[FM24] Tulach Bòide [Scotland Tier 13]

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2036. 

Scottish League 2. It's the same old story. We're not scoring enough goals and we're conceding too many. It's not a good mix and the only saving grace is that we managed to give Johnstone Burgh exactly what they deserved. 

Debuts. 

Records.

Internationals. 

New contract. I must say I'm really pleasantly surprised, (and relieved). by this. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Nothing again this month. 

Finances. 

[Jtomsett11]

10 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Youth Day. Mar 2036. 

It looks like pretty decent intake intake in terms of PA, but I can't help thinking that something has changed in FM24 with the way that Youth Intakes work, but I can't quite put my finger on it. I don't think the generation of CA is working in the same way that it has worked in the past. I also think that the place of birth for home nation players is different too. Once again 100% of Scottish born players were born in Alloa. I'm not complaining that this is wrong particularly, (although I think it is the more I think about it*). 

* I've been thinking more and more about all our players coming from Alloa, (and this isn't about them being from Alloa rather than Tullibody). It's that they are all coming from the immediate area and I don't think that's realistic or accurate, but obviously there is no information to go in because Tullibody FC don't have that sort of info available. 

I might not be able to do it with Tullibody, but in actual fact I didn't actually want to do it with them, because they're a L13 club and we're now playing at L4, so let's have a look at a L4 club in Scotland and see if we can see where their Youth players originated. 

I looked at Scottish League 2 in real life and this is what I saw.

For whatever reason, the club that jumped out at me here was Elgin City, so I thought I would have a little look at them and any Academy products that have made the jump to the senior team.

https://www.elgincity.net/community-academy/youth-development-academy

I found some info pretty quickly and it listed a number of players who had made the jump from Academy to 1st Team, so let's have a look at some of them and see if they are all born in the Elgin area, (which is here by the way). By the way, Elgin is roughly where I thought Aberdeen was. I thought it was on the North coast there rather than slightly down the East coast. 

Brian Cameron was born in Aberdeen, and while it's not the other side of the Country, it is still 65 miles from Elgin. 
Darryl McHardy was born in Elgin. 
Rory MacEwan was born in Italy. (Typical ).
David Wilson was born in Aberdeen. 
Aiden Sopel was born in Banf. (50 miles away across the coast to the East). 
Ashley Ballam was born in England. (Typical ).
Lee Scott isn't in my small database.
Owen Loveland was born in Elgin. 
Jake Thomson was born in Inverness. (38 miles across the coast to the West). 

I don't have an issue with players coming through the intake from Aberdeen, Banf or Inverness, and in fact that's what I would expect to see. Rather than all the Tullibody intake coming from Alloa I would expect to see locations such as Stirling, Dunblane, Dunfermline & Falkirk but we're not seeing that. Every single player is from Alloa. 

Maybe the problem is geographical and my comparison between Alloa and the far North area of Elgin isn't a fair one. 

So let's see if I can find the same info about Alloa (in real life). 

I can't find info on the net like I found for Elgin, so let's instead look at the Elgin squad from the database in 2023 and see what we can find. 

Nathan Cannon was born in Greenock. (58 miles to the West & not something we're seeing replicated in the game). 
Cameron O'Donnell was born in Edinburgh. (40 miles away and not something we're seeing replicated in the game). 

Quite a few of the Alloa youngsters have "unknown" as their place of birth in my database. 

I keep thinking that it might be reputation related, but even with our reputation at the low levels of Regional, I would still expect some players to be brought in from slightly further afield, (such as Stirling, Dunfermline, Falkirk etc. It just doesn't feel right and I'm interested to see what happens to the @Makoto Nakamura intakes in his new Westside save as he motors through the seasons. 

Cunningham looks a perfect striker until you see his pace - can't see him working as your central striker? Shame as the rest of his attributes look great!

BTW for what it's worth, the birth places definitely seems like a bug, but is it one caused by the edited database rather than the game itself? I.e. these clubs are so low the game has some default setting for birth of newgens? 

[Jimbokav1971]

3 minutes ago, Jtomsett11 said:

Cunningham looks a perfect striker until you see his pace - can't see him working as your central striker? Shame as the rest of his attributes look great!

BTW for what it's worth, the birth places definitely seems like a bug, but is it one caused by the edited database rather than the game itself? I.e. these clubs are so low the game has some default setting for birth of newgens? 

I've just given a league debut to (36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)*, and a match rating of 6.0 suggests that it didn't go well.

Jumping 12.
Heading 11.
Determination 16.
Strength 9. 
Bravery 10. 

I'm struggling to see why he's only winning 2 of 11 headers. 

With regards to the place of birth being related to the database, yeah you're possibly correct, but a while ago I went through quite a lot of clubs up and down the Scottish pyramid and although it looked better, it still didn't seem quite right. It seems to be wrong for clubs who are Semi-Pro or who have previously been Semi-Pro. That's what making me think it's related to Rep. I'm really not positive though. Hopefully we will come up with some answers as we progress. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2036. 

Scottish League 2. We've actually played quite well but we just can't put the ball in the net.There's just 1 league game left and I just want the season to end. 

We possibly deserved a draw against Dunfermline. 
We battered Stenhousemuir, (but still lost). 
We deserved to lose against Locos.
We were completely dominant against 2nd placed Peterhead, (who scored with their only shot on target). 

Vision Confusion. I thought the plan was to finish in the Top Half? (Even though we're failing that). 

Yep. Didn't think I was losing my marbles. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 2 goals from 2 pens this month. 

(23) Brass (Bal) 6'2" is 5/8 from the spot at 63%. (Is no longer at the club).
(23) Ewing (Bal) 6'1" is 17/20 from the spot at 85%. (Is no longer at the club).
(25c) Christie (F.Sport) 6'1" is 46/52 from the spot at 88%. (Is no longer at the club). 
(26p) Marsh (CAN)(SCO) 5'10" is 15/17 from the spot at 88%. (Is no longer at the club).
(30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * is 46/63 from the spot at 73%.
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 2/2 from the spot at 100%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2036. 

Scottish League 2. We were the better team against East Fife, but once again we couldn't put the ball in the net and in the end had to rely on our GK to bail us out from the spot again. 

(36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)* has my faith and I've kept starting him, but it's not been pretty. 5 games have yielded 6 shots, (most of them from free-kicks), and none of them on target. He has 5.0 PA and we're desperate for a striker, but his pace and acceleration are just killing him and I don't really understand why he's winning so few headers, (but it's early days yet). The truth is that he can't play as our central striker because he just doesn't have the physicality for it. We're sort of caught between a rock and a hard place because despite the fact that he's a rubbish option, he's also the best option we have. I can't go out and sign someone else. Who we have is who we have, (unless I can manage to bring (31j) Fullerton (Unamb) * or (31j) Fullerton (Unamb) * back in on loan). 

Alternatively...... I could just play this bloke,  who I arranged to send out on loan before we lost (34a) McGrandles (F.Det) *, and then forgot to recall him in Jan.  

Club vision.

Overview. 

Performance.  

Board.

Supporters.

Facilities. 

I'm delighted that I was able to change their mind, but I'm also surprised that the 1st level of Youth Facilities is £190k. We're only left with just over £320k after we pay for this upgrade, so I can't afford to ask for a Training Facilities upgrade. We really need to do better in the Scottish Cup next season. I'm hoping this upgrade will have an immediate and significant impact on the CA of our intakes. 

 

Goal-scoring GK's. 1 more goal from the spot to make it 3 goals in the last 5 games of the season. 

(23) Brass (Bal) 6'2" is 5/8 from the spot at 63%. (Is no longer at the club).
(23) Ewing (Bal) 6'1" is 17/20 from the spot at 85%. (Is no longer at the club).
(25c) Christie (F.Sport) 6'1" is 46/52 from the spot at 88%. (Is no longer at the club). 
(26p) Marsh (CAN)(SCO) 5'10" is 15/17 from the spot at 88%. (Is no longer at the club).
(30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * is 47/64 from the spot at 73%.
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 2/2 from the spot at 100%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.

Finances. 

[phnompenhandy]

4 hours ago, Jtomsett11 said:

BTW for what it's worth, the birth places definitely seems like a bug, but is it one caused by the edited database rather than the game itself? I.e. these clubs are so low the game has some default setting for birth of newgens? 

No, as I showed, clubs in the SI database show the same pattern - you're either born right in the zone of the 'city' or you're born abroad. Hardly any regens at a club were born 10 or 20 minutes down the road.

[phnompenhandy]

11 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

OMG He's scored!!!!  From 25 yards! 

 

You da man for breaking news - now it's on the BBC website

[Jimbokav1971]

6 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

You da man for breaking news - now it's on the BBC website

Yeah, I follow them because there used to be an ex Barnet player playing there and have forgotten to unfollow them so I saw it almost as it happened. 

[Jimbokav1971]

17 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Haha, brilliant stuff.

It really is. 

He properly got hold of it. 

 

[Makoto Nakamura]

@Jimbokav1971 Ali also scored a free-kick for Tranent a couple seasons back whilst playing in his usual position of GK, just incase you needed to like him even more!  

[Jimbokav1971]

35 minutes ago, Makoto Nakamura said:

@Jimbokav1971 Ali also scored a free-kick for Tranent a couple seasons back whilst playing in his usual position of GK, just incase you needed to like him even more!  

What the actual ****! 

Did I miss this or did I see it and just not twig that it was him? 

I saw his post-match interview and it's such a great mentality. He's obviously a right big lump of a man and he basically said when I came on it wasn't a joke. There are people here who have paid their money to watch us and my plan was to put myself about and impact the game. Well he certainly did that. 

And here it is in all it's glory and yes I have seen it before. 

Apparently he's scored another for someone else too. 

Absolutely love it.  

[TIR669]

Armstrong for sure looks like a better option up front. Definitely a more complete striker as quickness beats all other aspects anyway, followed by jumping reach. The tall fella that doesn't win headers - I have a theory heading is strongly correlated with pace as well. My 188cm tall defender Draper (https://fminside.net/players/4-fm-24/29010872-ross-draper) even had jumping reach 12 at one point, but would regularly lose a bunch of aerial duels though all other attributes bar the speed were more than adequate for 3rd and 4th tiers.

 

I had to rebuild a lot when getting back to back promotions into Championship now, so can't even fantom how much energy is needed for a youth only approach. Now for a steady 2nd season, with hopefully less sales of talented youth players from the board. Curious do you even have any better ones left that haven't been sold already? What's your top 3 like?

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2036. 

GK. We lost (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * on a free at the end of the season and although his leaving is a blow, we do at least have some replacement options in goal. 

1st Team. (33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" *
Backup. (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) *
Loan. (34c) Soutar (L.Det) *
U18's. (35d) McGinlay (IRL) (Unamb) *
U18's. (36b) Evans (ENG) (F.Det) 5'9"

DL.

1st Team. (30l) Docherty (F.Pro)
2nd Team. (32m) Hogarth (F.Pro)
Loan. (33n) Grant (SCO)(IRL) (F.Pro)
Loan. (31d) Johnston (NIR) (Unamb)
U18's. (35g) Redman (F.Det)
U18's. (36j) Gilchrist (Bal)
U18's. (34i) Banks (Unamb)
Release. (36p) Hogarth. (Driven)

DR.

1st team. (32d) Gauld (Res)
2nd Team. (31l) Reid (Unamb) *
Loan. (33b) Skrzyński (POL)(Spirit)*
Loan. (36d) McIntyre (Bal)
Loan. (35j) Polworth (L.Det)
U18's. (35a) McColl (Bal) *
U18's. (34f) McMullan (Unamb)

DC. This is a tough area because we're so so so so weak at centre-half. 

1st Team DLC. (31g) Connolly (IRL)(Bal) 6'6"
1st Team DC. (30m) Runciman (F.Pro) 6'0"
1st Team DRC. 34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) *

2nd Team DLC. (29n) Hogarth (Bal) 6'0"
2nd Team DC. (35b) Hogarth (Bal) 5'9"
2nd Team DRC. (30i) Thomson (Bal) 6'3"

U18's DLC. (36g) Lomax (ENG)(L.Det) 5'11"
U18's DC. (34e) Breslin (F.Pro) 5'11"
U18's DRC. (36e) Dickson (Unamb) 6'2" *

Loan. (33h) Paterson (Unamb) 6'1"
Loan. (35l) Dunn. (Temp) 6'4"
Loan. (34p) Wills. (F.Pro)

MC. We will lose (33d) Martin (Pro) * at the end of next season on a free so we really need to make some progress this season because it will be tough without him next. No way he's signing a new contract because it's Championship clubs looking to sign him. Still better to let him see out his contract and let him leave on a free than sell him for a pittance with 12 months left. 

1st Team MLC. (33d) Martin (Pro) *
1st Team MRC. (30e) Allan (SCO)(IRL) (Res)

2nd Team MLC. (33j) Kemp (SCO)(IRL) (F.Pro)
2nd Team MRC. (31m) Docherty (Unamb)

Loan. (35c) Sutherland (Unamb) *
Loan. (34d) Millar (Bal) *
Loan. (35e) Larkin (IRL) (Unamb)
Loan. (36c) MacKenzie (Res) *
Loan. (36n) Brown (Unamb)
Loan. (33l) Foth5 (Unamb)
Loan. (34l) Lyle (Bal)

U18's MLC. (34n) Robertson (Unamb)
U18's MRC. (34l) Lyle (Bal)

SC.

1st Team SLC. (30o) McDougall (F.Det)
1st Team SC. (35f) Armstrong (NIR) (L.Det)
1st Team SRC. (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal)

2nd Team SLC. (32f) Martin (L.Det) 
2nd Team SC. (36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)*
2nd Team SRC. (31h) Donald (Res)

Loan. (33c) McCormack (Unamb) *

U18's SLC. (36k) Coulson (USA)(F.Det)
U18's SC. (36h) Stewart (Bal)
U18's SRC. (36f) Russell (Unamb) 5'8"

[Jimbokav1971]

4 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Armstrong for sure looks like a better option up front. Definitely a more complete striker as quickness beats all other aspects anyway, followed by jumping reach. The tall fella that doesn't win headers - I have a theory heading is strongly correlated with pace as well. My 188cm tall defender Draper (https://fminside.net/players/4-fm-24/29010872-ross-draper) even had jumping reach 12 at one point, but would regularly lose a bunch of aerial duels though all other attributes bar the speed were more than adequate for 3rd and 4th tiers.

Yep, I definitely made a mistake with (35f) Armstrong (NIR) (L.Det). 2 mistakes in fact. 1 was letting him leave and the 2nd was not bringing him back in Jan. 

The calculation for aerial duels seemed to have changed over the years. (36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)* would have absolutely been good at winning headers at this level with how the game used to work. There must be something holding him back. I just don't know what. Maybe I need to look at what type of headers he's losing and maybe that will tell me why. It could be that he's just so slow he can't get into position to challenge properly for the header. 

[Jimbokav1971]

13 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

I had to rebuild a lot when getting back to back promotions into Championship now, so can't even fantom how much energy is needed for a youth only approach. Now for a steady 2nd season, with hopefully less sales of talented youth players from the board. Curious do you even have any better ones left that haven't been sold already? What's your top 3 like?

Over the years I've generally been pretty lucky with the way that the intakes have worked in that we've always been good at the back or good up front and that has sort of carried us through until we got what we've wanted. This save has been really tough though. We've had very few decent strikers come through the intake and the 2 that were good were snapped up pretty quickly. At the same time we haven't produced a single decent centre-half yet. We might have had a centre-half with a decent PA come through, but none that I have been able to develop for whatever reason. We've just got what we've got. We've had a few good central midfielders and seem to have had loads of decent GK's, but where it really matters we've been left high and dry. It's really frustrating actually. 

The HoYD at least likes 523 DM Wide now so that should help with the numbers coming through at the back and up front. 

In terms of the whole squad, we've just lost our best player. He's obviously VERY good. 

Would love Celtic to sign him but more likely a Championship club I think. 

We do have 5 players with better than 3.0 CA though. 

(33d) Martin (Pro) * only has 12 months on his contract and will be leaving on a free at the end of the season. 

(32d) Gauld (Res) has been performing well at WBR. 

(34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) * is the 1 decent centre-half we've got. 

(30l) Docherty (F.Pro) is doing well at WBL.

(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is nowhere near as good as (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" *, but he's the best we've got. 

[TIR669]

Ouch, relatively tiny CBs & new GK is a no-no for me. Usually when I'm not bringing in many outsiders and try to fill in the team, I will prefer physical attributes, height included, over anything else. Based on that alone, I'd likely have 33h Paterson, 31g Connolly, 30m Runciman and 30i Thomson at DC next year, depending on their stats. Much rather than 34b Morisson imo.

 

Did you try getting a HoYD with a 352 or similar preferred formation & physical playing style, to eliminate the so-called unneeded positions in your team atm (FBs, Ws)?

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, TIR669 said:

Ouch, relatively tiny CBs & new GK is a no-no for me. Usually when I'm not bringing in many outsiders and try to fill in the team, I will prefer physical attributes, height included, over anything else. Based on that alone, I'd likely have 33h Paterson, 31g Connolly, 30m Runciman and 30i Thomson at DC next year, depending on their stats. Much rather than 34b Morisson imo.

There is a balance to be had between picking players with a tiny bit better attributes, (who are all much of a muchness anyway), and playing players who have petter PA so that they will develop and allow us to be better the following season. 

(34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) * is comfortably our best centre-half so there is just no comparison between him and anyone else able to play centre-half. It's not even close to be worty of consideration, (but I do get the point you're making). 

What I would say though is that height doesn't really do anything, (in fact it absolutely doesn't do anything at all). It's simply an indication of where a player's relative strengths may lie. 

(31g) Connolly (IRL)(Bal) 6'6" seems more like your centre-half and he's ok. 

The middle centre-half is where we're really lacking at the moment and (30m) Runciman (F.Pro) 6'0" is getting the nod there. Can you see how poor they are? They're really not good. We just don't have anyone better. 

To be quite honest, there is a 5'7" right back who I half considered for a starting centre-half role, but bottled it in the end. 

There is a 5'9" centre-half playing in the 2nd Team. When you are so limited with what you have available, (as I am in a Youth Only save), then you start picking players who you would never play in a million years in a normal save, and small centre-backs is just something that happens regularly. It will be less of an issue once we can develop players have keep them at the club for longer, but at the moment we just have to suck it up. 

[Jimbokav1971]

14 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Did you try getting a HoYD with a 352 or similar preferred formation & physical playing style, to eliminate the so-called unneeded positions in your team atm (FBs, Ws)?

We've for a HoYD who prefers 523 DM wide, but it obviously takes a while for him to have an influence on what sort of player comes through. 

[TIR669]

Yeah the hidden side of FM takes another toll... Honestly I have zero idea (and memory from older FMs is also blurry) if in fact HoYD style has any effect at all - and if so after how many intakes. Same goes for many other aspects of HoYD itself as well as other functionalities of the game that are explained poorly (at best).

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Yeah the hidden side of FM takes another toll... Honestly I have zero idea (and memory from older FMs is also blurry) if in fact HoYD style has any effect at all - and if so after how many intakes. Same goes for many other aspects of HoYD itself as well as other functionalities of the game that are explained poorly (at best).

They absolutely do have an impact on loads of things, but the level of impact is tiny in most cases. Preferred formation is one of the bigger influences though. 

[Thebaker]

its quite noticable from those lists that many of the higher CA players have changed personality and not for the better in most cases

[phnompenhandy]

3 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

its quite noticable from those lists that many of the higher CA players have changed personality and not for the better in most cases

With an academy-only save, you can get into a vicious cycle. The youngsters are influenced by the personalities of the influential players and the overall squad personality. If they are initially poor, they can pass on to the young players and as they mature, they pass them on to the newer ones. And with youngsters only, there is no one to mentor them into better attitudes. That's why retaining or binning intake kids needs to be based on their personalities every bit as much as the abilities or potential.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Thebaker said:

its quite noticable from those lists that many of the higher CA players have changed personality and not for the better in most cases

Great spot and yeah you are absolutely spot on. 

What usually happens is that I would be much more picky with players from the intake who get offered a contract, (with poor personalities being released irrespective of ability), but we just don't have the luxury to do that in this phase of the save. The other thing of course is that if you look at the 5 best players at the club now, (I posted them in response to @TIR669), then it's interesting that 3 of the 5 players are (F.Pro), and of course the suggestion here is that the reason they are the best players is because they have developed the most and the reason they have developed the most is because of their high levels of Pro, (and their not rubbish levels of Det).

Keeping players with poor personalities absolutely does have a negative impact on the overall group. 

The 5 players in question were Pro, Res, Resil, F.Pro & Fickle. 
The 5 players in question now are F.Pro, F.Pro, Bal, F.Sport, F.Pro.

Once we turn Pro I will look to resolve this by being far more picky with who I sign. It will be a very gradual process though. 

[Thebaker]

look to hire only staff with positive personalities to improve the youth intake coming through. you still get poor personalities but not so many

[Jimbokav1971]

Just now, phnompenhandy said:

With an academy-only save, you can get into a vicious cycle. The youngsters are influenced by the personalities of the influential players and the overall squad personality. If they are initially poor, they can pass on to the young players and as they mature, they pass them on to the newer ones. And with youngsters only, there is no one to mentor them into better attitudes. That's why retaining or binning intake kids needs to be based on their personalities every bit as much as the abilities or potential.

This is spot on. It's just unfortunate that I'm not in a position tion to do it yet.

It's a balancing act between accepting flawed players who will do you a job in the short term to get you to the next level, (or keep you at this level), with the knowledge that the chances are the next intake might produce someone who comes in above them anyway, and protecting the personalities of the better players. We just can't do that yet I'm afraid. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 minute ago, Thebaker said:

look to hire only staff with positive personalities to improve the youth intake coming through. you still get poor personalities but not so many

This has an impact, but it's tiny now. It is something I will look at, but probably not before we turn Pro. At the moment I am delegating all recruitment, (with the exception of HoYD). 

When I take control of this, (in line with being more selective on youth intake day), it will hopefully be enough to propel us to the next level. Doing it now is probably sensible, but I'm lazy and we've done ok so far without it. 

[Thebaker]

Do you do mentoring?  i usually just stick all the good personalities together to reinforce them. Or if have 1 high PA with a poor personality and several others with better ones  then i put them together. The heirarchy of the players also has a massive effect as team leaders can change the other players even if a better or worse player.

Edited December 31, 2023 by Thebaker

[Jimbokav1971]

17 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

Do you do mentoring?  i usually just stick all the good personalities together to reinforce them. Or if have 1 high PA with a poor personality and several others with better ones  then i put them together. The heirarchy of the players also has a massive effect as team leaders can change the other players even if a better or worse player.

No, I used to, but it was too effective and felt like it was cheating. I remember back in FM14 I had a whole huge squad with M.Pro and Resolute players. Just didn't seem right. I know mentoring is less effective than tutoring, (or is that the other way around)? The new version is less effective than the old version, but still feels like cheating to me. 

I'm also just really lazy. 

[Thebaker]

3 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

No, I used to, but it was too effective and felt like it was cheating. I remember back in FM14 I had a whole huge squad with M.Pro and Resolute players. Just didn't seem right. I know mentoring is less effective than tutoring, (or is that the other way around)? The new version is less effective than the old version, but still feels like cheating to me. 

I'm also just really lazy. 

 

Its nowhere close to the effect it used to have, at best you might get a gradual increase, more if you have really positive personalities and influential players. The overall team personality has a big effect now as well.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, TIR669 said:

Ouch, relatively tiny CBs & new GK is a no-no for me. Usually when I'm not bringing in many outsiders and try to fill in the team, I will prefer physical attributes, height included, over anything else. Based on that alone, I'd likely have 33h Paterson, 31g Connolly, 30m Runciman and 30i Thomson at DC next year, depending on their stats. Much rather than 34b Morisson imo.

Going back to  (34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) * again, he's just been the subject of multiple cash bids from both Premiership & Championship clubs. He is a cut above our other centre-backs. 

[Jimbokav1971]

12 minutes ago, Thebaker said:

Its nowhere close to the effect it used to have, at best you might get a gradual increase, more if you have really positive personalities and influential players. The overall team personality has a big effect now as well.

It's possibly something I will look at when I start looking at the Squad personality, but it's unlikely to be before we turn pro, (which I expect to be when we get to the Championship). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2036. 

Season Preview. If we can just score some goals I think we should be able to far exceed this, but it's been tough the last few seasons.

Reputation. Still got a fair gap to the next lowest ranked club. 

6,951 Celtic. 
6,267 Aberdeen.
4,346 Ayr Utd.
3,627 Greenock Morton.
2,668 Johnstone Burgh.
2,597 Tullibody FC.

Finances.

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2036. 

Saved Team selections. I usually try to stick to these as much as possible, but I will review things in the new Year to have a look at the loan players. 

2036.1.

2036.2.

[TIR669]

48 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Going back to  (34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) * again, he's just been the subject of multiple cash bids from both Premiership & Championship clubs. He is a cut above our other centre-backs. 

 

Fine, get relegated, I don't care. 

[Jimbokav1971]

20 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Fine, get relegated, I don't care. 

 Well if we don't start scoring that's a distinct possibility. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2036. 

League Cup. (Premier Sports Cup). This is really just an assortment of pre-season games against better opposition. East Kilbride finished above us on goal difference last season and we don't seem much better than them now, (although we were away from home). 

Debuts.

Records.

Transfers. We don't sign many players, and we particularly don't sign many players who don't have a year prefix in front of their name to indicate that they are a product of our Academy. The reason I'm able to sign him is because he was poached from our Academy by Chorley and although I really just signed him because I know he had 1.5 gold PA stars when he was poached. Once he arrived and I had a look at him, (I really did sign him blind), I wonder if he could do a job at centre-half. 

Shortlist. Other than the players still at the club, there are 6 players of real quality that we've produced and having any of these players back would improve us. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Nothing this month. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2036. 

Scottish league 2. Well this is a bit better than I was expecting. 1 clean sheet is pretty good, but goals scored in the opening 5 league games of the season and 5 (FIVE) in 1 game is amazing. 

Challenge Cup. 2 wins is great, and again I don't even care about this competition. 

First Round. (The opposition don't play senior football).

Second Round. (The opposition are 1 level below us). 

Records. He may have really struggled last season, but as the central striker in our 2nd Team, (who play mid-week when we have 2 games a week), (36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)* not only scored his 1st league goal, but bagged a brace against East Kilbride in a 5-2 demolition. 

Takeover.

Season Tickets. The Season Tickets remained the same as last season. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Nothing this month. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2036. 

Scottish League 2. We've kept up our good form, but Albion Rovers are on fire at the moment. We haven't played them yet this season, but they are our 1st opponent next month.

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trophy).

(The opposition are in our league). It was a really good performance and we should probably have won more convincingly. 

Awards. What a difference a striker makes?  I don't think it's all down to him but he's certainly had a decent impact, scoring 6 goals in 9 appearances in all competitions so far this season. 

Internationals.

Goal-scoring GK's. Still nothing this season. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2036.

League 2. Well it's fair to say Albion Rovers gave us a bit of a doing, but I should point out that as the game was played on a Wednesday, our 2nd Team were given an opportunity that they were not able to take. The other loss to Loco's was also the 2nd Team, but that's just the way it has to be. There is no way that a squad with such limited physical ability can play twice a week at this level and expect to win. By rotating I give the 1st Team a better chance of winning at the weekend and give experience to the 2nd Team. Any points that the 2nd Team get is just a bonus. The 2nd Team have played 4 league games on a Wednesday, winning 2 of them and losing 2. They've also progressed us through 2 rounds of the Challenge Cup, so not too shabby from the 2nd Team so far. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Finally (33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is off the mark for the season. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

600 Up. Oct 2036.

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2036. 

Scottish League 2. That's a really good month, but it's still not good enough to close ground on Albion Rovers, who only dropped 3 points to our 4 dropped points this month. If the best we can hope for is Runners Up and a tilt at the playoffs then so be it. I'm fine with that, even if we don't go up. 

Scottish Cup. The draw has been made for the 4th Round, and we have got lucky or unlucky depending on your point of view. I'm not sure how much money we're going to make out of the game, but it should be pretty decent and will allow us to concentrate on the league. 

Records. 

Internationals. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Nothing this month. It's weird. We're having a really good season, but despite that we're hardly winning any penalties. I think that suggests that we're being clinical rather than completely dominating, and I actually don't mind that. I didn't think we were even close to being able to perform like that. Dominating is 1 thing. Winning close games is quite another. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2036. 

Scottish League 2. From really struggling to find the net last season, we've really got our mojo back now and the goals are flying in, (at both ends). I'm starting to look ahead to the Playoffs and now remember that the 3 from the Playoffs here are joined by a League 1 side at the Semi-Final stage, but I don't know if who plays who is a random draw, or more likely the 4th placed team in League 2 plays against the 9th placed Team from League 1, (which looks like being ICT at the moment). 

Bottom of League 1. 

Challenge Cup. This game isn't a priority, but while the fixtures fall on a Saturday, the 1st Team will keep playing and we have a chance. Arbroath are 7th in the Championship, (and are fully Pro), but I think we have a tiny bit of a chance. 

(The opposition are in the league above us). We led 3-0 at HT and even a red card early in the 2nd half couldn't deprive us of a clean sheet. 

Debuts.

Records.

Goal-scoring GK's. Loads of goals, but so few penalties! 

Finances. 

[TIR669]

58 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

or more likely the 4th placed team in League 2 plays against the 9th placed Team from League 1

It's this, meaning you can get promoted without having to face the side from the league above.

 

Celtic will bring 200k easily imo (I'm assuming ticket income is shared in the Cup), which is a free facility upgrade hopefully. 

 

Curious how that last seasons' loanee striker (Armstrong?) isn't among top scorers, I rarely see him on the scoring sheet. And how is my giant buddy Connolly doing in L2? 

[Jimbokav1971]

13 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

It's this, meaning you can get promoted without having to face the side from the league above.

To be honest, I generally find that beating a team that has spent the whole season losing isn't really a challenge even if they have been playing in the league above. I would probably prefer to play them if I'm honest. 

[Jimbokav1971]

15 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Celtic will bring 200k easily imo (I'm assuming ticket income is shared in the Cup), which is a free facility upgrade hopefully. 

Only £200k?  That's a shame. Was hoping for more. Obviously there is absolutely zero chance of us winning the game, but because it's a weekend game rather than mid-week, (and we don't have a game mid-week either side), I will at least be playing the 1st Team. 

The last Youth Facilities upgrade cost £190k, so with the £250k we've got in the bank it should be enough for another upgrade. Could still do with a nice run in the Cup though. 

We've had mixed fortunes in the Scottish Cup over the course of the save. 

I remember beating Brora Rangers and Raith Rovers in 2031 was a really big deal and I thought it was unrealistic at the time, but I don't remember losing to Nairn County on pens the next season at all. Then beating Dumbarton and Partick Thistle in 2033 was great, but we're probably due an upset. Is it even possible that we will somehow get a draw against Celtic and win on pens? No, not really. Losing by 10+ goals is probably more likely than us stealing a draw. 

[Jimbokav1971]

32 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Curious how that last seasons' loanee striker (Armstrong?) isn't among top scorers, I rarely see him on the scoring sheet. And how is my giant buddy Connolly doing in L2? 

Yeah, he's scored a few, but he's not been hugely prolific. The goals have been shared about pretty well although (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal) on the right and (30o) McDougall (F.Det) on the left have scored 16 and 12 goals respectively. 

(35f) Armstrong (NIR) (L.Det) hasn't been great, but it's a big improvement on what we had last season and while he might not be doing great personally, the team performances have been much improved. 

(36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)* is starting for the 2nd Team in that central striker role and has actually done ok. 

With regards to the centre-backs and your "big mate"  (31g) Connolly (IRL)(Bal) 6'6", they have all done ok, (without being brilliant), but chipped in with a few goals between them. What jumps out at me is that the standout performer is probably the oldest of the 3 Howarth brothers (29n) Hogarth (Bal) 6'0", (they aren't brothers), who has scored 2 goals in just 11 appearances for the 2nd Team and his Avg match rating of 6.80 is second only to (34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) * over the season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2037. 

Scottish League 2. It was a tough month with 3 away games from 4, but also including games against 4th placed Stenhousemuir, 5th placed Edinburgh and 7th placed East Fife. We still haven't closed even a single point on Albion Rovers though and with 10 games remaining I think it's unlikely that we will be able to haul them in. 

Scottish Cup. (The Big one). Absolute madness! 

(The opposition are 3 leagues above us in the Premiership). Wow wow wow wow wow. We didn't just beat them. We absolutely battered them! We could have scored twice in the opening 10 mins. We could have scored again before 30 mins. We eventually took the lead with a GK goal 10 mins into the 2nd half and I expected an onslaught, but it just never came and although they had a chance to make it 1-3 in injury time, we were already celebrating by then. Our GK actually only made 2 saves in the whole match. 

I'm just checking to see what sort of team they put out. 

GK. It looks like they rotate 2 GK's and the weaker of the 2 played. 
DL. 2nd choice DL played. 
DR. 2nd choice DR played. 
DC. 3rd and 4th choice DC's.

It looks like they rotated the whole squad for the game against us and it came back to bite them badly on the bum! 

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trophy). 

(The opposition are 2 leagues above us in the Championship). 

Transfers. I got a deal done with Clyde to bring back (31j) Fullerton (Unamb) * until the end of the season, but surprisingly the player declined. I'm on his favoured personnel list and he supports the club, and although he scored 7 goals in 18(8) appearances for Clyde last season, he has only scored 1 goal from 2(1) appearances this season. He would properly tear it up at this level. Maybe if we manage to get promoted we could bring him in next season in League 1? 

In more bad news, 2 of our best players have agreed terms with other clubs and will be leaving on a free at the end of the season. 

(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * has had a decent season, and it's interesting to note that he has performed much better than the GK from last season (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" *, who had much more ability and is now playing in League 1 for Brechin City. He will become the 3rd of our Academy products at Clyde, joining (31j) Fullerton (Unamb) * and (31i) Kelly (F.Sport) * at the Championship outfit. 

(33d) Martin (Pro) * has just agreed to join St Mirren who are also in the Championship, but sit 3rd and have a decent chance of going up. 

Losing our 1st choice GK 2 years running obviously isn't ideal, but we actually have a little bit of depth here and in anticipation of him leaving I have actually been rotating the GK's when I have rotated the Team. 

In terms of central midfield there is a far bigger gulf in class between the player leaving and his prospective replacements, but actually I'm fine with this because we really don't need a player in there and the rile is much more simply about legs and giving the ball to other players. A good MC is sort of wasted in our team at the moment. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. Our balance before the Celtic game was  and after the game it was , but that obviously includes winning!!! prize money too. 

Edited January 1 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2037.

Scottish 2nd Division. Apologies. I update the post as the month progresses, but I was so engrossed in the save that I forgot to post the Feb update and went and played the 1st match of March. 

We're 3 points behind Albion Rovers, but we have a game in hand and their form seems to have fallen off a cliff. They have failed to win any of their last 5 league games, (drawing just 3), and they have also crashed out of the Scottish Cup to St Johnstone of the Premiership. We have to play them once more in the league, (on the very last day of the season), so this could go to the wire. 

Scottish Cup. (The Big One).
Celtic are Celtic and I don't need to say any more about that. 
St Johnstone are 8th of 12 in the Premiership.
Ayr Utd are 2nd in the Championship. 
Falkirk are 9th in the Premiership. 

(The opposition are 3 leagues above us in the Premiership). 

(The opposition are 2 leagues above us in the Championship). 

Takeover. I can't remember what the value of the buy-out was the last time there was a takeover attempt, but I do know it was below £1M. I've had a look back through the thread and can't find the picture. Maybe I didn't take one. 

Vision. 

Facilities. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

[Scribe]

Congrats on an incredible cup run!

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day. Mar 2037.

It's a decent intake, but it's still not the mammoth CA I was expecting.