I am afraid you will have to make do with some catch up, I have been meaning to write my story for a while, but I have been kept in with the lure of Football Manager for four seasons already before I have actually got around to writting it, but shall get you up to speed as to where I am and what has happened and try to make regular updates from there.
Season 1 - 11/12
The Team I have picked to play is Oldham Athletic or the "Lactics" from Division 1, when I took over the expectaion of the team in the media was 18th place and my task set by the board was a mid-table finish.
So after setting up the three tactics I will be employing throughout my campaign with this club - a 4,2,2,2 - a 4, 1, 2, 2, 1 and a standard 4,4,2. And creating my training schedule's of which upset many as they felt I was working them too hard. I set about improving my squad.
I have no transfer budget to spend and a wage cap of 20k
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers11-12.jpg
I am fortunate to have a link with Manchester City, so instantly try to raid a number of players there, many reject me as my standing and reputation are poor, how-ever Alex Henshall and Greg Cunningham agree to join me, Alex was a left winger and greg was a defensive left full back.
I also secure James Beattie as a striker and a young Roberto Grimaudo to bolster my front line.
For those that are unfamiliar with Roberto these are the stats that he has developed over four seasons with me and his history.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/RobertoG.jpg
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/RobertoG2.jpg
As you can see, he is nothing special but at the time I was in need of a striker for the future as Kuqi and Smith who I start with were never going to get going anywhere with them.
The season went ok, the pre-season got off to a great start with a 6 - 0 thrashing of Liverpool's reserve team and a 1 - 1 draw with the first team which filled me with hope how-ever at the starting blocks of the season in the first ten league games I won a total of 3, lost 2 and drew the rest. I had to alter my tactics a bit as I was dropping goals most often in the last part of the game, I play a quick tempo game and at this level it just doesnt work as by the 70th or so minute the condition of my players reached lows of 50%.
I also found I was finishing games with 10 men as with simply pure bad luck as soon as I'd finish my third sub of the match a player would get injured and I'd have to continue on without my 11th man, this is a curse that seems to have plagued me throughout my Oldham career.
At chistmas time I was hit with a wave of injurys and as a result I had to delve into the market again to get some short term loans, as a result of my position at the time which was riding high at 11th/12th I was impressing a few more players, I looked to Manchester City again and found that to my luck Savic was intersted in joining us on loan as he was not getting any first team action, I also signed up Eastmond from Arsenal and Shane Ferguson from Newcastle, nothing special about them just to provide cover for the team.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/League11-12.jpg
This is how my first season ended up, I kept within the wage budget and finished higher than expected, my loans went back to their respective clubs.
Season 2.
I have the same objective this season from the Board a mid-table finish, I have the same wage budget and the same transfer funds of... Nothing.
I start off trying to renew some contracts and end up having to hire an entirely different set of backroom staff, I don't understand how they can justify going from £300 to £650 in a single season the greedy sods! Beattie wants more than I am willing to offer him and leaves the club on a free as do many others so that the bulk of the squad I started with goes, Chris Taylor who was my best player also leaves after a bid of £325k from Brighton comes in. I am reluctant but agree to sell, sometimes you have to make money first and as I have a transfer kitty of nothing once again the only way I am going to get anywhere is to either increase the wages I can pay, or purchase some real talent.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers12-13.jpg
I raid Manchester City again and re-sign Greg Cunnigham who was a master at left back, the beautiful game I feel is lacking in quality left backs at the moment and he is one of the few gems out there for lower league teams, I cannot afford his wages or Trasnfer fee but Manchester City are more than happy to let him come back to us for another season.
Alex Hensall was a bit of a flop, he got injured with Tendonitis towards the end of my last season and didnt play many games, so this time I opted for a striker to replace Beattie and signed John Guidetti, a strong target man style of a striker, my new scouts then find two players from INF Clairfontaine I snap them up on free's and then view the rest of the squad and decide to try and raid two more from them and get with success. I've kept them saved as a fave club and have them report to me, I make a note to come back next season when the next crop of youth come through. But for now I'll break out the Garlic bread for my new French Revolution!
Another key transfer was the free transfer of Oliver Norwood who had been released from Manchester United and my loan of Goalkeeper Jack Butland who looks very very promising!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/league12-13.jpg
This season I achieve promotion.. JUST. We just scrape through to the playoff's by a single point, but in the playoff's my team step up to the plate and blow away
Tranmere - 3 - 0, and 1 - 0 in both legs and go on to beat Coventry 3 - 0 in the final to get us through!
Season 3.
The board expect me to avoid relegation this season, there's no battle valiantly option, given that we only just made the play-offs the Media and myself very much doubt we have the squad to stay up, the media write me off completly and predict a 24th place finish.
I don't have the issue with my staff this season as I tied them to long term contracts, and this season I have a bigger wage budget of... 30k and a transfer kitty of ... 20k .. Thanks a lot board!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers13-14.jpg
I manage to keep most of my team this time, my primary goalkeeper Cisak leaves but I manage to convince Jack Butland to join me permanantly on a free to replace him, Greg Cunningham leaves Manchester City so I have no chance of re-signing him this season, and there is no-body at City now who is interested in coming to me that is halfway decent, so no loans this season I have to dabble once again in the free transfer market.
I go back to INF Clairfontaine and take two of their youth prospects, ones an attacking midfielder/striker and the other was a goalkeeper purely as a backup.
To fill the hole thats left with me not being able to once again get Greg Cunningham for my left back position I sign a Brazilian from a free called Jacare, a high determination/work rate and pace are what convinced me to sign him, despite my scouts at the time saying he isn't very good, but I didn't rate who they were recommending me for the long term.. And well.. It's my club!
My Chairmen then soon stamped his foot on my opinion there and put me in my place by selling one of my free's from INF for 900k, he was clearly something special but hadn't quite broken into my first team as my central partnership of Norwood and Furman was solid both rarely being injured and both being strong determined tacklers of the ball which I needed in the central of my midfield.
So it wasn't a big loss in terms of the way I play, and I got 200k of the transfer to play with and the clubs finances are looking a little better, I always get a bit shaky as the past two seasons I spend most of the season in the red, and its only been at the end of the season that we've come back into the black with Prize money. So I can understand why the chairman has made the decision.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/league13-14.jpg
My season gets off to a really bad start, I am losing games left right and centre and cannot pick up a win from anywhere, it in fact takes 8 games before I pick up a scrappy 2 - 1 win against Norwich.
How-ever by christmas our form improves and we don't lose as many we start picking up draws and grabbing late goals and we just survive relegation by four points, I have a lot of work to do if I am going to become a stable fixure in the championship.
Season 4.
This is my last season to bring you upto speed with, I renew some contracts and let a few dead wood go, but nothing is new on the squad front, my squad in fact is looking very large and crowded but I am still managing to be within my wage budget, especially now as the money from being in the championship has made the clubs finances very healthy indeed, I even have a transfer kitty of £1 Million and a 40k wage budget this time around!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers14-15.jpg
I straight away go back and raid my new best friends INF Clairfontaine for their regens who have absolutly quality attributes, I then manage to secure a good defender left and right sided and spend £190k on a new central defender.
Come Christmas I am looking at a very healthy midtable place, but as you have seen from the previous screen shot I lose two players in the January Transfer window, the board sell both these players without my permission, how-ever Manchester City are very nice and offer me a striker for the rest of the season for nothing as a replacement, turns out it was a good bit of business as while Darren had good attributes he was struggling and unhappy anyway and ciardi turned out to be a fantastic striker scoring more goals in 14 games than Darren did in the two seasons he was with us!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers13-14.jpg
My season continues pretty much the way it started and I finished a comfortable 13th, the board and fans are happy with me, but with all my signings I forgot to pay attention to the league rules, I am struggling to field players who have been trained in England for 3 years as a result I am going to tone down the transfers in my next season as a few of my players just need this one season to reach that measurement. I am confident in my next season I can achieve mid-table status again, I have plenty of money in the bank so I am not worried about losing any quality players without my consent this time around, how-ever Dean Furman and Oliver Norwood both want to leave and refuse to sign new contacts wanting to go to bigger clubs.
Season 5.
This is the season I am currently at and about to start, I shall post what happens next time and in a little more detail, this is a little rushed as I wanted to get everyone up to speed on roughly where I am.
If your wondering about cup competions there isnt a lot to tell about them, I know there is no chance on winning them so I never bothered with them I never got past the third round in either F.A or League cup.
Thank you for reading so far, if you have any suggestions to make my writing better please let me know I am grateful for any advice or requests.
Season 1 - 11/12
The Team I have picked to play is Oldham Athletic or the "Lactics" from Division 1, when I took over the expectaion of the team in the media was 18th place and my task set by the board was a mid-table finish.
So after setting up the three tactics I will be employing throughout my campaign with this club - a 4,2,2,2 - a 4, 1, 2, 2, 1 and a standard 4,4,2. And creating my training schedule's of which upset many as they felt I was working them too hard. I set about improving my squad.
I have no transfer budget to spend and a wage cap of 20k
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers11-12.jpg
I am fortunate to have a link with Manchester City, so instantly try to raid a number of players there, many reject me as my standing and reputation are poor, how-ever Alex Henshall and Greg Cunningham agree to join me, Alex was a left winger and greg was a defensive left full back.
I also secure James Beattie as a striker and a young Roberto Grimaudo to bolster my front line.
For those that are unfamiliar with Roberto these are the stats that he has developed over four seasons with me and his history.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/RobertoG.jpg
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/RobertoG2.jpg
As you can see, he is nothing special but at the time I was in need of a striker for the future as Kuqi and Smith who I start with were never going to get going anywhere with them.
The season went ok, the pre-season got off to a great start with a 6 - 0 thrashing of Liverpool's reserve team and a 1 - 1 draw with the first team which filled me with hope how-ever at the starting blocks of the season in the first ten league games I won a total of 3, lost 2 and drew the rest. I had to alter my tactics a bit as I was dropping goals most often in the last part of the game, I play a quick tempo game and at this level it just doesnt work as by the 70th or so minute the condition of my players reached lows of 50%.
I also found I was finishing games with 10 men as with simply pure bad luck as soon as I'd finish my third sub of the match a player would get injured and I'd have to continue on without my 11th man, this is a curse that seems to have plagued me throughout my Oldham career.
At chistmas time I was hit with a wave of injurys and as a result I had to delve into the market again to get some short term loans, as a result of my position at the time which was riding high at 11th/12th I was impressing a few more players, I looked to Manchester City again and found that to my luck Savic was intersted in joining us on loan as he was not getting any first team action, I also signed up Eastmond from Arsenal and Shane Ferguson from Newcastle, nothing special about them just to provide cover for the team.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/League11-12.jpg
This is how my first season ended up, I kept within the wage budget and finished higher than expected, my loans went back to their respective clubs.
Season 2.
I have the same objective this season from the Board a mid-table finish, I have the same wage budget and the same transfer funds of... Nothing.
I start off trying to renew some contracts and end up having to hire an entirely different set of backroom staff, I don't understand how they can justify going from £300 to £650 in a single season the greedy sods! Beattie wants more than I am willing to offer him and leaves the club on a free as do many others so that the bulk of the squad I started with goes, Chris Taylor who was my best player also leaves after a bid of £325k from Brighton comes in. I am reluctant but agree to sell, sometimes you have to make money first and as I have a transfer kitty of nothing once again the only way I am going to get anywhere is to either increase the wages I can pay, or purchase some real talent.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers12-13.jpg
I raid Manchester City again and re-sign Greg Cunnigham who was a master at left back, the beautiful game I feel is lacking in quality left backs at the moment and he is one of the few gems out there for lower league teams, I cannot afford his wages or Trasnfer fee but Manchester City are more than happy to let him come back to us for another season.
Alex Hensall was a bit of a flop, he got injured with Tendonitis towards the end of my last season and didnt play many games, so this time I opted for a striker to replace Beattie and signed John Guidetti, a strong target man style of a striker, my new scouts then find two players from INF Clairfontaine I snap them up on free's and then view the rest of the squad and decide to try and raid two more from them and get with success. I've kept them saved as a fave club and have them report to me, I make a note to come back next season when the next crop of youth come through. But for now I'll break out the Garlic bread for my new French Revolution!
Another key transfer was the free transfer of Oliver Norwood who had been released from Manchester United and my loan of Goalkeeper Jack Butland who looks very very promising!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/league12-13.jpg
This season I achieve promotion.. JUST. We just scrape through to the playoff's by a single point, but in the playoff's my team step up to the plate and blow away
Tranmere - 3 - 0, and 1 - 0 in both legs and go on to beat Coventry 3 - 0 in the final to get us through!
Season 3.
The board expect me to avoid relegation this season, there's no battle valiantly option, given that we only just made the play-offs the Media and myself very much doubt we have the squad to stay up, the media write me off completly and predict a 24th place finish.
I don't have the issue with my staff this season as I tied them to long term contracts, and this season I have a bigger wage budget of... 30k and a transfer kitty of ... 20k .. Thanks a lot board!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers13-14.jpg
I manage to keep most of my team this time, my primary goalkeeper Cisak leaves but I manage to convince Jack Butland to join me permanantly on a free to replace him, Greg Cunningham leaves Manchester City so I have no chance of re-signing him this season, and there is no-body at City now who is interested in coming to me that is halfway decent, so no loans this season I have to dabble once again in the free transfer market.
I go back to INF Clairfontaine and take two of their youth prospects, ones an attacking midfielder/striker and the other was a goalkeeper purely as a backup.
To fill the hole thats left with me not being able to once again get Greg Cunningham for my left back position I sign a Brazilian from a free called Jacare, a high determination/work rate and pace are what convinced me to sign him, despite my scouts at the time saying he isn't very good, but I didn't rate who they were recommending me for the long term.. And well.. It's my club!
My Chairmen then soon stamped his foot on my opinion there and put me in my place by selling one of my free's from INF for 900k, he was clearly something special but hadn't quite broken into my first team as my central partnership of Norwood and Furman was solid both rarely being injured and both being strong determined tacklers of the ball which I needed in the central of my midfield.
So it wasn't a big loss in terms of the way I play, and I got 200k of the transfer to play with and the clubs finances are looking a little better, I always get a bit shaky as the past two seasons I spend most of the season in the red, and its only been at the end of the season that we've come back into the black with Prize money. So I can understand why the chairman has made the decision.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/league13-14.jpg
My season gets off to a really bad start, I am losing games left right and centre and cannot pick up a win from anywhere, it in fact takes 8 games before I pick up a scrappy 2 - 1 win against Norwich.
How-ever by christmas our form improves and we don't lose as many we start picking up draws and grabbing late goals and we just survive relegation by four points, I have a lot of work to do if I am going to become a stable fixure in the championship.
Season 4.
This is my last season to bring you upto speed with, I renew some contracts and let a few dead wood go, but nothing is new on the squad front, my squad in fact is looking very large and crowded but I am still managing to be within my wage budget, especially now as the money from being in the championship has made the clubs finances very healthy indeed, I even have a transfer kitty of £1 Million and a 40k wage budget this time around!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers14-15.jpg
I straight away go back and raid my new best friends INF Clairfontaine for their regens who have absolutly quality attributes, I then manage to secure a good defender left and right sided and spend £190k on a new central defender.
Come Christmas I am looking at a very healthy midtable place, but as you have seen from the previous screen shot I lose two players in the January Transfer window, the board sell both these players without my permission, how-ever Manchester City are very nice and offer me a striker for the rest of the season for nothing as a replacement, turns out it was a good bit of business as while Darren had good attributes he was struggling and unhappy anyway and ciardi turned out to be a fantastic striker scoring more goals in 14 games than Darren did in the two seasons he was with us!
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz123/Melvinrules/Oldham%20Football%20Club/transfers13-14.jpg
My season continues pretty much the way it started and I finished a comfortable 13th, the board and fans are happy with me, but with all my signings I forgot to pay attention to the league rules, I am struggling to field players who have been trained in England for 3 years as a result I am going to tone down the transfers in my next season as a few of my players just need this one season to reach that measurement. I am confident in my next season I can achieve mid-table status again, I have plenty of money in the bank so I am not worried about losing any quality players without my consent this time around, how-ever Dean Furman and Oliver Norwood both want to leave and refuse to sign new contacts wanting to go to bigger clubs.
Season 5.
This is the season I am currently at and about to start, I shall post what happens next time and in a little more detail, this is a little rushed as I wanted to get everyone up to speed on roughly where I am.
If your wondering about cup competions there isnt a lot to tell about them, I know there is no chance on winning them so I never bothered with them I never got past the third round in either F.A or League cup.
Thank you for reading so far, if you have any suggestions to make my writing better please let me know I am grateful for any advice or requests.