[FM24] Tulach Bòide [Scotland Tier 13]

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2039. 

Season Preview. Motherwell have just been thumped out of the Premiership and are HOT favourites and we're HUGE outsiders. 

Season Expectations. We had a 5 year plan in League 1 to "battle bravely against relegation". Now after a surprise promotion they expect us not to finish bottom. 

The 5 year plan. It's tougher in the Championship than it was in League 1. 

Reputation. When you consider that we're about to be promoted into the Championship, we're way off the pace. Interesting to see that Rangers are listed as Continental but not Celtic. I really am curious to see what's been going on up there, (but not looking until we get there ourselves). 

I looked at the same list again after the promotion had gone through. 

That's a bit better now. We're at least top of the Regional reps. (I'm guessing the difference between Regional and National is Pro status.... but actually no it's not because there are plenty below us who are pro clubs. 

 

New contract. A 3 year contract sounds great, (and is great), but they're still paying me £0. 

Academy products playing in Top 4 Scottish Leagues. I'm scouting these players in case any of them are interested in joining us now that we're in the Championship. @Thebakerhas already highlighted that it might be sensible to bring back GK (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" *, but I'm still considering it. 

Internationals. 

Finances. 

 Eh What???? How did that happen? We had £200k+ in the bank at the end of May. 

I thought the Youth costs were paid over the course of the whole season? 

They have been paid over the course of the whole season previously, but for some reason we've just had to shell out £246k this month, when it was previously £24k per month. Something doesn't seem right here. 

This is fine as long as it's a one-off, but if this is a monthly fee then we're completely screwed. 

Have we just had an upgrade? 

The Training Facilities were upgraded in 2037 & 2038, but you have to go back as far as 2036 for our last Youth Facilities upgrade, and our Youth Recruitment and Junior Coaching has been stuck at L20 for ages. 

I've just had a look online and it seems as if this is going to be a monthly fee and basically I think we're screwed. £246k as a one off is fine, (I mean it's not fine but I can deal with it), but £246k every month is £2,957,820 per year and that's not even close do doable. Even if we were in the Premiership and playing in Europe that's not doable. 

Edited January 13 by Jimbokav1971

[TIR669]

Must be a bug if nothing changed (no level up or category promotion like English FA has) yet you're paying 10 times as much. 

Niven and Murdoch (LB) look very promising, hope you'll give them playing time.

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2039. 

The things I was hoping to see happen at the beginning of this season were as follows. 

1. For us to turn Pro. 

2. For our U18's to be put in a proper league. (There is a Scottish U18 Elite League and a Scottish U18 Tier 2 League). Unfortunately they have 9 and 11 teams respectively meaning that there are only fixtures for the Top U18 clubs in the Country, (which seems ridiculous). Top 20 in Scotland means 8th in the Championship, but how that's actually converted into invitations to play I don't know. Oh hang on. There is a Scottish U18's Advanced Youth League too. 

It doesn't appear as if there is relegation/promotion between these 2 leagues, but I'm also not sure is it by invitation or will the participants just remain the same forever. 

Below them, (but not feeding into them), we have this league. 

Maybe I'm wrong though. Maybe there is promotion here as you would expect. The "Tier 3" certainly seems to suggest that they are linked. 

Next up, (or down is more accurate), we have the Lowland Development League. 

Then we have the following. 

West of Scotland Conference A. 

West of Scotland Conference B. 

West of Scotland Conference C.

West of Scotland Conference D.

Then we have the PlayerData League Cup (which appears to be some sort of U20 League Cup, but possibly not). 

The East Region League. 

The West Region League. 

Central Region League. 

There is also the SPFL Reserve League. 

The SHFL U18 North League. 

The SHFL U18 East League. 

Aberdeenshire League. 

In summary, perhaps I shouldn't have been expecting any U18's fixtures, but perhaps an U20 squad and fixtures is more likely, by why hasn't it been triggered already? 

It could be caused by the edited database, but equally it could be caused by the fact that we're never spent long enough in any league for it to trigger, and once we stay somewhere for more than 2 seasons maybe it will sort itself out and we will get an invite somewhere.

Or of course we might have been given an invite already and I just missed it. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, TIR669 said:

Must be a bug if nothing changed (no level up or category promotion like English FA has) yet you're paying 10 times as much. 

I've read up on it and it usually rises as you progress up the leagues, (and I actually looked to check that a few seasons ago). The truth is it's been far too easy to afford what we have, and maybe things are just catching up with us now. Still waiting to see if it's monthly. Nothing in July 2039 so far. 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, TIR669 said:

Niven and Murdoch (LB) look very promising, hope you'll give them playing time.

(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * will play for the 2nd Team when I rotate the squad, (so mid-week games in all competitions). 
(39e) Murdoch (Spirit) was earmarked to play in the U18's this season, but I'm considering loaning him out to the Highland League. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2039. 

League Cup. Glorified friendlies. 

Debuts. 

Records.

Season Tickets. This is a BIG increase. Wow. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 2 goals in the Raith Rovers game gets (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * off the mark early for 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%. (Is no longer at the club). 
(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 4/4 from the spot at 100%.

Finances. When the date ticked over to 31st July and we still hadn't been billed for the July Youth Setup payment I thought we had got away with it. 

We hadn't got away with it. As the date ticked over from 31st July to 1st August we were hit with this month's installment of £199,479, (down from £246,485 last month).  Maybe it will keep decreasing in size each month? (Fat chance!) 

[Jimbokav1971]

5 hours ago, TIR669 said:

Must be a bug if nothing changed (no level up or category promotion like English FA has) yet you're paying 10 times as much. 

Niven and Murdoch (LB) look very promising, hope you'll give them playing time.

 

3 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I've read up on it and it usually rises as you progress up the leagues, (and I actually looked to check that a few seasons ago). The truth is it's been far too easy to afford what we have, and maybe things are just catching up with us now. Still waiting to see if it's monthly. Nothing in July 2039 so far. 

I still don't think this is a bug. 

We do have 20 Junior Coaching and 20 Youth Recruitment after all. It should absolutely be that expensive. The problem is that we haven't reached a level yet where we're able to sell players on because big Pro Scottish clubs are offering us a pittance for our best players, (less than £100k), and it just doesn't make sense to sell them for these sort of figures. 

Once we turn Pro and get to the Premiership and start playing in Europe then  we might be in a better position to sell players for a profit. 

With that in mind I've made the following changes for next season. 

[leicester33]

good luck in the championship, you'll need it considering the Youth Facility costs

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2039. 

Scottish Championship. I will be honest with you. I was expecting better than this. Clyde and Airdrie are both Semi-Pro with us, but everyone else is Pro, but even then I was expecting better. The 2nd Team played 2 games this month, (because 2 league games were played mid-week), but surprisingly it was them who produced our only win of the month, as the 1st Team shipped 14 goals in 3 games. The only plus really is that we scored in each game, and I suppose that we're not bottom because Arbroath are still winless. What is a little concerning is the number of goals we have been conceding. 

Records. He is now the youngest ever goal-scorer in both Scottish League 1 and the Scottish Championship. 

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%. (Is no longer at the club). 
(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 5/5 from the spot at 100%.

Finances. 

Youth Setup costs seem to have levelled out at £199,480 per month now, (with is an annual cost of approx £2.4M). If we were a big club, in a big league, playing in Europe, then I think this would be well doable, but we seem a million miles away from that right now as we look more likely to be relegated than promoted. 

[Jimbokav1971]

14 hours ago, leicester33 said:

good luck in the championship, you'll need it considering the Youth Facility costs

Yep, especially as the most likely route of exiting the Championship appears to be relegation to League 1. 

On the plus side, if the financial impact of the Youth costs is this significant, I'm hoping that the impact on the actual intake might also be as significant? 

As for the finances I'm going to really just try and ignore it. We're within budget and there is not really much I can do to control it. (I'm certainly not going to look to reduce either the Junior Coaching or Youth Recruitment to save a few quid because even if we did reduce them, the costs still wouldn't drop back to what they were last season. It would just take a little off, (which is a complete waste of time). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2039. 

Scottish Championship. The 1st Team with 2 really good home performances and the 2nd Team backing that up with a great point at home to Livingston. It's a brilliant month and sees us fly up the table to the heady heights of 5th, (just 1 place and 3 points off the playoffs).  The bad news, (if there is any this month), is that Arbroath have collected 4 points and as a result are still in contention with everyone else. Ideally I would like to see them cut adrift at the bottom to give us some safety. 

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trust Trophy).

(The opposition are 1 level below us. 4th in League 1). 

Championship Player of the Month. 

Championship Young Player of the Month. 

League 1 Player of the Month. 

Internationals. 

Goal-scoring GK's. A 2nd brace of the season for (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * in the 2nd Team brings him to 5 for the season. It's interesting that all our pens have been awarded to the 2nd Team. Maybe I should look at who's winning these pens?  The bad penalty news however is that we have also faced 5 pens this season, (conceding them all). 

(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%. (Is no longer at the club).
(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 7/7 from the spot at 100%.

Finances. The finances are getting messy, but to be completely fair, considering we have had 20/20 Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment, the financial mess is probably long overdue. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2039.

Scottish Championship. Only 1 defeat in a month with 5 league games is good, but it could have been an amazing month. We conceded not 1 but 2 injury-time goals against Airdrie and played the last 18 mins against Brechin knocking on the door against 10 men, (but couldn't score). Against Clyde we had not 1 but 2 goals disallowed, and against Queens Park, we should have lost despite leading 2-0. It was a hell of a month.  I think we've actually played really well, (after the 1st month), but we;re still just 4 points clear of Arbroath in 9th. That doesn't seem a fair reward for our performances. 

Goal-scoring GK's. It was great to see (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * finally get off the mark for 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%. (Is no longer at the club).
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 15/18 from the spot at 83%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.
(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * is 7/7 from the spot at 100%.

Finances. The next few intakes had better blow my socks off. That's all I'm saying. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Ex Academy watch. Oct 2039. 

I noticed that we played against a few Academy products recently, so I thought I would update you on their progress. 

(30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * is the best GK we have produced and although he started on the bench for Brechin, he strangely came on after 72 mins, (for their GK), after their centre-mid got sent off!  He would certainly improve us, but I thought it sensible to keep with what we have. Maybe if and when we get to the Premiership we will try to re-sign him. 

Clyde had (33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * in goal, (and he kept a clean sheet), and (31j) Fullerton (Unamb) * up front. Both seem to be developing rather nicely. 

(31j) Fullerton (Unamb) * was available on a free so I offered him a contract and he re-joins us in Jan. 

I'm so happy I did this post now because I wouldn't have seen this otherwise. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2039.

Scottish Championship. A pretty good month all things considered, but we oh so nearly stole a point against Dundee in the 1st game, (with 7 players away on International duty). In the end they scored and we didn't so they nabbed all 3 points and we got diddly-squat. Still, 7 points is not too shabby at all. 

Serious injury. 

Internationals. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Rumours that (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * received his fractured skull in a training ground altercation after missing from the spot are completely without foundation! 

(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%. (Is no longer at the club).
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 15/19 from the spot at 79%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.
(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * is 7/7 from the spot at 100%.

Finances. We're leaking money like a big leaky thing with great big holes in. There isn't anything we can do though. It's all about the Youth Setup. We're £1.14M overdrawn at the bank and we've paid out £1,26M in Youth Setup costs. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2039. 

Scottish Championship. 10 points from a possible 15 is a really good month, especially when we missed a pen against Airdrie that would have earned us a point. We also should have beaten Clyde. Still, we're 5th in the league, 11 points ahead of Raith in 9th and just 2 points behind Motherwell in the last Playoff position in 4th.

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trust Trophy). We have a decent chance in the next round as Airdrie are bottom of the table. 

(The opposition are 1 league below us. 7th in League 1). 2-0 down at HT and getting played off the pitch, we were lucky to take it to pens. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 2 pens this month as (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * converted 1 from 2 spot kicks. 

(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%. (Is no longer at the club).
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 15/19 from the spot at 79%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.
(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * is 8/9 from the spot at 89%.

Finances. 

[Foulththrow]

Jimbo - been following for a while but created an account to say really enjoying it. Well done mate.

Hope the bees have a good season n’all!

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Foulththrow said:

Jimbo - been following for a while but created an account to say really enjoying it. Well done mate.

Hope the bees have a good season n’all!

Thanks very much and welcome, (sort of), to the forums. 

The Bees are going well thanks. Currently 3rd in the league, (9 points ahead of 4th) and into that last 16 of the FA Trophy, (with lots of the bug-guns already out). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2040. 

Scottish Premiership. Well the bad news is that we lose both of our league games this month. The good news is that we're now 11 points clear of Airdrie in 10th and I think we're just about safe even with 10 games still to play. 

Scottish Cup. (The Big one). We're desperate for a Cup run to bring in some cash, so of course we get Hearts in the 5th Round. (Hearts are 5th in the Premiership by the way). 

(The opposition are 3 leagues below us). 

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trophy Trust). We should be in the Semi. Not happy. 

(The opposition are in our league). When we levelled it up in the 89th min I thought we were going to pens, but they had other ideas and did away with the need for pens with a winner in the 3rd min of injury time. 

Transfers. 

Damn! I thought we had this done. 

Goal-scoring GK's. No change. 

(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%. (Is no longer at the club).
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 15/19 from the spot at 79%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.
(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * is 8/9 from the spot at 89%.

Finances. 

[Scribe]

Those finances are worrying.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Scribe said:

Those finances are worrying.

They certainly are in the short-term, but as there isn't anything I'm able to do, (or more accurately anything I'm willing to do), I plan on just ignoring it in the short term. El Chieftain has already started injecting cash to keep the debt at a manageable level and I'm not overly concerned at this stage, (even though I would agree that it really doesn't look great). 

In the medium term, (considering that we're currently in a 500 capacity stadium and there is a no-cost 6,225 capacity stadium being built), I'm not sure how big a problem it's likely to be. Our annual income from attendances in a 500 capacity stadium in League 1 was just £290k (which is a pittance), so as a very rough rule of thumb I would expect a season in the Championship in the new stadium to be worth about £1M minimum in gate receipts alone, (but that's a complete guess and I haven't factored in price rises at all, which were huge the last 2 years I think). 

You also might have noticed that I activated the English, Spanish, Italian and..... possibly French top tiers, and the idea behind this is to generate interest in our players and generate some much needed transfer income. I'm not sure we're producing players of that calibre just yet, (because none of our players have gone to Celtic/Rangers for example, and very few have attracted the interest of Hibs, Hearts & Aberdeen, ie, the 2nd tier as far as I'm concerned), so while I don't think it will be an immediate fix, I think the fact that we're now at National reputation should give our intakes another boost, and then when we turn pro, (which I think would have happened in the Summer had we not been running at such a loss), our intakes should get another boost on top of that, (although I remember from my Irchester save our intakes actually becoming noticeably poorer after we turn pro).

The other thing to consider of course is that I expect our Youth Setup costs to increase still further if/when we get promoted to the Premiership.

Until we move into this new stadium and see what sort of attendances we're getting, how much we're able to charge for tickets, how many away fans are travelling, (might be significant), and of course the linked match day income/Season Ticket sales I actually think it's really hard to work out where we might be. 

This is where we are now. 

Because we only have 500 tickets available, (and 25 of them go to the opposition), demand far exceeds supply so the price of both Season Tickets and normal tickets has risen sharply. 

270 Season tickets at £198 per pop generates only £53,460 each season and that's over half our available capacity. Even with the average price per ticket rocketing to £20, with only 230 remaining tickets, (of which 25 go to the opposition), that still only generates a further (230 seats x £20 x 18 games = £82,800). 

This means that our total gate receipts for league matches can only be approx £136,260 over the course of this season. 

If look at home games for the clubs with the bigger stadiums in this league.....

First of all it shows how short we are in terms of capacity. 

But also season tickets. Dundee don't get £2.5 from gate receipts each season. They get £2.5M from season tickets alone. 

The average attendance for Dundee for example is 10,203, and we already know that 8,123 of them are season tickets, (that seems high to me but let's go with it), it means that they are selling an average of 2,080 normal tickets for each game and we know that the average price of a normal ticket there is £25, so on top of the £2.5M they're generating from season ticket sales, they're also generating (2,080 x £25 x 18)  = £936,000 from individual ticket sales meaning that their gate receipts for league games is approx £3.43M. Surprisingly, they haven't had any sell-outs despite them selling out to the tune of 86% in average. When you consider that their games against us will be MUCH smaller, it's surprising that there are no sell-outs. 

You know what is interesting.... how many fans we take away at the moment. 

92 Raith
92 Clyde
64 Brechin
104 Livingston
82 Dundee
138 Motherwell
74 Arbroath

Now let's look at Clyde, who have an average attendance of 2,545 and a capacity of 6,018 and see what sort of attendance they're getting and how it's split. 

1,588 (113 away). Us. 
2,071 (515 away). Brechin.
2,567 (1,038 away). Dundee.
2,573 (790 away). Airdrie.
1,518 (243 away). Arbroath. 
4,776 (3009 away). Motherwell.
1,391, (214 away). Raith.
2,594 (1,143 away). Livingston.
6,018 (3,009 away). Queens Park.
2,482 (791 away). Airdrie.
1,702 (427 away). Brechin.
1,499 (92 away). Us. 
2,315 (904 away). Dundee. 

This is amazing news. 

The reason this is such amazing news is because it doesn't really matter how many home fans we have. The income will still be increased enormously simply by the fact that we can sell so many tickets to away fans. 

After looking at that I think the £1M gate receipts from league fixtures over the course of a season are enormously conservative. I know that Motherwell & Clyde are very near eachother, but there.... oh. Queens Park are close too so maybe that skews that too. And Airdrie are close too....  Dundee aren't close though. They're on the other side of us to the East, and they tool about 1,000 away fans to each Clyde game. 

I'm feeling slightly more positive about the medium term finances after looking at that. Will be interesting to see how many bums we get on seats in the new stadium.

[Jimbokav1971]

Interest from the Old Firm. Feb 2040. 

Celtic showed a passing interest in GK (30a) Ogilvie (Fickle) 6'2" * early in his career, but this is the 1st time either of the Old Firm have made a bid for one of our players. 

These are pitiful fees and I'm guessing that they are bidding so low because we're still Semi-Pro. 

At 16 he shouldn't really be starting games at this level, so I'm quite happy with the modest return of 7 goals and 5 assists from 19(2) appearances in all competitions. He's way off it physically but I like the look of him. The fact that the Old Firm are in for him suggests he might have a high ceiling. 

After receiving the low bids from Celtic and Rangers, (I must admit I have been waiting for them to bid on someone), I wondered just for a minute if the transfer system was bugged, so i looked at the biggest Transfer Deals in Scotland this season to see how much they were spending on players. 

Rangers spent £92M on 2 players in January, (and I will show you them assuming they are newgens). 

We're only 1 league below Rangers and they're paying this guy £100,000 per week.  

This guy looks a hell of a signing. 

Just going back to June.... what jumps out at me straight away is that while there is certainly lots of money flying around, (both in and out which is great), very little of it is being either spent by or paid to Celtic. 

They sold a player to Sheff Utd for approx £1M.
They sold another player to Watford for approx £1M.
They sold a 3rd player to Villarreal for approx £6M.
They sold a 4th player to Kilmarnoch for approx £1M.
They bought a player from Sporting for £4.3M

This is the 1st sign I have had that Rangers are very much on top. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2040. 

Scottish Championship. The good news is that with 8 games still to play we're just about safe from relegation. Airdrie, (who have played 1 game more), would need to collect 12 more points from their remaining games, (at 1.7 points per game), when they have so far collected points at 0.86 points per game. Even Raith in 9th are 11 points behind us so I don;t think they have a cat in hell's chance of catching us either. Looking upwards..... we're just 6 points off Livingston who appear to be in freefall, but Motherwell are in decent form and favourites to take the last playoff spot. 

Scottish Cup. (The Big one). We did really well but Hearts finished strongly and we didn't take enough of our ealy chances. We were the better team in 90 mins but they were very strong in ET and especially so after we were reduced to 10 men due to injury having made all 5 subs. It's typical that we were drawn to play Hearts, and even more typical that we were drawn at home so we don't even get any money out of it. They fact that we actually drew the game in 90 mins makes it even worse.  The Extra Time against a Pro team has properly knocked the stuffing out of us too. 4 of the starting XI need a rest and 2 are injured. What have I done! 

(The opposition are in the league above us. 3rd in the Premiership). I'm not positive, but I think this might be the 1st game we've played that has been decided by Extra-Time. Previously all our Cup games that were level after 90 mins went straight to pens didn't they? 

Goal-scoring GK's. Disgusted to report that (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * missed not 1 but 2 penalties against Airdrie. Thankfully we still won the game. 

Finances. Never has the saying, "to add insult to injury" been more apt. 

We received £123k for playing on the TV in the Scottish Cup, but I didn't see the message. Apologies. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day. Mar 2040. 

After our Rep popped to National, I was really hoping for a bumper crop from this seasons intake, and I also wondered if we might get some players from within Scotland but further afield than Alloa. 

It's certainly a good intake, but it's still not what I would call "heavy" on CA, and maybe I just need to accept that we're just not going to produce the "CA monsters" that I was expecting until either we turn pto and/or our Rep increases to Continental/Worldwide. 

I'm really surprised that our Rep is now National, yet every single Scottish born player was still born in Alloa. Maybe this is right though as these players who have just come through the intake now would have been recruited 4-5+ years ago, (when our Rep was lower), On the other hand, maybe I'm moulding the results to fit my opinion. It certainly seems to "feel" different to the way it worked when I did my L10 Irchester save in England. 

Semi-Pro status will surely have an impact too, and it seems ridiculous that we will have played a whole season, (at least), in the Scottish 2nd tier while still being a Semi-Pro club. In the past I think there were multiple criteria that had to be met before you could turn Pro, (financial & reputational at least off the top of my head). I wonder will us being in debt be a barrier to turning Pro like it would have been in older versions of the game? 

I have mentioned previously that I will be on the lookout for players with unusual Nationalities, (such as PHI, UZB or PER), but actually I don't think any of these qualify because (1) it has to be a Primary Nationality rather than a Secondary Nationality and (2) Where it is a Primary Nationality, the Secondary Nationality can exist but can be common, (such as the home Nation). While they both look decent, I don't expect them to be the "monsters" I've encountered before and maybe that was never a thing. 

You will notice that all the Scottish born players were still born in Alloa. 

The personalities are pretty good on the whole. (Spirited is only on the left because it's sorted alphabetically). 

 

There are 4 players who are in danger of being released immediately. 

(40m) Paz (Temp) (PER)(SCO) will be offered a contract simply because of his Nationality. 

(40h) Marshall (Unamb)+(L.Det) is odd in so much as I REALLY don't want to sign an (Unamb)+(L.Det) player, but we're so weak at DL that I can't afford not to sign him before I can get a better idea of what his PA really is. Ideally I will sign him to a Youth Contract and then if he isn't great then i will just bin him off. 

(40n) Woods. (Unamb) has already been released. 

(40d) Gallagher (IRL) (L.Det) is Low Det, but not also Unamb. he appears to have decent PA so I will offer him a contract and see how he goes. 

5.0 PA players. 

(40a) Brass (F.Pro) looks to have decent physicals, but he can't dribble and has rubbish composure. He looks more like a PF than an AF to me, (but not ideal for either).

(40b) Stewart (SCO)(IRL) (Pro) has great passing, technique and workrate as well as good Det and Pro. I really like him. I mean I REALLY like him. He's the best player we've produced so far. 

(40c) Villanueva (PHI) (Res) is just a disaster of a 5.0 centre-half.  We're properly desperate for a centre-half and we get this 5.0 bloke through and he's 5'9" with jumping of 6 and strength of 6. He's basically a wet streak of yellow stuff.  I think I'm going to have to keep him as a centre-half, because we're going to need him, and maybe try to use him as the Libero where he's spare and isn't going man for man. Such a shame. 

"What do you want to be when you grow up son?"

"Bigger". 

 

(40d) Gallagher (IRL) (L.Det) looks ok, but nothing special. 

All in all this looks a really good intake on 1st impressions, but when you dial into the detail it looks less good the more you see. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day continued. Mar 2040. 

Something caught my eye when I was going through offering contracts. 

11 of the 16 players have come through the intake with Regional rep. 

(40a) Brass (F.Pro) 

(40b) Stewart (SCO)(IRL) (Pro) 

(40c) Villanueva (PHI) (Res) 

(40d) Gallagher (IRL) (L.Det) 

(40e) Qurbonov (UZB) (Res) 

(40f) Ellis (SCO)(ENG) (Bal) 

(40g) Paterson (IRL) (F.Pro) 

(40h) Marshall (Unamb)+(L.Det) 

(40i) Paterson (IRL) (Spirit) 

(40l) Robertson (F.Pro) 

(40o) Banner (F.Amb) 

The remaining 5 players, (40j) Denholm (Bal), (40k) McKay (Bal), (40m) Paz (Temp) (PER)(SCO), (40n) Woods. (Unamb) & (40p) Tomaszewski (Bal) have all come through with 

Weirdly, I can't find any way to add this info to my "view". Any suggestions? 

There is "World Reputation", but it shows like this for both categories. 

This is the section it's in. 

Preferred Foot is in the General section. 

Personality is in the General section.

Media Description is in the General section.

GK rating doesn't seem to be anywhere. 

Player Traits also doesn't seem to be anywhere. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2040. 

Scottish Championship. It was a bit of a strange month on so much as the results were really up and down. 1st up we absolutely smashed Brechin, but I got a bit muddled up and played the 1st Team against Brechin on a Wednesday when it should have been the 2nd Team, and then the 2nd Team had to play on the Saturday against Clyde because the 1st Team were knackered. I wonder if I had swapped things around then would we have won both games? I suspect so. We were much the better team against CLyde but just couldn't put the ball in the net.  We then went and battered Queens Park and just as I thought we had scored a 90th min winner, they fought back to level in 94th min.  After 3 really good performances, we were poor against Raith Rovers as fatigue, injury and suspension finally caught up with us. 

Debuts. 

Internationals. 

Goal-scoring GK's. 1 successful pen for (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * this month and he's being chased by a host of Championship clubs and even St Johnstone of the Premiership. 

Finances. Still only 1 investment of £479,440 from El Chieftain as our debt continues to grow. It feels like a vicious circle at the moment whereby we're only getting paltry bids for our players because we're a PT club, but we can;'t turn Pro without money which we can't get because nobody will give us the true value of our players because we're a PT club. 

[BML]

Gah, that Filipino is disappointing in a so near, yet so far kinda way. Ticks a lot of boxes (fun nationality, great personality & in a position of need) but you can't play a 9st 5'9'' centre half at any decent level, in my opinion.

I'm not in front of the game right now, but I'd be looking in the 'Training' or 'AssMan Reports' section for the 'missing' columns in your 'view'.

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2040. 

Scottish Championship. We seemed like we downed tools immediately after securing our safety. Yeah we were tired and injured and whatever but.... 

Debuts. 

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%. (Is no longer at the club).
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 15/19 from the spot at 79%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.
(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * is 10/14 from the spot at 71%.

Finances. It's not looking good, but it's also not going to change for the better anytime soon. 

[Jimbokav1971]

23 minutes ago, BML said:

Gah, that Filipino is disappointing in a so near, yet so far kinda way. Ticks a lot of boxes (fun nationality, great personality & in a position of need) but you can't play a 9st 5'9'' centre half at any decent level, in my opinion.

"So near yet so far" is really apt. We will just have to see how he develops. He has already made his debut and interestingly completed 2/2 headers. 

[Jimbokav1971]

29 minutes ago, BML said:

I'm not in front of the game right now, but I'd be looking in the 'Training' or 'AssMan Reports' section for the 'missing' columns in your 'view'.

I've checked everywhere. Still can't find it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2040.

Scottish Championship Golden Boot. 

Team of the Season. 

Internationals. 

We received £32,500 for (34a) McGrandles (F.Det) * by way of compensation and now he's playing for Scotland at the EURO's. We did have a % of profit clause on him but I flogged it, (for about £1.3M if memory serves me right). 

Finances. This doesn't make sense to me at all. the board have injected £480,090 last month, (20th May), but nothing this season and £959,530 last season. So the money that was invested last month was invested last season, despite the fact that the season hasn't ticked over yet.  

[Rikulec]

That's a solid first season after promotion. 

[Jimbokav1971]

50 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

That's a solid first season after promotion. 

Considering we only took 4 points from a possible 21 over our last 7 games I think it was a great league campaign when you consider that we missed the Playoffs by 12 points.

Assuming we don't have any disasters between now and next season, (in terms of players leaving), I can see us giving the playoffs a right good go. Automatic promotion is probably a bit of a stretch with Motherwell still here plus whoever comes down from the Premiership. We;re scoring so many goals, (1st and 3rd in the Golden boot), that I don't think we will have to prove much defensively to have a significant impact. 

The problem with having a £1M hole at the bank though is that it means El Chieftain might become involved in transfers if they offer us proper money for someone. I actually don;t mind selling as long as we get something decent up front and also decent add-ons. The only negative to selling right now is that any up-front value we get for anyone will just immediately be swallowed by the debt and we will be back to square 1 again before too long. 

[Jimbokav1971]

8 minutes ago, _Ben_ said:

Do you play with the base skin? I can amend some stuff in a property file so that you can add these? Let me know!

I use Wannachup IR. I don't have a clue about skinning. I know all the info is there. Just no idea how to access it. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Season Stats. Jun 2040. 

Squad by Appearances. We played 45 games this season, (according to our 2 GK appearances), and I think I managed minutes better this season with nobody making more than 16 starts, and he only making 2 sub appearances. 

Squad by Goals. Our front 3 all hit double-figure goals and (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * should have hit double-figures too, (only converting 8 of 13 pens). (37i) Morrison (Pro) * was a big miss in this respect, (damaged cruciate ligaments), and I think we might have made the playoffs had he stayed fit. 

Squad by Assists. The difference between our strength at DR and DL was highlighted in accurately by (35a) McColl (Bal) * contributing 12 assists from WBR and (30l) Docherty (F.Pro) struggling to contribute 4 assists from a similar amount of game-time. 

Squad by Avg Rating. It's a little surprising to see just 4 players in the green for the season, but that would have been seriously impacted by our late season form. 

Squad by CA. This is everyone at the club who has better than 2.0 CA. 

Squad by PA. These are all the 5.0 PA players at the club. 

[_Ben_]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I use Wannachup IR. I don't have a clue about skinning. I know all the info is there. Just no idea how to access it. 

I posted then hid this because you can’t actually get a ‘list’ of traits - which I swore you could’ve before. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. Jun 2040. 

I think I made some errors last season when I did this, particularly in the DL and DC areas. Not so much with the 1st Team selections, but absolutely with the 2nd Team selections. Were these big enough errors to have made up a 12 points difference? Probably not, but in line with some of the other errors I made, (such as playing the wrong Team on the wrong day against the wrong opposition), then yeah quite possibly. I need to remember that it's now about how good they are now. It's about how good they might be over the course of a season, (and that's a significant growth period for many of these young players. 

GK. We've been really lucky with GK's throughout the save so far, (at least it seems that way to me), and now we have a few decent GK's at the club as well as 2 GK's playing in the Championship. At this stage I don't think it makes sense to try too hard to bring an old player back in an area where we have so much depth of potential, especially with the finances as they are. We will effectively be paying more in wages, (agreed for a better player), but then also clogging the pathway for the next player coming through. Ideally I want to be selling a GK who has had a good couple of seasons and then slotting the next one straight in. If you're wondering why I'm keeping so many GK's at the club it's because I'm concerned that due to our financial position the board might start accepting any bids at all and that the better players might start flying out the door and leave us with nothing in terms of a 1st Team. It seems to make sense to plan for our best players leaving, especially when they're wanted by bigger clubs. 

1st Team. (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * missed most of last season with a fractured skull of all things,  but is on the mend and I now see that he is wanted by both Celtic and Hibs. 
2nd Team. (34c) Soutar (L.Det) *
Loan. (37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * played for us for most of last season and is now wanted by both Dundee clubs & St Johnstone. 
Loan. (36b) Evans (ENG) (F.Det) 5'9"
Loan. (35d) McGinlay (IRL) (Unamb) *
Loan. (34c) Soutar (L.Det) *
U18's. (39c) Telfer (F.Pro) 6'2" *
U18's. (40e) Qurbonov (UZB) (Res) * Despite his cool 2nd Nationality, I don't like this player at all and don't understand his CA rating. He seems WAY off it. 
Sell/Release. (38l) Hastings. (Unamb)

DL. I think I got the selection badly wrong here last season. I opted for (30l) Docherty (F.Pro) and  (35g) Redman (F.Det) rather than making the brave choice of (38d) McMullan (NIR) (Unamb) * & (39e) Murdoch (Spirit) and I'm determined not to make the same mistake again. I need to bring the youngsters through even if they're not quite ready. I bottled it last season. There is a slight problem in that both my 1st and 2nd choice DL's are in International squads, so for that reason I will be keeping a 3rd DL at the club as backup unless I think there is an U18 player who can act as 4rd choice at a good enough standard. 

1st Team. (38d) McMullan (NIR) (Unamb) *
2nd Team. (39e) Murdoch (Spirit)
Backup. (30l) Docherty (F.Pro) is listed as a star player and I think he's our captain. I might have to get rid of him so his unhappiness doesn't cause an issue. 
U18's. (40h) Marshall (Unamb)+(L.Det)
U18's. (37p) Gibson. (Spirit) PPM
Sell/Release. (35g) Redman (F.Det) made 12(20) appearances last season and is out of contract. I'm going to release him because his physicals are awful. He should never have played last season. 
Sell/Release. (36p) Hogarth. (Driven) is really just here because of his personality. 

DR. This is a strong area for us, and inspired by Ange Postecoglou I'm going to try something a little risky this season. I know everyone says that you can't do anything will small centre-backs, (or more specifically small centre-backs who aren't good in the air), but desperate times call for desperate measures and our bigger centre-backs are just not doing it so something needs to change. I don't have the luxury of bringing in new players and the recent intake only brought me another midget, so let's do this!  In actual fact this isn't as strong as I thought, but I'm still going to move 1 DR to centre-half. (I think). 

1st Team. (35a) McColl (Bal) * is wanted by 3 Premiership clubs and if he goes he goes as long as we get decent money and add-ons for him. 
2nd Team. (32d) Gauld (Res) was loaned out to Forfar in League 1 last season & did well so he will get another chance. 
U18's. (37d) Romanis (L.Heart) * should be loaned out, but I need to keep him here in case we lose either of our 1st choice 2. 
U18's. (40p) Tomaszewski (Bal)
Sell/Release. (31l) Reid (Unamb) *

DC. This has been a real problem area for a while now, but we are slowly just starting to show signs of getting to the level we need to be at. 

1st Team DLC. (36g) Lomax (ENG)(L.Det) 5'11"
1st Team DC. (38b) Jayes (SCO)(ENG)(Unamb)* I think I'm fighting a losing battle with this bloke, (Unamb + L.Det), but I'm not giving up. 
1st Team DRC. (34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) *

2nd Team DLC. (39d) Thijssens (NED) (Bal) *
2nd Team DC. (33b) Skrzyński (POL)(F.Pro)* is a converted right back. 
2nd Team DRC. (34e) Breslin (F.Pro) 5'11"

Loan. (36e) Dickson (Unamb) 6'2" *
Loan. (34f) McMullan (Unamb) DC
Loan. (38p) Gordon (F.Det) 6'4" *

U18's DLC. (37l) Williams (TRI) (F.Pro) & (40i) Paterson (IRL) (Spirit)
U18's DC. (40c) Villanueva (PHI) (Res) *
U18's DRC. (40k) McKay (Bal) * & (39o) Urquhart (Bal)

Sell/Release. (33h) Paterson (F.Pro) 6'1"
Sell/Release. (31g) Connolly (IRL)(Bal) 6'6"

MC. Just look at the 6x Unamb players at the bottom of the list. I need to get rid of them if I can. 

1st Team MLC. (30b) McAllister(NIR)(F.Det) * is in the last year of his contract with no option. I will sell if I can. 
1st Team MRC. (36c) MacKenzie (Res) *

2nd Team MLC. (38a) Arthurs (NIR) (F.Det) *
2nd Team MRC. (40b) Stewart (SCO)(IRL)(Pro)*

Backup. (34d) Millar (Bal) *

Loan. (37a) McLean (VGB) (Res) MC
Loan. (35e) Larkin (IRL) (Unamb)
Loan. (38f) Mason (L.Det)+(Unamb) *
Loan. (38o) Hastings. (IRL) (Unamb)

U18's MLC. (40l) Robertson (F.Pro) *
U18's MRC. (40f) Ellis (SCO)(ENG)(Bal) MC

Sell/Release. (30b) McAllister(NIR)(F.Det) *
Sell/Release. (34d) Millar (Bal) * is leaving on a free at the end of the season. 
Sell/Release. (31m) Docherty. (Unamb)
Sell/Release. (37e) Renard (FRA) (Unamb) Released.
Sell/Release. (35c) Sutherland. (Unamb) *
Sell/Release. (35e) Larkin (IRL) (Unamb)

(34a) McGrandles (F.Det) * is more of a striker than a midfielder, but to be honest he's so good he could play anywhere he wants. No chance of us getting him though. 
(32e) Dick (Bal) * is listed for loan and I would love to bring him back.
(33d) Martin (Pro) * has just been promoted from League 2 to League 1 but I would still being him back in if I could. 

SC.

1st Team SLC. (33c) P.McCormack (Unamb) *
1st Team SC. (36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)* won the Championship Golden Boot last season so wouldn't be surprised to see him leave. 
1st Team SRC. (39a) Banner (Bal) *

2nd Team SLC. (37c) Brass (F.Sport) * 
2nd Team SC. (37i) Morrison (Pro) * (Injured long-term). (31j) Fullerton (Unamb) *
2nd Team SRC. (40a) Brass (F.Pro) * Loan. 

Loan. (36h) Stewart (Bal)
Loan. (34h) Shirra (SCO)(IRL) (Res)
Loan. (37j) Hanley (IRL) (Fickle)
Loan. (39b) Christie (L.Det)
Loan.

U18's SLC. (40g) Paterson (IRL) (F.Pro) * & (40d) Gallagher (IRL) (L.Det)
U18's SC. (39i) Shaw (Bal) * & 39f) Foth6 (IRL) (F.Det)
U18's SRC. (39i) Shaw (Bal) * & (38e) S.McCormack (Bal)

Sell/Release. (32a) Kelly (SCO)(IRL) (Bal)
Sell/Release. (31h) Donald (Res)
Sell/Release. (37f) Ramsay (Spirit) Released.
Sell/Release. 

[Jimbokav1971]

13 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

I posted then hid this because you can’t actually get a ‘list’ of traits - which I swore you could’ve before. 

I've looked and looked and looked for that before, because I'm sure I've seen someone with a view showing that before. Wish I could remember who it was. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2040. 

I was just thinking we hadn't had one of these for a while. (That's decent PA for us by the way). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Reputation. Jun 2040. 

Just to give you some sort of idea of the difference involved. 

7,431 Rangers
6,923 Celtic (Ridiculous)
6,607 Aberdeen 
6,470 Hibs
6.426 Hearts
Kilmarnock
Ross County
5.,667 Dundee Utd
St Johnstone
5,549 Falkirk
Motherwell 
Dunfermline
St Mirren
4,839 Dundee
Queens Park
Livingston
Clyde
Arbroath
4,110 Brechin
3,975 Raith 
3,693 Tullibody There is still a loooooong way to go. 
3,668 Airdrie

[Jimbokav1971]

Finances. Jun 2040. 

I'll be completely honest with you. I haven't got a clue what is going on with the Youth Setup costs.  I can tell you that it cost us £2.1M last season, (but not why). 

The board injected 2 lots of cash amounting to £959,530 last season to keep the debt down. 

What's more they have slashed our wage budget in half now, meaning that we're suddenly overspending. I understand why they've done it, but we can't fix it overnight.

We need to sell someone, but there is no point in selling someone for £100k or £200k. It's a complete waste. 

The problem is that we've got another 12 months before we move into the new stadium. 

Edited January 17 by Jimbokav1971

[TIR669]

Why do you think new stadium will change something in youth costs? Or are you just expecting bigger income due to higher attendances?

 

Unlucky finish last season and no cup run, curious about your players, you have a lot of text but no first team+rotation players profiles - would like more of those if possible. I know you send them every now and then for players after awards, transfers etc.

 

What's the most valuable player you have now according to transfer value? Like the GK with interest from the Prem?

[Jimbokav1971]

2 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Why do you think new stadium will change something in youth costs? Or are you just expecting bigger income due to higher attendances?

The new stadium won't change our Youth Costs, but I think it's going to have an enormous impact on our income. 

If you look at our income for last year, it's ridiculously low. 

The 2 investments from the board amounted to £959k, but the next highest income line over the whole season was prize money at £364k and then Gate Receipts at £194k. Season Tickets were only £53k. Off the top of my head I think we're going to be a minimum of £1M per season better off in the new stadium, (but it's hard to be exact because I don't know what the demand for tickets actually is, I don't know how much we will charge, and I also don't know how much rent we will have to pay). I think somewhere in the region of £1M extra income is a reasonable ball-park figure. 

[Jimbokav1971]

8 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

Unlucky finish last season and no cup run, curious about your players, you have a lot of text but no first team+rotation players profiles - would like more of those if possible. I know you send them every now and then for players after awards, transfers etc.

Let me show you a few right now. 

(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * was wanted by Celtic but no longer. I would happily let him got for £200k +25% + a friendly but then again he is valued at only £2k-£10k. 

(34b) Morrison (ENG) (Resil) * is our best defender and I hope we get at least £500k for him is he goes. He's contracted for 2 more seasons and I hope someone buys him before then. 

(30b) McAllister(NIR)(F.Det) * has been listed for sale at £100k because he's into the last year of his contract and while he;s certainly good, it wouldn't kill us to replace him. We've already lost him once on a free so I would like to get a fee this time if possible. (His valuation is actually £55k). 

(36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)* won the Championship Golden Boot last season but doesn't look amazing. I've got him on a 2+3 deal though so I'm in no rush to let him leave when he scores like that. Dunfermline of the Premiership are interested in him right now. 

[Jimbokav1971]

18 minutes ago, TIR669 said:

What's the most valuable player you have now according to transfer value? Like the GK with interest from the Prem?

If I sort the squad by valuation, this is what it looks like. 

(35a) McColl (Bal) * is valued so highly because he's now owned by a Premiership club and we have just got him back in on loan. (More on that in my next update). 
(39a) Banner (Bal) * is wanted by Celtic so I have stuck a valuation on him of £1M to put them off. His actual valuation is £4.5k-£45k.
(38a) Arthurs (NIR) (F.Det) * was wanted by Premiership clubs but no longer. His valuation is actually £12k-£22k. 
(39d) Thijssens (NED) (Bal) * is wanted by 2 Premiership clubs. His actual valuation is £26k-£55k.
(36c) MacKenzie (Res) * has a valuation of £80k-£140k and that's accurate. 
(36a) Cunningham (IRL)(F.Det)* has a valuation of £60k-£700k. 

I wonder if they are only interested because of the low valuations, which are caused by our Semi-Pro status, (I think). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2040. 

League Cup. (Premier Sports Cup). They're just friendlies. 

U21 Squad. We've been entered into the SPFL Reserve Cup and the Reserve Challenge Cup, and we've been given an U21 squad. 

U18's. I'm hoping that this means we've also got U18's fixtures.....

Nothing yet.  

Paltry bids. I don't really why these bids are so low. I've even set an asking price of £1M, (he's worth more), but still these ridiculous tiny bids keep being made. 

The 1st of many exits? £185k + £67,500 is paltry, but I completely understand why it was accepted. 30% profit. a friendly with a Premiership club, (that I would love to try and carry over to the new stadium next season) and 30% of any profit made is just what we will have to accept. I don't think I'm even going to protest this. 

At least we get him for the rest of this season. I wonder how much he will be worth 12 months from now when he finally joins them? 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2040. 

Season Tickets. I'm really surprised that this hasn't increased. I think it more than doubled last season but maybe this is linked to the stadium move and stuff being in limbo. 

Season Preview. The board want me to avoid relegation, so even 2nd bottom and in the Playoffs, (as long as we win), is fine by them. They haven't got a scooby thought because at the moment they're unhappy with my attention to the "Develop players using the clubs Youth System" philosophy. Eegits.  If there is 1 thing on the planet you can't dig me out about then that's it. The supporters on the other hand are delighted about exactly the same philosophy, AND it's more important to the fans, (requires versus preferred).

My expectations are that we finish mid-table 5th-7th, but I would love to be in the mix for the playoffs even if we fall a little short. How well we do in both halves of the season is likely to depend on how many players leave in each window. At the moment we've only lost 2 and 3 days left of the Summer window. If we don't lose any more until Jan I will be well chuffed. 

Scottish Championship. 2 good home wins, (with clean sheets), is a great opening month. Last season we played 5 games in the opening month and only won 1. Any improvement is good by me. 

Queens Park finished 4th last season with 56 points from 36 games at 1.56 point per game. 
Clyde finished 4th in 2038/39 with 50 points from 36 games at 1.39 points per game. 
Queens Park finished 4th in 2037/38 with 49 points from 36 games at 1.36 points per game. 
Ayr Utd finished 4th in 2036/37 with 56 points from 36 games at 1.55 points per game. 
Clyde finished 4th in 2035/36 with 52 points from 36 games at 1.44 points per game. 

So basically we need to be aiming for something like 1.50 points per game and so far that's exactly where we're at. 

I think rotation might play more of a part here and we might even have to consider "throwing" tough away games in order to be completely rested for easier home games just to ensure we maximize the return we get from our easier games. 

Transfers. 

It's not all bad news though. 

We also lost a member of staff to Fulham. I haven't bothered showing you him because I've never looked at him myself. The only staff member I have recruited so far is our current HoYD. Everyone else has been appointed by whoever I delegated it to. 

Database. If your're wondering where the hell Gladbach is in Scotland,  I'm not sure if I mentioned that I mentioned that I added some playable leagues this season. It was meant to just be the top tier in each Nation, but I will have to wait for next year now to update that. I've also cancelled all the little diddy Scottish leagues. We're not going down there again, (I hope), so it doesn't make sense to keep them running. 

Finances. We've lost 2 players and it's hardly made a dent in our debt. In fact things have remained largely the same. 

The Board haven't put any more money in. 

But the Youth Setup costs are all over the place. I usually don't pay a huge amount of attention to this because it just a required cost of the way I play and it doesn't really matter how much it costs because I just need to find the money from somewhere. I would like to be able to explain to you what's going on here but I really haven't got the foggiest. If anyone has some suggestion, ideas, thoughts or anything else then please feel free to benefit us all with your wisdom, because I've got absolutely nothing!  

[Jimbokav1971]

National Team production. Oct 2040. 

I think this is the 1st time I have seen this page in the save. (34a) McGrandles (F.Det) * has got 15 Caps and 6 goals so maybe I've just missed it in the past. 

PSG are interested in signing him! 

Aberdeen must have a hell of a forward line if they're willing to let him go out on loan. 

If he goes to PSG, (or anywhere else), the 3% solidarity payment of £38M is approx £1.14M. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2040. 

Scottish Championship. A really bad month. A really really REALLY bad month. The Clyde result in particular was bad. It was really bad. 

I think we need to re-evaluate. Anything other than relegation will be a result this season. We're a shambles and the 2 midfielders were significantly more important than I anticipated. 

Challenge Cup. (SPFL Trust Trophy) I really thought we had a chance of progressing in this tournament and I'm astonished that we were taken apart by a team from the league below. It was such a nothing game that we didn't even sell out the 500 capacity. It seems the players thought it was that important too.  They don't seem to understand that there is prize money at stake and we are literally desperate for cash. If we don't get in a good Cup run in the next couple of years we're gonna be in a right state. 

(The opposition are in the league below us). We were battered. We might have bossed possession but they HAMMERED us. 

Debuts. 

Transfers. We're making more from staff than we are from players. 

I didn't sell (30b) McAllister(NIR)(F.Det) * for the £50k, (although it all adds up), but I did sell him for the 25% of next sale. The fact that Bolton are in the Championship, predicted to finish last and the Championship becomes inactive after this season did not impact upon my thought process when I accepted. I think this was a huge error because not only will there not be any future sale never mind a sell-on fee for us to take a cut of, but he will also now vanish from the database and we won't be able to sign him on a free when we get to the Premiership. I'm such an eegit.    Still, in all seriousness he was on a few quid in wages and I need to get that down so we can afford to sign the Youth Intake later in the season. We MUST be within budget by then. 

Internationals. 

Goal-scoring GK's. Don't be silly. There are some games now when we don'tb even have goal-scoring strikers! 

I think the stat that best sums up our season so far is that we have been awarded 1 pen, (it was saved), but our opposition have already been awarded 8 (EIGHT) pens. 

Finances. If our debt is over £1M we don't seem to pay Youth Setup costs. I should be trying to increase the debt! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2040. 

Scottish Championship. I feel so deflated at the moment that I asked the Ass Man to pick the team for the Queens Park game and although we were at home, we still got a very creditable draw against the team 2nd in the league. Stung by the idea that the Ass Man might be better than me, (how very dare he!), I picked the team for the following game against bottom of the table Montrose and although we were away I expected a win but only managed a draw. Motherwell gave us a right doing, but they're a hell of a side and are sticking it to everyone so I don't think we should read much into that. It was just a tough month all round. 

11 points from 11 games may not be the 1.5 point per game total I was hoping for, but it's at least enough to comfortably keep us clear of a relegation battle, (at this stage). 

Goal-scoring GK's. Looking at how far down the PA list (31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is, it makes me wonder if I should be maybe blooding 1 of the more inexperienced keepers with better PA. Maybe that's a decision/option for later in the season once there is more space between us and the bottom of the table. He's scored 2 goals from 3 pens this season and he's saved 2 of 8 that he's faced. 

(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%. (Is no longer at the club).
(31k) Lawrie (Unamb) * is 17/22 from the spot at 77%.
(33a) Black (Fickle) 6'0" * is 2/3 from the spot at 67%.
(37b) Niven (F.Loyal) 6'4" * is 8/12 from the spot at 67%.

Finances. 

[TIR669]

McAllister won't disappear from the database because

a) when removing a league, not ALL players are automatically deleted

b) you can still keep League 1 if you see Bolton getting relegated

 

Shame about the finances but hey, this is a long haul save anyway. You'll lose a few seasons in Championship due to this, maybe consider reducing junior coaching for 2-3 years to more reasonable levels, likely it is exponential and level 16-17 will be less than half the amount of 20.