Leamington - 2026/27

Nice to see you had a chance to get Ennis to your club, I'll scout him in my game!

FMM Story
S3E4 – November-December 2022
(Leamington FC, League Two)



I started November with another Job offer, this time from Leyton Orient, who sit last in League Two. Most of the job offers I get nowadays fall into this rather insulting category, being clubs doing considerably worse in the rankings than Leamington expecting me to up sticks from a promotion prospect and rescue them. Yet, I did hesitate on this one, because I do have an affinity for Leyton Orient due to a long FIFA06 playthrough I had with them back in the day. I also recently fired up LMA Manager 2006 and started a save with them, beating a Premiership top six side, Newcastle United, 3-0 in the friendlies. Of course, here, I said no, but I wouldn’t mind managing Leyton Orient if I suddenly find myself jobless – which I won’t any time soon, because we’re on fire.

(2 – 0) Burton Albion (H) L2 – M Fernandes (1), D Happe (1)
(3 – 0) Dover Athletic (H) FA1 – S Mengi (1), J Jones (1), J Tucker (1)
(1 – 3) Blackpool (H) PJG – C Urwin (1)



(4 – 0) Dagenham & Redbridge (A) L2 – N Ennis (2), R Griffiths (1), A Babos (1)
(3 – 0) Forest Green Rovers (H) L2 – N Ennis (1), L Gabidon (1), C Urwin (1)
(1 – 1) Barnet (A) L2 – S Mengi (1)
(3 – 0) Chesterfield (A) FA2 – L Gabidon (1), N Ennis(1)

Continuing our transfer policy of the last 18 months, I agreed some early January deals for 4 young lower league and non-league players, each costing exactly £5’000 each and adding depth at right-back and central, defensive and attacking midfield respectively. Given that our total squad numbers are now eking rapidly towards 40 plus, my plan is to start these players off with some training and mentoring in the Reserves team, using their performances, development and attitudes to assess their future first-team viability.

(4 – 2) Tranmere Rovers (H) L2 – C Urwin (1), N Ennis (2), R Griffiths (1)
(3 – 1) Wigan Athletic (A) PJ2 – M Fernandes (1), J Jones (1), R Griffiths (1)
(4 – 0) Northampton Town (A) L2 – L Urey (1), S Mengi (1), C Urwin (1), R Griffiths (1)
(2 – 0) Oldham Athletic (H) L2 – N Ennis (2)
(2 – 0) Leyton Orient (H) L2 – N Ennis (1), R Griffiths (1)
(2 – 0) Morecambe (A) L2 – S Mengi (1), R Drench (1)
(0 – 2) Leeds United (A) FA3 –

All in all, November and December were months marked by a tonne of goals, a solid defensive record, and some respectable progress in the various cups. Niall Ennis continues to outperform the standard of this league, and pacey young striker Russ Griffiths is starting to become a real impact player during his frequent substitute appearances. We reached the third round of the FA Cup for the second season in a row, and were subsequently dumped out of it by late goals from a Premier League side for the second season in a row too. Yet our performances are encouraging and our results in the league are putting the rest to the sword. I’m confident we can continue our healthy record.

In other news, England, naturally, went out to Holland in the quarter finals of the Qatari winter World Cup. I have decided I want to try my hand in international football, but I may have to build my reputation more after my first international application got rejected by Guinea-Bissau, a half-star African nation. Sobering.



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Replies

@Wolf, indeed. You could argue that if I didn't sell Ellison, I wouldn't need Ennis, but I don't think keeping Ellison was really sensible given what the club could do with a sum of that size. I'm glad Ennis has been firing.

@Justice, it's quite amazing what he's been able to achieve so quickly, both in goals but also a reasonable amount of assists.

@Tango, I figured out a little while ago that a good centre forward, whether that's an ST or AM (shadow striker), is worth even neglecting the other positions to get the right person in. Maybe it's a quirk of the game or something, but if you have a 20-30 goal striker, he's still gonna find a way to get 15-25 even with a sh*t squad.

now it comes to a point in which you carry the structure of the past divisions and will fly by Leagues Two and One

FMM Story
S3E5 – January-February 2023
(Leamington FC, League Two)



IN – £5’000 – Full Back, David Watmore from Spennymoor Town
IN – £5’000 – Defensive Midfielder, Kayne Redfearn from Gloucester City
IN – £5’000 – Central Midfielder, Tariq Harfield from King’s Lynn Town
IN – £5’000 – Attacking Midfielder, Ross Tumilty from Drumchapel United
IN – Loan – Winger, Jack Nolan from Gillingham

OUT – £300’000 – Winger, Chez Urwin to Crewe Alexandra

We started January with a real disappointment, literally losing Chez Urwin on a gamble. Crewe Alexandra offered £300’000 for the player, who we had bought for £7’000 just a few short months ago, and the player indicated he wanted to listen to their offer. I have rejected a few offers for players who expressed this desire, and on every occasion they have thrown a tantrum and upset the squad. I risked accepting the offer as, besides not begrudging the team I support a good player, I thought Urwin might reject it having only been with Leamington since the summer, but apparently not. Although I can console myself with the wheeler/dealer turnover, a £293’000 profit in 6 months, this spawned two annoyances – firstly, that we find ourselves short on the wing again, a hole hastily plugged by loaning Jack Nolan from Gillingham; and secondly, the bullsh*t of seeing Urwin’s value shoot up to £5’000’000 upon arrival at Gresty Road!

(1 – 0) Cambridge United (A) L2 – S Mengi (1)
(4 – 0) Yeovil Town (H) L2 – R Cole (1), J Jones (1), R Griffiths (2)
(0 – 0)) Crawley Town (H) L2 –
(5 – 0) Harrogate Town (H) L2 – S Mengi (1), R Drench (1), M Fernandes (2), A Babos (1)
(3 – 1) Oldham Athletic (H) PJ3 – J Nolan (1), N Ennis (2)
(1 – 1)) Scunthorpe United (A) L2 – J Jones (1)
(4 – 1) Stevenage (A) L2 – S Mengi (3), L Urey (1)
(2 – 0) Cheltenham Town (H) L2 – J Jones (1), R Griffiths (1)

The result at home to Cheltenham marked 100 wins as manager of Leamington FC. As January ended, we found ourselves 16 points clear with 14 games left, and having been awarded five Manager of the Month prizes in a row, my view at this time is that the season is basically over from a competitive standpoint. I, because of the strong position I could leave the club in, was tempted to apply for the vacant manager’s position at Dutch second-tier side MVV Maastricht; as mentioned previously, I do wish to leave England for a few seasons, and this felt like an ideal destination. I decided, however, that with the League Two trophy pretty much in the bag and a cup still left to chase, I wasn’t about to give up such plaudits on my record.

(3 – 1) Doncaster Rovers (A) PJQ – J Jones (1), J Bateman (1), R Griffiths (1)
(1 – 2) Colchester United (A) L2 – R Griffiths (1)
(1 – 0) Accrington Stanley (H) L2 – A Babos (1)
(3 – 0) Blackpool (H) PJS – J Tucker (2), S Mengi (1)
(3 – 2) Rochdale (A) L2 – L Urey (1), J Nolan (1), H Forster (1)
(2 – 1) Salford City (A) L2 – N Ennis (2)
(0 – 0) Wimbledon (A) L2 –
(5 – 0) Mansfield Town (H) L2 – J Jones (1), S Mengi (3), R Cole (1)



As expected, we secured our promotion well in advance of the end of the season; this took a lot of pressure off the first team, allowing us to give some debuts to the youngsters in the Reserves, namely Harley Brown, Kayne Redfearn and David Watmore. We have a great vein of young players coming through the ranks for the seasons ahead, and although I plan to leave sooner rather than later, this will hopefully set Leamington up for a bright future, even in my absence. Even with the great work I’ve put in at the club, I am resolved to leave Leamington by no later than the end of next season.

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Replies

@Tango, that's certainly the hope, though I'm not exactly sure where that leaves me in terms of getting out of the club. I'm not leaving a side which bumps my numbers up, and so if we can carry this form and the general structure of the team into 2023/24 in League One, then I'll be stuck in England!

I'd be impressed if it wasn't the mobile version. It is so easy on that thing lol do you not find it boring

FMM Story
S3E6 – March-April 2023
(Leamington FC, League Two)



I decided to reinvest the full sum from the sale of Chez Urwin, £300’000, on securing the services of Michael Fernandes on a permanent basis in the summer. Fernandes has been absolutely fantastic for us, with 17 goals and 15 assists in his first season, and approaching double figures for both again this year, as well as being one of the most highly rated players in the league this season. Wing players have always been in short supply for this team, as our tactic requires them to be “opposite footed” for their playing side. In this regard, Fernandes at least ticks a box in terms of squad depth, but he’s also a great performer who I’m sure will continue to excel at the club.

(1 – 0) Southend United (A) L2 – M Fernandes (1)
(3 – 0) Dagenham & Redbridge (H) L2 – L Urey (1), N Ennis (1), R Griffiths (1)
(0 – 1) Forest Green Rovers (A) L2 –

We had the opportunity to wrap up the league title against 2nd placed Forest Green Rovers, but although we dominated the match, FGR were able to snatch the three points to delay the inevitable and my early holiday. Niall Ennis, so reliably prolific this year, missed two clear chances, and in the 89th minute, his substitute replacement Russ Griffiths put it wide in a 1-on-1. This was a set-piece finish which we failed to take, but we had a chance to bounce back in a cup final.



The Papa John’s Trophy is our second cup trophy in two seasons, and it’s almost guaranteed that we’ll add our second league title in a row too. Being 12 points ahead with 5 games left, we just needed 4 points – gained in our results, or dropped by our closest opponents – and these, I predicted, were merely a formality at this point.

(1 – 0) Burton Albion (A) L2 – N Ennis (1)
(1 – 0) Tranmere Rovers (A) L2 – K Shashoua (1)



The season did throw up one final thrill: central midfielder Kristian Shashoua, at the ripe old age of 17 years old, found himself promoted to the first team and placed on the bench due to a knock to Reece Cole, and then found himself substituted onto the pitch on the 78th minute due to a knock to Luke Urey, and then finds himself scoring the winning goal on his debut in the 93rd minute to secure us the league title. Not one he’d ever forget, if he were a real player and this wasn’t Football Manager.

I holidayed to the rest of the season, my assistant (Roy Keane) notching up on win, one draw and one loss; we finished on 110 points. Although I’ve previously said I’d never leave a club in a promotion transition, I kept an eye on the vacant jobs anyway, just in case something attractive came up; other than a Spartak Moscow job which most certainly wouldn’t have been given to me, there was nothing of interest.

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Replies

@Meijueiro99, unfortunately, I work for a living, so around the rest of my schedule (having friends, getting ripped, drinking whiskey), I really don't have enough time for the complexity of the full version of FM. I think the Mobile version has been getting a lot better in the last few editions I've owned, such that it feels like a more full game in the mould of the first ones I played like FM08 and FM10. It's more detailed than say, LMA Manager 2006, which was the first football management game I played, so I think there's a bit that can be said to defend it as a proper sim. Obviously easier than the full game, but I enjoy making stories, so...

shit, you're posting pictures from your cellphone? That's some heavy work right there haha

Congratulations in order once again!

What a season, great call on not leaving in my opinion. Adds a title to the CV and surely boosts the rep. I understand the intention to move about a bit, but surely there is some temptation to keep the momentum rolling here and take them all the way!?

FMM Story
S4E1 – Summer 2023
(Leamington FC, League One)



OUT – Released – Goalkeeper, Ben Alnwick
OUT – Released – Full Back, Junior English
OUT – Released – Full Back, Tom James
OUT – Released – Full Back, Stephan Morley
OUT – Released – Central Defender, James Mace
OUT – Released – Central Midfielder, Callum Gittings
OUT – Released – Central Midfielder, Joe Clarke
OUT – Released – Attacking Midfielder, Chris Eagles
OUT – Loan Expired – Winger, Jack Nolan to Gillingham

IN – £300’000 – Winger, Michael Fernandes from Colchester United
IN – £10’000 – Goalkeeper, Brad Embleton from Kingstonian
IN – Graduate – Goalkeeper, Teddy Digie
IN – £5’000 – Central Defender, Bobby Ormerod from Poole Town
IN – Graduate – Central Defender, Martell Olakigbe
IN – Graduate – Defensive Midfielder, Robbie Dodoo
IN – Graduate – Winger, Coree Sparkes
IN – Graduate – Winger, Kristjaan Breakspear
IN – £50’000 – Striker, David Avenell from Port Vale

This being my fourth and most likely last summer in charge of Leamington, we conducted something of a legacy exodus by releasing almost all of the remaining over-30s still in contract from the very first season. With the exception of Ben Alnwick and Chris Eagles, none of these players had featured for the first team at any point this season, and several were on the brink of retirement. The result of this, for good or ill, was a massive shift in the balance of the squad towards youth, with the average age having fallen to around 23.5 years. Most of my squads on FM have always hovered between 24-26, so it’ll be interesting to see how this affects the character of the squad in terms of professionalism and such.

Having agreed the transfer early, Michael Fernandes, who won the League Two Player of the Season award, joins as a permanent solution on the wing. I also brought in another quorum of graduates and low/non-league youth talent, mainly to pad the ranks of our grossly underperforming Reserve side, though there is some potential in Embleton, Ormerod and Avenell. The signing of Brad Embleton in particular prompted the demotion and transfer listing of Billy Rosa, a great young keeper and U21 international for Northern Ireland; I have been giving him regular playing time, but he is highly unprofessional and also getting too good to play second fiddle to Phillips, so I have decided to try and get rid of him, plus mid-twenties deadweight like Mo Adams and Harry Forster.

My aim this season, separate from performing as well as we can in the league and cups, is to secure a greater proportion of loans for our young players, to actually see if we can develop some of them into more viable first team prospects.

In terms of areas I need to strengthen, I will admit that I’m pretty stuck, other than having the usual problem of being short on the wings. In almost every position we have a reasonable amount of depth and vigour; what we have is a great squad, but a distinctly average line-up, by which I mean I am confident I can maintain a consistent level of performance even with heavy rotation, but that there is no starting XI I can play which would be markedly superior to the general strength of our League One competitors. I think we will be competitive in the sense of being a comfortable top-half side, and I don’t feel there are any players who are “replaceable” in the sense that I would be happy to spend big to supplant them. But do I feel that, for example, Meredith and Meade are a league-winning full-back partnership, or that Mason Goodridge would be the first name on any League One side’s sheet? No, I don’t. So perhaps some investment is needed to bring us up a notch, or will our great depth translate to consistent positive results as a side which has no bad days or weak links? I guess we’ll see.

First Team
Goalkeepers – Dillon Phillips, Brad Embleton
Defenders – Jack Tucker, Dan Happe, Dennon Allamby, Luke Gabidon, Bobby Ormerod
Full-Backs – Dan Meredith, Harvey Sayer, David Watmore, Jernade Meade
Defensive Midfielders – Mason Goodridge, Ricky Drench
Central Midfielders – Reece Cole, Joe Bateman, Luke Urey, Ellis Jones, Kristian Shashoua
Attacking Midfielders – Alex Babos
Wingers – Jodi Jones, Michael Fernandes, Peter Bastock
Strikers – Niall Ennis, Russ Griffiths, Saif Mengi, David Avenell

Reserves and Youth
Goalkeepers – Billy Rosa, Jake Weaver, Alan Wootton, Cameron Adedoja, Teddy Digie
Defenders – Connor Johnson, Martell Olakigbe, Dael Breeze, Robbie Gelhardt
Full-Backs – Ciaran Brennan, Shay Nicholson
Defensive Midfielders – Mo Adams, Kayne Redfearn, Robbie Dodoo, Gareth Patterson
Central Midfielders – Josh Falkingham, Tariq Harfield, Matthew Boney
Attacking Midfielders – Ross Tumilty, Jack Moore-Billam
Wingers – Harley Brown, Harry Forster, Kristjaan Breakspear, Coree Sparkes
Strikers – Ryheem England

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Replies

@Tango, after 3 seasons, I'm a well-oiled machine! It's a fairly straightforward job, though, really: the screenshot dimensions can be awkward to capture, but FMScout appears to resize to fit the page, so it looks in place.

@ScottT, getting a bit boring now, eh? ha

@TheLFCFan, that's always a temptation, of course, because as the squad develops I'm going to also develop an affinity for them. One thing to say is that I've never really been able to go the distance, both in terms of my attention span with a single team, but also as I may have mentioned about my success so far, I am an LLM manager at heart, I know what works in the lower leagues, but I've never ever been the sort of tactician who competes at higher leagues. Maybe it's easier on the mobile version, though, and if my administration of the team turns into a competitive League One side this season, and on to the Championship, and then again in the Championship, I may inadvertently find myself there anyway because I won't leave a stat-padding team "for my CV", as you say.

An interesting summer recruitment there so far. It seems as though the squad is now in a very balanced state but without a true superstar, however, I'd assume Ennis will prove to be the man once more this year. It'll be interesting to see what direction you go before the season truly kicks off.

Ennis stayed, you'll be fine

FMM Story
S4E2 – Pre-Season 2023/24
(Leamington FC, League One)



This being, I am determined, my last pre-season with Leamington, I decided to make it special and invited a bunch of foreign sides to face us at the New Windmill Ground. I figured, with these clubs all being at least 1.5 stars above us in reputation, this would be a suitable challenge. As it turns out – see below – this pre-season turned into something of a waste, as we crushed four of our five friendly opponents without much difficulty. This tells me little about how we might perform this season, sadly. Niall Ennis, the sharpshooter who fired us into League One with a 30+ tally, managed 9 goals in his 5 appearances; clearly, his sights are finely tuned going into the season. Likewise, Michael Fernandes celebrated his permanent move to the club with a similar glut of goals from the wing. With goals coming from the two substitute strikers and central midfield too, this gives me confidence that we can put them away against a higher calibre of side.

(6 – 0) Lahti (H) – R Drench (1), N Ennis (2), R Cole (1), M Fernandes (1), D Avenell (1)
(3 – 0) Slaven Belupo (H) – N Ennis (2), M Fernandes (1)
(5 – 0) Cova de Piedade (H) – N Ennis (3), R Griffiths (1)
(0 – 0) Motherwell (H) –
(4 – 0) Tabor Sezana (H) – N Ennis (2), M Fernandes (2)

As mentioned about 50 times since I started at Leamington, I needed a winger; specifically, a right-wing back up to Jodi Jones was a priority. I scoured the transfer market and scouting reports, but as we conducted our pre-season games, I began to get a little desperate; the problem was that any transfer-listed players weren’t good enough, the ones who weren’t transfer listed were far too expensive, and we had no eyes on any young talent a la Chez Urwin. In the end, I settled for a 1-year deal with a free agent, former Stoke and Liverpool winger Tom Ince.

IN – Free – Winger, Tom Ince

OUT – Free – Goalkeeper, Jake Weaver to King’s Lynn Town
OUT – Free – Full Back, Shay Nicholson to King’s Lynn Town
OUT – Loan – Goalkeeper, Cameron Adedoja to Warrington Town
OUT – Loan – Goalkeeper, Alan Wootton to Eastleigh
OUT – Loan – Central Defender, Robbie Dodoo to Farnborough
OUT – Loan – Full Back, Ciaran Brennan to Farnborough
OUT – Loan – Defensive Midfielder, Kayne Redfearn to Dulwich Hamlet
OUT – Loan – Central Midfielder, Matthew Boney to Blyth Spartans
OUT – Loan – Central Midfielder, Tariq Harfield to Maidstone United
OUT – Loan – Attacking Midfielder, Ross Tumilty to Truro City
OUT – Loan – Attacking Midfielder, Jack Moore-Billam to Blyth Spartans
OUT – Loan – Winger, Harley Brown to Warrington Town
OUT – Loan – Striker, Ryheem England to Maidstone United
OUT – Loan – Striker, Saif Mengi to Bromley

Otherwise, I wasn’t really sure what other business to conduct or in what positions, and there were no young or transfer-listed stars within budget who really caught my eye. I was, however, very happy with the number of outbound loans I was finally able to make after 3 seasons of failure in this area. I wanted to keep new young signing David Avenell around to mentor and develop on his potential, so this meant loaning out Saif Mengi, much to his surprise and distaste having notched up 31 appearances for the club in 2 years and no doubt expecting a larger role for his efforts. I’m sure he’ll forgive me, though I’ll probably have left the club before he returns from Bromley.

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Replies

@TheLFCFan, Ennis is surely crucial to our plans this season after his contribution last. You're right to say that we don't really have any stars - according to the coaches, our best player is the goalie - but there are some really strong young players now, pretty much any I could name - just in the centre of the park, Luke Urey and Ricky Drench are turning into a formidable DLP/AP pairing, our 3 young DCs (Allamby, Ormerod, Gabidon) are top physical specimens. Only problem is out wide - Bastock's the only real prospect we have, and it's a slim one at best. Something to look at, but it has been a problem from day one.

@Tango, it'd be nice for it to be as simple as that! Though as I've said before, it might well be, because a good striker will always find goals, and is in my view the single most important signing any manager needs to make.

I think that even real life works like that: if you have a striker that can bag goal after goal, even if you neglect other areas, you'll end up capitalizing a lot on other people's mistakes

FMM Story
S4E3 – August-October 2023
(Leamington FC, League One)



(1 – 1) Walsall (A) L1 – J Bateman (1)
(7 – 0) Shrewsbury Town (H) L1 – N Ennis (3), R Cole (1), T Ince (2), R Drench (1)
(0 – 0)p Walsall (A) CC1 –
(1 – 2) Rotherham United (A) L1 – P Bastock (1)

We enjoyed a weird start to our League One season. There was not really much to separate Walsall, Rotherham and Shrewsbury in quality – League One being notorious as a kind of tightrope off which any club can fall with a bad run of form – yet our results against these sides were wildly different. Shrewsbury was a complete dismantling, men against boys as the saying goes, whereas the other results, even with the penalty victory, were a kind of stale capitulation from a squad which didn’t really get a decent run out against solid opposition in the friendlies. Clearly we’re capable of being confident, but even with the biggest victory of my career, I still felt the team were waking up from the summer, rather than striding.

OUT – £8’000’000 – Central Midfielder, Luke Urey to Sunderland

IN – £975’000 – Central Midfielder, Ryan Wintle from Watford
IN – £550’000 – Central Midfielder, Oliver Finney from Crewe Alexandra
IN – £30’000 – Central Midfielder, Reece Irvine from Queen of the South

To inject a little urgency into the squad, quite unexpectedly, a huge offer landed in my inbox – a whopping £8’000’000 for central midfielder Luke Urey from Sunderland. Even without the prospect of replacing the ex-Wrexham youngster, there was no way of turning down such a sum of money, and such a profit on someone we signed for £40’000. As it happened, there were several viable prospects on the transfer list, and after some deliberation, we elected to replace Urey with not one, but two players. Ryan Wintle, a graduate of Crewe Alexandra’s famed youth academy was unwanted by Watford, but he was a Deep Lying Playmaker, not an Advanced Playmaker like Urey, and therefore not himself a replacement; however, Wintle was best friends with another Crewe graduate, Oliver Finney, who was the right sort of central midfielder and one of League One’s best performers for the last 2 seasons. Long story short, I got the BFFs from my boyhood club for a pretty reasonable price, plus another 17-year-old prospect, and plenty of spare change for the next window.

(4 – 0) Coventry City (H) L1 – N Ennis (1), R Griffiths (2), K Shashoua (1)
(2 – 4) Watford (A) CC2 – N Ennis (2)
(1 – 0) Crewe Alexandra (H) L1 – N Ennis (1)
(7 – 0) Crystal Palace Reserves (H) PJG – T Ince (2), D Watmore (1), N Ennis (2), D Avenell (1), E Jones (1)
(0 – 0) Peterborough United (A) L1 –
(0 – 2) Blackpool (A) L1 –
(2 – 1) Lincoln City (A) L1 – N Ennis (1), J Jones (1)
(2 – 0) Luton Town (H) L1 – N Ennis (1), M Fernandes (1)

I’m ready to leave Leamington now. Our performance in the first couple of months of this season has been great, but we’re by no means runaway winners such that I’d be incentivised to stay, and I feel confident in leaving the club for the next manager to develop. He will have a strong squad with standout, better-than-League-One players like Niall Ennis, and a budget enough to add 2 or 3 more like him. Time to begin winding down my time at the club and looking for a new place to call home.

(4 – 0) Bolton Wanderers (H) L1 – N Ennis (3), D Happe (1)
(6 – 0) Wycombe Wanderers (A) PJG – N Ennis (3), R Drench (1), R Cole (1), D Avenell (1)
(2 – 2) Sheffield Wednesday (A) L1 – O Finney (1), D Avenell (1)
(1 – 0) Wigan Athletic (H) – T Ince (1)
(2 – 1) Wycombe Wanderers (H) L1 – O Finney (1), J Jones (1)
(4 – 0) Salford City (A) L1 – L Gabidon (1), M Fernandes (1), R Griffiths (1)
(0 – 0) Carlisle United (A) L1 –

We find ourselves second to Middlesbrough, who I thought had been liquidated a few seasons ago. I will admit our great results this season are quite irritating, as on the one hand it feels like a waste to want to leave such a successful project for me, even by the standards of doing this at LLM level for the last 10 years of FM games, and on the other hand, I never planned to stay in England for so long at the start of this save. Plus, winning so well so often doesn’t make for an exciting story!

Unfortunately, there were slim opportunities to move to a more strife-ridden club in the job vacancies menu throughout October, but I am currently waiting on confirmation from Estoril Praia in the Portuguese second tier and Fortuna Sittard and SBV Excelsior of the Dutch second-tier.



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Replies

@Tango, you're probably right, and certainly my experience of Sunday League is that one good player is often enough. But I doubt one or two good players is going to be enough the higher we go in the league system, and assuming I'm still with Leamington in the next 12-24 months, I'll need to make sure the whole squad is bolstered. I feel that we have the makings of a very strong side here, with the young players I've brought in very highly rated. I could be abroad by the next update anyway, though, so we'll just see what happens.