Kidderminster United: The English La Masia

[UpTheVilla]

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April Round Up

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Crystal Palace - A very comfortable 1-0 win, Palace didn't even have one shot on goal. James Garner with the only goal coming in the 9th minute.
Liverpool - Brilliant result against second placed Liverpool! I thought we'd lost the game when Ward-Prowse scored in the 82nd minute, but then up popped Kevin Dudley with a 94th minute equaliser.
Arsenal - Completely undeserved win for Arsenal, a Sebastian Bell own goal was the difference. We battered them in every other aspect of the game, but I'm still happy with our performance.
Chelsea - Crazy stoppage time drama.. We thought we had won the game in the 91st minute thanks to a Kevin Dudley bullet header.. Eden Hazard scored a last gasp 94th minute goal to make it finish 1-1. Very happy with the result nevertheless in what was a very 50/50 game.
Blues - Absolute scenes at St Andrews as we secure our place in the league for next season. We found ourselves 3-1 down at half time, our goal coming from Keren Tal. We hit early in the second half with Ante Pezo grabbing a goal on the 50th minute. We had to wait until the 92nd minute for our equaliser as Fabio Augusto, returning from injury hit a volley to secure Premier League safety.

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There it is, Premier League safety! Birmingham and Newcastle United will fight it out for the last spot in the league, with it looking unlikely that Stoke will go down.

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Great financial stats as we rake in the 3rd most profit in the league, only behind Man City and Man Utd.​

Yeah I'd like to have a go at a save like this.. how could I get my hands on this database?

I have uploaded the editor data here: https://ufile.io/1xsyx - hope this works

 

[DonVilla]

That's not a bad season. Avoid relegation with a seriously young squad and make a massive profit while you're at it. Hopefully you can go on to achieve more next season.

 

[UpTheVilla]

That's not a bad season. Avoid relegation with a seriously young squad and make a massive profit while you're at it. Hopefully you can go on to achieve more next season.

Thank you! The only aim this season was to stay up at any cost. With the team aged 18-22 surely we can only get better next season? (I hope)

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Great season mate! Turned the corner against Newcastle and never looked back. Fingeres crossed the youngsters come of age next season and a few good signings shoud have you climbing up the table!

 

[UpTheVilla]

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End of Season Round Up

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Burnely - Not quite sure how we've ended up losing this 3-1.. We dominated Burnley all game, they had 3 clear cut chances and took them all.
Fulham - A draw to end the season. A goal in the 1st minute from Kevin Dudley put us 1-0 up, and a goal in the 90th minute from Keren Tal rescued a draw for us.

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We finish our first season in the Premier League in 16th place. I set a target before the season to get 40 points and we finished dead on target. Blues, Burnley and Palace are the 3 relegated teams. Man City won the league, beating Liverpool by 6 points.

Very happy with how this first season has gone, at one point I had just accepted that we would be playing Championship football next season as it just seemed that a win was never going to come! To finish 16th on 40 points is a good achievement with the age of our team.

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Sebastian Bell finishes the season our highest rated player, Kevin Dudley was top scorer with 8 goals & Keren Tal got the most assists with just 4..

As you can see by looking at the player ages column, Walker and Sowah are our only players over the age of 23.. The average age of our playing squad was just 21, it's looking like we have a bright future!

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The board send me through my transfer budget for next season.. £76 million English pounds.. The temptation is going to be so much to spend this, but I want to try and stay true to our philosophy of only re-investing money through transfers and sell on clauses.

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Sebastian Bell wins the fans player of the season and the young player of the season, which is 100% deserved. I know for a fact we wouldn't have stayed up without him as he was pulling off a ridiculous amount of saves in every match.

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The board have announced to expand the stadium again??? This is the second time they have announced an expansion while half way through already completing one.. We will spend the whole of next season ground sharing with Wolves at Molineux again.

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Our youth and training facilities are also getting a revamp.​

Great season mate! Turned the corner against Newcastle and never looked back. Fingeres crossed the youngsters come of age next season and a few good signings shoud have you climbing up the table!

Thanks mate! I honestly thought we were done for at one point, the Newcastle game changed everything. I'll definitely be dipping into the market this summer, I don't want to be anywhere near a relegation battle next season!

 

[DonVilla]

At least you got a decent stadium increase this time. With the transfer budget you've been given, it's going to be very tempting to make big buys. I, for one, would love to see how your youngsters get on though.

 

[UpTheVilla]

At least you got a decent stadium increase this time. With the transfer budget you've been given, it's going to be very tempting to make big buys. I, for one, would love to see how your youngsters get on though.

I think it will take the fun out of this save if I just go spending all the money given to me, I want to stay true to our philosophy and bring through as many academy players as possible and only re-invest money that I generate through transfers.

 

[Brane_Orsou]

Hopefully 22,500 capacity will let you spend some time in the ground before they increase again. Good luck with the summer transfers. Will be seeing how you manage to balance the need for quality players with keeping the youngsters playing and happy.

 

[DonVilla]

I think it will take the fun out of this save if I just go spending all the money given to me, I want to stay true to our philosophy and bring through as many academy players as possible and only re-invest money that I generate through transfers.

Waiting patiently for the next update.
I hope you will be continuing this story mate.

 

[UpTheVilla]

Waiting patiently for the next update.
I hope you will be continuing this story mate.

I can assure you this story will be carrying on until FM20 comes out! I take random breaks from FM for like a few weeks and then just play it hardcore haha, currently in the process of preparing for the new season

 

[DonVilla]

I can assure you this story will be carrying on until FM20 comes out! I take random breaks from FM for like a few weeks and then just play it hardcore haha, currently in the process of preparing for the new season

Excellent! Will keep an eye out for the next update.

 

[dave8721]

Hi, just caught up, great story so far. Looking forward to some of your youth prospects reaching 22/23!

the stadium thing is annoying, but its because they never actually start building till the end of season, so asking in october/november is pointless. No idea why FM does this but I'd say just hold off you expansion requests till the end of season so you dont keep pulling your hair out.

Looking forward to the next update. ta

 

[pebsykid]

Playing around with the editor and just wanted to ask what you had initially set your facilities to? Specifically, I just want to gauge whether having 6 Junior Coaching will bankrupt my level 9 club haha.

Thanks and I have really enjoyed your story!

 

[chrism94]

Unreal save man just catching up now. Don't know if you noticed but that Argentine keeper you brought in had 12 free kicks could be another Rogerio Ceni in the making haha KIU man

 

[UpTheVilla]

Playing around with the editor and just wanted to ask what you had initially set your facilities to? Specifically, I just want to gauge whether having 6 Junior Coaching will bankrupt my level 9 club haha.

Thanks and I have really enjoyed your story!

I set everything regarding youth to the max level, the major increase in running costs is when you get to League Two. With the level of prospects you'll be producing it is self sustaining, I've done many of these saves!

Unreal save man just catching up now. Don't know if you noticed but that Argentine keeper you brought in had 12 free kicks could be another Rogerio Ceni in the making haha KIU man

Never noticed that hahaha, when the time comes I think I'll definitely have to let him take a couple!

 

[UpTheVilla]

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2024/2025 Season Preview

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Sorry for the very long delay in posting, but I am back and ready for our second season in the Premier League!

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A very solid pre season for us, we comfortably won every single game, only conceding 1 goal in the process. Also for the first time in the clubs history we played outside of the UK! We travelled to Red Star FC in France, followed by two tougher games against top tier Nancy in Ligue 1 and Austrian team RB Salzburg.

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My pre-season expectations are the same as last season, to avoid relegation.

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The media are expecting a small improvement on last season with us predicted to finish 16th in the league. We are 400-1 to win the league this season compared to our odds of 1000-1 last season.

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Big money was raked into the club over the summer. Keren Tal and Nathan Steadman were sold for a combined £90 million to Aston Villa and Manchester United.

For me both of these sales were no-brainers with the money that was put on the table, Keren Tal would be our third choice striker and never really hit the ground running in the Premier League, he's only 20 years old but I think £50 million is a very fair price for him, we also get a 50% sell on fee.

Nathan Steadman was one of our best players, but was also constantly unhappy at the club which was bringing down morale and not allowing him to play to his full potential, I managed to negotiate a £40 million fee with a 50% sell on clause AND we get him loaned back to us for another season! Good deal if you ask me??

A lot of our youth prospects have gone out on loan to get some more first team experience, I will post loan reports throughout the season to show how they are getting on.

In total we spent £28.5 million on incoming transfers. Vaclav Jelinek agreed to join us on loan again at the end of last season (that is why is doesn't appear on the list). Jordi Clos returns to us on loan from Barcelona & two African strikers join for a combined £750k, Ivorian international Abdoulaye Zagre and Moroccan international Abderazzak Eniya, they join Championship sides Swansea and Sunderland on loan respectivley. Goalkeeper Matej Kovar joins from Aston Villa for £65k to serve as backup to Sebastian Bell.

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Our major signing of the summer transfer window is 20 year old Dutch international right back Bart Van Grinsven. He joins from Ajax for £17.25 million, which is almost double the transfer fee for our previous record signing. He had a great season with them last year and I'm hoping he will be our first choice right back for many years to come!

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Our next signing is Argentine midfielder Leandro Luque, he joins from Velez for a fee of £8.75 million. I will be playing him in a deep role, he should be a starter for us.

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We add another centre back to our ranks with the signing of 19 year old Marko Brankovic from Partizan for £1.9 million. Standing at 6'6 with insane physical stats, this bloke has the base to become a monster.

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Our final signing is is 20 year old Portuguese midfielder Pedro Soares, who joins on loan from Benfica with an option to buy. Soares will add good depth to our midfield.

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Awful news just 2 days before the start of the season, last seasons player of the season Sebastian Bell gets injured and will be out for 3 months. Our only backup is newly signed Matej Kovar who is only playing at a League One level... Not ideal..

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On paper this is our strongest starting XI, but as you can see we will be missing some key players for the first few games of the season due to injury and international duty.

Here are all the player profiles for our first team squad:

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[UpTheVilla]

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August Round Up

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Stoke - This scoreline really flatters Stoke City, it could easily have been a lot more. An all round brilliant performance with goals from Armstrong, Alexandre, Dudley and Fabio Augusto.
Watford - A solid away performance, Herman Maragh scored a goal from outside the box in the 6th minute to grab the win.
Chelsea - Well beaten by Chelsea, dominated in every aspect of the match.
Liverpool - Can't complain with a point at Anfield. Pezo put us ahead on the 65th minute, Liverpool equalised in the 81st.
Birmingham - A win to end the month as our second string team beat Blues 2-1. Fabio Augusto with both of the goals.

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A very satisfactory first month of the Premier League season sees us sitting in 9th place with 7 points.

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George Armstrong finishes the month as our top performer with an average rating of 7.90. Fabio Augusto is our leading scorer with 3 goals.


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[UpTheVilla]

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September Round Up

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Villa - To call this a frustrating game would be an understatement. We missed around 5 1v1 chances and of course Keren Tal scored for Villa.. Fabio Augusto got our only goal.
Man City - Can't really complain, it seems every other team Man City have played this season got the same treatment..
Wolves - Brilliant home performance to get us back on track, Wolves went ahead in the first half, but a goal from Nabil Kehiha and a 79th minute strike from substitute Ante Pezo saw us grab the 3 points.
Man Utd - We go out of the League Cup with a 4-1 loss to United. A rare goal from Carlos Figueroa saw us take the lead early on but United's quality was too much for our weakened starting XI.
Arsenal - Disappointing end to a disappointing month. Alexandre put us 1-0 up on the 21st minute, but Arsenals relentless attacking saw them put 3 past us.

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After a poor month we sit in 13th place on 10 points, we are currently 6 clear of the relegation zone.

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Sebastian Bell is nearing his return from injury and should be back in the next month or so. The amount of goals we are currently conceding is very concerning.





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[UpTheVilla]

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October Round Up

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West Ham - NEARLY a 10/10 performance until we conceded a goal in the 94th minute to take away our long awaited clean sheet. Can't complain though as we battered West Ham in every aspect of the game, Craig Taylor finally got off the mark with 2 goals & Herman Maragh grabbed his second of the season.
Southampton - Kevin Dudley got himself sent off early on, we didn't have a clear cut chance all game.
Brighton - What a way to end the month!! We come up against high flying Brighton who were sitting in 3rd place before the match, Ante Pezo scored 2 absolute screamers to put us 2-0 up within 30 minutes and then assisted Vaclav Jelinek for our 3rd goal just before half time. We FINALLY keep a clean sheet after bringing Sebastian Bell back into the team (he only had 37% match sharpness). Just an all round brilliant performance.

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We sit comfortably in mid table at the end of October. Is a push for European football on the cards?

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Ante Pezo won the Premier League player of the month for October after a string of great performances. It's looking like he is going to develop into a top player.

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In other news we have agreed to sign 16 year old wonderkid Karel Hajek from Victoria Plzen for a fee of £2.1 million. This kid looks insane. The transfer will go through in next seasons January transfer window.

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[UpTheVilla]

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November Round Up

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Fulham - Fantastic away performance, goals from Alexandre, Jelinek & Dudley helped us to a comfortable win.
Leicester - It really is Ante Pezo FC. Another stunning free kick and man of the match performance from Pezo and a goal from Craig Taylor gave us a solid 2-0 win.
Everton - A very hard fought win at bottom of the league Everton, Craig Taylor with his 4th & 5th goals of the season seal the win for us.

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After our best month in the Premier League so far we climb into the Europa League places and sit in 5th place, we're also just 3 points off 4th placed Chelsea.

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Sebastian Bell coming back into the side has worked wonders for us, the sweeper keeper has an average rating of 7.03 since returning from injury.



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