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an fm2005 story -
i started a game (in april!) as redbridge in the conference south, played it pretty much LLM, got promoted to the conference via playoffs, held my own for a couple of years and won the FA trophy
, but didn't really get anywhere in the league. season 4 things went a bit downhill and although i was holding my head above water (just!), i came to realise that redbridge would never be able to make it out of the conference, there was no money, nothing coming in, and no decent players wanted to come to the club.
then out of the blue bradford city offered me a job to manage them, they were bottom of the championship, 13 points off safety with 10 games to go, i only had enough money to sign one player (we needed 5 or 6!), so i signed a keeper. we managed to win 7 games, draw 2 and only lose once, escaping relegation by 1 point thanks to a 3-0 away win against derby (who were in the playoffs). i spent the next two seasons cutting dead wood and adding some quality to the squad whenever the chance arose, and was rewarded with two safe mid-table finishes. having finally balanced the books and having a good young squad with a few bradford regulars and a sprinkling of premiership old boys, we made a push for the play offs, finishing third and then disgracing ourselves with a 4-1 home defeat to sheffield united in the semi finals 
. the next season was more of the same, a couple of players in, a couple out, and we finished 5th, before losing in the semi finals to preston north end. despite all these good finishes in the championship, we still lacked money for both transfers and wages, and so could only bring in two new faces for the new season, one of whom rejected two premiership clubs to come to us. 
we were in the play off places all season and looked to heading to a 3rd or 4th placed finish, until the last day of the season when 2nd placed derby, 3 points ahead of us (and +3 goal difference) were stunned 1-0 at home by lowly spurs (who just escaped relegation) and we beat west ham 4-1 away, to gain automatic promotion in 2nd place!! 
the premiership beckoned, with the board digging deep to give me £5 million to spend on new players, we got in a very solid centre-half and managed to get quite a bit of quality on free transfers thanks to an expanded wage budget. it was hard going for much of the season but an excellent run towards the end saw us finish comfortably in 15th a whole 6 points clear of the relegation zone! i'd like to take a moment to thank the unexpected hero of our campaign, who not only scored the goals which brought into this division but also poached the ones which kept us here, the one, the only brett ormerod, a true bradford city legend, who sadly retired at the age of 33 after that season. the next three seasons saw us build the squad up and climb up the table finishing 12th, 11th and 8th respectively. the next season was our first journey into europe, in the intertoto cup 
, ended pre-maturely we lost in the semis to real majorca. however our young players were coming on very nicely and for the first time ever we had some real quality in every area, we finished 2nd to liverpool on goal difference and won the league cup, beating chelsea in a tense game. i had also taken on the role of england manager in december of 2012, taking them to and winning the confederations cup in 2013, beating brazil 2-1 in the final.
the next season i was stunned by the refusal of our best youngster (and england regular!) to sign a new deal and sold him to chelsea for £25 million, this proved good for the team and gave us a bit of cash to spend on other areas, we started off well and carried on even better winning the league with two games to go
our first ever champions league campaign wasn't quite as successful, we lost to chelsea in the first knockout round, but got our revenge by beating them with 10 men in the league cup final, our club captain, mark bower, bradford city his entire playing career and despite a lack of any discernable skill, our rock at the back for the 9 years i was there, retired aged 35. with england I took my team to the European championships, where we looked very good the whole tournament, but somehow (and when i say somehow i mean because of some ****ty keeping 
) lost 3-2 in the final to the germans, grrr. i resigned shortly afterwards. the next year the board and fans expected me to win the league, but we were rocked by outbursts from some stroppy players and refusals to sign new deals, as a result a lot of bradford stars were told to find alternative employment that summer and not enough replacements could be found. however the players we did sign turned out to be quality and we looked even better than last year, despite faltering at the end we retained the league title our champions league campaign was cut short when we met real madrid in the first knockout round and got well and truly stuffed at the bernabeu. we did though console ourselves by beating chelsea for a third consecutive year in the league final. i started my 11th season at bradford city with a massive weight of expectation on my shoulders, the fans and the bored expected me to win the premiership and get to at least the champions league semis, they don't ask for much... i only signed a couple of promising youngsters, no one important left either. we got off to a shaky start were off the pace by november, and we crashed out the champions league, finishing 3rd in our group, however our league form improved and by christmas we were 3rd and pushing the teams above us. on the 9th of janurary 2016 we played aston villa at valley parade, going down to 9 men within 24 minutes, which i wasn't very happy about to say the least! we went on to win their game 4-1, but i still fined both the players who had got sent off, early the next morning the chairman sacked me!!
that ended 11 years at bradford city, where i had taken them from the bottom of the championship, to the summit of the premier league.
i'm still playing this game, having just taken over crewe, who find themselves midtable in the conference and in need of some direction, which i aim to provide.
i started a game (in april!) as redbridge in the conference south, played it pretty much LLM, got promoted to the conference via playoffs, held my own for a couple of years and won the FA trophy
, but didn't really get anywhere in the league. season 4 things went a bit downhill and although i was holding my head above water (just!), i came to realise that redbridge would never be able to make it out of the conference, there was no money, nothing coming in, and no decent players wanted to come to the club. then out of the blue bradford city offered me a job to manage them, they were bottom of the championship, 13 points off safety with 10 games to go, i only had enough money to sign one player (we needed 5 or 6!), so i signed a keeper. we managed to win 7 games, draw 2 and only lose once, escaping relegation by 1 point thanks to a 3-0 away win against derby (who were in the playoffs
). i spent the next two seasons cutting dead wood and adding some quality to the squad whenever the chance arose, and was rewarded with two safe mid-table finishes. having finally balanced the books and having a good young squad with a few bradford regulars and a sprinkling of premiership old boys, we made a push for the play offs, finishing third and then disgracing ourselves with a 4-1 home defeat to sheffield united in the semi finals . the next season was more of the same, a couple of players in, a couple out, and we finished 5th, before losing in the semi finals to preston north end. despite all these good finishes in the championship, we still lacked money for both transfers and wages, and so could only bring in two new faces for the new season, one of whom rejected two premiership clubs to come to us. we were in the play off places all season and looked to heading to a 3rd or 4th placed finish, until the last day of the season when 2nd placed derby, 3 points ahead of us (and +3 goal difference) were stunned 1-0 at home by lowly spurs (who just escaped relegation) and we beat west ham 4-1 away, to gain automatic promotion in 2nd place!! the premiership beckoned, with the board digging deep to give me £5 million to spend on new players, we got in a very solid centre-half and managed to get quite a bit of quality on free transfers thanks to an expanded wage budget. it was hard going for much of the season but an excellent run towards the end saw us finish comfortably in 15th a whole 6 points clear of the relegation zone! i'd like to take a moment to thank the unexpected hero of our campaign, who not only scored the goals which brought into this division but also poached the ones which kept us here, the one, the only brett ormerod, a true bradford city legend, who sadly retired at the age of 33 after that season
. the next three seasons saw us build the squad up and climb up the table finishing 12th, 11th and 8th respectively. the next season was our first journey into europe, in the intertoto cup , ended pre-maturely we lost in the semis to real majorca. however our young players were coming on very nicely and for the first time ever we had some real quality in every area, we finished 2nd to liverpool on goal difference and won the league cup, beating chelsea in a tense game. i had also taken on the role of england manager in december of 2012, taking them to and winning the confederations cup in 2013, beating brazil 2-1 in the final.the next season i was stunned by the refusal of our best youngster (and england regular!) to sign a new deal and sold him to chelsea for £25 million, this proved good for the team and gave us a bit of cash to spend on other areas, we started off well and carried on even better winning the league with two games to go
our first ever champions league campaign wasn't quite as successful, we lost to chelsea in the first knockout round, but got our revenge by beating them with 10 men in the league cup final, our club captain, mark bower, bradford city his entire playing career and despite a lack of any discernable skill, our rock at the back for the 9 years i was there, retired aged 35. with england I took my team to the European championships, where we looked very good the whole tournament, but somehow (and when i say somehow i mean because of some ****ty keeping ) lost 3-2 in the final to the germans, grrr. i resigned shortly afterwards. the next year the board and fans expected me to win the league, but we were rocked by outbursts from some stroppy players and refusals to sign new deals, as a result a lot of bradford stars were told to find alternative employment that summer and not enough replacements could be found. however the players we did sign turned out to be quality and we looked even better than last year, despite faltering at the end we retained the league title our champions league campaign was cut short when we met real madrid in the first knockout round and got well and truly stuffed at the bernabeu. we did though console ourselves by beating chelsea for a third consecutive year in the league final. i started my 11th season at bradford city with a massive weight of expectation on my shoulders, the fans and the bored expected me to win the premiership and get to at least the champions league semis, they don't ask for much... i only signed a couple of promising youngsters, no one important left either. we got off to a shaky start were off the pace by november, and we crashed out the champions league, finishing 3rd in our group, however our league form improved and by christmas we were 3rd and pushing the teams above us. on the 9th of janurary 2016 we played aston villa at valley parade, going down to 9 men within 24 minutes, which i wasn't very happy about to say the least! we went on to win their game 4-1, but i still fined both the players who had got sent off, early the next morning the chairman sacked me!! that ended 11 years at bradford city, where i had taken them from the bottom of the championship, to the summit of the premier league.
i'm still playing this game, having just taken over crewe, who find themselves midtable in the conference and in need of some direction, which i aim to provide.
). As i progress i'll just have to see how far i can make it and what quality of player i can bring to the club?
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