[FM20] It was Cambrogi in Wales, but now it's all about aggression in Wales, in England. Bellicosity, pugnacity and belligerence are all excellent words. But Welsh belligerence, in England now.

[Jimbokav1971]

17 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Legend after two seasons at a club? Jeeez, did he win the top league goalscorer in both seasons?

I think he did actually, yes. 

So yeah, not only was he the top goal-scorer at the club both seasons, but he also won the Golden Boot as top goal-scorer in the league in both seasons. 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, rodesire said:

holy hell, that's a massive stadium! Guess you won't sell out home European games for a while

It is mahoosive! I'm astonished. 

You know, I forgot to look at how many people attended that 1st match, (because I haven't posted about it yet)....

[turnip]

There was a bit of 'Spot the Fan' about the screenshots

[ManUtd1]

What a stadium! 

[Jimbokav1971]

15 minutes ago, turnip said:

There was a bit of 'Spot the Fan' about the screenshots

Good shout. 

In fact, now you come to mention it, I don't think I remember seeing any fans at all. 

[Jimbokav1971]

13 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

What a stadium! 

It's nice isn't it!

The only thing missing is a roof. 

[Jimbokav1971]

23 minutes ago, turnip said:

There was a bit of 'Spot the Fan' about the screenshots

 

6 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Good shout. 

In fact, now you come to mention it, I don't think I remember seeing any fans at all. 

I've found them, or at least some of them. 

They are in the 2nd tier, (or 3rd level if that makes sense), above the executive boxes;

Actually, if you really squint, there are 3 of them on the level below. Maybe there wasn't enough room up top! 

[turnip]

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Euro Cup 2. 1st Qualifying Round. 1st Leg. 

A pretty dominant performance. Annoyed to have conceded late on. 

Euro Cup 2. 1st Qualifying Round. 2nd Leg. 

We went 1-0 up to make it 4-1 on aggregate and I thought it was all over. It was surely just a question of how many we would win by. Zimbru had other ideas though and when they made it all square at 4-4 (3-1 in each leg), I thought there was no way back. We held out for extra-time though and then scored twice to make it 3-3 on the night, and although Zimbru scored in the 116th minute to win the leg, we still won the tie. #phew

This is a LOT of money for us. 

Next Round. 

[rodesire]

how are the finances looking now?

[Jimbokav1971]

Just now, rodesire said:

how are the finances looking now?

Pretty damn sexy! 

[rodesire]

Damn, that's lush, far cry from just 15 months ago.

[Jimbokav1971]

7 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Damn, that's lush, far cry from just 15 months ago.

15 months ago? 

If only I had waited 15 minutes I might not have been turned down for both Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment upgrades. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Poaching update. Jul 2030. 

And now we are adding Rob Richards to the list. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Made very good progress now Jimbo.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Made very good progress now Jimbo.

Someone made a particularly scathing comment about my lack of ability so I thought I had better pull my finger out. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

On 30/03/2020 at 23:51, Jimbokav1971 said:

I was told at work today that I am being furloughed, (sent home on 80% pay for the next 3 weeks), which is a result when you considered that I resigned a month ago and after them giving me 3 weeks paid leave sitting at home to think about it, (well ok then, if you insist), I went back for a week and a half and am now off again on Wednesday. It's a tough old life at the moment. 

 

Bloody jammy bastard.

[Nobby_McDonald]

2 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Someone made a particularly scathing comment about my lack of ability so I thought I had better pull my finger out. 

Sometimes a kick up the arse helps.

[Jimbokav1971]

Euro Cup 2. 2nd Qualifying Round. 

We smashed the 1st leg 7-1, so I rotated all 10 outfield players for the 2nd leg. I know I probably passed up a win, but match fitness for the coming weeks is really more important and the tie against the Armenians was effectively already over. 

Lechia Gdansk are probably a few levels above us the next round, (the 3rd Qualifying Round), will probably be the end of the road for us. 

Finances are looking pretty decent. 

[Jimbokav1971]

16 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Someone made a particularly scathing comment about my lack of ability so I thought I had better pull my finger out. 

 

13 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Sometimes a kick up the arse helps.

Thanks you very much. 

[Nobby_McDonald]

Great progress in Europe.

[rodesire]

this is a great effort in a first. european campaign!

[Jimbokav1971]

Euro Cup 2. 3rd Qualifying Round. 

I thought we had absolutely no chance against the Poles.

In actual fact it might have been more easier had Rees scored either the penalty he had saved in the away leg, or the penalty he had saved in the home leg. That's right. He missed penalties in both games against the Poles. And we STILL won. 

If we can beat a Polish side, shouldn't we at least have a chance of beating an Irish side? 

Finances. 

Gate receipts. 

Edited April 6, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

36 minutes ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Great progress in Europe.

 

26 minutes ago, rodesire said:

this is a great effort in a first. european campaign!

I was delighted just to get through to the Gdansk game. I didn't think we had a chance. Still can't quite believe we beat them. 

If we beat the Shamrock Rovers, are we in the Group Stage? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. Aug 2030.

[rodesire]

Oooh, this is getting rather exciting!

[Jimbokav1971]

Euro Cup 2. 4th Qualifying Round. 

So near but yet so far. 

We were a little unlucky in the away leg in so much as 1 of our 1st choice striking partnership, (Cook), was suspended, and we looked a bit toothless in his absence. Shamrock's left winger also ran riot and everything he touched ended up in the back of the net. 

In the 2nd leg we had 3 good chances in the opening 10 mins and we were terrific. When we then pulled 2 goals back before HT I started to think that the impossible could be possible. Unfortunately we ran out of steam a little in the 2nd half and when right winger Jones * was sent off with 10 mins to go I knew our goose was cooked. 

I know I should be happy that our finances are sorted for the foreseeable future, and we did brilliantly to get past Lechia Gdansk, but to be honestly I'm gutted that we were so poor in the 1st leg against Shamrock Rovers. If we had kept it tighter then we would have gone through. Their bloomin left winger just tore us apart. 

Oh well. It was a better than decent 1st foray into Europe. 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

34 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Oooh, this is getting rather exciting!

It was indeed. Quite unexpected and brilliant while it lasted, but such a shame we bottled it in that 1st leg in Ireland. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Pre-Season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

August 2030.

This looks like some run of the mill victories, but when you consider that the 1st team have been playing twice a week in Europe and the whole squad for these games was made up of Reserves then it starts to become more impressive. 

[rodesire]

Looks like awesome foundations to become number two in Wales.. for now.

[Jimbokav1971]

39 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Looks like awesome foundations to become number two in Wales.. for now.

Yeah, we have kicked on really nicely over the last couple of seasons. 

From me relying on Youth Products basically, (for the 1st however many years of the save it was), I have really moved on to sign more external players. The scouting route hasn't been very successful actually, and about 90% of my signings have been DoF recommendations. For whatever reason, he seems to have knowledge of players that are scouts don't have access to. (Can we scout in England?) Maybe we can't and maybe that's the issue. Either way it's working quite well and I'm happy to trust him. He's rubbish at signing GK's, (I keep vetoing his suggestions), but I'm hoping he will get there soon. Last season he got a decent GK in on loan so maybe we will go down that route again this year. 

Our 1st choice GK is Rees who has been with us since 2021, (although he did spend about 6 months away after being poached). He's really not good enough, (1.5 CA & 1.5 PA), but he's the best we've got. 

I have allowed the DoF to sign a young GK, Perry (ENG), but although he has filled in when I have rotated the squad in the early stages of this season, he is still very much 2nd choice. Rees got nowhere near his PA, (CA is 44 and PA is 76), and our facilities are still so poor that I think it's unlikely to expect Perry (ENG) to reach his potential. I know we are performing at a higher level, (JD Cymru Premier as opposed to JD Cymru South), and I don't think we can ignore the European games will play now either. 

I should add that I don't use the above screen when selecting players because I think CA can be misleading. What I mean by that, (and this is a perfect example), is that if you look at these 2 players, then because of the way I play, (often preferring youth over experience), you might expect me to install Perry (ENG) as 1st choice GK because while their current abilities are similar, Perry (ENG) is slightly up on actual (CA rating), and obviously have significant scope for development whereas Rees probably isn't going to get any better at all.

Despite the above, I just prefer Rees, (even after he has seen 2 penalties saved in Europe this season). 

If Rees was an outfield player then there is no way I would be playing him. His physical attributes are appalling. When I look at his actual Goalkeeping attributes though, they look better than decent, (although he is FAR from a sweeper keeper). I think you can probably see why I like him though and why I might be willing to overlook his physical frailties. 

Perry (ENG) is much better physically, but I don't like his GK attributes as much. The Mental attributes seem to be pretty similar. It will be interesting to see how he develops over the next season or so. As you can see I have played him both league games this season & the Cup game. I think it's likely he will only play when he have 2 games per week for the rest of the season, (which won't be very often now that we are out of Europe). 

As usual I've gone off on a tangent again. Sorry. What I actually wanted to look at was if we could scout in England because I'm looking for an explanation as to why my DoF is able to find players that my scouting team can't.......

We have no scouting package. 

Well that would be why the DoF can find players that our Scouting team can't. 

With our newfound wealth, I think we can invest in some sort of scouting package at least.

It's been quite a while since I looked at this and I'm not really sure what Youth Packages...... oh. It says it at the top. "Youth packages cover players aged 21 and under". Well that's what I want isn't it? So I'm going to stick with No Senior Package and invest £12k, (£1k per month), in a Youth package. 

So this is where we are right now. 

That's much better. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sept 2030.

What an up and down month. 

It was a tough month with so many games to play, but I had a clear strategy in terms of matches that I wanted to prioritise in terms of squad selection, because the players simply aren't capable of playing twice a week. 

Llanelli away and then Connah's Quay at home were going to be fine for the First Team because they were a week apart, and I was going to risk them for the Cefn Druids top of the table game before the First Team played against Carmarthn. The Reserves would play at home to Barry and the Cup game against Afan Lido, with the First team playing the big League game against Afan Lido in between and then finishing off with the last game of the month against TNS. 

First Team. 

I thought we were going to get a good point against Llanelli, but they scored twice in the last 10 minutes and we lost a 5-goal thriller. 

A standard 2-0 win against Connah's Quay followed. 

We played really well against top of the table Cefn Druids and collected all 3 points thanks to a long range strike from GK Rees in the last minute. 

A brace from Dickson (ENG) * against Carmarthen, (who was later sent off in the act of attempting to complete his hat-trick), was upstaged by Big Bayraktar (TUR), who was on from the bench as we ran out worthy 3-1 victors, even when down to 10 men. 

 

The First Team lost a 7 goal thriller against Afan Lido and I was gutted to lose this one so late as a point would have been a brilliant reward for my squad tinkering. 

They finished things up with a creditable draw against Giants TNS who are surprisingly below-par at the moment. (I will have a look at them later in the season if they don't appear to be improving). Is there a danger of them missing the mid-season cut? 

Reserves. They may have done ok at the start of the season, but when push came to shove this month they were severely found wanting. 

Barry Smashed 6 past us in what was a record defeat for the club. 

Then Afan Lido knocked us out of the Micky Mouse Cup, (as I expected). 

We're well placed in 4th, but already trail Afan Lido by 8 points after just 9 games. They really have developed into a powerful force in a short space of time. TNS meanwhile are languishing in 8th and are 3 points off Cardiff met Uni in 6th. I would love to see TNS miss the cut, but the reality is that it probably won't happen. They simply have too much quality. 

The reason that TNS are struggling is plain and simply because they have somehow qualified for the Champions League Group stages. It's not that they are under-performing at all. It's that they are over-performing hugely and fighting on multiple fronts. The money they will have generated from this campaign alone is going to be astonishing.  Despite the fact that we are in competition with them, this is actually brilliant for the save. They have only lost twice in the league this season and it's the draws that are hurting them. Even playing in the Champions League during the week, I still expect them to make the cut and overhaul everyone with the possible exception of Afan Lido who look really string at the moment. 

[Thebaker]

I was going to ask how the other teams are doing in europe but that's astonishing. Not sure i've seen an AI team from wales reach the CL group stages. They could be really tough to overhaul now, that must be worth £ 2-4 million for them. Have the other welsh teams done as well?

[Jimbokav1971]

5 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

I was going to ask how the other teams are doing in europe but that's astonishing. Not sure i've seen an AI team from wales reach the CL group stages. They could be really tough to overhaul now, that must be worth £ 2-4 million for them. Have the other welsh teams done as well?

£2M-£4M? And the rest. Or did you mean £24M?

Barry did really well. 

Wow. Wasn't expecting this from Carmarthen, but actually their route to the Group stages was relatively easy. 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Thebaker]

 i meant £2 to £4 million. I haven't played in europe in fm20 so can't remember the money you get. With Carmarthen also doing well, are they likely to be the 2nd pro team or are some already pro?

[rodesire]

Wow, that Welsh dominance!

TNS will surely have 30m+ to spend with a new manager once this one gets sacked around Christmas time.

Not sure what you're on Jimbo, but beating two Ukrainian sides in qualifying is huge for Carmarthen

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

 i meant £2 to £4 million. I haven't played in europe in fm20 so can't remember the money you get. With Carmarthen also doing well, are they likely to be the 2nd pro team or are some already pro?

Well I think £24M+ is likely to be closer to what they will earn from that run. Trust me. 

Let me have a look to see who is Pro or not. 

TNS are a Pro club and valued at £8.44M. 

Cefn Druids are Semi-Pro and valued at £137,000. What a difference that is between them and TNS. 

Everyone else is also Semi-Pro, including us obviously. 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Wow, that Welsh dominance!

TNS will surely have 30m+ to spend with a new manager once this one gets sacked around Christmas time.

Not sure what you're on Jimbo, but beating two Ukrainian sides in qualifying is huge for Carmarthen

Of course you are correct. I did say "relatively" easy, (or at least meant to). What I meant was that they avoided clubs from the bigger Nations. 

The Ukrainian Premier League is ranked 13th by reputation, so behind all the big boys plus Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Russia & Scotland. 

It is still a huge result. agreed. 

[Jimbokav1971]

12 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

 i meant £2 to £4 million. I haven't played in europe in fm20 so can't remember the money you get. With Carmarthen also doing well, are they likely to be the 2nd pro team or are some already pro?

I think getting to the Group stage is probably enough to turn them Pro, (if they want). 

What might be a stumbling block is that Carmarthen are struggling in the league and are only 2 points above the relegation zone. These extra games, (and the morale hit from losing in the Group stages), are likely to take a toll on league performances going forward. On the other hand, they could probably afford to go out and sign a whole new team. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2030.

What a difference a month makes. We are in free-fall and TNS are romping up the table. 

I have made 3 signings in an attempt to stop the rot. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2030.

After a really poor October, we've been in fine form in November. 3 wins on the bounce with clean sheets to boot were only tarnished by the ridiculous Cefn Druids result that somehow saw us walk away with nothing. 

We had a player sent off after 37 mins in the Port Talbot game and another sent off 70 mins against Connah's Quay. We really have been in good form. I still can't believe that we didn't beat Cefn Druids. We absolutely hammered them! 

On the plus side, we are in 5th place, 2 points clear of Newtown in 6th approaching the split, (6 games away), although I have just noticed that they have a game in hand. With TNS, Barry and more recently Carmarthen all improving after their European exploits, we will need to keep up our form to stay in the top 6. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake preview. Dec 2030. 

• A decent GK
• A decent centre mid. 
• A decent winger. 
• A decent GK

Yeah right. Will be pish as normal even after the recent upgrades. Speaking of which, I wonder if I could sneak in another upgrade between now and April? 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2030.

We were in great form last month, but this is a step up even from that. Afan Lido were top of the table when we beat them. We have now won 7 of our last 8 games, keeping a clean sheet in all 7 wins and conceding just the 1 single goal in the undeserved loss at home to Cefn Druids. 

We're guaranteed a top half finish now and that's all I really wanted out of this season. Obviously I will be doing everything I can to secure European football, whether that be via league finish, Cup win or Playoff. The big 3 above us really are the big 3 and Carmarthen seem to have paid a heavy price for their Euro Cup 2 Group qualification. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2031. 

Our good form continued from the last couple of months. We might have lost in a close game to TNS, but they are on a different level anyway so there is no disgrace in that. 3 more clean sheets show the influence that Ricketts has had since his arrival. (8 clean sheets in 12 games). 

HRH is a new signing who scored a goal and an assist on his debut in the Cup. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2031.

A tough start to the month with defeats against Afan Lido and TNS, but not helped by red cards in both games, particularly the TNS game where we received 2 red cards, the 1st with the score still at 0-0. That brings to 9 the number of red cards we gave received in the league this season, (more than double the next worst team). 

We have still managed to consolidate our 4th place position, largely as a result of drawing so few games, (we generally either win or lose).

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Intake preview. Dec 2030. 

• A decent GK
• A decent centre mid. 
• A decent winger. 
• A decent GK

Yeah right. Will be pish as normal even after the recent upgrades. Speaking of which, I wonder if I could sneak in another upgrade between now and April? 

Youth Intake day. Mar. 2031. 

Because the standard of our First Tea, squad has improved, they are no longer calling every Tom, Dick and Harry a Golden Generation. They are however pulling out the "most gifted players" tag and that's still a loaf of old bull. 

Squad by PPA. Despite the fact that our facilities have improved, there has been a marked improvement in the standard of the player at the club so it's not a surprise that the quality of players coming through seems poorer in comparison, despite actually being better than in previous seasons on the whole. 

Squad by actual PA. 10 different players with a PA of 50+ has not happened in this save so far. You also might notice that the (ENG) player has risen from 13th ranked to 5th ranked. While the overall standard of player has improved, the top end is still poor at <60.

Squad by CA. The CA has improved significantly. There are 2 players who have come through at >40 CA. While they are not good by any stretch of the imagination, there is actually a rule in the JD Cymru Premier which states that you have to have 2 U19 players in each match squad, so actually either we play youth players or we are forced to name 5 subs rather than 7. 

Where as I would usually show you the best players by PPA, I think it's probably better that I show you the best players by PCA instead. 

(31b) Matt Whatley.

(31g) Wayne Llewellyn.

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2031. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2031. 

A great month. We beat TNS for the 1st time. 

We're in the Final of the Welsh Cup and I'm not really sure what the situation is with regards to the 3rd European place. 1 & 2 go to Champions and Runner Up respectively, 4 goes to the winner of the Playoff, but I have a feeling that 3 goes to either the 3rd placed team OR the Cup winner if they don't qualify as Winner or Runner Up..... (I think). 

I'm going to go and have a look at previous seasons tables and see what's what. 

I had to go back to 2021/22 but here is the example I'm looking for. TNS were obviously Champions and Bangor were Runners Up. Barry won the Playoffs and Newtown must have won the Cup? I will check to make sure they did. 

Yes they did.

So if I win the Cup Final then I qualify for Europe, and if I lose the Cup Final then I have another go via the Playoffs. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2031. 

Always the bridesmaid. 

I can't really complain too much about the Cup Final. TNS are simply better than us. It was a close game and it could have gone either way. They won because they have better players, (and because we couldn't score from the spot). 

We were great in the Semi Final of the Playoff and it could have been 5 or 6, but things just didn't go our way in the Final. We were 1-0 down and down to 10 men, (again ), just after the hour mark. The Cure (IRL) scored 2 phenomenal individual efforts to give us an astonishing lead with 9 mins remaining, but Cefn Druids kept plugging away and levelled with 5 minutes left. Cefn Druids completely dominated extra time and scored 3 more goals to make it a ridiculous 2-5 scoreline. 

We will not be playing European football next season. 

It's a big blow but it's just one of those things. We have to just concentrate on the league and make sure we take advantage while all the other Welshies are playing twice a week.