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The ongoing story of a Hamster, who's also a LLaMa.
Ok, here's my first ever LLM update. Hope you enjoy it!
I'm using FM07, with the latest patch, and have loaded all divisions from the following countries: England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Germany and Spain. Yes, I know I missed out Wales, but the Welsh league looks pretty dull, with just the one division, and that being dominated by 2 teams in particular (as I have seen in other LLM threads!).
I must be honest and say I didn't consult Frank - I just couldn't resist choosing to manage Eastleigh, as I spent the first 20 years of my life living there, before moving a short drive up the M3 to Winchester. So here goes!
Just to annoy me, within 5 days of me taking over, the board had announced a link with neighbours Southampton.
It looked good pre-season, with some good results against similar level opposition. I had one striker in particular who seemed very good, scoring several times. Typically, when it came to competitive matches, he got injured within 5 minutes of the start of the first league game, and was ruled out for a month. When he returned to fitness, he seemed to be suffering from memory loss, as he couldn't seem to remember what the goal looked like. He would have been very good as a rugby fly-half though, as he was hoofing the ball over the bar with pretty much every shot.
Apart from that, the season got off to a good start, and we were in the lofty position of 5th at one point. It quickly went the other way though as the season reached the mid-way point, as we went seven games without a win, seeing us drop to 15th. We spent the rest of the season being very inconsistent, although never in any danger of relegation.
Final position: 14th.
P:42 W:15 D:8 L:19 F:51 A:60 GD:-9 PTS:53
Top Scorer: Young Striker (13 goals)
Fans Player of the year: Young striker
Cups sucked arse.
Elsewhere in England, it looked like this: Premiership:
Champions: Chelsea
Relegated: Wigan Athletic, Fulham, Watford. Championship:
Promoted: Sunderland (c), Luton Town, West Brom(p/o)
Relegated: Leicester City, Preston North End, Leeds United League One:
Promoted: Nottingham Forest (c), Bristol City, Crewe Alexandra (p/o)
Relegated: AFC Bournemouth, Millwall, Port Vale, Brighton & Hove Albion League Two
Promoted: Swindon Town (c), Wycombe Wanderers, Walsall, Lincoln City (p/o)
Relegated: Macclesfield Town, Boston United Conference National
Promoted: Oxford United (c), Aldershot Town (p/o)
Relegated: Forest Green Rovers, Crawley, Tamworth, St Albans Conference North
Promoted: Kettering Town (c), Scarborough (p/o)
Relegated: Farsley, Hyde, Vauxhall Motors Conference South
Promoted: Sutton United (c), Eastbourne Borough (p/o)
Relegated: Bognor Regis, Salisbury, Basingstoke Town
FA Cup: Arsenal
League Cup: Chelsea
FA Trophy: Grays
Champions League: Arsenal
UEFA Cup: Hamburg
2007/08 - EASTLEIGH - CONFERENCE SOUTH
Media Prediction: 18th
Board expectations: Battle bravely against relegation
Fans expectations: Battle bravely against relegation
I cancelled the link with Southampton.
I had been disappointed at my scouts last season for failing to find a single player. Then somebody on the LLM forum had told me that I actually had to proactively go to Scouting, and press reports (was used to FM05!!). So as the season went underway, I was checking out the strikers that they had found, as other than the young striker who had been my top scorer, my strikers had been pretty much useless last season. There was one who looked pretty good. He was a 25 year old Irish striker, who had been a free agent since being released by Sunderland a couple of seasons ago, and he agreed to a trial. After scoring 5 goals in 7 reserve games, I offered him a contract which he accepted. He took a few games to adjust to competitive football, but once he found his feet made quite an impact, both with goals and assists. Also, my 23 year-old left winger had a storming season, scoring 8 goals and providing 14 assists, and generally spent the entire season scaring the crap out of the opposition, with lighning pace.
Again, I was doing fairly well, hovering between 8th and 10th until the mid-way point, when again the team collapsed, this time going 11 games without winning. However, there was a bit more fight in the team this time, and on 3 seperate occasions, we went a goal down within 5 minutes, spent 85 minutes being hammered, and getting an injury time equaliser. We had a brief flirtation with the bottom 3, when with 7 games remaining, we went on a 6 match unbeaten run, only to lose 3-0 to Cambridge City on the final day, but still managing a respectable 13th place - 1 better than last season.
As an aside, we had the worst defensive record in the division, conceding a whopping 81 goals - 9 more than bottom-placed Bedford!
Final position: 13th (I forgot to note down games won/lost etc this time unfortunately!)
Top scorer: 25 year old Irish Striker (16 goals)
Fans player of the year: Left winger
Cups sucked arse again.
Elsewhere in England: Premiership:
Champions: Arsenal
Relegated: Charlton Athletic, Reading, Luton Town Championship:
Promoted: Wigan Athletic (c), Sheffield Wednesday, Wolves (p/o)
Relegated: Southend United, Barnsley, Ipswich Town League One:
Promoted: Walsall (c), Northampton Town, Preston North End (p/o)
Relegated: Rotherham, Tranmere Rovers, Chesterfield, Yeovil Town League Two
Promoted: AFC Bournemouth (c), Millwall, Hereford United, Bristol Rovers (p/o)
Relegated: Notts County, Wrexham Conference National
Promoted: Morecambe (c), Grays (p/o)
Relegated: Altrincham, Scarborough, Eastbourne Borough, Weymouth Conference North
Promoted: Nuneaton (c), Gateshead (p/o)
Relegated: Barrow, Gainsborough, Alfreton Conference South
Promoted: Forest Green Rovers (c), AFC Wimbledon (p/o)
Relegated: Thurrock, Weston-Super-Mare, Bedford
FA Cup: Chelsea
League Cup: Manchester United
FA Trophy - Cambridge United
Champions League: Barcelona
UEFA Cup: Paris St Germain
Euro 2008 - Portugal. England were knocked out at, yes you guessed it, the quarter final stage!! Although, amazingly not on penalties - a 2-0 loss to Italy.
Steve McClaren was sacked by the FA, and replaced shortly afterwards by Adrian Boothroyd.
Also, again to severely annoy me, my board annouce links with another nearby club. This time, it was the mighty Aldershot Town.
2008/09 - EASTLEIGH - CONFERENCE SOUTH
Media prediction: 16th
Board expactations: Fight bravely against relegation
Fans expectations: Fight bravely against relegation.
At the start of the season, my captain and 39 year old DL accounced he would retire at the end of the season. So I sent my scouts out to look for a replacment, as the only other DL's I had, one was utter tosh, and the other one happened to also be my only decent DR! Also, as my goalkeepers seemed to run away whenever the ball came at them, or directed every single goal kick at an advancing opposition striker, a new GK was also top of my shopping list. As luck would have it, a young Farnborough goalkeeper, who had been very impressive whenever I had played against them, and was also on my scout's list, had refused their new offer of a contract. So I offered him a contract, and he signed for me on a free. And as I had approached the club rather than the player directly, I didn't even need to pay compensation.
As the season got underway, the need for a new DL proved to be more urgent than I had thought, as my captain seemed to have his retirement on his mind, as he was turning in the most hopeless performances imaginable, constantly giving the ball away in dangerous areas, and helping give my new GK a real workout. Thankfully, the scout had unearthed a gem of a WB/D L, who I was able to sign on a free. He went straight into the team, and hardly put a foot wrong all season.
Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for most of the team, as the team hovered perilously close to the drop-zone all season. My ML, who had been the team's star last season was largely ineffective. The only players who seemed to care were my 2 new signings, the the AM who I had made my new captain. He was on red-hot form, outscoring all the strikers and chipping in with numerous assists.
The team was severly struggling, and spent the majority of the season in 19th place, going up to 18th once, and going down to 20th a few times. It seemed that dropping into the bottom 3 was the only things that fired up the team, as every time that happened, they won the following game to climb up to 19th again. The relegation battle was a four-horse race, with my Eastleigh team, along with Yeading, Chelmsford and Hitchin battling for survival. Hitchin were never really up to it, and were halfway through the season before registering their first win - against us. They were relegated long before the season end, and Chelmsford succumbed with 2 games to go. As I had feared, it would go down to the final game. Before the final game, it was Yeading who held the upper hand. They were 19th and I was 20th. There was one point in it, although I had the better goal difference, by four goals.
The final game for both of us was an away game. Yeading travelled to 16th placed Hayes, and I had the daunting task of a trip to Crawley, who were in 1st place and had dominated the league. A rallying call from my captain AM before the game, and my team talk seemed to do the trick as my team were holding their own and barely giving Crawley a sniff. At the half-hour mark, it was 0-0 at Crawley, and I checked the other games to see that Yeading were losing 2-0 and down to 10 men, having had a player red-carded after 20 minutes. At that point, knowing a draw would be enough (as I was sure Yeading had no chance of pulling back the deficit), I put everybody back to concentrate on grinding out a goalless draw. However, disaster struck on the stroke of half-time, as a Crawley free-kick led to the opening goal, meaning we went into half-time a goal down.
Another tactic switch followed, this time going for the ultra-offensive. In the 45 minutes that followed, we absolutely pounded their area, ball after ball going into the box, only for their defenders to hoof it upfield or their keeper to punch it out. Indeed, their keeper was on a blinder, saving numerous chances as my team was fighting for survival. In the 87th minute, I jumped for joy as my Irish striker found the net - however, the joy was short-lived. The goal was ruled out for offside. 4 minutes of injury time were played, but luck was not on our side. We had murdered crawley, but they somehow held on to their lead, and the final whistle blew with the score 1-0 to Crawley, meaning we had suffered the heartbreak of final-day relegation. The players had certainly given it one hell of a try, though. And indeed it was even more disheartening to see that Yeading did end up losing 2-0, meaning there was still only one point in it at the end.
The chairman duly handed me my P45 in June, so I was looking for a new club to manage.
Final position: 20th (relegated)
P:42, W10, D8, L:24, F:48, A:71, GD:-23, Pts: 38
Top Scorer: AM - 16 goals
Fans player of the year: AM
Cups sucked arse for the 3rd time in a row
Elsewhere in England: Premiership
Champions: Liverpool
Relegated: Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday, Sheffield United Championship
Promoted: Reading (c), Fulham, Charlton Athletic (p/o)
Relegated: Nottingham Forest, Walsall, Coventry City League One
Promoted: Leeds United (c), Oldham Athletic, Southend United (p/o)
Relegated: Millwall, Doncaster Rovers, Scunthorpe United, Cheltenham Town League Two
Promoted: Peterborough United (c), Chesterfield, Rotherham, Port Vale (p/o)
Relegated: Brighton & Hove Albion, Darlington Conference National
Promoted: Stevenage Borough (c), Kidderminster Harriers (p/o)
Relegated: Burton Albion, Southport, Dagenham & Redbridge, AFC Wimbledon
[b]Conference North[b]
Promoted: Scarborough (c), Workington (p/o)
Relegated: Droylsden, Bromley, St Albans (although why Bromley & St Albans were in the Conference NORTH is beyond me!!) Conference South
Promoted: Crawley (c), Weymouth (p/o)
Relegated: Eastleigh, Chelmsford, Hitchin
FA Cup: Manchester United
League Cup: Chelsea
FA Trophy: Burton
Champions League: Manchester United
UEFA Cup: Celtic
So, as the season came to a close, several jobs came up, 3 of which I applied for. I was offered two of these:- Raceview Rangers, newly promoted to Northern Ireland's 2nd Division, and Neunkirchen, newly promoted to Germany's Regional Division South.
So, I had the choice of the Northern Irish minnows, with a 1000 capacity stadium, a value of £45k and only one player who's not a grey. Or a German side, with several talented looking players, enough non-greys to actually field a full 11 of contracted players, with some to spare, a stadium with 19,200 capacity and a club value of £600k.
Of course, I went for the logical choice and took the Raceview job. Interestingly, when I signed, the amount of non-grey players had leaped from 1 to 7. I still needed to build a team though, and that is where I leave it for now. More to follow when I have completed my first season with Raceview!
07-29-2007, 01:36 AM
The ongoing story of a Hamster, who's also a LLaMa. Post #2
Also, I'd be very grateful if a mod could edit my mis-spelling of 'Eastleigh' for the 2008/09 section header (I missed out the 't'), and where I've messed up the bold text for the Conference North section of the 2008/09 season (should only be the words 'Conference North' in bold).
Thanks in advance!
There's a few other spelling mistakes I've noticed as well, so apologies for those!
07-29-2007, 04:55 PM
The ongoing story of a Hamster, who's also a LLaMa. Post #3
Originally posted by mkus:
Can someone tell me if it's worth dedicating half an hour of my time to the 1st post please?
06/07 Did crap survived
07/08 Did crap survived
08/09 Did really crap ... relegated and sacked...
... Some nice but foolish chairman gave him another job ....
KUTGW :thup:
Although I agree the updates should be about 1/10 the size they are.
07-30-2007, 09:13 PM
The ongoing story of a Hamster, who's also a LLaMa. Post #9
Kevin can you make you mind up please. Are you a Llama hung like a hamster or a hamster hung like a llama. I’m not sure which is worse, I life of ridicule or a life spent dragging your family jewels over the rough ground.
07-31-2007, 11:53 AM
The ongoing story of a Hamster, who's also a LLaMa. Post #10
The ongoing story of a Hamster, who's also a LLaMa. 
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