The Hatters have slid right up the EFL Championship ladder, after a superb run of 8 wins and 4 draws, with only 3 matches left to play, one more win would secure a Play-off spot, something thought impossible earlier in the season when we were cemented to the foot of the table.
Kazenga Lua Lua has maintained his prolific scoring rate, and is on course to be the league’s top scorer, players have developed and fully adapted to the style I wanted to impart on the team, injuries have returned to fitness and out overall match sharpness has improved greatly through training and development plans, all amounting to a much more consistent run of performances, and much tighter defensive displays.
I’m still playing on World Class, with tweaked OS Slider settings, the settings all geared up to making the game more difficult, not easier, but I have had a 7-0 win and more recently a 10-0 win away at Preston NE, my biggest win ever in any FIFA game, some games feel quite easy now, others more of a struggle, will be interesting to see if we make the play-offs, and if we was to get promoted, how the Premier League difficulty would fare, there’s always the option of Legendary.
Transfers are still an issue, we need to strengthen the squad, and reinforce several positions with backup, but funds are still ridiculously low, my budget is approx £1m and a £20k salary budget, no chance of signing anyone, and the scouting free transfers in January doesn’t seem to work, so have been focusing on developing youth players. One such player to come through the ranks is left Midfielder, Leleivre, who has been a first team regular this season, and has pace to burn, he has also chipped in with 6 goals, a few other promising high potential youths have been signed to the academy, and development plans put in place to boost their growth.
I’m hoping a decent placed finish , the league reward money and loyalty payments at the end of the season bolster the coffers by a few quid, trying to develop a club into a side good enough to compete at the top level is extremely difficult on such a small limited budget, any Arab billionaire businessman out there fancy a stake in the mighty Luton Town FC? It’s a lovely place to live too 😉
Football is not a matter of life or death…..
It’s more important than that.
Bill shankly
Our fans are desperate to see us back in the big time, playing in the Premier League, so will post updates in the comments section throughout the week, as my next play session will determine our play-off fate, so will keep you updated in comments, rather than waiting a full week.
Just a few goals from the latest few sessions of play, still awaiting that elusive long range goal in FIFA 21.
FIFAFX.com 
A fairly short update this week, but with the end of the season 1 match away, and possible playoffs looming, I shall be continuing the updates in the comments throughout the week.
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Enjoyable read Paul. Hoping o see a promotion newsletter 😉
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10 in a match, wow. How long are your halfs? I’m on 6 minutes and never got close to that score.
I have also found the scouting of free transfers poor. Still indebted to Darryl for the guidance years ago but this time (20) the scouts just seem to ignore the instruction at times and bring me any old player.
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Cheers Chris – Will post updates in here later, I have cumulatively finished this season now, so expect to see some bits appear here at some point over the weekend.
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Turf – I also play with 6 min halves, on world class with slider settings that increase the first touch error, reduce pass speed and shot speed, increase CPU marking (meaning i get less space to play in), so adds a bit more difficulty.
The first half of the season was a serious struggle, then as soon as my match sharpness was at a a decent level it all turned around and I was confident of winning every match, until the last few games of the season, but more updates on that later.
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Wife’s doing a couple of back to back night shifts, nothing on the Sky box I want to watch, this could be the weekend I start a FIFA 21 career…
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You’ll feel a bit underwhelmed at first with FIFA 21 Chris, some new animations, the new agile dribbling system etc, but most of the worthwhile changes are not on the pitch but in career mode, and once you get bedded in, you’ll really enjoy them.
Quite liking the PS5’s adaptive triggers too, which stiffen up as a players stamina wears down.
I thought it would be a novelty and get old quick but it actually adds a tangible element to gameplay, as I use quick stabs of the R2 trigger (sprint), and LS direction, to speed burst dribble past a defender, or to make a yard of space for a shot or pass, but as the players stamina wears down, the triggers become stiffer and much harder to ‘stab’ press, meaning the more tired your player is, the less effective his dribbling ability becomes, adds a sense of realism.
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Hmm I see Cardiff need a new manager. Their squad looks sufficiently different from my last career with them https://sofifa.com/team/1961/cardiff-city/
A bit of squad depth and some dead wood. I can feel it calling me.
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great highlights reel Paul, next-gen snowy pitch is even more painful on the eyes! Favourite goal was of course that misplaced backpass off the post followed by multiple rebounds into the net. 10 goals in one game does sound a bit broken, but look forward to hearing about the denouement of your season
Chris – this career has you in the guise of Mick McCarthy written all over it, 4-4-2, keep it tight at the back, long ball, big man up front, scrap out some scruffy victories etc etc
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Abbeyhill – I included that misplaced pass melee goal purely for the comical factor and that its something likely to be seen on league 2 match of the day.
End of season update is coming soon. Get all the real world boring weekend chores out of the way and get some time set aside to piece things together and post in here
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I went for it last night. Cardiff play a 4-2-3-1 but that soon changed to a 4-4-2 diamond after I got my arse handed to me on a stick in the first pre-season tournament game. The next two matches were a 1-1 draw where I failed to protect my lead, and a 1-0 win where I dropped onto defensive and hung on. Those results are enough to get me through to the semis where I’m playing Cadiz if memory serves me well, but it was late and the IPA had been flowing.
I’m not sure what squad I started with as there’s no Harry Wilson, so I need to get at least one RM and a backup RB and possibly another striker. Given the boards financial priorities this could be tricky, and I may have to sell Junior Hoilett rather than melt him down for glue.
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CHRIS99 – I had the same ass whooping when I started my CM with Luton who’s default formation was also a 4-2-3-1, I always found myself overrun in midfield and not enough support up top.
I switched to my go to 4-4-2 attacking formation, I always prefer 2 CFs up top to play off each other, 1-2 give and go’s or use one CF as a target to hold the ball up whilst the other CF runs into space behind.
What’s your match sharpness level like? Its essential to play the development training sessions to achieve a good grade, then you can simulate them and it will use whatever best grade you got for that session.
Also make sure you switch players in and out for each drill as the default choosing is off, selecting CBs and RBs for shooting drills is pointless.
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UPDATE TIME
============
Played the last 3 matches of the season, and here’s the final league table:
We reached the play-offs, with our superb run of form seeing us finish 3rd.
A 6-2 aggregate win over Norwich in the Play-off semi’s meant we faced Watford, who beat Middlesborough, A local fierce derby with a £60million place in the Premier League at steak, bring it on!!!
Extended Play-off final highlights video:
We did it!!! an emphatic win against our rivals to seal a place in the EPL at the first time of asking.
I’m already playing through the pre-season period of season 2, starting off with a pre-season friendly tournament that could bring an additional £4.2mil in transfer funds, if won.
Our 3rd place finished has boosted the kitty nicely, still, only £40mil to spend in the Premier league, isn’t going to get us far, some wise wheeling and dealing will be in order.
I managed to sign 23yr old Awoniyi from Liverpool, a good pacey CF, for £5mil, and a free agent from Belgium, Pidl, a technical RMF, so hoping they help solidify our place in the EPL next season.
The board were very happy with my performance as manager, having smashed all the objectives they set me, I did have some job offers from elsewhere, but the journey with Luton Town has only just started!
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Nice one Paul. Looking forward to your Prem adventures.
Had my first ever FIFA BSOD on Saturday night in the final of the pre-season. I drew the semi against Cadiz 1-1 and got through on penalties, then lost the final 2-0 to Gent. But the BSOD in the presentation meant I had to replay the final … and I lost 3-0.
The first match of the season saw me squander a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 to Brentford. Either my muscle memory and reflexes have gone to pot, or this year’s offering is a bit harder than in previous.
I’ve decided to go ‘pure’ and only look at what the scouts discover for the moment, but as long as he agrees I have got Joe Willock from Arsenal on a season long loan, with an option to buy. Still desperate for an RB or two, and possibly an RM.
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Chris99 – BSOD I assume means Blue Screen of Death? FIFA 21 on PS4?
Haven’t had a BSOD on F21 on PS5, just loads of frame rate stutters and audio drops, turns out it was a bug with the PS5 controllers advance vibration settings, turning that off fixed it, and one match that just froze and hung as the ball went in, had to quit the game and relaunch it.
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Yep a BSOD (of sorts) on PS4 which ended up on a blue screen that sent off an error report to Sony. Didn’t actually crash the PS4, but it did throw me out of FIFA.
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Loving Luton Today. A high quality colour photo, and then numerous grammatical errors in the text. I think M Harford must have been so happy at including the possessive apostrophe in Roberts’ that he stopped checking the rest.
£50 million should help with a couple of signings. Are you targetting relegation avoidance or Europa League?
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Chris99 – I was typing the newsletter article on a mobile app version of photoshop on my phone, whilst out walking last night, in the dark, in minus 2 conditions, could barely feel my face or my fingers, a misplaced comma here and there wasn’t exactly top of my worry list.
£38mil transfer budget, have made 2 key signings since then, but key focus has to be to avoid relegation. I will be adjusting the sliders to reduce the Ai’s first touch and shot error, to mimic the better skill levels of Premier League teams and players, Europe in our first EPL season is somewhat overly optimistic.
I haven’t actually checked the boards objectives for this coming season yet, as I’m about to play the pre-season International club tournament final, that will be another £4mil in prize money if we can win it.
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Congratulations Paul. Any details on that auction? I could do with a few bits and bobs for the house, maybe you could bid on my behalf?
I’ve just been offered the New Zealand job, which right now irl I’d be off to like a kiwi on fire. I said no.
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Paul, I think it adds to it. I wasn’t having a pop.
Forgot to mention I have turned off international offers in my career, as I can’t remember ever having accepted one. If you accept do you still do club and country management at the same time?
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Chris99 – I didn’t take it as you having a pop at all, was just explaining why it may have not been written grammatically perfect, I was frozen!!!
I have never taken an international offer either, either in PES or FIFA, they’re just a hinderance.
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Turf – you may or may not know, being a northerner, that Luton is an absolute shit hole, trust me, you’d find nothing of interest at that auction, unless you are a crazed psychopath who wants somewhere desolate and abandoned to store bodies you’ve killed?
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congrats on the promotion Paul, the playoffs looked pretty comfortable in the end. Overall your Luton side seemed to improve dramatically over the course of the season after the bad start, you think it was mostly down to the match sharpness stat or to you getting to grips with the game? Keen to hear how big the difficulty step up is in the Premier League
In contrast on FIF20 I have somehow managed to get sacked in the middle of season 3, a combination of my fault and some annoying features of career mode
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Abbeyhill. Cheers.
The game did get ‘easier’ after Christmas, I think it was down to the match sharpness level having a big impact, its like PES’s TS rating, has a huge impact on player response times, shape, positioning etc, and also me getting to grips with FIFA 21, it is a harder game overall.
I’ve played my first EPL match, away to Sheffield Utd on a sunny August saturday afternoon, lost 2-0, was played off the pitch, players were second best to everything, they bullied us with constant pressure.
I’ve made a few new signings and due to pre-season the match sharpness level is now back down around 60%, which again has a huge impact on performance, but early signs are that the EPL will be a struggle.
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