County League - Animo et Fide
Forum Discussion
- @JustinCase0110
Tough run of results means you're going to be lucky to make the playoffs. With the kind of teams you have in there, it's not so surprising, I guess. You're still very much the 'best of the rest'. It'll be interesting to see which teams come down to League 2 at the end of the season. It will certainly make the division more equal.
Strong defensive performance against Chelsea, though.
@CO88LER5 wrote:
Tough run of results means you're going to be lucky to make the playoffs. With the kind of teams you have in there, it's not so surprising, I guess. You're still very much the 'best of the rest'. It'll be interesting to see which teams come down to League 2 at the end of the season. It will certainly make the division more equal.
Strong defensive performance against Chelsea, though.Yes, my little reorganization of all the teams has made it quite interesting how things will turn out across the four league tiers. Perhaps it will go down as expected, or maybe there'll be a surprise or two. I might post the four league tables, once the season is wrapped up soon.
- @JustinCase0110
Good result against Palace.
I'm intrigued that the player wants to move from Monaco to a league 2 club; in my save, most such players would be 'unwilling to move', so that's an interesting one... I can't even get players at that level (with a top division club) even willing to come on loan, which is weird because other clubs in league 2 have such players. - @JustinCase0110
8th place. So close... Good result against Charlton, which must have been satisfying.
Next season will be easier, with some of the big clubs gone from the division. I understand the division into counties, but out of the four Stockport was (and unfortunately will remain) in the lowest division?
- @Danimal5981
I think that, as the big clubs move back up the divisions (as they will) the smaller clubs will drop back down, which is when Stockport will get more chances. Could even be next season, That's what makes this story interesting for me...
@CO88LER5 wrote:
Good result against Palace.
I'm intrigued that the player wants to move from Monaco to a league 2 club; in my save, most such players would be 'unwilling to move', so that's an interesting one... I can't even get players at that level (with a top division club) even willing to come on loan, which is weird because other clubs in league 2 have such players.I think it may be about him being here already, on a loan deal. I'm not sure though. Anyway, a more frequently common way to sign players these days, starting with a loan deal, then making it permanent later on, if succesful.
I counted six clubs from Greater Manchester. So I put:
Manchester City in the Premier League.
Manchester United in the Championship.
Bolton in League One.
Wigan, Stockport and Salford in League Two.
Ah, now I get it: it's a temporary shake-up of things but nothing permanent. I thought it was according to an American system, with equal conferences and the top teams meeting each other in play-offs.
I've tried something similar by creating the BeNeLeague (Belgium & Netherlands) which is actually a project in the making in real life. Merging them into the current Belgian Pro League in FC24 works best: eight from Belgium (Anderlecht, Antwerp, Club Brugge, Gent, Genk, RUSG, KV Mechelen and Standard Liège) and eight from Netherlands (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, AZ, Twente, Utrecht, Sparta and Heerenveen).
However it does leave me with a question mark about the leftover teams. In older games, via the Career Editor, I was able to make a football pyramid, putting one league on top of another and combining the cup tournaments and allocations to European tournaments. But that's no longer possible in the last four or five games. I am still thinking about workarounds.
I've tried a few of these experiments over the years. Belgium and the Netherlands were also subject of one of them, putting them in the German league system, so Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV, Club Brugge etc. were also fighting for the Bundesliga title. It was quite interesting, but I totally agree that the question always comes back with 'what to do with the rest'.
My biggest mixup yet was probably the "capital league", where all teams from capitals around europe were put in the English league system. So we had Real Madrid, Roma, Hertha Berlin, PSG, Copenhagen, Slavia Praha, Sparta Praha, Ajax etc. But European football was totally smashed by this, and that kind of ruined it for me in the end.
But yes, things will probably revert back to normal here, sooner or later. It was just an attempt to do something different with the first season in stead of the board just expecting a promotion and that's it.
- @JustinCase0110 The 4 teams dropping into league 2 are not a surprise.
Given the departures, a play-off place should be within reach next season.
No real surprises in the other divisions, either... - @JustinCase0110
£1.7 million is quite a bit for County to spend at this point in their evolution, but they do seem to be good value signings.
I remember Ferguson signing a young Nick Powell from Crewe; he had great promise, iet was believed, but it didn't work out for him then, but this is different level.
I remember managers like Moyes and van Gaal sending him out on loan, to clubs that mostly didn't play him either, so he never really got a chance.
@CO88LER5 wrote:
£1.7 million is quite a bit for County to spend at this point in their evolution, but they do seem to be good value signings.
I remember Ferguson signing a young Nick Powell from Crewe; he had great promise, iet was believed, but it didn't work out for him then, but this is different level.
I remember managers like Moyes and van Gaal sending him out on loan, to clubs that mostly didn't play him either, so he never really got a chance.I remember him too; "The new Scholes" was he called at some point. He also scored a banger on his debut, but apart from that I never saw anything that suggested him as a Man United player in the long run. In the end he just didn't have it in him.
Value for money, yes I believe so.
Benson, market value £1,000,000, signed for £700,000.
Fletcher, market value £750,000, signed for £500,000.
Leko, market value £775,000, signed for £500,000.
Slattery, market value £1,000,000, signed for free.
I didn't find anything from the loan pool this time. I could have signed more free agents, but I don't want to exploit that market too much. Getting a 1m player for free almost feels like a cheat code already 😃
- @JustinCase0110 It's a difficult one in the lower two divisions.
As I said, the teams rely heavily on free transfers and short contracts, with lots of squad turnarounds at the end of each season. The key for me is making sure that the freebies aren't wildly out of kilter with what the club could expect to sign in real life.
I shipped out the "1 year left" players in my Colchester squad, and plan to do the same again, and it's most unlikely that many replacements will come from the 'paid transfer' category, simply because that's not what Colchester do. Nine out of three - wow!
I just caught up with the history of the club - fascinating - they go up and down even more than Bielefeld in Germany, having spent time across 5 divisions in under three decades!
@Danimal5981 wrote:Nine out of three - wow!
I just caught up with the history of the club - fascinating - they go up and down even more than Bielefeld in Germany, having spent time across 5 divisions in under three decades!
Great, interesting stuff. Wasn't aware of the 5 divisions thing, but I knew about four of them, I suppose. What a rollercoaster ride.
Stockport went up in real life, so anything less this season will be a dissappointment - county system or not 🙂
