Thinking of a pun title has Costa lot of my time - a Central American journey

[ToMexico!!]

100 Games - Oct 2022

[ToMexico!!]

Daniel Andrade - Nov 2022

Forgot to screenshot his international debut news but second time round he's bagged a goal in his 2nd game and won it for Costa Rica in a 1-0 friendly win over Poland just before the World Cup. 

He's made some excellent progression over the course of the last 18 months or so but that has meant one thing. 

He doesn't want to renew and is out of contract at the end of the season with the likes of Herediano, Alajuelense and Cartagines are sniffing around him. I'm not sure what to do to try and convince him to sign on for at least another year or two. 

[ToMexico!!]

New Contract - Dec 2022

A new 2-year deal with a £150 wage rise to boot.

[ToMexico!!]

2022/23 Season Review

After surpassing expectations last season of staying up and finishing in a mid-tabled 7th, could we repeat that feat? 

In a word, YES! We bettered 7th by finishing in 6th place, just a point behind Herediano in 5th and 5 points off 4th placed Puntarenas in the last play-off spot. We had a much better set of results against the bigger sides in the division, we drew twice against Alajuelense, beat Herediano twice and got a credible draw against Saprissa. We actually scored 8 goals against Saprissa in our four matches which despite losing three of the games was pleasing. 

League Table

This season was all about one man; Daniel Andrade, I mentioned him in a couple of posts up, he's still unlikely to sign a new contract with us despite finishing in 6th. He had actually rejected contract offers from Alajeulense, San Carlos and Cartagines but Saprissa are still interested. However, it was his goals that propelled us to where we are this season, he managed to finish the season with 28 goals in 36(1) games whilst also making 9 assists. He ended up at the leagues top scorer and finished with the highest average rating in the league with 7.55. 

Squad

We made another small profit this season, we increased the amount of season ticket holders and also increased the average attendance by just over 300 spectators which helped bring more gate receipts in. 

Youth Intake was extremely poor once again, we're in a competitive region but until we can sufficiently cover the cost of another upgrade we won't be attracting the players to the club. Just one player was signed this intake, a striker with some promise. We raided Golfito to sign three of their most promising players from this years intake. 

Season Summary

[ToMexico!!]

On 17/06/2020 at 12:11, ToMexico!! said:

TV Money - June 2022

 

TV Money - June 2023

• 2020/21 - £1m
• 2021/22 - £1m
• 2022/23 - £1m

[ToMexico!!]

Andrade Stays - June 2023

Just one day before his contract was due to run out Daniel Andrade has signed a new contract. We've broken the bank to keep him, his weekly wage jumps from £425 p/w to £2.5k p/w and gets a ridiculous appearance fee but if he can repeat last season goal scoring heroics it will be worth it. 

[ToMexico!!]

Job Interview - Aug 2023

Their manager just left to takeover the Costa Rica national team. 

[ToMexico!!]

Summer Transfers - Sept 2023

I decided to spend a bit of money this summer in a bid to appease Daniel Andrade as he felt the squad needed to be stronger. The three Golfito lads were all 16 years old who had come through their last intake. Angulo was the first major signing, a 17 year old right winger/striker, decent back up with potential to improve. Rodriguez was released by Herediano, a little poor physically but has the technicals and mentals to do well at AML for me. Orellana is my new first choice RB, he joins from Honduran side Social Sol for peanuts, will probably end up selling him to an MLS side. Lastly, Khan, another player who I don't think will be here long, signed for a new club record £125k, he slots in up front alongside Andrade. He's a El Salvador/USA dual national, again will probably end up in the MLS. 

[ToMexico!!]

Job Interview - Dec 2023

Rejected as always, despite probably being the best club in the country. 

[ToMexico!!]

Significant Sale - Jan 2024

This is not significant in terms of the money we got from the deal but who it was...

I'm really disappointed that we've lost Andrade but it was partially my fault, his foreign release clause was £140k but that was inserted and limited by his agent. I negotiated a deal to get the 50% next sale included which may net us some money in the future. 

Luckily I have Steven Khan who is also scoring goals this season so I won't miss too many of Andrade's goals but I will definitely be looking to find a replacement. 

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake - Mar 2024

Absolutely awful personalities but lets look beyond that, we have a 5* potential striker in our ranks. 

Welcome Jonathan Alpizar! Definitely needs some work still especially physically he's a little weak. He's coming straight into the first team to play alongside Khan. 

[ToMexico!!]

New Contract - Apr 2024

Another new 2-year deal with a £600 wage rise. 

[ToMexico!!]

2023/24 Season Review

We made great inroads to establishing ourselves as a mid-table side in our first two seasons in the top flight with 7th and 6th placed finishes and I wanted to progress on that further. However things didn't work out quite that way as we finished 7th again, one place lower than last season. I think that was largely down to losing Andrade half way through the season, his goals in the first half of the season still meant he finished 2nd in the leagues top scorer table and has the highest average rating in the league. 

Guadelupe win the title for the 2nd consecutive season despite finishing 3rd. 

League Table

Luckily we still had Steven Khan who notched 20 goals in his debut season, so we could see a further improvement in the next season. He was helped by Villalobos who scored 10, coming in to take Andrade's place. In midfield, Rodriguez and Zuniga both made 9 assists and in defence Allan Torres strengthen the defence and finished with a positive average rating even at the age of 18. 

Squad

We made another small profit this season, we actually had a net transfer spend of 5k as we brought in 8 players for £240k whilst selling two players for £235k. We increased season ticket sales to 388 and increased the average attendance by just under 200 for the season. 

Season Summary

[ToMexico!!]

New Record - Nov 2024

[ToMexico!!]

National A - Dec 2024

[ToMexico!!]

Youth Intake - Mar 2024

Was panned as not a very exciting intake but two decent players with potential in there. Mario Madrigal is the best of the bunch. Poor personalities and quality overall but we can't afford to attract the better HoYD's that are available. 

[ToMexico!!]

2024/25 Season Review

I wanted to achieve a top half finish this season which meant 6th or better. After a decent start the wheels began to fall off with no win in five games. However form improved once again and we spent some time in and around the Champions Play-Off places before going on a horrendous run of form, this time no win in eight games. We managed some good results in the run in, a draw against Saprissa although they scored two injury time goals to equalise, we then beat Herediano 4-3 and beat Alajuelense for the first time 4-1. We eventually finished the season in 6th place but it could have been better, with two games to go we sat in 5th place one point behind Santos in 4th. Unfortunately a crisis struck as we lost in form and star striker Johnny Campos to injury, we lost to Santos and then Cartagines which allowed Herediano to jump above us and take 5th place. 

League Table

We sold one player this season, Francisco Solozarno to Saprissa, he was 4th choice and they paid me £100k plus future incentives of which I sold the 50% sell on for another £100k. Incoming was Andrey Pena, a RB/CM for free after his release from Santa Rosa; Johnny Campos who also joined for free from another lower league club Curridabat; Oliver Wallace from Jamaican side Arnett Gardens, he also signed for free and was a new first choice CB. I then paid £50k for a 17 year old Luis Salazar, he's a central midfielder who has plenty of potential and lastly was another Jamaican, Jason Gagnon who also joined from Arnett Gardens, this time for a nominal fee of £425. 

It was new signing Johnny Campos who stole the limelight this season with his 28 goals before injury ended his season early, he still finished at the leagues top scorer. Beyond him, Khan had a decent season with 17 goals and Villalobos just crept into double figures. Wingers Sanchez, Angulo and Rodriguez each made double figures for assists. Edgar Zuniga had a good season from central midfield with 8 goals and 7 assists, his form made him subject of interest from Saprissa, of which I rejected bids of around £400k from them. 

Squad

We made a decent amount of profit this season, around £200k from player sales overall and an increase of £40k in gate receipts, although the average attendance was slightly down on last season. 

Season Summary

 

[ToMexico!!]

2025/26 Season Review

Absolutely blitzed through this season as the server was down at work today so just got to play FM instead. We made five signings this season; two "reserve" players in Diaz and Alpizar, the latter later going out on loan; two Cantillano's (same surname, not related) of which one is a defender and the other a midfielder, the latter costing me £80k and last in was Juan Jara for £170k. He could play either LB or RB but he would be used predominantly at LB, there seems to be a real shortage of players that can play at LB in Central America. One player left, he was in the reserves and was going to be released by Jicaral Sercoba fancied spending nearly £50k on him. 

I told the players I wanted another mid-tabled finish but they wanted more, top half it is then and top half was what we got. However, we got more than that, we finished in 4th place which meant we qualified for the Champions Play-Off. We were joined by Herediano, Cartagines and Saprissa which meant Alajuelense were the "big" team to miss out, they actually finished 6th. We were drawn against Herediano in our semi, they finished top but we had beat them once this season, over two legs we had a chance. We drew 3-3 in the first leg which was at home so we had a tough 2nd leg to come. It was another close game but Herediano edged the high scoring affair 4-3, which meant we lost 7-6 on aggregate. 

Herediano went on to beat Cartagines in the final 2-1 on aggregate to win the title overall for a 2nd time this save. 

League Table

This season we had two players who stood out for their goals and their average rating, they were Khan (21g, 7.14) and Villalobos (24g, 7.32) but beyond them no one else really stood out. Campos only managed 11 goals after last seasons heroics and only one player reached double figures for assists and that was Rodriguez with 10. I'm going to let a few players go this summer, I'm not renewing the Gagnon's, Andrade's, Sanchez's or Diaz's contracts which will allow me to bring in at least one more foreign player in a key attacking position. I also want to give Alpizar (YP24a) more game time as he managed 3 goals in 7 games, a good run in the side may work well for him. 

Squad

Average attendance spiked at an increase of over 500 for the season which was fantastic, however it didn't see us turn a profit. We did make player purchases of £250k this season which is where the fall in balance comes from. 

Youth Intake was pretty bad, just a couple players added to the U21's with no significant standouts. 

Season Summary

[ToMexico!!]

Sales Abroad - May 2026

I've now completed 7 seasons in this save and I wanted to spend some time and look at some of the players who have left Costa Rica to play abroad so far. Part of this save is to produce the best Costa Rican players we can and export them to the big leagues which in turn will help the national side and that doesn't mean just me, that means Saprissa, Herediano and Alajuelense doing their bit too. Obvious routes from Costa Rica for players are to USA and Mexico as they are the only two leagues bigger than Primera Division de Costa Rica and to Spain as I have all those leagues loaded. 

• Angel Morales was the first player to leave for USA, he came through the academy at Alajuelense in 2020 before moving to Cincinnati for £575k in 2022. 55 caps for Costa Rica so far. 
• Cincinnati signed another Costa Rican regen in the same year (2022) but a different season for us, this time Cristian Baltodano from Cartagines for £300k rising to £425k. 
• In 2023, we sold Daniel Andrade to Saudi side Al-Nassr for a pittance but he kicked up a fuss wanting to leave. 20 goals in 25 Costa Rican caps. 60 goals in KSA since arriving. 
• A number of players left Costa Rica in 2024/25 but it was striker David Avila who left Herediano for Columbus for £1.5m which caught the headlines. 
• Cincinnati were back at it in 25/26 season signing Gamboa whilst New England signed Foster but it was Saprissa's sale of Martinez which pleased me, he left for Porto which was the first sale into Europe. 

Hopefully that first sale in Europe will be the first of many for the Costa Rican league and thus in turn the national side will develop as players play in better leagues. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfer Update - July 2026

Long before the transfer window has closed I've finished my summer business and further freshened the squad.

I decided to spend a bit of money, albeit most of it on one player; Christian Hudson from Herediano for £600k. At 17 years old he has plenty of time to improve still and it weakens a rival as their future star striker won't be with them. I raided Jicaral-Sercoba again, Arias is a 16 year old RB and Berjarano is a 19 year old LB with the latter put into the first team. Two more youngsters joined from Golfito and both went into the U21s. Montoya was a pre-arranged deal, he will be our new AML and Rodriguez joins after his release from Perez Zeledon, he is my new starting AMR. 

We significantly reduced the average age of the squad over the course of the past two seasons, our oldest first team player is now 24 and makes our average age just a smidge over 21. We do have a few player wanted; Alajeulense want Blanco (GK) but he doesn't want to join them, Herediano want Villalobos and Saprissa want my central midfielder Cantillano but we've not had any bids for them yet. We do have room to bring in another foreign player as the limit is 4, we only have 3 on our books. 

[ToMexico!!]

Injury - Aug 2026

Fell from where exactly? 

Typical that my new £600k striker has injured himself this badly at a young age, could be detrimental to his development. 

[ToMexico!!]

Takeover Completed - Jan 2027

It was on, it was off, back on again, then off again but finally we've been taken over. 

 

[ToMexico!!]

Stolen Staff - Feb 2027

[ToMexico!!]

2026/27 Season Review

After breaking the top four last season I wanted to remain there and we did just that, securing a fourth place finish with a slightly worse result overall, less GD and two less points. Alajeulense were a class above all season and we were drawn against them in the Champions Play-Off semi finals. Our form had been poor to the end of the season and rightly so we lost 2-1 in the first leg. My assistant manager then said maybe we should have a team meeting, we did so and then pulled off a miraculous recovery and won the second leg 4-1, with 17 year old Alpizar scoring a hat-trick. In the final, again over two legs we would face Saprissa who had just beaten Herediano. At home in the first leg Alpizar scored again to give us a 1-1 draw, four days later we travelled to Tibas for the finale. 0-0 at HT, Saprissa struck first, former player Solozarno striking first blood but my Jamiacan CB Wallace replied 10 minutes later. We went into extra time, 3 minutes from penalties we were rewarded with one, Villalobos slotted it home. A minute later we struck again, Villalobos again, we were 3-1 up. Deep into extra-time, injury-time Saprissa struck one back but it was all over we were somehow, Champions!

League Table | Play-Offs

There's two players I want to mention from this season, Villalobos and Alpizar. The former scored 31 goals this season and was instrumental in our season, scoring many important goals including those two in the play-off final second leg. Alejandro Alpizar is a 17 year old who I had poached from Golfito for £375 at the beginning of this season, he was thrust into the first team purely as a replacement for Khan, who firstly had been in poor form all season and secondly signed a deal to join Saprissa at the end of his contract so he was dumped in the reserves. This young lad scored 7 goals in 13(1) games and made two assists. However, no other player apart from Villalobos managed double figures for goals, that's something I need to try and address. 

Squad

I let the game run a bit further than normal and we got two important messages, we got new sponsorship deals which doubled in income and the board want to build a new stadium, citing that poor corporate facilities in the current old stadium are not good enough and we can't attract fair weather fans. With the sponsorship we made a profit overall this season despite the expenditure on transfers this season. 

Youth Intake was poor again with just a handful of players signed to beef up the U21 squad. 

Season Summary

There's no denying that we've won this title far too soon, my expectation was to at least reach the final in the next season or two then win the title but it just goes to show that the play-offs on a two-legged system is always a lottery. We've seen Guadeloupe win the title twice so far but had finished mid-table before and since winning those titles. 

[ToMexico!!]

Stolen Staff - June 2027

Disappointed to have lost my AssMan to an inferior club, he had progressed from Reserves Manager to First Team in recent seasons. 

[ToMexico!!]

Internationals - Nov 2027

[ToMexico!!]

Job Interview Offer - Nov 2027

Thanks but no thanks

[ToMexico!!]

New Contract - Dec 2027

New 3 year deal and a small wage increase

[ToMexico!!]

Significant Sale - Mar 2028

We've sold our first player abroad and its our first choice GK. £1.2m is a lot for us at the moment + 50% profit could become fruitful. 

[ToMexico!!]

Facilities Upgrade - Apr 2028

Finally decided to make an improvement to the currently "poor" training facilities. We're currently becoming more and more sustainable through player sales and increased ticket revenue which means we can easily afford one or two upgrades at this current level of costing. 

[ToMexico!!]

2027/28 Season Review

Firstly I'll start by saying that despite being Champions we weren't entered into a continental competition on the basis that we finished 4th. Well we finished in 3rd this season, so lets see if we get entered this season or is it just the top two. Alajuelense were runaway league winners and were joined by Saprissa in 2nd, ourselves and fourth placed Herediano in the Champions Play-Offs. After last season we now know how much of a lottery the play-offs are. We were up against Saprissa in our semi-final. 

Home leg first, so we needed to put in a solid performance as we were yet to beat them this season. And that run continued as we lost 1-0 to an own goal in the third minute of injury time. We went into the away leg short of confidence and that was telling as we lost 2-1 but had twice as many clear cut chances as them, enough to win the tie at least. 

League Table

We signed just two players this season, a CB to beef up the squad depth a little and in January we signed young Australian Carlo Beukhof from CU Academy for a pittance. Squad wise we had some better depth now, we were able to promote Mario Madrigal (YP24a) from the reserves to fill the void left by Blanco after his sale to Colorado. I also gave Esteban Arias a more prominent role in the first team either playing left or right back mainly but he could fill in at CB when needed and that has helped his progression massively. 

Alejandro Alpizar finished top goalscorer with 24, his strike partner Villalobos managed 18 goals but also made 10 assists, they had more help this season as Campos, Salazar and Hudson contributed 26 goals mainly from midfield. Edgar Zungia made the most assists with 13 from central midfield. 

Squad

Financially we've improved no end; season ticket sales were up, gate receipts were up over £500k on last season, match day income thus doubled, merchandising more than doubled, sponsorship tripled and we sold £1.5m worth of players. We were granted the improvement of the Training Facilities by the board at a cost of £170k (seen in above post) and they are also looking for a site for the new stadium which we can now see has a planned capacity of 4472 which is less than we currently have and to top it off our average attendance for this season was 4379, we will be selling out before long as we sit at 97% of capacity filled. 

Youth Intake was the worse one yet, we now have the money to make a couple more improvements to the Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching which I will make in due course. 

Season Summary

[ToMexico!!]

Significant Sale - May 2028

He was coming up to his last year of his contract and wouldn't renew so I decided to cash in now rather than losing him for nothing. We will miss his goals for sure and we're weaker for it but it will give Hudson the chance to really make the step up after a couple of bit part seasons. 

[ToMexico!!]

Upgrades - June 2028

With the above sale I've decided to reinvest that money into the club, not the squad, well yet anyway. 

[ToMexico!!]

1 hour ago, ToMexico!! said:

they are also looking for a site for the new stadium which we can now see has a planned capacity of 4472 which is less than we currently have and to top it off our average attendance for this season was 4379, we will be selling out before long as we sit at 97% of capacity filled. 

The board have revised the plans and increased the capacity to double it in size. 

[ToMexico!!]

Transfers - July 2028

Two players left this summer, Alpizar permanently to the MLS in a deal which made most of the squad unhappy but there's no option to say he wouldn't sign a new contract  and Orellana who was my Honduran right back, he was first choice but we needed to shift a foreigner to allow me to register both of my two new first team signings. 

Murillo will prove to be a bit of a bargain at £20k, he joins from Panamanian side Arabe Unido and becomes first choice AMR, scored on his debut too. Calderon is a replacement for Alpizar, not directly as he's a Target Man but can play as an Advanced Forward if we need to change things. He's a perfectionist too which will help in the long run with squad personality/mentoring. We then spent big on two youngsters from Saprissa. Manfred Mora and William Coto Ortega who both signed for £400k each which looks at lot but in the long run I envisage both of these becoming integral players in our squad for seasons to come.