Redditch: Climbing up to the top - FMFormation.net - Football Manager

Arnehehe · 16-07-08, 12:01 AM

Redditch United

Introduction:
I've played a couple of games with top teams earlier, but now I've decided to go for a real challenge (despite my newbieness), and picked one of the "worst" teams in England: Redditch United.
Redditch are a Blue Square North team with hardly any capacities or budget, and right from the beginning, the bookies have them down as a certain candidate for relegation. In this thread, I'll keep you guys up to date with my progress. My ultimate goal is reaching the Premier Division and becoming a leading international team. Or wherever I get until I get bored.

The first season: 07/08
The suggested ambition was to save the team from relegation, but I added it up a notch to "Mid-table finish" (modest as I am). I knew that with the players I had I could never achieve anything, so to strengthen my squad I requested a parent club which became Aston Villa. They loaned me a couple of players which assisted me throughout the season.

Starting squad:

Transfers:

I now had my squad. But just a squad isn't enough, you need tactics too. For this I used the "Ultimate Tactic" (forgot the author, sorry 'bout that.)

The squad I used mostly throughout the year and tactic:

With the squad and tactics in place, I just needed to get some results. And results, I sure did get.
Mid-season table:

End table

Fixtures:

As you can see, I did great in my first season (All thanks to the loans, woo!), grabbing the promotion through the play-offs and having a great overall season.

Player overview of the end season

Well, that pretty much concludes my first season. Will be keeping you guys up to date on the struggle in Blue Premier League.

Broughy · 16-07-08, 12:12 AM

nice work, Mikaelsson would never come on loan to me (Gainsborough) but guess it helps that he was at your feeder club, seems slightly unfair that you got Aston Villa and i ended up with Lincoln City hahaha.

KUTGW, looking forward to more updates.

Arnehehe · 17-07-08, 09:56 PM

08/09
Well, in this season I lost some stuff, both about the game as my team. I finished a respectable 13th (bookies once again had me down for certain relegation), but as you can see, with my 110 goals scored and 111 goals conceded, I have both the best offense and the second-worst defense. This is mainly due to my awful keeper and DC's, whom I can gladly say will be replaced by both 17 year old regens and old experienced players who are past their prime, but still more than able to dominate the Blue Premier League.

League Table:
(Note: Kettering relegates the season right after their (direct) promotion to the Blue Square Premier, which also denotes the progress my team's made :). I also beat some of the top teams like Rushden in the course of the season (see:fixtures)

Complete list of fixtures:

Transfers during 08/09:

Because I gained two top strikers from Aston Villa on loan this year (Delfouneso and Williams) I decided to go for a 4-2-2-2, and more specifically: "Wozza's Widge"

A nice finances graph:

This pretty much concludes the 08/09 season. My goal for the 09/10 season is to get better defense, attract better staff and try to rely more on potential youngsters than loans.

With ambition of course, comes cleaning up the people who can't compete with the new ambitions of the team.
Current transfers:
I plan to sign a lot of more talented regens in the summer, and some top coaches to guide them.

Wednesdayboy · 20-07-08, 03:01 AM

well done on getting adam mcGurk he's a great player, KUTGW

Broughy · 20-07-08, 10:39 AM

best of luck with the new season, hope you manage to get out of the blue square prem a bit quicker than i am doing.

**WozzaWolves** · 20-07-08, 12:44 PM

I went redditch ages ago, got McGurk, he scored like 45 goals in a season :P

Good luck!

Arnehehe · 20-07-08, 07:56 PM

Season 09/10
Well, this has been a wonderful and lucky season (play-offs in particular, didn't expect to win them :D).

I knew that, to get a higher than my 13th place, I needed to replace my old players with new, better and more talented ones. So, here were my transfers that were supposed to help me achieve promotion. In this season, I used mostly Wozza's Widge and Ultimate tactic (depending on injuries, my 2nd top striker was injured for ~2 months)
Transfers:

League table (after play-offs):

Player overview:

Results:

So, promoted again - 2 promotions in 3 seasons, that's way better than I had expected.

Arnehehe · 22-07-08, 11:01 PM

Season 10/11:
This has been probably my best season so far. I didn't always dominate, but in the end I was the deserved champs, and got the title. And I owe it all to my combination of talented youngsters and past-their-prime oldies, with the wonderful Kimz tactic.

First of all: the new players:

League Table:

Results:

Really pleased with the outcome of this season, and currently trying to prove my worth in the Coca Cola League 1 (Currently mid-season, 15th place)

**Bowser** · 24-07-08, 05:34 PM

Wow, Redditch in L1 eh? how did u take the screeny of the complete fixture list, I can only do like half each time! Despite me getting promoted everytime, none of my players scored more then 30+ which is strange.