Career Welcome to Foxlandia: Club 3

[FuddledFox]

Welcome to Foxlandia 

Actually this is England and not yet Foxlandia but hopefully by the end of this save the utopian (some might say dystopian) land of Foxlandia will very much exist.

Having done a 22 year career at Man City and then another 15 seasons and counting at TNS I fancied something a bit different and involving lots of changes of clubs during the course of however many seasons this goes on for. That is why I have settled on doing a kind of journeyman career that hopefully will be quite relaxed and keep me interested.

I can’t simply play the game straight though I need goals to achieve as I go along moving from club to club working my way up the leagues and knowing me back down and then up again. That is why I have set myself the goal of creating the land of Foxlandia by completing (hopefully) a few different challenges.

Save Setup

Leagues loaded: I have loaded all divisions in England as I have no plans of managing abroad in this save. This also stops the lower leagues being full of Italian, German, Spanish or whoever managers as I enjoy FMM quirks as much as anyone but after a few seasons half the clubs being managed by no mark Italians is a bit irritating. This also reduces the number of players I can sign in the lower leagues as it reduces the number of interested players who will sign for those clubs especially early on.

Badges and Rep: I have given myself a Gold coaching badge as I’m not sure if these can be earned during a save once you are already earned them previously but my reputation is Normal(local) as that can go up during the save.

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Goals of the Save

I have a number of goals during this save and I can add to them as I go along if for example I have an amazing striker I can try for a 100 goal season or I can try for the triple assists. Maybe I will go for the Goal a Minute challenge it all just depends what players and clubs show up along the way.

That said I do have a few goals to start out with.

Goal 1: I want to win every trophy available to me in the save particularly in England as I can’t claim it as Foxlandia if I haven’t won the lot. I then would obviously like to win everything in Europe and the world or at least a Champions League as it depends if I end up at clubs in the Europa League or Euro 2 competitions.

Full list if trophies to win.

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Leagues 

Premier League

Championship

League 1

League 2

National League

NLS

NLN

Domestic Cups

FA Cup

League Cup

Football League Trophy

FA Trophy

Charity Shield

Continental Trophies

Champions League

Europa League

Euro 2

Euro Super Cup

World Club Cup

I may also go for an International job as well but that really depends on my mood as ITN can be very meh. 

Goal 2: I want to get every club that has ever been in the Premier League in the past back there for at least a season. I don’t have to be in charge of the clubs so in season 1 for example it is likely a couple of teams will go up from the Championship and I can tick them off but other clubs like Bolton, Wimbledon and Swindon 🤮 are going to take a lot more work from me to make it happen.

This was created as a challenge a few years ago by @kts365 and I remember @Scratch giving it a go but I’m not sure if it was ever actually achieved or not.

As it stands in April 2020 49 different clubs have spent at least a season in the PL including the 20 that are currently members of the league. That means there is another 29 clubs that I need to hope or help get up to the “promised land” before I call this save a day.

The full list of clubs is under the spoiler.

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2019/2020 Teams (I do not need to get these promoted)

Arsenal

Aston Villa

Bournemouth

Brighton

Burnley

Chelsea

Crystal Palace

Everton

Leicester

Liverpool

Manchester City

Manchester Utd

Newcastle Utd

Norwich

Sheffield Utd

Southampton

Spurs

Watford

West Ham

Wolverhampton

Clubs I do need to get promoted to achieve the challenge 

Barnsley

Birmingham

Blackburn

Blackpool

Bolton

Bradford

Cardiff

Charlton

Coventry

Derby

Fulham

Huddersfield

Hull

Ipswich

Leeds

Middlesbrough

Nottingham Forest

Oldham

Portsmouth

QPR

Reading

Sheffield Wednesday

Stoke

Sunderland

Swansea

Swindon

West Brom

Wigan

Wimbledon (I count AFC Wimbledon as the true successor of Wimbledon so it will be them I will look to promote.)

Goal 3: I was starting to think about this save when @BatiGoal posted this beauty of a challenge a few weeks ago and I have decided I will keep a track of the London clubs and see what I can score for this challenge as well.

 

Club Choice

I decided to take some of my own advice from my How to make FMM more realistic article and start with the club most local to me.

Now the club that is closest to me and actually playable in the game is Cheltenham Town as I live 14 miles from the ground but they are in League 2 and I want to start at the bottom. That means I am taking over at Gloucester City instead who will be moving into there new stadium following 13 years of exile once the new season starts.

There previous ground was flooded in 2007 and that lead to years of moving between one ground share to another as they have played at Cirencester Town, Forest Green, Cheltenham Town.

The last couple of seasons have been spent outside of Gloucestershire at Evesham Utd’s ground in Worcestershire which is nearly as close to me as Cheltenham and a place I was at last September when I witnessed the prestigious FA Cup 2nd round qualifying tie between Evesham Utd and Dorchester Town (2-0 win for the Mighty Magpies).

 

Despite these off field troubles they have had success on the field and have spent the last few years in the National League North although they are one of the smallest teams at that level. 

I don’t intend to spend more than one season at Gloucester so the aim is a quick promotion in the first season winning the league so I can tick my first trophy off the list and then hit the job centre and with a bit of luck get a bigger job.

I will be doing my updates per club instead of per season so some might be quite quick in being posted and others may take longer.

Thanks for reading and all comments are appreciated.

[Woody]

This should be an enjoyable follow. 

Best of luck in your conquering endeavours 😉

[Rob]

I love this. Good luck!

[Dagion]

This will be good! Also, if you give yourself a bronze badge (or whatever the lowest is) after unlocking a gold badge you have to take an assessment just like the other staff.

However, you immediately get promoted to gold instead of silver. Not sure if it's possible at the start because I usually forget about myself.

[Ian]

Sounds like a nice save to play and for us to follow.

[FuddledFox]

@Woody @Rob @Ian thanks for the comments and I hope you enjoy the save.

44 minutes ago, Dagion said:

This will be good! Also, if you give yourself a bronze badge (or whatever the lowest is) after unlocking a gold badge you have to take an assessment just like the other staff.

However, you immediately get promoted to gold instead of silver. Not sure if it's possible at the start because I usually forget about myself.

I had a feeling that was the case but I couldn’t remember so I just stuck with a gold badge as I can’t see it being a huge benefit early on in the save when I’m at small clubs that train on ploughed fields.

[broodje kip]

Interesting one Foxy. Good luck

[Kanegan]

Very interesting save. Good luck. 

[BatiGoal]

Looks a very interesting follow with the possibility of any (side) challenge making a surprise appearance. Great idea! 

[Scratch]

This will be super interesting to follow!

I did complete the Second Chances career (link), but didn't ask to be on the leaderboad, because I did it as a fun no holds barred save. I did everything the game let me do, including stuff that would be super illegal in real life - for eg: Buying a couple of fringe players from the club I'm just about to move to for £150M... and throwing in some good youngsters on exchange... Was fun, but still really hard - I can't even imagine doing it with a realistic approach!

Of course what you're attempting with the other goals too, makes you totally insane! 😄 But then, I guess I'm insane too because I think you might actually be able to pull it off! 🙂

[FuddledFox]

@Lord Danish @Kanegan thanks for the comments guys.

@BatiGoal the fun bit for me is that I have no idea what challenge might make a surprise appearance at some point either as it just takes the right combination of club or player to spark something.

@Scratch I could definitely remember you doing the save and I remembered you starting at Barcelona but I couldn’t remember how it went or find it on the forum so thanks for the link. As for doing it with a realistic approach I’m not sure I will stick to that once the seasons start ticking on and I might be throwing clubs some money a few seasons in.

My biggest worry is that Swindon start in Lg2 and I’m certain there is little chance they will get to the PL under there own steam so at some point I am going to have to do something horrible and take the job and not only that be successful 🤢

[Scratch]

8 minutes ago, Foxy said:

@Scratch I could definitely remember you doing the save and I remembered you starting at Barcelona but I couldn’t remember how it went or find it on the forum so thanks for the link. As for doing it with a realistic approach I’m not sure I will stick to that once the seasons start ticking on and I might be throwing clubs some money a few seasons in.

I definitely got more and more 'creative', shall we say, as the save went on. Tried anything that would help. Buying all the GKs from the opponents of a team I wasn't managing to help them get promoted. Giving cash/good players to teams I wanted to do well (they didn't generally use it wisely). etc etc. 

10 minutes ago, Foxy said:

My biggest worry is that Swindon start in Lg2 and I’m certain there is little chance they will get to the PL under there own steam so at some point I am going to have to do something horrible and take the job and not only that be successful 🤢

Swindon! 🤢 I think you can make an exception for them... Maybe the Championship is enough? Or if you have to do it, just make sure they are at the bottom of the EPL and Oxford is up the top.

[Mr Tree]

good luck mate, should be fun - doing every club but Swindon might be nice, too  or get them up but then totally gut them on your way out so they have a historically bad season (nvm, the AI would probably get them to 12th anyway 🤦‍♂️ )

[FuddledFox]

17 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

good luck mate, should be fun - doing every club but Swindon might be nice, too  or get them up but then totally gut them on your way out so they have a historically bad season (nvm, the AI would probably get them to 12th anyway 🤦‍♂️ )

You mean worse than the last time they were there and the lovely 100 goals they conceded?

[BatiGoal]

1 hour ago, Foxy said:

You mean worse than the last time they were there and the lovely 100 goals they conceded?

Good lord!! 

[Mr Tree]

3 hours ago, Foxy said:

You mean worse than the last time they were there and the lovely 100 goals they conceded?

yeah, i reckon you can set them up to do even worse than that

[FuddledFox]

2 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Good lord!! 

 

15 minutes ago, Mr Tree said:

yeah, i reckon you can set them up to do even worse than that

Weirdly I was listening to the Totally Football Show podcast this morning and they reviewed that season which was 1993/94.

The funny thing was Swindon went into the final match needing to avoid a 5-0 defeat at home to Leeds to avoid conceding 100 goals in a season and then promptly got smashed 5-0!

[FuddledFox]

Club 1 - The Gloucestershire Gladiators

June 2019

A rakishly good looking Fox looking dapper in his George by Asda suit stood outside a building site on the edge of Gloucester city centre and surveyed the scene. This was supposed to be the site of the football ground where he would begin his journey to greatness and yet it looked more like a ploughed field.  

The chairman of the club was driving the bulldozer and on spotting the Fox he jumped out and came over.
“Ow bist Fuddled! The stadium is coming on a treat boy. A bit of turf over all this mud and we are good to go for the season.”

The Fox just looked around and said nothing.

The chairman continued “we are looking forward to the season now we have you on board. A local lad like you is just what this club needs for us to push on up the leagues and over take Cheltenham and Forest Green as Gloucestershire’s number 1 team.”

The Fox again said nothing and instead just looked at the mud. He had no intention of staying here any longer than he needed to....

The Season

I had next to zero money to spend when I took over either in wages of transfer budget so the first thing I did was ship out as much of the deadwood as possible to free up some funds.

 

It was then a case of free transfers and loans to build the squad up in both size and quality.

With these signings the players I already had it gave me a squad of 23 players which I think is the sweet spot even at this level because I find putting out a fit team each game can overcome a lack of quality in the team. My wage budget was just £5k a week so the loans, most of which were youngsters which we didn’t pay any wages towards, really help to bulk out the squad and they added some quality.

I did inherit a few decent players though with Fabian Robert being an important midfielder for us all season.

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Jennison Myrie-Williams was a favourite of mine years ago when he was at Bristol City and I would always try and sign him on what would have been Football Manager 2009 or 10 I guess. His career never progressed as it did in those FM saves and he isn’t looking great these days but he could do a job for me.

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Sam Avery was already at the club as well and looks a good if very limited CB.

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All though one of my aims in this save is to win everything in England I wasn’t worried by the cups this season as I didn’t expect us to put much of run together as the quality wasn’t in the squad to do so. I was more interested in ensuring we win the league so I could tick off the VNN so I rested players to keep them fit.

We went out of the FA Trophy at the first stage and the FA Cup at the second hurdle.

This left me solely focused on the league which we duly went and won by 20 points despite 6 lost matches and 7 draws. Teams are very well matched at this level so it doesn’t take huge unbeaten runs to do well just a good level of consistency.

I find that I can get that consistency because of the size of squad I have and the fact I can swap players in and out to keep them fit especially as players tire quickly at this level. That way I don’t necessarily have players who are any better than any other teams but I have fit players who can overwhelm the teams in the league as shown by 91 goals scored.

A few key performers.

Top Goalscorer

He only got 17 goals but my loanee from Oxford Jordan Edwards finished as our top scorer as the goals were spread around the team.

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Top Assists

Davis Keillor-Dunn was one of the players I got on a free and he proved a good signing with 15 assists as an IF.

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Top AvR 

Another loanee and IF was my top performer in terms of AvR.

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Player Stats

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The Challenges

Obviously Gloucester is neither in London and have never been in the Premier League so I was unable to have any impact on these challenges this season but the good thing is I don’t need to.

Second Chances

I really hoped that some of the teams in the Championship would get themselves promoted this season and that is exactly what happened and it couldn’t have been any better as Leeds and Forest went up automatically and then Stoke went and won the playoffs.

Straight away that’s three teams I don’t need to worry about now in this save.

 

Some other clubs moved up or down as well.

Championship: QPR and Hull both relegated. 

League 1: Ipswich and Coventry both promoted but Wimbledon relegated.

League 2: Swindon got promoted.

London Clubs

This didn’t go as well as no London clubs got promoted this season but QPR in the Championship and Wimbledon in League 1 both went down. The Wimbledon relegation is a pain as well because I need them to be higher in the leagues in order that one day they can get into the Premier League.

League Tables Effecting Both Challenges

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At the end of the season I left for pastures new in order to have a better chance of winning more trophies and I will reveal all in the next update.

Thanks for reading.

[Rob]

I love this. And that is a pretty much spot on writeup of Gloucester 🤣

[Woody]

And the story begins....Loved it 👍

[Cockers2505]

Good first season Foxy, look forward to seeing who you get next 👍

[BatiGoal]

Great start, Fox. You did what we've come to expect from you. I'm hoping those London Teams do their part for you next season. 

[FuddledFox]

3 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

London Teams do their part for you next season.

I might have to start taking matters into my own hands soon.

[smoggy90]

Excellent start foxy and a really interesting challenge. I look forward to seeing where it takes you. 

[JustM1kePlays]

Great write up as always Foxy.

[FuddledFox]

11 hours ago, JustM1kePlays said:

Great write up as always Foxy.

Cheers Mike.

[FuddledFox]

Club 2 - The Cheltenham Chav’s

Foxy was sitting in his office the day after the season had finished. He was thinking about his future and how he would approach a season in the National League with Gloucester.

His phone rang and he looked at the screen to see the name Mental Micky who is his “agent”. He answered but before he could say a word Mental Micky was off.

”Right shut the f*** up Foxy you ****!!!”

Foxy hadn’t said anything.

”I have a f***ing job for you and you need to be at the Harvester in the Brewery in the next hour”

Foxy was intrigued but also nervous what Mental meant by a “job”.

”Oh and Foxy don’t f*** this up and at the meeting keep your f***ing mouth shut”

An hour later Foxy was tucking into the buffet salad and waiting for his dirty burger to be delivered. He was vaguely aware of Mental Micky F’ing and Jeffing at some bloke in a suit but he was hungry so concentrated on his food.

”Right Foxy it’s sorted”.

The other guy shook Foxy’s hand and said “see you at Whaddon Road tomorrow and I will show you round the place”.

It seemed Foxy was heading the few miles up the Golden Valley bypass and taking charge of Gloucester City’s biggest rivals Cheltenham Town.

My Time at the Robins

Cheltenham had been relegated to the National League in season 1 so I wasn’t going up the leagues any further than I would have at Gloucester but I would have much more chance of winning the VNL and ticking that trophy off of my list.

I walked into a club that was struggling financially.

A huge part of that was a lot of players that were quite frankly rubbish but were earning some huge money for this level.

Case in point is Craig Curran on £2.4k a week and I wouldn’t have wanted him at Gloucester the season before!

 

Luckily I moved most of these wasters on and I also had a jewel I could sell for big money.

Timi is ok but his value means I could offer him out get some money and I wouldn’t be bothered to se the back of him.

 

The Posh took the bait and this helped ease some of the financial pressure on the club and set us up for a couple of good seasons.

 

The in’s and out’s show the extent of the rebuild before my first season at the club and a very healthy profit for the club as well.

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Outs

In’s

I was hoping for a cup double but we crashed out of the Trophy far to early so that cup will have to wait.

Te league went much better though and I can tick the VNL off of my list of trophies to win.

Player Stats

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League Two

I considered moving on again but I decided that I had built a squad that could probably win Lg2 as well with a few additions so I stayed.

Ok it was maybe a few more than a few additions!

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Out’s

 

In’s

I got as far as the Quarter Finals of the Checkashit but that was it.

Crewe pushed us all the way in the league and I was hampered by a lot of international call ups through the season and no break in games when they happened. 

In the end it didn’t stop me winning the division.

 

Season 2 Player Stats

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My Star Man

Signed for £3k from Chesterfield at the beginning of my first season at the club Mike Fondop was everything I expected him to be as I had used him a couple of times last year.

 

After two seasons and two more leagues won and ticked off it is time to move on.

The Challenges

Three seasons into this save and I still haven’t had any influence on these two challenges. They still keep on going though in the background.

Second Chances

I was able to tick off another three clubs on this challenge with zero effort from myself as in season 2 Fulham and WBA went back up to the PL then in season 3 it was Blackburn that went up.

Here is the clubs promoted back to the PL so far

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London Clubs

Three seasons in and I am breaking even on this challenge with just as many promotions as relegations.

Here is the league tables from my two seasons at Cheltenham to show all the ups and downs for both challenges.

Career Season 2

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Career Season 3

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Trophies so Far

Thanks for reading.

 

[Rob]

Love it. Great career so far. I absolutely love the Harvester bit 🤣 I hope you noshed the rolls there too - I love them! 

[Seth Anacondas]

Great job Foxy, signed Fondop for my Leyton Orient and he was fantastic. IRL, unlike other footballers, he began his career only began his career after getting a first class degree from the University of Essex. Also great to see Fulham go up, though at this point we can potentially play Seri, Anguissa and Mitrovic together.

[FuddledFox]

14 hours ago, Rob said:

Love it. Great career so far. I absolutely love the Harvester bit 🤣 I hope you noshed the rolls there too - I love them! 

Of course I had some rolls but you do have to be careful and tactical with them otherwise you can fill yourself up too much and risk not wanting a pudding.

5 hours ago, Seth Anacondas said:

Great job Foxy, signed Fondop for my Leyton Orient and he was fantastic. IRL, unlike other footballers, he began his career only began his career after getting a first class degree from the University of Essex. Also great to see Fulham go up, though at this point we can potentially play Seri, Anguissa and Mitrovic together.

Thats interesting thanks for sharing the article