Welcome to the second custom club database available to download here at On The Break. Today I’m bringing you my latest creation: Harchester United. In fact, they are not my creation at all but a fictional club from the TV show Dream Team that aired on Sky One from 1997 to 2007. Based in the West Midlands the club went through a turbulent ten years on the box with cup wins, relegations, affairs and even deaths! There was never a dull moment at The Dragon’s Lair.
This database features the Harchester United squad from the 2004/05 season, shortly after their relegation to the newly formed Championship due to match-fixing. However, their place in the UEFA Champions League would remain. That’s right, in your first season you’ll still be competing in Europe’s finest competition despite being out of England’s elite division.
Database Installation
Once downloaded you’ll need to unzip the file. Inside you’ll see the editor file (.fmf) as well as two folders entitled ‘logos’ and ‘kits’. These need to be inserted into the correct folders within your Football Manager directory. You’ll also find a thumbnail to use should you so wish and a large version of the logo in case you decide to create some content on Harchester United FC.
The .fmf file needs to be placed here:
Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\editor data
The logo/kit folders need to be placed here:
Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2022\graphics\Harchester
You will need to create the ‘Harchester’ folder with the graphics folder. Once this is done fire up Football Manager 2022 and ensure that the database is ticked before selecting leagues. When faced with the nation and league selection screen you tick add players to playable teams and leave do no add key staff unticked. This will save time in finding your own backroom staff if you don’t like that sort of thing.
Who are Harchester United?
Basically, if you know, you know. For those that have never heard of Harchester United though let’s go through a brief history of the club leading up to the moment of where they are in the database as after all this database is based on the 2004/05 season squad. The following is select points of the club’s ‘history’ as found on Wikipedia, for the full lowdown on Harchester United click on the aforementioned link or click on the same link shown underneath the Honours List further down this post.
In April 1895 at the Dragon Leather Tannery in Harchester, a group of men, led by tannery owner Sean Creamer, got together to form a football club in the hope of rivalling the other local club, Harchester St. Augustine. The club was named Harchester United. Between 1895 and 1898, the club had such a fantastic record in the FA Cup for an amateur side that they managed to get together funds to turn professional. The record was so great that upon an application to join the Football League, they were instantly elected to do so by the other clubs.
By 1970, Harchester United were in the top flight under the managerial guidance of the first non-English manager – the Scotsman, Robert McClaren. He won the side promotion in 1968–69 and in 1973–74 the club finished 4th – their highest ever! McClaren left at the end of that season to join German club, Hamburg. Former West Ham manager Harry Sidwell then took over as manager and had nearly 11 years in charge of the Dragons.
There were a couple of decent Cup runs during his time, but nothing really materialised than mid-table positions and he left the club by mutual consent in May 1985.
In June 1985, Kenny Bruce became the new manager and really revolutionised the club. He made young talent Terry Glover captain and built a team around young sensation Kevin Nelson. The revolution was a success and following a home win over Man City in May 1986, Harchester United were crowned Champions for the first time in the club’s history. More good news followed the next month with Kevin Nelson becoming the first Dragon to play for England in the World Cup. In 2003–04, there was an ongoing court case taking place to decide just who should own the club following a raffle by former owner Phil Wallis. Whilst this was going on, it was damaging the club’s reputation with sponsors and following a £28million transfer of Luke Davenport at the start of the year, ongoing financial trouble saw Harchester United cease trading in March 2004.
This was not the choice of the club, but more the choice of Coopers Bank who were funding Harchester United’s loans at the time. Following campaigning from players, staff, fans and other Premiership clubs, Coopers Bank gave Harchester United a reprieve until the end of the season.
The signing of Davenport also brought about the second departure of club legend Karl Fletcher, in a move that was unpopular with players and fans alike. At the end of that season, qualification for the Champions League was achieved after a 3–2 win at home to Manchester United on the final day of the season. with goals from Danny Sullivan, Danny Mills and a late Lee Presley header. This was also the first time in their history Harchester had scored from three set pieces in the same match. However, the club was relegated on grounds of match-fixing by UEFA following revelations by former Chief Executive Pilar Hernandez and former manager Stuart Naysmith. 2004–05 saw Harchester United in the Champions League and the newly formed Championship.
everybodywiki.com
Honours List (up to 2004):
- Premier League/First Division
- 1985–86
- Championship/Second Division
- 1898–99, 1932–33, 1957–58
- Runners-up 1968-69, 1993–94, 1996–97
- Third Division
- 1926–27 (North)
- FA Cup
- 1999
- UEFA Cup
- Runners-up 2002
- FA Community Shield
- 1986
- Runners-up 1999
For a more detailed history click here.
Where we be without the graphics side of things? Due to not being able to find a high-quality image of the logo I decided to recreate The Dragon’s badge and give it my own little touch. The purple of course remains as does the infamous dragon. As for the kits we’ve gone with Nike as the manufacturer and Sky as the sponsor – it’s only right that it should be them? For instructions on how to install the graphics read the paragraph at the top of this post.
Screenshots & Download Link
Please do remember to read the installation instructions at the top of this post. If there are any issues with the database of graphics please leave a comment or send a direct message on Twitter (link at bottom) or on Discord #TarrantinoUX1999. I hope you enjoy your journey with Harchester United, please do let us know how you get on by leaving a comment or tagging us over on Twitter. Stay tuned for more Custom Club Databases at On The Break in the very near future!
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