Salford City — The Dafuge Challenge 2016!

Welcome back, friends!

If you’ve been reading my blog or Twitter the past few days, you know that I’ve been working on a Level 10 challenge using an edited database and the Stockport Town F.C. club that was just formed in 2014.  I’m still trying to drum up interest on the forums for that challenge, and I wasn’t playing since my sacking at Bristol, so I figured it was time to hop back in the waters.

I decided that since I love playing in England, if for no other reason than it goes farther down than any other league system and I am an LLM’er at heart — I rolled up a Dafuge save.  I did I believe three reloads and I decided to roll with Salford City.

The Dafuge challenge, of course, requires you to take a previously unplayable club (you have to holiday through the 2015-16 season) in England, and take your newly-promoted club at Level 6 of the English Pyramid to Barclay’s Premier League and UEFA Champions League success.  Nothing serious or anything. 😀

Being from the United States, coverage is a lot better now, but it still isn’t great.  Understandably, because of who is involved with the club, we have a lot more information about Salford City over here, and seeing as how I don’t have a “home” club or one I directly support in these low leagues, it just made sense.  At a 1650 reputation, it is also more of an average difficulty than a team like Dorchester.

I’ve also connected a YouTube channel, we’ll see if I can figure out how to use it.  Perhaps, if I can, I’ll figure out how to do the comprehensive highlights of all our fixtures, or at least the main ones.

Here’s an overview of the club:

Club Overview – June 24, 2016

I haven’t done really any looking at the club yet, I have just got together my screenshot to enter the challenge and then I am going to get to work while I watch the NFL Playoffs.

Thank you as always for following American Werewolf Football!

Designing a New Challenge for the SI Forums!

Welcome back, friends!

I don’t want to be possibly misleading with the title, but I and many of the readers here are members of the Sports Interactive Community Forums and many of us frequent the Challenges, Signups & Experiments forum there.  This is where I have found such great challenges as The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge, The Dafuge Challenge, The Sammarinese Challenge, and the Youth Academy Challenge!

Well, I’ve finally received the tools necessary to attempt to create a top-notch challenge of my own.  I just don’t want there to be any confusion, in NO WAY is this challenge endorsed or supported by Sports Interactive, it is all made possible through legal addons and modifications by the user community!

With the fine work put together by Dan BHTFC making great new English databases, all of England now becomes available for play!  We won’t be going quite that deep, but Dan’s Level 11 Database will be the one used for this challenge.

I have received his full permission and blessing to edit one club in the database and make it available for users on the SI Forums to attempt this challenge… here is what I’m setting up!

FC United of Manchester is probably the best recent example of a club entering the English pyramid with a good amount of support, and they began their journey into English football at Level 10 of the English system in the North West Counties League, nine levels below the Barclay’s Premier League!

From research, I have been able to determine their initial finances rather closely, and we know their ground-sharing arrangements until they opened their own home stadium.  What I am going to do is edit out the least valuable club (sorry, St. Helens) in the North West Counties Division One (the name has changed, but this is the league where FC United started) and make our challenge club in its place with the correct resources to begin our voyage.

I will, honestly, probably make challengers allowed to use Create-a-Club with the edited club as a base, as the Create-a-Club feature does not allow you to alter finances or anything of the sort.  Obviously, challengers would not be able to use the Dream Team feature, but I’m seeing the feasibility of this.  Otherwise, I will probably just call the club the SI Forums FC Challengers.

I have never done editing before, so while it is only one club I’m editing, I’ve got to make sure I do it correctly, and then I will post the challenge on the SI forums.  I think it is a crazy good and challenging English challenge to get all the way from Level 10 to the very top.  We will be loading all 11 levels to play, if you are relegated, you do not have to start over, only if you are sacked!

Feel free to comment if you have any input on this upcoming challenge or are able to offer any assistance.  Thank you so much for following, and a huge thank you to Dan BHTFC for allowing me to make this small alteration to his database for our challenge!

My First Day at a Club…Part One (Bristol Rovers FC)

Welcome back, friends!

I got into a nice discussion over Twitter yesterday regarding tactics with a new follower.  He had been having some troubles with his tactics, and had Wigan in 20th in the Premier League.  I learned that he took over Wigan mid-season, so he didn’t have a preseason to prepare his players to accept his methods.

I felt this would make a fine blog entry, and would provide a look at how I approach my first day at a club, especially considering I just had my first day at my new club, Bristol Rovers, and took over midseason!

The things you can setup before you hit continue for the first time can sometimes be the most important things you do at the club, so make sure you’ve set yourself up for future success before you hit continue!

After writing this piece I decided it would be two parts before I published it, so make sure to look out for Part Two! 🙂

Backroom Staff

The first thing I do is to look at my backroom staff and staff responsibilities.  Go through and make sure that all of your Staff Responsibilities are exactly where you want them as one of the first things you do.  Your club could be employing a director of football and he could currently be in charge of transfers, etc — get your club onside with how you want things to go IMMEDIATELY.

Since I am starting at the bottom of League 2, one of the biggest things you can do to improve your club is to make sure you have the best coaching staff possible.  As I’m sure we all know, when you take over a new position at a club, all members of your backroom staff will accept a mutual termination of their contracts, so if they do not fit into your plans you can get rid of them for significantly less than if you terminated a contract in the future.

The first move I made was to look at my assistant manager, and I found he simply wasn’t going to be someone who would make the grade.  Starting out with a manager who is 20 years old with little to no knowledge of England, there were very few options available for staff.  Here’s a look at our now former assistant Marcus Stewart, who we offered a mutual termination to leave Bristol Rovers FC:

Marcus Stewart

As you can see from the highlights, the most important attributes for an assistant are Judging Player Ability and Potential, and Man Management.  Obviously, he suffers greatly in these areas, even at this lower level of football.  I also look for assistants with a decent amount of tactical knowledge as well — as they are the ones who give you advice during a match.  If your assistant doesn’t understand tactics, he can’t really read a game very well and his instructions will often be poor.

For coaches of any kind, you are ideally looking for Determination, Level of Discipline, and Motivating as they are hallmarks of any good coach and part of how FM rates your coaching.  If you’re at a lower level, though, sometimes you just have to make sacrifices for what you need, rather than what you want.   Obviously, in a perfect world your assistant would be someone who could get the best out of players on the training pitch as well, but this isn’t a perfect world, it’s League Two.

He hasn’t confirmed his arrival at the club yet, but we feel we found a much needed upgrade at the assistant spot in Steve Watson:

Steve Watson

He isn’t amazing, by any means — but he’ll be the first person on the coaching staff we can look to for player analysis and actually get a decent response (14/14 JPA/JPP.)  His tactical knowledge bump of 8 points over the outgoing Stewart is also big.

I didn’t make any other moves on my coaching staff for the time being, as I need to acquire more knowledge of staff from around the world — but if you have the resources and can find better staff, do it before you hit continue.

Tactics

Probably the most difficult thing when joining a club mid-season is installing your style of play.  You’ve had no chance to recruit “your guys” and you are left trying to make a quality dinner out of the ingredients the previous chef left you.  But, you’re taking over mid-season, so in most cases either those ingredients were garbage, or the guy before you couldn’t cook… so you’re in a bit of a pickle.

In my case with the new Bristol Rovers save, I’m in more than a bit of a pickle.  I’m propping up League Two and I’m on 13 points through 20 fixtures when I am introduced as manager.  I’m here to put out fires, not possibly create more — at least for the time being.

The first thing to do is check out your Team Report and the Tactics analysis located in your Tactics screen, which will give you analysis as to what formations the team used, what they were good against, and what they were bad against.  You can really dig into the analysis and come up with an idea of what they were playing.

Team Report
Tactical Analysis

However, the best way I find to see what tactics your new players are knowledgeable about is to go into the Tactics creator while it is still a blank slate, and hit “Create New Tactic” and go through and look and see the level of fluidity you are given with each formation.  It will take you about 5 minutes, but then you have no more questions about which formations your players know and do not know.  Obviously, if there are unlisted formations that you are comfortable with, you can move the shirts on the tactics pitch and check those shapes as well.  You’re strictly checking level of familiarity at this point.

Once you’ve found something they are fairly comfortable with, still keep everything else a blank slate but start turning on Team Instructions one at a time and checking what they do to your tactical fluidity.  For instance, go in and click “Stay on Feet” and go and check the fluidity.  Did it raise or drop?  Then check the other option “Get Stuck In” and check the fluidity.  Finally, check with neither instruction selected.  This will give you a great idea as to what your predecessor was teaching your players, as you can do this for every instruction.  Even if you never plan on using any of these instructions, it pays to take the 5 minutes and find out how your players were being instructed.

I advise using a notebook, maybe even two, but I’m a strange OCD kind of fellow.  But after having done those two tactical steps, I have a small list of shapes the team could be comfortable with, and I generally know what instructions I could give that they would be fluid with or would have to completely relearn.  (Changing a team’s passing style or closing down methods mid-season can be a recipe for disaster, just as an example.)  My other notebook is what my evaluations tell me would be my best two for each position on the pitch, it just makes for easier comparisons when combined with the FM screen.  Or I’m just a freak, your call. 😉

You don’t want to try to re-invent the wheel overnight.  In 90% of the cases that you are taking the reins mid-season, you are in trouble.  Try to solve one or two of the most glaring areas and get yourself on the right track, and just meet your expectations for the season so you keep yourself in a good light with your board.  The time for major tactical overhauls and big transfer swoops is in the summer and a full preseason, not when you’re trying to save your club’s blushes. (This doesn’t mean I won’t try to be active in the market as I took over on December 11th… but most likely it’ll be the loan market or trying to sell deadwood.)

Once I have an idea what type of football my club would be comfortable playing, I then will setup one or two tactics to be trained. In a rescue situation such as this, I try to get one tactic as close to fluid as possible before starting another, but your training methods and situation may vary. In this case, I’m using two but I’ll explain why below.

One thing that I discovered as far as tactics in last season’s version is that it is a very good idea to have a tactic fully fluid with a shorter passing style and one fully fluid with a direct passing style. I found it very useful for in-game adjustments last season where I could play whatever style I wished for the game and could switch between passing styles with the confidence that my players were 100% proficient in both styles. Obviously, having the mixed style to full fluidity is nice as well and I think it is often overlooked. Especially for those of you that will listen to your assistant’s advice “We should advise our players to adopt a more direct form of play” — that’s great, but are your lads proficient in direct passing styles?

My players were actually fairly technically proficient, so I have them training both a counter tactic and a control tactic, but those are personal choices. I’m currently playing a four-man back line, three in central midfield (CM/D, AP/A, B2B/S from left to right) with a winger on the left and an inside forward on the right with a lone striker who is a defensive forward.

My Current Tactic – Note the Fluidity First Day on the Job!

I’ll go into more detail on my own players and my future vision in subsequent posts, but this was already getting long and I just wanted to provide you readers with a visual aid for now.  I will definitely be extending this to a second part as there are a lot of other things to consider on the first day on the job to set you up for future success, but this is a solid start towards getting things on the right track!

I would like to thank Cleon of http://sisportscentre.com for changing the way I analyze football games, and I must admit I’ve been using his methods of at least watching at least the first 15 minutes of every fixture in order to better understand tactical play — and hopefully provide better content for you readers in the long run. (I’ve actually watched the full 90 on several occasions since my wife gave me the game for Christmas.) 😉

Part Two should be out in the next day or so, make sure to check this space!

Thanks as always for following American Werewolf Football! 😀

You’re Hired! Bristol Rovers FC! — The Ultimate Manager Challenge

On December 11th, 2015 we received an email from Bristol Rovers FC, and our career and this challenge is now off and racing!

As you can see, we are bottom of the table when we take over, but they did win their last game under the previous manager, Darrell Clarke.

Our only mandate for the season is to avoid relegation, and as we are in League Two, only two teams get relegated.  We have only 13 points after 20 fixtures, but we are only seven points from safety with 26 matches to go.

I need to have a look at the backroom and playing staffs before doing anything, and see what I can come up with tactically… but I think I will break that into a few parts here before we get rolling on a normal update pattern.  Taking over a club midseason is one of the hardest things to do in Football Manager, in my opinion, so I’ll try to focus in a little bit on my process.

I am sure there will be some sorts of changes, as 13 points from 20 matches is absolutely unacceptable.  We must stop the rot and begin to acquire points.

I will keep you posted after I’ve had a look at my surroundings, and thank you as always for following American Werewolf Football!  GO ROVERS! 😀

Stevenage F.C. — 2020/21 Season (FM15)

                                                   Competitions     |     Manager Profile

Welcome back, Boro fans!  While it is yet another year without silverware that qualifies for the Ultimate Manager Challenge, I can’t help but be proud of our club’s accomplishments this season, and as a whole.  We continue to make credible progress towards being a big and great club, and all of our hard work feels as if it will start paying off in silverware very soon!

The media personalities and pundits felt we would solidify and consolidate in the Premier League, staying up for sure, but coming in at a disappointing 14th.  At the beginning of the campaign, the board would have been more than happy with a mid-table finish and making sure we continued to be financially prudent.

Instead, the lads challenged for a Champions League spot all campaign long, probably partially due to the fact that our cup performances were absolutely atrocious this season, as we crashed out of both the Capital One Cup and the FA Cup at the first time of asking.  We qualified for a Europa League berth fairly early, but it went down to the final day of the season, with Tottenham handling their business and forcing us to the Third Qualifying Round.  This was still an obvious success for us, as a Top-7 finish in our first year of Premier League play has to be viewed as a decent job.  Doing it on the lowest wage budget, spending less than half of what our next closest competition spent, and with the 2nd lowest net transfer spend, just feels very, very solid.

Ed Smits has continued to stay on loan, and will be staying at least through next season, but his loan fee is getting prohibitive — but Manchester United know as well as we do what they have, and that is a world class centre forward.  When I check with my talent evaluators, some days he’s world class, some days he’s a leading player for the Premier League.  He had a couple minor knocks, but he’s right there at that world class level now, and has starting banging in goals as a full international for Holland now, so the word is out on the young Dutchman.

Speaking of young Dutchmen, we also found another stud of a player in young Theo Huisman, a left back we got for a steal off the transfer list at PSG.  We paid only £1.9M for him from PSG, and his value has already tripled to over £6.5M and he is also now viewed as a world class full back.  We got a great season out of Michael Folivi, who again scored 20 goals, but my staff feel he has peaked as a player.  He’s still decent-to-good for the Premier League, but we have to begin to look for competition if not a flat-out replacement in the future.

The club accomplishments moved us up the reputation and the “rich list” with us now coming in as the world’s 25th most valuable club.  The club was worth between 600 and 800K when I began my tenure, and Stevenage F.C. is now worth £358M at last look, with absolutely zero debt — and that includes purchasing a renovated and expanded Broadhall Way, which while it still only has a capacity of 12,500, has almost doubled in size.  Owning the stadium will allow us to renovate, expand, and profit off of our stadium, so I felt it was very important to get it done as soon as possible.  We are now viewed as a rich club, and we have over £25M in the balance.

Facility upgrades have been frequent and ongoing.  One youth facility upgrade finished already at the start of the new season, and we have both a youth and a senior team facilities upgrade finishing this December as well.  As of right now (September 2021), our training facilities our Impressive, our youth facilities are Good — and again, both of those have another further upgrade finishing in less than 90 days.  We also now have an Established youth recruitment network and Exceptional junior coaching, and have actually started producing academy players with a real chance.  16-year-old Wayne Richards may be the first fruit of our upgraded academy, as he is seen as having the potential to be a leading attacking midfielder in the Premiership.  We’ve also produced a few other youths that could be solid in the last season and a half, but the work is just now starting to bear fruit, and its something to watch for in the future.

That is, if my future winds up being at Stevenage.  I declared interest in both the open Manchester jobs at the end of this season, with Manchester United being so flattered by my declaration of interest that I went as far as to actually apply while still being employed at Stevenage.  They didn’t fire me (how do you fire a club legend?) but United wound up giving the job to Hamza Hamzaoglu after firing Roy Keane.  Hamzaoglu had some success with Galatasaray, winning 3 Super Leagues between 2014 and 2018, but won nothing at Roma between 2018 and 2021 before being given the United job.  The hiring didn’t make a ton of sense to me, and the early returns for the next campaign do not bode well for Hamza OR United… they may rue the day they gave the job to another man.  The City job went to Jose Mourinho, and obviously I don’t have much to say about that hire, especially since after he left Chelsea he led Spain to a World Cup, so his CV is awfully impressive. 😉

But, for now, we stay at Stevenage and start looking to make serious runs at silverware that counts for this challenge.  I’ve also added Germany and France as playable in case things go well (or badly) in a hurry, as I want to stay in the big European leagues for the start of my career.  I just think it will help greatly with reputation issues down the road and even though it may take a little longer to get silverware rolling, I think it will help keep it rolling in down the road.

We’ve advanced to the Group Stage in the Europa League and have started solidly in our Group, and we are again challenging for the Champions League places early in the next season. Also, even though he is also a left-back, I couldn’t help but add another world class one in Angel Blanco.  I’m of the opinion that if you have a chance to land a world class player at a true bargain, you get that player and you sort it out later.  We also signed our first truly “veteran” player in a 32-year-old Theo Walcott — both to add to our attacking options as he still has blinding pace — but mainly for leadership and mentoring of younger players.  Even after his release from Arsenal, he’s more than worth the wages.

We also made our first truly “big-money” deal, as we signed England’s #1 goalkeeper, Gary Groombridge, away from Chelsea.  He had become unhappy with the Blues, and even though he was still very expensive, he was an undoubted upgrade and cheaper than he would ever be again as I was lucky enough to have him unsettled.  Klopp finally gave in, and we got our man.  Not that Klopp cares, with four straight Prem titles to add to his CV, not to mention a Champions League along with many other nice trophies. 🙂

We hope you will keep following our progress, and, as always, thank you for reading American Werewolf Football!

2019/20 World Competitions and Awards Update (FM15)

2019/20 World Competitions Update
Top Domestic Leagues

Barclay’s Premier League: Chelsea, City, United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Newcastle
Three straight for Jurgen Klopp’s Chelsea, with Newcastle being this campaign’s surprise package in qualifying for the Europa League.

La Liga: Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia
Finally, a huge shake-up at the top as Real’s run of five straight titles has ended, and Atletico has fallen from the podium places.  (Spain has now been loaded for play, beginning 2021)

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich, Dortmund, FC Schalke 04
It’s not even fair anymore, as Bayern win their eighth straight Bundesliga.  Schalke has revived to knock Leverkusen out of the podium places.  I do feel it is important to note, that during this eight-season run, Bayern has failed to make even a UEFA Champions League Final, much less win it.  (Germany has now been loaded for play, beginning 2021)

Serie A: Juventus, Inter, Napoli
That is now five straight for The Old Lady, and three straight runner-up performances for Inter.  Napoli has joined the revolving door for second-best-loser.

Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique Marseille, AS Monaco FC
It is almost getting silly with Ligue 1 and the Bundseliga, as both now have the same champion for eight seasons straight.  OM and Monaco flipped places this season.  PSG was close to the same indignity as Bayern until they lost in the UEFA Champions League Final this season, their first appearance in the Final in this save.

Eredivisie: Feyenoord, FC Twente, Ajax
Another long-time repeat champion, as the Dutch giants Feyenoord claim their sixth straight piece of league silverware.

South African Premier: Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, Sundowns
Three out of four of the last championships have gone to the SA titans.  Pirates always still give a good run, and Sundowns make the podium for the first time since 2015.

Hyundai Olibank K League Classic: Suwan, Jeonbuk, Chunnam
A major shakeup on the South Korean podium provides some variety for us.  Suwon makes the podium with their first podium finish, not to mention title, in this save.  Ulsan spends a season in freefall.

2019/20 World Competitions Update
Club Continental Championships

UEFA Champions League: Real Madrid over Paris Saint-Germain — Leverkusen, Barcelona — Semis
UEFA Europa League: AS Monaco FC over Tottenham Hotspur — FC Schalke 04, Valencia — Semis
Asian Champions League: Okayama FC over Al-Shabab (KSA) — Saitama UTD, Al-Jazira (UAE) — Semis
African Champions League: Kaizer Chiefs over Zamalek — ES Tunis, Al-Ahly — Semis
CONCACAF Champions League: Monterrey over America (MEX) — D.C. United, Chivas — Semis
Copa Libertadores: San Lorenzo over Boca — Velez, Cruz Azul — Semis
FIFA Club World Cup: Real Madrid over San Lorenzo — Melbourne City FC, Monterrey — Semis

2019/20 World Competitions Update
International Tournament Updates

UEFA Euros: Croatia over England (1-0) — Italy, France — Semis
Asian Cup of Nations: Next Held 2023
Copa America: Next Held 2023
Gold Cup: Next Held 2021
African Cup of Nations: Next Held 2021
FIFA World Cup: Next Held 2022
FIFA Confederations Cup: Next Held 2021

2019/20 World Awards Update

FIFA Ballon D’Or: Lionel Messi — (J. Rodriguez, L. Suarez)
World Golden Ball: Lionel Messi – (L. Suarez, J. Rodriguez)
Best Player In Europe: Lionel Messi – (E. Hazard, A. Robben)
European Golden Boy: Julian Etcheverry (Toulouse FC)
UEFA Golden Boot: Federico Bonazzoli — (J. Etcheverry, R. Lewandowski)

World Team of the Year: M. Neuer, P. Lahm, M. Hummels, E. Mammana, J. Gaya, J. Rodriguez, P. Pogba, M. Odegaard, M. Kovavic, C. Ronaldo, L. Messi, J. Rulli, E. Can, A. Perez, L. Suarez, G. Higuain, J. Boateng, D. Costa

—–
A very interesting year, and there is definitely some fun things being seen throughout the save that we can take a short look at!

Lionel Messi’s Ballon D’Or award is now his eight overall counting this save, and he has now won five of the last six from this save, with the lone award he didn’t win going to Isco.  No one has ever taken the World Golden Ball from Leo in this save, either, with him now winning six straight.  So much for that Leo/CR7 debate, at least in this world.

Bonazzoli parlayed his amazing skills winning the Golden Boot, mainly with Sampdoria, into a big-money move to Arsenal in the BPL, with his transfer costing £32.5M up front, with addons taking it to £49.5M.  They are currently viewed as the richest club in the world, though, so they can afford it.

England continued their strong showings in international tournaments with another runner-up finish in the 2020 Euros.  After shocking the world with their World Cup Final appearance and loss to Spain in World Cup 2018, the English have now moved to be viewed as the #1 side in the World Rankings, even with the loss in the final to Croatia at Euro 2020.  Gary Cahill captained the team in both the 2018 and 2020 runs, and has just retired the captaincy along with announcing his retirement from soccer at the end of this season at his club, CSKA Moscow, where he has played since leaving Chelsea in June of 2019.

Wayne Rooney, for those interested, was not included in the 2018 World Cup squad, and was released from Manchester United in June of 2019, and never played for another club before announcing his retirement.

The England captaincy has now been passed to Jordan Henderson, who is still captain of Liverpool, with his vice-captain being Harry Kane of Tottenham.

Thanks as always for following American Werewolf Football, and we’ll see you at the conclusion of the September transfer window to let you know how Stevenage FC did in their maiden Premier League voyage! 🙂

Stevenage F.C. – 2019/20 Season (FM15)

All Competitions   |   Profile One   |   Profile Two

The hard work is really beginning to show through, and the 2019/20 season will be looked at as the year our club turned the corner and really began to establish itself in the English game.  The Boro won the Sky Bet Championship by a comfortable margin, with our lads having the league clinched with four fixtures to play, and scoring over a century of goals for the first time in club history.  We also made another cup final, this time the Capital One Cup, but again we were found wanting in a cup final — this time by Jurgen Klopp and his dominant Chelsea side.

Obviously, the biggest takeaway is that we have made it to the Promised Land of the Barclay’s Premier League, and the financial bonanza that it entails!  We were led to glory by the leading scorer in the Championship in the young Dutch wonderkid Ed Smits (on loan from Man United), whose 32 goals led the Championship — and Championship Player of the Year Michael Folivi (on loan from Watford), who had 25 goals and 13 made in the league with an league-leading average rating of 7.72, which was a Sky Bet Championship record.  We also wouldn’t have done it without our Supporters Player of the Year, Andreas Pereira.  Pereira scored 12 goals, but his 19 assists led the Championship, and his 7.63 average rating in the league would have most likely secured him Player of the Year in most seasons.

They don’t get a ton of credit, but I wanted to take a moment and give some recognition to my main back five for this season.  Goalkeeper George Long was absolutely crucial in a lot of games, and left-back Kyle Walker-Peters, center-halfs Domingo Mateos and Coll Donaldson, and right-back Norman Webb (on loan from Arsenal) were absolutely fantastic all season, helping push us to an amazing +63 goal-differential.

Our meteoric rise has also shown my manager to advance a lot on a personal level, as he was awarded with his first Manager of the Year award, and is now viewed as a club legend at Stevenage FC!  I also completed the last of my coaching badges this season, and with the league win and strong cup showing, my reputation is now Continental.  Our club is now valued at £105M with only £3.7M in net debt, which is nearly all from the upgrades to bring Broadhall Way up to the required standard of the top flight.

Staying with my club philosophy, we did make a major player sale in the offseason, as we had a side ready to meet Kyle Walker-Peters £13.5M release clause.  He was only valued as a £5M player at the time of his sale, and the deal had a clause guaranteeing us 25% of his next sale, so it was a very good deal for the club, and would have been accepted — release clause or not.  I was able to bring in what I feel is a capable replacement in young Dutchman Theo Huisman, who was transfer listed by PSG, for a very fair price of £1.9M.  We also purchased long-time loanees Harry Donovan and Michael Folivi with a bit of our newfound bounty.  I felt the deal for Folivi was an extremely good one as strikers are nearly always overvalued, and we got him for less than his value after a season like the one he had.  Folivi is touted in the media as the next Wayne Rooney, and if he delivers on that promise, we are sure to be able to consolidate in the Premier League.

We were also able to keep Smits on loan for at least one more season, as one of our two allowed domestic loan deals.  Those two leading our line give me a lot of hope for our first campaign in the big show — and indeed, we have started the new campaign top of the table after 3 matches, with 7 points taken from our first three fixtures.  We did crash out of the Capital One Cup at the first time of asking — but that is for next season’s update. 🙂

For now, we hope you will wish us luck in the Premier League, and we thank you as always for following American Werewolf Football! 🙂

2018/19 World Competitions and Awards Update (FM15)

2018/19 World Competitions Update
Top Domestic Leagues

Barclay’s Premier League: Chelsea, Arsenal, City, United, Liverpool, Tottenham
Chelsea wins for the second straight season, but miss out on a great double as United beat them in the Champions League Final at the San Siro.

La Liga: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico
That makes five in a row for the Madrid galacticos, as the top 3 in the table remain the same for the third consecutive year.

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich, Dortmund, Leverkusen
That makes seven straight for the Munich dynasty… as you’ll see below, who will end first, Bayern or Paris Saint-Germain?  Dortmund gets back near the top here…

Serie A: Juventus, Inter, Roma
Four in a row for Juventus with Inter second again.  Roma knocks Fiorentina off the podium this time.

Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain, AS Monaco FC, Olympique Marseille
The same podium as last season as PSG also make it seven straight.  Who do you think will lose their domestic title first, PSG or Bayern Munich?

Eredivisie: Feyenoord, FC Twente, Ajax
Twente and Ajax flip podium positions, but they can’t keep five in a row from Feyenoord!

South African Premier: Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates, Wits
That now makes two in a row for Chiefs!  SuperSport United finished 8th after getting back in the league from their surprising relegation.

Hyundai Olibank K League Classic: Ulsan, Jeonbuk, Sangju
Two in a row for Ulsan as Sangju displaces Jeju from the third spot on the podium.

2018/19 World Competitions Update
Club Continental Championships

UEFA Champions League: Manchester United over Chelsea — Juventus, Bayern — Semis
UEFA Europa League: Borussia Dortmund over Roma — Napoli, Ajax — Semis
Asian Champions League: Ulsan over Al-Jaish (QAT) — Pohang, Al-Hilal (KSA) — Semis
African Champions League: Zamalek over Kaizer Chiefs — ES Tunis, Al-Ahly — Semis
CONCACAF Champions League: Chivas over Pumas — NYC FC, Sporting KC — Semis
Copa Libertadores: Velez over Pumas — River, Emelec — Semis
FIFA Club World Cup: Leverkusen over Santos Laguna — Velez, Giurare Yokohama — Semis

2018/19 World Competitions Update
International Tournament Updates

UEFA Euros: Next Held 2020
Asian Cup of Nations: South Korea over Iran, Qatar Third – Next Held 2023
Copa America: Uruguay over Brazil, Ecuador Third – Next Held 2023
Gold Cup: Jamaica over USA, Mexico Third – Next Held 2021
African Cup of Nations: Nigeria over Tunisia – Algeria Third – Next Held 2021
FIFA World Cup: Next Held 2022
FIFA Confederations Cup: Next Held 2021

2018/19 World Awards Update

FIFA Ballon D’Or: Isco – (L. Messi, J. Gaya)
World Golden Ball: Lionel Messi – (Isco, C. Ronaldo)
Best Player In Europe: Lionel Messi – (L. Suarez, M. Gotze)
European Golden Boy: Jesus Vallejo (Zaragoza)
UEFA Golden Boot: Giuseppe De Luca — (D. Berardi, M. Sau)

World Team of the Year: M. Neuer, P. Lahm, M. Hummels, S. Mustafi, D. Alaba, P. Pogba, A. Correa, L. Suarez, Oscar, C. Ronaldo, L. Messi, S. Sirigu, E. Can, R. Sterling, Neymar, M. Gotze, S. Ramos, R. Lewandowski

—–

Obviously, there have been a lot of repeat champions in the domestic leagues, but one thing of note outside of the international competitions that were held this year was that Lionel Messi finally relaxed his stranglehold on the Ballon D’Or, not that he was any slouch in still taking home the World Golden Ball and the Best Player in Europe along with his customary place in the World Team of the Year.

The United States had won the last Gold Cup, but Jamaica has really come on to dethrone them…and Nigeria has really come good as that is their second straight African Cup of Nations!

I always do the updates just after the January window starts of the next season, so hopefully the next time I see you fine folks we’ll be doing the dance of joy in the Promised Land known as The Greatest League on Earth (The Barclay’s Premier League.)  As of this writing Stevenage are four points clear in first place, and we’ve also had an amazing Capital One Cup run as we are currently in the Semifinal where we will face Swansea — and we have also already met expectations as we just knocked off Bournemouth to advance to the Fourth Round of the FA Cup.

Much to hopefully win, and now we must get back to it.  Thanks as always for following American Werewolf Football! 🙂

Stevenage F.C. – 2018/19 Season (FM15)

All Competitions   |   Profile One   |   Profile Two

While we were unable to come up with any silverware in our first season in the Sky Bet Championship, the lads of Stevenage F.C. still had a very successful season that they could be proud of.  The Boro was predicted by the media to finish 10th, slightly above mid-table, which also happened to be the expectations of the Stevenage board of directors.  When the dust had finally settled, we were 30 minutes shy of promotion, as we lost 3-2 at Wembley in the Championship Play-Off Final to Ipswich Town in extra time.  We finished in fourth position after a late-season run watched us catch all but the Top 3.

While it would have been an amazing accomplishment to have the team be promoted three seasons running, I’d only ever approached the season with views on consolidating in the Championship and working to be in the Premier League in two or three seasons.  I can’t lie and say it wasn’t disappointing to come up JUST short, but that’s football.  I could just smell a bad omen as the morning of the Final we got news that our young captain, full back Norman Webb (on loan from Arsenal), had sustained a broken shoulder in a training session and would miss five weeks.  He could have made it through the game with a course of injections, but as he was on loan this was not an option, and I don’t think I would have chosen it even had he been my fully-owned player.  Not with the nature of the injury, at least.

We met all of the expectations the board had set out for us, which included making the Fourth Round of the FA Cup, and the Third Round of the Capital One Cup.  We actually managed the Fourth Round in both competitions but they were not a priority.  It could have been an even greater season, but our strikers, especially young Ed Smits, really had a bit of a problem adapting to the Championship and goals were at an absolute premium throughout the first few months of the season. Smits did eventually find his shooting boots, netting 16 times on the campaign before it was all said and done.

Andreas Pereira, who we wound up being able to purchase for £30K from Manchester United near the end of his contract, won Supporters Player of the Year as he lead the Championship in assists with 12, adding 4 goals and 4 Man of the Match Awards on his way to a 7.09 average rating in 40 appearances.

Other players who made a true difference were Aaron Thorne (loan from Everton) and Michael Folivi (loan from Watford), who are being touted by the media as the next Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney, respectively.  We didn’t bring Thorne in until relatively late in the campaign, but he dazzled for us alternating between the number ten role and as an all-out striker.  He made only 16 appearances for the club but scored 9 goals and made 5 others, snagging three Player of the Match Awards to go with an average rating of 7.56 with the club.  Folivi faded near the end of the season, especially with Thorne’s emergence, but he still scored 6 and made 3 in 25 appearances, at a rating of 6.93.  Kyle-Walker Peters and Norman Webb were nearly undroppable as they were dominant for me rampaging forward from left and right back, respectively.

I am speaking to you from early September, just after the window closes for the 2019/20 season, and the club is in very decent financial position as we currently have just under £2M to the good in our balance, and very little club debt.  The only current debt we are carrying is £350K of the £400K loan that was taken out to turn our stadium into an all-seater upon our promotion to the Championship.  We have raised the number of season ticket holders to 2,925, and when we took over the club was barely selling 1,000 season tickets.  Our estimated club value is now £6.5M, with a total of £375K in debt all told with interest.  Much improvement, and we are also a three-star reputation club, which has our board absolutely delighted!  My history also shows that I have a positive £6.5M net transfer spend, so even though we’ve been roaring through the leagues up until now, we’ve been able to upgrade the youth facilities once, and we’re finishing a second upgrade in October.  I am currently employing 15 scouts and am allowed 5 more, but am still choosing to wait as I haven’t really found any more juicy candidates that I do not already employ, so I am waiting for more world knowledge there.

I am now aiming for promotion to the Premier League, and hoping to do it is as Champions.  The board expects me to challenge for the title and I have had no complaints with how we have been able to work together.  I just was able to renegotiate my contract, and they allowed me to ask for another increase to the payroll when I did it, to where we now have a wage budget of just over £175K per week, with about £30K available wages for me to add in the January window or through free transfers during this campaign.  I am very excited and very proud of my lads at The Boro, as because of our hard work I am now listed as a club “Icon” and hopefully before we’re through I’ll etch my name as their first club “Legend.”  With my one year extension, my contract now runs through 2022, and we are in September of 2019.  Here is hoping I can be well established in the Premier League and maybe starting to knock out some of the silverware we will need before we depart England.

Along with my contract extension, once we were given our funds for being in the Championship, I was allowed to begin work on my Continental “A” License, and we should finish that next offseason.  We’re looking towards hopefully having all possible coaching qualifications by the Summer of 2021 if all goes well, when I will be 27 years of age.  Offers for interviews and even for jobs themselves have come in as well, as I turned down the Australian National Team job, even though they were ranked 30th in the World Rankings, and I also turned down interviews at Blackburn, Wigan, Fulham and Leeds.  None of these positions except for the Australia post would have offered any upward mobility at all.  Undoubtedly more in the budgets on offer in a few of the other Championship jobs, but definitely not anything to make me uproot from what I’ve started here.

I did declare interest when the Arsenal and Man City jobs came available, along with Hull.  Hull laughed me off, but both Arsenal and City both seriously considered me, even though I never did get to an interview.  I have vowed to make Hull pay, though — they honestly should have been happy I even said I would be interested in their job…and they are paying for it now as after 3 matches in the new BPL season they sit dead-last in the table with 3 losses and a putrid -6 goal differential.  They will most likely go down and never have a chance at my services again. 😀

Thank you as always for following American Werewolf Football, and be on the lookout for the 2018/19 World Competitions Update over the next day or so! 🙂

2017/18 World Competitions and Awards Update (FM15)

2017/18 World Competitions Update
Top Domestic Leagues

Barclay’s Premier League: Chelsea, Arsenal, United, City, Norwich, Everton
Chelsea takes the title back, and Norwich and Everton surprise by getting into European spots.

La Liga: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico
Four in a row for the Madrid phenomenon, with the Top 3 of the table all holding firm in their spots.

Bundesliga: Bayern Munich, Leverkusen, Schalke 04
SIX Bundesliga titles in a row for Bayern.  It now seems so very long since Jurgen Klopp repeated at Dortmund.  Leverkusen breaks through and this becomes important later on…

Serie A: Juventus, Inter, Fiorentina
That now makes three straight for the Juve beast as Inter and Fiorentina break into the Top 3.

Ligue 1: Paris Saint-Germain, AS Monaco FC, Olympique Marseille
The question remains: Who will drop first, Bayern or PSG, as they also lift their sixth Ligue 1 trophy in a row!  Monaco breaks into the Top 3 and moves OM back a spot.

Eredivisie: Feyenoord, Ajax, FC Twente
More repeats, as that is now four in a row for Feyenoord.

South African Premier: Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs, Bloem Celtic
Pirates and Chiefs flip as Bloem Celtic finished 3rd again.  SuperSport United finished 8th after getting back in the league from their surprising relegation.

Hyundai Olibank K League Classic: Ulsan, Jeonbuk, Jeju

2017/18 World Competitions Update
Club Continental Championships

UEFA Champions League: Leverkusen over Dortmund — Barcelona, Benfica — Semis
UEFA Europa League: Arsenal over Napoli — Fenerbache, Inter — Semis
Asian Champions League: Giurare Yokohama over Al-Jazira (UAE) — Naft Tehran, Saitama UTD — Semis
African Champions League: Kaizer Chiefs over Zamalek — Wydad Casablanca, Orlando Pirates — Semis
CONCACAF Champions League: Santos Laguna over America — NYC FC, Sporting KC — Semis
Copa Libertadores: River over Deportivo Cali — San Lorenzo, Flamengo — Semis
FIFA Club World Cup: River over Man City — NYC FC, Orlando Pirates — Semis

2017/18 World Competitions Update
International Tournament Updates

UEFA Euros: Next Held 2020
Asian Cup of Nations: Next Held 2019
Copa America: Next Held 2019
Gold Cup: Next Held 2019
African Cup of Nations: Next Held 2019
FIFA World Cup: Spain over England, Third Place Brazil – Next Held 2022
FIFA Confederations Cup: Next Held 2021

2017/18 World Awards Update

FIFA Ballon D’Or: Lionel Messi – (Suarez, Tevez)
World Golden Ball: Lionel Messi – (Suarez, Ronaldo)
Best Player In Europe: Lionel Messi – (Suarez, Ronaldo)
European Golden Boy: Gabriel Barbosa
UEFA Golden Boot: Carlos Tevez — (F. Bonazzoli, C. Immobile)

World Team of the Year: D. De Gea, D. Carvajal, S. Ramos, M. Bartra, J. Gaya, Isco, Koke, L. Suarez, Oscar, C. Ronaldo, L. Messi, D. Alves, Marquinhos, J. Mata, A. Iniesta, F. Llorente, L. Digne, D. Costa

I’ll have another set of updates up shortly after this one, as I have already gotten through another season and am to my update point.  I just had been very interested in my season, as it wound up being very intense.  Thank you as always for following American Werewolf Football, and we’ll see you again very soon! 🙂