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FM23 - Growing Gambia


ToMexico!!
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2 hours ago, himan said:

We are just all watching the Gambian League.

Who wouldn't want to watch us average over nine goals per game in the league? 

I wondered if it was a bug but we've received £3m already so far this season in TV revenue. Last season we apparently received £780 total. Sky must've wrangled their way in but if other teams are receiving similar then that will make the league more competitive in the long run. 

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July 2045

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African Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

Scheduling is such a joke, we reached the ACL Final again winning the first leg 2-1 against ES Sahel. Then we enter the Club World Cup, so the final is pushed back but at the same time we have international call-ups as The Gambia are playing in the AFCoN. We play Man City in the group stage and lose 16-0 having to field nearly an entire team of under 19s. We then play Al-Ittihad and beat them 6-1. The Gambia were knocked out of the AFCoN and all the players returned for the 2nd leg of the ACL Final. A comfortable 2-0 home win for another title. 

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Darboe reaches 700 career goals for the club, he's 28 now so 1000 goals for Banjul Hawks is a real possibility. A quieter season otherwise, with not many goals from beyond the two strikers.

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20 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

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Darboe reaches 700 career goals for the club, he's 28 now so 1000 goals for Banjul Hawks is a real possibility. A quieter season otherwise, with not many goals from beyond the two strikers.

Amazing. 

I think I never saw such numbers.

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2 hours ago, Cheez3y said:

Amazing. 

I think I never saw such numbers.

I had a striker at another African club who scored over 1200 goals in his career for us. 

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Found the Excel page...19 years at the club and scored 1230 goals in that time. He was immense. 

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January / February 2046

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Two players left in January. Prince Itoua was excelling at RB but was our only RB, I knew I was able to keep him and I was happy to allow him to leave due to being a foreigner. £500k plus 40% profit clause to German side Hannover. Nyassi has declared that he would leave at the end of his contract, so when there was some interest in him, I took the £100k + 35% profit clause. That leaves us a little short at RW. 

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South African national Mzwandile Jonas joins to slot into RB, I've previously said how there are far more left-sided players than right-sided in this save which makes finding a decent replacement hard choice.  

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On 09/08/2023 at 20:37, ToMexico!! said:

September 2044

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This is out of the blue...

I seem to remember reading another thread earlier in the game cycle (may have been the YAC) whereby custom created leagues receive huge amounts of TV money after season 20 due to a bug.

Everybody in the league should be receiving these funds, which should give your goals of improving Gambian football a shot in the arm :onmehead:

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1 hour ago, BML said:

Everybody in the league should be receiving these funds, which should give your goals of improving Gambian football a shot in the arm :onmehead:

This is what I hope is happening. The money doesn't too much to me but will benefit other clubs greatly. 

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June 2046

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Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

Signs of how things have progressed in The Gambia when we're playing fellow Gambian side PSV Wellingara in the final of the African Champions League, we hammered them though. No clean sweep in the league, dropping points on one occasion to PSV in a 2-2 draw. Just 141 goals were scored too, our lowest total since 2039/40. Ismaily thumped in the Super Cup and another Gambian Cup title, demolishing the unfortunate Fortune FC 10-0 in the final. 

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Darboe missed around 9/10 games at the start of the season which meant his goals tally was severely affected. Keita smashed in 49 assists having moved him from an Enganche to a Trequartista. 

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June 2047

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Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

A second successive Champions League victory over fellow Gambians, PSV Wellingara. The hard work was done in the first leg, whilst international call-ups left us with the U19's defeating them also in a much closer 2nd leg. 22 from 22 in the league, 158 goals scored felt more like it, still someway short of 170 scored in 2042/43. Straightforward in the Super Cup and Gambian Cup. 

I'm not sure what else there is to achieve in this save now, or what's realistic to achieve. Short term would be Darboe to 1000 career goals for the club; is 200 league goals in a season realistic? We need another 30 in a season, we'd need to average 9.1 goals per game. A season without conceding a goal? The best we've done is one. We could go full Gambian or youth only? Getting more players poached would be an ideal thing to happen but it's been sporadic at best. 

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Darboe had a full season without injury, he was back to his best with 89 goals, 153 away from 1000 now. 

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July 2047

Going forward...

  • No more signing foreign players - we still have four on the books, once they are sold or released they won't be replaced.
  • More emphasis on youth progression, we currently have four academy players who are starters in the first XI with a few more bench players. We will continue to scout and sign Gambian players from abroad. Can we make ourselves a conveyer belt of Gambian talent into Europe and beyond? 
  • Build a bigger affiliate club program, we're struggling to attain them due to the board not allowing us to. We currently only have Highlanders in Zimbabwe. I'll perservere.
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18 minutes ago, BML said:

Are you still getting 11m a year TV money?

I guess PSV got it at least once as well, now they are appearing in CL Finals.

Yeah, it was £12m the season just gone. 

They only spent £110k on new players last season too. So stockpiling some money at the moment. 

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July 2047

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A fantastic AFCoN for The Gambia but they lost on penalties in the final. 

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This is the starting XI from that game, all of them have played for us at some point including Damballeh who we've just loaned to Auxerre for the season. 

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The bench, interesting to see that the Gambian manager opted for a winger up front instead of either of Darboe (88 caps/ 49 goals) or Sarr (39 caps/ 16 goals).

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July 2047

A look at our current youth options...

First Team

  • Saikou Wilson - a teenage right back who was thrust into the first team this season. Physically great, good mentally, needs work technically. 

Reserves

  • Ansumana Barry - a defensive midfielder who has stagnated, I wanted to loan him out last season but there were no takers. Poor acceleration and low determination. 

Under 19s

  • Ousman Mansally - unhappy with me due to not being loaned out, there were no takers. Solid physically, has Double figures in the right places, needs game time. 
  • Foday Sarr - the next striker off the production line, needs game time and to improve a fair bit for a chance in the first team. 
  • Sainey Saidy - a year younger than Sarr but a better-looking prospect. Currently working on his attacking movement. 
  • Ebou Sohna - excited for this guy, an heir to the current-Keita AMC throne. Needs to develop physically, maybe a loan would do the trick. 
  • Edrissa Kanteh - a pressing forward with low physicals. Great aggression, determination, teamwork and work rate for the role. Can finish too. 
  • Kemo Bajo - long-term goalkeeping successor to Omar Darboe. 
  • Boubacarr Baldeh - 15-year-old Italian centre-back who's just come through. Attributes in the right places technically, needs work defensively elsewhere and physicals will grow. 
  • Ismaila Jallow - 15-year-old striker who has also just come through. Poor personality / low determination combo. A quick, workhorse with some finishing ability. 
  • Modou Kanform - another 15-year-old striker; quick and can finish. Needs work elsewhere. 

We've sold a couple of other players who wanted to leave who would have featured more prominently for the first team but you can't tell them that. I will show these in the transfer update. 

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October 2047

A transfer update stretching back to January...

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We sold a few players we didn't want to sell. 

Ebrima Kanform was the first of those sold to Ajax back in January. The 20-year-old striker was due to be promoted to the first team this season for this season, £500k and 45% profit clause. We reached the end of the season and things went a little crazy, we initially sold South African right back Mzwandile Jonas who was ousted from the first team by academy player Saikou Wilson. We got £450k + 50% profit. Auxerre then decided to loan Basirou Dambelleh, not played for us but eight caps for The Gambia, he's played 11 times already for the French side. 

Kabba Juwara then came to me expressing his desire to leave at the end of his contract which ends at the end of 2047/48 season, there was no convincing him otherwise. I put him up for sale and plenty of teams bit but for small fee's, we managed to get an initial £700k rising to £1.1m from Furth for the Icelandic international. Another player came to me, wanting to play for a bigger team, again offered him and Sulayman Jallow was off to Germany for £500k plus 40% profit. 

We were rocked further by Ali Dambelleh, a player we brought back to the club after his poaching by Real Sociedad announced his intentions to leave, understandable due to not getting the opportunities with Darboe and Sarr way ahead of him. Again I offered him and was happy to see Banjul Utd offered £150k for him. We then loaned out some youngsters, Bobb and Jome going to Brikama and 17 year-old goalkeeper Bajo joining PSV Wellingara as a first-choice GK. 

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We signed one player. 

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We spent £375k on Gambian national Sulayman Kunde from Spanish side Compostela, a little overpriced but it was his release clause. The young midfielder will play at CM despite his lack of acceleration, he has good passing ability and a decent spread of mental attributes. 

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June 2048

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Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

A 3rd successive ACL final against PSV Wellingara and our 12th win in the competition, we managed to lose a game in quarters to Sundowns, I thought our run was over, but luckily we smashed them in the home leg to advance. 156 goals scored in the league which was a small decline from last season but we improved defensively, conceding just six goals. 

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A true 100+ goal season from Darboe with 29 assists to boot, he's creeping up on the magical 1000 goals mark for us now, just 51 to go. Doudou Sarr isn't far off 500 goals either, just 40 shy.  He's 26 years old so has a good 6/7 seasons in him, maybe more, he could well reach 1000 goals also. Ebou Sohna had a fantastic debut season in the AMC slot, he must be due a senior international call-up soon. 

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July 2048

A huge talent has come through the ranks at Betis. 

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Adama Gaye looks like the future of Gambian football as long as he chooses Gambia over Spain. 

There are a few other Gambian-born talents abroad who look very good. 

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June 2049

With more emphasis on youth, I'll start showing every intake even if it's rubbish like this one. 

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There's only one player to highlight here and it's Ansumana Jammeh and that's due to his CA rather than his PA, which may improve in time. Interesting to see we get an Irishman through also. 

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I'm not sure what else I can do to improve the intakes, it's all down to youth rating now and luck I guess. 

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July 2049

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Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

After seven games in the league, we'd won 13-1, 18-0, 19-0, 14-0, 17-0, 11-0 and 13-0. We'd scored 105 goals, things then quietened down as we ended the season having scored 190 goals, we conceded nine to set a new record of +181 GD. We even drew a game this season too, WTF! The Super Cup was straightforward, as was the Gambian Cup. 

We reached another Champions League final but this time we were to play Tunisian side ES Sahel. Then came the international call-ups, 34 players gone, including 15 to the AFCoN. We lost the first leg of the final, amazingly just 2-1. Then we needed to enter a squad for the Club World Cup, it was just youth players. We faced and lost to Arsenal in the opening group game, surprisingly lost just 5-0, we then faced Boca Juniors and lost 3-1. Most of the younger players had returned to the squad for the 2nd leg of the AFC, nearly a month after the first leg. We traveled to Tunisia and lost 5-3, a valiant effort under the circumstances. 

A saving grace was how well the Gambian national team were doing at the AFCoN. They topped their group before beating South Africa but eventually lost on penalties to Mali. 

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Nearly a second player to score 100 goals in a season, Sarr fell seven short of the magic number and did miss a couple of games, maybe he could have got there. Darboe is showing no signs of slowing down, 70 goals for him this season at the age of 32. That puts him over the 1000 career goals mark for the club. Maybe we can push for Sarr to reach the fabled number also, he's 27 and has 553 career goals. Sohna had a stellar season at AMC, with 42 goals and 35 assists. 

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November 2049

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We continue to sell players whilst not really bringing anyone in to replace them. Reserve team goalkeeper Sang Janneh leaves for France for a nominal fee but we do have a 30% profit clause if he comes good. We were lucky to receive £400k + 40% profit for Juwara, I didn't envisage him getting game time anytime soon with the two left wing-backs in the first team being so far ahead of him. 

We then lost Lamin Ceesay to Sochaux. The 24-year-old wanted to leave, so much so that he was prepared to run down his contract. So, I decided to create a bidding war between a few French clubs and Sochaux won and parted ways with £5m but luckily have no profit clause attached to the deal. 

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We signed one player to join the squad, Lamin Gibba had been released by Spanish side Villarreal. I wanted to loan the 20-year-old forward out but there were no takers, even for no outlay. We'll try again in the winter window. 

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On 14/08/2023 at 06:06, BML said:

I seem to remember reading another thread earlier in the game cycle (may have been the YAC) whereby custom created leagues receive huge amounts of TV money after season 20 due to a bug.

Everybody in the league should be receiving these funds, which should give your goals of improving Gambian football a shot in the arm :onmehead:

I was just about to comment about this as I've caught up on the thread. You're possibly thinking of my Luxembourg save, but it was nowhere near this insanely overpowered. Loaded the save and in 2056 we are only getting  $6.5 Million USD a year for the Luxembourg TV deal. League Prize money has gone up as well, but is only 1.4M.  $15M for Gambia is just beautiful!!

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15 hours ago, WhiteCat33 said:

I was just about to comment about this as I've caught up on the thread. You're possibly thinking of my Luxembourg save, but it was nowhere near this insanely overpowered. Loaded the save and in 2056 we are only getting  $6.5 Million USD a year for the Luxembourg TV deal. League Prize money has gone up as well, but is only 1.4M.  $15M for Gambia is just beautiful!!

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Despite the amount of money being pumped into the league via the TV deal I'm not seeing the other teams spend it on players or infrastructure. 

When I have the save loaded next I'll do a couple of tables of club expenditure/improvements. 

Edit - 

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Expenditure certainly increased in the 2046/47 season across the league bar one or two. PSV Wellingara have upgraded their facilities the most behind us and are due to move into a new stadium at the end of this season. 

Edited by ToMexico!!
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March 2050

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Finally convinced the board to further upgrade the facilities. I may start looking to try and get them to build a new stadium. 

I've also tried about 15 times to get them to agree to another affiliate club but they think just one is enough. 

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March 2050

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The first Gambian player in the NXGN list. Way down in 29th place is Real Madrid's academy player Sheriff Sillah, the 19-year-old LWB has made his international debut for The Gambia already. 

He's out of our price range in terms of wages already, so the only way we can sign him is if he is released but I'm sure he would have a queue of suitors in for him. 

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8 hours ago, ToMexico!! said:

Despite the amount of money being pumped into the league via the TV deal I'm not seeing the other teams spend it on players or infrastructure. 

When I have the save loaded next I'll do a couple of tables of club expenditure/improvements. 

Edit - 

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Expenditure certainly increased in the 2046/47 season across the league bar one or two. PSV Wellingara have upgraded their facilities the most behind us and are due to move into a new stadium at the end of this season. 

I remember it taking a few years before i saw the money turn the other clubs professional and see them invest substantively in the club infrastructure. Even after a decade of funds clubs still struggled building squads due to the high Home Grown rules for the nation and the lack of a transfer preference to buy young players. 

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1 hour ago, WhiteCat33 said:

I remember it taking a few years before i saw the money turn the other clubs professional and see them invest substantively in the club infrastructure. Even after a decade of funds clubs still struggled building squads due to the high Home Grown rules for the nation and the lack of a transfer preference to buy young players. 

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All clubs in the top flight are now professional. The skin on my home laptop shows the bank balances of each club. Added the wage bill to show how teams rank in spending. 

I'll keep an eye on how things continue onwards. 

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June 2050

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Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

We never hit the dizzy goalscoring heights of last season and that was reflected in the league with 'only' 163 goals scored. The Gambian Cup was easy, we didn't compete in the Super Cup for a change. Back to winning ways in the Champions League as we bested fellow Gambians PSV Wellingara in the final for a 4th time. 

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Fewer goals scored meant fewer attacking output for the players. Just 55 goals for Sarr, which may mean that he struggles to 1000 goals. Nearly 1100 for Darboe now. 

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November 2050

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Two players in and one more out. 

Momodou Sambou was the 6th choice striker and in the reserves, up to £275k and a 30% profit clause on the deal. 

We spent £120k on Muhamed Bah from Serrekunda Utd, the 16-year-old has some potential but needs to work on his athleticism. We then repalced Damballeh with Modou Juwara, a downgrade for certain but he was the best option available to us. The 21-year-old defensive midfielder will improve with game time which had been limited over the past two seasons with PSV. He can also cover RB, CB and MC if needed. 

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June 2051

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Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

We felt somewhat back to our goalscoring best even though we failed to win 22 from 22 in the league, dropping points to our old foes, PSV Wellingara. 179 goals scored with a plus-166 goal difference. We're now 104 games unbeaten in the Gambian Cup, our last loss was back in February 2026. We were lucky to beat Sundowns on away goals in the semi-final of the ACL.

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Nearly 100 goals for Sarr, he missed a couple of games through fatigue which meant he could have reached triple figures. Musa Darboe with 33 years old now and starting to show signs of physical decline but another 56 goals this season. 

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The board has flat-out rejected my advances to improve the training facilities and to build another new stadium, our average attendance is 11,501, just shy of capacity. I think there is a hard-code element where it's 20 years between new stadiums, we're currently into year 17 of the To Mexico Stadium. 

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July 2051

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Huge sale of Saikou Wilson to Spanish giants Real Madrid, I didn't want to lose him but it's pretty unrealistic to reject Los Galacticos. Whilst I'm not sure he will get the game time as the first choice to improve loads, I've inserted a 25% of the Next Sale clause rather than a profit one. 

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June 2052

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Champions League | League | African Super Cup | Gambian Cup

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Sarr with another 82 goals taking him up to 784 in total, 216 shy of 1000. He's 30 now, so he has 3 or 4 good seasons left in him to reach the target. Musa Darboe is slowing down a fair bit now, he's 34 now and 3rd choice, and he will stay for another two seasons at least. Maybe he can achieve 1200 career goals. 

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July 2052

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Baboucarr Baldeh has been sold despite my want to keep him. The former Italian youth international moves to Napoli for an initial £6.5m rising to £17.75m with 30% profit of any future sale.

His loan back gives us some chance to find a replacement as we are quite short at CB but options are limited. 

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