RunningCloud

This Yank loves the English LLs. I made it to Lg2 after three seasons in Conference national. Stayed in Lg2 by a single point in the first year and moved up to 10th -- two points away from the playoffs -- last season. Nothing spectacular, but I'm having fun. I have a cash-poor club. Good players quickly get unaffordable and have to be unloaded. I get new players mainly from the Prem and Champ reserve squads -- young guys who are getting dropped by their clubs and are either free or low-price transfers. They are willing to sign for low salaries. I add 3-6 players this way each season. If they look especially promising, I get them for 3-4 years at the initial pay rate. Most get 2-year contracts. If any shows really well early on, I'll try to extend the contract, again at low pay. Some take the bait. Some don't. This approach, of course, leads to a high player-turnover rate. Since the players cost little when they arrive, I'm making money when they leave.* I also tap the higher-level clubs for loaners and usually have at least four of them on season-long loans. I use short-term loans to fill gaps as they develop during the season. My question -- finally -- is this: IRL, do things work this way for poor clubs in Engand?
*After year one in the Nationwide, I picked up a very promising ST from the Premiership reserves and signed him for three years. His second year, he was crucial to my club getting promoted. His third, he was a key factor in my staying up. But his salary demands matched his production, so I peddled him for a 1000 percent profit. Last year, he was again stuck on a Premiership reserve side and was listed for transfer/loan. Now he is back with me on a season-long loan -- with his club paying his salary.
These are some of the reasons I love managing in England. It is rich, diverse and always interesting and challenging. I also manage DC United in the MLS. Compared to England, the MLS is one-dimensional. Too few clubs, screwy personnel rules and no higher-up clubs where you can snatch good young players.

iajafer

Things in Britain work pretty much as you describe. Players don't cut the mustard at EPL and Championship Clubs and end up plying their trade in the lower divisions.

It tends not to be a two-way street, EPL Clubs are generally good at spotting guys who won't make it and they spend the rest of their careers in the lower leagues, or else end up with a low-reputation team in the EPL if they're lucky.

The question will be asked "how do you find those players" as they're notoriously difficult for human managed teams but seem to get found by AI teams on a regular basis.

MKalafatas

Hi, RunningCloud --- I'm a Yank, too and your post looks very much like you've not been here before. So, before the dogs circle around and try to take a chunk out of you --- I'll answer some of your questions and mention a few things about your post which may cause offense to the regulars here.

The regulars here play by a certain code, which is considered sacred, and is designed primarily to make FM as difficult and as realistic as possible. So, one criticism of your post would be that you've clearly raided the rosters of big clubs looking for cheap talent. A regular here would not do that. A regular here will not ever look at the roster of a big club without first hearing from his scouts about a certain player.

I think you'll like it here, but please take some time to read the Rules & Guidelines. I say this because another criticism of your post would be that, by giving away your methods, you are "tipping."

But hang in there, and if any of the "dogs" I mentioned bite off your head --- just grow another one and come back a little wiser.

mkus

No and yes, respectively. We don't seek to make it difficult.

RunningCloud

Thanks for the info and advice, iajafer and MKalafatas.
I apologize for a misplaced post. I should have asked my question in the General section.
I did not realize the strict approach managers in this section apply to FM.
I don't use stuff like Scout and Editor. But I do avail myself of everything FM offers. This includes what I feel is an excellent search function. That is how I find my players. So far, I've been lucky and/or good at spotting players who add to my club.
Early on, before I discovered how rich the search function is, I used my scout. I agree that relying on the scout makes things much more difficult. I found my scout next to useless.
But I have a couple of questions about scouts. First, does the AI follow the scouts-only approach for your rival clubs or does it "use" the search function? Secondly, IRL I could instruct my scout to check out the Premiership and Championship reserve sides for players who are on their way out of the big time and who could easily -- and cheaply -- help my club. Does FM06 allow me to be this specific?
Again, apologies to all for any rules violations. I will not post further here unless I start a new game and follow the "scouts-only" rule with a North or South club. Maybe the scouting function will improve with FM07.
Thanks for the info. Not having grown up with English football, I'm still learning the transfer rules and getting a sense of how clubs operate.

iajafer

Good on ye, RunningCloud, that's the kind of second post I like

I hope you decide to start afresh and embrace the "LLM Way", you'd be a welcome addition.

Mister Flea

You could press Enter two times when you're going for a new line. Works better, at least for me. Like this:

See??

And what the Jockmodbloke said.

Kallinan

<grumble> No, it doesn't. In FM06, you can send your scouts after teams, but they only watch the first team. I've wished time & time again that I could *ahem* legitimately scout reserve squads while meeting the LLM ethos.

Using scouts is much tougher, and they are sometimes boderline useless. But when you think about it, Joe Manager in Conference South doesn't have a magical Player Search program that shows him every left winger *in the entire world* with a high.. er... goalkeeping ability.

By the time you factor in reputation & locales - 19yo boy wonders from Nigeria are not going to sign with Leigh RMI - it's clear that scouts are the best route for realism.

Hey, level-headed folk who bother to read the fourm headers are always welcome here. We try not to bite.

And give the LLM method a try. It's immensely rewarding, even if you do get relegated once in a very often while.

RunningCloud

Thanks for the lesson on paragraphing. I did not know that.

I just tried it. Did it work?

And thanks to all for the kind advice. My next step is to download a random team selector and try a game the way you guys play it. The big adjustment will be in player searching. I gave up on using other people's tactics long ago.

dwv1968

Is it me, or are we having a good day for new recruits?

Have you been sacrificing the plurks to Frank again Ian??