Football manager 2012 -IPad

[shen]

Finished my first full season in the Pentagon Challenge. Won the SA FA Cup, so have qualified for Africa's Europa League. It will take me a bit longer to win the Champions League at Sundowns than it did at Seoul. However, there are promising signs - I have a FANTASTIC young CB named Siyanda Xulu. 20 years old, player of the season, one of my top scorers as well! The future's bright, the future's blue and white yellow and green.

Xulu is one of the hot cheap names this year.

[Finnegan]

I've finally played this a little bit again today and quickly run in to the sort of retarded ****ing brick wall that stopped me playing in the first place.

Negotiating contracts on this can just be stupid at times.

My club physically won't allow me to meet the agent fee and player loyalty fee demands of my would-be record signing and his agent's insisting on it repeatedly despite my going drastically over his wage request, bonus requests and offering him ridiculous extra money per game and per goal to come.

Just pathetic and frustrating to the point of not being fun. At all.

[Fox_in_spain]

Xulu is one of the hot cheap names this year.

Really? Oh...I thought that I had discovered a new star

[CKB]

Right simple question

FM 2012, worth it or not? I was very into FM 2011 but then grew abit bored and stopped playing it.. I'm wanting to get back into FM but not sure if i should just go back to FM 2011 or go for the upgrade?

[Libertine Dream]

Go for it, its only 12 quid now

[Raw Dykes]

I've finally played this a little bit again today and quickly run in to the sort of retarded ****ing brick wall that stopped me playing in the first place.

Negotiating contracts on this can just be stupid at times.

My club physically won't allow me to meet the agent fee and player loyalty fee demands of my would-be record signing and his agent's insisting on it repeatedly despite my going drastically over his wage request, bonus requests and offering him ridiculous extra money per game and per goal to come.

Just pathetic and frustrating to the point of not being fun. At all.

I think the mistake you're making might be going for expensive players. When I played FM, I used to really enjoy bargain hunting. I'd look for dirt-cheap youngsters who the scouts thought could one day be world class. If I ever had to sell anyone and needed a ready-made replacement, I'd always look for the best free transfers first. I'd regard making a record signing a bad thing, and try to avoid it as much as possible.

[CKB]

Go for it, its only 12 quid now

Is it? whereabouts for that money?

[Dan]

The whole defense should just have fully defensive instructions. This WILL get you good results and will also allow you to have a very small squad seeing as you don't need wingers.

Are you on about just for that formation or most in general? Because it actually works for me whenever I play it when I feel it really shouldn't. It seems to do the trick wherever I go though.

I'm at Fleetwood. I'm still on 11 as I love to mention every post. I'm on the LFCMarshall update on FM Base which is pretty much the best summer 2011 update. BSP being the lowest league.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that with the amount of edits, it plays a part in some of the results. Either that or having two sides losing their opening 17, one of them picking up 1 win and 16 losses in their opening 17 and the other side in the bottom 4 being on 7 points by that time is normal now, it was also all four sides that came up and they're all Southern sides yet it should be two Northern and two Southern. They're all fvcking piss poor and it has contributed to a very, very easy 24 points.

In my first year I put far too much faith in a very poor squad and started terribly to the extent I was about to get sacked, I turned it around a bit but never really did it, came 8th I think. This year I started pretty slowly again, I won my first two home games by 5 goals each but they were both against absolute dross, whilst I lost my first two aways, so I go away to Wrexham, go 1 down within seconds, and think fvck it, I've got a strong squad (easily promotion material, how I'm predicted only 11th is beyond me) and I went attacking, and won 3-5.

So I went attacking next game, and beat Ebbsfleet 4-1. Thought I'd be fearless and do it vs Luton, and won 7-0 lol

The trick it seemed for me was simply not making enough use of the most deadly attack in the league. Now I'm 43 games in, on 101 points and have scored 132 goals by an absolute stretch a record for me, in-fact I hit my 100th goal in February, although no doubt one of you bastards has topped that. My forward George Donnelly, is on 49 goals in 40 games in the league and over 60 goals in all comps, he's just ridiculously too good for that level, they claim he'd make a "good Champ forward", what the fvck is he doing with me.

I've made the standard FM non-league signings, signing your players like Scott Wootton, Scott Malone, Tope Obadeyi, James Wallace, Sean Tse, Elliot Parish all on frees, something that'll make me good money whilst pissing this crappy league.

No idea whether I should stick to my attacking policy next season, I had Barnet in the FA Cup 2nd round at home and won 2-1 using my tactics, they're a pretty low side in L2 and they were a struggle, but a 95th min Donnelly winner did the job. I went for counter in my 3rd round tie (Bristol City at home, absolutely livid) and lost 0-2.

I'll certainly be going up now but I'm a tad concerned. £450k in the red and we're constantly making losses, yet I've not gone over my budget once. My only good income is regular cash injections of about £60k a team every 3/4 weeks from my owners, it's not good.

This should go on to be a good game but sadly even whilst pissing the league I only average about 2k so I'll be like Scunthorpe when I make the Champ. I'll never ever turn over good money.

[Finnegan]

I think the mistake you're making might be going for expensive players. When I played FM, I used to really enjoy bargain hunting. I'd look for dirt-cheap youngsters who the scouts thought could one day be world class. If I ever had to sell anyone and needed a ready-made replacement, I'd always look for the best free transfers first. I'd regard making a record signing a bad thing, and try to avoid it as much as possible.

With the greatest respect, that's a stupid argument.

This happens no matter the value of the player, it's all relative to the finances of the club you're at.

And for the record, I'm trying to sign Andre Schurrle not Leo Messi and even then I'm only breaking the bank as a Champions League winning, back-to-back league winning club that's gained it's success off a bunch of players that cost less than Jermaine Beckford. Sometimes it's just nice to sign a few Hollywood names.

I don't need tips on how to be better at FM, I need SI to sort out their contract negotiation system because agent AI on this game is atrocious.

[J.Lisemore]

Signed Mark Davies on loan from Bolton in my first season as Leicester, hes playing brilliant.

[Libertine Dream]

Is it? whereabouts for that money?

Well the place that I saw it SelltoGames hasnt got it anymore. Click for games has it at 14.89 or amazon I think is just over 15 quid.

[Libertine Dream]

Another thing that bugs me is the price that most of the re-gens command. To get a good enough youngster in 2020 for my Leicester temas costs nearly as much as the finished article. I mean a 16 year old goalkeeper for 15 million from Maritimo is a joke.

[DB11]

Another thing that bugs me is the price that most of the re-gens command. To get a good enough youngster in 2020 for my Leicester temas costs nearly as much as the finished article. I mean a 16 year old goalkeeper for 15 million from Maritimo is a joke.

Inflation,

[Raw Dykes]

Are you on about just for that formation or most in general? Because it actually works for me whenever I play it when I feel it really shouldn't. It seems to do the trick wherever I go though.

I'm at Fleetwood. I'm still on 11 as I love to mention every post. I'm on the LFCMarshall update on FM Base which is pretty much the best summer 2011 update. BSP being the lowest league.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that with the amount of edits, it plays a part in some of the results. Either that or having two sides losing their opening 17, one of them picking up 1 win and 16 losses in their opening 17 and the other side in the bottom 4 being on 7 points by that time is normal now, it was also all four sides that came up and they're all Southern sides yet it should be two Northern and two Southern. They're all fvcking piss poor and it has contributed to a very, very easy 24 points.

In my first year I put far too much faith in a very poor squad and started terribly to the extent I was about to get sacked, I turned it around a bit but never really did it, came 8th I think. This year I started pretty slowly again, I won my first two home games by 5 goals each but they were both against absolute dross, whilst I lost my first two aways, so I go away to Wrexham, go 1 down within seconds, and think fvck it, I've got a strong squad (easily promotion material, how I'm predicted only 11th is beyond me) and I went attacking, and won 3-5.

So I went attacking next game, and beat Ebbsfleet 4-1. Thought I'd be fearless and do it vs Luton, and won 7-0 lol

The trick it seemed for me was simply not making enough use of the most deadly attack in the league. Now I'm 43 games in, on 101 points and have scored 132 goals by an absolute stretch a record for me, in-fact I hit my 100th goal in February, although no doubt one of you bastards has topped that. My forward George Donnelly, is on 49 goals in 40 games in the league and over 60 goals in all comps, he's just ridiculously too good for that level, they claim he'd make a "good Champ forward", what the fvck is he doing with me.

I've made the standard FM non-league signings, signing your players like Scott Wootton, Scott Malone, Tope Obadeyi, James Wallace, Sean Tse, Elliot Parish all on frees, something that'll make me good money whilst pissing this crappy league.

No idea whether I should stick to my attacking policy next season, I had Barnet in the FA Cup 2nd round at home and won 2-1 using my tactics, they're a pretty low side in L2 and they were a struggle, but a 95th min Donnelly winner did the job. I went for counter in my 3rd round tie (Bristol City at home, absolutely livid) and lost 0-2.

I'll certainly be going up now but I'm a tad concerned. £450k in the red and we're constantly making losses, yet I've not gone over my budget once. My only good income is regular cash injections of about £60k a team every 3/4 weeks from my owners, it's not good.

This should go on to be a good game but sadly even whilst pissing the league I only average about 2k so I'll be like Scunthorpe when I make the Champ. I'll never ever turn over good money.

It's very easy to make big losses, and very difficult to make any profit in the Conference and below. I'd recommend getting in as many free loans as you're allowed, and then trimming the wage bill right down. Things do get quite a lot better financially once you get into the football league.

Attendances improve as you go up the divisions. Try to put some money aside for stadium expansions when you can afford to - it will pay itself back through bigger attendances. You can make any club turn over a lot of money, given enough time. Get good scouts, make them work hard, buy cheap youngsters with potential, and sell them for as much as you can get when you have to sell them. Always try to get as many of the best free transfers as you can, and never let a valuable player leave on a free. If a valuable player won't renew his contract, and his contract in its last year, sell him. Leave yourself plenty of time to negotiate new contracts for players, and start as low as you think you might get away with.

With the greatest respect, that's a stupid argument.

This happens no matter the value of the player, it's all relative to the finances of the club you're at.

And for the record, I'm trying to sign Andre Schurrle not Leo Messi and even then I'm only breaking the bank as a Champions League winning, back-to-back league winning club that's gained it's success off a bunch of players that cost less than Jermaine Beckford. Sometimes it's just nice to sign a few Hollywood names.

I don't need tips on how to be better at FM, I need SI to sort out their contract negotiation system because agent AI on this game is atrocious.

Based on your original comment, I don't think my reply was stupid at all. All the information you gave was that you were trying to make a record signing, and that you couldn't afford to. It sounded like you were trying to spend all your budget in one go.

[shen]

I've finally played this a little bit again today and quickly run in to the sort of retarded ****ing brick wall that stopped me playing in the first place.

Negotiating contracts on this can just be stupid at times.

My club physically won't allow me to meet the agent fee and player loyalty fee demands of my would-be record signing and his agent's insisting on it repeatedly despite my going drastically over his wage request, bonus requests and offering him ridiculous extra money per game and per goal to come.

Just pathetic and frustrating to the point of not being fun. At all.

I assume you also included a minimum fee and % increase per year, which I think are the main bonus clauses. What were the stats of the agent? If he had a high willingness to tout players and agent fee demands, that would explain why he wasn't accepting lower agent/loyalty fees. And it would also have meant that the increments to the wages, bonuses etc. weren't as effective as it would have been with an agent that had low willingness to tout players. But yes, obviously in this game there are bound to be some unrealistic annoyances which you know as well as anyone.

Really? Oh...I thought that I had discovered a new star

He's not top tier and not that many will know him due to him being Sarf African. Surprised you were able to hold on to him, he always goes to a European club in the first week on my games.

Are you on about just for that formation or most in general? Because it actually works for me whenever I play it when I feel it really shouldn't. It seems to do the trick wherever I go though.

I'll certainly be going up now but I'm a tad concerned. £450k in the red and we're constantly making losses, yet I've not gone over my budget once. My only good income is regular cash injections of about £60k a team every 3/4 weeks from my owners, it's not good.

This should go on to be a good game but sadly even whilst pissing the league I only average about 2k so I'll be like Scunthorpe when I make the Champ. I'll never ever turn over good money.

It was for that tactic, but it also works in general I feel. I'm not too complicated when it comes to fullbacks. If they're good enough to be more forward oriented (i.e. have dribbling, crossing, passing, creativity, OTB, stamina etc) at the relevant league level, then I stick them on support or attack. However, most fullbacks just aren't that good at Prem level because they need solid stats across the board, which makes them effectively below average in attacking play.

As Raw Dykes says, it is hard to make money with few supporters and a slowly growing reputation. The problem is that players' reputation will grow faster than that of your club, which means they'll garner interest while their price remains low (due to your club rep). The only upside is that you'll be able to keep wages low. Actually, since you say you play FM 11, I think they haven't yet corrected the incomes from friendly game, which is very exploitable. Host as many friendlies as you can against higher rep clubs (preferably four-team tournaments as the game doesn't take into account the income from the games you're not involved in when arranging them) during pre-season/post-season. You can try to host games during cup dates when you're out. In such low leagues it could even become your main income.

Another thing that bugs me is the price that most of the re-gens command. To get a good enough youngster in 2020 for my Leicester temas costs nearly as much as the finished article. I mean a 16 year old goalkeeper for 15 million from Maritimo is a joke.

I don't agree. Find them early enough and you'll usually get away with paying peanuts. The newgens shouldn't be too developed when you buy them as that increases their price. Sometimes players that have quite middle-of-the-road potential but have developed earlier are worth more than the players that could turn out to be world class in time.

[Dan]

It's very easy to make big losses, and very difficult to make any profit in the Conference and below. I'd recommend getting in as many free loans as you're allowed, and then trimming the wage bill right down. Things do get quite a lot better financially once you get into the football league.

Attendances improve as you go up the divisions. Try to put some money aside for stadium expansions when you can afford to - it will pay itself back through bigger attendances. You can make any club turn over a lot of money, given enough time. Get good scouts, make them work hard, buy cheap youngsters with potential, and sell them for as much as you can get when you have to sell them. Always try to get as many of the best free transfers as you can, and never let a valuable player leave on a free. If a valuable player won't renew his contract, and his contract in its last year, sell him. Leave yourself plenty of time to negotiate new contracts for players, and start as low as you think you might get away with.

I agree but £450k in the red is fvcking worrying.

My valuable players I've done as much as I can to milk them in the press and praise them whenever and they all seem to love it here, even Donnelly who's linked with Peterborough and has scored an obscene amount of goals, he could easily cut L1 for me.

The thing that gets me about stadium expansion is the fact my ground already holds over 5k. I appreciate I'm at a piss poor level but 5k capacity and we get 2k a game, that's awful and I can't see that being above 7/8k even when I get to the Championship.

My favourite type of signing is released Prem youngsters from like Man Utd etc.. According to my scout Robbie Brady would join us even though he could easily cut the Champ so I'll wait on that when he's released by Man Utd.

It was for that tactic, but it also works in general I feel. I'm not too complicated when it comes to fullbacks. If they're good enough to be more forward oriented (i.e. have dribbling, crossing, passing, creativity, OTB, stamina etc) at the relevant league level, then I stick them on support or attack. However, most fullbacks just aren't that good at Prem level because they need solid stats across the board, which makes them effectively below average in attacking play.

As Raw Dykes says, it is hard to make money with few supporters and a slowly growing reputation. The problem is that players' reputation will grow faster than that of your club, which means they'll garner interest while their price remains low (due to your club rep). The only upside is that you'll be able to keep wages low. Actually, since you say you play FM 11, I think they haven't yet corrected the incomes from friendly game, which is very exploitable. Host as many friendlies as you can against higher rep clubs (preferably four-team tournaments as the game doesn't take into account the income from the games you're not involved in when arranging them) during pre-season/post-season. You can try to host games during cup dates when you're out. In such low leagues it could even become your main income.

It works for me in a 4-4-2. At Fleetwood I've tweaked a fair bit and I've got 4-4-2, all the back 4 defensive, both wingers attacking, a central midfielder on support and a deep-playing playmaker on support, and up front an advanced forward and a poacher. Attacking mentality every game, we score so many goals it's incredible.

I'll be trying that in the summer, to get a big crowd or five through the gates, although I didn't have much luck getting good friendlies last year.

[shen]

The thing that gets me about stadium expansion is the fact my ground already holds over 5k. I appreciate I'm at a piss poor level but 5k capacity and we get 2k a game, that's awful and I can't see that being above 7/8k even when I get to the Championship.

It works for me in a 4-4-2. At Fleetwood I've tweaked a fair bit and I've got 4-4-2, all the back 4 defensive, both wingers attacking, a central midfielder on support and a deep-playing playmaker on support, and up front an advanced forward and a poacher. Attacking mentality every game, we score so many goals it's incredible.

I'll be trying that in the summer, to get a big crowd or five through the gates, although I didn't have much luck getting good friendlies last year.

You should try to hold on to key players like Donnelly as cheap replacements that'll get you that amount of goals is very difficult. Obviously you should try and sign a new contract with him so that he lasts at least until the end of the L1 season. If you can't then try and negotiate contracts around two seasons before it expires so as to keep his wages low (which will also affect how attractive he is to other clubs later).

Your tactic is rigid I assume? The attacking mentality makes you play wider and higher up the pitch with more direct balls. That's really it. The rigid is the more important part as that makes your defensive players stay back nearly the whole time, which should make you more solid. Then again, it also means your attacking players won't be defending as much which can leave you vulnerable against teams with good wingers/fullbacks.

When you arrange friendlies, be sure to look at the higher rep clubs for every available date. Don't be afraid to book friendlies with only 1 or 2 days between them if need be. And remember to use tournaments as they'll get you proportionately more.

[Heart-Shaped Fox]

Me and my mate have a game going with Celtic and Rangers, again.

We're in League 1, editing it so we can be in England obviously. Not as easy as you would expect, players will still sign for us regardless as we are both in Europe for this season but already i have drawn 2 games and lost one, my first game of the season to Sheff Utd at home.

He has won every game bar one which he lost to Oldham.

Challenge to basically see who can get established in the PL quickest

[Raw Dykes]

I agree but £450k in the red is fvcking worrying.

My valuable players I've done as much as I can to milk them in the press and praise them whenever and they all seem to love it here, even Donnelly who's linked with Peterborough and has scored an obscene amount of goals, he could easily cut L1 for me.

The thing that gets me about stadium expansion is the fact my ground already holds over 5k. I appreciate I'm at a piss poor level but 5k capacity and we get 2k a game, that's awful and I can't see that being above 7/8k even when I get to the Championship.

My favourite type of signing is released Prem youngsters from like Man Utd etc.. According to my scout Robbie Brady would join us even though he could easily cut the Champ so I'll wait on that when he's released by Man Utd.

The last version I played was FM 2009, so some things may have changed a lot since, but I would advise scouting all the players available for loan, and make a bid to borrow all the best ones for free; no fee and no contribution towards wages. Be sure to turn off "filter out unrealistic targets", or whatever it's called, because it will filter out players who might want to join on loan, just not permanently. Make sure they can all play for the first team at once, i.e. you don't really need 8 brilliant left backs, and try to strengthen the weakest positions in the team first. I think you're allowed four season-long loans, and 4 3 month loans at one time. I found you could borrow 8 completely free youngsters who were all way too good for non-league football this way, while also allowing you to ship out the weakest or worst value for money players in your squad to slash the wage bill.

I also found at non-league level that even though I kept the wage bill below the target set, the club was still making a loss. I think you have to be even more strict on yourself than the board is in the Conference and below.

Sounds like you don't need to worry about attendances, then. If your ground's big enough, all you need to do is get promoted. Trust me, more fans will start attending when you go up a division.

It works for me in a 4-4-2. At Fleetwood I've tweaked a fair bit and I've got 4-4-2, all the back 4 defensive, both wingers attacking, a central midfielder on support and a deep-playing playmaker on support, and up front an advanced forward and a poacher. Attacking mentality every game, we score so many goals it's incredible.

I'll be trying that in the summer, to get a big crowd or five through the gates, although I didn't have much luck getting good friendlies last year.

With arranging friendlies, just make sure to give yourself plenty of time. Then if you ask a club and they decline the offer, you can just keep asking other clubs until you get the fixtures you want.

[shen]

Make sure they can all play for the first team at once, i.e. you don't really need 8 brilliant left backs, and try to strengthen the weakest positions in the team first. I think you're allowed four season-long loans, and 4 3 month loans at one time. I found you could borrow 8 completely free youngsters who were all way too good for non-league football this way, while also allowing you to ship out the weakest or worst value for money players in your squad to slash the wage bill.

Just want to add the point that there are no restrictions to loans from abroad. You can sometimes get very cheap loans from the Netherlands, Belgium etc. although you'll admittedly find it difficult to attract players at lower English levels. Also, remember that the loan restrictions are for U-23s and over 23s respectively, so you can have up to 8 season-long loans and an unlimited amount of short term loans (although these cannot be renewed beyond 3 months in total). Getting a parent club will give you a little advantage as you can always loan players free of costs from it.

[Fox_in_spain]

Into my 2nd (1st full season) as Sundowns boss in the Pentagon Challenge. I held on to Xulu (against his will ) and signed last season's top scorer, Thembinkosi "Terror" Fanteni (true nickname). I also signed lots of young players with great potential (pick of them is Gilbert Fiamenyoh from Hearts of Oak in Ghana).

I played Kaizer Chiefs (last season's league winners) in a preseason friendly, and won 3-1.

I played Kaizer Chiefs in the Super 8 (a strange domestic trophy, only 8 of the 16 league teams participate! ) and one 6-1 on aggregate, including a 4-1 away win in which Xulu was sent off after 29 mins with the score 0-0.

Then I won my first two games of the League 6-0 and 3-1 against Witbank Spurs and Jomo Cosmos respectively, before playing Kaizer Chiefs AGAIN. I was thinking, I've beaten them 3 times already, this should be an easy win. But, alas, a shocking performance ensued, and I lost 2-0. I would have sacrificed my 3 other wins against them for a win in the league, but it wasn't to be.

I'm still hopeful of winning the title though, despite my minor blip.

[shen]

Apropos of nothing, January 30, 2016, Man U got thrased 0-5 at OT against Doncaster in the FA Cup 4th round, with Sharp getting a hattrick Bizarrely, they fielded Rooney, Berbatov, Carson and a few quality newgens (not to mention a handful of BSN quality players!) and just Lindegaard as a sub... They didn't even get a shot on target!

[Fox_in_spain]

Apropos of nothing, January 30, 2016, Man U got thrased 0-5 at OT against Doncaster in the FA Cup 4th round, with Sharp getting a hattrick Bizarrely, they fielded Rooney, Berbatov, Carson and a few quality newgens (not to mention a handful of BSN quality players!) and just Lindegaard as a sub... They didn't even get a shot on target!

Sharp still at Donny in 2016 is almost as surprising as the result itself!

[Dan]

You should try to hold on to key players like Donnelly as cheap replacements that'll get you that amount of goals is very difficult. Obviously you should try and sign a new contract with him so that he lasts at least until the end of the L1 season. If you can't then try and negotiate contracts around two seasons before it expires so as to keep his wages low (which will also affect how attractive he is to other clubs later).

Your tactic is rigid I assume? The attacking mentality makes you play wider and higher up the pitch with more direct balls. That's really it. The rigid is the more important part as that makes your defensive players stay back nearly the whole time, which should make you more solid. Then again, it also means your attacking players won't be defending as much which can leave you vulnerable against teams with good wingers/fullbacks.

When you arrange friendlies, be sure to look at the higher rep clubs for every available date. Don't be afraid to book friendlies with only 1 or 2 days between them if need be. And remember to use tournaments as they'll get you proportionately more.

Donnelly's contract expired in June 2013, and I was in June 2012 so I went to offer a new deal, he was on £1,200 a week, he wanted £3k a week which I couldn't afford, so I offered him £1,500 a week and another year (June 2015) almost for a joke and he signed.

Well my attacking mentality will probably lead to more long balls, seeing as I always have my defence sitting deep (never ever been a fan of high defences to be honest) but I always have width.

I'm not being funny but pace is stupidly over-rated, Jonny Godsmark is simply one of the worst footballers on the game yet because his pace is 17 odd he absolutely tears the shit out of teams.

The last version I played was FM 2009, so some things may have changed a lot since, but I would advise scouting all the players available for loan, and make a bid to borrow all the best ones for free; no fee and no contribution towards wages. Be sure to turn off "filter out unrealistic targets", or whatever it's called, because it will filter out players who might want to join on loan, just not permanently. Make sure they can all play for the first team at once, i.e. you don't really need 8 brilliant left backs, and try to strengthen the weakest positions in the team first. I think you're allowed four season-long loans, and 4 3 month loans at one time. I found you could borrow 8 completely free youngsters who were all way too good for non-league football this way, while also allowing you to ship out the weakest or worst value for money players in your squad to slash the wage bill.

I also found at non-league level that even though I kept the wage bill below the target set, the club was still making a loss. I think you have to be even more strict on yourself than the board is in the Conference and below.

Sounds like you don't need to worry about attendances, then. If your ground's big enough, all you need to do is get promoted. Trust me, more fans will start attending when you go up a division.

With arranging friendlies, just make sure to give yourself plenty of time. Then if you ask a club and they decline the offer, you can just keep asking other clubs until you get the fixtures you want.

To both of you, my season itself.

I finished the BSP with 3 more wins, 143 goals I finished on, Donnelly on 50 league goals (bang on 50), 63 in all comps, amazing. As stated he signed a new deal.

Then came the good old June 25th, budget announced - £0. £28k a week wages. Currently spending £26k.

Managed to offload a few players but a lot of them had automatically received better contracts due to promotion, small bonus but ultimately it's cost us another £4k a week. Didn't have much luck either in the transfer window. Danny Ings was sent to me by Burnley which was a cheap, useful option for my 4th forward. Daniel Pappoe & Reece Brown both joined on frees and Luke Garbutt joined on a season-long loan, other than that we didn't sign anyone.

Pre-season saw me play a couple of decent home games including one against Forest which I won, in-fact I won every friendly. Could've netted more money though admittedly.

Onto the season itself, handed Crawley at home first game. Made one change to my last game of the BSP which was a little disappointing to be honest but I still won 3-0, absolutely thumped them. Godsmark, the man I'd tried so hard to replace, with 3 assists. Next I go to Barnsley, 3-0 down at HT, Haynes hat-trick, keep telling them the pressures off, gutted in the end, absolutely battered them 2nd half and lost 3-2, Godsmark with both goals incredibly, could've definitely won it that's the sickening thing. After that, a tough trip to title favourites Chesterfield, to see us go 3-0 down AGAIN and then incredibly equalise before half-time, Godsmark ripping them a new one. An uneventful second half saw Chesterfield net the only other goal in the 55th min, 4-3 loss.

That's all I've played. On the whole I think I've made some half-decent signings but nothing special, adding more cheap, decent youngsters to the squad, whilst the team is definitely capable of doing well in this league. I'm sorry but you don't score 143 goals in one league and then struggle in the next, the current squad alone should hit at least 80. Defenders like Dosek and Crosa are letting me down a bit but I signed Brown/Pappoe incase this. All in all, I'm predicted 22nd and I've thumped 5th, given a Champ side a game and a half and given the title favourites a huge scare.

We'll come 10th at the absolute lowest.

[Dan]

Oh and another thing. Crawley at home drew in just over 3k. So a slight improvement but I'm still convinced that when I get to the Champ all I'll do is par Scunthorpe.

Is that a glitch also? FA Trophy final. Fleetwood v Luton. 90,000 attendance. lol We pocketed an absolute shit load for that.