How do YOU play Lower League Management?

Any recommendations on lower league (league 1 more specifically) Assistant managers/staff?
 
I always begin with the Blue Sq Regional leagues.

Firstly I (usually) clear the staff and sign much better ones (normally for lower wages too!!)
Ask the Board for a parent club for both the money and the free loans
Release/ Transfer List all average or worse players
Scour for young, free signings with potential
Promote the better of the youth players

Seems to me though that FM 12 is one of the easiest ive played on (last one I bought though was FM09). With Workington I Won the BS North fairly easily, came 3rd in the Conference (beat Wrexham to go up) and have now played and won (against a very good Shrewsbury team) 1 game in League 2. I have yet to pay a transfer fee and the club has (without any prompting from me) decided to build a new stadium with just over double the capacity (6453). I have to pay back £9k a month until 2027 for this and half was through a grant!! Only down side though is that I have just ended up cheating by selling some fringe players to clear the debt (was £400k at the time). I had stuck to just over the wage budget and had much higher than budgeted attendences due to my success
 
Started with Paris FC in the bottom French Leauge semi pro- now in my third season in top french division :)
 
what i tend to do when playing LLM i just look for free transfers, i will have a look around at some players i don't really know or never herd of and then i will do go a couple of players i know. I tend to sign 4 players in the summer and maybe one or two in the jan transfer market. I never get rid of the players what was originally there i give them a chance but then if they are not good enough ill look to replace them. I've played one game with solihull moors and won the BSN and now i'm currently wroking my magic with woking in the BSS. I've always wanted to do like mini updates on my manager mode on here but i feel not many people would follow so i haven't put one up.
 
First thing is to look at club financies and eventualy sell or release those who ovehaul. Then i tray to sign some good free transfer, both youngsters and experienced players, in base of the tactic i want to use. the basic line is to keep salary cap clear if possible and use trasfers founds on salaries.
 
How do I play LLM :)

I usually try to play LLM with the hardest challenge possible! :)Last year I took the completely unknown KooTeePee, from the Finnish 2nd Division up to the top of the world! I took them to the top of Finland very quickly, just to stuck there for like 15 years in row! And then I was finally able to fight for some european titles, after years of development trying to improve the training condtions, building a new stadium, and gaining some european reputation, in order to be be able to attract better players!Its a pretty hard challenge, as there is a reputation cap for clubs from Finland. Its top league has 2* reputation, against the 4,5* reputation of the Premier League, and therefore most good players wont even think about signing for a Finnish club! Nevertheless, after gathering around €100 Million to spend in 2 or 3 seasons, I was finally able to fight back and achieved to win 2 Europa Leagues and 1 Champions League! :DThis year I intend to do it with the Lurgan Celtic, from the 3rd division of Northern Ireland, as this is the worst league reputation of all leagues with more than 1 division! :)Tips for doing that:- Spend the minimum possible in salaries in order to improve your buildings / training conditions! As soon as you get those better you will be able to sign better players!- Plan the whole season very carefully, be aware of the ending contracts, never let a player reach its contract end, sell him 1 year before if he doesnt wanna renew or if you dont need him!- Send scouts wherever you can, and ask them to only recommend u21 players, as those have less reputation and are more willing to sign for a unknown club;- Try to have a tactic pretty simple, the less positions you got in the tactic, the better, as I couldnt have the minimum requirements for UEFA, to sign the 25 players, and then, going on with only 21 players, if you have a tactic with Central Defenders , Wing Backs, Central Midfielders and Forwards, its a lot easier than needing to have spare Wingers, Attacking and Defending Midfielders, beside those I mentioned!- Be determined and patient, as it will take some time! :D- Have fun! :)Cheers,
 
would love an answer for this question plz, when you play matches in your llm game, do you watch the full match,extended, key or just commentary on fast to save time, coz im really slow when im playing the game and that kinda bores me, im on 1 season for like 2 months or even more
 
433 said:
would love an answer for this question plz, when you play matches in your llm game, do you watch the full match,extended, key or just commentary on fast to save time, coz im really slow when im playing the game and that kinda bores me, im on 1 season for like 2 months or even more
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Christ, how often do you play?

I have it on key highlights, but it's relatively slow, but it takes about 2-3 weeks for a season, if that.
 
TheBeardOfZeus said:
Christ, how often do you play?

I have it on key highlights, but it's relatively slow, but it takes about 2-3 weeks for a season, if that.
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Wow, that's slow, I just put it on commentary when I've finished tweaking the tactic and waltz through the season in hours.
 
I normally dump all existing staff to bring in my own guys then look at the team and normally release 50% of the squad 2 reasons being over paid and their ability and i look to lose the reserves i look to raid the free market whilst operating within the wage structure of the club look for a new parent club and then max out on loanees.....................good luck
 
I always completely reshape the club. As long as I can bring in better staff, then I'll get rid of the staff (if the club actually has any!) Same with players. Will usually only bring in frees unless there is an absolute steal from somebody. Usually keep all wages to a minimum to keep the club sustainable, and sign up promising youth players when released at the end of the season to train for a year or two before selling on to make profit for the club. This profit is then used solely for improving the facilities for the club, to help expand
 
I release my whole team and sign at least 25 new players capable of playing 1 league or 2 above and win the league
 
Footy4Life89 said:
I release my whole team and sign at least 25 new players capable of playing 1 league or 2 above and win the league
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Well thats just really time consuming plus it's really bad since all your new players are not used to playing with each other so therefore take a long time for them to work together.
 
Chico Nico said:
Well thats just really time consuming plus it's really bad since all your new players are not used to playing with each other so therefore take a long time for them to work together.
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Well not really it takes an hour maximum and i won the league my 1st and 2nd season with a similar team and i started to make changes again as we got to league 2 and now im in the championship
 
I tend to sign an entirely new team and work my way through with them. I also keep hold of the staff and only worry about that as I progress up into League 1 and above unless I run out of coaches or scouts. I try to keep the wages low but that doesn't always work since I want to climb the leagues as soon as possible.
 
Always try to buy 3-5 new players at the start. Then try to buy 2-3 new players a year. With around the 10 year mark my team is basically just a training ground. My turnover rate is so high (usually 2 guys sold a year) which is why I have to buy new guys. So I buy the younger guys (always under 21) cause by 24-25 years of age teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, ManU, and other top teams come knocking and buy the player up.
 
I am managing my hometown club, Gloucester City and try and play the game as realistic as possible.
Gloucester are a small club with a tiny budget, so I manage City as they are managed in real life. I look for players who are based in the Gloucestershire/Bristol general West Country area as it woud be unrealistic to buy players from anywhere else in the UK. as the wage budget is tiny (2.5k for first season in BSN), I relied mainly on loanees from Cheltenham, Newport County and Bristol Rovers. I came second in my first season, sticking largely with Goucester's current squad. After winning the play offs and gaining promotion, a lot of my senior players left on frees, but i've managed to hold on to some of my top performers from the first season.

Although my wage budget has doubled to 5k a week, this is still tiny for the Blue Square Prem. I am still looking at West Country based players, but am expecting this season to be tough.

I notice that lots of people release pretty much all of their squads when playing non league, but this is unrealistic (although I've done it in the past), and now i've become quite obsessed with managing City in the RIGHT way!

I play down to Level 8 and am also wondering why the Southern League Div 1 Central and South/West reduces massively in nubers from 2012. (14 teams in each division), where their comparitive divisions stay the same. Any ideas?
 
I'm not the best one to set an example, but this is what I do:
-Decide how I want my team to play.
-Look for the best free transfers available.
-Decide which players won't get any minutes and try to exchange them in order to improve the roster. No purchases and no sales as I'm not good at negotiating with other clubs.
-When my players are about to terminate their contract, I look again for free agents. Almost every single player wants me to double their salary.
 
I am being Truro atm in L2, just turned professional. I pretty much have just signed free agents so far and when i first started terminated all the staff and brought in my own, which is important as i use precise, custom training schedules. Also it is important to get promoted quickly (successive promotions) as this will help you get a squad together that isn't just a bunch thrown together like in the BSS and BSP.
Also when i created my manager i always have my second nationality as Swiss (some people say this is cheating, but i don't think so) so that i can not only speak English, but can also speak Italian, French and German.
The two most important things however is trying to get your junior coaching and youth recruitment up as this will lead to potential stars coming in through the ranks for free, and to get on a good cup run as this will bring in much needed funds.
 
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