[FM24] Tulach Bòide [Scotland Tier 13]

[Mad Mull Jag]

9 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Apr 2038. 

Scottish League 1. The last 3 games of the season were against the bottom 3 teams in the league and we were expected to win all 3. That we dropped 5 points from the 3 games and still only missed out on the Playoffs by goal difference is all the more galling.  Partick Thistle took a total of 3 points from their last 4 games and STILL qualified for the Playoffs. 

Records. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

As a Thistle fan this really sums us up in real life. Last season 3-0 with 20mins to go in the playoff final , only to lose on penalties.

I think you will push on next season players with more development under their belts and soem better CA incoming for strength in depth. 


 

[Jimbokav1971]

8 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Enjoy the 200k or so from prize money, and since you didn't mention any starter players leaving in the summer, gl in the next seasons' title run I guess, with a less catastrophic end to the season hopefully.

5th place only gets £86k prize money I think, (but that's still great).

Yeah, Ive been able to sign player to longer term contract now so no big players are leaving and few if any squad players. 

When I rank all players at the club by CA, we have 41 players who have 2.0 CA or better. 

Of those 41 players only 5 of them have 2.0 CA and none of them have better CA.

I might be offering contracts to some of the above players, but (30i) Thomson (Bal) 6'3" and HG Thomson (ENG) * DC are both definitely leaving on free transfers.

[turnip]

On 24/12/2023 at 16:45, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

Player Development. There is often a question asked, (and indeed I have asked it early in this thread), as to "How much can you develop a player anyway, at a club which has awful facilities, coaches who aren't very good and playing at a level of football that isn't a million miles above Sunday League?".... and earlier in the save the answer I offered was that you couldn't develop them that much, and however much you could develop them, the chances are that the club would produce a player with better CA in the same position, within a couple of years. 

The facts however do not seem to support my position when it comes to GK's. One possible explanation for this is because he doesn't get rotated in the same was as outfield players, but I think it's more likely that the reason is linked to how much he is fatigued during games, (significantly less than outfield players), and the amount of "Double intensity" training sessions he's able to complete. 

 

 

I'm making my way through this thread, but thought I could contribute here.

I've got a tertiary save going in the 10th-tier of England, with the editor enabled, and one of my players made 17 points of CA improvement in a season. Playing well, in his best position, in a team that was winning regularly. But at a club with 1 for Training Facilities and with godawful coaches. 

I had three other players who made between 10-15 points of CA improvement in the same time.

[Jimbokav1971]

23 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Youth intake was unreal, Arthurs looks fantastic (time to adjust tactics to fit him in?), you got a tall non-crap defender and a bunch of attackers, what more can you wish for.

(38a) Arthurs (NIR) (F.Det) is the 3rd best player in the squad, (by CA) at the age of just 16. He was on the bench for the run-in, but the Ass Man never brought him on so he still hasn't made his debut. I will be squeezing him into the starting XI somewhere for the start of next season.

(38b) Jayes (SCO)(ENG) (Unamb) will also be a starter next season at centre-half. 

Something else that I expect to make a significant impact on us next season is the return of (36c) MacKenzie (Res) * to the centre of midfield. He had been out on loan last season and it seems to have worked and he's ready to start now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

19 minutes ago, Mad Mull Jag said:

As a Thistle fan this really sums us up in real life. Last season 3-0 with 20mins to go in the playoff final , only to lose on penalties.

I think you will push on next season players with more development under their belts and soem better CA incoming for strength in depth. 

That's tough to take in the Final. 

Yeah, think we should be at least good enough to improve by 1 position next season. (Fingers crossed). 

[Jimbokav1971]

6 minutes ago, turnip said:

I'm making my way through this thread, but thought I could contribute here.

I've got a tertiary save going in the 10th-tier of England, with the editor enabled, and one of my players made 17 points of CA improvement in a season. Playing well, in his best position, in a team that was winning regularly. But at a club with 1 for Training Facilities and with godawful coaches. 

I had three other players who made between 10-15 points of CA improvement in the same time.

That's very interesting, (and surprising). Do you mind if I ask what his personality is and that of the other players who developed well? 

[phnompenhandy]

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

That's very interesting, (and surprising). Do you mind if I ask what his personality is and that of the other players who developed well? 

I've found that at very low levels it's not that unusual if they start all the competitive matches. However,  they usually stall the next season despite being first team mainstays, and what's more their boost in CA often does not correspond to high form on the pitch.  It's a reminder that CA on its own doesn't mean that much.

[turnip]

9 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

That's very interesting, (and surprising). Do you mind if I ask what his personality is and that of the other players who developed well? 

Fickle - 17 points

Balanced - 16 points

Model Citizen  - 15 points

Fairly Determined - 12 points

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, turnip said:

Fickle - 17 points

Balanced - 16 points

Model Citizen  - 15 points

Fairly Determined - 12 points

This isn't much of a surprise at all, and to anyone who looks at Fickle and is surprised, you really shouldn't be. 

Ambition is guaranteed to be 16-20 and although Det is less than 17 and Pro is less than 18, you can sort of cut off the low levels of both of these ranges because they would fall into another category most of the time if they did. 

Fickle is so close to being a "good" personality that in my book it actually is. The label or name or title or whatever it's been given is just a really poor choice. From a Youth Only point of view the Low Loyalty and High Amb is a problem in terms of keeping the player at the club, but from a Youth Development point of view if you can use the MH style to give an insight into his Pro levels, (and you already know the Det), then it;s really quite easy to see what might be a really good personality. 

The word "Fickle" is bad. 
The personality "Fickle" is good. 

[Edit]

The bigger surprise is the Balances personality, but as we know "Balanced" covers such a range of differing levels that while 1 Bal player might be deemed a rubbish personality, (I mean really rubbish), another might be deemed as pretty good and almost very good with a couple of pops. It's such a grey area and one I really dislike because of that. 

If I had to put a % on good/bad  Balanced personalities I would say 20%good/80% bad. It doesn't mean they can't be good. It just means that they're not usually good.

Edited January 6 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, phnompenhandy said:

I've found that at very low levels it's not that unusual if they start all the competitive matches. However,  they usually stall the next season despite being first team mainstays, and what's more their boost in CA often does not correspond to high form on the pitch.  It's a reminder that CA on its own doesn't mean that much.

It's been a while since I checked CA growth, (think I did it in Portugal in..... FM22 (I think), but only for a small portion of the save. 

I remember working out, (before that), that there are different triggers and while ideally you will have someone training at a high standard facility with high levels of coaching staff and playing regularly at a good level of competition, the optimum level is not always the same for each player and importantly is not the same for the same player at each phase of his development and even at each age within each phase. 

Of course players get an initial boost when they are 1st promoted into the 1st team and/or are 1st given senior games while still in the U18's, but it's certainly not  yes or no situation and everything plays it's part. Of course there are negative impacts of a player playing too much too young, and these triggers are much lower when the player is much younger. 

The main problem I've found with people who struggle with youth development is that they are often waiting for a player to be good enough before playing them, and it just doesn't work like that. You have to play them in order to make them good enough. That might mean throwing them straight into the 1st Team, but equally it might mean loaning them out to another club and even at a lower level. The biggest thing is playing them and it's not so important what level or what sort of facilities they play. It doesn't really even matter what position they play or if they play well or in a winning team, (although playing well and in a winning team is better than playing badly in a losing team obviously). 

Many people want Youth Development to be this perfect exact science and truth is that unless you are checking CA/PA values regularly, it just isn't even close to that, (and checking CA/PA rises is a right royal pain in the bub).

I found in the past that CA can be really misleading, because all it is is a calculation of the players overall attributes and positions. If he doesn't fit with what you want him to do oe what you need from him within your tactic, then it really doesn't matter what else he's good at. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. May 2038.

GK.

1st Team. (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) *
2nd Team. 
Loan. (34c) Soutar (L.Det) *
Loan. (35d) McGinlay (IRL) (Unamb) *
Loan. (36b) Evans (ENG) (F.Det) 5'9"
U18's. (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" *
U18's. (38l) Hastings. (Unamb)

DL.

1st Team. (30l) Docherty (F.Pro)
2nd Team. (35g) Redman (F.Det)
Loan. (33n) Grant (SCO)(IRL) (F.Pro)
Loan. (32m) Hogarth (F.Pro)
Loan. (36p) Hogarth. (Driven)
Loan. (36j) Gilchrist (Bal)
U18's. (38d) McMullan (NIR) (Unamb) *
Release. (37p) Gibson. (Spirit)
Release. (37k) Park. (Bal)
Release. (34i) Banks. (Unamb)

DR.

1st Team.  (32d) Gauld (Res)
2nd Team.  (35a) McColl (Bal) *
Loan. (31l) Reid (Unamb) *
Loan. (33b) Skrzyński (POL)(Spirit)*
Loan. (35j) Polworth (L.Det) WBR
U18's. (37d) Romanis (L.Heart) *
U18's. (38n) Hamilton (Unamb)+(L.Det)
Release.  (36d) McIntyre (Bal)
Release. (34f) McMullan (Unamb)
Release. 

DC.

1st Team DLC. (31g) Connolly (IRL)(Bal) 6'6"
1st Team DC. (38b) Jayes (SCO)(ENG) (Unamb)
1st Team DRC. (34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) *

2nd Team DLC. (36g) Lomax (ENG)(L.Det) 5'11"
2nd Team DC. (38p) Gordon (F.Det) 6'4" *
2nd Team DRC.  (33h) Paterson (Unamb) 6'1"

Loan. 
Loan.
Loan. 

U18's DLC.
U18's DC.
U18's DRC.

Release. (30i) Thomson (Bal) 6'3"
Release. HG Thomson (ENG) * DC
Release. (30m) Runciman (F.Pro) 6'0"

 

MC.

1st Team MLC. (38a) Arthurs (NIR) (F.Det) There were voices in this thread suggesting he would make a very good Mez, so he will at least playing in middle if not as a Mez. 
1st Team MRC. (36c) MacKenzie (Res) *
Bench. (31m) Docherty (Unamb)
Bench. (35c) Sutherland (Unamb) * (Out for 3 months with a broken ankle). 

2nd Team MLC. (34d) Millar (Bal) *
2nd Team MRC. (30e) Allan (SCO)(IRL) (Res)

Loan. (36n) Brown (Unamb)
Loan. (35e) Larkin (IRL) (Unamb)
Loan. (36m) Steven. (Bal)
Loan. (36o) Cameron (LH)

U18's MLC. (37a) McLean (VGB) (Res) MC
U18's MRC. (37h) Romanis (SCO)(IRL)(Bal)
U18's. (37e) Renard (FRA) (Unamb)
U18's. (38f) Mason (L.Det)+(Unamb)
U18's. (38o) Hastings. (IRL) (Unamb)

Transfer. (36n) Brown (Unamb)

Release. (34n) Robertson (Unamb)
Release. (34k) Šalamun (SVN)(SCO)

SC.

1st Team SLC. (33c) McCormack (Unamb) *
1st Team SC. (36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)*
1st Team SRC. (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal)

2nd Team SLC. (31h) Donald (Res)
2nd Team SC. (37i) Morrison (Pro) *
2nd Team SRC. (38e) McCormack (Bal)

Loan. (34h) Shirra (SCO)(IRL) (Res)
Loan. (35i) Kenny. (IRL) (L.Det) SC
Loan. (35f) Armstrong (NIR) (L.Det)
Loan

U18's SLC. (37c) Brass (F.Sport) *, (38i) Waddell (Res), (38h) McGrandles (L-H)
U18's SC. (38g) Reid (L.SB)
U18's SRC. (38e) McCormack (Bal),  (37j) Hanley (IRL) (Fickle)

Sell. (30o) McDougall (F.Det)

Release. (34m) Clark (SCO)(IRL) (F.Pro)
Release. (33m) Sutherland, (Spirit)

[Jimbokav1971]

Season Stats. May 2038. 

Squad by Appearances. I'm happy to have kept the starting appearances for outfield players down to <40, but I still think it's a little too high. There was a significant gulf in class between our 1st Team and 2nd Team and our 2nd Team simply didn't achieve anywhere near the same level of performances when given the opportunity. Ideally i would like it to be no more that 35 starts and 10 sub appearances. We have 13 players out on loan who made 40+ starts this season, (which is too many). 

Squad by Goals. Our 1xt choice front 3 plus GK all hit double-figures so that's reasonable I suppose. I want more though. 

Squad by Assists. Our right big hugely out-performed our left back, and our right forward out-performed our left forward. Is this down to individual ability or tactical? I think it's individual ability actually.

Squad by Avg Rating. Only 7 players in the green really isn't great, and 4 of the 7 weren't regular starters. Not sure I got the squad selection right at all last season. 

Squad by CA. We've got much more CA on show now than we have had at other times in teh save, and the best thing is that they are all contracted for multiple seasons and/or have option clauses that I can extend. 

Squad by PA. we've got 23x 5.0 PA players and 12x 4.5 PA players so lots of potential coming through in a wide variety of positions. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2038.

Internationals. 

League 1 Team of the Year. 

Overall Best XI.

Vision. This page says that we have very modest expectations for next season, (and the following 4 seasons actually), and that we're just expected to "attempt to avoid relegations" all the way through the current 5 year plan. 

Facilities. We need about £1M to do the next Training Facilities upgrade, and we don't have the option to request the next Youth Facilities upgrade, so we're sort of in limbo at the moment. That being said, I think it takes a while, (multiple seasons), to get the full benefit of upgrades, so we're not really in limbo at all. More our progress is being slowed. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2038. 

Reputation. I'm dying to get to the Premiership so I can have a look at the Old Firm battle. (Surprised to see that Rangers are viewed as top of the Rep list ahead of Celtic, but that might be personal bias seeping in there). I'm also interested to see how Aberdeen and Hibs have been doing because I expected there to be a gap between the Old Firm and them, (and there might be but it might just not be visible with the star ratings). 

Clauses. We have clauses outstanding for 4 players, but 3 of them are largely worthless. 

We've only had 1 player signed from us for compensation, and at the time I was particularly peeved. It was (34a) McGrandles (F.Det) * and we got an initial £12k-£16k, (or something paltry like that), plus we god about £20k after a certain number of league appearances, (but they have been paid out now so I can't check). 

He's still only a teenager but he has already made his debut for Scotland (against Germany), scored for Scotland, (against Costa RIca), has 7 Premiership goals to his name, and scored in the Champions League this season. He's valued at £14.5M - £23M and obviously that's huge if we have some sell-on clauses on him. 

The clause we have, (and it will be interesting to see if this is the same for all compensation signings because this isn't something that I agreed, it was just done automatically), is a 15% profit clause. Using the lower end of his valuation of £15M would give us a fee of £2.25M and Aberdeen have given us an option to sell this clause for £1.64M. Part of me is terrified about him leaving on a free, (as happened a few times in my Colombia save), but I don't think that's very likely here. He has 4 years left on his contract but isn't being tracked by anyone other than us, and interestingly is listed for loan. I wonder had we sneaked into the playoffs last season and been in the Championship now if he would have come to us? The truth is that he probably wouldn't and is plenty good enough to be playing for one of the lesser Premiership teams already. 

I'm really tempted to cash in on this deal though because it would mean that we would be able to afford the next level of Training Facilities upgrade, but on the other hand, the longer we wait, the more we're likely to receive. 

Favoured Personnel list. 

 

(32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal) is 1 of only 2 players on the list who will be a regular starter this season. 
(30l) Docherty (F.Pro) is 1st choice WBL for the coming season. 
(30o) McDougall. (F.Det) was a 2nd Team player last season and is on the way out. 
(30i) Thomson (Bal) 6'3" has left on a free and has offers from Highland/Lowland leagues as well as League 2. 

Transfers. I saw this message and as Airdrie have just finished top of our league I wondered which club (33d) Martin (Pro) * was at so I clicked on him. 

Imagine my surprise when I saw he was a free agent after leaving St Mirren after just 1 season. 

Unfortunately we missed out on him as he joined Ayr who finished bottom of the Championship and will be relegated to our league any day now, (so we will be playing against him this coming season). He's only a fringe player there and we offered him £500 pw + a £10 signing bonus. I will love it if we beat them. Love it! 

It did make me look at who else might be available from our shortlist of Academy products. 

(30b) McAllister(NIR)(F.Det) * available on a free eh! 

£600 per week is a lot of money, but then again he's a lot of player. Ideally I would have liked his physicals to be better, but we can't really afford to be choosy. 

Internationals. 

Facilities. 

Oh wow.  As pleased as I am that they have agreed the upgrade, I wasn't expecting it to cost this much. The last upgrade for Training Facilities was only £750k.  Fingers crossed the upgrade will be completed before we get the intake preview in December. 

Youth setup. We're paying approx £22k per month or £264,000 per season for our Youth setup which brings players through the Academy. Last season we spent just short of that because it was at a lower level for some of that period. 

Ground maintenance. Because we don't own our own ground, there is no ongoing ground maintenance and these payments are the big improvements to the Training Facilities. 

Finances. 

[BML]

21 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

The clause we have, (and it will be interesting to see if this is the same for all compensation signings because this isn't something that I agreed, it was just done automatically), is a 15% profit clause.

My experience since this feature was added was that this is random. I've seen nominal, typically 5%, of next transfer, a 10-15% on profit (as you've got here) and a sliding scale of money based on appearances (5, 10, 15, 20 or 10, 20, 30, 40, etc.).

In my saves, the latter rarely pays off and is always the clause I sell without deliberation if it's an option.

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2038. 

League Cup. I don't care about the League Cup. As far as I'm concerned they're simply glorified pre-season friendlies. 

Debuts.

Season Tickets. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

23 hours ago, BML said:

My experience since this feature was added was that this is random. I've seen nominal, typically 5%, of next transfer, a 10-15% on profit (as you've got here) and a sliding scale of money based on appearances (5, 10, 15, 20 or 10, 20, 30, 40, etc.).

In my saves, the latter rarely pays off and is always the clause I sell without deliberation if it's an option.

Yeah, it's too much money to turn down when we're still obviously running at a deficit, and of course there is no guarantee that the player won't just leave on a free anyway, (as happened to me more than once in Colombia). 

I would love to play the long game and leave these clauses in place in the hope of a bigger potential payday, but we're just not at that stage of the save yet. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2038. 

Pre-season. I don't know what's going on with Loco's, but they are rank outsiders. 

Scottish League 1. We beat the pre-season favourites in an unbeaten month where we could and should perhaps have collected more than 8 points. I'm not being greedy though and am very happy with the start. I want to make the playoffs this season, (after narrowly missing out last season), but the 5 year plan is just to avoid relegation. 

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trust Trophy).

(The opposition are not in a playable league). A convincing win in front of a sizeable crowd, (for us anyway), but it's hard to work out if we were good or they're just really bad or had an off day. I', not really sure what thevel the Premiership U21 teams are. To be honest, I'm not completely sure what level the Premiership teams are. 

5 year plan. I like this stage of the save where there are no great expectations. We haven't had much of that so far in the thread and to a certain degree I think that's caused by the edited database and possibly the reputations of the individual leagues/clubs not being changed to reflect the level in the imaginary pyramid they now find themselves. Now there obviously is a Rep difference and as we're starting to go head to head with Pro clubs they're a tougher nut to ctrack. There's a lot more work to edit a database like this, (and I'm not complaining at all because I have loved the save so far), but if I was creating an edited database like this, (it's never going to happen), I would definitely be editing both club and league reputations to reflect their position within the pyramid. 

Young Player of the Month. 

Goal-scoring GK's. In previous issues of the game, it's often been the case that we have scored more GK goals in the early months of the season than the later months, (although I've no idea why other than European qualifying Rounds). That's certainly not been my experience in FM24 though, (the opposite in fact), so it's good to see (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * get 2 goals from his opening 6 games this season. 

Finances. 

Edited January 10 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2038. 

Scottish League 1. Only 1 loss, but also only 1 win. The 3 Wednesday games, (our 2nd team play during the week), were obviously part of the problem, but the 1st team played the Greenock Morton game by accident. 

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trust Trophy).

(The opposition are 1 league above us and top of the Championship). The 1st Team played against Greenock Morton in the league on the Wednesday, so the 2nd Team had to play in this fixture on a Saturday. I think the 1st Team might have won this game, but as I screwed up with the team selection I guess we will never know. 

Internationals. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 3 successful pens this month brings us to 5 goals from 15 appearances in all competitions. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2038.

Scottish League 1. A good month sees us rise back to the top of the table, but we're only 1 point ahead of Stenhousemuir and then there is a bit of a gap to Alloa and Forfar. We've only lost 1 league game this season and everyone else has lost at least 3, (and that's Spartans who are languishing down in 7th because they have only won 3 of 14 games). 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2038. 

Scottish League 1. I'm annoyed about the loss, but actually it's a really good month and sees us extend our lead at the top of the table to 10 points over both Alloa and Forfar.

Internationals.

Young Player of the Month. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2038. 

Scottish League 1. 3 wins from 3 games extends our league at the top if the table to 13 points. We have a goal difference of +29 and only 2 other clubs have a positive goal difference at all, and even then only Forfar at +4 and Stenhousemuir at +5.

Records. 

Facilities. We're still looking for a new stadium, but no news on that. 

Premiership Young player of the Month. 

League 1 Young player of the Month. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

Edited January 11 by Jimbokav1971

[Thebaker]

Looks like promotion is nearly assured. Doherty must be nearly your oldest player at 24?

The stadium required is quite big compared to your current one, if you get promoted will they have to start again looking for an even bigger one

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Thebaker said:

Looks like promotion is nearly assured. Doherty must be nearly your oldest player at 24?

We've got 5x 24 year olds who are all from the (30) intake. 

Something that really annoys me though is that the AT appearances are not accurate and I think it's because the game "forgets" to count non-league appearances after a player has returned from loan/transfer at another club. 

(30b) McAllister(NIR)(F.Det) * for example has actually made 273(42) = 315 AT career appearances but it's only showing as 218 because all his Cup/European games, (with in Scotland & N.Ireland), before this season have been ignored

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, Thebaker said:

The stadium required is quite big compared to your current one, if you get promoted will they have to start again looking for an even bigger one

It is a significant upgrade, (from 500 to 5,054), but I'm actually hoping for bigger. 

The 5,054 number was based on us struggling in League 1, (and probably being relegated back to League 2), but if we can get to the Championship before the build is finalised then they might be more ambitious. 

Even a brand-spanking new 5,054 stadium would only be the 6th biggest in League 1. 

And in the Championship the new stadium would only be slightly bigger than the smallest stadium (Montrose). 

Then there is a significant jump to the Premiership stadiums and an enormous jump to the 2 Old Firm venues. 

We obviously don't have the money for anything like this and in real life a 5k stadium would be brilliant and amazing, but we need a minimum of 8,000 seats to play in the Europe, so if we're going to go for 5,000 I would hope to push it to 8,000, (because it will surely be needed before too long even if we're not filling it out). 

I'd also quite like a synthetic surface, (or a synthetic/grass mix). 

As well as the stadium named after me. 

That isn't too much to ask is it? 

Edited January 11 by Jimbokav1971

[TIR669]

I refuse to give any optimistic expectations based on league table after what I did last season with "looks like playoffs are secured". 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2039. 

Scottish League 1. A poor month with some tough away games sees us lose to both 2nd and 3rd placed teams. We're still 10 points ahead though.

Scottish Cup. (The Big one). The draw for the 6th Round has already been made, despite the fact that nobody has played their 5th Round matches. We have a tough 5th Round tie against St Johnstone who are 11th in the Premiership, but if we win that they we have a relatively easy tie against either Auchinleck Talbot or Hutchison Vale Community Sports club, both of the Lowland Leagues. We're unlikely to beat St Johnstone, (their problem is that they draw too many games because they don't score enough goals), so I'm hoping that our attacking prowess might get us a few goals against them and then they might be unable to take the chances they are offered at the other end. They've failed to score in 11 games in all competitions so far this season. Would love to make it 12 in the Cup against us. 

(The opposition arte 2 leagues below us and sit 2nd in the Lowland league). I thought we might be in trouble when they pulled it back to 2-1, but we finished really strongly and won with a bit to spare in the end. 

Young Player of the Month. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. We could really do with a good Cup run this season because the finances aren't great. 

[Jimbokav1971]

13 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

I refuse to give any optimistic expectations based on league table after what I did last season with "looks like playoffs are secured". 

I think even I might even be able to make the playoffs from this position. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2039. 

Scottish league 1. We've extended our lead at the top of the table to 11 points, but we're actually not in great form. We're no longer scoring with the freedom of earlier in the season and everything just seems a bit laboured. 

Scottish Cup. (The Big One). No amazing Cup run for us this season it seems. 

(The opposition are 2 leagues above us. St Johnstone are 11th pf 12 in the Premiership). 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day. Mar 2039.

[Rikulec]

Banner has some decent starting attributes, just need to get those physicals up to turn him into the Hulk!

[Jimbokav1971]

10 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Banner has some decent starting attributes, just need to get those physicals up to turn him into the Hulk!

(39a) Banner (Bal) looks ridiculously good, and I just hope that his PA is high enough to do his starting CA justice. 

We've been short at DL for a few years now and (39e) Murdoch (Spirit) looks like he might be a solution there. 

(39f) Foth6 (IRL) (F.Det), (so named because he's the 6th Fotheringham to come through the intake), which is a bit strange as it doesn't seem like a very common Scottish surname, but actually Wiki tells us that there have been a few Scottish Fotheringham footballers. Kai Fotheringham currently plays for Dundee Utd, Kevin Fotheringham had a decent career and is now a manager, Mark Fotheringham had a very good career and was recently Head Coach at Huddersfield and Willie Fotheringham made almost 600 career appearances at the turn of the 20th Century. 

[Edit]

I should also add that despite all 6 Fotheringham's being born in Alloa, none of them are related. 

Alloa with it's population of 46,800 as of 2021. 

Edited January 12 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

NxGn 2039. 

Aiton (SCO) is had an interesting career so far. He came through the Academy at Burnley, (wasn't poached), and has already been capped twice by the SCO senior side. He's been loaned to Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership, (where he has played a full season), and Falkirk are doing relatively well, (they're 8th of 12 with 2 games still to play and in the Semi-Finals of the Scottish Cup). That's a pretty hefty player valuation for a player like this I think. 

Waddell (SCO) * is really interesting because he was born in Alloa. Is he a player that would have been destined for our Youth Intake had our reputation been higher I wonder? He looks very good from what little we can see of him so far. Dundee isn't a million miles from Alloa though and imo it would have been quite reasonable had he come through at any of the Glasgow, Edinburgh or Dundee clubs. They're really not far from eachother at all. Dundee Utd are currently 7th in the Premiership and will definitely be there again next season. 

The fact that Rangers can spend £6.25M on a teenager in Jan, and then not play him in the league in the 2nd half of the season suggests that they have a few quid in the bank. I wonder are they making the Group stages of the Champions league? 

Nice to see Celtic developing their own talent rather than buying in expensive young talent from abroad, (like Rangers). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2039.

Scottish League 1. Despite losing a game this month we've actually extended our lead at the top of the table to 12 points and we're almost guaranteed the title now with 5 games to play and 15 points up for grabs. The truth is we could probably not gain another single point and still win the league. The only team in good form appear to be Spartans, who are 15 points behind us and although they gave us our most convincing defeat in quite some time, (they absolutely smashed us), even if they win all their remaining games we're likely to win on goal difference. 

Debuts.

Internationals.

Goal-scoring GK's.

(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 14/17 from the spot at 82%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.
(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * is 2/2 from the spot at 100%.

FInances. By not progressing in the Scottish Cup our finances have really taken a pounding. I expect to be overdrawn at the bank by the time we play in the Cup next season. 

[BillHoudini24]

Patient as always Jim! How are you developing their personalities? I am playing youth only as well and I found it hard to establish a club culture. My staff for both the main and youth squads have 16+ determination.

[Jimbokav1971]

48 minutes ago, BillHoudini24 said:

Patient as always Jim! How are you developing their personalities? I am playing youth only as well and I found it hard to establish a club culture. My staff for both the main and youth squads have 16+ determination.

Good question and timed really well too. 

So far in the save I have done almost nothing. I have slightly prioritised Pro & Det personalities over those with Low Pro & Low Det, (and I have largely ignored Amb), but for the bulk of this save that's just about it. I haven't done any tutoring at all and for the main part I have continued to sign all players in the Intake, (with a few recent exceptions). 

Until this intake that is. This year I chose to not offer contracts to 5 of the 16 players in the intake. 

These are the players who I offered a contract to. 

These are the players who I released without offering a contract to. 

The 4th column is workrate.
The 5th column is determination. 
Although the personalities aren't visible, you can see their personalities from their nicknames.

It looks like I might have made a slight error with (39h), but Temp players are just annoying because whenever they train poorly their don['t react well to being told and I just can't be bothered with them unless I think they're worth bothering with because of their ability. 

(39h) Romanis. (Temp) has a Temp personality, Det in single figures, wasn't suitable to be retrained at WBL and didn't look like he had the required attributes to be any good at SLC so it was a low risk release, (even if he might actually be a decent player). 

(39j) Runciman. (Bal) is a slow DC with a Bal personality and although Det was just in double figures (12) I chose not to sign him based largely on ability, (or lack thereof), linked to his low acceleration/pace. 

(39k) Herron. (L.Det) is an MC with an L.Det personality and not much ability. I just didn't see the point in signing a player with Det of 2, who was never going to play for us and who's sole contribution was to be to further lower the squad overall Det levels. 

(39l) Barbour. (Unamb) is a DR with an Unamb personality, but he also Low Det (2). When you add that win-double to a distinct lack of ability then it just made sense to release him now right at the start, and if I'm wrong and he's better than the Ass Man/Scout reports suggest, (it does happen), then I can always sign him back after someone else has developed him. (Just for the record, I don't think it's likely I will be re-signing any of these players at any point in the future). 

(39p) Campbell. (Bal) is an MC with a Bal personality, and although his Det was just in double figures, (10), his workrate was 5 and he just didn't look like he was ever going to play for our 1st Team, so he was released more based on Ability than personality. 

My plan was to just muddle along as we were doing until such time as we reached the Premiership, (or at the very least turned Pro), but when I was looking at these players I just found it really hard to offer them a contract. I sort of did the 1st one, (39l) Barbour without thinking, (because he had the dreaded Unamb + L.Det combo, and that sort of empowered me to find a reason to sign everyone rather than just offering contracts to all. I found a reason to offer 11 contracts, (whether it be ability, potential Det or personality), but I couldn't find a reason to offer contracts to these 5 and I'm happy with that. I think it's likely I will continue with this vein in future intakes. 

It should be said that I did sign (39b) Christie (L.Det) who has a Det of 4, but I signed him because he looks decent and has 5.0 PA. There was a reason to ignore his L.Det. (I can see him potentially playing in our 1st Team). 

I also offered a contract to (39n) Severin (L.Det) who has Det of 4, because although he doesn't look great, he has finishing of 14 and heading of 12, and those 2 attributes together seem to have been in quite short supply recently and I remember how well they served me in the early seasons. 

The only other player who I signed and who had Det of <10 was (39i) Shaw (Bal) and over and above his name actually being Luke Shaw, he actually looks like his attributes are well balanced and it isn't unreasonable to think that he might play for the 1st Team at SRC in the future. Like I said earlier, I was looking for reasons to sign a player this year rather than reasons not to sign a player. My default position has changed from "everyone is getting a contract", to "nobody is getting a contract", and then I look at each player and see if they can change my mind. That's the 1st season in this save my mindset has been changed like that but I'm going to stick with it now.

It doesn't have to be a big reason. It doesn't even have to be a good reason, (it can be a name or Nationality), but something must make me want to sign the player or they're getting released. 

[Edit]

Apologies @BillHoudiniI realised I've only answered half of your question. 

While that covers what we've done, (or not done), in the past and what we're doing now, it doesn't really cover what we plan on doing in the future. The truth is actually that I don't plan on doing very much. 

I'm definitely not going to waste my time with mentoring. (That's not suggesting that mentoring doesn't work by the way. It's just that I can;t be bothered to do it). 
I'm still delegating the appointment of all Staff, (with the exception of the HoYD), but when we turn Pro I'm likely tio become a little bit more involved in that to see of it can give us a bit of a kickstart, but I think I'll still end up delegating that, (unless they appoint awful personalities). 

I will become more and more picky with personalities on Youth Day and when re-signing players, but that's about it. This isn't an area I really want to micro-manage, (again, not because it isn't important, but because I just can't be bothered). 

Edited January 12 by Jimbokav1971

[BillHoudini24]

We have similar issues so far. I am following a similar logic when signing players from the youth intake, ignore low determination unless it's 4+ potential ability.

It's not that they do not develop, but they keep my personality average low in the main squad, which messes up everyone else's Determination attribute as well.

[Jimbokav1971]

5 minutes ago, BillHoudini24 said:

We have similar issues so far. I am following a similar logic when signing players from the youth intake, ignore low determination unless it's 4+ potential ability.

It's not that they do not develop, but they keep my personality average low in the main squad, which messes up everyone else's Determination attribute as well.

I think I have been a little guilty in the past of concentrating too much on personality and Det/Pro/Amb. The idea is that a player can't perform well with a poor personality is madness, but it certainly has some sort of impact. The reality at the moment is that our players are still largely so rubbish that if we get a really good player through with a slack or casual personality for example, (please don't test me FM Gods...), then I would probably still sign them because if their ability/potential even without a good personality, and I STILL wouldn't bother to tutor.mentor them. I would just develop them the best I could and that would be that. 

For example, I have downloaded the Editor and use it for stuff like Facilities tracking, but if I use it in this case to scout players and filter by CA players, let's see what the personalities of the players involved. 

The 1st page all has positive personalities, (apart from the 1 that's not known), and remember that I've previously stated that I like Fickle as a personality. 

The word Fickle is negative.
The personality Fickle isn't.

4 Perfects and a M.Citizen in the top 20 players tells it's own story, also does the complete absence of any low Amb/Det/Pro players. But that makes complete sense right? 

The 2nd page is still pretty good, (but a few more blanks here). 

The 3rd page is even what you might expect, and to those who notice the LH personalities sneaking in.... 

We have to go down 5 pages in order to get a Jovial and a Merc, but even then, what exactly are the negatives.?

  

In fact we have to go down to the 8th page, (ranked by actual CA), to find our 1st visible Unamb player. The 8th page sounds like "OMG he's so far down the rankings, but he's still an elite player with 79 Belgian Caps, is playing regularly for Atletico after spending his career at Anderlecht & Porto and has a CA of 157, (so he's a very good player). In fact his media description is "Elite attacking midfielder". 

On page 9 we have a 2nd Unamb player, but also the 1st "Balanced" player visible on the list. 

So while it's beneficial to have a good personality, it's not impossible to develop a player to an elite level with a negative personality. The same rules apply as normal, it's just he is likely to develop slightly slower and possibly not reach a really high PA. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2039. 

Scottish League 1. We secured the title by a whopping 17 points. It was easy in the end, but it didn't seem easy. 

Records. 

Debuts. With the title secured I was able to rotate the squad a little more than usual and blood some of the most recent youngsters. 

Internationals. 

Goal-scoring GK's.

Finances.

[Scribe]

Championship here we come! Congrats. 

[leicester33]

Good luck in the Championship! What do the predictions look like?

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2039. 

Overall Best XI.Only 4 of the starting XI are still playing regularly. 

Trophy cabinet. We need a 2nd shelf in the trophy cabinet. 

A change to the norm. It's been a consistent pattern throughout this save that we have both scored and conceded lots of goals, but I was astonished to find that we have conceded the fewest goals in the league this season. Rather than us being particularly tight at the back, (we still conceded 47 goals in 36 games at a rate of a 1.3 goals per game), the fact that we scored so many goals, (85 goals in 36 games at 2.36 goals per game), meant that the opposition defensive records were even worse than ours by virtue of us playing everyone 4 times in a season rather than twice as is the case in other leagues. 

Team of the Year. 

Manager of the Season. 

Internationals. 

Sneaky. This is actually a new ploy, but it's one I quite like. Although we can sometimes offer 4+3 deals, that's very much the exception rather than the rule, and more often than not it's 2+2 deals for very young players. I think the club is restricting this because we don't know how good these players are likely to be and they don't want their wages on the books if they're rubbish. The way I see it, the chances are they won't be good enough for the Premiership, (which is where we will likely be when the most recent of them start playing regularly for us), but for almost no extra up-front cost to the club I am effectively signing them to 2+2+2 deals. For these 5 players, I obviously still have options available on them, but if they don't develop then I can simply not to activate the clause and we haven't really lost anything. Looking at it now I'm surprised at the personalities of (35e) Larkin (IRL) (Unamb) and (38j) Niven (Unamb) being Unamb, (and they are both still Unamb), and in fact (38j) Niven (Unamb) is Unamb + L.Det so I think I must have been drink when I offered that deal as the lack of a * at the end of his name suggests that he was never a 5.0 PA player. I think I might have got confused between him and the Niven who is a hot prospect GK. (Yeah, I think that's what's happened). 

Either way, it's a cheeky little ploy to add +2/3 years onto the contracts of some of our young talent. If I think we're likely to get out of the Championship, (and I would say 1st year for stability and 2nd year for Playoffs), then I should think about taking advantage of this again. 

New stadium. The plans have been announced for the new stadium. Although it's bigger than the 5k capacity initially planned, it's still short of the 8k capacity we need to play European games, (although I'm assuming it can be expanded), and as well as being in Kincardine rather than Tullibody, it's also grass rather than either synthetic or a grass/synthetic mix, (which is what I was hoping for). Kincardine is actually significantly than Tullibody, (2,960 as of 2021 compared to 8,490 as of 2021), and I think I'm correct in saying that has an impact on Youth intakes. The obvious point to make here though is that we still haven't had a single player come through the intake who was born in Kincardine, so does the game know that we're "from" Tullibody despite the fact that we're playing in Kincardine? I don't know much about the IGE, but I don't seem to have access to any of that info. I haven't got the full Editor and I even know less about that, so if anyone has any insight on this I'd love to hear your opinion. 

What is particularly interesting, (and this is a 1st for me in FM), is that although the new stadium is costing £2.6M to build, we're not paying a penny towards it as it will be council owned, and they have sourced the funds via a grant, (I'm assuming from Lottery funding or Local Govt). As a result, we owe nothing and there is no loan outstanding. Now this is astonishingly good news. A real surprise to me. Of course it means we will be paying rent, but at the moment we're only paying £18,290 per year rent for use of the stadium. Whether or not this continues to be good news depends on how much we have to pay once we move in.

Finances. The only frustration I've got at the moment is that it's now been 8 seasons since we played Celtic in the Scottish Cup and 4 seasons since we lost to Falkirk in the Quarter Finals. We've been surviving on financial scraps since then and we're desperately in need of injection of cash. I don't want to have to wait to we get promoted and start playing in Europe for that injection, so I'm going to go eyeballs out for the Cup next season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, Scribe said:

Championship here we come! Congrats. 

Thanks, it was a breeze in the end. We smashed it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

3 hours ago, leicester33 said:

Good luck in the Championship! What do the predictions look like?

Thanks. Not sure at this stage because the season hasn't ticked over yet. 

I'm hoping we turn Pro in the Summer, but with our pitiful finances we might might have to wait another season. 

The prize money in the Championship is better though so that helps. 

I will be happy with anything other than 10th, but the lowest we have ever finished in a league in this save is 9th, (in League 1 in 2035/36), and even that was 22 points ahead of 10th and we finished the season really poorly. Other than that we have 5th in the West of Scotland 2nd Div (2028/29), 5th in the West of Scotland Premier Premier Division (2030/31), and 5th in League 1 (2037/38), so another 5th will de me fine.   

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2039. 

GK. There doesn't seem to be a load of difference between the CA of our GK's, but there might be a fair bit of difference in their PA. The best GK we have produced is (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * and he was loaned out from Brechin City in the Championship to Queen of the South in League 1 last season, so we might have a chance of getting him in on loan. I'm not sure whether bringing a GK in on loan makes sense in terms of developing our own players, so I will give it some thought. 

1st Team. (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) *
Backup. 
Loan. (34c) Soutar (L.Det) *
Loan. (36b) Evans (ENG) (F.Det) 5'9"
Loan. (35d) McGinlay (IRL) (Unamb) *
U18's. (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" *
U18's. (39c) Telfer (F.Pro) 6'2" *
Release. (38l) Hastings. (Unamb)

DL.

1st Team. (30l) Docherty (F.Pro)
2nd Team. (35g) Redman (F.Det)
Loan.  (38d) McMullan (NIR) (Unamb) *
Loan.  (36p) Hogarth. (Driven)
U18's. (39e) Murdoch (Spirit)
U18's. (37k) Park. (Bal)

DR.

1st Team. (35a) McColl (Bal) *
2nd Team. (33b) Skrzyński (POL)(Spirit)*
Loan. (32d) Gauld (Res)
Loan. (31l) Reid (Unamb) *
Loan. (34f) McMullan (Unamb)
U18's. (37d) Romanis (L.Heart) *
U18's.  (38n) Hamilton (Unamb)+(L.Det)

DC.

1st Team DLC. (36g) Lomax (ENG)(L.Det) 5'11"
1st Team DC. (38b) Jayes (SCO)(ENG)(Unamb)*
1st Team DRC. (34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) *

2nd Team DLC. (31g) Connolly (IRL)(Bal) 6'6"
2nd Team DC. (34e) Breslin (F.Pro) 5'11"
2nd Team DRC. (33h) Paterson (Unamb) 6'1"

Loan. 

U18's DLC.  (37l) Williams (TRI) (F.Pro)
U18's DC.  (39d) Thijssens (NED) (Bal) *
U18's DRC. (36e) Dickson (Unamb) 6'2" *
U18's Backup. (39m) Kerr (F.Det)
U18's Backup. (38p) Gordon (F.Det) 6'4" *
U18's Backup. (39o) Urquhart (Bal)

MC.

1st Team MLC. (30b) McAllister(NIR)(F.Det) *
1st Team MRC. (36c) MacKenzie (Res) *

2nd Team MLC. (38a) Arthurs (NIR) (F.Det) *
2nd Team MRC. (34d) Millar (Bal) *

Loan. (35e) Larkin (IRL) (Unamb)
Loan. (31m) Docherty. (Unamb)
Loan. (35c) Sutherland. (Unamb) *
Loan. (36m) Steven. (Bal)
Loan. (38f) Mason (L.Det)+(Unamb) *

U18's MLC. (37a) McLean (VGB) (Res) MC
U18's MRC. (37h) Romanis (SCO)(IRL)(Bal)
U18's. (37e) Renard (FRA) (Unamb)
U18's. (38o) Hastings. (IRL) (Unamb)

SC.

1st Team SLC. (33c) P.McCormack (Unamb) *
1st Team SC.  (36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)*
1st Team SRC. (39a) Banner (Bal) *

2nd Team SLC. (38i) Waddell (Res)
2nd Team SC. (37i) Morrison (Pro) *
2nd Team SRC. (37c) Brass (F.Sport) * (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal)

Loan. (31h) Donald (Res)
Loan. (34h) Shirra (SCO)(IRL) (Res)
Loan. (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal)
Loan. (36h) Stewart (Bal)

U18's SLC. (38g) Reid (L.SB)
U18's SC. (39f) Foth6 (IRL) (F.Det)
U18's SRC. (38e) S.McCormack (Bal)
U18's Backup. (37f) Ramsay (Spirit)
U18's Backup. (37j) Hanley (IRL) (Fickle)
U18's Backup. (39b) Christie (L.Det)

[Thebaker]

well done on promotion. Finances might improve after the stadium move due to increased attendances (how many sell outs did you have this season?), but i would not be surprised if the rent was nearly 100K.

Looking at your squad if you can loan in some ex players to improve the squad you should like at GK and DL where it looks weak, you rotate anyway so others will play games. It would also give the option to loan a few at a lower level.

Edited January 13 by Thebaker

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Thebaker said:

well done on promotion. Finances might improve after the stadium move due to increased attendances (how many sell outs did you have this season?), but i would not be surprised if the rent was nearly 100K.

Thanks.  Yeah I would expect that the finances will improve after the move. 

We sold out all 18 of the home League 1 games and 3 of the 5 home Cup games we played this season. The "problem", is that I don't demand is for 501 tickets, 751 tickets or 1001 tickets. Season Tickets were at about 110 at the beginning of last season and I haven't seen numbers for this season yet. That's probably not an issue though as we have gone through this season and have 2 more full years before the stadium is open, (Jun 2041). We were filling out a 500 capacity stadium as far back November 2036 in League 2, (4 sell-outs in the league that season), and then 16 out of 18 in League 1 in 2037/38 and 18/18 in League 1 again this season. 2 more years, (hopefully playing in the Championship in both of them), should see another significant increase in demand. 

Something I have never really noticed in FM, (until this save), is that it shows you the away attendances for each game, and going backwards from the end of this current season they were just 25 in each and every home league games. 

Going back to the previous season in League 1, they were 25 all the way through that 2037/38 season too. 

Our last season in League 2, (2036/37) might have only seen 4 sell-outs, but in all of these the away fans numbered exactly 25. The last time there were more away fans at a home league game was in April 2037 when our attendance was only 437 against East Fife in League 2, and they brought 45 fans, (presumably because we had some left over to sell). In November 2036 both Albion Rovers and Stenhousemuir brought 75 away fans and the Stenhousemuir game wasn't a sell-out so I'm assuming that both home & away fan demand for tickets was met. So the demand for away tickets in League 2, approx 3 years ago was less than 100, and the demand for home tickets at that time was approx 425(ish). 

Since then though we've had 2 promotions and this coming season we will be playing in a league with Fully Pro opposition with significantly larger fan bases. I don't actually know if we're going to turn Pro when the season ticks over, but I think it's a distinct possibility. 

If the rent is anything near £100k per annum for the new stadium then I will be happy with that. I think it will actually be lower though, (but will report back when I know). 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Thebaker said:

Looking at your squad if you can loan in some ex players to improve the squad you should like at GK and DL where it looks weak, you rotate anyway so others will play games. It would also give the option to loan a few at a lower level.

We regularly loan out players each season now. Last season there were 25 loans out, (although some might be the same player twice). Only 1 of the loan deals gave us a fee, (although the average loan paid 90% wages), but the main thing for me was getting players competitive game time, with the added bonus of getting young players with negative personalities away from others, (although some good personalities left too). We will absolutely be continuing with that. 

Because my overall strategy is one of gradual improvement rather than one of immediate success, I only really keep 2 players in each position, (1 for the 1st Team + 1 for the 2nd Team), and if someone gets injured/suspended then the 2nd Team player moves up to the 1st Team and the 2nd Team gap is filled from the best available in the U18's, (or a recalled loan player in Jan). I try not to keep the 3rd best player in any position at the club. Instead they will be loaned out for regular starts and that way they are more likely to be 1st or 2nd choice the next season rather than stagnating in the U18's or struggling to get a few games here and there, It's why I spend/waste so much time doing the Squad Depth post each season, (and I know that you at least have paid attention to that because you have identified weaknesses at both GK and WBL. 

GK is a position I'm torn on, (as mentioned previously). (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * is a very good player and was loaned out by Championship Brechin, (who only just avoided relegation), to Queen of the South who finished 6th in League 1 last season. I haven't checked recently, but I would expect him to be a fair bit better than our 2st choice GK. If we could get him back in on loan then while there is no doubt that it will improve us, it effectively acts as a barrier to progression for our young GK's, so while the best short-term option would definitely be to bring him in, the longer-term planner in me thinks that we might be better served just sticking with what we;ve got. The other option, (which I think is what you're suggesting), is that we loan in (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * but loan out (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) *, so the status quo remains in terms of squad depth and development opportunities. Until I get him scouted and wee if he's available next season and how much we might have to pay I'm not sure what I will do. Either way I think this is a good problem to have because we have options. 

If (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is our 1st choice GK now and is at 2.0 CA with a 3.0 PA, but we have 3x young GK's with a CA of not a million miles short of him but significantly better PA then.....

DL/WBL is a little different and we have been short in that area for quite some time. (30l) Docherty (F.Pro) and (35g) Redman (F.Det) were 1st choice last season and were some way below the desired quality, but I have decided that this season...... (actually, no I haven't)......  There was a decision to be made as to whether I would stick with those 2 or promote (39e) Murdoch (Spirit) and (38d) McMullan (NIR) (Unamb) *, and according to the depth chart I decided to stick to the more conservative option, (now I remember), to solidify our position in the Championship and play it safe and then look to blood the youngsters in our 2nd season. The difference between this season at DL and previous seasons, is that at least now we have some PA coming through and I have options. We have been so desperately short in this area for a while now and this seems like the 1st time in a while we have had any real PA in this position. 

The DL/WBL slots on our shortlist do not make for good viewing.  There is nothing there at all. (32m) Hogarth (F.Pro) was 2nd choice for us for 3 seasons, but is way off the pace now. 

Rotation. The other thing to consider of course is that I'm not actually sure yet how much opportunity there will be to rotate. When I say "rotate" what I actually mean is that I don't want players playing twice a week, so the 1st Team plays at weekends and the 2nd Team plays during the week. If we have no mid-week fixtures then the 2nd Team play a friendly on a Monday, (as do the U18's). This gives them the most amount of time to recover if I need any of them to step up to the 1st Team the following Saturday. 

The season just gone in League 1 we were in a league with 9 other teams and each teams played the others 4 times, (so 36 league games in total), but we didn't play many Cup games, so we only actually played 44 games in total, and 26 of them were played by the 1st Team. That's not ideal at all for a rotation policy. Ideally I would like this to be at 50+ and for it to be split something like 35/15(ish). Plus the 2nd Team will be on the bench for the 1st Team games and vice versa. 

This coming season in the Championship we will be in a league with 9 other Teams and again it's 4 games against each opponent so 36 league games and the Cup games are likely to be pretty similar, so actually my rotation policy isn't anywhere near as effective as I'd like to be. Add in the fact that we're just not very good and it's really asking for trouble when the 2nd Team play. It's still the best course of action imo, it's just not as effective for the 1st Team, (because the opposition aren't as tired), and it's not as conducive to development for the 2nd Team, (because they're not getting enough playing time). The Premiership is bigger, (by 2 Teams), and then we can throw European football into the mix, (hopefully), so I don't think we're a million miles away from it working effectively for us again. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Stats. Jun 2039. 

I usually make this post before assigning the Saved team selections for the following year, but this year I have done it the other way around and the benefit of doing that is that it's quite obvious who is missing out, because they no longer have a "position selected" in the 2nd column from the left. 

Squad by Appearances. You can see here that (32d) Gauld (Res) 32(5) appearances and (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal) 32(4) appearances will be big boots to fill because they have played a lot of games. 

I mentioned in a recent post that I opted for the safe option at DL/WBL and the reason I did that, (I remember now), is that I went for the risky option at DR/WBR. I'm doing the DR's this season with a view to changing the DL's next season. It really is a risk though, but how else do I blood these players? I need to be brave!

Squad by Goals. Even bigger boots to fill here in terms of goals as we "lose" quite a few goals from last seasons line-up. (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal) scored 20 goals & 8 assists last season, but doesn't make either the 1st or 2nd Team lineups this season. (That seems ridiculously harsh but we've had some really good youngsters come through in the last couple of seasons & I need to plan for the future). 

Squad by Assists. As big a loss as (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal) might be up front, (32d) Gauld (Res) will surely be a loss at RWB. The problem is that we just have 2 players with better PA and I feel like I need to play them in order for them to reach their potential. What might be a short-term loss will surely be a long-term gain, (or that's the plan anyway). As long as we don't get relegated in this coming season then this will have been a success. 

Squad by Avg Rating. Ouch. This makes men think I have made a huge mistake. I'm binning off 5 of our top 7 players by Avg Rating.   

2 of them I can ignore because they only played 1 game each, and on top of the 2 players I've already spoken about we have (35c) Sutherland. (Unamb) * who managed 4 goals and 4 assists playing for the 2nd Team in just 9(2) appearances. I really don't like him though. 

Squad by CA.

Squad by PA. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Saved Team Selections. Jun 2039. 

It's worth pointing out that there is only 1 Unamb player in the senior squad now, (if we ignore players we will be hopefully sending out on loan). 

2x Res.
1x Pro.
6x F.Pro.
3x F.Det.
5x Bal.
1x F.Loyal.
1x F.Sport.
2x Spirit. 
1x Unamb.

While the Unamb obviously isn't great, (especially when it's also twinned with (L.Det), that's nowhere near as bad as it might have been. 

We only have 1x L.Det player, (the Unamb bloke), but we also have 2 more players with Det at 7, which although not "low", certainly isn't high\ 

This is actually than I was expecting. Obviously I take personality into account when deciding on who will play, (or more like who is most likely to develop by playing), but it's good to see some improvement in this area within the limitations we have restricted ourselves with. 

2039.1.

2039.2.

Edited January 13 by Jimbokav1971