[FM23] Out of Africa. (Spanish out of Morocco to be precise). We will start with Ceuta, but if things go badly I might end up at Melila.

[Jimbokav1971]

Loans. Mar 2039. 

We've got a total of 40 players out on loan at the moment, and because I never feel like doing it at the end of the season, I thought I would do a little review of some of them now. 

Sakanoko (CIV) has scored the most goals of our players out on loan, (19 from 32(1) appearances), but I'm not really sure where or how he fits into our team. He's not a clinical striker, but he's not an athletic wide striker either. He's probably more suited to playing in central midfield, but I don't think he has the physicality to play in a 2 in the middle of the pitch. The real surprise though is his valuation. We signed him for just £215,000 when we met his min fee release clause and he's now already valued at . My initial reaction is that we should just cash in on him as soon as possible, but then I see that he's only a 2.0 CA player now and still has 5.0 PA. I think we could have stumbled upon a star!

(37a) Niño is a product of our Academy, and after the recent AFCON issues I have to take that into special consideration, (the fact that they're not African). He's another 5.0 PA player and looks to be developing nicely. I was unsure as to the sense in sending a 17 year old out on loan, but it seems to have worked out well. 

Souprayen (FRA)(REU) is someone who looks more suited to playing for our 1st team, but surprisingly he's nowhere near the valuation of the above players, despite the fact that he actually appears better in the here and now. Maybe that hits of high PA of the previous players, or just low PA here. 

Boli (CIV) is a 2nd Ivorian on the list and another who we signed when we met a min fee release clause. As well as his valuation soaring to , he also seems pretty suitable for playing one of our wide striker positions. I like the look of him. 

Ouédraogo (CIV)(BFA) 5'11" is our 3rd Ivorian and the 3rd player who we signed on a min fee release clause. I seem to have stumbled upon a goldmine in the Ivory Coast and maybe my time spent managing their U20's was not a complete waste of time. 

Kouadio (CIV) makes it a 4th Ivorian and yes you guessed it. A 4th player who was signed simply as a result of a really low min fee release clause. 

I wonder if there are any more Ivorians.....

Sakanoko (CIV) makes it 5 Ivorians, but his valuation isn't up with the other 4, but then again, neither is his PA, so maybe that's right. 

Now I'm off to scout Ivory Coast again.  

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2039. 

LaLiga. We finally lost after our unbeaten run, but bounced back to take 7 points from 12 over the month. We had 26 players unavailable for the Las palmas game, but still managed to get the 3 points, and 3 days later we had 47 player on International duty, (although many of these would have been aged group teams). Other than not playing in Europe and getting beat early in the Cup, I'm not sure why we have played more games than the other teams around us. I wonder if I had the opportunity to postpone the Las Palmas game but missed it because I wasn't paying attention or something. Barca & Atletico are only 1 and 4 points ahead of us respectively, but also have 3 and 2 games in hand on us, (again respectively). If we start to look down rather than up, (and I most certainly am), Real Madrid are just 1 point behind us but have 2 games in hand, with both Hispalis and Sevilla 3 points back, each with 2 games in hand. The really good news is that Espanyol are e further 8 points back, (and don't have any games in hand), and the 1st team outside the European spots, (Bilbao in 8th), are also miles off it a further 12 points adrift of Espanyol, again, with no games in hand. With a 23 point gap between ourselves and Bulbao in 8th, (and only 8 games and 24 points remaining), I think it's safe to say that we have already qualified for Europe next season, and all that remains is to decide which competition we will be playing in. 

Facilities. This Youth Recruitment improvement is enormous and fingers crossed it will take us all the way to L20. (last season you could only get to L19), and with a Youth Facilities improvement in the pipeline for the Summer, things are really starting to take shape. We've already produced 6 good Academy products who we have sold on, and there are plenty more still at the club. It will be interesting to see what we can produce after these lates 2 upgrades kick in. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances.  

I'm aware that we have a £25M(£100M) deal for a new GK due at the end of the season, so I really want to sell some players this Summer to try and set us up for the future. (Those Ivorians in particular spring to mind).

[Jimbokav1971]

NxGn 2039. 

Only 2 players on the list this year, (both Ivorians), and both also 18 so eligible for the list next season. 

#22 Ouédraogo (CIV)(BFA) 5'11" is playing in the German 2nd tier. He's only 5'11", but as we play 3 at the back rather than a 2 I'm more likely to be accepting of a shorter c entre-half who can play a little more football. If I can get his jumping up a couple of points he could actually start for us. 

#36 Kouadio (CIV) is playing in the Portugese top tier at Vizela. He looks decent, (particully as a playmaker), but has work to do physically. 

There are other Africans on the list though, and remember that I'm particularly keen to sign players who have an African 2nd Nationality so won't be playing in the AFCON. 

#2 Rocha (CPV)(POR) 5'10" * is another short centre-half, but he looks amazing if you just squint and ignore the 5'10" height and 8 jumping. 

#4 Ilunga (BEL)(COD) 6'1" is just the sort of player I'm looking for. He has been capped by (BEL) so that avoids the AFCON issues, and he's a centre-back who can play a bit. The only problem was that I couldn't afford him before and this season he moved to Club Brugge and it's going to take an awful lot of money to prise him away. I really want him though. He's high on my list of taregts. 

#9 Doumbia (FRA)(CIV) 6'1" * was a player I looked at earlier this season when desperately searching for a GK, but I just couldn't get a deal done. It would have bankrupted us had I agreed. I was considering selling players and coming back in the Summer though. 

#16  Adams (ENG)(GHA) looks a very tidy player, but as he's still uncapped by England and available for Ghana, I wouldn't be willing to splash big cash on him and then lose him for AFCON periods. 

#32 Tavares (POR)(GNB) looks a really tidy player and I really like him, but again he's not been capped by Portugal and I'm reluctant to throw big money at him in case (GNB) manage to persuade him to play for them. If I'm going to spend the big bucks I want them around at AFCON time. 

#39 Mahrous (EGY) is another dreaded Egyptian, (who would need to be registered as 1 of our 3 FGN players). He's a hell of a player though and if I could free up a spot then I would be straight in for him. 

#41 Kabongo (BEL)(COD) 6'4" is really interesting actually, because although I have 3 different scout reports on him, (so he's obviously been on my radar in some form), He didn't have a nickname which meant that I hadn't seriously looked at him yet, (because if I had then he would have been given a nickname). I'm really surprised actually, if for no other reason than his surname is Kabongo, which is the forename of ex Boring Wood & Chesterfield striker Kabongo Tshimanga, who yesterday signed for Peterborough in real life. How did I not see his name until now? I think it's because he only has 3.5 PA according to our scouts, but I think I will have to have another look because 3.5 PA doesn't usually get you on this list unless you're really strong in that position, (and we're not). 1 possible explanation is that he was in Belgium rather than Africa. 

 

There are loads of things that I'm enjoying about this save, but 1 thing in particular that I've noticed is that it seems to be less clogged up with Brazilian wonderkids than your average save. I've got nothing against Brazilian wonderkids obviously, but when they are ten-a-penny it becomes a bit boring. Because of the way I've set my game World up, (nothing too mysterious, just simply adding Nations where I hoped to generate Africans or 2nd generation Africans), there seems to be less Brazilians knocking about I really like it. 

Have a look at where these 50 Wonderkids come from. 

Western Europe.
France.
Spain.
France(2).
Spain(2).
Spain(3).
France(3)/England.
Portugal/Guinea-Bissau.
Portugal(2).
UK & Ireland. 
Scotland.
England.
England(2).
England(3).
Scotland(2).
Ireland.
Central Europe. 
Belgium/DR Congo.
Germany.
Germany(2).
Germany(3).
Belgium(2).
Eastern Europe.
Czech
Romania/Germany.
Czech(2).
North Eastern Europe. 
Ukraine.
South Europe.
Croatia
Italy.
Italy(2).
Italy(3).
Albania.
Central Europe.
Poland/England.
Slovakia.
Northern Europe.
Denmark.
Norway.
Norway(2).
Denmark(2).
Denmark(3).
Iceland.
South America (North). 
Colombia.
Peru.
South America (South).
Brazil.
Uruguay.
Brazil(2).
Brazil.
Argentina.
North America.
Mexico.
Mexico(2).
Mexico(3).
Western Africa.
Cape Verde/Portugal.
Ivory Coast/Burkina Faso.
Ivory Coast(2).
North Africa. 
Egypt.

I personally thinks it makes for a much more balanced game, (or more accurately I suppose it's now more skewed in the way I want it to be skewed). 

[Thebaker]

Sakanoko would be great for freekicks i reckon but no good for you.

Adams is english and is unlikely to consider Ghana until at least his mid 20's, they usually don't, if you play him and he is good he could be capped by england!

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, Thebaker said:

Sakanoko would be great for freekicks i reckon but no good for you.

Adams is english and is unlikely to consider Ghana until at least his mid 20's, they usually don't, if you play him and he is good he could be capped by england!

You have just really confused me.  You mentioned Sakanako and free-kicks so I initially looked at Sakanoko 1 and couldn't understand your thinking to such an extent that I kept looking for someone else and every time I came to Sakanoko 2 I ignored him because I thought I was looking at Sakanoko 1. I absolutely promise you that I didn't realise we had 2 different Sakonoko's until right now and as if that wasn't confusing enough they are both 19 years old and both out on loan.  (Thank God they're not the same height). 

Both these players were just signed because they had good PA and a really low min fee release clause, so there was no huge research for me and no desire ton actually sign them based on attributes or anything particular I had seen. 

I have just renamed them Sakanoko 1 (CIV) and Sakanoko 2 (CIV). 

They are not related, have different DOB's and different places of birth. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day. Apr 2039. 

Preview. 

Summary. 

Squad by PA.

Players. 

I recently had cause to go back and review some of the results in my Experiments thread, (after a question from @Gorgonita), and I have just run a little test on this particular intake. I ran 9 subsequent versions of the same initial intake and then I looked at the CA/PA using the IGE, (but kept my original intake hidden. 

I don't know the info from the 1st version of the intake that I will be using in this save, but I have the CA/PA for the subsequent 9 versions of the intake and they are shown here. 

(39a) Fornals had an average PA of 123 and an average starting CA of 69. He has a slack personality though so will be tough to get there. 
(39b) Agné 6'4" had an average PA of 122 and an average starting CA of 56. He's Driven but has a lot of ground to make up from a low starting point. 
(39c) Franco (ESP)(BAS) 6'4" had an average PA of 132 and an average starting CA of 72. 
(39d) Vázquez had an average PA of 128 and an average starting CA 72. 
(39g) Esquerdo had an average PA of 123 and an average starting CA of 51. That's a really low starting point. 
(39h) Poves had an average PA of 113 and an average starting CA of 47. That's a really low starting point. 
(39l) Figueiras had an average PA of 119 and an average starting CA of 59. That's a really low starting point. 

There's absolutely no guarantee that these averages are worth anything, but it beats looking at the actual CA/PA and I didn't want anyone reading this to not be aware that I had this info. It really doesn't make much difference unless I keep coming back and referring to these numbers, and the truth is I'm just too lazy to do that. 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

January Transfer Window. Feb 2039. 

In. 

I'm only really signing players who have a low release clause at the moment and who I feel I can either make money on or who might be able to do us a job while other players are away on International duty at the AFCON. Not just this season, but also next season too. 

Amade (MOZ)(RSA) was signed for just £400,000 and is already worth . I'm not even thinking about whether he's any good or not. He will just be sold for a profit, but I have to factor in that his wages are £600,000 per year and this will obviously come out of any profit we make. A lot of people ignore the cost of wages when thinking about transfer profit, but I think it needs to be factored in, (together with any signing on fees). 

Kouadio (CIV) is another Ivorian, signed for a bargain £235,000 and already worth . Going out on loan to a big Tier 1 league has a huge impact on valuation. 

Musa (ENG)(NGA) was signed to get us through Jan & Feb. Not much room for development and in any case he's 27, but he's already made 2(3) appearances and I'm not sure we would have done as well without him. I will try to loan him out next season and then sell him for whatever we can get. 

Taddese (GER)(ETH) was signed partly because he had a low min fee release clause, but also because he's (GER) 1st and (ETH) 2nd. He's never even been capped by (GER) at aged group level so not much chance of him being called up to the Senior squad. 

Kouakou (CIV)(FRA) becomes the 11th Ivorian at the club. I didn't realise until recently quite how many I had signed, but it seems an absolute gold-mine in terms of low release clauses. 

Gomes (POR)(GNB) came in as a non-African 1st Nationality who would still be around during future AFCON times. He's not amazing, but I like his personality and he's decent if unspectacular. 

Mashego (RSA) was signed for a small fee, but I'm not sure it was a great decision considering the other DR's we have at the club. His wages are £384,000 per year and with the fee of £215,000 on top of that it means that we will have to sell him for upwards of £600,000 to break even and I'm not sure that's very likely. 

Out. 

(35b) Ramos is a good player and only the 5th Academy player we have sold for good money. He was key for us in January, scoring 5 goals when everyone was away at AFCON, but we just have so many strikers that he just wasn't worth keeping and I would have accepted far less than this for him. We have 4 Academy products ahead of him up front, (ignoring African strikers), so this is a great deal for us. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2039. 

LaLiga. The results were a little mixed to say the least, but we're still 10 points ahead of Espanyol in 7th and they are a further 10 points ahead of Las Palmas, so it really is quite a relaxed finish to the season. I rotated the outfield starting X for the Atletico game, (and it backfires in spectacular fashion), but we bounced back with a good draw against Real Madrid. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 2x Fofana goals this month. 

 

 

Finances. 

Edited February 2, 2023 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2039.

LaLiga. We had a player sent off in the 26th min against Barca and still almost got a result. We were then really good against Espanyol, but ended the season with a whimper against Valladolid. We have at least qualified for Europe for the 2nd time. 

Awards. Our top 3 strikers all scored double-figure goals this season, and while 22 goals for Soliman (EGY) sounds impressive, Kelemen (SVK)(ENG) scored 47 LaLiga goals for Atletico.

Facilities. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2039. 

GK's.

1st Team. Fofana (FRA)(CIV) 5'9"
B Team. (36j) Camara (GAM)(ESP) 6'4"
U19's. (37j) Daniel. 5'10", (38h) Morales 5'11", (38l) Paradas 6'1", (39p) Ángel 6'2"
Loan. (36j) Camara (GAM)(ESP) 6'4", (37j) Daniel. 5'10", (38h) Morales 5'11", (38l) Paradas 6'1", (39p) Ángel 6'2"
Sell. 
Release. (35m) Raul. 5'9"

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2039. 

DL.

1st Team. Lakhdar (MAR)(ESP) & Mahua (RSA) 6'0".
B Team. (36n) Vázquez.
U19's. (38c) Giménez, (39m) Sáez., (37f) Santamaría., 
Loan. Coulibaly (MLI)(ESP) *
Sell. Kemayou. (CMR)(ESP)
Release.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2039. 

DR.

1st Team. Ilunga (COD)(BEL) 5'10" & Mebarki (ALG)(FRA).
B Team. (37p) Cañadas.
U19's. (38e) Rey., (37o) Ndiaye. (ESP)(SEN), (39h) Poves, 
Loan. 
Sell. Fayez (EGY) 6'3" DR, Musa. (ENG)(NGA), Mashego. (RSA), (36d) Perez DR, (36f) Paulino., (33f) Tejera.
Release. (35n) Luis., (35o) Tejada.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2039. 

DC. This is still a problem area for me. I want to play Mohamed (EGY) 6'4", but he's the 4th (EGY) player and we can only register 3. We're playing in Europe and with the new system we're guaranteed 8 European games in the group stage, but I don't think that's enough to keep a player in the squad for, (even including Copa del Rey matches), if I'm unable to register them for LaLiga games. 

1st Team.
DLC. BPD(d). Diarra (BFA)(FRA) 6'5" & Gomes (POR)(GNB).
DC. L(a) Tetty (CIV) 5'9" & (33c) Francisco 6'3".
DRC. BPD(d) Gimo (RSA)(MOZ) 6'1" DC & Idris (GER)(NGA) 6'5".
B Team. (36i) Herrera. 6'5"
U19's. (37i) Alemany 5'10", (37k) Jesús 6'6", (39b) Agné 6'4", (39b) Agné 6'4", (38k) González. 5'11", 
Loan. Mohamed (EGY) 6'4", (37k) Jesús 6'6", Ouédraogo (CIV)(BFA) 5'11", Ouattara (CIV)(BFA) 6'0", Mofokeng (RSA) 6'1", 
Sell. (36i) Herrera. 6'5", (39n) Rachade (FRA)(COM) 6'3"
Release. (35j) Johnson. (ESP)(NGA) 6'0", 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2039. 

MC. Dor most of this save we've been playing with 3 central midfielders which allows for different styles of player complementing eachother. The problem with playing just 2 central midfielders is that if you have a player who struggles at anything, it's highlighted a bit more than was the case before, so it's harder to find a role for more defensive minded players who aren't big enough to play centre-half. In the past I've liked partnering a technically gifted playmaker with a destructive defensive player and a more athletic type but using just a 2 now things are more restrictive. 

1st Team. Madidilani (RSA) & Aziz (EGY). Ndlovu (RSA) & Van Vuuren (RSA).
B Team.
U19's. (39l) Figueiras., (38a) Hernando, (38b) Pavas (COL)(ESP0, (38i) Iván, (39c) Franco (ESP)(BAS) 6'4", (37l) Gómez., (38n) Carrillo, (39g) Esquerdo
Loan. Sakanoko 2 (CIV), Kouadio (CIV), El-Akchaoui (MAR)(FRA), Hesham (EGY), Dube (RSA) 5'9", (36b) Jaime (EQG)(ESP), (37b) Manuel, Kouakou (CIV)(FRA), Taddese (GER)(ETH), (37h) Xavi
Sell. Almeida. (CPV)(POR), (35c) Virto. (ESP)(BAS), (36l) Camará. (ESP)(GNB), (36p) Félix.
Release. (35a) Serna, (35f) Tena., (35h) Correia. (ESP)(BRA), 

I've made loads of mistakes in this save, but I think this is a new one for me. 

(35a) Serna is a product of our Academy and I think he had a +1 option on his contract, but Benfica came in for him and I didn't notice, and while I could have triggered the +1 clause at any time and the Benfica deal would have been cancelled, but I didn't notice, didn't trigger the clause and as soon as the deal is agreed I no longer have the ability to trigger the clause. So basically we've lost a good little young midfielder from our Academy for absolutely nothing. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2039. 

SC. I think this is an area in which we're strong, both in terms of CA and PA, and that can be evidenced by the number of goals we scored in LaLiga last season, (89), where we were only outscored by Sevilla, (led by Crespo) and Athletic Madrid, (both 96). I would hazard a guess that player unavailability during AFCON cost us significantly more than the 7 goals we were short at the end of the season. 

That being said, it's an area that does have it's own problems. 21 year old Soliman (EGY) is our main goal-scorer, (61 LaLiga goals in the last 3 seasons), but (1) he's (EGY) and is 1 of only 3 registered FGN players, and (2) he also has a min fee release clause of just £25.5M so I expect him to leave imminently. El Nahhas (EGY)(USA) * is 1st choice on the left of a 3 up front and he made a big impact last season in his 1sr registered season for the club, but he is another (EGY) player who requires 1 of our 3 FGN slots and his min fee release clause is £30.5M. I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave before the start of the season. 

1st Team.
SLC. El Nahhas (EGY)(USA) * & Boli (CIV).
SC. Soliman (EGY) & (32a) David.
SRC. (33d) Pascual (ESP)(BAS) 6'4" & Angoua (CIV).
B Team. (36o) Miranda., 
U19's. (38d) Cisse (ESP)(SEN), (37a) Niño *, (37g) Miguel, (39j) Santos, (39f) Romero, (39a) Fornals, (38g) Muñoz, (38m) Roldán (ESP)(BAS), (37m) Joel, (39e) Jiménez, (39k) Lázaro.(39o) Palao., 
Loan. Sakanoko 1 (CIV), El Sayed (EGY), El Sayed (EGY), Souprayen (FRA)(REU), Zungu (RSA), (33b) Marcos *, (36e) Reyes, Diomandé (CIV), Koffi (CIV), Okafor (ESP)(NGA), Diepkilé (ESP)(MLI), (32b) Intxaurraga (FRA)(BAS), 
Sell.
Release. (35i) De la Fuente., (35g) Turiel., (35e) Peris.,  (35p) Ponce., (35k) Llamas., 

The fact that we had 6 different players who scored double figure goals while out on loan suggests not just that we've got strength in depth up top but also that they are getting a significant amount of game time. The next thing I have to do is ensure that they're playing at a high enough level. 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Jimbokav1971

[Thebaker]

One thing that strikes me from those lists is how few players you have over 23, do you think its affecting the team.

You are less likely to have many players with great mental attributes as it increases with age or outstanding players who are at the top of their PA. Your finances now surely mean you can keep some of the players to reach their potential.

[Jimbokav1971]

Just now, Thebaker said:

One thing that strikes me from those lists is how few players you have over 23, do you think its affecting the team.

You are less likely to have many players with great mental attributes as it increases with age or outstanding players who are at the top of their PA. Your finances now surely mean you can keep some of the players to reach their potential.

That's a very good spot and something that I've been aware of for a couple of seasons at least. It's all well and good me buying young, and buying to sell on, but at some point I have to keep them to benefit from their ability. I think we're starting to get there now and investment in playing time that I've given so many of them have been given. I've had a longer term plan for the last 3 seasons though, so I'm happy that we have some good times ahead. 

As I mentioned at the top of the SC Squad depth post though, because our strikers score so many goals, I expect them to be the target of the big clubs. 

This is our starting front 3 and you will see that while (33d) Pascual (ESP)(BAS) 6'4" has a big min fee release clause of £73M, the other two are at levels that would make them attractive targets for big clubs. The problem is that I don't want to offer them a new contract, (partly because they are from Egypt and need registering as 1 of our 3 foreign players). I expect them both to ho and I'm fine with that. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Rankings. Jul 2039. 

I'm hoping that playing in Europe again this season will give our reputation the boost it needs to pop to Continental. 

[Jimbokav1971]

B Team now (finally) playable. Jul 2039. 

I've been waiting for this for what seems like ages and it's finally happened. Our B Team is now in a playable league. 

I wonder if I had previously ticked "add players to playable teams" when I set up the save, (quite possibly as that's something I often do), but the knock-on effect of that is that the B Team has been promoted with some players, (3 defenders and a GK), to fill out the B Team squad because I didn't have loads in there. All 4 of them are contracted for 12 months so I'm just going to leave them in there and they can leave at the end of the season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2030. 

LaLiga. It's a really good start to the season, but I'm just a little bit concerned that although we won all 3 games scoring 9 goals, we also conceded 5 goals and 2 of our wins were by a single goal margin. El Nahhas (EGY)(USA) * has been sold because Chelsea met his min fee clause of £30.5M and although Soliman (EGY) is still here, 4 clubs have met his £25.5M release clause and with the window closing tomorrow he is deciding where he's going. 

UEFA Europa League Fixtures. These seem like a decent bunch of fixtures, but this whole league stage is just an abomination. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Summer Transfer window. Sep 2039. 

Transfers In at the end of last season. 

Diakité (CIV) is another in a long list of Ivoarians I have signed. I'm basically just signing anyone who has good PA and a low min fee release clause, (although his PA has dropped since the deal was done). At £220,000 though, he's still a bargain. 

Camara (SEN) 6'2" is the GK I was searching for for ages. He scored a direct free-kick on his debut and that'll do for me.  He cost a lot of money, but have a look at his CA and PA stars. He's going to get better. 

Yakubu (ENG)(GHA) * is a great little signing. 1st of all he's English 1st and Ghanaian 2nd, but we also signed him for a bargain price and although he's not 1st choice yet, I don't think it will be long until he is. I really need him to get a Cap for (ENG) though. 

Transfers Out at the end of last season. Nothing hugely significant. 

Transfers In this season. 

Hamdi (EGY) is obviously an Egyptian who needs registering, but I'm not overly concerned about that because we've just sold 2 Egyptians and this guy is being loaned out so I don't see it as a problem either way. He was signed for a low fee and the idea is to sell him on for a profit, possibly even without him playing for us. 

Dladla (RSA) was signed for just £1M and has 5.0 PA. That is all. 

Guèhi (CIV) * is a really interesting signing. Some of you might remember him from my time as (CIV) U20's manager. He was my best player, (aged about 16), and I've been trying to sign him ever since. I must admit that I'm a little bit gutted that his PA has dropped to 4.5 PA after he joined, but there's still room there for improvement. With regards to his fee, I had to work really hard on this deal. Possibly harder than I have ever worked on a deal in FM in my life. 

I don't mind paying good money for him, (because I really wanted him), but I also didn't want to pay the cash up front and possibly never want to pay some of it. I was also adamant that the club weren't getting any type of sell-on clause, and the player also wasn't getting a cut of a future deal. 

• We paid £20M cash up front. That was my limit and I wasn't going over that. 
• We pay £20M over the next 3 years. 
• We pay £5M over his next 50 league appearances. 
• We pay £5M after his 50th league appearance. 
• If he scores 50 goals then we pay them £5M. (He plays in the wide striker position where I see him more as a creator than a finisher).
• If we qualify for the Champions league in the next 4 years, (and he plays 10 league games), then we pay them £10M.
• If we win the Copa del Rey in the next 3 years then we pay them £5M. 

I personally think this is a really good deal for us because he's already valued at  and his min fee clause, (that he set the value of), is . He's signed on a 5 year contract so let's see how he goes. I have designs on managing the senior (CIV) side at some point in the future, and he will be my main man. 

Cherif (FRA)(ALG) 6'5" DC had been on my radar for a while now. I liked him for a few different reasons, but he wasn't interested in joining. As soon as he changed his mind, I was straight in. 

Transfers Out this season. 

El Nahhas (EGY)(USA) * has proved a great little signing for us even if I couldn't register him in the league as soon as I would have liked. He had a really good season for us last year and has also generated £22.5M in profit for us. Him leaving also allows us to register another (EGY) player. Either way, his release clause was met so I didn't have a choice. The one single downer on this deal is that because his min fee clause was met, there are no additional clauses in future. 

Soliman (EGY) might be another (EGY) player, but he is the one I REALLY didn't want to sell. At the same time he wasn't interested in signing a new contract so I knew it was only a matter of time before someone met his min fee release clause and he left. Although it's gutting that we won't get any add-ons for him, the biggest thing about losing him is simply how much we will miss his goals. Gutted. 

We've still got  in the bank, so we're not short of cash, but we don't have much of a budget left now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Egyptians. Sep 2039. 

We might have sold our 2 best Egyptians, but we brought 1 more in and still have 5 at the club, (remember that we can only register 3). 

It's actually worked out really well in hindsight. 

Aziz (EGY) is 1st choice in the middle of the pitch and although his lack of physical ability means that he's probably not really suited to playing in a midfield 2 at an elite level, he's plenty good enough for us right now. Love his technical ability. 

El Nahhas (EGY)(USA) * leaving created an opening in a wide striker slot and  El Sayed (EGY) will slot right in there, (even though he plays on the opposite side so I will have to swap things around a little). His 5.0 PA isn't lost on me and he will start a lot this season and be given huge opportunity for development. 

Mohamed (EGY) 6'4" is another 5.0 PA player and I was desperate to get him registered this season because not only do I think he development could be one of the things that takes us to another level, but also I couldn't even get him loaned out for this season which meant he would have hardly played any games. 

Hesham (EGY) seems a more workmanlike player in the middle of the pitch, but I think there will be times when we need a player like him. It will be interesting to see how he develops back in (EGY) this season. 

Hamdi (EGY) is a recent signing and I'm not sure he's ever likely to make much of an impact on the 1st team, but should generate us some transfer profit. 

I'm not in a rush to bring in any more players from (EGY), but never say never for the right player at the right price. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2039. 

LaLiga. 6 wins from our opening 7 games is great, and we actually put out a 2nd string in tha game we lost against Valladolid. We're just 1 point behind an unbeaten Sevilla side who have been fired to the top of the table by our Academy product (27a) Crespo * who has 13 goals in his 7 league games this season. To put that in perspective, the 2nd top goal-scorer in the league is (33d) Pascual (ESP)(BAS) 6'4" who has 6 goals in 6(1) games. 

UEFA Europa League. I've been playing our 2nd string, (outfield players), in these games. This is all about the experience. Don't get me wrong, the money is good, but our priority is the league. 

Records. Moving in the right direction. Nice. 

Goal-scoring GK's. No goals for Camara (SEN) 6'2" this month, but (36j) Camara (GAM)(ESP) 6'4", (God it's annoying having 2 GK's with the same name), scores 2 goals in the 4th tier, (but they're still professional competitive goals so they count. 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2039. 

LaLiga. Our good form continues and although we're top of the league, things could and probably should be even better. We received a 1st half red card against Mallorca and still should have won, and then the 2nd string played really well against Villareal, only to concede a late equalizer after dominating but being unable to convert more than 1 opportunity. 

UEFA Europa League. The 2nd string were again unlucky against Saint-Etienne, and although they had their chances, we were the better team. Our 2nd string striker are lacking just a little bit of quality though, (especially when you consider that we lost 2 strikers late in the transfer window), so effectively 2 of the 3 strikers playing for the 2nd string were 7th and 8th choice strikers at the beginning of the season and not expected to feature much. When you consider that we've also sent strikers out on loan before that, they are probably even lower down the pecking order than that. 

Records. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Goal50 2039. 

 I'm not sure that we've had an Academy product appear on this list before. What a player he's developing into. We're desperate for another like him.

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2039. 

LaLiga. We're not in great form at the moment and were particularly wasteful against Almeria. I think their GK made 12 saves!  We're 2nd in the league, but I'm not really worrying about where we are at the moment. It's early days and all I care about is playing in Europe next season. I don't care which tournament we play in just so long as we play in Europe. 

UEFA Europa League. Before the Goteborg game, Guèhi (CIV) * came to me complaining about his playing time. He has been pretty decent for the 2nd string and his opposite number in the 1st Team, El Sayed (EGY), hasn't been great, so I agree to give him more opportunities. He responded with a hat-trick + 2 assists and I think he's done enough to warrant more playing time. 

Facilities. I don't think I have been granted any upgrades at all this season, so the fact that I'm unable to even ask for improvements to our Youth Facilities or Youth Recruitment is a little concerning. I know there was a bug, (at least it's called a bug), where the level if Youth Recruitment couldn't go past L19 unless it was already at L20, but personally I don't know if it's a bug or if SI have just introduced a trigger which we are as yet unaware. It could be something similar with regards to Youth Facilities, and maybe the next level isn't available until we pop to Continental reputation or something like that. 

Actually the Youth Facilities were only upgraded in the Summer, so it could just be that there is a longer cooling down period that stops me asking again for a while....

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Awards. Dec 2039. 

(27a) Crespo * isn't our player, but as a product of our Academy he will always be our player. It's staggering that we only got £1.5M for him back in the day. Interestingly he has never appeared on the Goal50 list which lists the 50 best players in the World and he's also struggling to get into the Spanish National Team. He's scored 296 league goals in 398 league appearances and this season will be the 6th time that he has reached 30 goals in a season. Sevilla paying £35M for him must have been the bargain of the century and he is a big part of the reason for their recent success. When we beat them this month they chose to leave him as an unused substitute. 

Souprayen (FRA)(REU) was loaned out to Ligue 2 last season and is now doing well in Ligue 1. He might even be in contention for a place in our squad next season if he continues to develop. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2039. 

LaLiga. It was another good month in LaLiga, but also another month where we could have done better. We failed from the spot to make it 2-0 against Real Hispalis, and then went and conceded a late goal that cost us 2 points. We're 7 points clear at the top, (although we have played 1 more game), after wins against 3 of the top 5 this month. 

UEFA Europa League. Another game we should have won and again it was Camara (SEN) 6'2" missing a penalty.

Copa de Su Majestad el Rey. It's interesting that Camara (SEN) 6'2" scores twice when the pressure is off, but doesn't do well when the pressure is on. I'm dying to look at his hidden attributes but holding off for now. 

Facilities. I've been arguing and arguing and arguing some more with the board after every single request and I think I'm just going to stop for a while. They are a relatively new board and I think I'm just not going to ask them for anything at all between now and the end of the season. Thena t the end of the season I will ask again. 

Youth Intake preview. 

Goal-scoring GK's. What an absolute pig of a month.  I must admit, it's also really annoying having both our GK's called Camara, and we have a central midfielder called Camara and 1 of the players I'm most keen to bring in is called Camara too. It must be the African version of Smith or Jones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2040. 

LaLiga. We've been decimated by injuries, but we still keep battling away and getting results. We need a late Fofana penalty to secure all 3 points against Vallecano and a late Angoua goal for 1 point against San Sebastian. We're 5 points clear of 2nd place Atletico in 2nd and a further 3 points clear of Sevilla in 3rd. I will be astonished if we can keep this form up, (even with no AFCON this year), because at the moment we've lost our 1st choice GK, WBL, WBR & SC and it's been a real struggle without them. 

UEFA Europa League. The top 8 in the league auto-qualify for the next round and then the next 16 playoff for 8 more places, (I think). Either way, we're in a Playoff against Celtic.

Copa de Su Majestad el Rey. I rotated the squad and in backfired in spectacular fashion, (again). 

Goal-scoring GK's. Because Camara2 was injured for much of January so I recalled Fofana from his loan period in Germany, he played 4 games, scored 1 goal and has now gone back to Germany. 

 

Finances. 

[Sonic Youth]

It’s been a top season so far, looking forward to how the last 16 games go 

I think you’re still lacking a bit of quality depth, which shows in Europe and the Cup. We’ll soon see how this shows in the league.

I think you’re also well on your way to having a team of Camara’s  

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

It’s been a top season so far, looking forward to how the last 16 games go 

I think you’re still lacking a bit of quality depth, which shows in Europe and the Cup. We’ll soon see how this shows in the league.

I think you’re also well on your way to having a team of Camara’s  

Yeah, really pleasantly surprised at how it has gone so far. Astonishing in the league considering how poor our squad is in comparison to some of the LaLiga big boys. We've struggled in Europe badly, but everyone is young so it's an investment for the future. We're particularly short in full-back positions. I'm on the look-out for new signings as always, but our transfer budget is down to  now. While we obviously need to sell someone, I'm in no rush to make it happen earlier than it needs to. Someone offered me about £60M for (33d) Pascual (ESP)(BAS) 6'4", but thankfully his min fee clause is £73M.

A team of Camara's. Yeah, wuite possibly the way things are going. 2x GK's with the same name is really annoying. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2040. 

It's shameful that it has taken us until 2039 to trigger this achievement. 

LaLiga. When you consider that we also had 2 Europa League Knockout games to play this month, it was a busy period that's pretty testing for us as we look to rotate the squad to give us an advantage in not only fitness, but the longer-term development of more young players. I'm sure that someone will have done an experiment to calculate the optimum amount of game time needed to develop young players, but I'm personally of the opinion that when you're playing in Europe,l it's completely reasonable to play player for just half a season and still see them develop well. What's tends to be the issue is senior players wanting/expecting to play every game. I don't like this because I find that it fatigues them and makes them more prone to injury, but also, (and this is especially the case with strikers), it makes then enormously valuable to other clubs and makes them far more likely to be the subject of transfer bids. Effectively cutting their game time in half obviously reduces this and helps create a more settled squad. The other reason I do this, (and I have mentioned this before), is that I like building partnerships in different positions, (this helps on and off the pitch), and it's much harder to do this when you are changing individual players here and there. When I swap the back 3 for example, I don't change 1 or 2. I change all 3 of them. That means that I have to groups of players building partnerships with eachother each time they play, rather than 1 group of players constantly being shifted around and any relationships/partnerships disrupted. Of course I occasionally have to do that as a result of injury or suspension, but it's very much the exception rather than the rule. The unfortunate knock-on effect of this is that it was the 2nd string squad who played against Real Madrid and although the game was really tight and could have gone either way, they just edged it in a narrow 1-0 win.
 

Where we're particularly struggling at the moment is full-back and in the striker positions; We don't have an awful lot of anything at full back, (either CA or PA), and up front we're pretty limited in terms of CA, (although there is loads of PA). 

UEFA Europa League. The 2nd string started both these games and if I'm completely honest with you I'm really surprised we got through. In fact we battered them in the 1st leg and had we converted our dominance into goals the tie would have been over there and then, (but 1 of the problems with our 2nd string is that we're not clinical enough in front of goal). 

Goal-scoring GK's. The comparison between our strikers is quite funny actually. Camara (SEN) 6'2" is our 1st choice GK and looks great both in terms of CA and PA and I'm really happy with him, but he couldn't hit a cows arse with a panjo from 12 yards out and has only converted 2/7 penalties at 29% and has actually scored more free-kicks than penalties, (which is something I don't think I have seen before). (36j) Camara (GAM)(ESP) 6'4" on the other hand is absolutely smashing it and has converted 13/14 pens at 92% + 2 free-kicks. That's a phenomenal record. Fofana (FRA)(CIV) 5'9" even came back from loan for a few weeks in Jan and popped up with a goal to bring him to 10/13 penalties at 77% + 2 free-kicks. I have absolutely no idea why Camara (SEN) 6'2" is so poor at pens, but he really is.

 

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day. Mar 2040. 

Preview. 

Summary. 5.0 Preview. 3.0 Intake. 

Squad by PA. I've started adding personalities to player names again because I won't be actively mentoring, I want to track how it changes organically. 

Selected players.

[Jimbokav1971]

NxGn 2040. 

They're the only 2 wonderkids at the club right now, and I will completely honest that their development in Germany has really surprised me. I wasn't sure about sending them to the 2nd Tier, but it's been brilliant for them, helped in no small way by the fact that Werder are a big club with really good facilities and are currently 2nd in the league and looking for a return to the German top flight. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2040. 

LaLiga. An early red card and a late conceded goal left us with nothing against Villarreal. As a result we're 5 points off Sevilla in 1st and only 2 points ahead of Real Hispalis outside the Champions league places. The good news is that we're 16 points clear of our recent vanquishers Villarreal outside the European spots. 

UEFA Europa League. We had to play a mix of 1st and 2nd string in the 1st leg because we had so many injuries and they hardly broke a sweat in beating us. The 2nd leg was simply a formality. Europe was good while it lasted. Maybe we will do better next season. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

Finances. 

[Sonic Youth]

Have Sevilla now found another gear?

Youth intake is one to decide upon in the future, as none posted are straight up exciting. PA’s only really.

Qualifying for Europe (ECL still looks promising) is coming along, and now only need to focus on that in the last eight games.

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, Sonic Youth said:

Have Sevilla now found another gear?

Youth intake is one to decide upon in the future, as none posted are straight up exciting. PA’s only really.

Qualifying for Europe (ECL still looks promising) is coming along, and now only need to focus on that in the last eight games.

Sevilla have just got so much firepower that they are an unstoppable force and I'm afraid as yet we're far from an immovable object. Crespo is on absolute fire for them and has now scored 39 LaLiga goals this season, (with 3 games remaining), and 56 goals in 58(1) appearances in all competitions this season. He's an absolute machine. 

I tend to not pay much attention to the Youth intake anymore. I look at personalities and stuff but the whole thing is just so misleading that it's a waste of time. The only thing I really looked at in particular recently is the personalities, (which I used to do a lot). I want to see quite how much organic change there is going on without be doing any work with it. 

Qualifying for the Champions League is just about a done deal. (You will see after I post the next update). We still have a chance of the title, but if I were a betting man I wouldn't be betting on us. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2040. 

LaLiga. This appears as if we're in great form, (with 5 wins from 6 games), but actually I think we were just a little lucky with the fixtures. We effectively played 2 blocks of fixtures with 3 games in 8 days and then a break of 10 days before 3 more fixtures in 10 days. When this happens it really helps us because of the way we rotate the squad, (where we can), and the fact that all 5 of our wins were by single goal margins suggests to me anyway that it was the squad rotation that gave is the slight edge we needed to get over the line in these games. There's a 7 point gap to Real Madrid in 3rd with 3 games to play, so I'm confident that we will finish at least Runners Up, but the big question is whether or not we can overhaul a 2 point deficit to free-scoring Sevilla. (Basically I need Crespo to get injured if I've got the slightest chance I think). 

Goal-scoring GK's. Considering we're flying high in the league, I would have expected to be awarded more penalties in the league this season, (even if Camara misses them).  He's got more assists than he has scored penalties this season. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Penalties. May 2040. 

Some of you might be aware that I've got a little experiment running in the CSE forum that might be of interest if you want to have a look. 

While it probably raises more questions than it provides answers, I think it does put to bed once and for all any sort of idea that the penalty taking attribute is significantly influential in deciding the outcome of a penalty. 

What does decide the outcome is still very much up for debate and feel free to share your thoughts on the subject if you have any. You don't need evidence. You just need your opinion based on what you have experienced. 

With that in mind, I decided to look at penalties by team for the 1st time rather than penalties by player. 

Barca are at the top, (no surprise), but it's actually only no surprise in real life. It is a bit of a surprise in-game, because they're only 6th in the league, 15 points behind Sevilla at the top. Maybe Barca just play this all-singing all-dancing gung-ho attacking style now that sees them running with the ball a lot and winning lots of penalties as a result? 

Well sort of, (they're averaging 19 dribbles per game), but the stat that jumps out at me here is that Villarreal top the chart for dribbles for game with 22.77, but they aren't even in the European spots. Maybe they are dribbling in the wrong areas or are lacking the ability to put the ball in the net. Oh wow!  Villarreal have comfortably the most dribbles in the league, but haven't been awarded a single penalty in 35 matches this season, (the only club in LaLiga not to get one).  Who is doing their dribbling? Where are they doing it and how are they not converting them into goals/penalties. 

It's not really a surprise that both full-backs are completing a lot of dribbles and I would suspect that they are from deep positions rather than in dangerous advanced positions. The loanee Salminen seems to be doing better than Rios, or should I say that the strikers are converting better from Salminen than they are from Rios. I still think that they're not getting enough penalties though and maybe this is as a result of them happening wide and whatever their delivery style is, (high or low), doesn't suit their targets. Look the crosses completed and attempted over there on the right. 

14/65
26/132
19/91
17/104
Total 76/392 at 19.3%, Is that bad? I don't often look at stuff like this. 

Marcos is 5'9" and has scored 4 goals from 19(17) appearances. 
Comin is 5'9" and has scored 3 goals in 13(17) appearances. 
Gonçalves is 5'10" and has scored 14 goals in 24(9) appearances. 
Elías is 5'11" and has scored 2 goals in 3(4) appearances. 
Marco is 5'6" and has scored 1 goal in 2(6) appearances. 

They look like they are using a WTM on the left, (he's 6'2" and seems to be winning more headers than everyone else. It's all very strange. 

Apologies for going off on that tangent. 

Getting back to us, we're 2nd in the league, scoring goals for fun, are ranked 9th in the league for dribbles, and also 9th in the league for penalties, (so that seems pretty ok). 

Our cross completion is the highest in the league, (4% higher than the next best), so while the answer as to how to win more penalties is probably to cross less from wide positions, that's actually not something that will help us win matches. Of course we cross a lot, (we play with 3 up front and our full backs bomb on), but of course you wouldn't expect our players to top the player rankings because they effectively only play half the games available because of our squad rotation. If we were to ask our full-backs to cross the ball less and recycle possession then this might increase our free-kicks and penalties, but I think the time to look at this is once we have already become regular winners of domestic trophies in Spaid rather than when our last piece of silverware was the the 2026 Primera Federación Grupo I title. 

[Jimbokav1971]

The run-in. May 2040. 

I've just looked at our 3 remaining fixtures. 

We have our last 3 games in 7 days and where as I usually would go strong on the 1st and 3rd games and weak in the middle game, I can't do that here because the middle game is the title decider against Sevilla and we really have to beat them if we're going to win become Champions. 

So that either means that we go weak-strong-weak, or we try and go strong-strong-strong and see if we can get away with it. Because of the way the fixtures fall, 1st and 3rd games away, It's sort of pushing me towards the weak-strong-weak strategy, which is great because whatever the 1st and 3rd games, the only way we have even the slightest chance of beating Sevilla is if our 1st team has a really really good day and Sevilla have a really poor day. 

I personally think we have about a 1% chance of pulling this off, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't give it a go right? 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2040. 

LaLiga. We won our 1st game, (against Atletico Madrid), and Sevilla drew 2-2, (with Read Madrid), so after the 1st of 3 games we were actually top of the table, (because we beat them 2-1 in the league earlier in the season), before they beat us 6-0 on aggregate in Europe). 

Sevilla absolutely smashed us and it's impossible for us to be crowned Champions now because even if Sevilla lose their last game and we win ours, Sevilla will be crowned Champions by virtue of a better head-to-head record. 

Segunda Federación Grupo IV.

Records.

Awards. He might not know how to score from 12 yards out, but Camara (SEN) 6'2" has had a good season. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2040. 

Facilities. We get 2 messages about our Facilities being downgraded because it affects both the 1st Team and the B Team. 

Sabadell are our new feeder. They finished 12th in LaLiga2 this season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

What sort of level do our U19's play at? May 2040. 

This bloke has scored lots of goals for our U19's and it's making me wonder if he is perhaps better than he looks in some way. 

58 goals, 24 assists and 11 MOM awards from 32(2) appearances. 

[Jtomsett11]

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

May 2040. 

LaLiga. We won our 1st game, (against Atletico Madrid), and Sevilla drew 2-2, (with Read Madrid), so after the 1st of 3 games we were actually top of the table, (because we beat them 2-1 in the league earlier in the season), before they beat us 6-0 on aggregate in Europe). 

Sevilla absolutely smashed us and it's impossible for us to be crowned Champions now because even if Sevilla lose their last game and we win ours, Sevilla will be crowned Champions by virtue of a better head-to-head record. 

Segunda Federación Grupo IV.

Records.

Awards. He might not know how to score from 12 yards out, but Camara (SEN) 6'2" has had a good season. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

 

Finances. 

A very impressive season considering your squad! It feels like you're making very good progress but this seasons finish may be hard to maintain? I presume you're still happy just qualifying for Europe or are you now aiming for champions league each season?

[Jimbokav1971]

10 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

A very impressive season considering your squad! It feels like you're making very good progress but this seasons finish may be hard to maintain? I presume you're still happy just qualifying for Europe or are you now aiming for champions league each season?

No, right on 1st count. 

Just qualifying for Europe is the main thing each season. Don't care with competition. It's actually probably more about the games and the reputation than it is the finances, but then again I notice that our bank balance has dropped to just over £20M now so maybe I should take the money more seriously. 

[Jimbokav1971]

African XI of the Year. 

I would love to see a day when our players dominate this, but for the moment we will just have to be satisfied with 2 players. 

Ilunga (COD)(BEL) 5'10" is our 1st choice RWB.

Guèhi (CIV) * is our 1st choice wight sided wide striker. 

Khelifa. (FRA)(ALG) 6'4" used to play for us, but was never really 1st choice. 

El Fakiri (MAR) SC used to play for us, (usually as a wide left-sided striker), but we sold him on for a £17.5M profit

Mabasa (RSA) used to play for us, but we sold him for a £5.5M profit back in 2032/33 when £5.5M was a lot of money. Nowadays £5M is how might I might spend in a bit of a punt on a high PA youngster. 

[Jimbokav1971]

U19's Season. 

I know that I mentioned (38o) Jose in a previous post, but this is far from a one-man show. 

The kids did at least go on to with the Final, (I don't know what else to call it). 

[Thebaker]

Really good season there, so close to winning the league. Not quite had the same success in europe, is it down to the new formats or just not enough experience or depth?

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Thebaker said:

Really good season there, so close to winning the league. Not quite had the same success in europe, is it down to the new formats or just not enough experience or depth?

Yeah, brilliant season considering we lost 2 of our 3 best players in the Summer, (1 on deadline day). 

The 2nd strong just haven't to the same level yet.

The problem, (if there is one), is that we're running short on money so may have to see a few players to keep things moving. 

[Sonic Youth]

Good season, nearly got the league though achieved your European qualification 

It’s good that you got ECL qualification with your bank balance.