Career Foxy the Promotion Hunter: The End

[FuddledFox]

Season 2

After leaving Morecambe I didn’t waste any time in looking for a new job so that I would have plenty of chance to build the squad. There wasn’t a great deal of jobs around and no League 1 clubs wanted me as manager so I had to take a step down a league or two leagues if you consider Morecambe were heading for League 1. I stayed in the North West although further south as I moved from Lancashire to Cheshire and was appointed manager of Macclesfield who had just been relegated from League 2 down to the Conference.

Macclesfield Town Fact File

• Formed: 1874
• Nickname: The Silkmen
• First promoted to the Football League: 1996/97
• Stadium: Moss Rose - Capacity 5911

Macclesfield have been a real yo yo club since 1997 when they first got promoted to the Football League and have been relegated a couple of times and then bounced back and getting them to bounce back was my job this season. 

On paper this seemed a good job to get as they had just been relegated but would still have a few League 2 quality players. In reality I was greeted with a financial mess as the club was spending £8.25k over the wage budget.

The only way I could bring players in was to sell as many of the current squad especially the high earner as possible which wasn’t always easy now it’s been made harder to sell players in recent updates.

Transfers

Spoiler

I really had to get my @Rob Redknapp head on to build a squad within the budget and in total 29 players left the club through the season and 26 joined with an £80k profit.

I was only allowed 6 long term loans so most of the loan players came in for 3 months then I had to replace them so luckily the Conference as an old school transfer window which is open all season until March.

I was pleased that by the end of the season I actually had a large surplus of wage budget so it was a success at least financially for the club.

Outs 

In’s

All the rebuilding would mean nothing if we couldn’t get the club back into the football league though.

Spoiler

The rebuild was more than successful as we walked the league in the end scoring scoring over 100 goals and 100 points in the process.

Notable Matches

Spoiler

Smashing Leyton Orient 3-0 early in the season was a real indication to me that we had a good chance of going up.

Our biggest win came in the Trophy as we smashed Braintree but then we got knocked out in the next round to Aldershot.

In the FA Cup we did well to take League 1 Plymouth to a replay which helped the budget but they were too strong at there own ground.

Top Performers

Spoiler

Mike Fondop and Shamir Mulling formed a formidable partnership up front and were neck and neck for top scorer with Mike taking the honours with 30 goals to Mullings 29.

Manager Profile and Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

I got my first league title but that didn’t increase my reputation so it may be another year in the Conference or  small club in League 2.

I think my financial control stat is very harsh after the way I turned the wage budget round this season.

On the 30th of May I was offered my next job and it is much closer to home for me.

Thanks for reading.

[Ian]

Excellent season again. No messing around just straight down to business, sort them out and leave.

Look forward to the next one.

[Kanegan]

Great job again mate. 

[broodje kip]

That's impressive mate

[Scratch]

Great work mate. Good to see them promoted. There's something Sol doesn't have in common with us... 😄

[Woody]

Such a huge overhaul but with promotion at the end....your the new Barry Fry 😂

[smoggy90]

Great job there mate, look forward to your next stop.

That's one mean looking formation with two strikers, and an FR and FL!

[FuddledFox]

@Ian @Lord Danish @Kanegan @Woody

Thanks guys.

6 minutes ago, smoggy90 said:

Great job there mate, look forward to your next stop.

That's one mean looking formation with two strikers, and an FR and FL!

Well spotted, I only started using it mid way through the season but it worked a treat.

6 hours ago, Scratch said:

Great work mate. Good to see them promoted. There's something Sol doesn't have in common with us... 😄

I think I had a lot less to contend with than Sol.

https://talksport.com/football/efl/603699/arsenal-sol-campbell-reveals-why-he-left-macclesfield-town/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

[Gunners Rishi]

Brilliant ,ate

[Rob]

Leaving Morecambe was a wise thing to do.

[shosky]

Impressive overhauling. I would get a headache doing that. I give to you man

[FuddledFox]

13 hours ago, Rob said:

Leaving Morecambe was a wise thing to do.

Luckily I’m far too young to get that reference 😉 but they didn’t do well without me that’s for sure.

12 hours ago, shosky said:

Impressive overhauling. I would get a headache doing that. I give to you man

It’s fun but it can be hard to keep track of all the comings and goings.

[FuddledFox]

Season 3

I had spent 2 year in “the north” but it was time to come home not just down south and not just back to the West Country but to Gloucestershire. After a season down in the Conference I was offered the chance to step up a league again as I was offered the Forest Green Rovers job. 

Forest Green Rovers Factfile

• Founded in 1889
• Play at The New Lawn with a capacity of 5141.
• They are based in the market town of Nailsworth which has a population of just under 6000 people.
• They were the first club to ever reach the FA Vase and FA Trophy finals.
• Promoted to the Football League in 2017.

FGR are famous these days because of there multimillionaire owner Dale Vince and for the eco friendly and vegan policies he has at the club but it should be noted that the club was a huge success story before he bought them as they had gone from playing in the 9th tier in 1981 to playing in the Conference (tier 5) by 1998. Not an achievement to be dismissed for a club based in what is essentially a large village.

After the financial restrictions at Morecambe and then even more so at Macclesfield I had the luxury of having money to spend at FGR. I still brought in a lot more revenue than I spent and left the next manager with a very healthy budget come the end of the season.

I sold £700k worth of players with most leaving because they had there heads turned by other clubs or they didn’t fit what I wanted to do.

What the extra money meant was I was able to raid the Bosmans instead of relying as much on bringing loan players into the club although I still had a decent number of loanees.

 

How the Season Went

Spoiler

This is the first club that I would have quite enjoyed staying for another season as I’m pretty sure we would have walked League 1 next season as well with the squad we had a few additions.

As it was we didn’t struggle at all in winning the league as we only lost once and even an incredible season from Plymouth didn’t get them close to us.

I haven’t put much emphasis on cups in this save as it’s getting promotion than matters but we did have an FA Cup run which took us to round 4 and included a 4-2 win over Premier League Derby. We lost in the next round 1-0 to Leicester.

Results Against my Old Clubs

Spoiler

Both Morecambe and Macclesfield were in League 2 with us and both badly struggled so it’s no surprise I beat them both home and away.

Morecambe

Macclesfield

In the end they were fighting it out for survival and despite me showing no merecy and us beating Morecambe on the final day they just survived with Macclesfield going back down.

Star Men

Spoiler

Timmy Abraham and Christian Doidge formed a formidable partnership up front together as they accounted for 50 goals between them with Timmy finishing top scorer.

Our man for assists with CM Luke Dreher which was unusual for me not to have a wide man or corner taker getting my most assists.

My rock at the back was Alfie Jones who I picked up on a free after he was released by Southampton.

This was the easiest season yet as I had the money to do what I wanted and as mentioned before probably have smashed League 1 next season as well. If I do get a chance in League 1 though it will be with a different team as towards the end of May I handed in my resignation and was back in the job centre.

 

[Ian]

Your old clubs have certainly missed you. You are proving to be the man to go to when it comes to turning a club around and getting them promoted. I like this way of doing it too as I’ve only done the lower leagues in the past where I just took a team from the bottom all the way up but this seems much more of a challenge and a whole lot more enjoyable. Well done, look forward to the next one. 

[Kanegan]

You are killing it every season mate. Great job so far

[shosky]

It's getting more fun. Always looking forward to your next update. Well done 👍

[Rob]

Brilliant. This is a really fun idea 

[Mr Tree]

well it's a "boo-hiss" from me - where's the plucky 4th place finish then pipped in the playoffs? where are all the players that i might've heard of? Timmy Abraham confuses me. Brentford have signed Joe Adams in real life but that barely, BARELY, raises a smile. must do better.

[Scratch]

Nicely done! Mind you that "Results Against my Old Clubs" section is going to get pretty long by the end of this career!

[FuddledFox]

14 hours ago, Ian said:

Your old clubs have certainly missed you. You are proving to be the man to go to when it comes to turning a club around and getting them promoted. I like this way of doing it too as I’ve only done the lower leagues in the past where I just took a team from the bottom all the way up but this seems much more of a challenge and a whole lot more enjoyable. Well done, look forward to the next one. 

I’m really enjoying this save simply because every season is different and every club needs a rebuild. Taking a club from bottom to top is fun but after season one it becomes much easier to just tweak the squad here and there and go up again whereas every team so far has had a complete re build on this.

3 hours ago, Mr Tree said:

well it's a "boo-hiss" from me - where's the plucky 4th place finish then pipped in the playoffs? where are all the players that i might've heard of? Timmy Abraham confuses me. Brentford have signed Joe Adams in real life but that barely, BARELY, raises a smile. must do better.

I will try better in the future to try and make you “raise a smile” but you might have to wait a season or two.

1 hour ago, Scratch said:

Nicely done! Mind you that "Results Against my Old Clubs" section is going to get pretty long by the end of this career!

It could well do but it would be nice to see some of my former clubs actually do a bit better than they are so far after I have left.

@shosky @Kanegan @Rob

Thanks for the comments guys.

[broodje kip]

Oh my FGR are seriously insane especially with that 4-2-4 formation

🤔 Wonder how tireless your CMs were

[FuddledFox]

6 hours ago, Lord Danish said:

Oh my FGR are seriously insane especially with that 4-2-4 formation

🤔 Wonder how tireless your CMs were

They have to do a shift every game so not very tireless at all so I have four of them to rotate.

[MikeF]

Looking good mate!

[smoggy90]

Smashed that season mate, look forward to seeing where you go next. 

[samhardy]

Well done Foxy the Promotion Hunter.

[FuddledFox]

23 hours ago, MikeF said:

Looking good mate!

 

23 hours ago, smoggy90 said:

Smashed that season mate, look forward to seeing where you go next. 

Thanks lads

Did you like my choice of team this season @samhardy?

[Apexteam]

Why you don't stay at club and promote to Premier League?

[Woody]

19 minutes ago, Apexteam said:

Why you don't stay at club and promote to Premier League?

He is trying to get as many promotions as he can for the Warnock Challenge. Did you not read the OP?

[FuddledFox]

23 minutes ago, Apexteam said:

Why you don't stay at club and promote to Premier League?

Simply because I don’t particularly want to play in the Premier League in this save as I have done lots of big club saves this year. I’m really enjoying going where the game takes me in terms of when I move club I maybe have two or three options of teams that might employ me and then I have to move quickly to build a team that can challenge and that’s what I am enjoying most. Sometimes I end up at an easy club like FGR and other times it’s a bit trickier like Morecambe or Macclesfield with zero money and massively over budget.

[FuddledFox]

Season 4

One thing I have enjoyed about this save is that the club I move to next is almost completely out of my control as I’m at the mercy of who gets sacked or moves jobs. Most seasons I have maybe two or three jobs that I can get and it means that my next club and the level they play don’t make that much sense. I have already got promoted twice out of League Two and once from the Conference so the next logical step would be to head to League One but that’s not possible if the jobs aren’t there.

Thats what happened after I left Forest Green as no League One jobs were available and only a couple in League Two so I took the decision to take a step down the leagues again and manage in the Conference for a second time. This time I would be managing Kidderminster Harriers.

Kidderminster Harriers Fact File

• Formed in 1886.
• Won the Conference twice in 1994 and 2000.
• Won the FA Trophy once in 1987 and been runner up three times in 1991, 1995 and 2007.
• Play at Aggborough which as a capacity of 6444

I might have been thinking with my stomach with my club choice as well because I have been to Aggborough on a couple of occasions to see Oxford take on Kiddy and the food is the best I have ever had in a football ground.

The Cottage pie is a particular favourite.

 

Transfers

Spoiler

In a shocking twist I actually spent some money on a player this time as I signed Terrance Wigley from Chorley to be my BBM for £24k although I sold £35k worth of players to fund it.

 

 Competitions

Spoiler

For the first time in this save I put some emphasis on a cup competition. This was because the FA Trophy started in January which meant I was well ahead in the league and was able to rest star players in league games to make sure I could play a strong team in the cup.

This policy worked out as I lifted the non league double of the Conference and FA Trophy.

Results Against and Performance of Former Clubs

Spoiler

Macclesfield were the only team in the Conference with me and they had a tough time especially against us as we put 11 goals past them in 2 games. They were fighting relegation but did manage to stay up comfortably in the end.

Morecambe struggled again in League 2 but stayed up again.

Forest Green were relegated from League One as they couldn’t continue the form of last season.

Star Performers

Spoiler

It was the strikers that shone with loanee Joe Piggot being top scorer with Joe Ironside who I inherited in the squad just behind him.

Top assister was Shayon Harrison who played as either a wide forward or a striker and wasn’t a designated corner taker or even much of a passer so it was a surprise he topped that stat.

Manager Profile and Trophy Cabinet

Spoiler

My reputation is now regional which I’m hoping means I can get a good League 2 job at best but maybe I could even sneak a League 1 job with that rep which would be ideal.