It’s a new week for all you CM9798 fans and Matt has the excitement of a new save to share with you. What you talkin’ about, Wills?

Don’t get me wrong, Cardiff and Wales are great, but the mall pool of talent in a competitive league can be a bit disheartening. One thing struck me though whilst searching through players – there’s a lot of ex-Man Utd players in the game.

Obviously I’ve become a fan of Deniol Graham, for his ability to score goals in all four English divisions, and as all lower league managers know, get in Andrew Duncan and Graeme Tonlinson early and you have a good chance of luring John Curtis, Alex Notman and Erik Nevland to your ascent up the leagues fairly swiftly. However, there’s far more ex-Utd players in the game than I had realised.

So, borrowing heavily from @cornishzak and his Newton Heath 01/02 blog, a pinch of @kingoftherooks Cheer Up Peter Reid, a reflection on Dave’s new Retirement Academy and I’ve set upon a quest to construct a team of Alex Ferguson Cast Offs, or AFC if you will, which predates the FC United movement after the Glazier take over.

The basic premise is create a 3^rd Division Team and I can only sign current, ex or future (in real life) Man Utd players.

We’ve got a decent stadium and transfer kitty, but I didn’t want to start with an empty team and panic sign everyone before the first league game kicked in, so a little research found me a decent clutch of ex-Man Utd players either on a free or retired in the database. So Bryan Robson and Viv Anderson come out of retirement and assure me they can handle playing as well as managing and coaching Middlesbrough in Division 1 – we’ll see.

There’s a real mix of youth and experience and plenty of familiar names, but also some oddities.

NB I didn’t grab the team squad screenshot until I had made a couple of additions which you’ll see later

My research revealed Utd had a Swedish youngster called Jonny Rodlund on their books back in the day, and given the vastness of the Scandinavian database, I tracked him down and his stats look decent. I also took the decision to create one of the forgotten mean of the Class of 92. I gave him -1 for potential, but all his other stats are random. A lot of ex utd youth players have -1 for potential.

So, here we have a squad with lots of potential, all (mostly) scooped up for free, and then I added Mark Robins.

The squad was 32 strong, but the AI seemed to allocate me 28, so there’s a bit of room to get some loan players in, or some other freebies, as my shortlist shows.

So, within my rules I can sign Edwin Van Der Sar or Juan Sebastian Veron but it also means I can sign Massimo Taibi and Mike Phelan, so who knows how this will go. My aim is to get up the leagues as quickly as possible. A cup win, or adventure in Europe would be good, but what I really want is to turn over Man Utd and show Fergie he isn’t always right in letting some players go.

A quick couple of friendlies to get the lads fitness levels up before we head into our first league game. A 0-0 draw with City looks promising and although Chris Turner did well, he’s 39 and we only have two keepers.

Paul Gibson looks ok as an option in the sticks.

Fergie is off to a good, if not entirely convincing start

Notman came in on loan, played two friendlies and then got recalled by Fergie. Typical.

Ex man Utd player on the move, the Versatile Dube.

With Notman heading back, I ask Choccy if he fancies playing in the hole

While he contemplates life away from Old Trafford, his old team mates get us off to a great start against Rochdale. Young David Brown looks promising.

Nice one Brian.

I decide the centre of defence could do with some more numbers, and this lad fits the criteria.

Brown is looking really good and George Switzer bursts in from the left flank to get us 2-0 up. Robson’s age might have made him forget which end to score in.

The Brown and Robins partnership seems to be hotting up. Rodlund in the hole might be an interesting option.

Our passage into the next round of the League Cup is assured and Danny Wallace looks comfortable on the right wing.

McClair’s gap is filled by N’Gotty – decent centre back there.

Crazy first 15 minutes here against Orient and Twiss on the left wing gets his first for the season. I fear ‘Robson Injured’ might become a recurring theme.

Ah Carl Dale, I’ll always have found memories of you, but Brown and Robins are my new striking hope

This is actually going ruddy-bloody well. Both wingbacks score and Tomlinson climbs off the bench for a brace.

Early goals, or late goals? It matters not to us.

This guy Brown is on a hot streak at the moment.

11 goals in 8 games and his stats look great. So many of these lads have 0 for so many stats at the start, but I think I have got lucky with young David.

This guy has already made a good impression at the back, keeping Alan Tonge on the bench lately.

Well, it was bound to happen – I speak to soon it seems. All those Brown-Tonge or Tonge-Twiss headlines write themselves really.

Damn. Robbo better stay fit. My only other option for centre-midfield is 38 year old Mike Duxbury – all the other midfield lads have shocking stats.

Little Danny Wallace is getting a second wind in his career down here with us.

I try Craig Lawton in the middle for our League Cup game and he rewards me with the winner and advantage for the second leg. Housham of that, Scunny!

Ray Wilkins was sacked by Fulham (as usual) so I made a bid for him, but he wants to run the show and midfield at Scarborough. Fair.

We don’t need Butch when we have Brown.

I see how the second stringers fair in the Windscreen Shield Cup. Not so good it seems

Looks who’s back once again. No ill behaviour please.

Rodders steps up to the mark in place of the injured Mark Robins….

….and he’s at it again against Scunny and we take our place in the 3^rd round.

Despite his advancing years, Molby is still a class act. I wonder how many ex-Liverpool players are in the database…..another time maybe.

We’re scoring for fun lately and what’s even better is we’re spreading the love around. Notman with his first on loan.

Brown and Tomlinson could be my Hughes and Cantona, my Cole and Yorke, my Rooney and Tevez….

Cambridge score 3 but we take the 3 pts, our form is scintillating.

Of course, when you say things like this, its like the AI hears it and decides to hand you your own ass for making such statements. Hateley rolling back the years.

That’s 16 league games, so about a third of the season down and we’re looking good to go up at the first time of asking.

It’s a tasty little team we have here, but goalie is a concern, as is the number of players that will probably retire at the end of the season, so needs make some plans as we progress, but it’s a cracking start and the lad Brown looks like the real deal. See you next Monday…