[FM24] [EN] LLM - The Oldest Club in the World - A Carlos Dolbeth Adventure

[cadete]

Sporting está à tua espera.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de cadete, Em 20/06/2025 at 11:32:

Sporting está à tua espera.

Ate tremem!

[Burkina2008]

August 7th, 2030 - Preparing for a tough one...

The telenovela that was promised involving Earthy did not really materialize with Stoke City putting in yet again another record-breaking offer to the oldest club in the world and the board accepting it without speaking with Dolbeth. Almost 4 million Euros for the young attacking midfielder that summed with the sale of Kabore made for almost 6 million in sales. It was as rich as the club had ever been, but that did not mean that Carlos was going to splurge in the transfer market…far from it. The strategy was once again, joining the players already hired at the end of last season, the concentration on free transfer end-of-contract players and some purchases of relatively low value here and there. Only two loans this year and nothing from the other Sheffield clubs who were now closer and closer division wise, it was Middlesbrough and Liverpool that provided some young talent, especially Julius Chell is expected to shine in the midfield of the team. That said the money was spent on another foreigner, that substitutes Kabore, with Spanish Nigerian left back Christian Mohammed and QPR attacking midfielder Dudziak showing good things on the field.

The pre-season was as expected, full of new faces and with some good games and some poor displays, it’s clear that defensively the boys are not yet working well together. The highlight not so much in terms of results, but more in terms of the acknowledgement for the growth of the club is the visit of Aberdeen, in what was the presentation of the team to the fans in a 2-2 draw. The last game of the pre-season raised the alarm bells in what is expected to be a very tough year. League One is already full of teams with name and stature much higher than our boys, with Preston North End, Bolton and Plymouth, clear favorites to go up, while Wrexham, QPR and Rotherham are also contenders. In the bottom of the bookie’s odds, Sheffield F.C. (tied with Bristol Rovers) shows up in the relegation zone, only above Carlisle, Gillingham and Cambridge, which clearly sees what the world is expecting from the team. The ambience is nevertheless calm…but warry that this will definitely be a very complicated season.

 

Cronica Leonina!

Ano de Mundial e Portugal que até joga em casa neste mundial monstro entre Espanha, Marrocos e Portugal, teve um grupo acessível e acabou por passar sem problemas pela fase de grupos contra os laranjas e uns desgraçados do terceiro mundo… Depois foi aviar as equipas da América do Sul, primeiro o Chile, seguido dos Argentinos (que não são nada sem o anão) e depois o Uruguai…nas meia f*deu…Franca outra vez e levamos 4! Depois ainda perdemos com os espanhóis para o terceiro lugar…começou bem, mas acabou mal!

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[cadete]

Fizeste bom dinheiro no mercado, mas perdendo um jogador importante. Acredito que não faça falta.

[Maffu]

Após confirmada a mais que esperada promoção vem outro grande desafioo. Foram boas vendas, principalmente quando os jogadores estão a forçar a saida. Agora é ver quanto tempo demora a entrosar o novo plantel. As odds dão-te a descer, mas no último lugar de descida. Será improvavel que desças, sendo o provavel, principalmente se resolveres os probvlemas defensivos dessa pré-época, que fiques confortavelmente acima.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de cadete, há 6 horas:

Fizeste bom dinheiro no mercado, mas perdendo um jogador importante. Acredito que não faça falta.

Sim vai fazer falta

Citação de Maffu, há 1 hora:

Após confirmada a mais que esperada promoção vem outro grande desafioo. Foram boas vendas, principalmente quando os jogadores estão a forçar a saida. Agora é ver quanto tempo demora a entrosar o novo plantel. As odds dão-te a descer, mas no último lugar de descida. Será improvavel que desças, sendo o provavel, principalmente se resolveres os probvlemas defensivos dessa pré-época, que fiques confortavelmente acima.

Epa descer nao descemos, isso seria uma catastrofe

[Banks29]

Cheira-me a luta pelo play-off

[Burkina2008]

September 20th, 2030 - The Canadian scorer?

As expected, this season was not to be an easy one for the boys. After 3 straight promotions rise, which was rarely seen in England, Dolbeth found himself in League One and with a first game at Portsmouth, a team that he remembered well from their time in the Premier League. Still with a brave fighting team full of new players, completely renovated, Sheffield managed to score his first goal in the division and draw a tight affair. Defensively there was now a consistency that had rarely been seen in the teams of Carlos and if it is true that they seem not to be able to hold a clean sheet, it was also true that in August there was not a single game where the boys let more than a single goal in. Wrexham and Rotherham United at home were to 1-1 draws which could have gone either way, while after a defeat at the hands of Preston North End at the beautiful Deepdale, finally and 5 games, Sheffield F.C. managed to go to Loftus Road and beat Queens Park Rangers by 2-1 in London. This was for Dolbeth who was almost in tears at the end of the game, a glorious achievement and a warning to the other clubs that Sheffield was not in the league just to watch and get automatically relegated.

 

As said if there was something that the team was not showing capabilities like in previous seasons, was the attack and the scoring, Doumbia and Joseph-Luke, seemed to be outclassed by the opposition defense, while Langstaff was entering his veteran days…still there was no real sign of a new signing, so it was with surprise than in the last day of the market, the club announced in its twitter page, that they had secure 31 year old stricker, Ike Ugbo. With Sheffield experience (playing at Wednesday in 2023-2024) the Canadian international that holds also British and Nigerian passport is the coup of the season so far. With 72 goals in his last 7 seasons playing between the League 1 and League 2 in France, this seems to be the man to come up with the much-needed goals. Still, we would have to wait a week to see the player in action as prior to that, the annoying competition of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy was about to start.

 

Clearly not a fan of these cups, Dolbeth had already chosen to field a weaker side for the 1^st Round of the Carabao Cup which resulted in a defeat in penalties against Lincoln City and in this competition, it would not be different. Facing Man United U21s, at home and with the calendar getting fuller by the day, it was a defeat waiting to happen but somehow even with a young inexperienced squad the result was a surprising 4-1 win!!! The good displays continued in the league in the next couple of games with Ike still scoreless but with some tight one goal differences that materialized in 6 points against teams who Sheffield F.C. could only dream of beating 5 seasons ago like Reading and Charlton, to give a comfortable high mid-table post after 7 games. Its just a good start, we do wish the boys and Carlos were able to keep the pace, but realistically there are no big illusions either.

 

Cronica Leonina!

Continuamos na mesma cegada em que Amorim, Varandas e Hugo Viana lideram a seu bem querer o clube e depois de vendermos meia equipa e encaixarmos 100 milhões de Euros, apenas gastamos 25…e vamos ver o que vem dai. Um defeso interessante viu o Xabi Alonso mudar-se para lampião e iniciar a época a comer o Sporting de cebolada… Se na Champions já tivemos prestações piores, no campeonato estamos horríveis com 9 pontos em 6 jogos e demasiado empate contra equipas de agricultores.

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[Maffu]

Tiveste aquele começo meio tremido com a eliminação na Carabao e uma entrada não tão favorável na liga. Vais, agora, numa boa série. 4 vitórias com 3 na liga e estás já na luta pelos playoffs. Vamos ver que Sheffield vamos apanhar até final, se o inconstante ou este dominador dos ultimos tempos.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de Maffu, há 22 horas:

Tiveste aquele começo meio tremido com a eliminação na Carabao e uma entrada não tão favorável na liga. Vais, agora, numa boa série. 4 vitórias com 3 na liga e estás já na luta pelos playoffs. Vamos ver que Sheffield vamos apanhar até final, se o inconstante ou este dominador dos ultimos tempos.

Vamos ver...ainda vamos muito no inicio

[Burkina2008]

November 1st, 2030 - Mid table objectives

Once again Sheffield F.C. was beating all the analysts’ expectations with a team who was clearly tipped for relegation to be in a very decent mid-high table post after 7 games. But the fans were not under any illusions as the team was not “that” good and most of the wins had been in very tight games where our boys have had a bit of luck. Well, this luck started to run out by the end of September with another tight even game at Accrington where this time Stanley were the ones that came out on top in a goal galore (although not to the levels seen by the team in the non-league season a few years ago). It did seem like a fluke as one week later, Dolbeth led his team to a big important win in Gillingham, with the team being consistent both in the front and in the back, but maybe that was more to deal with the poor performance of the home team this year, facing some financial issues, than in the improvement of Sheffield F.C. team on the pitch, especially in the front.

 

Actually, after some enthusiasm with the arrival of Ike Ugbo, the reality is that after a few games coming out of the bench, little has been seen in terms of goals or quality of play from the Canadian international. First game in October at the home of Football was yet another one decided by the tightest of margins, with Blackpool taking all the 3 points with a late goal to break the draw. Back in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy and this time against York, there was not “Man United surprise” as the starting 11 was once again rested and some youngster had the opportunity to get some experience. Third straight home match was a visit from Notts County and here the boys did until now the best performance of the season, fresher than the away side, maybe 6 goals is a bit too much for what the team did but in front of goal the team was flawless, and it was a well-deserved victory. After 3 home games it was back on the road for our players and at Exeter they managed to yet again surprise the pundits with another high goalscoring game and a 0-4 win.

 

At this point it began to be clear that simply fighting against relegation would not be a target anymore and it was announced already in October that Dolbeth had a locker room talk to announce another monetary bonus for the team to get a mid-table finish. It was not really certain when this talk happened, but the next two games did not assure the fans, that such had been a good strategy. The defeat against promotion contenders Grimsby Town away, did not really surprise anyone, but a bit more was expected from a home game against Bolton, besides a 2-0 defeat. No love was lost there and in the last game of October it was back to the wins, with another excellent performance at Carlisle, against a team that will for sure be relegated this season. One third of the season is completed and Sheffield F.C. is sitting comfortably with 24 points just short of the playoff spots and much better than what was expected by anyone. That said it’s a very tight league and from 7^th to 18^th place only 6 points…

 

Cronica Leonina!

Devem estar a tentar fazer a pior época de sempre. Na Champions mais duas derrotas contra equipas que deviam ser acessíveis. Na taca perdemos com uma equipa que nem nunca tinha ouvido falar e no campeonato continuamos de empate em empate com uns m*rda e estamos no quinto lugar…f*dasse!!!

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

Editado 27 Junho 2025 por Burkina2008

[Maffu]

Vamos aos positivos: 1 vitória e 1 derrota é melhor que 1 empate! 

Estás bastante confortável. Essas 5 vitórias continuam a colocar-te na luta pela subida e estamos na fase em que tudo pode acontecer. É acreditar que pelo menos aos playoffs vais.

[cadete]

Mais uma época a lutar pelos playoffs, pelo que parece.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de Maffu, Em 27/06/2025 at 10:21:

Vamos aos positivos: 1 vitória e 1 derrota é melhor que 1 empate! 

Estás bastante confortável. Essas 5 vitórias continuam a colocar-te na luta pela subida e estamos na fase em que tudo pode acontecer. É acreditar que pelo menos aos playoffs vais.

Vai ser muito complicado mas nao impossivel

Citação de cadete, Em 28/06/2025 at 02:47:

Mais uma época a lutar pelos playoffs, pelo que parece.

Idem

[Burkina2008]

December 9th, 2030 - Even in the cups

November started on a high. The FA Cup was a competition where just for the monetary awards, the board insisted that Dolbeth put some meat behind the bones and while it was not expected that the team would go far, the first and second rounds were “must wins”. That said and in his usual fashion, Carlos put all of that aside and in the Home of Football against a team that was once in the same league as our boys, but that was deemed nowadays quite inferior, the mix of youngster plus less rotated players was used, with a surprisingly good result, as Ike finally scored and the team is through with authority for what is expected to be a much tougher second round against Mansfield Town. On the other cup, the Bristol Street Motors Trophy and using a similar selection on the starting 11, Sheffield also managed to grab a second win (following the first-round result against the Man United youngsters) and is also surprisingly through to the next round of 16.

 

This is all good and well but without rotating the team, it would be impossible for the boys to play so many fixtures. November had 9 games scheduled and December at least another 9…too much for such a small squad. Still following the FA Cup win, Dolbeth managed to grab another impressive result as league leaders Lincoln City were surprised by a 6-1 trashing which left the fans wondering if another promotion was really outside the realm of possibilities. It was just a few days of this kind of talk at the club bar, seeing that on a visit to Mansfield for the first game of the month facing that team, reality did bite on a 0-1 defeat. The secondary Bristol Street Motors Trophy achievement was not really a celebrated event, but the following away fixture, saw another 3 points being gathered away, on a difficult 0-1 win at Salford. At this point and for the first time in the season, Sheffield was in a playoff spot. 5^th place with 30 points in a very tight table but only 5 points away from league leaders Lincoln City and with a favorable end to the first round, the sky seemed to be the limit for the team.

 

It was not completely constant, but the boys did have better games than most, being able to win 5-1 against Plymouth Argyle in a game that looked from a completely different league and the a few days later, get beaten by Burton by the slimmest of margins which was quite unfair for the home team which was much much better that day. Dolbeth did get his revenge over Mansfield Town, to see the team progress to the 3^rd round of the FA Cup for the first time and they even got lucky on the draw with Newport County being a much better chance than against some of the higher-level adversaries possible. On the other hand, and after the surprise in the Bristol Trophy, eventually the enormous number of games had to give and at home in the quarter finals, a mixed team could not make it better than getting complete trashing from Notts County. Almost finishing the first round another slender win at Bristol to make it to 3^rd place at a very packed table and keep the dream alive.

 

Cronica Leonina!

Impressionante, uma vitoria em 6 jogos, em casa a rasca contra o Chaves…sim não foram os adversários mais fáceis do mundo e um empate com o Atletico de Madrid e os morcões não esta horrível…mas empatar com o Feirense, perder com os franciús? E com isto tudo nem sinal que alguma cabeca va rolar…enfim!

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[Maffu]

Ninguém liga as taças. Excepto quando ganhas na FA, ai, grande prestação!

Bem... bastante melhor. Já vamos de "será que vais ao PO" para um será que sobes directo. Está cada vez melhor e cada vez mais possível essa subida.

[cadete]

Bem, começo a achar que vai ser mais que luta pelos playoffs, mas não quero colocar a carroça à frente dos bois.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de Maffu, Em 30/06/2025 at 15:11:

Ninguém liga as taças. Excepto quando ganhas na FA, ai, grande prestação!

Bem... bastante melhor. Já vamos de "será que vais ao PO" para um será que sobes directo. Está cada vez melhor e cada vez mais possível essa subida.

Sem duvida nas tacas...ai nos playoffs ainda vamos ver...

Citação de cadete, Em 02/07/2025 at 07:38:

Bem, começo a achar que vai ser mais que luta pelos playoffs, mas não quero colocar a carroça à frente dos bois.

Vamos ver...

[Burkina2008]

January 10th, 2031 - Terrible new sponsor...

Once again things were going swell at Sheffield and it was in a cheers climate that on the home game against Cambridge in the mid of December, a new jersey was showed to the fans. Well, the jersey was not new, but the sponsor was. It was know for a few months now, that Carlos Dolbeth run in England was now also echoing in his home country, but it was still a surprise that a Portuguese brand would want to sponsor a team in League One. Worse was that it seemed like the club was completely unaware of the brand which is a cigarette one… Portugues Suave we were told, is one of the oldest brands of Portuguese tobacco, is and was never sold in the UK and will only sponsor the home jersey. Not sure how long this would last given that this kind of product according to the law of our country is not allowed, but for now it stands…and it did not hurt the team which grabbed another good win in this game.

 

Next challenge was expected to be at the same level but with Gillingham fighting to not getting stuck in the relegation battle made for a very interesting challenge and consequently a loss of 2 points. Blackpool mid table at home proved to be an even greater challenge with Carlos resting some players given the amount of games in the month of December and the club recorded a fair defeat. Closing in on the Christmas/New Years game galore, the Home of Football saw another great display of the team which managed to grab 3 points over Exeter City and then going to Meadow Lane to perform well and getting another win which for the first time put the team in a place of automatic promotion. It seemed like Christmas had brought not only fatigue and points but also goals which had been a problem at the beginning of the season. Last game of 2030 was back home in a cold 29^th of December and we could not have asked for a better end of the year. Another strong attacking display with 6 games scored over Grimsby Town.

2031started with a visit to Bolton where the boys on the 1^st day of the year, gave another goal festival with Josh Martin scoring yet again and climbing to the top of the goal scorers table. When the ex-Accrington winger who arrived on a free transfer after having started in only 11 games and scoring just one goal last season, arrived, there were no big expectations besides a useful bench player, but as of now it seems one of the best hires of the club. A few days later another 4 goals scored by our boys for a swift passage on the 3^rd round of the FA Cup against Newport County. 100k Euros in the bank and a chance to face Brighton playing in the EPL by the end of the month is just the cherry on top of an amazing cup run. Finally, and with the fatigue setting in again, QPR visited Sheffield for a 1-1 draw. But this was not the end of the report…at the half-time out of the blue, Sheffield’s president announced that a new player was joining the team. In an unprecedented move, Milan academy left attacking midfielder was joining on loan until the end of the year…what a time to be alive, a Milan player at Sheffield!

 

Cronica Leonina!

Finalmente um período sem derrotas…enfim também contra um grupo de mancos, mesmo assim não conseguimos vencer os ilheus e na Champions vencemos contra uma equipa que deve se ter qualificado nalgum sorteio de cereais. Continuamos na mesma…

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

[Banks29]

Tudo muito apertado mas acredito na subida direta

[cadete]

Suave ou não, entraste na luta pela promoção direta e mesmo pelo título.

[Maffu]

O Mansfield ainda te pode passar mas, nesta altura, acho que os adeptos já pensam todos na promoção directa. Está a ser uma campanha fabulosa e, com certeza, melhor ficará.

[Burkina2008]

Citação de cadete, Em 04/07/2025 at 10:05:

Suave ou não, entraste na luta pela promoção direta e mesmo pelo título.

Sim parece que sim

Citação de Maffu, Em 05/07/2025 at 01:14:

O Mansfield ainda te pode passar mas, nesta altura, acho que os adeptos já pensam todos na promoção directa. Está a ser uma campanha fabulosa e, com certeza, melhor ficará.

Mas ainda podem existir surpresas...

[Burkina2008]

February 28th, 2031 - The Dilemma

Once again and surprisingly so, Sheffield was finding themselves well into the season and close to yet another promotion. Who could have imagined something like this, 5 seasons ago? But we were still in January so anything was possible in a league where 1 point could make a 5 places difference in the table. The next couple of league results ended up disappointing the fans that were by now expecting that the team would be able to win consistently besides the beginning of the season expectations. A draw at Reading was not a bad result, but the defensive performance against Charlton where the boys let 6 goals in was uncalled for and after being a few round in an automatic promotion place, the team was back down to the playoff spots. Further there were some rumors of a couple of players that wanted to leave…including some that had joined the team recently. The 4^th round of the FA Cup was more a party for the fans who saw the visit of a Premier League side than anything else and the 2-0 defeat was a good an expected result which closed the cups season, to the happiness of Dolbeth.

 

Sheffield managed to go back to the wins, at home against Accringtion, but was not really convincing given that after being up 3-0, the team barely escaped with the 3 points following a big second half from the visitors. End of January and the last few days saw some surprising exists, Ike Ugbo ended up not being the player everyone expected and left for a cheap fee to French side Sochaux, while Stearn was loaned out and third goalkeeper Max Merrick went to Leeds (quite a surprise for a player that barely had minutes on the team). Still there was still some backroom noise that other players wanted to leave but were either not let go by Dolbeth or no club made offers…without being able to confirm, these seem to be isolated cases in the front of the attack, namely Mohammed, that lost space to the new arrival Barbaro and Langstaff… The start of February saw the boys beating last place Carlisle United and climbing back up to the second spot on the table with 12 games to play.

 

Finally and after almost three months of continuous non-stop fixtures, there was a small 2 week break in the league and when the boys visited Plymouth in the middle of the month, a complicated win gave the team the first spot in the table. The whole speech of taking things easy and calming down was starting to make little sense but maybe the overconfidence of the team 3 days later in the Home of Football, struck a blow when after relegation battle contenders Wycombe Wanderers scored 3 and put a stop to all the cheer. A few days later and against Lincoln City, a team with real aspirations to go up, another loss, this time due mostly to bad luck sees Sheffield in the 3^rd spot on a very tight table, 1 point short of the first spot. The last 9 games will be decisive and with a complicated schedule, facing 4 of the top 10 spot teams, will for sure make things very entertaining all the way till the end.

 

Cronica Leonina!

Mas não se cansam de perder…entre meio de Janeiro e final de Fevereiro, fomos eliminados da Champions depois de mais duas derrotas, levamos tareia na taca da caricas e no campeonato apenas uma vitoria contra uns desgraçados que não teem onde cair mortos. 4º lugar do campeonato com uma diferença maior para o primeiro Porto do que para o 15º lugar…f*dasse quando muda esta história?

 

Obrigado a quem segue e sobretudo a quem comenta! 

Editado 6 Julho 2025 por Burkina2008

[Banks29]

Não foi um segmento nada favorável mas ainda é possível acreditar com a subida direta.