Lower League is it worth it ?

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FcCopenhagen

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I recently started a game with Fleetwood in Blue Square Bet Premier to try something different than the usual "zerg with a world class club".

I got into the promotion playoffs and won promotion to League 2

I let like 80% of my players and ALL my staff go after contract ran out after first season, and signed a couple of new decent player and filled up with 5 loans and put in the essential staff. I also blew my WHOLE transfer budget on getting a very decent keeper (£150k for Scott Flinders) So guess this season will be all about staying in League 2 and avoid relagation, nothing more.

Now to the question, on the long term is it really worth it working up these low end teams, lets say we look 5 or maybe 10 season into the future, will there be a time where I am up in the Premier League and able to sign VERY decent players or will I be forever strugling with my terrible reputation and very low stadion capacity (its actually ok with 5000 all seated now) ?

Do any of you have some decent stories about how you made a Blue Square team into a lets say top5 in Premier League and actually have 30k+ attendance (starting with a team that had a 1000 max capacity) and do you have the ability to sign "world class" players and not just the usual random scrubs ?
 
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Well as you win more cups, leagues etc etc your reputation will grow and grow thus making players want to play for your club. Winning the champions cup will generate alot of revenue therefore allowing your board to either expand or rebuild a new stadium. Its all about how successful your club is and how consistantly you can do it.
 
I much prefer starting as a LLM and working a team up through the leagues. As money is tighter it becomes much more about hunting out the bargains and snapping up the promising youth when they are released. One of my favourite saves from FM10 was where I managed my local club Cirencester Town (using SuperBladesman Level 10 database). I lasted a couple of years before getting sacked due to poor management of my finances. I then moved about various teams, eventually reaching League 2 after 8 seasons. Good performances in cups and on fan days are essential to improve attendances to create further income and allow the board to increase the stadium.
 
I made it up to League 1 now, but im getting totally destroyed and im unable to find any proper players willing to play for my team. This is starting to suck :(

Worst part about league 1 is that 4 teams relegate, this will be a VERY tuff cookie

Guess I'm paying for relying on the 4-5 "decent" players from upper leageus I have had on loan each season to secure me promotion. My team is no where near quality enough for league 1
 
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I have been playing with woking, 6the season now in championship. The only thing that I can say is take your time, it takes longer then you might like but its worth it :p
 
Defo worth it... it feels nothing like making a 6th division club CL winners :D
 
hey guys
just randomly decided to start as linfield in northen ireland and i managed to get them into the ECC 3rd qualification stage but lost to rosenborg and now in euro cup 4th round qualification and i managed to win that and get into the group stages which is amazing no cheating honest . so it is possible to take these little teams and do well in europe , any suggestions on how to increase the reputation of the club and increase my chances of signing some big players and making lots of money?
 
Fear the Harriers!

Well, I've played FM since it's CM days. First played was CM97/98. Since then I've always prefered playing Lower Leagues English teams.

I gave up the big clubs while playing CM97/98, when I managed to make Fiorentina (a medium reputation team) a world force on 7 seasons getting to win the Champions League 2x in a row.

After that I "adopted" the Kidderminster Harriers as my personal challenge team every new version of CM/FM I've played (03/04 and now 2011).

When I played them on CM 03/04, I managed to get them to win the Uefa Cup, Premier League and finally the UCL in 13 seasons.

I just started my most recent Harriers saga, on FM2011. Contending for promotion to league 2. I think this one will be the most difficult ever since I've heard getting stadium expansions on FM2011 is very very hard.

I'd say it's certainly the hardest way of playing the game. Getting a small club (long time conference level dwellers), with ****** facilities, tiny non all-seater stadium, crappy players, almos non-existant fan base, associated with low wage bill and NO transfer money to the top of fooball's elite is utter bliss.
 
Have any of you played like 15, 20 or even more season with a lower league team and are you now ruling the Premiere League, the Champions League and what about your stadium and attendance, is it 50000 75000 or even higher or are you always doomed with having a very low attendance ?
 
I am actually 2o years in. I am not in the ELP, but the lowly Iceland league. Still having fun. I mean league is super easy (until international games are being played and then basically my whole team leaves and I am left with basically under 19 players to start). Stadium is only had 21,000 but my wages are set at 2.1M and its a challenge trying to win the Champs League. Have done it five times with back-to-back two times. Had 2 player-of-the-year players on my squad before. One was sold to Real Madrid for 82 million, and the other just sold for around 60 last year. In Iceland you basically become the best feeder club for the huge clubs. Basically have the option of buying 95 percent of youth players. They stay on my team for 4-6 years with transfer fees of 20-30 million to bring in and then I sell them off for at least 40 million.
 
It took me about 4 seasons of mediocre play in Serie A to finally burst onto the scene as a Euro contender.

I went from Serie C2 to Serie A. Those 4 years of mid table or lower finishes were a time when my promising youth players got experience. Now that the cheap promising players have panned out and are now ~23 years old, I'm tearing it up (just beat ac milan 5-0)

Buuuut the AI usually makes poor poor transfer choices this far into the game, so the top italian teams are not quite as special.
 
FcCopenhagen said:
Have any of you played like 15, 20 or even more season with a lower league team and are you now ruling the Premiere League, the Champions League and what about your stadium and attendance, is it 50000 75000 or even higher or are you always doomed with having a very low attendance ?
Click to expand...

As I said, I only played 13 season with Kidderminster back on CM 03/04, and everything you said I accomplished. Except for the big *** stadium. Got stuck at a 25k all seater. Since the city has approximately only 55k inhabitants, I think I'd never get past that.

Looking forward to what can be done on FM2011. I'll keep posting in this thread.
 
Its definitly worth it, in Serie A 2nd in the leauge with San Marino with only a month to go, my third season in Serie A.
 
Just a little update, I finally made it into Premier League with Fleetwood (2016) and my board emediately started to upgrade the current stadium to a 12500 all-seater because it was a requirement for Premier League.

I temporarily play at Preston stadium, it can hold 24500 so getting some decent cash until my own finish the 14th of january.

Also its going pretty decent in Premier League, don't even think I will emediately relegate, "the big 4" crush me when I meet them, but I can play with the rest ! I'm currently setting 12th in the leauge and don't count myself as a relegation candidate. And the income is pretty good so a few years and I can request a total stadium rebuild. My big wish is to one day get above 40.000 capacity.
 
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Currently having the best save ever and it is coming from Iceland. Just won my second straight champs league. This was after selling off the best player (27 yr old striker) last year for 118M. After winning the second champs league in a row (eight overall) sold off my best defender (26 yr old) and my best att. mid (26 yr old) both to OM for 77M and 80M. Of the champs league best XI I had 8 players on the first team. Never done that ever with a team.

I am like you Fc trying to play in a 40,000 stadium. Currently play in a 21,000 seater which was build after the first year with the team. But in the off-season I was checking my boardroom requests I have (trying to get my youth recruitment to be great) and saw that I now have the option to build another stadium. Could it really be that I could build two stadiums with a team?
 
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How did you get your team soo awesome and players so expencive !?!?!
 
I don't know really why my team is awesome. I do know that once I buy a person if he stays healthy and starts his value will usually double. Honestly the people I really buy are just midfielders. Only position where I am forced and just bought one guy for 45 million. Which ironically is my highest fee. As for that the five strikers I have on my team I got 4 of them for free. (I spend more than searching for players than I actually do worrying about lineups. Currently letting the game play as I talk which tells how unimportant it really matters when it comes to league play. Strikers usually are the highest value since they score so many goals in the Ireland league that if their value is at 4 million within a year and half will be around 20 which I can then sell for 40-60 million.

Since I mostly play with lower league teams (although its the first time I been in a league where only 3 stadiums hold more than 10K) league isn't hard so basically my team is seriously just a feeder club. I only sign people who are under 21. Mostly cause their fee's are cheaper, wages are way low (especially if they don't play for their team), and I can improve them in the Ireland League. Problem is though after about 5 years on my team they are too good. I don't have the stadium capacity to actually pay my players around 200K or more for wages. So everyone is around 105K or less. So once they become like 25-27 they are usually good and I will sell them off to big clubs and reap the benefits. Only when I am hurting will I actually pay a lot of money. I needed an attacking mid and with 120 in transfer budget I went out and paid 45 for a very good player. Still only plays half the year since he is injured but after two years is still valued at 45 million.
 
Im very good at searching for people, and no I never use genie scout or anything like that. Just what my scout on my team says or just by stats since I know what stats I need for what roles on my team. There are some things I look at after I am scouting though.

Like I said I like young guys cause they are usually cheaper for wages and to buy, but also too see if the player is consistent in the notes. Usually even if the player is only a 2 in potential or current level (the 45 million guy I bought was this for example), but for his weakness states "Has no weakness" I will sign him in a heartbeat. If they say he is a bad teammate or puts pressure on teammates I usually avoid unless his stats are amazing.

When I am searching for people. I will use filters and will search by this: (age is at most 21 of course for this save)
Strikers: 13 in finishing
Midfielders: 10 in Determination and Passing
Defenders: Marking 13
GK: 10 in position, reflexes, and handling (but mostly just look at the highest value and move down)

Then once I look at players there are other stats as well, but that is just the beginning tools I use and it seems to work right now. Here I will show you my new team though with Stjarnan.

GK (free transfer)
View attachment 193914

DR ($17.75M)
View attachment 193915

DCR ($15.5M)
View attachment 193916

DCL ($7M)
View attachment 193917

DL ($14.25)
View attachment 193918

MF ($24M)
View attachment 193919

MF ($45M)
View attachment 193920

AM (Currently the only youth player to start for my team and second player to ever reach senior squad status)
View attachment 193921

AM ($10M when he is 16, but didn't get him until he was 18)
View attachment 193922

ST (free was valued at 1.3M)
View attachment 193923

ST ($10.5M)
View attachment 193924


So as you see you still can make money with a team that does only have a stadium of 21,000. and doesn't make any money from tv rights (580K) and winning the league (70K i think I know its less than 100K). Sure I made over $1B from selling people, but I have spent $570M on players.
 
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