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Hey, I'm new to these forums in terms of posting but have been reading them for ages, thanks for keeping me entertained! Tried playing LLM style a few months back and it's certainly added a new lease of life to the game, so I thought I'd do an update! Apologies if I break any taboos, please do tell me!
I started with Leyton Orient. Not the most typical LLM club but they are a challenge as they start off in a lot of debt, with roughly £10K transfer funds and a lowish wage budget. Reason for choosing them? Heard off many fans about the 'glory days' when they were one of the best teams in London, so want to try and overcome their biggest rivals, West Ham! Playing strict LLM though, so here we go. In 4th season at the moment but will go through the first 3 briefly.
SEASON 2004/05
LEAGUE TWO: 15th, 57PTS. W13 D18 L15 F57 A61
FA CUP: 1st round, lost 1-0 to Carlisle.
LEAGUE CUP: 1st round, lost 2-0 to Leeds.
LDV VANS: 1st round, lost 2-1 to Wycombe.
Maybe not the best season Orient will ever have, but finishing 6 points above relegation was satisfactory, considering that the board actually expected a bad season and only wanted me to start rebuilding. It was very much a season of form, one minute we couldn't stop winning and the next minute the lads down the park could probably hit us for six. Fielding an inexperienced goalkeeper might not have helped.
Offensively things were better, with my main striker hitting 21 goals, and my young midfielder consistently performing. I paid £9K for a young Irish striker from Scotland, and in the years to come that would pay off. The other £1K was splashed out on a young Scottish midfielder whose grit added some tenacity to our midfield.
The main task this season, aside from staying up, was to secure the club financially, and we started to re-build. A few thousand pounds over budget, I had to get rid of some experienced defenders even though they would have helped, due to them having around £1K a week wages, which was crippling us. Over the course of the season the board helped out by injecting around a million pounds, but it was worrying that we were losing thousands of pounds each month. Lots of useless youngsters were released, drastically cutting down the squad size.
Next season will surely be another of re-building.
Note: Was heartbroken to see that after the first season we were actually further away from our East End rivals West Ham, as they finished sixth in the Championship and won the playoffs to gain promotion to the Premiership. Looks like I might be in this for the long haul!
SEASON 2005/06
LEAGUE TWO: 18th, 54PTS. W16, D6, L24, F82, A92.
FA CUP: 1st round, lost 2-0 to Mansfield.
LEAGUE CUP: 1st round, lost 2-1 to Preston.
LDV VANS: South Quarter Final, lost 1-0 to Woking.
A wonderfully exciting season at Brisbane Road (capacity 4,955), with goals galore, yet little success. The height of the season was potential cup glory in the LDV after a couple of very good wins before crashing out to Conference side Woking knocked us back to ground.
Our odds were 44-1, compared to 50-1 the previous year, yet the board had been no more optimistic, still expecting me to re-build. And rightly so. Our expenditure amounted to £2k, with an experienced Scottish left back from the Scottish second division, and a striker for £1K from another League Two team. The rest of our signings were free transfers. We picked up a hotly contested young goalkeeper released by one of the top Premiership teams, and a defender who has often been mistaken for a BFG. Add another young combative midfielder and a couple of other defenders, and it is understandable why we conceded 92 league goals. Still I persisted in playing them all, preferring to have a good year next year.
My new scout obviously did good, taking over from my old one who retired at the age of 63. A lot more experienced players went as I had to cut wages again, no income from it but a greatly reduced budget. Still losing money but attendances on the increase so it's not as much of a struggle.
Top goalscorer was my young Irish signing from last year, hitting a fantastic 29, and last years top goalscorer got 23 as well. Scoring wasn't a problem at least!
BUT HURAAH! West Ham came bottom in the Premiership with an appalling 29 points! So although Orient had taken a small step back, we are closer to our rivals, and surely the small step back will allow us to take a big one forward???
SEASON 2006/07
LEAGUE TWO: 3rd, 84PTS. W23, D15, L8, F73, A41.
FA CUP: 2nd round, lost 1-0 to Port Vale.
LEAGUE CUP: 3rd round, drew 1-1 with Stockport County, lost on penalties.
LDV VANS: South 2nd round, drew 0-0 with Notts County, lost on penalties.
Odds of 44-1 again, board still wanting me simply to rebuild, and largely the same squad as last year didn't leave me with much hope of anymore success and Brisbane Road wasn't overly optimistic of success. But then, young players do get better.
The start to the season was simply sublime, winning our first 5 games without conceding a goal, with the same defence as last year. Our goalkeeper was suddenly a human wall, and even though we followed this up with 4 straight 1-1 draws, it was clear we would be a hard team to beat.
We stayed in 3rd place for the majority of the season, and things got better when we go through January where our form slumped yet we still managed to nab a few draws and a victory. Previously relegated Tranmere and Cheltenham (finishing on 100 points and 92 points) were always streets ahead, and for most of the season we stayed 5 or 6 points clear of fourth placed Boston, until with four games to go they overtook us on goal difference. With 5 games to go and playing Cheltenham at home things weren't too good.
So naturally we hammered Cheltenham 6-0 with my striker signing from the first season hitting five. It was completely out of the blue, although in retrospect they were already promoted and fielding a weakened side. Still, we slipped up after that again with a few draws, and going into the last day of the season we were only 1 point ahead of Boston who had a superior goal difference. And we had the Champions Tranmere at home.
We only managed a 0-0 draw, but Boston lost away to Brentford so we were promoted! My young striker had scored 23 goals again to top the league charts, and everyone was delighted all round.
The finances of the club looked a lot stronger as well, with our average attendance rising nearly 1,000 to just over 4,300. Expansion is still not possible due to lack of funds but thigns are on the brightside. My homegrown playmaker was sold off to League One Swindon for £450K, which would fund my spree in the summer to strengthen the squad with a little more experience. I replaced him with a cracking playmaker from Forest Green for just £100K, and a couple of wingers for pittance to add some extra pace.
The cups proved fruitful, knocking out TWO Championship sides in the League Cup (Bristol C and Sheff Wed) to the delight of my fans. And also to the delight of the fans West Ham failed to get promoted, finishing in a woeful 18th. A few places lower and we would have been in the same league!
Received many job offers from Scottish first division clubs, but I'm not being budged! I want that East End back!
Not a bad update at all, Alex Mann, but unfortunately you started in League 2.
Do you have a rather weak computer and can't run the conferences? If you can, I would really suggest that next time you start out in the lowest league available in a given country, i.e. Conference North / Conference South in England, or at least in the Conference National, if you can't run them.
Otherwise, enjoy your game. Not bad for a beginning.
Re-claiming the East End 
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Linear Mode
