Hello dear friends, it’s time to prepare my Motormen for League One! We did pretty well last season, finished second in League Two and got promoted, but I admit that I would have wanted to grab the title. Anyway, we got promoted and that was another step in our journey from the lowest league to the top of English football. There’s still a long way to go though and League One will be an important hurdle in our path towards glory.
As expected the board didn’t expect more than a scrappy relegation battle. I told them that we can grab a top half finish and they handed me a transfer budget (yay!) of 35,000 pounds and a nice weekly wage budget of 23,500 pounds. I was quite satisfied with those figures, no complaints.
The promotion odds were published and there was nothing surprising there, everybody sees Vauxhall Motors finishing last. They should learn from past mistakes though, we always were predicted to finish last and… you know the outcome! ;)
Before signing new players and staff my main concern was to improve the club’s assets, the pitch and the training facilities. The board finally had enough money to grant my requests so we will play on a perfect pitch at Rivacre Park! The training facilities will be improved for the first time since I took charge and that’s a big step forward.
And now let’s move to the juicy part: the transfers! You might remember me saying that I won’t bring in too many players this time. Well, I couldn’t resist! I brought in 16 new players, five of them on season-long loan deals and three of them for the future (they have already been loaned out to other teams to help their development). Six players were sold and I’m happy to say that we even got some money from two sales, 130K for Fraser Kerr and 10K for Julius Gombala. As you can notice we made only free transfers again and most of the loan players are also free, no wage contributions from us (except one player).
Now let me present you the squad, step by step.
Goalkeepers
I did try to find a new goalkeeper but since there were no appealing targets I decided to keep Martin Hansen for another season and James Dunn as a backup.
Right Backs
Jacob Hronec remains at the club for another season but he will have to face tough competition from this new kid I brought in, 18-year old Ken Harris. He joined us from Manchester United and although he is not very quick I believe that he is a good prospect given his mental attributes. His stamina should also prove to be quite important during the busy period of the season.
Left Backs
This department was totally revamped because I found two much better left back than the ones I had. My first choice is 20-year old Alex Billington, a former Blackburn player with great speed, determination and also with pretty good technical skills.
Billington will have to compete for a first team spot with 18-year old Grant Baddeley, a former Manchester United player who seems to be a quick lad with superb mental attributes. I think that this one could become one of the club’s top players in a year or two.
Centre Backs
I wanted to bring in just one more centre back since we already had Daniel Pappoe, Derrick Williams and Oliver Nicholas. First I wanted to bring in an experienced defender but when I received a scout report on Mervin Simon I didn’t have to look further, I signed him instantly. He is a former Arsenal player and all my staff members believe that he could become a good Premier League defender in the future. I surely hope they are right :)
The squad presentation continues, go to the next page to see our midfielders and strikers!
Go to the next page to read the rest of the story.
Darren Smith
7 января, 2011 at 11:37
Hey Johnny, thats a very productive pre-season. Lots of young talent entering the squad and its great your board have finally invested in some vital aspects of the club. I look forward to what will be an overachieving season Im sure.Goodluck mate.
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 14:16
Thanks for the confidence Darren, taking so many youngsters is risky but I hope they will blend in quickly.
`sea
7 января, 2011 at 11:51
What skin is that and did you no you can get leagues lower on blue square north/south on the game
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 14:19
The skin is called Dominion and it’s used along with the backgrounds pack you can find in the downloads page. I know that lower leagues are available through unofficial add-ons.
Sea
7 января, 2011 at 20:14
Great Thanks
Zola
7 января, 2011 at 11:58
Well the summer became hot in England! Let’s see if they can gel quickly.
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 14:20
Thanks for the comment Zola, I surely hope they will. :)
hils
7 января, 2011 at 15:29
Hi Johnny,Good signings there!!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully they will gel quickly!!!!!!!!! Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 17:07
Thanks Hils.
Ryan Inskip
7 января, 2011 at 15:35
Johnny, you reckon in your next post you could show a print screen of the «Assistant Manager report» of the new-look team? :) all loooks good tho man, keep it up..
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 17:07
Sure Ryan, I’ll put that in the next post.
Laxeyman
7 января, 2011 at 16:27
Good signings there Johnny, you’ve got a lot of players who have a good potential to get better, and will be good this season too. I reckon a top half finish is on the cards, and you can also get to the play offs, although with your stunning record I wouldn’t be suprised if you got promoted. Good luck for the season!
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 17:08
Thanks Laxeyman. I guess I have set high standards for myself, everybody wants a promotion now :) We’ll have to wait and see how it goes, I can’t promise that right now :)
Lye
7 января, 2011 at 16:28
Hi Johnny,
Great young signings. They normally adapt better in lower league so i have no doubt they will do well. Looking forward to a good start by your team. Good luck.
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 17:09
Thanks Lye, I surely hope we’ll have a good start.
Kevin
7 января, 2011 at 17:07
Hi Johnny
Well that was a very busy off season indeed and must required a lot of research and note taking :) All the new recruits look very good so it’s hard to say which is my favorite one at this point. Great pre season results and the «Motormen» look as good as a Dacia :) Best of luck for the new season.
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 17:10
Haha, we do look a bit like Dacia: cheap but pretty good :)
Ana Garcia
7 января, 2011 at 17:26
Plenty of new faces!
I guess you spend alot of time finding players and it pays off as again you have found some promising players.
I love you ambition! Your are newly promoted yet you pick top half finish! I am always to scared to choose anything higher incase I fail and get sacked!
Good luck Johnny, hope you can have another good season!
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 17:41
Thanks for your comment Ana. It’s not about ambition, they wouldn’t dare to sack me after three consecutive promotions! :) Anyway, if they would sack me it would be their loss and another club’s gain :)
Sears
7 января, 2011 at 20:22
Hey Johnny,
you signed some great youngsters and they should serve you well. There all determined players and I think you should be able to challenge for a play off spot, at least :-p
Johnny Karp
7 января, 2011 at 21:21
Thanks Sears. You are right, we seem to be having a pretty determined bunch of players.
Squealy
7 января, 2011 at 23:00
I must admit, I laughed when you said you signed sixteen players.
Good luck Johnny. Your crazy FM skills will led you to first place in no time.
Johnny Karp
8 января, 2011 at 08:49
Thanks for the good luck wish. I signed even more players on other occasions so I guess it’s my way of playing the game.
Vaibhav C.
8 января, 2011 at 09:55
You had a good run in pre-season, hopefully you can continue that form in the league. Great loan with Graham Howson, he’s amazing! He should definitely be your starter. How do you take pictures in FM?
Vaibhav C.
8 января, 2011 at 09:56
Is it using the screenshot button or do you have to download something?
Johnny Karp
8 января, 2011 at 09:56
Thanks mate, Howson will surely be a first team regular. I use a free program called PicPick to make screen shots.
Chris
8 января, 2011 at 10:46
My god Johnny you go through a lot of players. I think you have signed more in that pre-season than i have in 4 years at Manchester United. Keep it up though. The team looks good enough for another promotion
Johnny Karp
8 января, 2011 at 10:52
I wouldn’t sign so many players at Manchester United, there’s no need to add so many new faces there :) We’re in the process of building a team at Vauxhall so there will be lots of players going in and out for a while. I hope you’re right about the promotion though :)
Sayam Khan
9 января, 2011 at 13:34
Hi Johnny,
Why did you sell ozyakup! Also who is your first choice keeper?, they’re both really good. Really impressed with your Mervin Simon transfer, he looks like he will be a great defender! Also Jason Banton, really like him. And lastly Graham Howson — brilliant for League 1. Best signing I think. What do you think?
PS: Can you tell me how to put links in for other players, like you have done. IE. Pietro Palladino?
Johnny Karp
9 января, 2011 at 17:23
Thanks Sayam, Howson and Banton are probably the best players in the team. About the links, I just add a link to the profile picture that I had previously uploaded to the site. Hansen is my first choice goalkeeper. About Ozyakup, he didn’t seem to be able to compete for a first team spot.
James
9 января, 2011 at 16:41
Brilliant Johnny :) Well done matey.
Johnny Karp
9 января, 2011 at 17:20
Thanks James :)
Mariano
29 января, 2011 at 03:01
Hi Johnny,
I´m catching up with my Havant and Waterlouville game:)
Just finished league 2 and won it using your tctic and training schedule!
Now I´m preparing for league 1 as you in this post.
You say you have 11 scouts, where do you send them?
Chers and good luck!
Johnny Karp
29 января, 2011 at 09:37
Hi Mariano and well done on the promotion! One of the scouts is assigned to the next opposition plus UK and Ireland, two are set to roam all over the world and the others are sent to the European regions, South America, Central America, North America and so on. I didn’t send any of them to Asia or Oceania.
Mariano
29 января, 2011 at 10:55
In this version of FM sending the scout to roam the world or regions almost never give me any results. I´ll share how I do when managing English lower leagues.
I send the first to EU countries, mainly with English-speaking players(Scotland, Holland, Norway etc,), big league countries(Italy, Spain) or eastern like Roumania and Poland.
And to look for African-Asian- South American players, what I do is to send the scouts to the continental competition like the African Cup, the U21 South american and so on.
I guess you know, but every scout is allowed to be sent at the same time to one country and one competition, so I can have one scout scouting Bulgaria and at the same time the European U19 cup.
And I made a new discovery to get money from friendlies in the pre season, managing Havant in League one pre season I am able to arrange lots of friendlies with English teams like Man city, Tottenham, Everton, and it gives an earning of 70K american dollars, but I have to play this games before they relay the pitch as it gets destroyed of so many friendlies:)
But at this point I consider that too much friendlies is cheating, but every now and then thos 35K games in New Zealand are indeed needed:)
Johnny Karp
30 января, 2011 at 08:18
Thanks for sharing this Mariano, useful stuff!