[FM21] BackTheBulls - Jersey Bulls: a charge into the football league

[Sonic Youth]

I hope Lopez is the first to crack 100 for you too 

[Jtomsett11]

On 09/04/2022 at 23:00, Punch said:

Lots of light blue in those attributes, looking really positive 

Yeah, we've made real progress with both home grown and signed players here. It's now a balance of finding players with the right attributes but also the right personality, adaptability and all-round game play to fit the tactic. We're short of money this summer so we're going to have to be more frugal than the last two years.

On 10/04/2022 at 05:35, Sonic Youth said:

It’s going to be interesting to see what playing in Europe does to squad development, as well as how deep your squad is versus perseeved depth.

Your development strategy with Kizito, spelling and Johnston looks to be paying off. Something to incorporate with each season moving forward it looks like 

I absolutely agree, I think it'll give us an opportunity to give more game time, but it is also going to push our squad to the limits. I think if we can qualify for Europe again next season some how that will be real success.

[Jtomsett11]

On 10/04/2022 at 05:36, Sonic Youth said:

I hope Lopez is the first to crack 100 for you too 

That would certainly be impressive! He's not far off, but it'll depend if he has significant potential yet to develop or not. 

[Jtomsett11]

2040 international and continental update

Something I like to do to ensure I remain interested in the in-game world is to review how the international and continental scene is playing out every 5 years. I don't really enjoy international management on FM, but this way I keep abreast of developments.

Top league winners

Premier League

Obviously now we're in the top flight this interests me on a day-to-day basis rather than 5-yearly, but it's interesting to see the Manchester dominance continues. Only 2 winners (Tottenham twice and Liverpool once) in 20 years are from outside Manchester.

Spanish La Liga

Real Madrid continue to dominate, but there's been a little more variety now the league is loaded again. Barcelona with just 2 titles in 20 years is a shocker really.

Italian Serie A

Inter's recent dominance ended this year. 

French Ligue Un

Complete dominance over 20 years.

German Bundesliga

Apart from a couple of early titles, Dortmund are perennial bridesmaides just as in real life. 

Portuguese Premeira Liga

Very little variety here too!

Continental cups

Champions League

Loading the other top five leagues has at least helped encourage some non-English winners! Inter's appearance in the 2040 final is the first Italian finalist of the save, while Porto have appeared twice along with Bayern and PSG once.

Europa League

While this is mainly English, there is at least a little more variety. Having said that, 5 of the last 6 finalists are English teams.

Europa Conference League

Unsurprisingly, City, having qualified via the Carabao Cup in 2039, walked their way to the 2040 title. Some very interesting winners here!

International football

World Cup

Argentina are obviously a major power, but their win is their first since 1986. Interestingly, England have been poor throughout the world cups. I usually find any save with England loaded generates quite a few World Cup wins for them.

Euros

Wow! Bulgaria winning with Norway runners up for the second time. Bulgaria's highest valued player is £22 million, so this is a real shock. Good to see!

Copa America

A bit of variety here too with the big boys winning, but Colombia picking up 2 championships and Mexico one too. Costa Rica did well this year.

[Punch]

PSG - 20 straight League titles, and only 1 Europa title to show for it

[Jtomsett11]

Transfer and contract updates June-July 2040

I've included last season as Bazan, Smith and Wych transfers went through before the new season.

There's been quite a lot of movement here. We moved on Wych, Smith, Vanegas, Villamizar and Ygor all for large profits. The first four were either on loan, or bit part players last season, so to bring in £46 million for them combined was brilliant business. They cost us in the region of £10 million to buy. Ygor was not a planned loss, but Rennes bid for him and then he got upset and wanted to leave. 

His record isn't exactly brilliant from AMC, and we've made a huge profit on him with a 20% profit clause. 

Another major departure for the club was Clarke, who leaves on a free. I couldn't offer him a testimonial unlike Robbins last year. What a job he did for the club over the years.

We also sold a number of young players. Jele, Dowling and Mullings were never likely to make it, but Rezaei was a huge error on my part as I didn't realise he was on a youth contract.

I'm really annoyed with myself as he had decent potential (2.5 gold, 3.5 star white) and a decent personality. We're really short in our U18 and U23 teams to be honest and I think I'm going to have to start giving longer contracts to players just to add numbers to the squads. 

U23 squad

There's clear potential here but only for a limited number of players. 3 gold stars is probably now a very good Premier League player, so although Coelho has dropped in potential I'm still excited by him.

U18 squad

Yep, not great here. Some 2 star gold, 3 white star potential players. If they are 3 star they could be really good. As I said I think I'll keep them longer than I have been and see how they turn out by the time they're 21/22.

Transfers in

We always planned to bring in a CB, a GK and a CAM. After a few months scouting, I've come to the conclusion that there aren't any better goalkeepers than Kubiszyn that we can go out and get. We'll keep scouting and reviewing, but for now he's staying as number one.

The CB we bought in was Bazan. With an attribute score of he should be able to slot in as number 2 or 3 CB depending on where I play Morais. 

I really like his technical ability as well as his ability to read the game and position himself. He's only 18 with room to grow, so he could become a crucial player for us. 

We then went off-piste and signed a RB. 

Fontana rates as a full back and bar his crossing he looks really good. I just couldn't turn him down for £2 million a year wages and no transfer fee. Harte and Massaccesi are fine, but ultimately we need to improve our playing staff to improve our performance and he adds depth ahead of a challenging year with our European debut.

Then we come to AMC. Ygor's departure meant we really needed two here, but with Wych's sale I became aware we were putting a lot of eggs in one basket i.e. Bah in the striker role, as I'm not sure Santos is up to scoring the goals we'd need him to next year. I instead decided to get 2 players who could play both AF and AMC and allow Santos to go out on loan.

I've been tracking Gonzalez for years, but never had the financial might or European football to bring him in. He's been sensational in Mexico and internationally, and while he suits a DLF role more than AF, he still scores at AMC and  at AF. If we can up his finishing by 1 or 2 points he'll be brilliant I feel. 

The second player is Schutt, who has only really played for Bayern II. He rates  as an AF and  at AMC. He's on low wages and cost us very little, so overall I feel we've significantly improved our options.

Contracts and offers

We've sealed some important contracts this summer.

Lopez is now tied down until 2045 with an optional extension of 1 year. He's now on £7.5 million a year, but he's worth it!

I then tried to renew Morais' deal, but he's not interested. He's tied down until 2044 so we're in now rush really.

However, he's also been the subject of some serious bids.

I worry about letting him go now, so unless he demands to leave I may wait until next year. We may have made enough progress to keep him by then, or we may need to make the sale. We've probably got enough cover if he demands to leave late in the window.

Some other big bids (all rejected). Kizito is a good sign that we're developing him nicely. Herrero is happy for us to let him go if his £99 million release clause is met (I'd be amazed if it was).

One other outgoing of note.

I can't imagine this going down well in real life!!

 

[Jtomsett11]

1 hour ago, Punch said:

PSG - 20 straight League titles, and only 1 Europa title to show for it

Incredibly they've only had 4 managers in the save despite this, although they were inactive for a long while.

[Jtomsett11]

Pre-season and season preview July 2040

We played less games this time as I didn't want too much fatigue with a long season ahead of us. 

A good month ahead of us potentially with 3 winnable games in the league to start.

We're predicted 15th. I think that's a little harsh.

The board want mid-table. I want European football realistically and a good cup run. I've offered maximum bonuses for extra motivation! 

After the sales and purchases, our finances look pretty solid. I'm going to wait until the transfer window shuts before posting our preferred line-up as I suspect we're going to field some big offers over the next few weeks!

International recognition

I don't post regularly about international call-ups etc., but we are definitely making progress if we've got this sort of representation at international tournaments. Lopez not getting a place in the Spain squad was a big shock.

We've been offered about 4 international jobs including England, plus the Liverpool and Leeds jobs this summer, so I'm also receiving international recognition of my work as a manager. I won't be moving as this is a one-club save and I can see another 10 seasons perhaps of game play before FM23 comes out which I'd like to get as I've skipped FM22 to continue this save. Can we win the Premier League? The FA Cup? A European trophy? Those have the be the aims along with attempting to bring through more youth and if possible, Jersey-born players. 

[Jtomsett11]

August 2040

A perfect month with relatively easy fixtures and we are yet to concede. Bah and Lopez got the goals in the season opener, but it was new boy Fontana who made an immediate impact with 2 assists.

The away game at Stoke we were a little wasteful in front of goal, but Guyot scored a volley from a Lopez exquisite pass. The European games offered a chance for rotation and minutes for the youth, while Gonzalez got his first 3 goals in the two legs. In between we smashed 4 past Brighton with Bah getting a hat-trick. Schutt also scored a screamer to add to his excellent goal and assists in the Europa Conference League.

This is the league, with 4 teams making perfect starts. We face Everton next so something has to give there.

We should easily make it through this group. This will be 6 games for the likes of Kizito and Pelling. 

Transfer window

We've had some offers for Guyot and Cortes from Manchester City, but they were both happy to sign new contracts. Cortes has made a really good start to the season after I've given him the starting position in the Prem over Dempsey. 

We did let one player leave on loan.

Now, you may think this is a strange one considering our European football chances, but with Perreiral and Morais in BWM ahead of Johnston I just don't think I'll keep all 3 happy and if Johnston can regularly start in Spain I think it'll do wonders for his development. It's a gamble, but at worst we'll recall him in January. It also means I'll give more game time to Kizito as I don't like playing both of them on the same right handed side of CM and CB. He needs more development as you can see Johnston's level if these sort of teams are after him on loan. He's about to turn 22, so we have 2 seasons to get him up to the required level before his progress plateaus. I'm hoping this will really help. 

Finally, we had another player poached.

 

 

[Sonic Youth]

That was a busy and positive preseason, plus a top start to the season. It looks like you’ve chosen your new recruits well considering the starts they’ve made.

Fontano though to me looks like he could also play DC too. Lots of big bids for your players which is a good sign of progress being made.

That 10 year plan will be interesting to see how Jersey develops.

[Jtomsett11]

6 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

That was a busy and positive preseason, plus a top start to the season. It looks like you’ve chosen your new recruits well considering the starts they’ve made.

Fontano though to me looks like he could also play DC too. Lots of big bids for your players which is a good sign of progress being made.

That 10 year plan will be interesting to see how Jersey develops.

You're absolutely spot on with Fontano as he scores 85 ish for CB as well, however I'm reluctant to block Kizito and to some extent Marshall from progressing whereas Harte who is now third choice RB has hit his full potential and is just a useful squad player really.  Kizito is still showing 3.5 gold star and 4.5 white potential - if he ended up a 3.5 star player at CB we'd have a Jersey-born player in the squad for the next decade id say. Any more than 3.5 stars and he'd likely be in the TOTY for the next decade. 

I think the squad is looking really solid so I'm hopeful for a really good season. 

[Number seven]

On 21/04/2022 at 13:52, Jtomsett11 said:

The CB we bought in was Bazan. With an attribute score of he should be able to slot in as number 2 or 3 CB depending on where I play Morais. 

I really like his technical ability as well as his ability to read the game and position himself. He's only 18 with room to grow, so he could become a crucial player for us. 

Considering his crossing, dribling and passing ability, he might be a hell of a RB to. Will need som development with the acceleration, but he is young and have time for that.

[Sonic Youth]

13 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

You're absolutely spot on with Fontano as he scores 85 ish for CB as well, however I'm reluctant to block Kizito and to some extent Marshall from progressing whereas Harte who is now third choice RB has hit his full potential and is just a useful squad player really.  Kizito is still showing 3.5 gold star and 4.5 white potential - if he ended up a 3.5 star player at CB we'd have a Jersey-born player in the squad for the next decade id say. Any more than 3.5 stars and he'd likely be in the TOTY for the next decade. 

I think the squad is looking really solid so I'm hopeful for a really good season. 

I figured Kizito was the reason. Jersey born players being in the team have first preference now, and Kizito did great last season for you. Interesting that he still says he has development available 

[Jtomsett11]

9 hours ago, Number seven said:

Considering his crossing, dribling and passing ability, he might be a hell of a RB to. Will need som development with the acceleration, but he is young and have time for that.

I hadn't noticed that at all! He comes out with a score of 80.82 there, so we may retrain him at some point so we have the option of using him there! Thanks for the spot!

2 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

I figured Kizito was the reason. Jersey born players being in the team have first preference now, and Kizito did great last season for you. Interesting that he still says he has development available 

Exactly, although he did have a shocker in the Prem in his first appearance of the season!

[Jtomsett11]

September 2040

Overall, this is a really successful month where we kept 4 clean sheets and scored 18 goals. Our two Premier League defeats sting quite a bit, but Aston Villa are 5th and West Brom are 3rd despite being newly promoted, while we also beat Liverpool away to make up for those losses. When you consider Everton are currently 6th, we have played some really strong (form) teams this month!

The Everton game saw Bah and Cortes continue their fine starts to the season with a goal each; Everton didn't really have a shot. We then had 11 players on international duty for the Bournemouth game so ended up with two youth players on the bench.

Webb is unlikely to ever play a major role for us but was the first of two 16 year old debuts this month.

The Aston Villa game followed with Kizito coming in to defense. To be fair to him, both central midfielders and defenders had a mare and we lost despite outperforming on the xG.

Lech were disposed of by our second string, although injuries meant that Bah and Guyot both started and got two goals each, with Scott picking up the other. We then picked up our best result with two early goals against Liverpool along with an excellent defensive display.

 Gonzalez was fit again to start up front for the Exeter game and got all 4 goals.

He's yet to score in his 2 Premier League apperances, but has 9 in 4 cup games now! We also gave a start at RW to Coelho who came through the youth intake last year.

His potential has dropped to 3/4 star, but he made a good start in his 56 minutes on the pitch.

The West Brom game was a pretty drab affair in which both teams had less than 1 xG so we'll have to accept that loss. At this early stage those results leave us in the top four.

It's a very odd mix of teams with Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs currently further down the table. Wolves and Burnley, both European football semi-regulars, have made a shocking start the the season.

In Europe I think our group is going to be a walk in the park.

Financially, we're pretty stable and stronger than this time last year.

October is not looking like an easy month in the Premier League. I think this will tell us a lot about our aspirations for the season.

[Jtomsett11]

Commercial revenues

We're no longer last on this list, but we have a long, long way to go until we're in the big league of income.

[Jtomsett11]

October 2040

What a month!

I said we would know a lot about our aspirations for this season in the league after this month and we met every challenge that came our way. We annihilated Tottenham despite them creating more chances than us. Schutt scored twice in a brilliant month for our now crucial AMC. He also set up Morais for his first goal of the season while the ever-reliable Bah also scored. Bah also sealed the Arsenal result with a penalty, with Schutt scoring a cracker to open the scoring. We were 3 up against City before 2 late goals for them. This time Bah and Lopez got the goals with another own goal from a Lopez cross. 

We were also excellent in Europe. The 8-0 against Shkendija was our biggest ever win. A hat-trick for Gonzalez and two goals each for Scott and Kizito (!!) and Dempsey picking up the final goal sealed that win. AEK are the only real competition in the group, but two goals each from Palmer and Scott (again) got us over the line. That's 17 goals in 3 games in the Europa Conference League. 

In the Carabao Cup Guyot scored a hat-trick and Gonzalez got another goal. 

The number of goals we've scored this season is pretty incredible. 57 goals split between 12 players. 

We're going to need to rely on all of goalscorers, because our most reliable with 9 in 9 starts in the Premier League is now out for 4 weeks. Gonzalez, it's your time to shine in the league!

It's early days, but if we can cope with the Bah injury this season could be our best yet!

Meanwhile, we're pretty much through in Europe.

Up next, our biggest game so far, United away.

We'll also face Chelsea in the Carabao Cup in our hardest task to date.

The only downside this month apart from the Bah injury is the financial side of things. We probably need Champions League football to keep up with our wages now!

 

[Punch]

Thats an awesome month

[Jtomsett11]

November 2040

An interesting month where we only score 3 goals in the league, but one of them gives us an incredible win against United and the other seals a nervy win via a Cortes penalty against Millwall. We've probably missed Bah. Lopez scored a brilliant goal assisted superbly by Gonzalez against United to be fair and then followed that up with a goal against Burnley, but we probably should have won that game. Bah is now back, and we've consolidated our position at the top of the league. If you can win when you're not that convincing, you're doing a good job!

My aim for this season is still European football. To guarantee that, I want top 6, so we're 6 points clear of that mark. Let's just keep going and see how we do! It's a really busy month so we're going to have to use our full squad. I feel this may be where we struggle as Herrero and Morillas have already required some rest. If we come out of this month in the top four I'll be delighted!

At least the European game we can throw in some U23s and U18s as we're top and through to the Second Knockout Round.

Squad development

We've dropped down this list, but we've improved the quality of our squad as well so 12 players isn't too bad. 

Johnston has been playing regularly for Atletico but has dropped to 3.5 star potential. That's still good enough to be worth £40 million plus if he meets his potential. He is unambitious so this is going to be a difficult job. Kizito has dropped to 3 star potential; I'm hoping he ends up at 3.5 star potential when he turns 22 next year as again he'd be our best CB if he met that potential. 

[Sonic Youth]

Some fantastic results in this storming start to the season. Bah is such a good player for you 

Europe form is excellent too, pretty much through.

I think your goals for this season are reasonable, though it looks like top four is what they could be tightened up to at a minimum. Topping the table is very good to see too 

[Jtomsett11]

3 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Some fantastic results in this storming start to the season. Bah is such a good player for you 

Europe form is excellent too, pretty much through.

I think your goals for this season are reasonable, though it looks like top four is what they could be tightened up to at a minimum. Topping the table is very good to see too 

Yeah, he consistently outperforms his attributes as he's not particularly amazing at anything, but is an overall well-rounded striker. I think depending on December we'll either be aiming for just Europe, Champions League or potentially even the title if we won all our games (which would be ridiculous!). We've really clicked this season. I do think a large part of that is the spine of the team with Bazan coming in at CB allowing Morais to start at BWM and we've obviously strengthened CAM too. A very exciting start to the season!

[Jtomsett11]

December 2040

I don't quite know what to say! I knew we'd recruited well this summer, but I didn't know how well we'd recruited. What's clear to see is that our squad can deal with fixture congestion and we are almost watertight at the back, which allows us to win game after game after game. I'm still expecting a dip at some point, but we've put ourselves in such a good position.

The Chelsea and Wolves games were extremely tight affairs, with just a Bah penalty and Lopez wonder goal to separate the sides on both occasions. From then on we were more comfortable, and although I kept expecting a loss in the league we managed our away games against Leeds and Newcastle really well. If Bah doesn't score, then Guyot, Lopez or Schutt will almost inevitably get the goals needed.

The one disappointment this month is the loss to Chelsea in the cup, but to be honest it saves us two fixtures in January and I'd rather focus on the league now. We won't play in Europe until March, and we face Liverpool away in the FA Cup so I'll probably play the reserves there if we've won our first couple of league games in January, leaving us to focus on the league until we're 30 games into the season and have just faced Man Utd at home on the 2nd March.

Let's take a look at the league table. It makes beautiful viewing.

We've got a 5 point gap to United now despite them winning 5 in a row and if we continue on our points trajectory we'd end up on 96 points and surely league champions? It's a long way to go though! More importantly, we're 14 points clear of 5th spot, so bar an absolute disaster Champions League football is very likely next season.

Funnily enough, I've been rewarded with my most lucrative contract yet.

 

Speaking of contracts, no fewer than 3 clubs have now sacked their managers directly after losing to us, with West Ham the latest.

January

We've got some tough fixtures here as we start the year with 5 away games in a row including the cup. Everton and Villa are still doing really well, so they'll be hard to beat. I'm using our home tactic away now after our 2 away defeats where we were tepid at best and it's working, so I'll stick to this unless we play the big teams away. 

 

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake preview 2041

I must have missed the article, but perhaps they just didn't send it as it's downright awful...

[Sonic Youth]

Merry Christmas to you 

I also think you won the better of the two Chelsea fixtures in December 

Nice contract 

I guess we will have to see how good the intake is when it drops.

If this form of Jersey keeps up, you’ll end up going on a run as Man City and Liverpool have done in the last few seasons.

Looking forward to a good start to the new year 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Sonic Youth
Contract Drops

[Jtomsett11]

On 25/04/2022 at 05:24, Sonic Youth said:

Merry Christmas to you 

I also think you won the better of the two Chelsea fixtures in December 

Nice contract 

I guess we will have to see how good the intake is when it drops.

If this form of Jersey keeps up, you’ll end up going on a run as Man City and Liverpool have done in the last few seasons.

Looking forward to a good start to the new year 

Thank you! Let's see, January is another big month (I know I said the same about December!) I'm definitely happy we won the league tie and not the league cup one!

[Jtomsett11]

Mid-season analysis Dec 2040

Goalkeepers

It's noticeable that both of keepers have ratings over 7 this year and have also kept a significant number of clean sheets between them: 22 games out of 32 in fact. Kubiszyn has the most clean sheets in the league so I'm glad I didn't replace him in the summer!

Centre backs

A fairly good spread of minutes here, but that's due to our 8 pretty easy European ties. Our tackle win ratios are pretty solid, but I'm still a little perplexed by the number of headers we lose yet we concede very few goals. I can only surmise that our style of football means a lot of these headers are in the middle of the pitch and not causing us too much damage. Bazan has done really well in his debut season and hasn't looked out of place at all. 

Full backs

All 7+ ratings here! Herrero is the interception king in the Premier League, but those figures from Pelling are ridiculous. He has obviously played in the European games so receives a boost from that, but it's aided his development nicely. Massaccessi got 4 assists in one game, but is largely unhappy with my decision to start Fontana in the league. 

Central midfield

In terms of ball-winning midfielders, I believe the reinstating of Morais into this role has made all the difference this season. His tackling and ability in the air, coupled with his ability to contribute with key passes and the odd goal or assist sets him apart from Parreiral who has played in the easier games for the most part. He's still a pretty capable option! Cortes got the nod for DLP this season, but Dempsey has done well recently, although again he has played in the easier games. Much better numbers for my DLPs this season, but they're still the worst performing in my tactic (the same with every time I've ever used a DLP in a 2 man midfield).

Attacking mid/ wingers

Some excellent average ratings and contributions here. The biggest contributers are Guyot, Schutt and Lopez. 17, 19 and 14 goal contributions respectively and that's mostly against Premier League sides. Schutt has been a revelation since signing; he wins the ball back, makes a high number of key passes, sets up goals and crucially scores them. What a signing he's been! Behind them Scott has been a superb backup at RW and LW when Dilrosun has been injured, while the Dutchman and Palmer haven't been too bad themselves as backup LW and AMC. Dilrosun has asked to leave which is a shame as he's not happy not playing in the Premier League .

Forwards

While they have the same number of goals, Gonzalez only has 1 in the Premier League, although 4 of his 8 starts have been at AMC and he has contributed 2 brilliant, match-winning assists. Bah is the standout player yet again with 17 goals in 20 games and the majority of those in the Premier League. Gonzalez has been excellent in the cups and to be honest I'm pretty pleased with his signing even if he's been unable to displace Bah. 

Summary

Whatever happens from here, we've had such a good start to the season and I couldn't have asked for more from our players. 17 wins out of 20 in the league and no real poor performers. Schutt has been a revelation and the signing of Bazan has freed up Morais which I think has been a crucial part of our success.

[Jtomsett11]

January 2041

It honestly feels as though I've activated cheat-mode somehow! We're pretty much unstoppable in the league at the moment. Those 4 away games I was absolutely sure would cause us problems, but bar the Brighton game we've been deserved winners in each game.

We've had to overcome some injury and fatigue problems to get through this month.

This was after the Liverpool game and we were down to 1 central midfielder and just one right and one left winger. I tried to 'throw' the Liverpool game, but we ended up with Scott injured and several players fatigued from the extra time. Bah then picked up an injury 3 days later in training so we would face Everton, Villa, Liverpool and West Brom with Gonzalez up front. To be fair to him, he had played really well and scored against Liverpool in the cup, but he still had just 1 league goal to his name.

The Everton game was tough, but Schutt scored a free-kick and then pounced on a rebound to seal a 2-0 victory.

Gonzalez then got in on the act against Villa.

And we beat Liverpool and West Brom pretty comfortably to win our 14th game in a row. Gonzalez scored the first against Liverpool to set us on our way and fulfull his duty as stand-in striker.

So where does our excellent form leave us? We're obviously still top and now have an 11 point advantage at the top after United dropped a few points. 

Next up, a shorter month but 3 key games. I've shown the first game of March as these 4 games, for me, will decide our title push. If we still had an 11 point or greater gap after these 4 games I'd be seriously confident of winning the league. 

 

[Punch]

The engraver is already trying to figure out if he can fit Jersey Bulls on the trophy

[Sonic Youth]

Holy bananas! That’s a great start to the year. Definitely won the right Liverpool match, entertaining the TV audience at the same time. I bet they didn’t expect that result when tuning in to watch 

Time to have fun in February 

[Jtomsett11]

9 hours ago, Punch said:

The engraver is already trying to figure out if he can fit Jersey Bulls on the trophy

Maybe a little early for that!!

9 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Holy bananas! That’s a great start to the year. Definitely won the right Liverpool match, entertaining the TV audience at the same time. I bet they didn’t expect that result when tuning in to watch 

Time to have fun in February 

February has been less fun! 

[Jtomsett11]

February 2041

Our winning run is over, as is our unbeaten run. However, I do feel we've been hard done-by here. Spurs scored a penalty (without which their xG was very low) and we conceded an own goal against Arsenal in a game which we dominated. 2 points probably should have been at least 4. The City game we can't complain about.

So this is a hiccup, but an expected one. We're 6 points clear of United who are in pretty good form. We face them at home next and I really feel that this game could go a long way to deciding the title winner. We've probably already sealed a Champions League place which I'm delighted with, but we want the title now!!

We didn't lose money this month for the first time in a while.

So, United next and then Millwall and Burnley either side of the Conference League Second Knockout Round. I want to win all 5 games. 

[Jtomsett11]

March 2041

We're only half way through the month (17th), but the games are over ahead of the international break and youth intake. 

Ahead of the United game, Bazan got injured in training and he's out for the rest of the season. During the United game, Scott picked up a 4 week injury and Herrero picked up a niggle. We're really down to the bare bones here.

With Bazan out, I opted to use Morais at CB and Parreiral at BWM, but I think it was the wrong decision.

We probably should have got something from the game, but small margins decide these kind of things and we've not been putting away our chances recently.

I opted to drop our mentality to balanced and remove 'work ball into the box' to vary things up slightly for the rest of the month and I think it's made a difference.

Gonzalez got 3 against Borussia and the first against Millwall which is great as Bah hasn't been brilliant recently. In even better news, United dropped 2 points against Wolves to leave us 5 points ahead with 6 games to go.

United could end on 90 points, so we need 91 to definitely win the league. That's 14 points from 18 games, or 4 wins and 2 draws, or 5 wins.

It's not going to be easy, but I also think that this is manageable. The 3 home games should be wins, meaning we probably need a win away against somebody as it's unlikely United will win all 6.

This is United's run in.

Everton and Tottenham is probably where they are most likely to drop 2 points. 

In the Europa Conference League, our quarter final draw is pretty tough, but if we can get through to the final we should be favourites. I'd love to win this trophy as it's probably unlikely we'll be competing in it again.

So, a disappointing result against United, but 2 wins in the league to get us back on track and progress in Europe!

[Sonic Youth]

Looking good 

February’s out of the way with March better. It’s now a case of keeping it all together! Lots of tape I’d imagine 

[Jtomsett11]

Youth intake 2041

Yeah, this isn't great. Not only do most of these have very little potential, they also lack ability too. On the more interesting side, we have 2 goalkeepers for the first time in forever in an intake... I'm clutching at straws. I'll sign some of them for numbers.

Attribute wise they're not too bad, but BWM and DLP are the easiest to score highly on due to some of the mentals requiring very little/ no CA. 

If this continues, it's going to get a lot harder to keep the youth element going. I kind of wish I had the editor just to look under the hood and look at their CA and PA, but I disabled it on the game for exactly that reason, to prevent me looking as otherwise it's tempting to look for signings as well.

[Jtomsett11]

Poached youth

Despite our awful intakes, other teams seem to love our youth players at the moment. Brooking makes it 13 players poached, although none of them have really gone on to do much yet.

 

[Jtomsett11]

Champions league without kicking a ball

Due to other results over FA Cup quarter final weekend (we didn't play in the league and we're out of the cup), we're guaranteed a top-three finish! Regardless of whether we go on to clinch the title or not this represents excellent progress.

[Punch]

5 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Champions league without kicking a ball

Due to other results over FA Cup quarter final weekend (we didn't play in the league and we're out of the cup), we're guaranteed a top-three finish! Regardless of whether we go on to clinch the title or not this represents excellent progress.

Thats awesome

[Sonic Youth]

From one news item to another there!

That youth intake…no words. I guess time will tell. Thou, is it worth investigating HoYD and coaching staff involved?

As punch said about top 3 and UCL qualification  

[MWFC_3]

We're going to put over ourselves with champagne if we win the Prem!

[Jtomsett11]

10 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

From one news item to another there!

That youth intake…no words. I guess time will tell. Thou, is it worth investigating HoYD and coaching staff involved?

As punch said about top 3 and UCL qualification  

I'm going to give the HoYD another year, his attributes are incredible so he should be good!

[Jtomsett11]

April 2041 Part 1

The Chelsea game is a huge one in my opinion as it's by far our most difficult game. With quite a big gap from our last game our squad is mostly at full strength bar Dilrosun and Bazan, the former picking up yet another injury. I'd take a point here.

We hit them with 3 rapid counter-attacking goals and largely kept them to shots from range. A superb victory with United also winning, keeping the gap at 5 points.

We then rotated slightly to play Sporting.

Gonzalez scored a brilliant solo goal, and Palmer also impressed, but to concede 2 goals is disappointing as we're going to need an excellent away performance now as the away goals rule is still in play. 

Next up Wolves, with United away at 7th placed Newcastle.

 

[Jtomsett11]

April 2041 Part 2

I wanted 4 points from these next two games, knowing with two home games to finish that would probably see us over the line.

We dispatched Wolves, but that Lopez injury may be costly as he's out for the rest of the season.

We get the 4 points I wanted. United win against Stoke to close the gap to 5 points.

In Europe, things did not go to plan 

Over the two legs we should have beaten them, but we go out on away goals in the Quarter finals of the Europa Conference League in our European debut.

Just three games left.

United play first before our Sunday game against West Ham, so we could go into that game just 2 points ahead. Squeaky bum time!!

 

[Jtomsett11]

May 2041 Part 1

United played and won, so we went to West Ham 2 points ahead of them and 1 goal ahead of goal difference. Our wingers, including stand-in Gonzalez scored the goals for us in a 2-1 win.

5 points clear with 2 games to go!

 

[Punch]

Still a better love story than Twilight 

[Sonic Youth]

That’s unfortunate against Sporting Club de Portugal.

The league though is amazing 

Got to say Lopez is probably my favourite of your players, and with Lopez being out  

Two home games is ace, winning it in Jersey 

[Sonic Youth]

7 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

I'm going to give the HoYD another year, his attributes are incredible so he should be good!

If his stats, tactical approach and personality are fine, could the other youth coaches be the reason? That, or the bar is raised higher because of your recent transfer windows purchases.

[Jtomsett11]

2 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

If his stats, tactical approach and personality are fine, could the other youth coaches be the reason? That, or the bar is raised higher because of your recent transfer windows purchases.

When I'm on the game later I'll post him and the other youth staff,  I've gone to great lengths to make them pretty good. I think the bar has been raised absolutely and our reputation is still quite low so we miss out on English regens to about 15 other sides still. I'm hoping if we win the league that'll hand us a boost! 

[Sonic Youth]

54 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

When I'm on the game later I'll post him and the other youth staff,  I've gone to great lengths to make them pretty good. I think the bar has been raised absolutely and our reputation is still quite low so we miss out on English regens to about 15 other sides still. I'm hoping if we win the league that'll hand us a boost! 

I guess if you’ve got decent youth coaches, then it’s waiting to see what the next intakes are like before considering changes. This season is definitely going to boost your reputation, especially with ECL coming next season.

Oh that reminds me, do you think you’ve got enough depth for next season?

[Jtomsett11]

May 2041 Part 2

We've done it!

Jersey Bulls are Premier League Champions 2040/41.

Before the Leeds game, Bah rallied the troops and then duly delivered a sensational performance.

4 goals took him to 24 league goals for the season and sealed the league win. He was absolutely clinical, but his third was a superb chip from the edge of the area. Just sensational! We then rotated for the final game of the season, giving some of our younger players a chance, with Bah scoring the only goal of the game for his 25th of the season.

The final table looks like this. 93 points is an incredible total as we win the league by 7 points in the end. To only drop points in 8 games in our third season in the Premier League since promotion is unbelievable. Our 14 game winning streak in the first half of the season is the main reason for our title win as the 11 point advantage over Man United at the end of January and they never recovered from it despite beating us. Everton, Aston Villa and Newcastle all qualify for Europe as Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all miss out.

[Jtomsett11]

13 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

I guess if you’ve got decent youth coaches, then it’s waiting to see what the next intakes are like before considering changes. This season is definitely going to boost your reputation, especially with ECL coming next season.

Oh that reminds me, do you think you’ve got enough depth for next season?

I just thought I'd show the youth team.

In terms of training, we've got a good base of trainers.

Our HoYD is also very strong.

And we don't have any really negative personalities.

So the biggest negative influence currently is probably our reputation. 

That's 14 English clubs above us who are more likely to get players with higher potential. I'm hopeful we'll be boosted to 4.5 stars which would at least see us in the top 10. 

In terms of depth, there's some players who want to leave and others who probably won't be a good option for Champions League games so we'll take a good look when we analyse the attribute growth.