Task 4 - Fernando, BamBam, Hero (TEAM FBH)

As Nando has been abdicated, the Apprentice starts here with Mr Trebs at the helm. I have noted past performances, but it is largely this task onwards which is where the process will be won and lost.

One of the current National League sides has been expelled with immediate effect. Mr Trebs has stepped in quickly, and will be competing in the National League starting this week.

I have acquired a stadium with a capacity of 6,000 and will be chairman of a new London-based team. We have a special agreement with the National League to start the season on 50 points, which puts us in a competitive position. The target is promotion.

However, the transfer window is now closed and we are unable to make any signings. So for this season, we will have to rely on free agents only. We will also need a manager, and any coaching staff as required. Note that you will have to explain yourself, so while Patrice Evra may currently be a free agent, he would not be joining a National League side.

The budget for the next six months is £600,000. I expect the side to get promoted. Further funds will be available in the summer as we look to progress, but that is outside of the scope of this task. Assume all staff you bring in will be on a contract for this 6 month period only.

To summarise, your submission should include:
- General team overview - Starting XI/Playing Style
- A squad list of 23 players
- Any other staff to be appointed
- Costings for six months

Those who made it to Task 3 are automatically eligible for this task, and Fernando has requested a place in the process. The teams are therefore as follows:

Team 1 - Fernando, BamBam, Hero
Team 2 - Olly, Marky, Nadz

You have until next Wednesday 14th at midnight to complete your submissions. The boardroom will take place next Thursday. Love will not be in the air, as at least one of you will be fired.

This is one for you two to lead the way on since support national leagues sides Happy to help in what way needed though.

I know feck all about national league

Think you're thinking Twist and Ebbsfleet?

£600,000 isn't actually a huge amount nowadays for non-league, Forest Green had a wage budget of £2.1m when they were promoted 2 years ago.

I knew there was another NL supporter forgot about twizzle Who do you support Bam?

Id guess best place to start is a manager so can get people to suit his style of play assumingly not going to be barcelona levels of play in the conference more launch it to a big lad.

Here's a list of uncontracted players according to TM
https://www.transfermarkt.com/statistik/vertragslosespieler

I assume Hero is team leader for this task?

I think we should play 4-4-2 - surely all non league football is still using this formation

£600000 isn't going to go far for a 23 man squad + Manager & Assistant. Looking around £900 per week at best.

£600000 divided by 25 = 24000k divided by 26 since a 6 month deal was £923.07 a week

Player manager/assistant to save cost

That would move us to £961.53 a week or £3,846.15 a month

Possible manager?
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jul/08/sol-campbell-non-league-manager-interview

“It’s proving difficult and if I have to start at the bottom, I will,” he says. “People may think that I just want to manage in the Premier League but I’m prepared to go to a non-league club, and if they can’t pay me a salary just pay me a win bonus. I’m up for that. I won’t be up for that four or five years down the line but definitely for the first year, as long as it’s a good club with ambition

Personally manager and coach wise I think we need to bring in someone who knows the league. Bringing in a 'name' doesn't work for the National League, it's a horrific league to gain promotion from and many a decent league team drops into it, thinks it's bigger than the league and remains in it for years.
I'd very much recommend the Macclesfield manager John Askey, he knows the league inside out, he already works on one of if not the smallest budget in the league and most importantly can mount a title challenge with these limited resources. It also takes a manager from one of the rivals for promotion, Macclesfield would plummet with him gone.

For players wise I think we need to be looking at players that have played recently around League 1 to National League North/South level, especially ones that are based around London. If they're only getting a wage of less than £1,000 then they're not going to want to up sticks and move to a very expensive city to live in, they need to already be within commutable distance.

So Charlton,AFC Wimbledon, Barnet, Bromley,D&G,Sutton, Orient,Wealdstone,Welling

Could possibly loan people too?

Yep they're the teams that players should have been at, ones that have dropped out of youth systems at Charlton etc.
Loan wise perhaps look at up to the Championship level but I'd be surprised if Premier League teams would want any of their kids to rough it in the slums of the Conference.

I posted this after task 2

BamBam wrote:Sorry guys.

My car was broken into last night, everything taken and the whole entertainment system ripped out, so have been on the phone to police / insurance all morning

Helpfully, I left my work laptop in the car which was also taken, so will have a bundle of laughs sorting that situation out over the rest of the week

Just been told its a write off, so I'm going to be spending the next day or two sorting out insurance companies and a new car etc, so may struggle for time a little

I'll be on when I can

Please note that I am going to tweak the task slightly. I originally asked for 23 players, with five loans permissable.

This is to be modified to 11 players, with up to three loans. However, the budget will now be halved to £300,000. Please let me know if there are any questions.

Any ideas on players then guys? since we've got a manager down.

Here's a list of free agents from FM 18
http://www.footballmanagerblog.org/2017/10/football-manager-2018-free-agents.html

Forwards - Carlton Cole, Grant Holt, Clinton Morrison, Sylvain Ebanks Blake, Dexter Blackstock,
Midfielders - Quincy Owusu Abeyie, Chris Eagles, Kris Commons,Jerome Thomas, Dale Jennings,
CMs - Rohan Ricketts, Ryan Taylor, Mark Davies, Danny Guthrie,
RB - Emmerson Boyce, Ronald Zubar, Stephen Kelly,
LB - Andrea Dossena (last played for Orient), JLloyd Samuel - Recommend a loan LB
CB - Titus Bramble, Abdoulaye Meite, Roger Johnson,Kelvin Wilson,Joleon Lescott (seems unlikely)
GK - Paddy Kenny, Ross Turnbull, Recommend a loan GK

They seem the likeliest of them all.

Honestly, I haven't the faintest on this, no idea on half of these

Surely the likes of Cole/Commons wouldn't be willing to play in the national league?

This is a poor task really.

I think Carlton has pissed off to China now. Commons doesn't appear to be doing anything at all.

Honestly Frak knows But gotta get some idea together. Maybe look at PL clubs for lesser youth talents that need experience so not your fodens/nelsons etc

Here's what I've compiled so far having scoured through non league news on available players:

Position	First Name	Surname	Last club	Age
GK
LB	Nathan	Mavila	Wingate & Finchley	22
CB	Scott	Doe	Dagenham & Redbridge	29
CB	John	McCombe	Chester	32
RB
DM
CM	Mark	Davies	Bolton	29
AM
LW
RW	Jermaine	Pennant	Billericay Town	34
ST	Morgan	Ferrier	Dagenham & Redbridge	23

4 of these are already London based, Mark Davies having been at Bolton should be able to rough it for 3 months or lodge with another player, John McCombe was previously Macc captain for John Askey so hopefully reunite that partnership.

So that leaves us 5 loans to fill out the squad?

Might be worth looking at all london clubs for loans even if not a out and out starlet all will be good enough for the NL probably

We can only bring in 3 loans now.

I'm very hesitant to go for Premier League loans, rarely see them in the Conference as don't think their parent clubs want their players dropping to such a sh1t level and potentially picking up bad habits or getting a kicking.

My thought was Fulham/QPR/Charlton style players tbh.

Need a keeper with experience too really.

More than okay with those players, have a look through their squads for either talented youth or experienced heads that aren't getting game time?

The other Sessegnon brother?

Fulham - Magnus Norman (GK) Marlon Fossey (RB) Isaac Pearce (RW/LW returned from Bath City on loan)

QPR - Conor Hudnot (gk) Jack Williams (CB/DM)

Charlton - Regan Charles-Cook (RB)

Seem the stand outs from the U23 squads

They'd all work well with the gaps in the team too.

They were the ones i went looking for mainly that's why

What's your thoughts on Pennant, he's been released and is decent quality but also appears to be involved in online webcamming of his Mrs!

Good publicity plus he's missus is fine if he wants to give her a cheeky finger on the net go for it

I'll be back to help once I've researched Pennant's mrs

I think we've lost Bam

For an 11 man team for 6 months we're looking at £1,048 a week

That's before you take into account what Macclesfield may want for the manager as compensation

A top side in the Conference pays between £700-£900 a week for its best players, most pay tops £700 a week so we're well in budget and have enough for compensation for Macc.

Especially when we then include loanees which will be on either 100% paid by parent club or heavily discounted.

Pennant was on £3k a week when he joined Billericay but had that reduced before he was released.

Also whilst it states in the task it's for 6 months that takes us until the 2nd week of August. Most Conference clubs hire players until the end of the season which for the Conference is the end of April, if we made play offs that's end of May so we only need 4 month contracts (and therefore can pay more per week).

£1,704 a week if do 4 months so £6,818 a month

Fancy writing a few lines of playing style and I'll put together the rest.

I can do playing style seeing as I've got nothing else

Play style

We'll look to build on the successful formula sides in the National Leagues have employed.

Sticking to a basic 4-5-1 formation with the flexibility to turn into 4-3-3. Our CBs are strong, and very good in the air able to repel any long ball style approach that our opposition will attack with. Full backs have plenty of pace to cope with the pacey but limited wingers they will likely be facing

In midfield, we've gone for a 3 to fill the central areas, one true defensive midfielder who will look to protect defence, one box to box CM and one attacking midfield player who will look to provide quality.

Pennant is our wildcard, having had the quality to play much higher levels of football, we'll look to use his pace and creativity to create chances. On the other wing, we've got an out and out pace man to really get on the end of knock downs and run in behind

Ferrier is our man to lead the line, he is a proven National League goal scorer with 11 last season, and has the physical presence to battle defenders, holding up the ball to bring our midfield into play.

Suggest that for the loanee players that we get all 3 from Fulham, think in doing so it brings in 3 players that hopefully have an on pitch understanding which at this stage of the season we'd be lacking compared to our rivals and that going forward it'd hopefully create a mutual benefit for players of both clubs.

Players
For this task we felt that we had to take into account the environment in which the players were involved and the location of the club. London is not a cheap place to live in and for National League level players they're not on the highest wages so the vast majority of players are not going to up sticks and move across the country. We also wanted to ensure we hired players who knew the task at hand, the National League is a bitch of a league to get out of, only one automatic place and then the next 6 go into play offs for the remaining spot. As a result we felt it unrealistic to target Premier League loanees, for us these clubs would not wish to see their talented youngsters drop to the 5th tier where they could pick up bad habits or worse still, injuries. We’ve focused upon Fulham for loanee players, firstly by concentrating on one particular club it then brings in 3 players who hopefully have an understanding, something that at this stage of the season is required but also to develop our club as one that in future Fulham can work with in a mutual beneficial nature.

Position	First Name	Surname	Last club	Age	Wage per week	6 month
GK	Magnus	Norman	Fulham (loanee)	21	0	0
LB	Nathan	Mavila	Wingate & Finchley	22	700	18200
CB	Scott	Doe	Dagenham & Redbridge	29	700	18200
CB	John	McCombe	Chester	32	700	18200
RB	Marlon	Fossey	Fulham (loanee)	19	0	0
DM	Nathan	Doyle	Luton	31	700	18200
CM	Mark	Davies	Bolton	29	1,200	31200
AM	Luke	Guttridge	Dagenham & Redbridge	35	700	18200
LW	Isaac	Pearce	Fulham (loanee)	19	0	0
RW	Jermaine	Pennant	Billericay Town	34	1,800	46800
ST	Morgan	Ferrier	Dagenham & Redbridge	23	900	23400
Manager	John	Askey	Macclesfield		1500	39000
1st team Coach	Byron	Jenkins	Macclesfield		500	13000
GK coach	Bill	Gorton	Macclesfield		350	9100
					Total	253500

 
Manager
We decided to target a manager who knows the league well, based on that we chose John Askey of Macclesfield, a manager that personally I know a lot about as it's the club I support, they're the current league leaders of the league despite the fact that Macclesfield operate on one of the smallest wage bills in the league and Askey has done wonders with the club, that doesn't though mean I think he'd be unattainable, Macclesfield recently failed to pay wages for the staff in January and have constant rumours of financial difficulties so a cash incentive of £40k to the club should easily tempt the Macc owners to let him go. We'd also wish to bring his backroom staff of Byron Jenkins as 1st team coach and Bill Gorton as GK coach. In bringing in a manager from a rival this also disrupts them and we'd expect to see Macclesfield drop down the table as a result thus hopefully improving our chances of promotion.

Play Style

We'll look to build on the successful formula sides in the National Leagues have employed.
Sticking to a basic 4-5-1 formation with the flexibility to turn into 4-3-3. Our CBs are strong, and very good in the air able to repel any long ball style approach that our opposition will attack with. Full backs have plenty of pace to cope with the pacey but limited wingers they will likely be facing
In midfield, we've gone for a 3 to fill the central areas, one true defensive midfielder who will look to protect defence, one box to box CM and one attacking midfield player who will look to provide quality.
Pennant is our wildcard, having had the quality to play much higher levels of football, we'll look to use his pace and creativity to create chances. On the other wing, we've got an out and out pace man to really get on the end of knock downs and run in behind
Ferrier is our man to lead the line, he is a proven National League goal scorer with 11 last season, and has the physical presence to battle defenders, holding up the ball to bring our midfield into play.

What do you think?

Think that is about as good as could be expected

Not sure if that's praise or not!