FM 2012 Charlton AFC story 2029-30: Ever rising

Hey guys and welcome to my FM 2012 Charlton AFC story 2029-30. Last season saw me leave the riches of Scarborough to delve back into the Blue Square Premier. Charlton are my new project and despite the previous coaches terrible start, I managed to reach the play-offs and get promotion to League Two. Starting a new campaign I hope to gain another quick promotion, so lets see what happened during season 2029/30.

The clubs financial issues were apparent from day one, and the initial budget certainly reflected that.

When the seasons expectations came about I was left with very little option other than to consolidate. The board weren’t interested in offering any sort of incentive to tease higher expectations. Not only do we have zero for transfers, but they expect me to drop the wage budget by more than £4K/w. That certainly won’t happen, I’ll just offload a bunch of players to free up funds, then buy all the ones I want straight away to stretch that figure to the max.

On the upside we are favored by the media. They have us at 5-1 for promotion, fourth favorites is a good start.

I’ll begin the transfers section with some players leaving Charlton, nothing major to note though. I just offloaded the money wasters, of which there were many…I mean the previous manager had three players on over £1K/w that weren’t even going to make the subs bench.

With a little breathing space I went about my business and signed some fantastic talent. The best of which are right back Thomas McGrath, central defender Cassidy who is way beyond League Two standard and Owen Moore who will be my advanced playmaker and could make EPL level one day.

Results — August to October

The season started with one almighty bang as Charlton won all their league matches. Some of the scorelines were outrageous, like the 7-0 hammering of East Manchester and 9-1 demolition of Accrington. We also progressed to the 4th round of the Carling Cup beating Portsmouth, EPL’s West Brom and Newcastle before finally losing to Ipswich Town. The JPT went well also as we passed the second round.

Results — November to December

The wonderful form continued into Christmas despite an early defeat to Millwall. My boys put that behind them to win 8 and draw 2 from the next ten games. We also progressed to the FA Cup 3rd round after beating Wimbledon and Southampton not to mention the JPT South semi-final is teed up in our favor.

Come the end of Christmas our stance in the league screamed domination. After 26 games I found myself top of the pile by 11 points after scoring 94 goals. But there was still room for improvement, so onto transfers we go.

A few more players left The Valley in January, two shouldn’t have been there in the first place but Agustin was a decent sub. He was just pushed out by better quality signings.

This moves us nicely onto my one and only signing of the winter, but I think he’s a pretty good one. Davydenko popped up during one of my six month International searches…I was so impressed to see an 18 year old in the Ukrainian national side that I had to take a look. Even more surprising, he was not under proper contract at his club, I offered him a daft wage but felt like I couldn’t miss such a talented winger.

Results — January to March

So with my new signing on the bench, I pushed on through the wind and rain. Our league form didn’t let up though as Charlton won every game bar one which was drawn to Millwall. We even managed to thrash Premier League side Newcastle 3-0 in the FA Cup before losing to Colchester in the 4th round. Not to mention the JPT was sizing up well, our next match will be the final against Ryhope CW (I know what you’re thinking, who?)

JPT final vs Ryhope CW

So my first chance of silverware after we failed to win the league last season. And while you may never have heard of Ryhope, they sit top of League One in the build up to this game. However, it was Charlton who looked the better side taking the lead on 25 minutes. Ryhope enjoyed an equalizer on the 49th minute before my boys hit top gear scoring twice. The game finished 3-1 and Charlton bossed every stat bar possession.

Results — March to May

With all the cup competitions out of the way, I was left to concentrate on League Two and wrapping up promotion. We made the final months look easy winning 7 and drawing just two.

I think its obvious where we finished, top of the table in style. 125 points on the board, just one loss and 152 goals…this was probably my easiest season yet. However, ex-Premiership side Blackburn didn’t have such a great season getting relegated from the football league.

Squad stats and finances

After an incredible season there are many players to mention, but I’ll try and limit the list. The most impressive performer was Styles who managed 18 goals and 35 assists from the right wing. My new signing, Cassidy did the business in defense scoring 20 goals with an average rating of 7.73. Then there’s my star striker, Ramsay who scored an incredible 46 goals and added 13 assists.

Financially things aren’t so positive, the bank balance now reads £663K in the red…a worrying sign and one that won’t improve next season. Hopefully we can stat to expect bigger crowds soon enough and that should help counter the wages and debt.

Many of you declared an interest in how Scarborough are doing, so I promised to keep you updated every season. During 2029/30 my old team finished 4th in the league, a long way behind the leaders too. The Seadogs also lost in the Champions League final to AC Milan on penalties. The only silverware Scarborough actually won was the FA Cup, so not a great season but they still seem to be doing OK I guess.

Well that is all for today, I hope you enjoyed the update and thanks for reading. If you have any questions just place them in the comments box below and I hope to see you next time.