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An old face in a familiar place

The Newport County Dynasty
Started on 6 November 2010 by joannes3000
Latest Reply on 21 October 2011 by joannes3000
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I fully agree with both of you. The last time I took Newport to the doorstep of the Premier League I had a hard time dealing with the lack of financial muscle that we had compared to other teams. A perfect example is our stadium situation. I finally convinced the board to buy our current stadium, but now have to convince them to at least upgrade it before trying to build a new one altogether. We hit ~98% occupancy last season and were the only team to sell out our stadium (18 times) but that's because it's capacity is a paltry 4300. If we don't get that revenue stream up in a hurry, we will be facing a seriously uphill financial battle for the type of players that we need to compete at this level.
joannes3000's avatar Group joannes3000
14 yearsEdited
I think I'll start doing a quick update of things as I head into the season to help set up my annual reviews.

The offseason was another one of sweeping change on the pitch. I hate to do it because I'm a believer that a revolving door transfer policy makes things difficult. But I have to do it out of necessity. We've promoted three consecutive times now, and the only way we've been able to manage that is to quickly retool with talent that is comparable to the competition in front of us.

That said, I know I signed damn near a dozen new players before league play even began. Many of these signings are in my starting eleven. Off the top of my head, the only incumbent starters from last season are my GK and my two DCs. I upgraded everywhere else because I trust my 19 CA assistant manager's eye for ability and I set out to replace anyone that was rated 2.5 stars or lower, even if it meant relegating heroes of yesteryear to the bench, reserves, or worse. It's the price of progress.

With all of the new additions, and to pad our coffers, I set up friendlies every 4-5 days after my players got back from holiday and we were fortunate to get almost all of those games against premier league teams. That meant a cool ~70k profit for each game. We even managed to have a few of those games televised - one vs Chelsea and another vs Arsenal. It was pretty brutal at first with my players needing to shake the rust off from the holiday and being shorthanded because not all of our signings had taken place yet. It wasn't until the 3rd or 4th game that we had the semblance of a regular rotation. Then by the 7th game or so, everyone was in match shape and I was able to see what the squad could really do.

I took the results with a grain of salt because it's offseason friendlies, but we won more than our fair share of games vs premier league teams and drew a handful as well. The defense looked stout behind the leadership of center back Cameron Lindsay. Linsday has been attracting interest from some mid/lower level premier league teams since last season and I can only hope that we hold onto him for another season or two while we push for promotion. Our new fullbacks deliver the increased speed out on the wings that I was hoping for. While we didn't really need to upgrade at wide midfield, I didn't want my attacks to be cut short due to inept wing play so we brought on more speed and dribbling in those areas. We brought on a bigger playmaker to play alongside our holding midfielder as well.

Up front were the biggest changes, IMO. Leon Browne and his team-leading stats? Backup role. His strike partner Marcus Bent? On the reserves while I try to transfer him. Super backup Kerry Morgan? Also on the reserves, hoping that he accepts a loan offer somewhere. The reason for all of these changes is because we brought on a lot of talent up front. Not only did we manage to bring in two new starting strikers, but we also swooped up an immensely talented youngster. My best scouts (16 PA) agree that he has 4.5 star potential so I trusted their judgement and signed him. It was on the strength of that potential that I caved in during negotiations, compromising on a rotation role. My original hope was to sign him as a hot prospect and immediately loan him out. When negotiations began to break down, I gave in rather than risk losing out. Along with David Ball, I have a formidable strike partnership on paper and hopefully they will develop well under my training system.

First team
GK - same
DR - new
DCR - same
DCL - same
DL - new
MR - new
MCR - same
MCL - new
ML - new
STR - new
STL - new
joannes3000's avatar Group joannes3000
14 yearsEdited

Competitions
League Table




1st round 2-0 vs Exeter (League 1)
2nd round 2-1e vs Everton (Premier)
3rd round 2-1 vs Leeds (Championship)
4th round 2-1e vs Notts County (League 1)
Quarterfinal 1-4 vs Man City (Premier)


3rd round 4-1 vs Newcastle (Championship)
4th round 4-3 vs Leeds (Championship)
5th round 0-2 vs Wolves (Premier)

Transfers



Starting Eleven



Most Goals - Frederic Piquionne, 26
Most Assists - Jon Stead, 24
Highest Average Rating - Cameron Lindsay, 7.24

Summary

This season's results felt like a kick in the gut. Three straight seasons of promotion had me amped up to make it a fourth, which would have capped off an unbelievable run from the obscurity of lower level football to the Premier League. It wasn't meant to be, however. We played strongly enough to be within striking distance of the top 6 at the New Year. We were able to bring in former Premier League names like Shawn Wright-Phillips and Frank Lampard during the January window and I honestly thought that was going to be enough to push us up yet again.

A poor run of form saw us win only two games from late February to early April, however, and from there we had to scrap just to secure a playoff spot. We punched our ticket on the last day of the season and were set to match up against Leeds. We OWNED Leeds during the season, amassing a 3/1/0 record against them in league and cup play. And even when we fell behind 3-2 after the away leg, I felt very confident that we would defeat them in front of our home fans. We could only manage a draw, however, and just like that our season was over.

It's back to the drawing board next season and hopefully we can continue to build on our success. I don't anticipate a boatload of new signings this offseason unless we have a wealth of talent that becomes available. The board also surprised me with an announced stadium expansion that will nearly double our capacity. The expansion won't be complete for 10 months, but that added income will go a long way towards keeping our finances in order. Next year our young players will be a little bit better and if our veteran players can turn back the clock one more time, I think we can make a second consecutive run at promotion.
Nice going mate! 4th place in 1st season is really good but its shame that you didn't get promoted.
Compared to last season, the start of this season didn't feature much commotion on the transfer front. Partly because I felt a lot better about the talent of the starting eleven this time around. Partly because the board reduced my operating budget, and that's even when I told them that we'd achieve a midtable finish! Last season I had a budget of 190k p/w when I emptied out my transfer funds. This season I must work with 175k p/w.

The biggest additions, IMO, will be having SWP and Frank Lampard on board to start the season. I think their veteran presence will help the club from a leadership standpoint and I even named Lampard our team captain. He has only been with the club for half a season but his 20 rating in influence can't be ignored. Of the four total signings so far, two of them will be in my 7 man sub rotation and the other two are developmental projects.

I can understand the budget cut to some degree because of the improvements the board has made recently. To recap I have talked the board into improving the training facilities, buying our stadium, getting the pitch relayed, and they surprised me with a stadium expansion. I expect that once that expansion is complete I will see my budget at least go back to normal levels if not get bumped a little bit higher.

Just like last season, I loaded up on friendlies before the start of league play. We secured 5 of 7 games against Premier League teams to ensure strong numbers at the ticket gate. Unlike last season, however, we lost nearly every game we played. We got out of the offseason with no injuries and that's what counts. The only casualty is a tough one, though, with our starting keeper falling ill just days before the season begins. He will be out ~2 weeks.
Too bad you didn't get promoted, but after 3 promotions in a row, a 4th place isn't by far a bad result. In the 2nd and 3rd season, Norwich was your rival. This season they got relegated and you reached the playoffs. It shows everything.

Just one thing: the image you putted here of your transfers is the league table. It would be nice if you could place the right one.

Sorry for some english mistakes and good luck
# neryan : Too bad you didn't get promoted, but after 3 promotions in a row, a 4th place isn't by far a bad result. In the 2nd and 3rd season, Norwich was your rival. This season they got relegated and you reached the playoffs. It shows everything.

Just one thing: the image you putted here of your transfers is the league table. It would be nice if you could place the right one.

Sorry for some english mistakes and good luck

You bring up an interesting perspective regarding Norwich! They aren't one of our listed rivals, but they have definitely played that role when I was fighting for positioning at the top of the table.

And thanks for the heads up on the incorrect image. I changed it so the transfer window is now correctly showing. :)
heey, amazing progress ! It seems like you allways use the same tactics, if so, would you mind shering it with the rest of us ?
# l3nnart : heey, amazing progress ! It seems like you allways use the same tactics, if so, would you mind shering it with the rest of us ?

Absolutely! The majority of my tactical settings can be found in my blog - http://www.fmscout.com/i-1124-My-FM-Manifesto.html.
1
oh, never noticed it before... thanks man !
No real update here, but check this out.



21 fans in attendance? At an FA Cup game? Granted, Wingate & Finchley is in a league below the BSN/BSS and Gainsborough is only in the BSS, but man! 21 people? What's worse is that I checked on the stadium, and Wingate & Finchley has a stadium that can hold 8500!
So we hit the January transfer window in decent shape. My preseason prediction of a midtable finish is looking pretty accurate with us sitting in 8th place. I'm a little bit frustrated, however, because a constant rash of injuries has slowed down what was a torrid start to our season. We won every game in the month of August to start our campaign toward promotion but then a few nagging injuries started to set in. At first it wasn't bad because we have adequate depth. But then we started losing a couple of players at similar positions and we started losing games. As we started to get healthy we began to climb up the table, but now we're without the services of Cameron Lindsay while he's away on international duty. Losing our rock on defense has made things difficult but we're getting close to full strength.

When the board asked if I wanted to adjust my prediction, I declined. I felt like we could be true contenders for 1st or 2nd and an outright promotion, and at the very least we should be in the top 8 and get into the playoffs. That's when the whole team is healthy and accounted for, however. I chose to stay conservative and maintain my midtable prediction. I know in my mind, though, that it could likely be now or never for this group to earn promotion.

I had a lot of key players renew their contracts at much higher dollar figures. I have two of my veterans (Lampard, SWP) that will likely be relegated to reserve/mentor duty in a season's time. I have some important players that are wanting to play for bigger clubs. I know I can retool the team with new players if we don't promote this season, but it will be a whole lot easier if we can fight for a place in the Premier League instead.
I know how your feeling man, your better players wanting to leave and if you could just win promotion this season you can hold on to them, every season in the Championship feels like a crucial season to win promotion and its a real challenge if your a low rep team trying to keep your best players at the club. Actually, the Championship is probably my favourite and least favourite league. :/

Good luck with your promotion challenge mate, I often find I do better in the second half of the season, hope its true for you too!
Going into March, I was already facing the loss of one star striker with Jon Stead refusing to sign an extension with us and quickly working out a deal with Hearts instead. Then the bomb dropped when my other star striker, Petr Stochl, not only started complaining publicly about wanting to move to a bigger club but he also formally turned in a transfer request. To this point I had been able to pacify some of our better players by asking them to be a part of the building project at Newport but it didn't look like we could do it any longer.

Then in April our stadium expansion was completed. Our first home game was sold out and there must have been something magical about those 7000+ fans cheering on the team. We won the game and afterwards Petr Stochl asked that he be taken off the transfer list! This swing of events fired up the team and we played some of the strongest football I've seen all season. We grabbed 1st place from Newcastle's clutches and haven't let go yet. And with three games left in the season, we did it!

Nice going mate. Well done on your promotion.

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