[FM24] Going off on a tangent with Rangers, after just getting relegated, with -£2.8M (not), in the bank and loans of £485M being repaid at £1.8M per month. Should be easy right?

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2059. 

Transfers. I love it when other clubs have to pay compensation for our staff. It's basically free money! 

The re-signing of Sim (Res) 6'2" * SELL isn't a transfer, but I was resigned to losing him on a free shortly, so it's as good as a new signing. He scored 19 goals from centre-half last season so he's a big signing for us because I plan on making the most of set-pieces again. He's signed to a 3 year deal with a +1 on top of that, and is initially worth £1.1M-£2.4M. I think Ideally I would like to keep him for this season and next season, and then sell him for cash after that. Ideally his value will rise significantly if he continues to score regularly. If someone offers me £2.4M right now though, I will probably accept it. We've had to pay him slightly more than he was being paid before, but in sheer terms of his playing ability, (never mind about his re-sale value), I think it's a reasonable investment of our resources.

As soon as the window opened, we made 4 free signings, but also lost 1 because I didn't notice Cambridge were in for him until it was too late to trigger his +3.

Thomson (F.Pro) 6'0" * has come in to offer some depth up front. The plan is that he will cover both wide positions, but he could even play in the central role at a push. While he's certainly not a World-beater, I think he's better than the level he's played at so far, (Scottish League 1 and Finnish top tier). 

Jack Meres (Res) 6'2" is decent, but he was mainly signed to provide some depth, and of course because he's willing to play for less than £1k pw. Forget his wage though, I just think he's decent. 

(49f) Clark (Pro) PPM is probably our best signing of the 4. He's better than our existing WBL, he's already worth a few quid and he's got a few years left before he hits 30. 

Blair Stewart (Res) 6'1" is a bit of a wildcard in that he's a big TM who can't head the ball. Despite that I think he will do well for us.

Smith (Res) * is a player that I didn't particularly want to sell, but at the same time he's over 30, has 12 months left on his contract and we don't want to offer him a new deal. It males sense to flog him for whatever we can get

Expectations. 

Sponsorship. 

TV Rights. 

Finances. 

Edited June 11 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2059. 

At the start of the month we still haven't been able to sign a 1st choice GK or a Backup WBR. 

Season Preview. 

Friendlies. The Alloa and Dundee friendlies were created as a result of transfers.

League Cup. I rotated the squad for the Motherwell & East Kilbride games, but it's pretty pleasing to see we're scoring so many goals. 

Debuts. Hat-trick scorer against East Stirling, Blair Stewart (Res) 6'1" also made his debut, but it was his 3rd debut rather than his 1st debut because as well as coming through the Academy (and making his debut in 2048/49), he was also re-signed on a free and making his 2nd debut, (in 2053/54).

Scouting. We don't really have the scouting budget to do anything at all, so I've come up with a cunning plan. The Scouting Range has been increased to the whole of Scotland, but only until the window closes and then I will reduce it to nothing to save money. 

I've asked the DoF to recommend free agent players from all positions and he's provided the following list. I will invite them all on trial and see if we get anything out of it. There are 6 players under 30 on the list and 2 of them are even Tullibody Academy products, so we will see how that goes. 

If we sort our squad by CA after the trialists arrive, this is what it looks like. 

• Interesting to see 3 trialists right at the top of the list. 
• Interesting to see 2 Tullibody Academy products quite near the top of the list. 
• Interesting to see a DR near the top of the list, (position we're most keen to sign other than GK).

(49b) Courts (Bal) * SELL was bought for Bournemouth for £1.9M and last season he scored 22 goals in all competitions for Leeds in the Championship, so he should be plenty good enough for us. It's probably more a question of wages. 

Demelcio Thier looks a hell of a player and he's been playing in Serie B so maybe his wage demands aren't ridiculous. At 28 we might have time to sell him for a profit too. 

Emilio Somma is the DR and importantly is only 24 years old. He's already played in 6 different Countries so hopefully should be adaptable. I just hope his wage demands are reasonable. The fact that he signed for FC Nürnberg, is getting paid £24k pw and is worth £4.1M-£6.8M suggests that we missed out on a good one. 

(46b) O'Sullivan (IRL)(F.Amb) could do a job in our wide attacker positions, but I'm just not looking to spend more wages there right now, (at least until we sell someone). 

Transfers. I have a strategy that I love using in saves like this where I sell relatively low value players for a really low fee, (such as £1,000) and then add in a friendly clause that will generate upwards of £150,000 each time. I've been struggling to get it working so far this season, (with lots of non-negotiable offers coming in), but I have just kept declining them again and again in the hope that we will eventually get an offer that we can negotiate to add a friendly. 

I've used by veto on a lot of players already, but when the DoF, (or whoever), signed McDermott (NIR) (Bal) for the B Team, I agreed to let it go through, largely because we're still desperate for a 2nd WBR. He was free, he's on low wages, and he's sort of reasonable, (if you squint and think really positively). 

Finances. 

 

Edited June 11 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

1st Aug 2059. 

Scottish Premiership. Well this is a lot better than I was expecting. Until the Falkirk game we were top of the table and even against Falkirk we were winning 2-1 at HT. A really really positive start to the season when you consider that Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * hasn't played a single minute yet. We've already beaten Celtic & Aberdeen and somehow managed a draw against Tullibody. 

League Cup. This competition isn't a priority at all, but we're doing really well, (surprisingly). 

Transfers. 

I didn't really want to spend £125,000 on anyone, but we were desperate for a GK and when the DoF, (or whoever), arranged the deal for (44f) Gordon (F.Pro) 6'1" it seemed too good to turn down. 

Season Tickets.

Premiership TV Rights. 

Finances. It seems strange that the board are injecting cash while we have £17M+ in the bank. 

 

[l4nd3r]

Whoa, that local sponsorship lmao.

[Jimbokav1971]

1st Sep 2059.

Scottish Premiership. No losses, but 4 dropped points. We're still in 3rd though and have only lost 2 of 10 league games so far which is much better than expected. More than that though, we're 4 points clear of 4th placed. Hibs. 

League Cup. I'm relatively pleased with how far we progressed. 

Debuts.

Transfers. 

Salary per Annum. 

Finances. 

 

[Rikulec]

How did playing against Tullibody feel like?

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, l4nd3r said:

Whoa, that local sponsorship lmao.

We'll take anything we can get at the moment, but actually we're not leaking cash as badly as I was expecting, (although we're spending less than everyone else in the league). 

The new stadium should make a big difference to income and if we can get into Europe then that should be significant too. There is a new stadium sponsorship deal due at the end of next season, so how we do this season & next is actually really important because it will hugely impact our rep and the size of the deal. If we can get into Europe then it should be great. £6.75M per season over 5 years is good, but would love it to be boosted a little. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Rikulec said:

How did playing against Tullibody feel like?

It was really weird actually. 

For a start I actually didn't realise we were even playing them until I saw the kit and some of the names, but there were loads of strange names, playing in a different formation and it just seemed.... weird. 

They've decimated the squad for good money, (but should have been more for some of those players), and not gone mad with the money, but I haven't look at any of their new players yet because I didn't think we were going to be competing with them. 

Just looking at some of their signings now. In the main they look like pretty good signings, but some of the players they've sold have been just stupid. All signed to really long-term contracts so absolutely no need to sell, especially as I left them with almost £200M in the bank. 

Only 4 Academy products in their last starting XI. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2039. 

Scottish Premiership. It's been a tough month as injuries have hit hard, and the 2nd Team players were found wanting. It's not completely clear whether this is ability related or fitness related, (probably a little of each), but we're now level on points in 3rd with both Hibs & Hearts. 

Transfers.

It's interesting that we've had income from Player Sales this season of £5.3M, despite actually only selling players for £1,000. The reason for this of course is that we have received clauses and instalments from old deals and these are included in the income line even though the players obviously weren't sold this season. 

Finances. The board are still sticking money in, but I'm starting to think that we might just have some money left at the end of the season. I wasn't expecting that at all. 

 

[ChaosClive]

How are the debts looking? How long until you pay at least one off to bring the monthly payments down?

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, ChaosClive said:

How are the debts looking? How long until you pay at least one off to bring the monthly payments down?

We're only approaching 1.5 years into the save, so not much progress so far. 

The CVA was for £150M over 30 years with monthly repayments of £525,000 meaning total amount repayable, (assuming not repaid early), will be £525k x 12 x 30 = £189M (so £39M interest). The interest rate for this deal is 26% over the course of the loan. 

The loan for the stadium was for £218M over 25 years with monthly repayments of £1.3M meaning total amount repayable, (assuming not repaid early), will be £1.3M x 12 x 25 = £390M (so £172M interest). The interest rate for this deal is 79% over the course of the loan. 

The consolidation loan was for £2.2M over 10 years with monthly repayments of £19,750 meaning total amount repayable, (assuming not repaid early), will be £19,750 x 12 x 10 = £2.37M, (so £370,000 interest). The interest rate for this deal is 16.7% over the course of the loan.

The small consolidation loan expires in Oct 2067, (so 7 years 11 months = 95 months, but even then, reducing the repayments from £1.8M per month to £1.78M is hardly going to make much difference. 

[RoguPL]

Did Tullibody win the league last season? I assume they did. 
I hope that they will not go backwards from what you have built. That would hurt my eyes after 35 years of meticulously saving every penny to get them where they are  

In terms of debts with Rangers, I think your finances are already much better in terms of income from Premiership etc. These debts however are for crazy long period, I think after you hit Europe, you will end up saving money from player sales etc and sorting the payment earlier. 

It did happen in my save that I think I had a loan from stadium building for another 10 years that were left to pay, and due to being in good financial shape the board paid it off early. 
Of course 300 Million will not be easy  but I think it will happen quicker then waiting for the debt to be paid off month by month. 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, RoguPL said:

Did Tullibody win the league last season? I assume they did. 
I hope that they will not go backwards from what you have built. That would hurt my eyes after 35 years of meticulously saving every penny to get them where they are  

In terms of debts with Rangers, I think your finances are already much better in terms of income from Premiership etc. These debts however are for crazy long period, I think after you hit Europe, you will end up saving money from player sales etc and sorting the payment earlier. 

It did happen in my save that I think I had a loan from stadium building for another 10 years that were left to pay, and due to being in good financial shape the board paid it off early. 
Of course 300 Million will not be easy  but I think it will happen quicker then waiting for the debt to be paid off month by month. 

I'm quietly confidant that if we can qualify for the Group stages of any European competition then the money will start rolling in. The new stadium move will also play a big part. 

This are actually looking much better than expected, but it's hard being so right on wages. 

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm away for a week in Spain now, (at airport now), so no updates from me for a little bit. 👍

[RoguPL]

4 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I'm away for a week in Spain now, (at airport now), so no updates from me for a little bit. 👍

I didn't see a holiday request in my inbox  

Joking,  Enjoy your holidays ! 

 

[leobiazzi]

Enjoy your holiday, mate!

[Jimbokav1971]

19 hours ago, RoguPL said:

I didn't see a holiday request in my inbox  

Joking,  Enjoy your holidays ! 

 

 

16 hours ago, leobiazzi said:

Enjoy your holiday, mate!

Cheers lads. It's amazing here and although the trip was awful, (delay and arrival at Barcelona rather than Reus airport), I'm loving it. 

Only downside is that it's out of season so no local football to watch. 

In the up-side, the EUROS start tomorrow. 👏

[Muttley84]

2 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Only downside is that it's out of season so no local football to watch. 

You mean besides the Espanyol - Gijon in Segunda playoff played tonight? Taking by the Catalunya airports you mentioned you could have totally gone to that match...

[Jimbokav1971]

20 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

You mean besides the Espanyol - Gijon in Segunda playoff played tonight? Taking by the Catalunya airports you mentioned you could have totally gone to that match...

I was up for it and 1 of 2 kids was up for it but Mrs called veto! 😢

I thought I was going to get to the Malaga v Ginmastic Playoff 1st leg on Saturday but its the away leg rather than the Gimnastic one here.

In truth we were probably still too shattered after the horror-journey to do much of anything last night. Mrs was probably right. 

[BML]

31 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Mrs was probably right.

Tell me your wife doesn't use these forums without telling me your wife doesn't use these forums

Edited June 14 by BML

[Jimbokav1971]

17 hours ago, BML said:

Tell me your wife doesn't use these forums without telling me your wife doesn't use these forums

The forums don't exist to her. It's like anything related to "that stupid bloody game!". 🙄 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2059. 

Scottish Premiership. I played these games over a week ago before I went on holiday, so if I'm honest with you I can't remember anything about any of them, and the Rangers branch of this save is murky at best in my memory. 

Looking at the results individually.....

Hearts Away. We were 3-0 up at HT and in those circumstances I've really got to be happy with a draw, despite the fact that our xG was more than double theirs. 

Aberdeen Home. We were significantly the better team, (with almost double their xG), but we only scored 1 goal and they grabbed a late leveller. 

St Johnstone Home. We were much the better side, but again we only scored 1 goal and their midfielder (44b) Harvey (Spirit), (ex of this parrish), popped up with 2 really good assists to give them all 3 points.

Ross County Away. This is the 1 game that we absolutely did not deserve to get anything from. If anything the margin of victory should have been bigger, (and they only actually win in injury-time). 

It means that we've failed to win any of our last 6 games, (losing 4 of them), and we're now in serious danger of dropping out the European places. Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * won only 2 of 13 headers against Ross County, (which is weird), but actually if I look at his performances although he has scored relatively well, he hasn't been winning the headers I would want him to. I know I mentioned something about this in the @Deisler26thread, and it could be that I take my own advice and move him to 1 of the wider attacking positions and look to use him that way. Something isn't quite working as it should at the moment. 

Next month is tough with 7 league games, and I think that December will largely decide where we finish the season. If we do well and are still in contention then I would expect us to push on again, but if we continue our current form..... 

I was critical of the Tullibody board/Manager in that they have sold players for significantly less than my valuation, but it also needs to be highlighted that they are unbeaten in the league at the start of December, are 6 points ahead of Aberdeen and have 4 games in hand. Without going to deep into it, (I'm not even going to look now, but might have a look at the end of the season), I would suggest that what they've done is sold PA and bought CA. They sold young players where there was just no need, but it's hard to argue with their performances, (but then again their manager isn't playing a Youth Only save). 

Transfers. 

Finances. I hope I've mentioned before that the finances are actually looking a fair bit better than I was expecting. We had money left in the bank, (just), at the end of last season, and this season we seem to be in a stronger position again. This is largely down to wage control, and of course refusing to spend the bulk of our transfer kitty. What I will probably do at some point is convert most of the remaining transfer budget into wage budget, and this will allow me to freely sign the new intake players and also maybe sign 1 free agent from somewhere. 

At the moment there are no deals in the pipeline, but I think I will be largely driven my the DoF because at some point I have reduced our scouting range to zero in an attempt to save money. I'm not sure if this was before the end of last month or this month, but either way it was a conscious decision. The window was closed and it just seemed a waste of money in the circumstances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2059. 

Scottish Premiership. This is a brilliant month and really sets us up nicely for the 2nd half of the season. We won 6 of 7 games this month and the 1 loss was suffered at the hands of Tullibody where I rotated the squad because I didn't think we had a hope of winning against them and we would be better off resting up for the Airdrie & Falkirk games.

Our form in this busy month has boosted us up to 2nd in the league, (with unbeaten Tullibody off in the distance), and with us being 11 points clear of Kilmarnock in 6th, I think we're really giving ourselves a good chance of playing European football next season. We're not going to win a European trophy next season, but we will gratefully accept any European related money that comes our way. 

Transfers. 

We've been on the look-out for a 2nd senior GK, and while McCoist 6'4" certainly has his limitations, he should at least provide value for money. McCoist 6'4" was signed because he was cheap and available and it's honestly just a bonus that he is also top of our Academy. 

Takeover. How does someone go about "buying" a club that's £441M in debt? 

We are at least Scottish owned. 

European Golden Boy. Well this is a big surprise.  I've got to admit that after going away on holiday for a week, I didn't even know he was that young. 

The main reason I like him is because of his height, and I sort of squeeze him into a rotated team either wt WBR or in central midfield. He's decent, but I certainly wasn't expecting this sort of accolade. I'm not really sure what he's done to deserve it. He's "only" make 11(16) appearances this season, although he made 13(28) last season. 

Finances. My plan was to adjust our wage budget in advance of the Youth Intake so that we would be able to sign whoever we wanted from the next Youth Intake, and as the signing of McCoist 6'4" took us just over our budget I thought this would be the perfect time to do it.

 

Unfortunately the board don't seem interested and their reasons don't seem to add up, (literally). We have an available transfer budget of £649,066 which equates to £12,482 per week if we were able to transfer it from transfer budget to wage budget. The board somehow don't think that this £12,0482 pw injection of salary budget would cover the..... [checks notes]..... current shortfall of £1,596 pw..... 

So £12k pw isn't enough to cover £1.6k per week, (and that's before we even take into account that we're actually now in Jan so we're not talking about 52 weeks wages a year because we're already halfway through the season).  

I really don't want to be over budget at all, and I especially don't want to be over budget approaching the Youth Intake, so I expect someone to leave this month. 

[leobiazzi]

Glad you're back and that Rangers is doing well in your hands! Looking forward to what playing in an European competition will do to the club's finances.

[Jimbokav1971]

Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * form. Jan 2060. 

Part of the reason that I was keen to look into this save, (over and above the financial issues), was that I have an idea for a future FM save where I look to exploit giant physical players and basically try to bully the opposition with really basic tactics, (and players), but a set-up that really exploits what they can do well. 

Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * was a player that I saw at Rangers who I thought was going to be enormously over-powered (OP) in the game, (if used correctly). I thought that basically even a team containing nothing but teenagers + him should be capable of getting out of the Championship, and I also thought they should be plenty good enough to avoid relegation from the Premiership, (if and when we got there). 

Well obviously the 1st season went to plan and we were promoted, (and by the way he is surrounded by much more than teenagers), but the 2nd season was a bit tougher and as of 1st December he had only scored 6 goals in 7(3) appearances in the league, as he struggled with injury and also just was far less effective in the air than I was expecting. He had missed pre-season/League Cup though, so I knew he might struggle a little this season, especially early on. 

In his absence, his replacement Blair Stewart (Res) 6'1" actually did surprisingly well, with 8 goals in 3(3) Cup appearances at the start of the season. The Premiership though was a different matter though and as of 1st Dec, he had only managed 2 league goals in 8(10) league appearances. 

I have had a discussion with @Deisler26in his thread about the idea of a TM not specifically playing as a TM, (in a non-central position), but I didn't want to get to that stage yet so I kept him as the AF(a). (when I mean TM by the way, I mean a type of TM player rather than a player being used specifically in the TM role). Instead I looked at the delivery to him, (particularly from the WB's), and made sure that they were crossing to where he would probably be. He's playing an AF(a), so I think it's fair to expect him to be largely central rather than near or far post, so I went with that rather than far post deliveries which is what I probably prefer for Big Man delivery, and which is probably more accurate to what we might see in real life. 

At the same time we were still quite patient in our build-up so I didn't "just" want to launch the ball into the box so I kept the crosses on mixed, (even if only to keep the opposition guessing). In an ideal world in a team full of behemoths, I would always "float crosses", but we're not even close to fully there yet, (and not sure we ever fully will be in this save), so there is no point doing it without the correct tools/players. 

His form this month has been much better, (with 7 goals from the 6 starts if we ignore the sub appearances for a weakened team against Tullibody), and while his form and ours has certainly been decent, I look at his heading stats and am really underwhelmed. 

His "Headers won ratio" across the season in the Premiership is only 29% and that's ridiculously low for a player like this. I would have expected this to be something that I can improve without too much tinkering, but it doesn't seem to be so simple. 

As a team, only 3 other teams in the Premiership have lost fewer headers, but then again we're not hoofing the ball so you would expect us also to compete for fewer headers in the 1st place. The "Headers lost" stat is the only one that I can see in the team stats. There is nothing for % won or key headers or anything like that to quantify it in more detail. 

There is a "key headers won" stat for individual players, but none of our players appear on the top section of the list, and it's also not immediately clear what position these players play in. (I suspect that they are probably all centre-backs). 

In actual fact only 2 of the players on the list are below 6'0" and 3 of the players on the list are full-backs rather than centre-backs, but all bar 1 are defenders, and the other a midfielder. 

If we look only at "Headers won", then we do have 1 player on the list, and I wonder here about the absence of Sim (Res) 6'2" * SELL from this list and the impact that he's playing as a Libero rather than a centre-half. Particularly when combined with his PPM's, (which aren't suitable at all for a Libero), then I wonder if a change is in order here???? 

Maybe I'm being too harsh though and expecting too much. Let's be honest here, when I was at Tullibody, our strikers haven't been winning the Premiership Golden Boot in recent seasons, so considering that Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * is currently top of the scoring charts, (having played significantly fewer games), I'm wondering if I'm looking for a problem that isn't there? I guess we always want more though don't we?

 

It also turns out that he's leading the way in respect of xG over-performance, so I really do think that actually I should just shut up and this post has been a complete waste of my time in writing and your time in reading. Apologies.  

[Edit]

Maybe what I should be looking at is the assists and how (49f) Clark (Pro) PPM created 9 assists in his last 7 starts, but only 3 assists in the previous 16 starts? Is this just to me looking again and the delivery and making sure that they're delivering centrally? 

Edited June 22 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, leobiazzi said:

Glad you're back and that Rangers is doing well in your hands! Looking forward to what playing in an European competition will do to the club's finances.

Thanks. It's a bit of a struggle to get back into it after a week off, but I'm starting to get into it again after last month. 

We're doing ok on the pitch, (better than ok actually), but money is still an issue, (and I expect it to be for some time). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2060. 

Scottish Cup. 

Transfers. 

My plan is to try and sell decent sized player, (size of fee), in each window. 

Carroll (NIR) (F.Det) 6'2" is 28 years old so it's a good time to sell him and we got a decent fee for him as well as a few add-ons. Although he went to the Premier League I'm not sure we'll get too much for his 25% clause, but the friendly is likely to bring in a few quid. He was decent for us, but he shouldn't actually be a huge loss, so as well as getting his wage off the books, we also bring in a few £Mill and it all helps. I would obviously be much less keen to sell a young player of similar ability. I would love a few more free-signings like this one. 

Finances. 

I moved some transfer budget over to wages and this leaves us with about £10k pw to play with. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2060. 

Scottish Premiership. It's really annoying to lose against Hearts at home, especially when we won the xG battle and also the possession stats. That's just the way it goes though and is probably an indication that our strikers aren't good enough, but the Tullibody win, (their 1st domestic defeat of the season), obviously more than makes up for it. I rotated the squad as much as I could, (although not fully), and expected absolutely zilch out of the game. The 93rd min winner was celebrated quite loudly here. 

Scottish Cup. I'm rotating the XI as much as I can in these games. 

Transfers. We have 3 players who have agreed to join on a free in the Summer. 

(50f) Knudsen (FRO)(DEN) 5'5 is a Tullibody Academy product and the deal was done completely by the DoF (or whoever). 
Alex Matheson (IRL) 6'5" and (54d) Lochhead (Loyal) 5'8" * were highlighted to me by the DoF when I asked for some info on players who might be available on a free, and then I just asked him to see if he could get a deal done for them. 

Friendlies (due to Transfers). The £200k we earned from the Dundee game was as a result of a £10k transfer deal. I even try to sell players for £1k, (or even free) just so long as they agree to a friendly.

Player valuations. How much we can earn from selling a player isn't exact, but it's an indication at least. 

(49f) Clark (Pro) PPM has 2+1 years left on his contract and is on the verge of a (SCO) call-up, but he's already contributed 17 assists this season so I',m keen to hang on to him. 
Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * has 1 year left, (+1 if he plays 20 games next season), but I will try and renegotiate his deal in the Summer anyway. 
Sim (Res) 6'2" * SELL has 2+1 year left on his deal and has now scored 28 goals from centre-half in under 2 seasons. I might be tempted to sell him if we can bring in a younger replacement. 
Fry (NIR) (Res) * is on a 5 year deal so I'm in no rush to sell. 
Blair Stewart (Res) 6'1" has 2+1 left, but he's 29 and I will probably look to move him on in the Summer as we have a 6'5" striker coming in. 
Jack Meres (Res) 6'2" is on a 2+1 deal and is only 25 so no rush to sell him now. 
Williamson (L.Heart) 6'5" * is on a 2 year deal and as he is only 20 I will probably offer him and improved loger deal in the Summer. 
(44f) Gordon (F.Pro) 6'1" is on a 1+1 deal and although he's 32, is also comfortably our best GK.
Bruce (F.Sport) 5'9" * is only a hot prospect GK, but he's also 5'11" now and improving. He's on a 1 year deal and I will look to negotiate that soon. 
Stewart (Pro) * is only a teenager and is on a 4+1 deal. He does however have a min fee release clause of £1.5M that expires in Sep of this year, but I'm not sure I want to risk that being met if I can help it. I might offer him a new deal before then. 

Finances. 

Edited June 22 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake. Mar 2060. 

Just in case anyone reading this thread doesn't read my "normal" #YouthOnly stuff, I long ago decided that it was largely a waste of time trying to predict what the Intake had gifted us on Day 1. The truth is that the CA/PA star ratings are just so far out, that it;s just a waste of time and it's led me to not really paying much attention at all now on Day 1. I generally don't look properly until the end of the season, but even then that doesn't really matter either. How much PA a player has doesn't really matter in the slightest, (unless you're going to develop them to reach their PA), so PA is just some mythical target off in the dim and distant possible future, and so many things can go wrong, (such as a lack of game-time, injury, personality, form, poor loan moves and many more besides). 

With that in mind I have taken to just signing everyone, (usually), and the main reason for not signing a player would usually be multiple negative reasons. I particularly don't like signing (Unamb) players who are also (L.Det) and height and individual attributes and of course attribute balance can come into play, but for the main part like to assume that everyone is going to be a start until such time as they prove to me that they won't be.

If you think that something looks weird about the above intake, (you're right), because we have 18 (EIGHTEEN), players in this intake. 

I've had a look and found the following players who have been poached from another Academy, (before my arrival), but who have only just come through the Academy. 

The Cost of a Youth Intake. 

That obviously comes at a cost though, and money is something that's a problem in this branch of the save, managing this particular club, so the idea of just signing 16 players every season, who may or may not ever play for the 1st Team and may or may not generate any transfer income at some point in the future, is actually a big risk. At Tullibody it was a no-brainer. We had £200M in the bank and we had loads of 3rd and 4th choice player we could sell for decent money, so 16 youth contracts every year was neither here nor there. 

At Rangers though it's different. 

Although we have  in the bank, we still have overall debts of .

Of more immediate concern however is that even though we have sold a player and moved the transfer funds received over to the wage budget, we still don't have loads of wage budget available. While we might have £60,693 pw wage budget now, we already know that next season it's going to be only £37,500 pw and it's hard trying to work out how on Earth we're going to do that. To be completely honest with you, it just isn't anywhere near possible, and I'm going to have to rely on selling players for cash and then moving the transfer funds over to wage budget. The only problem with that is of course that we only get 10% of any sale, so if we were to sell a player for £1M cash up front, then we would only receive £100,000 to be added to our transfer budget and when we move that across to wage budget, £100k only translates to just under £2,000 per week and that would just increase our budget from £37,500 pw to £39,500 pw. When you consider that our committed spending for next season is already £49,190 pw, that suggests a minimum over-spend of approx £607,880 over the course of the season. That actually isn't that much money in the grand scheme of things, but going over budget is a big deal in the game now and not to be ignored. It's going to come with significant confidence penalties from the board. 

 

That's before the youth intake players sign their contracts though. I think I'm correct in saying that we receive a grant from.... some?.... of the wage costs for player before they turn 17, but I'm not 100% sure about that. 

I actually think we've done well to get the wage spend down to where it is now from where it was, and the amount that I've increased our budget by and the players we have signed, are all done with the long-term financial plan at the forefront of my mind and I'm completely happy, (well sort of). with the decisions that have been made. The only issue will be the board reaction to our over-spend. 

£150 + £150 + £200 + £30 + £30 + £300 + £30 + £100 + £30 + £150 + £30 + £30 + £30 + £30 + £30 + £30 + £150 +30 = £1,530 pw new wages and, (ignoring Youth grants), that's a yearly cost of £79,650. I've still got to do it though. 

The Youth Grant I mentioned earlier, well it's only £120 pw at the moment, (so that doesn't go far), and that equates to the same wages that are currently, (pre-this intake), being sent on players who are aged under 17, and who are still on Youth contracts. The obvious risk of keeping players on Youth contracts is that they can be approached by other clubs and "stolen" for compensation rather than an agreed transfer fee. That seems a particularly shoddy way to do business for me. 

Although I've worked out that the fees for this intake will be £79,650 per season, that doesn't include the Youth Setup costs that we pay, (£1,368,005 last season in the Championship and £1,496,593 already this season). The cost of that is spread over each intake though so we can probably just "charge" each intake with 1 season's Youth Setup costs to make it fair, (and we will use £1,456,593 in this case). 

I've signed 7 of this intake to FT contracts at £1,200 pw and I've signed them to 3+3 deals. Assuming that they stay on that contract for the full term and don't sign a new contract, then the cost over a 6 year period, (3-3 years), is.... (£1,200 x 52 = £62,400 x 6 =  £374,400 + £1,456,593 = £1,830,993), and while that doesn't include Youth contracts for players under 17, (because Youth Grants), it also doesn't include Youth contracts over 17, but I'm not going to bother including them because (A) the amount involved is pretty small, £17,160 per season, but also because it's likely to be significantly smaller than any wages we save by 50% of wages being paid by the loaning club when players go out on loan. (When I loan a young player out I ask for 50% of his wages to be paid if he is playing and 100% if he;s not playing. I can't be bothered to factor this in, (and in any case it's not guaranteed), but it also doesn't cover any loan fees received either. Something else not covered is the signing bonus we pay at the outset, and also any agent fees. This is actually relatively small right now, but was significant before I left Tullibody. 

To my mind that means that we have to sell Academy products to the tune of £1.83M each season, just to break even, (and that doesn't even include the cost of the staff!)

That certainly sounds doable, (at least to me), but I wonder if it's realistic at an AI managed club, so let's look at Rangers now and see how many Academy products they have sold during this save and for what sort of money. 

* It should be pointed out that this will only include the initial fee and not and subsequent clauses, (which would be significant were I doing the deals but probably much less so under control of the AI). It also obviously doesn't include any cheeky friendly clauses that are added as part of the sale. 

** It also doesn't include any "solidarity payments" that are received when subsequent transfer pees are paid by virtue of the time the player has spent being developed at the Academy. In my experience the game doesn't include these payments consistently. 

2059/60. £10,000 + £1,000 + £0 = £11,000
2058/59. £7M + £13k + £14.5k + £10k + £20,500 + £7k = £7,058,000
2057/58. £6.75k + £300k = £306.75k
2056/57. £155k 
2055/56. £0
2053/54. £0
2052/53. £425k + £8.75k = £433.75k
2051/52. £0
2054/55. £700k
2053/54. £0
2052/53. £0
2051/52. £160k + £375k + £975k + £2.4M + £73k = £3.983M
2050/51. £425k + £165k = 590k.
2049/50. £13.75M + £925k + £350k + £43k = £15.068M.
2048/49. £3.6M.
2047/48. £0
2046/47. £1.7M. 
2045/46. £20.5M. 
2044/45. £48k + £42.5k = £90.5k.
2043/44.
2042/43. £525k.
2041/42.
2040/41. £1.8M + £32.5k = £1.832M.
2039/40. £13M.
2038/39.
2037/38. £18.5M + £130k = £18.63M.
2036/37.
2035/36. £170k + £16.75k = £186.75k.
2034/35. £9.5M.
2033/34. £135k + £8.5M = £8.635M.

I can't begin to tell you how horrific it was to go through Rangers historic player sales and see how many appalling transfer deals they had been part of. Time and time and time again they spent big money on players, kept them for a couple of seasons and then sold them for a significant loss. Of course there were a few deals that they made money on, (even big money occasionally), but in the main they made loss after loss after loss. 

Looking just at Academy sales though, (above), they/we have actually sold players to the tune of £113M+ over the last 30 years which equates to £3.77M per season. The break-even figure we were looking for is only £1.83M so they are making more than double that on a consistent basis. 

I would caveat the profit they have made with the comment that because of all the "oven-ready" players they were buying, (especially from South America and Eastern Europe), I would suggest that it was pretty hard to develop their own Academy products, (because there was little opportunity to give them game-time), so I really do think that this is significant scope to make BIG money off of the Academy here. We just need to progress a few seasons to get there. (Fingers crossed). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Candidates v U18's. Mar 2060. 

In an established Youth Setup I would usually expect the U18's to comfortably beat the Youth Candidates. For a start they are at least a year older and they also have the option to call on players who are another year older than that too. Even taking into account U18 players who are out on loan or who have been called up to the Senior Team, I would still always expect the U18's to be favourites, so this result really stands out). 

Unfortunately it doesn't mean that this new group are amazing. It actually means that the existing group we have are pretty rubbish, (but we knew that already). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Day 1 vs Day 8. Mar 2060.

Something I like doing is comparing the Recent intake 1 week on to the CA and PA that we saw on Day 1. I also like doing this 1 month on and even 1 year on when the next intake comes through. It's really easy to see the differences. 

Day 1 is on the left. 
Day 8 is on the right.  Apologies that they are different sizes. 

 

• The 1st thing that jumped out at me was that (60l) has 2.0 CA immediately, and I'm surprised I missed that before now, (but like I said I really tend to not take too much notice on Day 1 now. I think he's decent. (Very decent), and in light of his CA it's no surprise that his PA has increased from 2.5 PA to 4.0 PA in just 7 days. Nothing else really jumps out at me, but I wish we could see silver CA stars from the outset rather than just a sea of gold. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Facilities. Mar 2060. 

Some of you who have read my Tullibody thread, might be aware that it has been a real challenge trying to get our Facilities upgraded to the top levels. Obviously we don't have that problem here at Rangers as we have brilliant Facilities all over. 

Just as a comparison, here are the Tullibody Facilities right now. The Training Facilities have dropped 1 level since I left, but both Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment are maxed out. They weren't able to upgrade the Youth Facilities when I left. 

What's surprising me, (and is the reason for this post), is that we can request to increase both the Training and Youth Facilities, (when we're already 5 levels past Tullibody. 

And we can obviously request to increase the Junior Coaching too. 

So although we know that Reputation and Finances both play a part, we also now know that it's not "just" reputation and finances, because Tullibody had £200M in the bank when I left and we owe £440M and Tullibody are now the highest Rep side in Scotland, (so they win on both counts), yet we (Rangers) can still request upgrades that they (Tullibody) can't. 

I would obviously love to request the upgrades, but until we get a BIG sale then it's really just not an option. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2060.

Scottish Premiership. A really disappointing 4 points dropped in the league, but when you consider that both games were away and the 3rd Kilmarnock goal was scored in the 95th min then perhaps we should cut ourselves some slack. It's probably a good indication of how far we've come in such a short space of time that we're unhappy at recent form despite sitting 2nd in the league, (behind runaway leaders Tullibody), are the only side who have beaten Tullibody in the league, we're in the Semi-Finals of the Scottish Cup and have done so on a budget that is the lowest in the whole league. 

Scottish Cup. We needed ET, but we got there in the end. 

Wages. I decided to look at the more expensive wages we were paying to see if we could cut them a little as it actually makes a big difference where we are now in the save. 

(53c) Robertson (L.Heart) * for example is earning £4,500 pw and we had to pay that to sign him, but after just 3(10) appearances last season he's made 14(9) appearances this season already, and because he's happy and settled here now, he's agreed to slash his wages and has signed a long-term deal on only £2k pw, (rising to £2.5k I think). That's the cost of another very good player right there!

Transfers. 

Finances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2060. 

Scottish Premiership. I'm surprised to see that our positive bank balance has dwindled away so quickly, but the fact that only 1 of our 4 games this month was at home, and the fact that we lost the Cup game possibly explains a lot. We're still 2nd with 3 games to play and have a 3 point advantage over Hearts and a 7 point advantage over both Hibs and Celtic.

Scottish Cup. The run was good while it lasted, but Celtic were just better than us on the day. Their xG was more than double ours and we even saved an early pen. 

Finances. 

 

[Rikulec]

Finishing above Celtic in your first season in the top flight would be an achievement in itself, and you're very close to achieving that. 

[RoguPL]

Good to see you back at it after holiday ! 

Looks like Europe is pretty much guaranteed and it might even be Champions League! That is 12M for the groups straight away which will help massively ! 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2060. 

Scottish Premiership. It was a tough end to the season, but then again it always is because that's the way it's designed. We looked like nailed on favourites until we got smashed by Hearts, (and we really were smashed), and it was at that stage that I contemplated attempting to engineer results to ensure that we qualified 3rd, 4th, (or even 5th), rather than 2nd, to ensure that we actually had Group Stage Football next season. We're nowhere near good enough for Champions League at this stage and I was thinking that it would be highly unlikely that we would get through from the 3rd Qualifying Round when there was a Playoff after that and I'm no longer sure if losing the Playoff means that we drop down into the Europe Conference. I don't even know what happens if we lose the 3rd qualifying Round, (but I assume we just go back to domestic football and that's that). In any case I actually DIDN'T try to engineer the results, (mainly because I thought there were only 2 games still to play and when we came up against Celtic I was all confuddled for a minute. In any case, they smashed us too so what you see is a completely honest reflection of where we finished and ultimately where we deserved to finish. 

I was all set to tell you that we were the only team to defeat Tullibody this season in the league, and we could hold our heads high as top goal-scorers in the Premiership, but Hearts smashed 6 goals past Celtic in their penultimate game, while we scored just 3 goals in the whole month, so they pipped us by 2 after starting the month 5 goals behind. 

Finances. 

This was a big relief. £55k pw is what we're spending now and that's a budget that was increased from the original because I moved over transfer budget. That they have given me almost £1M transfer budget, (that I will probably move over to wages again), is even better news. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, Rikulec said:

Finishing above Celtic in your first season in the top flight would be an achievement in itself, and you're very close to achieving that. 

We beat Celtic twice in the league, but lost in the Cup Semi and the last game of the season. Finishing 6 points above them, (and 4 points above Hibs), is indeed an achievement in our 1st season back at the top level. 

Part of me is gutted that we didn't hang on for 2nd, (I've only just realised now that they beat us on goal-difference), but at least this way we're guaranteed Group stage European football, so that Runners Up spot is a bit of a curse at the moment with coefficients the way they are. 

[Jimbokav1971]

58 minutes ago, RoguPL said:

Good to see you back at it after holiday ! 

Looks like Europe is pretty much guaranteed and it might even be Champions League! That is 12M for the groups straight away which will help massively ! 

Thanks very much. Holiday was great but it's also good to be back in FM again too. 

We were so close to 2nd place, but as mentioned previously, I think that 3rd place and guaranteed Group Stage will be better for our development, because I really don't think we've got the squad for the Champions league yet. I would have been absolutely gutted to have lost in qualifying and missed out on everything. 

The Europe League won't quite be the riches of the Champions League, but it will still be decent.

Now I just have to flesh out a squad capable of competing on a tiny budget, 

[Jimbokav1971]

Squad Depth. May 2060.

GK. I'm not happy with (44f) Gordon (F.Pro) 6'1" because he's made far too many obvious mistakes this season. His stats show that he only made mistakes leading to 2 goals, but I think it was far higher than that. He did save 4 out of 5 pens faced this season though.  The problem was that I rested him for Cup games where he might have come in handy in a shoot-out..

1st Team. (44f) Gordon (F.Pro) 6'1"
Backup. McCoist (F.Pro) 6'4"
Hot Prospect. Bruce (F.Sport) 5'11" *

WBL. This was an area where the 1st choice player (49f) Clark (Pro) PPM absolutely excelled and finished the season with 18 assists in all competitions. The problem is that his replacement Clark (Res) * is nowhere near as good and that's why I was pleased that we managed to do the (50f) Knudsen (FRO)(DEN) 5'5 deal. Although (49f) Clark (Pro) PPM had a fantastic debut season with us, (after joining on a free), he's now worth  and at age 27 and with 1+1 left on his contract, it might make sense to cash in on him for the read structured deal. The only problem is that he has a £2M min fee release clause and he also get's 10% of any transfer fee. (You can tell I didn't do this deal).  I would love to sell him for £1M up front and with loads on add-ons taking us up to the £3.5M-£4M total rather than £2M cash up front by way of his release clause. I think I would rather keep him though and.... no, I can't keep him because if I keep him then someone will meet his release clause. Is he worth a new contract I wonder...... 

1st Team. (49f) Clark (Pro) PPM
Backup. (50f) Knudsen (FRO)(DEN) 5'5 (NEW SIGNING)
Backup. Clark (Res) *
Hot prospect. [Nobody]

WBR. This is a really weak area of the squad. The only player I like who plays in this position is Williamson (L.Heart) 6'5" *, but I don't actually like him at WBR and he's just filling in until I can find an upgrade. 

1st Team. Williamson (L.Heart) 6'5" *
Backup. McDermott (NIR) (Bal)
Hot prospect. (59b) Macdonald. (Pro)

DC. We've got a few options in this area, but we're still short on actual quality. Our 1st choice DLC and DRC are 20 and 19 respectively, but will at least improve. The Backups are not really good enough now and are not going to improve much either. Sim (Res) 6'2" * SELL is 31 now and although he's on a 2+1 deal, we probably need to sell him now before he starts to decline. The problem is that I obviously need to replace him before he leaves. 

1st Team DLC. O'Donnell (F.Pro) 6'5" *
1st Team DC. Sim (Res) 6'2" * SELL
1st Team DRC. Frail (Bal) 6'0" *

Backup DLC. Jack Meres (Res) 6'2"
Backup DC. McKean  (F.Pro) 6'1" * SELL
Backup DRC. (52e) Davidson. (F.Sport) SELL

Hot prospect DLC. [Nobody]
Hot prospect DC. (60h) Ferguson (F.Pro) 5'10" *
Hot prospect DRC. (60b) Warnock (F.Pro) 6'3" *

MC. This is actually an easier position to generate depth for because we only use 2 midfielders in our XI. 3 of our 1st 4 midfielders are young, (so I want to keep them), and the other is 27 year old Fernandes (POR) (F.Det) who is on a 2+1 deal. He's only worth  so it doesn't seem worth selling him yet, but with another year under his belt for us I wonder if he will be worth more. Whether he stays or leaves though will ultimately depend on who we can bring in. 

1st Team MLC. Fernandes (POR) (F.Det)
1st Team MRC. Stewart (Pro) *

Backup MLC. Fry (NIR) (F.Det)) *
Backup MRC. (53c) Robertson (L.Heart) *

Hot prospect MLC. (60a) Macleod (Bal) 6'1"
Hot prospect MRC. (60c) Smith (F.Det)

SC. I've signed Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * to a new 2+1 deal, and also managed to reduce his wages from £6,500 pw to £4,500 pw. He scored 22 league goals this season and won the Premiership Golden Boot with 22 goals which is 1 more than the 21 Championship goals he scored last season to win that Golden Boot. I made a post recently about his performance, (or should I say over-performance), and the fact that he exceeded his xG by 8. goals, (the best record in the league), is another indication of him being OP. 

We've already secured the free transfers of 2 strikers, so ideally this will mean that we will sell at least 2 of our existing players. I've already highlighted Blair Stewart (Res) 6'1" SELL as the 1st to leave, (if I can get the money for him), but I don't know who the other will be yet. There is a balance to be had in selling players for a reasonable price, but also keeping us competitive in both the league and Europe. 

1st Team SLC. Thomson (F.Pro) 6'0" *
1st Team SC. Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" *
1st Team SRC. Stephen (Perfect) 6'0" *

Backup SLC. Boland (Unamb) * PPM
Backup. SC. Alex Matheson (IRL) 6'5" [New Signing]
Backup SRC. Blair Stewart (Res) 6'1" SELL
Backup SC. (54d) Lochhead (Loyal) 5'8" * [New Signing]

Hot prospect SLC. (60i) Taylor (F.Pro)
Hot prospect SC. Kinnear (Bal) *
Hot prospect SRC. (59a) Stark (L.Heart)

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2060.

Scouting. When the Jan window closed I set our scouting range to "no scouting" but I have just upgraded it to "World". I'm looking to sign free agents, (or should I say I'm looking to encourage my DoF or whoever to sign free agents), and giving him the best possible opportunity to do that while the window is open makes the most sense. 

  

Facilities. It's going to be interesting to see quite how much difference a 72,670 capacity all-seater stadium makes to our finances. I can't wait to see what we make from our 1st home game. 

I would love to upgrade our facilities, but despite having £27M in the bank, I don't think we're in a position yet where we can spend it on facilities. 

Transfers. 4 players have arrived on free transfers on the day that the window opened. 

(50f) Knudsen (FRO)(DEN) 5'5 comes in as our 2nd choice WBL, although he could be promoted if I opt to cash in on (49f) Clark (Pro) PPM.

Matheson (IRL) 6'5" is another Big Man who arrives to hopefully take the place of Blair Stewart (Res) 6'1" SELL who I'm going to sell. 

(54d) Lochhead (Loyal) 5'8" * could be a fantastic signing for us. We have quite a few "power" forwards, but he offers us something different. His age and his valuation means that I expect to make a nice profit off him too. 

(52f) Dorrans (M.Pro) 6'0" has spent 2 loan periods with us previously, so it made sense to make the deal permanent. His age is decent and I obviously like his personality, so it makes sense to bring him in and move on a fringe player. 

As 4 have come in, so some have to go the other way to compensate. All 4 have friendly clauses attached which will bring in a combined £690,000, (which is pretty decent when you consider that 3 of the players were sold for a combined £1,000. 

Friendlies. (As a result of transfer clauses). I find it really interesting that you can sell a player for £0, but still make good money on the transfer via such an underused tool.

Finances. Our balance is currently , (largely down to Season Ticket sales of £21M and Sponsorship of £8M), but the board are still injecting cash. What do they know that I don't know? 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2060.

I wasn't planning on playing this month now, (I was going to save and player with Tullibody for 1 season). but I didn't want to have to come back to the save cold and be met with a daunting transfer window and no idea of who or what er need, (so I have played this month and will no swap to the Tullibody save for 1 season). 

Scottish Premiership. No the result we wanted on our competitive debut in our new stadium, (named after a Mr Ally McCoist). Tullibody & Hearts & Celtic, (who I think made up the Top 4 with us last season), also lost on opening day, so maybe there was something in the air. 

Records.

Season Tickets. 

Friendlies. 

Transfers. You might notice that as well as not paying any money for players, (why would we?), there are also 4 players we let go on a free, but where there were clauses included. Most had 25% + a friendly, but I think 1 was just a friendly. The idea that you will let a player go for nothing just seems madness to me now, (although I did release 1 player at the end of his contract). I've done it loads of times in the past. We're getting 16k+ fans at these friendlies and that money really adds up. It's got to the stage now where the season has started and I think there are either 2 or 3 friendlies that we have clauses for, but which I haven't been able to squeeze in because of fixture congestion. The 2nd half of the season should have a few gaps, especially if we don't do well in Europe. 

Hay. (Unamb)  SELL was a rubbish player who moved to Italy on a free at the end of his contract. There is nothing I could do about that. 

Swanson (F.Pro) * SELL is on this list suggesting that there were no clauses, but I can assure you there was. I just haven't been able to trigger it yet.

There are also a few others still outstanding. 

Jaime (ESP) (Unamb) * was our 1st signing of the Summer at a time when I wasn't really sure what our pulling power was going to be or what the wage demands of other players were likely to be. He has 4.5 PA and is pretty reasonable, but he's not a signing for right now, (although I thought he was when I did the deal). 

Hill (ENG) (Bal) * has 5.0 PA and I was desperate to bring someone in to play at WBL in case I was forced to sell (49f) Clark (Pro) PPM who has a min fee release clause of £2M. I was about to renew his contract when I realised that the release clause only applies to "domestic clubs in a higher division", so as long as we don't get relegated, this clause can't be triggered. 

Ballinger (ENG) (Res) 6'4" * is a player I really like and I don't think £5.5k pw was too much money to sign him. I think we've got a bargain and I'm delighted I managed to get him without a min fee clause. 

Castellano (ESP) (Res) seemed like a no-brainer of a signing. 4.5 PA, decent looking CA already and can play on both sides. His PPM's suit a centre-half more than a WBR but I'm working on that. 

Dickson (ENG) (Res) * WBR looks more like a centre-half than a WBR, (especially those PPM's), but I have already started working on him and i think he's decent. 

Öztürk (TUR) (F.Amb) 6'4" is the last signing and best. He's orgasm good is the best way I can describe him. He's so good in fact that the powers at be have said that he can't join us until the end of November, (he can't join before his 18th birthday), and until then he's here on trial and I will play him in the U18's and possibly U21's if I can. I didn't realise he was 6'4" until just now. OMG! He's even better than I originally though. 

Friendlies, (as a result of Transfer clauses). £690k from last month + £870k from this month is already £1.56m from friendlies as a result of transfer clauses. I think we also have 2 more friendlies available, but I haven't been able to squeeze them in yet. 

Finances. We don't have much transfer budget to work with, (but that's not a problem), but we're also close to our budget on wages too. That shouldn't be a problem though because I fully expect to sell someone else decent in this window. 

 

Now, back to Tullibody. 

Edited June 24 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2060.

Scottish Premier League. It's a tough start to the season, but 2 wins and a draw from 5 games isn't appalling either. 

League Cup. A late winner seed us into the Quarters. 

Transfers. Nothing out this month, but it wasn't for the lack of trying. Things have improved though so we're now at a stage where I don't think I have to sell players just because we've had a decent bid received, and now we have the ability to wait until the next window to move the player on and bring in some more cash. 

I had other players that I wanted to bring in, (that had been found by a mixture of the DoF and me looking at players interested in a transfer and then getting them in on trial), but until we move players on to generate some transfer income, (and free up some wage budget), then we're just stuck with what we have for the time being. 

Player valuations. We received bids of about £3M for Thomson (F.Pro) 6'0" *, but the add-ons were rubbish, he was only 23 years and and still a good player for us, so I just decided to keep him, play him, and then sell him in January or at the end of the season. 

The players I'm most keen to sell are as follows.Ideally they would all leave this season.

Thomson (F.Pro) 6'0" *
Sim (Res) 6'2" * SELL PPM
Jack Meres (Res) 6'2" SELL

Finances. I'm not convinced the difference between the current spend and the committed spend is right, because we only have Öztürk (TUR) (F.Amb) 6'4" arriving in November, and he's certainly not earning £9.5k pw. 

Oh hang on, we've got a loan deal in the pipeline for someone, (that I'm going to cancel), and that will be the difference. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2060. 

I have to say, I'm enjoying this Rangers branch of the save much much much more than the Tullibody branch right now. I'm actually enjoying the selling of players and the recruitment aspect of the save, and it's obviously much more of a challenge. We only lost 4 league games in the Tullibody save last season, (and crashed out of the Champions League at the Last 16 stage), so we're not losing many games at all and it's just getting a tiny bit repetitive and boring at the moment. 

Scottish Premiership. We were absolutely battered by Tullibody, but I was dismayed to see that there wasn't a single Academy product in their starting XI, and only 3 on the bench. They've changed!  

UEFA Europa League. I'm a tiny bit frustrated with 0 wins from our opening 2 games, but 7 goals scored is possibly better than I could have hoped for in that respect, so maybe our glass is half full rather than half empty and we will kick-on. 

League Cup. 

Transfers. We're probably overdue a decent sized sale. but with this being our 1st season back in Europe I thought keeping a slightly bigger squad this season might be sensible. Hopefully in Jan, but at the very latest in the Summer, we will sell some players on and inject some much needed cash into the club. 

Friendlies, (as a result of Transfer clauses). 

Finances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2060. 

Scottish Premiership. 13 points from a possible 18 is pretty decent. We're only 3 points off the top, (because surprisingly Tullibody have already lost 4 games), but the real leaders are Hibs in 2nd place, (who have 3 games in hand on 1st place Kilmarnock. 

UEFA Europa League. 2 draws is a little disappointing...... until you lose. 

Transfers. 

Finances. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2060. 

Scottish Premiership. We're doing pretty well, but there is an enormous gulf in quality between ourselves and the better teams in the league, (never mind about the Tullibidy squad). At least we're in the mix. 

UEFA Europa League. We will probably need a result in the 2 Scandi games to qualify for the Playoffs. 

League Cup. We've already got to our 1st Final, and we will play our fierce rivals Celtic. 

Transfers. 

We make our 6th free transfer signing of the season as 6'4" Öztürk (TUR) (F.Amb) 6'4" arrives on his 18th birthday. I really like the look of him. 

Finances.

[RoguPL]

I can see that you are losing about 3M a month at the moment, So any extra money from UEL will help, especially if you can advance to playoffs. 

Re: what you mentioned about Tulibody save. I absolutely get that  I am doing my first Youth Only and do miss recruitment part although it takes more time  

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2060.

Scottish Premiership. We're not really competing with Tullibody and are just 3 points behind 2nd placed Hibs. 

UEFA Europa League. 

League Cup. The 2nd piece of silverware under my tenure. The old Rangers were used to silverware. The new Rangers, not so much. 

Transfers. 

Thomson (F.Pro) 6'0" * is already valued at £6.8M after his move, and the fact that we only received £2.1M cash could suggest that we let him go too cheaply, but add-ons, (that are achievable), a 25% clause and a friendly should make up for that. I'm more than happy with this deal. He did well for us last season but not so well in the Premiership this season, so to get this sort of money that we can reinvest in the wage budget for new players is a no-brainer. 

Friendlies, (arranged as a result of a clause in a transfer). The Queens Park friendly was part of the Thomson (F.Pro) 6'0" * deal, (which adds another £250k onto the £4.4M we're probably going to end up getting for him), and the Albion Rovers friendly was part of a £2,200 transfer. #Bargain. 

Records. 

Finances. I've transferred most of the transfer money we got from the recent sales over to wage budget, but of course we only get 10% of the fee so it isn't much. I'm happy wit7h that though. It's enough to be getting on with and we now have approx. £11k pw available for new players. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, RoguPL said:

I can see that you are losing about 3M a month at the moment, So any extra money from UEL will help, especially if you can advance to playoffs. 

That might have been the case last season, but we don't seem to be doing too badly this season. 

We started off the season with approx. £25M in the bank and we're on 1st Jan right now and we have £18M in the bank. We've received just over £4M in transfer fees so far this season, (mostly due to instalments), but even without £4M in transfer fees then we would still have £14M in the bank halfway through the season, (so no huge problem either way). I think we will sell more players in this transfer window, (hopefully), and from then on I think we will sell players consistently and much easier than we've done so far. 

Edited June 28 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, RoguPL said:

Re: what you mentioned about Tulibody save. I absolutely get that  I am doing my first Youth Only and do miss recruitment part although it takes more time  

I sped through the Tullibody season as quickly as I could, (and we did the treble), but all I was really concerned about was getting back to the Rangers save.