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A Guide to the Romans-Managing Bath City in FMH Bath City FC are a team who play in the Blue Square Bet South, after being relegated in last season. The side are known as the Romans because of the historic Roman town in which they play. Yes, the Romans were obsessed with the place, thanks to the hot springs which can be found in the town, which they believed were gifts from the Gods. Bath play home games at Twerton Park, the record attendance at which was 18,020 against Brighton in 1960. The Romans are managed by Lee Howells, and are owned by Manda Rigby. Their mascot is Bladud the Pig. Bath in FMH The board expect you to ‘mount a serious challenge for the league’. To do this, you get a transfer of £5.25k. Although it’s not a huge amount, it’ll be enough to touch up your squad and get you into the Blue Square Bet Premier. So without further ado, let’s meet the team! Goalkeepers Glyn Garner Garner is without a doubt your best goalkeeper, and the Welshman has 1 full cap for his country. Garner is however 35 years old at the start of the game, so retires at the end of the first season, and you’ll need to sign a replacement next year. Jason Mellor The reason that you’ll need a new keeper is because Mellor shows very little, despite being 22. To put it as your kind hearted assistant will, ‘Mellor isn’t anywhere near the standard of Garner’. Keep him for the first season, and then consider replacing him with a young keeper who’ll take his place on the bench. I didn’t try intensive training with him, so maybe if you do he might get better. Defenders Dan Ball Dan Ball is easily your best left back, but he can also play as a centre back. At 20 years of age, he can also develop into a good League 2 player, as I’ve found(I’m currently attempting the Impossible Challenge with the Romans, and have just been promoted to League 1 in my game- Ball is a staple in my first team). Jim Rollo Rollo is a Bath legend. The 36 year old is in his third spell at the club, and has played almost 500 games for the Romans. Unfortunately, he will not be much use in the long run as he retires at the end of the second season. He is a good squad player in your first season. Gethin Jones Although Jones is 30, he can still be a squad player for a few more years, and will certainly be a first team regular in the first and second season. Not to be confused with the former Blue Peter presenter. Sekani Simpson Simpson will probably be a first teamer in the Conference, and replaced Rollo in that position after he retired. I sold him the next season though. ­ Mark Preece In my opinion Preece is definitely your second best centre back, and good enough to sit on the bench for me in League 2. I would recommend keeping hold of him. Midfielders Josh Low The Welshman is probably your best right back, but prefers to play right midfield. I utilised him with success at right midfield until his retirement in the second season. Luke Cummings Cummings is another right back/midfielder, except he is 20. With intensive training, he could probably become as good as Low. I’d keep hold of him for the first few seasons as squad depth is important when using intensive training at a club which doesn’t have great training facilities. Marc Canham In my opinion, 29 year old Canham is the best central midfielder Bath has. He has average stats, but his mental stats make the difference, as these are all blue bar positioning and aggression. He is still a starter in League 1 for me, and at 32 is courting interest from Watford. Intensive training is however an essential to improve his attacking stats. Joe Burnell Although Burnell has better attacking and defending stats than Canham, he has never done as well for me at Bath. I would recommend replacing him in the second season, because the versatile midfielder is not League 2 standard. His stamina also leaves a bit to be desired, and although it’s not awful, I find he gets tired quite quickly. Chris Allen I have found Chris Allen to be a good player all the way up to League 2. He hasn’t got very good stats beyond there, but they slowly grow as your training takes hold. As I say, not as good as some of your other players. He was a starter for the first season in my team. Adie Harris Harris is pretty poor, but like most players in the squad, he’ll do at this level, and maybe the Blue Square Premier too. He also has poor stamina, so can’t play regularly and will struggle to cope with the rigours of intensive training. I think he retires in the second season. Adam Connolly If Connolly was only about 3 years younger, he could become a good League 2 player. Unfortunately he isn’t, but he is still a good squad player all the way up to that level. Strikers Charlie Griffin The best striker you’ll have, without a doubt. Griffin’s main stats are his shooting and strength. Scrap that, those are his only stats. But alone were good enough to fire Bath to success in both the FA Trophy and the league for me. Griffin does unfortunately retire at the end of the first season, so you’ll have to find a replacement when that happens. Lamar Powell Although Powell is better than fellow youngster he is still fairly poor and I doubt he will feature in your first team plans. I did utilise him on the bench in the first season with small success. I would consider replacing him, certainly in the second season. Kurtis Guthrie Guthrie is very poor above this level, and even above this level. You may find that he will be ok in the first season, but I’d offload him after that. Tactics There are many tactics that you can use, but I found that a basic 4-5-1 worked well in the first season. However, I always recommend you model your formation around your players, not vice versa. As a result of this I changed my formation in the second season to 4-2-3-1. So before we get into transfers, here's what your team will look like if you follow the 4-5-1 Garner Simpson----Jones----Preece----Ball Low----Allen----Canham----Burnell----Powell(Only accomplished, replace or train) Griffin Possible Transfers I really don’t want to be too forceful in this department, as in my opinion finding a new player is one of the best parts of the game. However, I signed Stuart Greacen in the first season on a free from Derry City. He’s put in consistent ratings of 7 and above since. Although he’s seen younger days, Greacen is one of my favourite lower league signings because he stays good until League 1. I also signed James Thomas on a free because he’s quite versatile and is better than Guthrie for the bench. I would also sign Neal Gawley to play at left midfield. Accomplished in every other midfield and attacking role, Gawley is an excellent player at this level and you should soon see the assists rack up. In the second season, I always try to get an early offer in for Joe McKee. Although I didn’t manage to get the Scottish youngster in this save, I have previously and he is an amazing coup for lower league teams. If he's not available, George Baldock will almost certainly sign for a Blue Square Premier team. Remember to search around for youngsters too. So after the first season transfers, this would be my starting eleven Garner Simpson----Jones----Greacen----Ball Low----Allen----Canham----Burnell----Gawley Griffin Finally… I think that anyone can manage the Romans and enjoy it, because it’s a fun career for newbies and Bath are also a good team to start your impossible challenge with. But don’t think Bath is an easy career, because you have to replace some of your best players in the second season, but I'd have a go if I were you . If you have a go let me know, and if you want to see any screenshots, let me know. This is my first guide so feedback please!

Welcome to the guide to LLM (Lower League Management)! In this guide, I will share with you some basic tips to improve your management at 'small clubs' - i.e. those playing in the lower tiers of Europe. I have had a few LLM saves throughout my time playing FMH (Football Manager Handheld), so I will draw on my experiences in those saves. Here are some tips I would like to share (the order is irrelevant): 1. Make use of loan signings - loan signings, or more specifically loans of youngsters from bigger clubs, is an easy way to sign players for your club who cost nothing. When making the offer, I would first check whether or not the player is listed for loan (if he is listed for loan, it is more likely his club will accept your offer) - if he is, then make a loan offer with 0% of his wages and no recall clause. The duration of the loan is up to you, but bear in mind leagues often have loan restrictions (e.g. they may limit your club to four long-term loans a season) - so you may want to check the 'Rules' tab of your league before making your loans. Essentially, only loan players for as long as you need them. 2. Sign some 'shadow players' from your reserves - these are the players who appear greyed-out in your reserves, or sometimes even your first team. They can be signed for free, on wages of £70, and if you look hard enough, you will be able to find some who are promising youngsters, and are worth signing on and promoting to your first team. After signing him, if you want to hold onto him for the long-term, then you need to offer him a contract extension, as most of the time (or maybe all of the time, I am not sure), shadow players sign for your club on a short-term, often one-year, contract. 3. Try to sign players for free, or for very cheap - you will often be able to sign players for free who are willing and good enough to join your club, so refrain from signing many players for fees. Obviously, you can look for unattached players who will join on a free, but I have also found that many transfer-listed players (you can search for them on 'Player Search'), can be signed on a free too - just make an enquiry with their club to check first. If you are playing in a league very low down the footballing pyramid, then you may also be able to sign players for free from rival clubs (clubs in your league), due to them not good enough to warrant a value. 4. Use simple tactics - when it comes to the tactical side of LLM, simple is best. Try to use the most simple of tactics (often a 4-4-2), with as little fancy instructions as possible. What often works best is a 4-4-2 with an AMR and an AML, with instructions such as 'Balanced', 'Mixed' and 'Pressing'. In the lower league, a partnership of Poacher-Target Man is often the best bet for your attack, since it is very simple - but remember, do not buy players to suit a tactic; create a tactic to suit the players! 5. Sell players on high wages - you will probably not need most of these players once you have signed loanees, shadow players or players on frees, since the attributes of your incoming players will most likely be far superior to those at the club when you started. You may want to retain a few players on high wages, if you deem it necessary, but it is best to cut down on the high-earners, because you can often get better or equal players on cheaper wages in LLM. 6. Load a large database - if possible, select 'Large Database' from preferences and load one league. The large database will mean that there will be more players available for you to sign, and loading only the league you are managing in will mean that more players will be at the club when you start. 7. Do not use a training schedule which is too demanding - players in the lower leagues often cannot handle Intensive Training, or anything with a high workload, so try to prevent setting training schedules which are too demanding. You may want a separate (heavier) training schedule for players who are not good enough for your first team, so they can improve (if you do not mind them being injured), but it is generally not a good idea to have a heavy training schedule in LLM. Please note that this guide is written for iOS and Android, although some elements of it may also be applicable to PSP.