[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]

Oct 2033.

After being awarded penalties in each of our last 6 games, we had another one awarded against Haverfordwest to keep the run going, but sadly Ejeheri (NGA) couldn't convert. 

The run has actually been this so far this season. 

1.
2. Penalty missed by Ricketts (ENG). 
3. Penalty scored by Grey (ENG), because new GK Ejerheri (NGR) had not been set as taker after recent arrival). 
4. Penalty scored by Ejerheri (NGR). 
5.
6.
7.
8. Penalty scored by Ejerheri (NGR). 
9. Penalty scored by Ejerheri (NGR). 
10. Penalty missed by Ejerheri (NGR).  
11. Penalty missed by Ejerheri (NGR). 
12. Penalty scored by Ejerheri (NGR). 
13. Penalty scored by Ejerheri (NGR). 
14. Penalty missed by Ejerheri (NGR). 
15.
16. Penalty scored by Ejerheri (NGR). 
17.
18. Free kick scored by Ejerheri (NGR). 

As our proliferation of spot kicks suggest, we have continued our good form. I completely rotated the squad against TNS in the Mickey Mouse Cup because we are not strong enough to compete with our back-up players at the moment. I would rather just give TNS the win and compete in the other games. As it happens, we played well against TNS and the score was still 0-0 after 57 mins when we had our 7,463rd player sent off under my management. (Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration).

 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, rodesire said:

TNS with 5 games in hand! 10 points behind!

You know, until you posted, I hadn't even noticed. 

I am just trying to completely ignore TNS and just do whatever we can and hope that's good enough for 2nd place.

I'm looking now because you have mentioned it and the 1st thing I look for his how many games they have lost. We have both lost 2 games, (but we have played 13 to their 8), and we have drawn 1 and they have lost 0. That doesn't give them much room to slip up. I assume that they have made the Group Stages of something, but I honestly haven't checked yet. because I've just been putting all my focus on us and our performances. So far it's working ok, but I can see from the "FORM" that TNS last their game before last. I will update you with the Welsh performances in Europe after I post my December update. 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. Nov 2033. 

We've won our last 5 games in the league and are top of the table so I thought I would use that positivity and approach the board about some upgrades. 

Youth Recruitment. 

Junior Coaching. 

Training Facilities. 

I thought they were going to knock me straight back so this came as a pleasant surprise. 

The Youth Facilities are already being improved and are due for completion at the end of this year. 

@rodesire asked a while ago how I was going to spend the money. I commented at the tome that the plan was initially not to actually spend this money and it was basically just there, (to encourage the board to turn Pro), (which happened much quicker than I anticipated), keep the board happy and stop them from getting involved in any offers for our players. Although we have turned Pro, the shambles that was this seasons European campaign, has effectively meant that we will be dipping into it, (and doing so much more), than I had anticipated. The plan is still to build up a nice cushion to work with and for it to be there largely as a safety net. 

We are only spending £23,526 of a £51,796 per week budget, (and that's after 3 recent signings, but after our demise in Europe I decided that we didn't need such a large squad and set about streamlining things. (And was perhaps a tad over-zelous in doing so). 

[Jimbokav1971]

On 10/04/2020 at 17:31, rodesire said:

This is brilliant going, how you going to spend all that money?

 

On 11/04/2020 at 01:03, ManUtd1 said:

TNS stands for many things, few of them repeatable in reputable communities such as this. 

 

On 11/04/2020 at 14:11, Thebaker said:

I know the feeling, in my current game in sweden the board keep refusing junior coaching upgrades in spite of the fact that my youth players come through with such a low CA they never even come close to approaching their potential. They are not even good enough to loan out, players who come though as 5 star potential players but just 3 silver star current.

We are slowly but surely getting there now. Even after the current batch of upgrades I still don't think we will be producing players capable of playing in a full-strength First Team, (but fingers crossed as always anyway). If we can get 1 more lot of upgrades through then I think it might get interesting. 

On 11/04/2020 at 20:12, DazRTaylor said:

You need to up your scouting budget to be able to buy some scouting packages.

The scouting results have been awful and I have really just been relying on my DoF but I keep looking and I know something isn't right. 

I know the budget is there. 

Eh? At least it was there. I decided that I wasn;t interested in a Senior Package because the players I wanted to sign would all be included in the Youth Package. (Aged 21 and under). 

I'm honestly not sure what package I went for in the end, (or wanted to go for but didn't go for).

 

It's possible that I couldn't decide what to do, (because I can't remember now what decision I made). I know I was thinking about UK and Ireland at £20,000 per month, but the yearly figure of £240,000 is a big scary number and I don't think I liked the look of it. That being said, while the £1,000 per month and £12,000 yearly fee seems much better, only attracting players in Wales has it's own issues. If we had qualified for the Group Stage of Europe again and I had another seasons money number my belt then I think I would say what the hell and just got for UK and Ireland, but looking at how we got hammered in Europe, (more on that in a minute),  and also considering how dominant TNS still are, I don't think I can afford to be so frivolous with the cash. So Wales only it is then. 

Because I've already spent £21,300 on scouting, we only have enough for 3 months scouting with this package and I can't work out how to increase it, (or indeed if I can increase it). I can change Wage/Transfer Budget, but don't know how to change the scouting budget. 

Any suggestions? I've spent so long playing Youth Only and relying on my DoF, that this is an area I am obviously lacking a little in. 

23 hours ago, rodesire said:

Jeez, you got hammered by Aluminij.  Better luck next year

 

19 hours ago, Nobby_McDonald said:

Yeah, poor result Jimbo.

I will be completely with both of you. I was not happy. The fact that there were 24 hours between be losing that 2nd leg and me playing the next month are well and truly linked. I just never saw it coming. 

[rodesire]

14 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Any suggestions? I've spent so long playing Youth Only and relying on my DoF, that this is an area I am obviously lacking a little in. 

The scouting slider is on main scouting page next to the total scouting money available to you.

[Jimbokav1971]

8 minutes ago, rodesire said:

The scouting slider is on main scouting page next to the total scouting money available to you.

Thank you. 

Before. 

After. This was the smallest increase available. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov  2033. 

TNS have played 5 games this month and only dropped 2 points, but we didn't drop any at all. Although they still have 3 games in hand, the gap is 9 points now so they no longer have even a theoretical advantage. I expect them to beat us in the head to heads so the only way we are going to win the league, (which is unlikely), is if they drop points elsewhere and we win all our other games. No, I can't see that happening either. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. 

We're really starting to get there in terms of Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment. In days gone by, this would have been fine, but with the Training Facilities and Youth Facilities now also being highly influential, the quality of our players coming through the intake is being diluted. Still, that's a damn sight better than it was when I started. Our Training Facilities have not improved at all, (although there is an upgrade in the pipeline now), and our Youth Facilities have only gone up 1 level, but that's great progress in the Coaching and Recruitment. You know, I'm quite interested to see what this next Intake might hold now, even with the obvious limitations. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2033.

TNS beat us as expected, (and I would have won a bet that we would have a player sent off) , but we also dropped points against Newtown, where we did everything expect score. We hit the woodwork on 8 occasions in the 5 matches this month. Luckily, although we dropped 5 points this month, TNS also dropped 5 points. I should be delighted with that, (and it fits in with my suggestion of us losing to them but making up the ground elsewhere), but they actually played 9 games this month and we effectively just broke even. Had we beaten Newtown and stolen 2 points on TNS I would deal much happier. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Welsh clubs in Europe. Jan 2034.

TNS. I know that TNS did well to get to the Group Stage, but I thought it was the Euro Cup Group Stage rather than the EC2 Group Stage. I actually think they should have either beaten Viktoria Plzen, (who we beat 8-2 on aggregate last season), or they should have qualified from the Group. 

Afan Lido. They will feel hard done by to come up against such tough opposition as Malmo. 

Barry Town. Again, they were in really good form and it's tough to come up against a French side at this stage. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2034. 

A point against TNS is a good point, but they had a player sent off and we missed a penalty. It could have been a HUGE 3 points. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2034. 

We weren't in great form, but we have kept winning. TNS on the other hand lost one of their games, and have already lost again at the beginning of March. We are 3 points ahead now and have a game in hand that we play today, (against Llanelli). We play Cenfn Druids today and then TNS next followed by a double-header against Afan Lido. These next 4 games will decide our season I think. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake Day. Mar 2034. 

The PPA (perceived PA), doesn't look great. The best rating is 2 players at 3.5 and 2 more at 3.0. Considering what level our best players are at, this low PPA isn't great. A lot of people might release all of these players based on pretty average PA star ratings. 

The actual PA tells a different story though. (34b) Rhydian Hall (IRL) and (34d) Ryan Clarke (NIR) both have a PA of >100, which is significant at this stage of the save. These players would certainly be in contention for a place in the squad if they could get near their PA. 

The CA of players coming through still isn't great. There are 3 players with CA in the 40's.

Squad by PPA.

Squad by PA. 

Squad  by CA. 

(34b) Rhydian Hall (IRL).

(34d) Ryan Clarke (NIR).

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2034.

We've been decimated by injuries and suspensions recently. We were a little unlucky against TNS, but lets be honest, a draw does us fine. We are 5 points ahead with 3 games to play and none of the games are against TNS. We're away to Llanelli, and at home to Barry and Cefn Druids. 4 points from those 3 games should be enough to secure us our 1st JD Cymru Premier Title. If we can assume that we will beat Cefn Druids, (well we just smashed 8 goals past them), then it means we will just need to take 1 point from the 2 games against Llanelli and Barry. 

I thought we had blown it in the League game against Afan Lido. We had (another), player sent off and had a penalty saved and it looked like we were going to lose or draw and then we pulled off a late winner with just 10 men. Phenomenal feeling!

I was forced to rotate the squad in the next game in the Cup. I didn't want to throw it, but the best XI we had available simply weren't good enough. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Room to spare. Apr 2024.

[Bedese]

Congrats, Jimbo!

[rodesire]

Wow, what a season!

Welcome to the UCL, hope your stay is a long one!

[Jimbokav1971]

5 hours ago, Bedese said:

Congrats, Jimbo!

 

10 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Wow, what a season!

Welcome to the UCL, hope your stay is a long one!

Thanks very much. Yeah, yesterday was a good day. I must admit that I had got a bit lazy previously and had allowed the Ass Man to select match day squads and was really just pressing continue. It's amazing what happens when I start doing my job again! 

The loss/debacle in Europe has really focussed my mind and moving forward I hope I'm going to learn from this and remember the cost of delegating too much, pressing continue and expecting to win. 

We're a smaller squad now which means I still have to sign players this Summer and I'm hoping that our scouts will be more successful now after the changes.

[RageMaster]

Congrats on the title @Jimbokav1971 and this has been a fantastic thread to follow. Can't wait to see how you do in the Champions League. 

[Jimbokav1971]

End of Season Summary. May 2034.

Overall Best XI.

Goal of the season, (scored by a GK).

Squad list. 

Finances. We lost close to £2M this season. We don't have to qualify for the Champions League to break even, but we do need to do better in Europe than we did this season. 

We're currently spending £31k of a £63k budget and we have just won the league. We obviously need to strengthen to be able to progress in Europe without it impacting too much on our domestic campaign, but we don't need a whole new squad. 

So close to a full Team being named in the JD Cymru Team of the Season. The reason our left winger wasn't included is because we rotated 2 players in this position where as in all other there was very much a 1st choice player and with no European games to distract us we were able to play our best team in league games. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Another player poached. May 2034.

All the players that have been poached so far have had silver stars used in the potential ability where as Alex Hall has 1.5 yellow stars. I'm assuming that this is 1.5 PA stars for Spurs, which would make him a very decent player for us. I will keep an eye on him when hecomes through. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Rankings. Jun 2034.

[Jimbokav1971]

Another player poached. Jun 2034.

[Thebaker]

29 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Another player poached. Jun 2034.

Is this some sort of welsh thing? I have played this year in N Ireland and Sweden and not seen this once.

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions Cup Qualifying draw. Jun 2034.

On the plus side we are seeded for the 1st 2 Rounds. I'm hoping that's significant but we will just have to take it as it comes. 

Does anyone hate how you can't enlarge the window at the bottom that shows the team in the draw.

Needless to say we won't be taking any chances in these games. 

[Jimbokav1971]

13 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

Is this some sort of welsh thing? I have played this year in N Ireland and Sweden and not seen this once.

No, I don't think so. I'm sure I saw it in my Scandinavian save too, (although certainly not this frequently). I'm guessing that it's a reputation thing. 

[rodesire]

That's a very generous draw, I am hoping for a third round at least this time!

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Another player poached. Jun 2034.

 

1 hour ago, Thebaker said:

Is this some sort of welsh thing? I have played this year in N Ireland and Sweden and not seen this once.

 

50 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

No, I don't think so. I'm sure I saw it in my Scandinavian save too, (although certainly not this frequently). I'm guessing that it's a reputation thing. 

I've just had a look and I can't see mention of it in my ScandiNordic thread. I'm almost sure I had it somewhere before though. Maybe it was at the very start of that save and I didn't report it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

32 minutes ago, rodesire said:

That's a very generous draw, I am hoping for a third round at least this time!

I don't want to count my chickens and the whole thing is a a bit of an unknown, but I would hope to get to the Group stage of something this season.

It's the money more than anything else. We need to just get ourselves on a firm financial footing and then we are laughing. 

I'm going to prioritise the Champions League in the early stages just to ensure that we get the biggest payday possible. I just have to be careful to ensure that we don't fall too far behind because although qualifying for the Champions League again is highly unlikely, we need to at least qualify for EC2 so that next season we get another windfall to keep our finances topped up. 

I can't even hazard a guess as to how much we will make this season because I honestly don't know. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Reputation. Jun 2034. 

[Edit]

Of the teams on the above list, Llanelli and Cefn Druids are both Semi-Pro and Cardiff Met Uni are obviously stuck at Amateur, but the other 6 clubs are now Professional clubs. 

TNS - Was already Professional at the start of the game. 
Barry - Turned Pro in Jun 2033. 
Ton Pentre - Turned Pro in May 2033.
Afan Lido - Turned Pro in Apr 2032. 
Bala - Turned Pro in Jun 2031. 
Carmarthen - Turned Pro in may 2031. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Jimbokav1971

[yCymro]

Following this with interest!

[Jimbokav1971]

7 minutes ago, yCymro said:

Following this with interest!

Cheers @yCymro

Anything in particular you would like to see? 

[yCymro]

European domination!

Since I took Aberystwyth Town to Champions League glory many moons ago and because I enjoyed dafuge's career with Caersws, love watching others give these challenges a go.  Game doesn't replicate the Welsh leagues always well, but always good to see how others do.

[Jimbokav1971]

TV Rights. Jun 2034.

I know that £120,000 per year doesn't go very far, but for it to progress like this is decent. 

2032. £83,020
2033. £100,000
2034. £120,000

[Jimbokav1971]

15 minutes ago, yCymro said:

European domination!

Since I took Aberystwyth Town to Champions League glory many moons ago and because I enjoyed dafuge's career with Caersws, love watching others give these challenges a go.  Game doesn't replicate the Welsh leagues always well, but always good to see how others do.

Haha. 

I sort of meant is there any information or anything you would like me to show rather than what you wanted me to achieve! 

I think I will concentrate on seeing of TNS for a while yet. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Another player poached. Jul 2034. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions League squad selection. Jul 2034.

Although the standard of our squad is improving the whole time, there is a cost in terms of a lack of home-produced players. That's why it was significant that we had players such as (34b) Rhydian Hall (IRL) * and (34b) Rhydian Hall (IRL) * who came through in the last intake at >100 PA.

The problem in the short-term is that we have only managed to register 18 out of a possible 25 players for Champions League duty. We are 7 players short and that's big. That's huge. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Financial implications of crashing out so early in Europe last season. Aug 2034. 

I've already responded to @rodesirewith regards to how we are going to spend all our cash, and this is a perfect example. 

You might remember that (34b) Rhydian Hall (IRL) * came through last season's intake with a whopping 119 PA. (Well "whopping" is a relative term). 

TNS came in with a small bid for him and I obviously refused, but they are back in with a more significant deal, (and it's actually big money between Welsh clubs). 

The record fee paid between Welsh clubs in this save has progressed as follows. 

Feb 2025. The first cash deal between 2 Welsh clubs was made in the save with Penybont paying Newtown £40 for David Jones. 

Jan 2028. TNS smashed the record by paying Bala £76,000 for Wayne Morris. I recognise this name actually and he was a versatile central/wide midfielder who was very good. 

Feb 2034. The record fee almost doubled as TNS paid £140,000 to Barry Town for Gareth Lloyd TM 6'3". You can tell that he was on my radar from his nickname. He's a TM that had caused us problems and I thought he might be worth signing if he was ever available. 

Don't get me wrong, there have been far bigger deals than this flying about, but none bigger involving 2 Welsh clubs. 

TNS, as you would expect, have had significant cash to throw about and it's why they are the team to beat.

I should add at this point that this is significantly less than i was expecting and rather than pay big transfer fees, it would seem that they have been signing players on a free in the main and the way they have used their financial clout is by way of wage payments rather than transfer fees. 

* I should add that Oli Ewing is currently on trial with us after being released on a free after 8 seasons where he made a minimum of 26 appearances each season. I can imagine he would be good against the poorer teams, but possibly not physically up for the more demanding opposition. I think he's more suited to playing in a 3 and not sure how he would cope with our style. I like him but not sure he is a good fit for us. The other big thing is that I'm REALLY reluctant to sign players in their 30's. The only exception I would make for that is for players who would be good enough to play in Europe for us, and who meet the HGN criteria, (where we are 7 players short right now). I am actively looking to sign  experienced, (and possibly ageing), players who meet this criteria and who would help us register more players for European competition. 

They have, (surprisingly to me at least), also brought a bit of cash in by players leaving. We are a million miles away from these sort of fees I think. Maybe playing in the Champions League has an impact on player reputation and value?  These aren't all the cash transfers. They are just the really significant ones. That's £2,725,000 just here. 

Anyway, getting back to the (34b) Rhydian Hall (IRL) * deal, some of you might be wondering why I hadn't just signed him to a pre-contract deal? I knew how high his PA was and I also knew that TNS were interested because I had already turned down an offer for him. While I have offered a contract to (34d) Ryan Clarke (NIR) * so he can't be poached now, I only did so on his 17th birthday. Although I knew the high PA for these players, I'm trying to still play the game in the same way that I would do if I didn't know their PA. I'm still largely making decisions based on PA stars rather than actual PA, (although that's not easy). What is easy is refusing to do something that I would not have done otherwise without this info. When the initial bid came in from TNS it was paltry. I thought about offering him a pre-contract then, (he's still 16), and I decided that such a small offer would not have been enough to ring the alarm bells and trigger this response had I not knows his actual PA via the editor. If I'm going to use the editor is a save like this, (and it really does have it's benefits in terms of tracking stuff), then I have to try and limit the scope of it's impact. Signing a player to a pre-contract simply because of info that I had got from the editor and not backed up elsewhere is not how I want to play, even when it costs me a player like this. Had they offered me £50k or something in the initial bid then I think I would have "triggered" a thought that he might have decent PA without the editor info. As it was I think they offered £7,500 or something, (but certainly under £10,000), and that wouldn't have been enough of a trigger for me. 

Now the big offer is in though I have to say that the alarm bells would be ringing and I would be wondering what the hell they were looking at and coming to the conclusion that his PA was significant. With that in mind, do I want this deal to go through for this player? 

Finances. The 1st thing I had to do was work out why the deal was accepted. £64,000(£120,000) is decent money, but it's really a drop in the ocean isn't it. How much money do we actually have left.....

Ok. Well that £3M in the bank didn't last long. We are really paying for crashing out of Europe so early last season. I know we are due some sort of financial windfall from this seasons European campaign, but that's still on-going and at the moment we have neither qualified for the Group Stages of anything, nor been knocked out, (but that's all I'm saying for the moment). Basically, I know we are going to get a lump of cash, but I don't know how much right now. 

I can see why the board are agreeing to the deal now. It makes sense, especially when we get 40% of any re-sale profit. I wold much rather this was a smaller deal that came with 50% of re-sale value, (rather than profit), but that's just me. I think this is a realistic offer for the board to accept. 

That being said, where is that protest button! 

I feel fully able to offer the player a pre-contract now so let's see if we can still keep the player. 

Oh, I don't remember seeing this before. Of course I have used the protest button before, but don't think I have ever used the renegotiate transfer button before, or even seen it for that matter. 

Ideally I would protest the transfer and then renegotiate the transfer if my protest was ignored. That seems realistic doesn't it? 

Possibly helped by the fact that we are not actually in the red, the Chairman agreed immediately so I will have to take a look at the Renegotiate Transfer button at some point in the future. 

The next thing I have to do is to see if we can get the player to re-sign. 

I'm not on his favoured personnel list and Ton Pentre is not his favourite club. Although he has been included in a 1st Team match squad, he has yet to make is debut. I need to fix that to try and get the club on his list and also me personally. On the plus side his personality is unambitious so I think it likely that he will agree to a pre-contract deal before TNS come in with another offer. If this was a highly ambitious player maybe he would be less likely to sign?  

Ok. Despite our Chairman saying that the offer has been withdrawn, it's still showing. 

I've tried to offer the player a contract but he's not having it while the situation is up in the air. 

I think I'm going to try and renegotiate the deal and we will either get more, (brilliant), or the deal will fall through, (brilliant). 

Here are my options. What I really want to do is swap the 40% of profit for 50% of re-sale value, and I also want to include a friendly, (well why not?) I think the best option here is #2, but I'm worried that they won't accept because they already have a 40% clause in place. I'm erring towards option #1, but really I don't care what we get for him. What I want is the 50% of re-sale. 

So #2 it is. 

He's saying that the offer has been withdrawn, but it doesn't look like it. 

So that was pretty frustrating. 

I'm not sure that either the protest or renegotiate buttons worked as intended. 

But that's that. It's obviously worse because it's TNS, but we will just have to get on with it. 

[rodesire]

Amazing write-up, awful awful situation to find yourself in.

[Jimbokav1971]

Poached again. Sep 2034.

Is it any wonder that the intakes are so poor with how many players are being poached. 

[rodesire]

3 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Is it any wonder that the intakes are so poor with how many players are being poached. 

I cannot imagine doing a Youth only save there.  We'd be losing a whole XI over a decade.

[Jimbokav1971]

Champions League Qualifying. Jul & Aug 2034.

Apologies by the way. I played the 1st 7 games last night but was unable to post info because Gyazo wasn't working and the updates just looked rubbish without pictured. Gyazo is back up and running this morning so here we are. 

Although we lost in the Playoff that would have seen us qualify for the Champions League Group Stages, (it seems astonishing to say that), we have at least qualified for the Group Stages of the Euro Cup. When we qualified for the Group Stages before it was the EC2, so this is significant progress, and with it comes significant prize money. 

It leaves our finances looking like this now. 

This is where the game falls down a little in my opinion. The (34b) Rhydian Hall (IRL) * offer was made on 25th August and the transfer went through on the 28th August, but we played the 1st leg against Celtic on 23rd August and the 2nd leg on 29th August, so from 16th August, (when we beat Mura of Slovenia), we have been guaranteed this money). I don't think the game is taking this into account. I'm trying not to be too annoyed, but you can imagine that the transfer itself might seem ok in isolation, but when you mesh it with our European progress it's a little frustrating. 

What I'm trying to do, (not very well I must say), is to consider how quickly our previous £3M vanished and with that in mind this is still a reasonable transfer to be accepted. Let's just say it's a work in progress. 

Anyway, on the plus side we are In the Euro Cup Group Stage for the 1st time and I think we get another payday too at some point, (TV money or something), so fingers crossed. 

While attendance figures are ok for tracking progress in a save, they don't actually mean anything. Gate Receipts on the other hand a very significant. £150,000 is a LOT of money at this level from 1 game.

[Jimbokav1971]

20 minutes ago, rodesire said:

Amazing write-up, awful awful situation to find yourself in.

Thanks. It's not even positive that we would have got him anywhere near his potential so it's not a huge deal, but it's more the surrounding situation with us already guaranteed Euro Cup Group Stages that is the most frustrating thing. 

10 minutes ago, rodesire said:

I cannot imagine doing a Youth only save there.  We'd be losing a whole XI over a decade.

Well I've had to change my style completely haven't I. I spent however many years finishing 3rd, (was it 4 years in a row), and the only reason I managed to get promoted to the JD Cymru Premier in the end was because I was going out and signing external players. I'm not sure I would have ever got promoted playing Youth Only here. 

I've been keeping track of who we have lost and I have managed to re-sign some of the poached players, but even when I do they are never classed as HG at club for European purposes which is really frustrating. 

I'm still loving this save though. If it was easy everyone would be doing it, (and @Makoto Nakamuradoesn't count because he could get a lump of wood promoted). 

[DazRTaylor]

Cracking read as always Jimbo.  Well done on your first title win too.  

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, DazRTaylor said:

Cracking read as always Jimbo.  Well done on your first title win too.  

Thanks very much. 

It's all swings and roundabouts really. Crashing out of Europe so early was probably the catalyst for us winning the league. Without it, I think we would have probably finished 2nd or 3rd. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Euro Cup Group. Sep 2034.

Well that could have been worse! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Another player poached. Sep 2034.

This is getting ridiculous now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. Sep 2034.

[yCymro]

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Poached again. Sep 2034.

Is it any wonder that the intakes are so poor with how many players are being poached. 

Like this in real life for many Welsh clubs!  When a top side comes calling, clubs lose out.

That deal on Hall is what I love and hate about managing in Wales.  Infuriating, especially when a side like TNS bulldozers in.

[Jimbokav1971]

On 08/04/2020 at 20:56, AceAvenger said:

I'm always amazed at how many goals your goalkeepers score, my best free kick takers can't hit a barn door if their life depended on it. Do you concede any goals from your goalkeeper being so far up the pitch? Because if not, I might try the big fat goalkeeper goalscoring challenge.

 

On 08/04/2020 at 21:05, Jimbokav1971 said:

I used to concede quite regularly and I had to work quite hard at creating multiple layers of defensive lines to stop us conceding, especially from free-kicks that hit the wall. I can't remember the last time I conceded from my GK being in an attacking position but I'm pretty sure it was in my ScandiNordicland save. So that's 11 seasons here in this save and another season in the Joint Save thread where we haven't conceded in this way. 

Don't get me wrong, we regularly concede from attacking throw-ins, (I pile people forward and I'm rally hammering the long throws at the moment), and I also only let my GK take 3 of the 4 different type of free-kicks, (I stopped them taking the wide ones because I just couldn't find a way to defend it effectively). I'm pretty sure that one of the most recent times I conceded a goal from an attacking free-kick I mentioned it in whichever thread it was, (and possibly GIF'd it too). I wanted to show everyone that I do concede sometimes. Give me a minute and I will have a look and see if I can find it. 

 

On 08/04/2020 at 21:36, Jimbokav1971 said:

@AceAvengerI've had a look and I can't find where I posted it. I've checked my last 3 threads plus the Fat GK thread and even the General Discussion thread and I can't find the post. Sorry. When I next concede from an attacking free-kick or a penalty I will record it and post in here for you to see. You could be waiting a while though. 

 

On 09/04/2020 at 15:38, AceAvenger said:

Thanks for checking Jimbo! Hopefully you don't actually concede any.

Webb looks like a real catch, I'm sure he'll score buckets of goals for you.

I thought that this might interest you @AceAvenger