retired_mayasmomma

Yeah, it's actually sort of killing me - I used to put in about 25 per week when I had my easy job and easy classes - now I've the hard job and tough classes. I swear I've still got the shakes - I should have stepped down my dependency!

retired_mayasmomma

Alfreton Town
END SEASON UPDATE -- 2008/09

What an odd career this has been. After sitting about mid-table through December, January sees us win a few and vault to 8th (see above) before going on a winning streak of 8 or 9, just as in seasons past. We hit 2nd in L2 before dropping our last 3 matches (without scoring 1 goal) to finish 4th. A playoff loss to Shrewsbury puts us out and that ends the season.

Highlights include losing every cup tie, bringing in three new players to the squad (not one of them played more than 10 games) and selling one of mine to Chesterfield for a ridiculous .5 million. I don't understand the offer, but I took it. Now we have a transfer budget and a wage budget, but no one (NO ONE) will play for us. I couldn't lure a couple of players from ECN and frankly, they weren't even that highly touted by my scouts.

Ah well. Turned down the Hull job along with lots of others. I think the next job 10-15 places up (low L1 or bigger L2) and I may jump. I'm loving Alfreton, but I'm also a bit bored now we're so rich (ha ha).

Around the leagues, PL - Chelsea, etc. etc.

I sure as hell hope to see a slightly larger (how about upping the seats) stadium soon!

Streaky squad is starting to incraese my aggrevation!

retired_skinner3

KUTGstruggletogetpromotedtoL1 and...

KUTGstruggletogetalargerstadium

:thup:

retired_mayasmomma

Alfreton Town - Wigan
MID-SEASON UPDATE -- 2009/10

L1 the easy way:

As you can see, I finally did it – I made a jump, up about 13 places to Wigan Athletic. After a poor start to season (a ritual at Alfreton town) and a nice run of form after the ‘bugs’ were worked out of the system, late October found us sitting mid-table as usual, poised for our traditional run at the promotion contenders. Injuries to my three scorers (about 90% of my goals come from these three) had prevented my small squad from fielding anyone with any accuracy in August and September but October saw them back and firing well.

Having turned down some two-dozen jobs, I had decided, given Alfreton’s difficulty attracting even middling talent, to make the next move to a club that was no more than 15 places up and that had the potential to do something in the future. I had intended to stay with Alfreton to the top in this career, but to be honest at some level this didn’t seem realistic. It’s frustrating (which is fun) but also somewhat hopeless knowing that, with the club rep the way it is, it will be virtually impossible to attract £7,000 per month talent (which, in L2, isn’t really that good). I still feel that whilst one is well under one’s wage budget, the board should allow more money to be spent per player – then I could simply ‘overpay’ a bit for a better player and hope to attract 1 or 2 others. Ah well, maybe in FM2006.

A promotion to L1 might have made a difference, but, long story much longer, Wigan called and their problems seemed fitting with the LLM career, realism wise. While a good-sized club may not have hired a manger with my experience normally, my results combined with their 19th L1 position and insecure finances seemed a good fit. Thus I left Alfreton £2.2 million in the black and in a good position to survive in L2 for some time – so long as they don’t screw it up.

Arriving at Wigan meant discovering a squad of 16 first teamers, 3 reserves and 1 GK and a salary of over £450,000/mo. on a budget of £300k. I’ve played three matches (lost all three) and have been unable to move any of the high-priced ‘talent’ but, fortunately, some 5 of the biggest are on contract elsewhere beginning July. Brought over my three favorites from Alfreton, though, and am hoping for some promising results in the immediate future.

Cheers

retired_stelutaivan

KUTGW :thup:

retired_duncan

Seconded :cool:

retired_mayasmomma

Wigan Athletic
END-SEASON UPDATE – 2009/10

What can one say? 19th when I took over, Wigan Athletic are returning to EC (they were relegated in 08) despite mediocre play down the stretch. My streaky teams continue to play that way as, after cleaning house a bit, Wigan went on a great run before finishing 3-3-3 in the last 9 to secure the last playoff position. A 6-1 aggregate demolition of Bradford City (who self-destructed nicely in the first leg) and a wild 4-3 victory over Bournemouth at Wembly see us moving up.

My first weeks at Wigan saw me cleaning as much salary as possible, but three men were already contracted and couldn’t be moved, thus we finished the season desperately in the red – I shant be paying good salaries for at least a season.

1 July, however, saw the departure of £210,000/month of salary (although I would have kept one of those gentlemen) putting us far below the wage budget and, while I haven’t been able to get the players I wanted, I have strengthened the squad with some nice, average all-rounders. The upcoming season sees us as relegation battlers but I foresee a nice mid-table performance on the backs of the two talented stars first scouted and recruited for Alfreton.

Wish us well – Wigan was a big jump in capability despite the relatively small jump from my Alfreton position and the pressure is on as they have had 6 managers (including me) since 2005. Luckily the finances are sorted and should run black and the promotion has secured a solid place in club history.

retired_davek

retired_stelutaivan

KUTGDemolitionOfBradfordCity

retired_davek

You'll both get yours in the afterlife