"Lotto FC" - A Lottery Winner's Adventure

[ZamboUK]

Hey all, this is a story I started on another forums, but after a run in with a moderator on their site, I asked for my account to be closed so that I could be removed from their community. I still intend to continue to the story and I'm hoping that some fo you here will at least get some enjoyment out of it and will be able to contribute / give me feedback on how I'm doing!

First things first, let me give you a quick run down on how my game is being played.
I'm playing in FM Classic mode, with an edited database (for reasons which will become apparent as you read on). I'm not any sort of FM God, and I haven't edited all my players to be uber football legends, so you can expect a fair number of losses in my results!

I've tried my hand at making some very amateur graphics, I'll try and improve them as we go along...unless some of you artistic legends can outdo my meagre efforts of course!

Any and all feedback is appreciated....and above all things...have a good time reading my story

 

[ZamboUK]

​

Lottery Winner buys lower league club!
17 July 2012

Euromillions jackpot winner, Jay Zambo has secretly purchased and taken over a lower league football club. The FA announced today, that the club previously named as Truro, will now be renamed as "Lotto FC" and relocated to Milton Keynes.

Zambo has worked behind the scenes to secure his takeover bid, completely buying out all the previous members of the board and assuming complete ownership of the club. Sky Sports understands that Zambo has already secured a new 10000 seater stadium in Milton Keynes, where the club will be relocating to.

Zambo has been busy, clearing the club's previous debts and injecting £2 million pounds in to the club's coffers. It has been rumoured that Zambo will not be investing any more funds in to the club and he intends to make sure the club is able to turn a profit for itself in order to be self-sufficient and fund it's own growth.

Lotto FC will play their games in the Blue Square Bet South league, taking over where Truro FC left off. There have been no rumours of any players or staff members leaving or joining the club at this stage, but we understand that Zambo intends to fully take control of the club himself, dispensing of the previous manager's services immediately so that he can fill the vacant manager's position himself.


Will Lotto FC become the Man City of the lower leagues? Only time will tell...

 

[ZamboUK]

​

The First Press Conference

Jay Zambo: "Alright, I want to start off by thanking everyone for joining us today at what will be the first, but I'm certain not the last Press Conference at our new Camelot Arena football ground. Let's take some questions..."

Russell Barder: "Morning Mr. Zambo, I'm Russell from the Milton Keynes Citizen...my first question is about what prompted the relocation to our city?"

Zambo: "The club has big aspirations Russell. We don't intend to remain languishing in the lower leagues for long and we need to have a stadium and the infrastructure in place to support our aspirations. We couldn't get planning permissions for a new stadium in Cornwall, and let's be honest...if we manage to make it to the dizzy heights of the Premier League, how would we manage to move thirty thousand supporters in and around Cornwall to come and see our matches? Moving to Milton Keynes allows us a better opporunity to grow as there is already a substantial travel network in place and they are used to hosting bigger matches with being the home of the MK Dons"

Rob Beasley: "Morning, I'm Rob with The Sun. Simple question from me, are you going to continue bankrolling the club until they reach success?"

Zambo: "Simple answer to that one, Rob. No. I've made a considerable investment in the club already and I'm looking at this as a business venture. I have a good team of financial experts on board and our intention is to allow the club to become self-sufficient. We want the club to generate enough income to be able to fund it's own growth. I won't just be pouring my lottery winnings in to the club...the wife wouldn't let me!"

Georgie Bingham: "Georgie, from Sky Sports. The club has been stuck in the relegation zone recently, what are your aspirations for the new season? And how do you hope to meet those aspirations?"

Zambo: "Well Georgie, I think the club can do much better than it has been doing that's for sure. I met with the other members of the staff today and let them know that I intend to aim for a top half finish this season. We've agreed that I'll have a £180,000 transfer kitty to play with and a reasonable wage budget. I think I should be able to turn the team around with bankrupting us already that's for sure!"

Steve McManaman: "Steve with ESPN. Not exactly football related, but what's the silliest thing you've bought with your winnings so far?"

Zambo: "Apart from this club you mean? Ha, I'm not sure yet...although I'm sure some of you will be slating my transfers in the coming weeks...so maybe you'll be able to make up your own minds then? Anyway, thank you all for your time, I look forward to the next time we meet!"

 

[coolmcool]

I live 5 miles from Truro! I cant believe you have taken Cornwalls only decent team! Sounds interesting though

 

[Darthpootle]

How did you get an edited database into FMC?

 

[ZamboUK]

​

Lotto FC V United Truro FC ends in violence.

20 July 2012

A pre-season friendly match between Lotto FC and United Truro FC was cancelled today amidst scenes of extreme violence and clashes between highly charged groups of supporters from both sides.

In a move to try and unite the seperated fanbase, club officials had arranged a match between the newly formed United Truro FC and the newly re-branded Lotto FC. Lotto FC, previously known as Truro FC were bought and taken over by the new manager and previous Euro Millions jackpot winner, Jay Zambo in a move that angered a large section of die hard fans at the club. The new owner and boss decided to relocate the club to Milton Keynes, prompting a large group of fans to form together and form their own club, United Truro FC, that they say is the true continuation of the club's lineage.

The match today was meant as a way to unite the two seperate groups of fans and try to alleivate some of the anomosity between the two groups, but just fifteen minutes in to the game, officials were forced to cancel the match as the crowd began to turn on each other and police vans, full of officers decked out in riot gear had to be deployed to bring the violence to and end.

Club officials and players on both sides called for a calm between the two groups and welcomed open conversation between the fans, Lotto FC owner and manager Jay Zambo tweeted: "This is far from the beautiful game I thought I had signed up to be a part of".

The FA confirmed that they were investigating the incident and would announce shortly whether or not either of the clubs would face any sanctions as a result of the violence.

 

[ZamboUK]

Pre-Season Update​

Transfers


I decided that I'd be foolish to fritter away my transfer budget on trying to actually pay for players, so I adjusted my budget to give me a wage budget of around £15,000 per week, an increase of almost 50% to the budget!


Bobby Traynor (ST) - Free Transfer

I had no strikers in the squad, so it was fairly obvious that this was an area that needed investment. With a fairly decent burst of speed and a high finishing rating, I'm hoping that Traynor will bag a few goals over the course of the season.


Danny Hockton (ST) - Free Transfer

Again, another striker to add to the squad. Poor physical stats, but decent technical stats. I'm hoping Danny will excel as a DLF.


Jermaine Hinds (DM/MC) - Free Transfer

A decent looking BWM to hopefully bolster the defence and help us play some more compact and tight football. Good Teamwork / Work Rate, coupled with high Tackling should make Hinds a huge success in this role!


Calum Butcher (DC/DR) - Free Transfer

]

A great addition to the squad at centreback. Butcher will go straight in to the first team and provide the sort of defensive strength we're going to need to pull through this season unscathed!


Andrew Smart (DL/MC/ML) - Free Transfer

A versatile player that will add great cover to the squad, being adept at playing both LB and DM. Lacking in physical stats, but a great array of technical stats to draw on will hopefully be enough to to bolster the team!


Brian Close (DR/WBR/MC) - Free Transfer

]

Another versatile player that will cover a range of positions in the team. The stats are not the greatest, but he offers cover in an area where I would otherwise be very short of cover.


Richard Stevens (ST) - Free Transfer

Another striker, bringing the total to three in the squad. Stevens will mainly feature as a back up to the other two, but at only 22 years old, there's hopefully some room for improvement and maybe he can break in to the first team eventually?


Tom Harvey (DR) - Free Transfer

Another squad player, will offer some cover to our RB position. Harvey will play as a Rotation player as and when other players need a rest.


David Lynch(MC) - Free Transfer

A great addition to our midfield, a hugely talented, young, CM who will hopefully provide the creative impetus we need to make and create goal scoring opportunities. Lynch is probably the signing I'm most proud of at this early stage.

Harvey Owen (DC/DL) - Free Transfer

Sadly, I couldn't convince Owen to re-sign a new contract with the club, so he leaves as a free agent. There are no clubs interested in signing him, so I guess he's moved off to start a new career as an adult performer....who knows?!?


　

Friendly Results​

Brackley v Lotto FC

A disappointing draw against a team we should probably have beaten. All in all, I'm not too concerned as there have been a whole host of new transfers in and a change in terms of tactics, the players will need some time to settle in and adapt.


Lotto FC v Woking

A good result against a team a whole league higher than us in the standings. Woking scored the first goal, but we kept the pressure on throughout the match before finally breaking our duck from a corner towards the end of the game. We were unlucky not to have scored more and probably should have won the match as Woking made ver few chances themselves.


Lotto FC v Tranmere

A great result against a team a whole three divisions higher up than us. They fielded an almost full strength team, but they couldn't break down our defences. We sustained a lot of early pressure, but as the game went on, we made a few decent chances, but failed to capitalise on them properly.


Hendon v Lotto FC

A poor result. Our first loss against a team that we should have destroyed. In the end, we had over 20 attempts on target including 3 clear cut chances. Our strikers should have done better and they will definitely have to improve on their finishing before the start of the season.


　

Summary​

All in all, a mixed bag of results. Some good draws against possibly stronger teams, but two matches that we should have won went begging owing to our lack of efficiency in front of goal. The strikers will have to work much harder if we're to meet my heady expectations of a Top Half Finish this season.


Next Up: The season kicks off!

 

[ZamboUK]

@Coolmcool: Sorry buddy! I only chose Truro because they were the team in the BSS with the least rep etc, and I thought it would have the least impact on the challenge of the story!

@Darthpoole: There's a pretty well known glitch / work around for FMC to allow edited databases. To save you having to trawl through loads of posts to find it though, you need to load a Football Manager Career game and choose your edited database to load up. Once the database is loaded and you're on the "Choose Nations", click on the "FM" menu button and choose "Quit to Start Screen" from there you can load a FMC game and it will / should have your edited database!

 

[Darthpootle]

Ah much appriciated mate. I will be following this story with interest.

 

[ZamboUK]

August Update​

August would mark my debut in competitive football management, with a fixture list filled with challenging league matches. Our intention was to at least secure a top half finish, if not even push for promotion, but the media and bookmakers didn't much fancy our chances. The latest odds on us securing the title were a whopping 40-1, making us total rank outsiders to mount any sort of serious title challenge. We were fancied to go down, although I knew there was no chance of us being in the relegation zone!

Our inconsistent pre-season results bore heavy on my mind. We had some decent performances, but however you looked at it, we lacked any sort of killer instinct in the opposition box. We made plenty of chances, but the strikers just couldn't put them away...
With that in mind, with the run up to our first Blue Square South match, I switched the training to focus on Attacking Play and Attacking Movement.

11 Aug 2012

Tonbridge 1 - 2 Lotto FC

Smart (51)

Huggins (o.g 66)

Stevens (77)

I couldn't have asked for a better result for my debut match. A tricky away fixture, with the lads seemingly unable to score goals in the pre-season and a novice manager in charge...things didn't bode well for my team on paper. A cracking all round performance, bar the silly mistake from Huggins leading to him scoring an own goal.

Transfer Update

​

13 Aug 2012

After realising that we were still obviously lacking amongst our strikers, I decided to scour the market for another one to add to our ranks. After some heavy scouting, I came across Dene Cropper, a 29 year old Free Agent who had just been released from Matlock in the division below our team. He looked like a good player and someone that could add some much needed firepower upfront, so I secured him on a free!

Dene Cropper (ST) - Free Transfer

15 Aug 2012

Lotto FC 1 - 0 Boreham Wood

Sisson (60)

Another top quality performance in all areas of the pitch. Borehamwood played a 4-5-1, which heavily outnumbered my midfield for large portions of the match, as a result we found it tricky to get a foothold on the game and keep possession. I switched my touchline shouts around, encouraging the boys to play shorter, simpler passes to the feet and suddenly things took off. Borehamwood couldn't cope with us when we had the ball, and after a handful of chances, RM Brad Sisson scored a cracker of a goal to seal up the points and mark my second victory on the trot!


18 Aug 2012

AFC Hornchurch 1 - 5 Lotto FC

Cropper (23,28)

Goodacre (43)

Hinds (52)

Stevens (65)

Sisson (81)

Butcher (inj. 84)

An outstanding performance from every single player on the pitch. We absolutely battered AFC Hornchurch and despite the stats showing they had 13 shots, only 3 of those were on target, as opposed to our 7 shots on target. A gruelling third match in seven days since the start of the season had started to take it's toll on the team as fitness levels dropped all over the squad. I tried not to rotate the players too much, in order to help with their Team Cohesion, but this backfired when our star centreback Butcher sustained a late injury that looked to be serious. Two goals from new boy Cropper in his second match and another scorcher from RM Sisson ensured that we got the points and the plaudits we deserved!


25 Aug 2012

Bath 0 - 1 Lotto FC

Stevens (43)

This was a nailbiter. We had a whole week off between our last match and this one, which was a good thing as it allowed Butcher enough time to fully recover from the knock he had taken in the previous match and helped the squad's overall fitness start to pick up again. However, Bath are a good team and this was always going to prove to be a tricky fixture.
We maintained our 100% start to the season, courtesy of a beauty by Stevens. The possession looks more tipped in our favour, but from the highlights, Bath made the better of the chances and were unfortunate to not have scored.


End of August League Position: 1st

An amazing start to the season, I honestly did not think that we would have a 100% record and be sitting pretty at the top of the table with a two point advantage. The boys did amazingly well, prompting the inclusion of four of our players in the Team of the Week. We only have a small squad, so this packed fixture list is bound to take it's toll on us at some point, but while we can we'll reap the rewards of our preparation and keep trying to put those points on the board where it counts.

Surely I'm favourite for the Manager of the Month award now....?

 

[ZamboUK]

Also, I've just realised that in my edited database, I forgot to switch the team around with Truro in the Cup competitions. This means that for this season at least, the game won't enter us into any of the cup competitions... >.>.

From next season, the game should repopulate the entry lists and we should be entered in to the cups from there on in....I hope...

 

[ZamboUK]

Seems like I spoke to soon, got in to the draw for the FA Cup qualifying rounds..so looks like there will be some cup football for us after all!

September Update to follow!

 

[ZamboUK]

September Update​

After an amazing first month in competitive football management, I found myself in the very enviable position of having won four out of four of my first games in charge and our team were happily sitting atop the table with a two point advantage over our nearest rivals.

The media predicted that we would be embroiled in a relegation battle, but we were proving them all wrong and establishing ourselves as real contenders for the league title. I set myself a target of a top half finish, but with our recent form I was starting to become hopeful that maybe we could go further and push for promotion via the play-offs!

I knew our good form wouldn't last forever, but I was determined to keep it going for as long as I could do so that we could keep putting those precious points on the board.

1 Sep 2012

Lotto FC 0 - 0 Dover

A bore draw. All in all, not a bad result I suppose, we maintain our unbeaten streak, but our 100% record falls by the way side. After an encouraging start to the season, it looks like those concerns about lacking a real cutting edge in the opposition box could turn out to be justified after all. A more prolific strikeforce would have probably put this game to bed.


5 Sep 2012

Lotto FC 4 - 0 Sutton United

Stevens (25, 85)

Butcher (45+1)

Sisson (58)

An amazing performance from all areas of the team, but this result makes the previous bore draw even more perplexing. The team was largely unchanged and the tactics remained the same throughout, even to the point of using the same Touchline Shouts, yet somehow we manage to make twice as many shots and score four times! A brace from Stevens, a rare goal from Butcher and another scorcher from Sisson secured the vital points and kept our unbeaten streak intact. Sisson has become something of a revelation in the MR position so far, I'm starting to think he's more of a key player than I first envisioned!

​

8 Sep 2012

Salisbury 0 - 0 Lotto FC

Dodd (inj. 23)

Another inconsistent performance against a team that aren't really any better than the Sutton team that we just trounced 4-0 in the match before. Again, the tactics were unchanged, more or less the same team was played and the same touchline shouts were utilised, but we just couldn't seem to nab a goal. Plenty of opportunities and the lion's share of the possession though....I'll have to try and get a hold on this inconsistency at some point!


15 Sep 2012

Farnborough 1 - 0 Lotto FC

Magdzinski (59)

A horrible performance in a match that we should have, and could have won. We had more possession and created as many opportunities to shoot on goal as Farnborough, but when it came down to it, their strikers were a lot more proficient and our unbeaten streak came to an end after seven matches. Our inconsistency and lack of killer instinct in front of goal is bound to affect us in the league standings, will be be able to hold on to our position at the top of the table?

22 Sep 2012
FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round

Lotto FC 0 - 0 Kingstonian

A terrible result given the circumstances. The draw had been very good to us, drawing us against a much weaker non-league team and even giving us home advantage, however in spite of the odds being tipped well and truly in our favour, we managed to give Kingstonian and opportunity to provide a shock upset by letting this fall to a replay at their ground. As you can see, having a small squad and such a packed fixture list is really taking it's toll on the players, fitness levels are dropping all over the place...perhaps this is the reason for our inconsistency in previous matches?


26 Sep 2012
FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round Replay

Kingstonian 0 - 2 Lotto FC

Sisson (sent off 90+1)

Roe (105)

Stevens 115)

A good result, but if truth be told a poor performance from the team. This was a match that should have been wrapped up in normal time, but again our lack of any killer instinct in the final third meant that we couldn't get the goals we needed to seal the deal. As I switched players in to more advanced position and encouraged a more direct style of play, we started to allow Kingstonian oportunities to get hold of the ball and take a few pot shots at goal. Thankfully these were mostly from long range and ineffective. Sisson walked for a second yellow card offence seconds before the end of normal time, and I could see the match slipping away before my very eyes. I switched out David Lynch and brought on Warren Eastwood in an AMC role to try and offer us more impetus going forward. The move seemed to have the desired effect as we scored goals in both halves of extra time to wrap the match up and ensure that we progressed to the next round.

29 Sep 2012

Lotto FC 2 - 0 Staines

Cropper (3)

Mountford (44)

A great way to wrap up an inconsistent month. This win would mark our second on the bounce after the FA Cup result and perhaps set us up for another unbeaten run in October. A good all round performance by all of the team, we controlled most of the possession and limited Staines to only 3 long range attempts in the whole match. Our previous point dropping was bound to cost us on the table, so it was important to get three points and keep the pressure on at the top end of the table.



September League Position: 3rd

An inconsistent month where dropping points cost us our position at the top of the table. We're still in a fairly strong position, sitting in third with a game in hand and only six points seperating Eastleigh and us. I'm confident that we can keep the pressure on in the coming weeks and secure our status as serious promotion contenders!