Notes on Northern Ireland's lower leagues

ggwood

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Started a new save, my second with FM 14, loaded all the british isles leagues and found, arguably, the most forlorn team: Moyola Park. Northern Ireland's 3rd division: the Belfast Telegraph Championship 2. Media Prediction: 16th of 16 teams. Wage budget: 83 pounds per week. We sell 30 season tickets. Our attendances start around 80-85 and by the end of the season are around 90-95 for home games in the league.

Observations:
(0) we only had like 16 players under contract, at all. This is classic mode, so we don't have an under-18s. Perhaps that would make a huge difference. None of them had a weekly wage, appearance fee, or any bonuses. Totally free. They are totally irreplaceable as no one would sign under such terms.

(1) being careful, we can sign players willing to be non-contract, take 20 pounds for an appearance, and they count very little toward the weekly wage budget. Although we play them each week, they are listed as "backups" and thus the calculation assumes they should play rarely. We end up signing about 9 players like this, nominally counting about 65 pounds per week toward our wage budget.

(1a) I found two 17 year olds unemployed, with no team, who were willing to sign for only 2-3 pounds of appearance fee.

(2) There is virtually no limit on the "transfer window". Nor is there a squad registration. At least in classic mode. You can sign anyone, at virtually any time. I did not try to loan players in or out.

(3) Our best players are signed away and we have no hope of giving an equal contract. Also, we gain no money for them.

(4) Do not "offer contract" to greyed out players who fill in for your under-21's side. Upon the success of item (2) above, I figured perhaps other 17 year olds would sign for cheap. They do not.

(5) It took some doing, but I tweaked my 433 tactic and, after three league losses, I went undefeated and won the league with 3 or 4 games to spare. At which point, my players apparently celebrated constantly, making winning additional games in the league impossible.

I can post this tactic, but it may only work in classic, as it may be hard to gain the needed tactical familiarity with an amateur side. I don't know. Also, I got the feeling any tactic might work.

(6) We loose money. Average of about 1000 pounds per week over the course of the year. This is made up by the owners pouring money into the club.

(7) Despite (6) above, I'm lauded as having tight control over the wage budget LOL

(8) Friendlies: after a bit, no one will play us. Home or away. Or even play against my under-21s. As there are 2-3 week gaps in the schedule, we have to play the only way we can: against our own u-21 side, to maintain match fitness.

(9) Around the half way point of the season, people are willing to play friendlies again. Not sure why.

(10) I considered trying to upgrade my staff. It is somewhat disconcerting to have a scout with judging attributes of 3. First of all, you can't sign much better. Maybe 5-6. Second, it costs 1000 pounds to fire the guy I have. Since my annual wage total would be 83 pounds times 52 weeks = 4264 pounds, I feel 1000 pounds is too much and don't try mutual termination.
Staff contracts are rolling, so near as I can tell, I cannot just wait until the scout's contract is up and sign a new one.

Upon Promotion to the Promised? Land: The Belfast Telegraph Championship 1 (Northern Ireland's 2nd division).

I put off renegotiating my contract until after the season ended, and at that point, I applied for all open jobs. Maybe I should have been more targeted. I did not get any. At this point, I'm unsure if there is an interview stage, if so, I did not reach it.
When I started this save, I had a vague notion of wandering the isles, so trying to manage in Wales, Scotland, everywhere before England.
They did give me a new contract and I eagerly awaited the upgraded wage budget. It was stunning, but in a good way. Over 1300 pounds per week. No transfer budget, but I don't need one.

We got a youth intake near the beginning of summer. They all have potential to be far better then anyone at the club, according to my assistant manager, judging potential of 5. Should I get a second opinion? Nah, why spoil it.

Observations:
(1) We sign eleven players to contracts with weekly wages - so they cannot be signed away! I'm so happy.

(2) We can re-sign our own players onto contracts, but many refuse. They want amateur contracts. No weekly wage, they can walk whenever a better offer comes along. That said, only 2 players in this situation get contract offers from other teams. One, I am happy to let go. The second, I offer a new contract with a larger appearance fee. He stays with me. In total, I think I brought in about 10 new signings.

(3) Two of our youth turn 17 and are eligible for contracts. They seem to have 3 years left on some kind of contract paying them one pound per week. So I sign one to an appearance fee only contract (for like 4 pounds per game, and maybe 1-2 pounds per goal). The other I do not and...

(3a) A crowd of vultures descend onto this player, who still seems to be on a three year, so I'm assuming they have to negotiate a transfer fee with me. I'm wrong. He goes for free.

(4) This league is also very easy to win in. I'm undefeated again after 10 games and about 8 points in front.

(5a) Our attendance is only around 80 per game. Down from the end of last year by 10%.

(5b) We sold 31 season tickets, up from 30 last year.

(5c) We got a new sponsor providing a whopping total of about 6.5k per year, instead of 6k last season. We do get TV revenue, but as I recall, it is something like 3k per year.

(5d) Our main monthly expenditure is our youth setup, unchanged since last year.

(5e) The owners are still pouring cash into the club to keep us afloat and from the points above, I don't see profitability in the future.
 
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In the second division of Northern Ireland, there are only 14 teams, so you only play 26 league matches per year. You are in four cup competitions (I think) so these fill in a bit, but seasons go by fast. You will also need friendlies to keep up match fitness. My U-21's are not in a league, but they, too can play friendlies.

You have five subs on the bench for most matches, but only three in some cup games. You need to plan for way more flexible subs then if you have seven on the bench. I don't keep a sub keeper on the bench, but I do rotate between two options at goalkeeper for various games, so that when one is injured, the other can take over.

I just checked the available staff, and it appears I can hire enormously better staff then what I have currently. In classic mode, it assigns each staff member a star rating on one screen to summarize the overall quality of the person for that job. My assistant manager was considered quite good for the 3rd division (two and a half stars, as I recall) but is lower in star rating now. My head physio is one half a star, currently, I think his physiotherapy attribute is 4. But, it is solidly mid-season now and I'd like to not rock the boat too much. I'm thinking a new scout and physio should not be too much of a change. Planning on upgrading the assistant manager later, for sure, considering maybe a new head of youth development around mid-season.

Overall, the teams in Northern Ireland are very close in quality. In my first year, I was competitive, and defeated at least three different premier league sides in cup ties. One I defeated in a penalty shootout, which I cannot imaging happening in a contest between a premier league side and a league one side in FM14 - FM really goes by the numbers and the prem side just outclass them. I think we were in four different cups, but won none of them. The other side promoted with my side, Moyola Park, are called PSNI F.C. (who, incidentally, were promoted in real life, too (PSNI is the Police Services of Northern Ireland) but in real life, they are bottom of the table) are doing quite well in the league table, solidly mid-table.

I read elsewhere online that in FM, one of the easiest nations to get back-to-back promotions in is Northern Ireland. Thus far, that seems right to me. Within England, I have played from League 2 up to the Prem and never got close to back-to-back promotions.

The quality of play is much more watchable then what I expected. There are amazing sequences of passes and goals which would not be out of place at a much higher level. Yet a minute later, the same players can play horribly. You will see a lot of the keeper fielding a ball and then backing across the end line for a corner - but I saw this at a far, far higher level in my other save. Crosses are far, far more likely to simply sail, untouched, in for goals then in higher levels. Penalties are rarely missed, but many look really poor and I wonder how the keeper could not seem to save them.

Side note: I have a theory that in FM you have to watch your players make every horrible mistake at least once, and learn from that, so I don't change anything based on one bad moment. Definitely sub them if you can.

My whole attacking corner setup is different as a result. We hoof the ball near the center of the box, flooded with attackers, and hope for the best. Totally the opposite of what I did in my Norwich save, where we spread the defense apart and worked the ball in via midfielders and defensive mids on "default" duty - with the happy side effect that we virtually eliminated quick transition counters. In Northern Irelands lower leagues, often the AI keeps all 11 players back in the box to defend corners, and if there is one player up top, he is unlikely to pull out a piece of brilliance. Literally, I don't think I've ever conceded from an attacking corner via what I would consider a quick counter. The ball can be held up and a foul called, or men rush forward to attack, but my defense gets back just fine. I fell the gaps in stats are smaller, at least on the physical side.

In my first season, I signed and used loads of players with very low attribute scores. I think the highest passing I had for anyone on the whole team was a 10. Tackling, maybe 12. Many, many players had many attributes of one. You catch yourself thinking, oh, he will be OK at that, he has a five. I don't see players with more pace/acceleration then 12, and still a "slow" guy may be 7, so the gap from slowest to fastest is only 5, whereas in the top leagues, it may well be double.

I conceded a lot from set pieces, especially at the beginning of my first year. I solved this by signing larger center backs and goalkeepers. A jumping reach of 12 is practically a giant. They will probably be much taller then you are used to for that level of jumping (maybe 190 cm) but remember they are not professionals.

I also scored what felt like a lot of free kicks, and my best free kick taker had a seven in free kicks and I'm certain his long shot and finishing are lower then that. He was a left winger I converted into a central mid. I've read elsewhere online that if you get a good free kick taker, you can bag many goals. I've signed a guy with something like 14 free kick, 13 corners, and thus far I am underwhelmed. One goal off a free kick despite many very good chances.

Side Note: I have another theory in FM that in friendlies, and early in the season all your set piece plans are fulfilled, but later competitive games clamp down on them so you cannot score too many goals from set pieces, regardless of quality of your setup. This always leads to a really promising pre-season and an early-season flurry of set piece goals, followed by what seems like a dry spell. This may be totally wrong.
 
Since last post, I've played out two and a half seasons in the prem. Despite good results, one Irish cup win, one mid-ulster cup win, I get no job offers. I'm letting my contract expire in hopes of landing a new job. We've qualified for the Europa league twice now, but it looks unlikely this year, and that brings in a good chunk of cash.

The crushing thing is that players will not develop: the training facilities are not up to scratch. The owners will not upgrade the facilities: too expensive. Money is scarce - most income is via prize money. There is no way to sell players: no one buys them. I'm still routinely drawing under 200 fans and just set the record for the lowest attendance ever in the all-Ireland cup. I think it will be many years to build up the fan base.
 
How to escape managing a very small team:

To switch teams, I resigned as manager of Moyola Park and then was successful getting the Chelmsford job in England in Conference South. Well over double the wage budget and three times the number of season ticket holders. I had a transfer budget (maybe GBP 60k) which I switched over to wages - I just can't imagine every having a transfer budget in Northern Ireland - what would I do with it?

I thought that as I neared the end of my contract, teams would be able to sign me. I didn't want to drop the job I had until I had another in hand. I thought they would just have to pay the last bit of my wages - and maybe that is right I don't know, but no one would do it. They did say they were flattered by my interest, but could not afford to sign me (for the record: teams from Conference North and South and Scottish League 2).

I read several articles on journeyman saves and many forum posts. None mentioned resigning to move to another team.

For the record: my five season in Northern Ireland
year 1 -won Belfast Telegraph Championship 2
year 2 -won Belfast Telegraph Championship 1 and Intermediate Cup
year 3 -6th in Premier League, won Irish Cup
year 4 -3rd in Premier League, won Mid-Ulster Cup, reached finals of All-Ireland Cup and Irish Cup
year 5 -6th in Premier League, won Mid-Ulster Cup
 
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