teams (hey i am learning the lingo!!)

I mean i can always go into my reserves and pull them out in case things get desperate, but they are by far not a good quality to compete in the premiere league.

Right now am looking through the loans available. Hopefully a team will be amenable to loaning me a player or two.