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Anyone else play this? I've been playing for years.

 

Right now I've just started a "dafuge challenge" game. You take a new team from the bottom playable tier in England (Blue Square South/North, basically tier 6 of the pyramid. I selected Hastings United as the team.

 

The goal is to win the Champions League and English Premier League.

 

I've done the challenge every year for a long time now and have completely it on two occasions.

 

Here's my first season report (you skip the first year to take over a new club from the unplayable leagues).

 

Current Club Hastings United. Dafuge Challenge.

Division Blue Square South

Season 2012/2013

Expectations Avoid Relegation.

 

Season 1 complete.

 

Finished 18th on 46 points, 11 clear of 20th placed Weston in the drop zone. We started pretty badly with a failing 442 formation not even getting us on the board, but a swap to a 4-5-1 helped immensely. We were comfortably above the drop for pretty much the entire season. Our finances sit at £47,950 in the red. Our pre-season friendly schedule kept us afloat as usual in the lower leagues.

 

We bought our stadium out after I randomly asked the board during the season and they agreed. This will cost us 6.75k a month for the next 15 years. Overall the cost is £1,000,000 financed by bank loan. So basically £200,000 in interest. I have no idea if this will help or hinder the club in the future.

 

A huge clean out is about to happen. About half the players in the squad are going. I'm going to re-sign the best 7, and require another 12 players to fill the squad, and another 2 more after that if possible. Promoting whatever garbage youth players we have left to fill some spots.

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I've played it from time to time over the years and did this challenge with Rushden and Diamonds back when I was at school. Made it into the Championship but had trouble progressing quickly and just ran out of time/interest.

 

Guess I don't have enough time to play it anymore. I have the new one but I find it overly complicated and haven't sat down and had a good crack at it yet.

 

Mad game though, needs a bit of work to be good at, which means it's rewarding when you start doing well.

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Current Club Hastings United. Dafuge Challenge.

Division Blue Square South

Season 2013/2014

Expectations Stay clear of relegation.

Finish 11th.

 

Season 2 complete.

 

Finished 11th on 59 points, well of the drop zone. We slumped badly in our last 6 games, only managing 1 win and no draws. I would say it's a somewhat unfair position, as we were threatening to make the playoffs at various stages and only fell from 8th to 11th in the last couple of games. Dominated the champions Truro in the 2nd last game but somehow lost 2-1 and that gave them the championship and pushed us down the table.

 

The board pumped in a quite large amount of funding through the first half of the year and we sit at £210,000 in the bank. We have a training facility upgrade in progress. I've got the training staff up to scratch now, 3.5 or 4 stars generally across the board. We will need to sign a new GK coach however as the current one is 67 and won't sign a new contract.

 

Trophies we did very little. We lost the first match in the FA Cup, progressed to the 2nd in the FA Trophy then fell to Welling.

 

I've been rebuilding the team during the end of the season, and we have a very strong defence, back 4 and midfield now. Unfortunately I hit the wall for offering contracts so we might be lean up front as some of those players refuse to re-sign. I don't know what's going to happen there. The wage budget is £85,000 but I'm spending £143,200 (which considering our current finances and how well we do in pre-season is not much), I'm hoping the board will give me more room to move. We could be pushing for promotion if we can get some more quality up front.

 


Season League Position Europe Cups Other
2012/13 BSS 18th N/A N/A N/A
2013/14 BSS 11th N/A N/A N/A

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Absolutely love this game, and I play almost exclusively BSN/BSS to Champions League challenges though I've never managed to finish one.

 

I'm currently in my second season with Workington having obtained promotion in S1. BSP has been tricky, with most of my squad asking for huge increases in salary that the board simply wouldn't give me. I had to go through the bargain bin to scrape together a team after most of them left. Still I'm doing ok. Got 3 solid defenders though RB is still a problem. Got a gun LM and a two decent CMs (who have been injured for most of the season unfortunately). My problem is up front. My two strikers are apparently ok on paper but have just not been scoring, not sure how to fix it other than just putting up with it and finding new blood next year. One is going merely decent, the other is on a horrible dry spell. I'm 13th or so, a fair way above relegation and I think that's all I can expect this year.

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Current Club Hastings United. Dafuge Challenge.

Division Blue Square South

Season 2014/2015

Expectations Safe mid-table.

Finish 3rd. Lost promotion play-off final 3-4 after extra time.

 

Season 3 complete.

 

Finished 3rd on 75. We basically threw away the league title and then promotion. We slumped badly at the end. Last 7 went D L D D W L D with several of those teams being very low on the table.

 

We made it through the play-off semi with a 2-1 win vs Bromley, then lost 4-3 in extra time against Woking as they dominated the game and we kept having to play catch up football.

 

Our finances are sitting at a little under £50,000 which will probably be wiped out by the time the new season starts.

 

We were taken over by Bill Kenwright during the season.

 


Season    League   Position    Europe     Cups                  Other
2012/13   BSS      18th        N/A        N/A                   N/A
2013/14   BSS      11th        N/A        N/A                   N/A
2014/15   BSS      2nd         N/A        N/A                   Lost in play-off final.

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Current Club Hastings United. Dafuge Challenge.

Division Blue Square South

Season 2015/2016

Expectations Safe mid-table.

Finish 7th.

 

Season 4 complete.

 

Finished 7th on 70. Total opposite to last season. We started badly and gradually improved, but were never quite solid enough to maintain a play-off position.

 

Some exceptionally good pre-season friendlies has our balance now sitting at £1,104,860. The board let me have 10 scouts (although I don't use them all the time because it's expensive), 6 coaches and 3 physios. They have got training and youth facility upgrades in progress, both will cost £1.1 million each so I have no idea if they'll both go through or get cancelled or what.

 

The staff are signed on for another 2 seasons except my assistant who I might replace. Our squad is generally set for next year but may require some investment to push further up. I have improved the team through the season and I'm hoping to win the league next season.

 


Season	League   Position	Europe	 Cups				  Other
2012/13   BSS	  18th		N/A		N/A				   N/A
2013/14   BSS	  11th		N/A		N/A				   N/A
2014/15   BSS	  2nd		 N/A		N/A				   Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS	  7th		 N/A		N/A				   N/A

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Current Club Hastings United. Dafuge Challenge.

Division Blue Square South

Season 2016/2017

Expectations Safe mid-table.

Finish 4th. Promoted via play-offs.

 

Season 6 complete.

 

Finished 4th on 81 points. We had a tilt at the title after a very impressive 2nd half of the season but ran out of steam. The better 2nd half was off the back of a new 442 tactic and more willingness to press the opposing teams. It lead to some dire condition problems when we had some fixture pileup. Luckily we managed to put together 2 wins on the trot in the final games of the league season, letting our morale improve for the play-offs.

 

The first leg of the play-offs saw us come up against Dover, who beat us both times this season. Their morale had been destroyed by a 3-0 hammering in the 2nd last game of the season, despite a 1-0 win the final game, and we took them apart. The 4-0 home result was barely enough to get us through when the typical 2nd leg curse struck, they tore us apart but only put 3 past us so we went through 4-3 on agg.

 

The final was a massacre in our favour. We opened the scoring after 40 seconds, and it just went on and on. Their defense was shambolic and by the end of the game we had put 5 past them.

 

The board are livid at my complete lack of wage control (I'm spending £270,000 a year on the budget of £121,000) but our pre-season friendlies have meant we still have £850,000 in the bank right now. They haven't budged an inch on the coaching structure, but I now have 5 physios and 10 scouts.

 

I am not going to request any youth or training facility upgrades, they are too expensive right now. I want that money in the wage budget next year.

 

Almost the entire team is still signed up until next year, plus all the staff. I am going to need two new right wingers, 2 new defensive midfielders, a left winger, a new central defender and a 4th choice striker as I would like to keep the 442 formation next season.

 


Season    League   Position    Europe	 Cups				  Other
2012/13   BSS	  18th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2013/14   BSS	  11th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2014/15   BSS	  2nd		 N/A	    N/A				   Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS	  7th		 N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2016/17   BSS	  4rh		 N/A	    N/A				   Promoted via play-offs.

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I love doing that kind of thing in Fifa. It's how I became a pseudo fan of Dagenham and Redbridge. Took them all the way to the Champions Cup Final in about Fifa 09 I think. I remember when I was in my first season and I wound up against Man United in the FA cup or something. Beat them 1-0 from memory. A very defensive effort. :coolio: That was on at least Professional difficulty too

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Division Blue Square Premier (1st Season)

Season 2017/2018

Expectations Avoid Relegation

Finish 3rd. Lost in Play-Off Semi-Final.

 

Season 7 complete.

 

Finished 3rd on 83 points. We had a tilt at the title after a very impressive 2nd half of the season. We climbed the table through the first half but a major injury to my best player really stopped us cold just as it looked like we were going to over-run the league leaders.

 

We brought in 10 players in each transfer window. The summer window was a view to next season, as I decided very early who was going and who was leaving. This season was the one I'd set as the end for pretty much all my players, so many of them are already gone on free transfers after the season finished. My entire backroom staff is up for re-signing as well.

 

Financially my good pre-season friendlies and avoidance of another training facility upgrade have meant the board have basically given me all the money I could need. I was able to bring in a top shelf keeper for £170,000 and have no issues with the wage budget at all. We increased the junior coaching 'facility' sever times in the year.

 

Our FA Cup run ended in the first game.

 

We made the semi-final of the FA Trophy. The aformentioned injury to Shaun Waters really hurt our chances, we ended up going out in a penalty shoot-out to 17th place in the Blue Square North Northwich after we dominated the 2nd leg but were unable to score a winner in extra-time.

 

I require no more investment in the squad. I can now concentrate on ensuring any new signings are going to be extremely good either in current ability or in future ability.

 

If my players can stay healthy, I see no reason why we can't win the league next season.

 


Season    League   Position    Europe	 Cups				  Other
2012/13   BSS	  18th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2013/14   BSS	  11th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2014/15   BSS	  2nd		 N/A	    N/A				   Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS	  7th		 N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2016/17   BSS	  4th		 N/A	    N/A				   Promoted via play-offs.
2017/18   BSP	  3rd		 N/A	    N/A				   Lost in play-off semi-final.

 

Squad:

 

2rr6qde.png

 

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Guest Rikitocker

I can't do the manager elements of the Fifa games I have already ... I'm strictly into playing matches; too fiddly for me all the managerial stuff.

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Division Blue Square Premier (2nd Season)

Season 2018/2019

Expectations Safe Mid-Table

Finish 1st.

 

Season 8 complete.

 

Finished 1st on 100 points. We started strongly and hit the top 4 after 5 games. By the 15th game we were 1st and never surrendered that position. The closest we came was in the dying part of the season where we started dropping points. Luckily Wrexham, our rivals kept doing the same. Our title was confirmed when they dropped a last minute goal to lose 2-1 to Telford when the draw would have kept them in the hunt until the final day.

 

Yet again Justin Ramos and Shaun Waters were our best performers. Ramos scored 32 goals, 14 assists and a 7.48 rating, with Waters picking up 24 goals, 20 assists and a 7.44 rating. Both are likely winners of the player of the year award.

 

We brought in 7 players over the year, with 3 leaving on free transfers during having left their non-contract positions for part-time positions and me not giving a ****. One left after crying about game-time.

 

Financially we kept our usual pre-season friendly tournament income, and again I did not request training facility upgrades. I know they would cost somewhere in the order of 3.5 million and didn't want to wipe out our funds. We're just under £3 million right now, I expect to be at £4 million by the start of the season.

 

Our FA Cup run ended in the first game again.

 

The FA Trophy, which I wanted to win, ended in ridiculous circumstances as we went ahead 3-0 to Eastbourne Borough (mid-table in Blue Square South) at Half-Time, only for their half-time team talk to turn the match around completely. They turned into Brazil and put four unanswered to knock us out in the fourth round.

 

The squad will require some investment, there are positions which will need to be improved to play in League Two. The wing is one that especially needs help. My creative central midfielder is leaving on a free transfer to Bohemians after he refused to accept a new deal. A positive is that I have what could be described as a surprise packet, a DM who can play CB or MC, but is now worth 190k and performed brilliantly in the latter half of the season.

 

Some staff will require re-signing or replacement.

 

I look forward to the continued improvements in my players as we jump up to professional level.

 

Upwards and onwards.

 


Season    League   Position    Europe	 Cups				  Other
2012/13   BSS	  18th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2013/14   BSS	  11th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2014/15   BSS	  2nd		 N/A	    N/A				   Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS	  7th		 N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2016/17   BSS	  4th		 N/A	    N/A				   Promoted via play-offs.
2017/18   BSP	  3rd		 N/A	    N/A				   Lost in play-off semi-final.
2018/19   BSP	  1st		 N/A	    N/A				   Won League Title

 

Squad:

 

v3zl9g.png

 

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Post-Season Update

The board have announced plans for a new stadium.

 

It will have an 8,684 capacity.

 

It will cost £7.75m, offset by £825,000 for selling our current stadium, a £250,000 5 year sponsorship deal, and a £3.09m grant presumably from a government organisation. All up, it will cost the club just about £4,000,000. It is not being covered by a loan, but instead it was bought outright. It has meant we will go into League 2 with a shockingly small budget. We will be lucky to get back to break even by the time the season starts.

 

Well, it was always going to happen. Our current stadium was already at max capacity, that capacity was small and facilities poor.

 

As always, the downside is that we will be stuck in this stadium for 20 years. I can only hope it has a large expansion capacity because 8,600 is not big enough for League 1, let alone the Championship and the Premiership.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Division League Two (1st Season)

Season 2019/2020

Expectations Avoid Relegation

Finish 1st.

 

Season 9 complete.

 

In an almost unbelievable turn of events, we've just won back to back titles. I'm not sure how often I've done this, it doesn't usually happen. We started reasonably well, our lowest position was 9th around the 12th game of the season, but it was still extremely tight at the top. By the 17th game we were top of the league and never surrendered the position.

 

We confirmed promotion with several games to play after destroying 2nd placed Halifax 4-0 and the title with one. Our run in was exceptional, winning the last 6 games in a row.

 

Yet again Justin Ramos and Shaun Waters were our best performers. Ramos scored 23 goals, 8 assists and a 7.17 rating, with Waters picking up 19 goals, 13 assists and a 7.29 rating. Both are likely winners of the player of the year award.

 

Unfortunately Ramos is leaving on a free transfer. I'd saved the game, and not picked it back up for a few days, only to be confronted with a "Ramos requests Transfer" as I'd promised him a new contract. I then tried to offer the contract, only for the agent to pull out very early in the negotiation, and he decided then and there to leave on a free. He ended up deciding to go back to Glentoran in the Irish Premier League... instead of Fulham in the Championship.

 

There were goals all over the team. Our 3rd choice striker Tobi Ajiboye picked up 18 goals, with the rest of the starting squad picking up between 2 and 5 goals, and some vital ones in there.

 

We brought in 3 players over the year on free's, and one on a loan. I released two players, then let 2 others go to other clubs for free, and then sold 2 players as I tried to balance the squad considering the 25 man squad cap. Of course, I'd forgot u21 players don't count, and I almost always have several of them in the first team.

 

Financially the building of our new stadium didn't impact majorly on our funds, we will make a profit of roughly £1.6million over the year with a balance of £500,000 in the bank.

 

Our FA Cup run was great. We beat now relegated League 1 team Notts County 3-1 in the first round, then mid-table League 2 team Port Vale 7-1 (Waters got 5, Ramos 2). That set up a 3rd round clash with promotion contenders Ebbsfleet which we triumphed 3-2 in. We were rewarded with a 4th round tie vs Everton. It was picked for TV Coverage, giving us £170,000 for that match + Gate Receipts. We went on to draw 0-0, then lost 4-0 in the replay away.

 

JPT was a 2-3 first round loss to Bromley.

 

Squad will require some investment. At the moment I'm looking to develop another pair of young wingers, I'll need a replacement for Ramos (or to change my tactics to remove the requirement for that deep lying strong forward that Ramos occupies) and get better depth in the wing-back positions.

 

I look forward to the continued improvements in my players as we step up to more quality football.

 

Upwards and onwards.

 


Season League Position Europe	 Cups				 Other
2012/13 BSS	 18th	 N/A	 N/A				 N/A
2013/14 BSS	 11th	 N/A	 N/A				 N/A
2014/15 BSS	 2nd		 N/A	 N/A				 Lost in play-off final.
2015/16 BSS	 7th		 N/A	 N/A				 N/A
2016/17 BSS	 4th		 N/A	 N/A				 Promoted via play-offs.
2017/18 BSP	 3rd		 N/A	 N/A				 Lost in play-off semi-final.
2018/19 BSP	 1st		 N/A	 N/A				 Won League Title
2019/20 L2 1st		 N/A	 N/A				 Won League Title, FA Cup 4th Round

 

Squad:

2yv52cx.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sorry JAR, been a bit busy lately ;)

 

Division League One (1st season)

Season 2020/2021

Expectations Avoid Relegation (Media - 24th)

Finish 11th.

 

Season 9 complete.

 

A good season. Well above board, media and my own expectations.

 

We started out pretty badly, but not horrifically, we hovered just above the relegation zone for the first half of the season. I decided I'd switch tactics and as the team got used to it they started performing quite well. At the turn of the year we started with a 1-0 win over Dag & Red using the new tactic and that started a 13 game unbeaten run (including both legs of the JPT South Semi) that pushed us into mid-table. Injuries destroyed any chance of playoff contention, but we put another 4 games unbeaten as we headed into the JPT final.

 

A relatively easy 2-1 victory over S****horpe helped us hoist our first ever Cup title, in our first visit to Wembley. I think. I can't remember if we played there in any play-offs.

 

After that was done I started to drop the intensity of the team (and my own attention), again with injuries pressing, and players wanting extended rest (I sent half a dozen players away for a month holiday before the actual holiday).

 

Those injury runs left our scoring stocks quite spread out. WE had 5 players end up on 10+ goals, Liam Vella an 18 year old English kid who top-scored with 13 from the inside forward winger position, Alvarez on 13, Francis Cameron a loan from Southampton got 12, Tobi Ajiboye got 12 from the other wing and occasionally up front and finally Colin Deegan who is playing in our AMC (but still hasn't retrained there all the way yet) position got 10.

 

Contract wise I re-signed the only first team player or staffer who was running out this season, one of our CB's.

 

Financially the club is going to end the season about £900,000 in the red. We do open our new stadium next month and maybe our Kit deal will be increased. Again, we'll need to convert our pre-season friendlies to cash money to keep afloat for the most part.

 

League Cup run ended against Cheltenham 0-1 in the first round.

 

FA Cup run ended the 2nd round (after we beat Hereford in a replay) with a 0-1 loss in the 2nd round to Plymouth.

 

As mentioned, JPT run ended in Victory, as we beat Stevenage, Leyton Orient 3-3 on Penalties), Swindon, Gillingham, took revenge on Plymouth with a 5-1 agg thrashing in the semi and then beat S****horpe in the final.

 

As quite a lot of our squad were loan signings, there are gaps that need to be filled. I don't know if we'll have the money to do it properly, but on the plus side we aren't going to lose anyone to free transfers. At worst we'll have much the same squad but better due to the young talent getting better, at best we'll be able to bring in players more suited to our new formation and push for the play-offs.

 

All in all, a good season.

 


Season	League   Position	Europe	 Cups				  Other
2012/13   BSS	  18th		N/A		N/A				   N/A
2013/14   BSS	  11th		N/A		N/A				   N/A
2014/15   BSS	  2nd		 N/A		N/A				   Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS	  7th		 N/A		N/A				   N/A
2016/17   BSS	  4th		 N/A		N/A				   Promoted via play-offs.
2017/18   BSP	  3rd		 N/A		N/A				   Lost in play-off semi-final.
2018/19   BSP	  1st		 N/A		N/A				   Won League Title
2019/20   L2 	  1st		 N/A		N/A				   Won League Title, FA Cup 4th Round
2020/21   L1 	  11th		N/A		JPT Winner			NA

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FM, top game being playing as Crewe in Npower League 2 signed some decent players and being promoted up to Npower Championship in 4 years of being at the club and having a pretty average season in middle of it.

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Division League One (2nd season)

Season 2021/2022

Expectations Consolidate (Media - 18th)

Finish 1st.

 

Season 10 complete.

 

Amazing season with only a very slight downer in the cups.

 

First off, we opened our new stadium and played a slew of pre-season matches there. This gave us enough cash to ensure we didn't go into the red during the season and keep my wage budget high enough to maintain the squad.

 

We made some very good loan signings as our wage budget wouldn't stretch to improving in many areas. We brought back several players who came to us last year in the DL and ST positions and these signings were key to being competitive across the pitch.

 

We started out reasonably well, we never fell below 8th, then began a steady climb up the table. One minor slump had us back down to 6th but we recovered and were fighting it out for the title by the turn of the year we were top. We never surrendered that position and won the title with 3 games to spare.

 

JPT run was pretty poor, we beat Dartford 3-0 then lost on penalties to my arch nemesis Plymouth when we were 3-1 up with 4 and 5th left to shoot.

 

FA Cup run ended in round 2, we beat Sutton then fell to Bury after taking a 1-0 lead.

 

The League Cup on the other hand, we were true giant killers. We took out Bournemouth in the first round, then Championship team Swansea 2-1, beat EPL Leicester in Extra Time 2-1, Championship Birmingham 2-1 in the fourth round, EPL Blackburn 3-2, came back from a 2-4 home loss against Championship Hull to win 4-0 away and take the semi 6-4 on agg.

 

Then came the final.

 

Where we were destroyed in a record 6-0 loss by EPL Bristol City. All in all, beating three championship teams and two premiership teams is a pretty good run. Also made a bit of money too which was nice.

 

Contract wise I re-signed about half the players who were up for renewal. I've poached two Spanish strikers from Barcelona on free transfers. They are both rated 5 star potential. Which in my current team means leading Championship or Good Premiership. So that sorted the forwards out.

 

I'm short at the back, needing 2 DL's, 1 DR and a ball playing CB. I've signed a new 2nd choice box to box midfielder on a free but I'm not really sure he's going to be good enough. I also need 2 more keepers. If I can get that then I might look at getting better players in some other positions.

 

All staff are re-signed, while I was looking for a new assistant the guy I did find wouldn't budge in reducing his wage demand by even the tiny fraction and as such I put my existing one on for another season.

 

We can now scout the continent.

 

I'm hoping the board will expand the stadium, the 'new stadium' option won't end for another month or so, if I'm lucky the board will expand the stadium for the Championship.

 


Season    League   Position    Europe	 Cups				  Other
2012/13   BSS	  18th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2013/14   BSS	  11th	    N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2014/15   BSS	  2nd		 N/A	    N/A				   Lost in play-off final.
2015/16   BSS	  7th		 N/A	    N/A				   N/A
2016/17   BSS	  4th		 N/A	    N/A				   Promoted via play-offs.
2017/18   BSP	  3rd		 N/A	    N/A				   Lost in play-off semi-final.
2018/19   BSP	  1st		 N/A	    N/A				   Won League Title
2019/20   L2	   1st		 N/A	    N/A				   Won League Title, FA Cup 4th Round
2020/21   L1	   11th	    N/A	    JPT Winner		    NA
2021/22   L1	   1st		 N/A	    LC RU				 Won League Title

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I deleted Football Manager 2012 off my computer because it was consuming my life to much lol. After not playing it since around March.. I NEED TO RE-INSTALL IT. *twitchy eye*

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Mack I am so excited to meet someone that has the same level of addiction to FM! I have done a similar challenge from the BSP with Oxford. I think I will start a new season soon from the BSS!

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