FM2022 Clumps to Champs! Road to Glory! Rayners Lane FC

2029-30
Skybet League 1
Board Expectations:
League - Mid Table
Carabao Cup - 2nd Round
FA Cup - 3rd Round
Papa John's trophy - 2nd Round

Life in League One began rather timidly as the board was being timid for the first time in the save. They were only wanting a mid table finish and a wage budget of 1.5m/yr with a transfer budget of 800k seemed reasonable for those expectations. Also the 5 year vision was to be a established League One team so probably we are reaching the limits of this regime. Our turnover from the club seems this wage budget is sustainable if the club doesn't progress much. In terms of players it was much harder to sign better players now as our reputation was not very good. So I am probably looking at a couple of seasons of consolidation before a push to the championship. Media Prediction for the season is 13th.

Our first order of business in the transfer window was to ensure solidity across the board, so the target was to ensure 2 players of similar quality for every position we are playing. With wage rises due to promotion and new players our wages were 920k/yr.

Our first game in League One was a 1-1 draw vs Rochdale. We won the first round of Carabao cup 3-3(7-6) on penalties but lost to Bournemouth 4-1 in the 2nd round. At the end of august we had 7 points from 4 games in the league with our only defeat 2-1 away at QPR. We had a tough game in the Papa John's trophy against Chelsea U23s which we lost 1-2. In the league we got 9 points from 5 games in September.

An extremely tough October saw us get only 6 points from 6 games with 2 wins and 4 losses. We did qualify to the 2nd round of the PapaJohn's trophy with a 4-0 win over Exeter and FA trophy 1st Round 3-1 win over Sutton. With 7 points from 5 games in the league we ended November in 11th place with 32 points from 21 games.Form was patchy in December as we picked up only 7 points from 6 games including a 3-2 loss to Colchester. We did win our Papa John's trophy game vs Colchester 2-3 and FA cup 2nd round tie away at Hull 2-0 in extra time.

The new year bought a turn in fortune with 13 points in 5 games in January in the league. The cup runs continued with Papa John's trophy wins over Northampton 2-1 and Everton U-23s 1-0 as we stormed into the semis. We also trashed Tranmere 4-1 in the FA cup 3rd Round and then we trashed Millwall 4-1 in the 4th round to setup a 5th round tie with Manchester United at home. I wish this game was away and it would have set us up financially for a couple of seasons. The Millwall game broke both our attendance record at 6459 and gate receipt record at 150k. We picked 9 points in 5 games in the league in February.

Our FA cup run came to an end in front of a capacity crowd of 6500 against Man United to beat us 1-4. Still it was a great run and one to remember for times to come. We won the Papa John's trophy semi final with a 1-0 win over Liverpool U-23s. We used the opportunity to upgrade our training and youth facilities. We picked up 10 points from 6 league games with 3 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw in March.

The board gave us a new contract for a 2 year deal at 62k/yr just before our 500th game in charge which was the Papa John's trophy final vs QPR at Wembley. We lifted the trophy 2-0 in front of a 41,819 audience.
The last few games were fairly straightforward as we ended the season in 8th place with 76 points.

Completions:


Squad

2030-31
Skybet League 1
Board Expectations:
League - Playoffs
Carabao Cup - 2nd Round
FA Cup - 3rd Round

The season wage budget was set at 1.8m/yr but a transfer budget of only 200k. We did a lot of business in this period and by the beginning of the season we sold 1.9m worth of players.


Ossie Robinson: (record singning -160k)


The signings meant the media predicted us to finish 7th in the league and we got off to a great run in the league picking up 11 points in 5 games in August. We crashed out of the Carabao Cup in the 1st round 2-1 at Milwall. Good form continued through September and we picked up 10 points in 4 games. We had 3 players on International duty and 5 players out injured in mid October and it showed as we got 12 points in 6 games with 3 draws against weaker sides. This can hurt us towards the business end of the season.

November continued in the same vein as we picked 10 points from 6 games with 4 draws. We progressed in the FA cup first round away at Aldershot 0-3 and then Notts County in 2nd Round 4-1 at home. We ended December in 4th place with 55 points in 27 games.

We crashed out of the FA cup in 3rd Round 1-0 vs Ipswich. We won all the 5 matches in the league in January. Form was patchy in February with 2 draws and a win before a loss to Carlise at home 0-3 which was the first loss of our season.We folowed this with another loss against QPR 1-0 though we picked up 12 points from the remaining 6 games to finish 3rd on goal difference.

League Table:


The playoff semifinals were against Rochadale which we won 4-2 on aggregate. The finals vs Crewe we won 2-0 at Wembly.
So onto the Championship we come.

Squad:

Life as a championship side didn't start of on the right note, with the season tick over and promotion delayed and we were unable to keep any of our 6 loaned players from last season in the club. In addition to that we lost 2 of our players as they didn't want to renew contracts with us anymore. Also our DOF didn't seem to extend any contracts for staff and all of them expired on the 1st of July.

Finally the promotion happened on 6th of July and the board gave us a 2.4m transfer budget with a 2.4m/yr wage budget. The transfer budget is not enough to bring in too much new quality as we look at our season expectations of fighting against relegation. The media predicts us to finish dead last with a 350-1 projection to win the league. Just to put this in perspective the Sheffield Wednesday are predicted to finish 23rd and they are 50-1 to win the league. This is basically a huge gulf between us and the next worst team in the league. I am getting Moneyball's 50 ton of crap and then us kind of vibes from the team this season.
Is this where the fairytale ends?

The board did give us a better scouting range now as we are able to scout entire Europe for talents. This augurs well for the future but right now we are concerned about keeping us in the championship.

In the preseason we managed to get in a few signings with Charles Azzopardi joining from Leeds, Ryan Millen on loan from Watford, Bokang Sutu from Derby and Kaine Kesler Hayden for a club record transfer of 375k from QPR.


As the squad reassembled, the defense was the weak point and we signed Dagur Harraldsson on a free with 338k/yr before bonuses which made him the highest earner in the club.

2031-32
Skybet Championship
Board Expectations:
League - Fight Bravely against Relegation
Carabao Cup - 2nd Round
Papa John's Trophy - 3rd Round
FA Cup - 3rd Round

Our preseason signings have got us to 250-1 in the league which is still the worst but its some improvement from 350-1. We lost a key player in Alistair Stevens but the board would not let me reject a 2.1m(rising to 2.7m) offer so we made our record sale. We used the money to make a 1.8m pound upgrade to our training facilities. We also got Jeremias Bueno who became our record signing at 650k.


We began the season with a opening day 3-1 win at home vs Bournemouth which gives me a lot of confidence going into the season. We won the Carabao Cup first round against Gillingham 0-0(4-5 on penalties). We lost 3-2 vs Barnsley, drew 1-1 vs Millwall and 3-3 vs Peterborough as we ended August with 5 points from 4 games in 15th place. We also won the Carabao Cup 2nd Round 0-1 vs Kidderminister.

We kicked off September with a 2-0 win over Wasall in Papa John's trophy. In the league we won 1-2 over Sunderland, 2-2 vs Cardiff before back to back losses against Sheffield United 1-0 and Blackburn 0-1 to end September with 9 points from 8 games in 18th place. We were knocked out of the Carabao Cup 3-1 by Southampton.

It took us till October to get back the coaching staff to acceptable levels. On the league we won 1-0 against Stoke, drew Birmingam 1-1 and lost 4-2 to Swansea and 0-1 to Norwich. With 13 points from 12 games we cling on to the 18th place.

Season so far: