A Billion Dreams: FM23 build a nation(India)

S4 continues and some early champagne???
We followed up the cup win with 3 wins on the trot in the league to set up a top of the table clash vs Kashmir FC and a 2-3 away win consolidated our position at the top with 54 points from 26 games.
The cup run came to end with a 3-0 loss away at Jamshedpur. We are thoroughly proud of this run. This was our highest ever attended game with 8887 people watching the game.
In the league though we have managed to keep up our brilliant form and now sit top of the table at the end of March.

Schedule till March:




Competions till March:



6 games remain in the season and its all about the nerves now. With a 9 point lead this will need a big bottle job but lets not count our chickens before they hatch

@J_ames The good news is the fans have been fundraising like crazy this season. Already about 9m raised and that has kept us from going down the doldrums. Maybe they feel this is the year!

@NTBGaming It has been a lot of fun this save. Though I had a 10 season save last time with FM22 with the English 10th tier database, this is a lot more challenging so far.

^ me, when I see the club is top of the table, with a significant gap. Please, please, please: don't bottle it!

April - End of season 4
First up in April was 5th placed FC Bengaluru and a 0-0 draw brought back all the horrors of the past. A solid 1-0 win over 20th placed Mumbai eased the nerves though. Promotion was secured with 3 games to go with a 1-1 draw against Kashmir FC.
The league was secured in next game with a 3-1 win over Kerela B.


We finished the season as champions with 79 points from 38 games.
Schedule Apr-end:


Competions:


Squad:

Transfers:
How prophetic were J_ames words that the club needs those 2-3 players


Emanuel Lalchanchchhuha


Pragyan Medhi:


Aman Lalpekhlua:
What a signing he turned out to be in the summer window! 10 goals in 15 games to propel us to the win.

Well done on winning the league, that form since october is really impressive! Now to see if you can take the form of this season into the next and start off well! It's the 2nd division you're going into now am I right?

I'm absolutely DELIGHTED to see that you've won promotion, and I'm sure that keeping Aman Lalpekhlua fit and firing will be crucial to your survival. It's not going to be easy, that's for sure, but with the way that you've methodically taken care of the club so well on your journey so far: I've faith in you

The Journey so far:
With 4 seasons and the club promoted its time to take a stock of the story so far.
1. We have built a 4300 capacity stadium
2. Our current debt is 50m INR
1. Bank Loan of 42m of which 37m remain
3. Club has turned professional as a result of promotion to I League.
3. Our reputation has increased to National Level though we are still a 0.5 star club.

I League Primer:
The I league has 11 teams and top 2 promote to the ISL and bottom 2 relegate to the I League 2nd division. Most teams struggling financially, and the quality is not too different from the 2nd division.

Plans for next season:
As we have only 20 league games to play, I idea is to have smaller squad. I want to get 8-10 quality players, and hope that is enough with so few games to be played. We have a wage budget to 2.5m per month now. The finances are not there in this league too so it will be important to spend wisely.

S5 Preseason:
Interestingly the team thinks I was being ridiculous when I wanted them to avoid relegation. They were thinking they can finish mid-table which is surprising as the media has us favorites to go down at 200-1

Tindim Road FC went to administration and with their star striker Subha Ghosh out of contract I went and made the marquee signing I needed to get the ball rolling. He is better than Aman and that he wanted only 170k/m was a pure steal. His signing also tipped our reputation to 1 star.


We made 6-7 signings, though they were expensive I think they have made team better by a huge margin. Then came another big signing of Nikhil Prabhu who was a steal at 180k/m.


I kept my players from last season on Non Contracts still and I hate it but if we relegate I don't want players on huge contracts bankrupting the club.

Finally we got the Assistant Manager Chandrasekhar Rao who joins us at 100k/m. He has a National B license and his vast experience of playing in the league will come in handy for sure.

Oh boy! What a crazy ride so far in the I League it has been. If you have been frustrated in the first 4 season of this journey you are in for a ride.

We started the season with a 1-4 dismantling of Tiddim Road FC and followed it up with a 2-1 win over Sreenidi. Tough Away fixtures followed against Delhi FC(1-1) and then to Aizawl(2-1). The loss to Aizawl was actually not concerning as they were the early table toppers and we were more than competent in that game. Over the next 6 games in the league we picked up 13 points with 4 wins and 1 draw. Our only loss came vs 3rd placed Punjab FC. Another 5-2 dismantling of Tiddim Road FC at home propelled us to 1st place with 23 points of 11 games at the end of the year.

We have been excellent in the Super Cup as well with a 2-1 win in the 3rd Round over ISL side Odisha setting up the Quarter Final tie vs Rajasthan.
Schedule till December:


Competions:


Squad:

Well then, an excellent start! This makes it look like the team was right to think they could do better than a relegation battle, keep it going!

@NTBgaming Thanks for your kind words

Back to back promotions:
We began the new year with a win in the Super Cup Quarterfinal vs Rajasthan.
Aizawl though did the double against us with a 0-2 win at home and they absolutely dominated the game. An 1-1 draw away to Kerala has us drop to 3rd in the league table.
We also busted out of the Super Cup with a 1-0 loss to Goa. Still I am really happy with the campaign in the Cup.

7 points from the next 3 games saw us with a 3 point lead at the top of the table with 2 games to go. We clinched the league in the next game with a 1-2 win away at Rajasthan. We rounded off the brilliant season with a 3-1 domination performance at home vs Mohammedan FC.
Schedule:

Squad:

Competions:

Holy hell! Back to back promotions is a hell of an achievement, and shows that what you did during your early years (which seemed unsuccessful at the time) was the right call for you to make. I'm so damn pleased for you mate, and look forward to seeing your off-season activity

Season 6 - The ISL:
So after the crazy season in I League, we are now in the ISL. The big league, with the big boys and big money. 98m in TV money is huge for us. The question now is simple, whether to try and save the money, go down and build for a better challenge next year. The media thinks we have no chance at 2000-1. I dont think this is accurate as the other team to come up was Delhi FC and they are 700-1 and we beat them 2-0 at home and 1-1 away last season.

New sponsorship deal for jerseys are signed at 2.9m/yr taking our total sponsorship to 4.3m/yr. Finances at the beginning of the season. There is the big 40m in debt as well.


The board has setup a wage budget of 4.2m and the transfer budget for the first time in our history is set at 3m. With that money I decided to take a short term goal of trying to get quality players on 1yr deals and try to stay up. This ideal helped us last season so its worth giving it another go. Indian talent was hard to get, players I felt would make a difference in our chance in staying up would not join us. I think this is the reputation issue, we are still a 1 star club.
I don't have a foreign player in the squad, and I cant even scout India fully. So we had to rely on Agent offers.

29yr old Emmanuel Uzochukwu is an absolute gem as a free agent and I cry with joy when I found him.


27yr old Chawira was another free agent, who at the right wing comes in and is another massive upgrade.


We managed to make a bunch of other transfers too after these guys came in. The signings have propelled our media prediction to 900-1 though still favorites for relegation

A 2-0 loss to Bengaluru saw us crash out of the Durand Cup in first round. We are then trashed 1-4 away at Goa. We managed to get our first points on the table with a 95th minute goal at home vs Guwahati. We lost our next 3 games in the league by identical 2-1 margins as we ended October in 11th place with just 1 point from 5 games.
At the beginning of November we managed to beat Bengal at home for our first win in the league. The result flattered us as they dominated but a 79th minute penalty gave us the points. A 1-1 draw vs Kerala FC gave us another point but a 2-0 loss to Odisha had us end November with just 5 points of 8 games.
A massive relegation 6 pointer loomed away at Chennai who were performing worse than us with just 1 point in 8 games. A solid 1-0 result sees us move out of the relegation zone at the end of December.
Schedule:


Cometitions: