Career Mr.Manager takes on the PL Second Chances Challenge

[mcandrew003]

Almost there dude! Incredible taking Wimbledon to the PL, very well done!

[Mr.Manager]

15 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Almost there dude! Incredible taking Wimbledon to the PL, very well done!

Thanks mate, took the long way round from the Vanarama South but I think it was worth it!

[Mr.Manager]

Season 21

 

Highest division for second chance teams:

Premier League: 42

Championship: 3

League 1: 1

 

We have the Fantastic Four to promote, and 9 seasons to do it in. Should be a doddle right?

 

Well, it won't be easy if they continue to reject my advances:

 

 

Thankfully, a very strong season with Swindon saw us promoted by March:

 

 

And a clean sweep at the end of season awards.

 

 

I love it when you win manager of the year and finish winner and runner up in both player awards.

 

And then, just to top thing off, I spied an opening:

 

 

The Club: Ipswich Town FC

 

The Pedigree: Ipswich enjoyed 5 seasons in the top tier during the first decade of the Premier League, and the highlight was undoubtedly the 2000/01 season, when they finished an incredible fifth. Spurred on by the goals of Marcus Stewart, the Tractor Boys were only pipped to a Champions League place by Liverpool on the last day of the season. The club were relegated the following season and haven't returned to the Premier League since, but frequent finishes in the play offs suggest that it's only a matter of time until they visit the top table again.

 

Ipswich have a proud history, having won the First Division in 1961/62 under Sir Alf Ramsey, and finishing runners up twice in the 80s under Sir Bobby Robson. Check this stat out too: Ipswich have competed in all three European club competitions, and have never lost at home in European competition, defeating Real Madrid, AC Milan, Inter Milan, S.S. Lazio and F.C. Barcelona, among others.

 

 

Swindon thanked me for my efforts and gave me a cool £320m leaving present. The season is all done and dusted and so we'll start afresh next year.

 

Elsewhere

 

Swindon promoted, Oldham just about stayed up in the Championship, and Portsmouth and Ipswich both finished top half of League 1. How close are we now guys??

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

Aston Villa, Barnsley, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Bradford City, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City, Derby County, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Portsmouth, QPR, Reading, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Swindon Town, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, Wolves

 

 

Thanks for reading, all comments welcome!

[Ashez]

Oh if you run out of time I'll cry with you! So close now mate! 

[Scratch]

Really getting close now, can feel the end coming! Just remember to resign before applying for those jobs! It was proven to help when people were trying to move countries in BG's challenges. Anyway, keep it up and take Ipswich up!

[Mr.Manager]

1 hour ago, scratch99 said:

Just remember to resign before applying for those jobs

I have a big issue with that though - it means I'll lose money through transfers and won't be able to part exchange players.  I might do that if I have to but for the time being I'd rather not. Cheers mate!

[Mr.Manager]

3 hours ago, Ashez said:

Oh if you run out of time I'll cry with you! So close now mate!

Haha heartbroken wouldn't even cover it. Let's be confident and say it won't come to that!

[BatiGoal]

Whatever tablet, phone, device, gadget or watch you're playing on..protect it with your life!

[mcandrew003]

A good year with Swindon, this is going to be so nervy, I have faith mate!

[Mr.Manager]

32 minutes ago, BatiGoal said:

Whatever tablet, phone, device, gadget or watch you're playing on..protect it with your life!

Haha you sound like a man who has burned before!

added 0 minutes later

26 minutes ago, mcandrew003 said:

A good year with Swindon, this is going to be so nervy, I have faith mate!

We're in to the final lap now mate. I just need the chips to fall in my favour

[Scratch]

12 hours ago, Mr.Manager said:

I have a big issue with that though - it means I'll lose money through transfers and won't be able to part exchange players.  I might do that if I have to but for the time being I'd rather not. Cheers mate!

I've only moved clubs once and you need to do it outside the transfer window, but I did this: 

1. Notice the job I wanted.
2. Arrange the transfers to send them players and money (when the window opens again).
3. Resign.
4. Apply.
5. Accept!!

Worked pretty well for me, but of course if they don't hire you then you are screwed! Lost all your money and still didn't get the job. That's why I placed a lot of emphasis on having a good reputation.

Anyway, you obviously haven't needed this so far, but thought I'd lay it out here just in case it helps you get those last few stubborn clubs!

[Mr.Manager]

Season 22

 

Highest division for second chance teams:

Premier League: 44

Championship: 2

League 1: 1

 

The Fantastic Four is now a Terrible Trio: Oldham in the Championship and Portsmouth and my Ipswich team in League 1

 

With a huge amount of funds granted from Swindon, I assembled a world class team to fight for promotion. Although I could pick up almost any player that I wanted, there were one or two where the asking price was just a little too high:

 

 

£501m?! Are you serious??

 

I just wanted to give a nod to one player that I've had on my books at quite a few clubs:

 

 

Possibly the best stats I've ever seen on a left back (maybe even any position!)

 

The season was amongst the best I have ever had, reaching the EFL final and winning the Checkatrade Trophy and the league title:

 

 

 

We almost had a perfect record in the league:

 

 

Who was the only team to take points off us? Portsmouth! The bane of this career!!

 

Elsewhere

Oldham hung on in the Championship by the skin of their teeth, so we have two teams eyeing promotion to the Premier League next season.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

Aston Villa, Barnsley, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Bradford City, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City, Derby County, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Portsmouth, QPR, Reading, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Swindon Town, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, Wolves

 

 

Thanks for reading, all comments welcome!

 

[Idol]

One hundered and seventy what now?!

Very impressive, even with unlimited funds, and that full back appears to be god, I'd be tempted to play him up front! 

[mcandrew003]

Wimbledon back in League 1 already? Well done mate, are you nervous at all?

[veerus]

I don't usually retrain but if that guy isn't a prime candidate for an AMC retrain or something, I don't know who is.

[BatiGoal]

Awesome stuff. And fast too! I thought you'd be playing this for ages but man you're delivering. The finishline is right there..

[Scratch]

Yeah, great stuff! Be down to terrible/terrific two after next season!  And Mark Berry is just awesome!!!

[Mr.Manager]

22 hours ago, Idol said:

One hundered and seventy what now?!

Very impressive, even with unlimited funds, and that full back appears to be god, I'd be tempted to play him up front!

Haha! Thanks man. I am really proud of that goal difference too. Mark Berry is king.

[Mr.Manager]

16 hours ago, mcandrew003 said:

Wimbledon back in League 1 already? Well done mate, are you nervous at all?

Ooh, I hadn't even noticed that! Since @scratch99 discovered that transfer bug I have bankrupted every club as I leave them, so it doesn't surprise me that they fall right back down again...

Well, as for nerves, I'm actually a couple of seasons ahead of the update, so I'm a bit closer to the 30 year mark than i'd like to be...

[Mr.Manager]

4 hours ago, veerus said:

I don't usually retrain but if that guy isn't a prime candidate for an AMC retrain or something, I don't know who is.

That's true. He's probably a bit too old to retrain I guess now, but I wish I'd thought of that earlier. I've bought him 6 times so far in this career...

[Mr.Manager]

2 hours ago, BatiGoal said:

Awesome stuff. And fast too! I thought you'd be playing this for ages but man you're delivering. The finishline is right there..

Thanks BG! I'm trying to bash through an update a day where I can. I don't think a career like this needs the meticulous detail of 1k goal challenge, as the biggest difference is made during each transfer window

added 0 minutes later

2 hours ago, scratch99 said:

Yeah, great stuff! Be down to terrible/terrific two after next season!  And Mark Berry is just awesome!!!

Haha fingers crossed!

[Mr.Manager]

Season 23

 

Highest division for second chance teams:

Premier League: 44

Championship: 2

League 1: 1

 

When I started this challenge 22 seasons ago, I was very unimaginative in how I thought I'd beat it. At first I thought I'd just physically promote as many as I can and leave the rest to fend for themselves. When @BatiGoalal clued me up on player exchanges that opened up a whole new method for me. Since then, @scratch99 has exposed a bug whereby you can effectively give yourself as much money as you want. And @mcandrew003 's attempts to weaken opposition teams was inspired.

 

Season 23 began with me taking the weaken your opponents strategy to the next level.

 

As manager of an insanely rich Ipswich team in the Championship, I visited each of the 21 other non-interest Championship clubs (i.e. all the ones that aren't Ipswich, Oldham or, just for the sake of old times, MK Dons). And I "borrowed" all of their goalkeepers.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

How are you going to stop us and Oldham if you don't have a goalie eh?!

 

In truth, I'm not sure how well that worked. By January we were top of the table, but Oldham were still hovering just above the relegation places. And then they sacked their manager.

 

 

The Club: Oldham Athletic FC

 

The Pedigree: It's crazy to think that Oldham Athletic were founder members of the Premier League. A smallish milltown on the outskirts of Manchester, Oldham by rights should have a football club akin to the likes of Bury or Rochdale. But, thanks to manager Joe Royle, the Latics enjoyed top flight residency for the first two seasons of the Premier League and even reached an FA Cup semi final during that time.

 

Before those glory years of the early 90s, Oldham had spent 68 consecutive years out of the top division. If you go further back in time though, they actually finished league runners up to Everton back in 1914/15.

 

 

I took over Oldham with the club 20th in the Championship. 20 points off the play off places, with 19 games to go.

 

 

In my favour, however, was that I took over during the January transfer window and so I had oodles of cash to splash on top talent.

 

I brought in one of my old favourites, Alejandro Gimenez, from West Ham, and he made quite the impact. In January, he played one game and scored four goals. He was awarded player of the month after only one game!

 

 

I was left with a feeling that I might have left Ipswich too early. They didn't have a lot of headroom at the top of the league, and there was still a lot of games to get through. My fears worsened when I saw this headline in February:

 

 

I know that this can affect morale, and we all know that good morale is key to a successful season. When we faced them in the league at the start at March, I decided to throw the game in the hope that it'll help them hang on. It gave me less margin of error in my race for a play off place, but I thought it had to be done.

 

 

Thankfully, by the end of the season we secured a play off spot anyway and Ipswich held on to win the title.

 

 

In the playoff semi finals we easily dispatched Swindon:

 

 

Before eventually prevailing on penalties against a resolute Swansea side:

 

 

That was too close for comfort!

 

Elsewhere

 

And so, dear friends, we are down to one. Only one team stands between me and completion of this challenge.

 

Unfortunately for us, that team is Portsmouth…

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

Aston Villa, Barnsley, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Bradford City, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City, Derby County, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Portsmouth, QPR, Reading, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Swindon Town, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, Wolves

 

 

Thanks for reading, all comments welcome!

 

 

[Scratch]

Awesome idea with the goalies! Surprised it didn't work better.

Now it's down to the Only One and of course it has to be Portsmouth! Fitting really. Hope they sack the manager there asap!

[Mr.Manager]

Season 24

 

Highest division for second chance teams:

Premier League: 46

League 1: 1

 

We're now 24 seasons in, and we only need to make Portsmouth a Premier League team again to finish. We won't be able to do that this year though, as they're still languishing in League 1.

 

So what did I do? Well, unconvinced that my stealing all the goalkeepers strategy was all that effective, I reverted to the usual trick of player exchanging as many as I could. For some reason this was a bumper year, as I managed to send a whole army of players to the south coast.

 

 

Portsmouth were finally appearing to get their act together, and so their manager didn't appear to be getting sacked anytime soon.

 

So, with nothing better to do, I just continued my career with Oldham. And that went well.

 

 

We didn't even lose a game until January, when we were just about overcome by Arsenal at the Emirates.

 

Later that month, a new job caught my eye…

 

 

 

The Club: Leicester City FC

 

The Pedigree: Of course, Leicester City started the game in the Premier League and so they aren't one of the second chance teams. However, they also started the game as reigning champions, and they haven't even come close to another title since (they've finished 9th twice), and so I'm given a chance to score more points if I can make these former winners champions again.

 

Their league triumph in 2015/16 is seen as one of the most unexpected success stories of all time. Bookies were offering odds of 5,000-1 at the start of the season, as the club had just about avoided relegation the previous season. But spurred on by some swashbuckling attacking football from Mahrez and Vardy for the first half of the season, and hardened by the defensive resolve of Kante, Morgan, Huth, Schmeichel and Fuchs in the second half, the team finished well clear of Arsenal and Tottenham to be crowned the unlikeliest of champions.

 

 

The other positive is that a new club gives me more opportunity to player exchange with Portsmouth, and so hopefully this well help us towards our ultimate goal.

 

I took over the club struggling in 19th place:

 

 

(I'd actually won a game when I took this screenshot, so when I started we were 10 points from safety with 13 games to go).

 

We had our doubters…

 

 

But a good run at the end of the season meant we finished well clear of the drop in 13th place.

 

Oldham, by the way, finished league champions.

 

Elsewhere

 

But what of Portsmouth?! Well, I said earlier on that they were going well in League 1, and I'm pleased to report that they won that title with ease, reaching 102 points and hitting 115 goals.

 

Portsmouth, welcome to the Championship.

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

Aston Villa, Barnsley, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Bolton Wanderers, Bradford City, Cardiff City, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City, Derby County, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Leeds United, Newcastle United, Norwich City, Nottingham Forest, Oldham Athletic, Portsmouth, QPR, Reading, Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, Swindon Town, Wigan Athletic, Wimbledon, Wolves

 

 

Thanks for reading, all comments welcome!

[mcandrew003]

Oh man, so close! Can't wait to see of you can get that Pompey job!

[Mr.Manager]

49 minutes ago, mcandrew003 said:

Oh man, so close! Can't wait to see of you can get that Pompey job!

Haha thanks man! I do wonder whether they'll ever hire me!

[Brenty92]

Where I'm concerned this amazing career has been overlooked and neglected, I can't apologise enough, I think it's down to how confusing it was for a simpleton to understand! Just caught up though and took the time to read through, WOW! What an unbelievable career this has turned out to be! So much sneakiness involved but it made for a nice romantic twist when/if you finally take Pompey to the prem yourself, if not I'm sure gifting them world class players should work lol

[BatiGoal]

Had read thru the latest update earlier but no time for replies.

Still a massive job on your hands but seeing that huge list now with a single club left on it must be a relief. You can probably really start enjoying this save once you land the Pompey job

[Ashez]

The wait is now on, I couldn't think of anything more frustrating to put up with! The positive spin is the end is near however, come on mate bring this home! 

[Mr.Manager]

On 26 May 2017 at 18:26, Brenty92 said:

Where I'm concerned this amazing career has been overlooked and neglected, I can't apologise enough, I think it's down to how confusing it was for a simpleton to understand! Just caught up though and took the time to read through, WOW! What an unbelievable career this has turned out to be! So much sneakiness involved but it made for a nice romantic twist when/if you finally take Pompey to the prem yourself, if not I'm sure gifting them world class players should work lol

No worries man, thanks for taking the time to catch up! It has surprised me how fun the career has been. A lot of thinking outside the box. Portsmouth will be the death of me!!

added 0 minutes later

On 27 May 2017 at 09:13, BatiGoal said:

Had read thru the latest update earlier but no time for replies.

Still a massive job on your hands but seeing that huge list now with a single club left on it must be a relief. You can probably really start enjoying this save once you land the Pompey job

If I ever land the Pompey job! Haha.