Luton Town - The Path To Power

Hi guys!

Hi guys! This is my gazillionth fourth ever story on FM Scout. I decided to throw myself in to the deep end, once again, and attempt a Lower League Management challenge. The one team that caught my eye this time was Luton Town. After as much research as FM and Wikipedia allows, I decided that Luton Town was the right club for me. I promise that this story will last for more than ten seasons!

My Targets + Guidelines

My Aims:

• To reach the Football League
• To reach the Premier League
• To build a 30k+ capacity stadium (10.3k now)
• To build a 50k+ capacity stadium
• To lift the FA Cup trophy
• To lift the Premier League trophy
• To be crowned champions of Europe
• To become the best team in the world
• To win ten trophies (8 trophies now)
• To win fifty trophies
• To enter the Hall of Fame
• To top the Hall of Fame

My Guidelines:

• Upon arriving in the Premier League, I must focus on brining in young players to develop, rather than bringing in older players
• Once I have reached the Premier League, I will be working on creating a system for the club where youth players will thrive
• I must be able to keep my club's balance positive at all times
• I will not impulsively spend money on players
• Players must have played for the club for at least five seasons before being eligible for captaincy

Who is this guy? (Seriously, does anybody know?) For the sake of not breaking any copyrights, he shall be known as 'Man from internet'. But seriously, my manager for this story is a 25 year old Liverpudlian named Ryan Ferguson. A boy-hood Kopite with Spanish blood flowing through his veins, and plenty of Spanish beer, from his father's side, he has grown up in the midst of some of the most glorious rises to glory, and has dreamed of being a part of them. Unable to play football himself due to a freak accident involving a Russian mistress, a pair of garden shears, several alcoholic beverages, and his own ball-sack, Ryan Ferguson is slightly disabled. However, his dream still lives on and his determination cannot be wavered! Wearing his shiniest shoes, his best-pressed suit and his cleanest tighty-whities, Ryan Ferguson is ready to step out in to the world of football and hopefully have better luck in this ball sport!

Good start, will follow!

Good start, good luck man !

So glad you've made a story out of this! Will be following eagerly!

Title seems familiar, hopefully this story will be just as good (if not better) than Vauxhall!

Songs, bongs, thongs and schlongs; the story of my life so far, and I woke up with plenty of each surrounding me after yet another crazy night at Dave's. For some reason or another, I can never quite remember what had happened the night before, but I always know that something crazy had gone down the night before, and I've never came out of anything so well, apart from this time.

It took me a few minutes to figure out where I was, and even longed to realise that there were several naked women draped on top of me. 'At least I had scored,' I thought. After losing my nut-sack in a freak accident involving a beautiful, yet violent, Russian lady, my life has only gotten weirder. Myself and Lady Luck had a love/hate relationship, and she liked to abuse me. However, I did win the national lottery more than once, and I managed to regain my beautiful jewels, and be able to use them too!

What was I doing with my life? I had moved out of Liverpool when I was 19 and resided in London, where I am currently situated. I work a job at a local supermarket, and I spend all my free time ingesting alcohol, marijuana and female tongue. I usually forget everything which happens to me. However, this morning was not one to forget.

I limbered my way through the large pile of naked women and off of the bed, but with no idea where my pants were. It took me fifteen minutes of searching the room to locate my pants, and even longed to figure out which side was the inside. I left the bedroom and wondered in to the kitchen, where Dave and what looked like this massive telly-tubby were sitting down around the table smoking weed.

"Hey," I said.

"Alright Ryan, you look like shit!" replied a giddy Dave.

"F*cking hell, are you still smoking?" was my next line.

"Hell yeah man! You gotta try some of this shit, it's unreal!" replied Dave.

"I'll pass, I need to stay clean for today," I say as I begin to see double-vision, courtesy of the previous night's events.

*The phone rings*

"Putin is on the phone for you," squeaked the large telly-tubby.

"Oh shit, I forgot to send him the key file for the bomb!" I said in panic.

*I pick up the phone*

"Hello, Mister Putin!" I speak in to the phone.

"What? This is Gary Owen, managing director of Luton Town Football Club," replied a distinctly confused individual.

"Oh right, sorry, erm..... What was it you wanted?"

"That application to become our next manager which you sent in was rather impressive, your interview is at 3 PM tomorrow, please do not be late."

*Hangs up phone*

"What the fuck just happened?" I said with my jaw on the floor and confusion on my face.

I guess I was going to be a football manager!

---

*DISCLAIMER* Credits go to Tyler K for the epic telly-tubby picture, it was all his work

Previous Post: Opening Post
Next Post: Luton Town - A Brief Overview

awesome!!!! your story writing is back

Love your stories and i'm glad its another LLM

Hahaha quality update! Your story writing is flawless! Can't wait for the next update!

I have every faith in your ability to stick to this story....I think. Good luck.

So who are Luton Town FC? They are a Skrill Premier club founded in 1885 in Luton (naturally) which is just north of London, in south-east England. The club is nicknamed "The Hatters" due to Luton's (place) link with the hat-making trade since the early 1600's. The club was a top division team in the 80s but since the 90's, have been on the decline, weaving in and out of each of the Football Leagues before suffering three straight relegations from 06/07 to 08/09 to land in the Conference Premier (now called Skrill Premier).

The club is one of the very few Conference sides to have Professional status, and they play their football at the historical Kenilworth Road, which is a 10,300 all-seater stadium. Luton Town had adequate training facilities, poor youth facilities and are in the Youth Setup Category 4. However, due to the club hosting 5,500+ in attendance at each home game, the club is able to have a very high control over their finances, and have a balance of approximately £1.5M, which I will show you at the end of each season.

My only outgoings are Jake Woolley and Matt Robinson to Stalybridge and Dover respectively on loan. It is invaluable that these two youngsters get first-team football to gain experience. The three signings I made have all been for my starting eleven, and they have proven to be key players. I brought Jake Caprice in on loan on the advice of my assistant manager, although I soon terminated the loan on discovery of how poor a player Jake Caprice is. Overall, I am happy with the transfers I made, and they have left me with over £3k left in my wage budget, was is very good.

No. Name - Position - Age - CA/PA

Goalkeepers

1. Alan Martin - GK - 24 - 3.5/4.5

31. Mark Tyler - GK - 36 - 2/2

Defenders

25. Ronnie Henry (C) - DR - 29 - 3.5/3.5


43. Pelly Ruddock - DC - 19 - 4/5

6. Kévin Malaga - DC - 26 - 3.5/3.5

2. Fraser Franks - DC - 22 - 3/3

14. Andy Parry - DC - 22 - 2.5/3.5

30. Alex Lacey - DC - 20 - 2/3.5


12. Scott Griffiths - DL - 27 - 3.5/3.5

20. Lathaniel Rowe-Turner - DL - 23 - 2/2.5

24. Jernade Meade - DL - 21 - 2/4.5 (on loan from Swansea)

Midfielders

29. Kane Ferdinand - DM/MC - 21 - 4.5/5 (on loan from Peterborough)

21. Luke Guttridge - MC - 31 - 4/4

4. Jonathan Smith - MC - 27 - 3/3

7. Alex Lawless - MC - 28 - 2.5/2.5

8. Solomon Taiwo - MC - 28 - 2.5/2.5

28. David Vianna - MC/AMC - 21 - 2.5/4.5


22. Shaun Whalley - AMR - 26 - 2/2


19. Cristian Montaño - AML - 19 - 3.5/4.5

18. David Martin - AML - 28 - 2/2

Strikers

26. Paul Benson - ST - 34 - 3.5/3.5 (on loan from Swindon)

13. Mark Cullen - ST - 21 - 2.5/4.5

15. Jon Shaw - ST - 29 - 2.5/2.5

27. Andre Gray - 22 - 2.5/4

---

Looking at the squad, it is very, very strong for a Skrill Premier team, and we should be clinching promotion this year. There are some players on ridiculously high wages which they do not deserve. I will be looking to clear out the deadwood over the next two/three summers, and bring in fresh talent who will help us to soar to the Premier League as quick as possible. As you can see from the many, many screenshots, I am already in November in this save. In my next update, I will explain the tactic(s) which I am using, and outline what I have planned for Luton Town.

I hope that this introduction was enjoyable to read. My apologies if my story-writing technique is not up to scratch, I'm not the most talented of writers here like Nick, Josh_MU, Neal, Pauker, etc., are, but I do write this for my own enjoyment, and that is all I want; to enjoy this story. Hopefully you can all enjoy it too!

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Previous Post: Hello, Mister Putin!
Next Post: Tactics & Targets Talk

Very detailed and a very nice layout out! Thank you for classing me as a 'talented writer' haha Keep at this man, already really enjoying it.

"not the most talented of writers", oh stop!
Other than the incredibly familiar name and, to a lesser extent, introduction, it's good to have a Justice_96 story on this site again And anyway, if it's anything like your older ones it's bound to be a classic.
Good luck, bla-de-bla, remember to abuse Andre Gray in any way possible.
Any.
Anyway, I'm sure you'll be handing out plenty of Fraser Fanks to me throughout this story

Fluidity: Balanced
Mentality: Standard

This standard 4-4-2 tactic will be what I use for the first few seasons. I do not believe my players to be intelligent enough to utilise a more complicated tactic, and this one also offers stability in defending, and in attacking. The focus in this tactic is keeping the shape. It is important for my players to be in the correct position when needed, and this is what this tactic is all about.

Considering the strong strike-force which I have at my disposal, my only concern is on my defensive play. Keeping goals conceded to a minimum is the aim for me and that is what I am looking to accomplish with a flat back four, a defensive ball winning midfielder and a deep line. My players mark opponents tightly and hassle them for the ball to put them under pressure to force an error.

If we can keep the ball, we can control the game. This was my aim with shorter passing and focusing on retaining possession. We will use our wide players as passing points when needed and aim to get the ball to one of our two front men. If we can move the ball well, we can create many chances.

So yes, this was a very brief explanation on this tactic. Once I feel my team is intelligent enough, perhaps once we reach the Championship, I will look to upgrade my tactics for this team. I do have a certain system in mind, which many of you may know about; my Brendan Rodgers System, which has amassed over 18,000 downloads to date. However, I will consider what type of football I would like my team to play when the time for a change comes. Enough about tactics, let's talk about what my targets are.

Step One: The first step, naturally, is to earn promotion to League 2 this season. Promotion is a must if the club is to keep moving forward. We need to earn promotion to keep our professional status, financially speaking, and to increase our reputation. We certainly have the squad and facilities to earn promotion. If we don't get promotion this season, our path to power will only grow harder. However, I do have complete faith in my squad to achieve promotion this season, and maybe even clinch the Skrill Premier title!

Step Two: Step two, for me, is to get to the Championship within three seasons of reaching League Two. This means that I only want to spend three seasons in total in League Two and League One. I certainly believe that two promotions in three seasons is very much possible, and with the financial strength which Luton Town already has, signing the quality players which we will need for each season should not be a problem at all.

Step Three: Once I reach the Championship, I want it to take just two seasons to earn promotion to the Premier League. Once again, money will make a huge difference for us, and we will have plenty of it to spend once we are in the Championship. I believe that with the right tactics and the right players, promotion from the Championship to the Premier League, within two seasons, is very achievable.

Step Four: My fourth step is to become a force in England and be able to battle for honours on all fronts. This means spending money on players good enough to take us to the European stage and, eventually, to win the Premier League title. A lot of money will need to be spent, but I have no doubt in my mind that the board will be gracious with the budgets which they will set. To go from being a new Premier League club to being a title chaser, I will give myself five seasons. It will be difficult, no doubt, but the Premier League is where dreams can happen, and I want to make my dreams a reality.

Step Five: This is my final step, and my most important one. There is no end to this step, and it will continue until the end. Once my team is a title-chasing team, my next step is to create a club with high-spec training and youth facilities and a top-notch stadium, with a huge fanbase and is making a massive profit each year. I will only focus on developing young players and bringing through the system in to the first team squad. I believe that if you develop your own youngsters, they will play better for you.

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Well, there you have it. You know how my team will play for the first few seasons, and you know what I have planned for the club. My next update will straight in to the season, describing how our competitive matches have gone from August to October, and what we have ahead of us.

I know I haven't responded to any of the comments so far, and shame on me for doing so! I would like to express my gratitude to everybody who has read this story so far, and I would like to thank all those who commented as you have all motivated me to keep going! I hope that I won't disappoint any of you, I hope you stick along on what will be a crazy journey!

Previous Post: Luton Town - A Brief Overview
Next Post: Season One: August-October Update

You better not disappoint.