[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?

[l4nd3r]

Hopefully as you get things more stable and focus more on the youth talents (and develop them) you will begun selling players for bigger value that will assist with solving the finances an easier job.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, l4nd3r said:

Hopefully as you get things more stable and focus more on the youth talents (and develop them) you will begun selling players for bigger value that will assist with solving the finances an easier job.

Completely agree. At the moment I'm really just trying to build a cash reserve, (as I would do in a Youth Only save), and this will 1st of all allow me to sign better players with the idea that we then sell them on for an even bigger profit, and of course I want to upgrade the facilities too, but we need to generate the income for that.

This 1st season with the new stadium has obviously increased our income significantly.

The season tickets remained exactly the same, but I think that's a little bug where the new stadium wasn't finished so they used the old stadium info for the season tickets. I expect to see a big jump next season. 

2059/60 Gate Receipts £8,401,407
2060/61 Gate Receipts £8,255,392 We're only on 12th Jan and we've already taken almost as much as we did in the whole of last season.

2059/60 Player Sales £8,444,573
2060/61 Player Sales £7,576,249 We've almost generated as much transfer income this season as we did and we inherited a £7M sale. 

2059/60 Prize Money £4,860,476
2060/61 Prize Money £4,803,664 We're almost at last season's prize money level, and we haven't had anything from the league yet & still have at least 2 more European games to play and then possibly a playoff and who knows after that. 

We've already brought in slightly more money than we did over the whole of last season, (although being back in Europe will obviously play a part in that). 

I don't mind in the slightest that we're a selling club. For most of my Youth Only saves we're generally a selling club too. It's only once you're right at the end of the save, you have reached the top of the top tier and are banging on the door in Europe that money is longer an issue and you can just do what you want. Even now with Tullibody and with approx £200M in the bank I consider us a selling club. If we didn't sell players then we simply wouldn't have the £200M in the bank. Our wealth comes from player sales. Thus we are a selling club. 

I'm not sure we will ever not be a selling club in this save. Even were we to be really successful in the transfer market and build up a bank balance of £200M, then there is always the £4027M+ we owe so as far as I'm concerned, we really need to have money in the bank to pay of all the debts and the n £50M or so on top of that to keep me happy. 

I actually think that the finances are looking pretty decent compared to the situation we inherited. It could be even better by the end of the season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. As far as I'm concerned, we're competing for 2nd place and are hanging on in there. 

UEFA Europa League. We finished the Group Stage strongly. So strongly in fact that we almost qualified for the Knockout stages directly rather than the Playoffs. The Playoffs will do me fine though. 

Scottish Cup. Into the next round. 

Transfers. I'm considering selling some clauses, so I just wanted to check if selling them has any impact at all on our budgets. I mean it should obviously have an impact, but I just want to check. 

 

Great. That's worked completely as expected, so let's see if we have any other clauses that we should sell. 

 

Jack Meres (Res) 6'2" SELL was decent, but he wasn't 1st choice and it would have been silly not to take the money. When we can sell him and replace him with Hastie (Res) 6'1" who looks better, but for a fraction of the cost, then it's a no-brainer. 

(53c) Robertson (L.Heart) * was decent without being amazing, and although I wasn't planning on selling him, when Leicester came in for him it made sense to cash in. The only problem was that because I didn't do the deal to sign him, the idiot DoF had agreed to pay Ross County 30% of any profit on the deal, so we lost out on £275,000 of the £1.1M.  still we made close to that back in the friendly. 

Hastie (Res) 6'1" is decent without being great. We signed him on the cheap so we will see what his valuation is like in the Summer. 

Duffy (IRL) (Bal) 5'3" was brought in as a direct replacement for (53c) Robertson (L.Heart) *, but again, on the cheap.

We've also arranged to sign 3 players on a free at the end of the season, and I'm particularly excited about the 6'6" striker, (but more on them when they arrive in the Summer). 

Friendlies, (arranged because of a clause in a transfer). 

Finances. 

 

[endtime]

Extremely surprised that you were able to sign a player directly from Celtic, I thought transfers between fierce rivals were practically impossible in FM nowadays.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, endtime said:

Extremely surprised that you were able to sign a player directly from Celtic, I thought transfers between fierce rivals were practically impossible in FM nowadays.

I didn't actually realise that he was from Celtic until I was taking the pictures and posting the update. 

The systems in place to stop this were probably diluted somewhat by him making just 1 single appearance for Celtic.

Also.... it wasn't actually a proper "transfer as such". It was him moving on a free at the end of his contract, (which Celtic have no control over), and the fee was pad to allow him to join in Jan rather than in the Summer, (which make slightly more sense). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2061.

Scottish Premiership. It was frustrating to lose at Hearts, but they were well worth the win so I have no complaints. Hibs have drawn their last 4 league games, (and 5 of their last 8), (so that's 10 dropped points right there), so we're just about keeping our noses ahead of them. 

UEFA Europa League. The 2nd Team are actually going from strength to strength as the season progresses. 

Scottish Cup. It looks like the next round may be our last, (as we are up against Tullibody). 

Records. 

Finances. We started the season with £24M in the bank, and now we're "up" to almost £23M in the bank. I know I've sold a few players but that's still much better than I was expecting. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Day. Mar 2061.

• 17 players in this intake.
• 9x (Unamb) players. 
• 1x poached player from abroad, (but not an affiliate). 

#

We have 17 players in this intake, (meaning that 1 player was poached from somewhere else), and the Bulgarian National has already gained Scottish Nationality, (and opted to represent them). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. We were battered by Hibs, but that game came immediately after the defeat to Tullibody in the Cup, (so momentum). We're still 2nd though and 2 points clear of Hibs and 3 points clear of Celtic. Both Ross County and Kilmarnock have played +1 game, so hopefully they're now out of contention. 

UEFA Europa League. The late goals in both legs appear to have been the difference between the 2 sides. I would go further than that and say the difference between the 2 sides was our rotation policy the fact that didn't have a game between the 2 European fixtures, (not even a friendly), so the squad had a whole week to recover. 

Scottish Cup. We were given a bit of a lesson by Tullibody. They were far too good on the day. Unfortunately they had zero Academy products in the starting XI, although did have 4 on the bench. 

New contract. The length of contract I've been given is perhaps an indication of the job I have done so far, but actually it's more likely a result of my previous work with Tullibody. 

Facilities. I know that this is me being just a little frivolous with money, but I think we're guaranteed 1 more lump sum from the Europa League, (even if we lose in the Quarters), and that should mean that we make a tidy profit on the season even before the Season Tickets start getting sold, (so we deserve to treat ourselves). 

Finances. Because we've done so well on our finances over the last couple of seasons, (especially this season), you will not that the guaranteed wage budget for next season is at least £160k pw, (which is a huge jump from the £75k budget we have now, and you also have to remember that the £76k budget started at £58k I think). This is real progress because it will allow us to recruit more players just for development rather than spending all our budget on players who will play immediately. 

Just looking at the graph, (and in particular since I took over in Jun 2058), and you will see consistent and significant improvement in our finances, and I expect that to receive another boost in the Summer when I sell yet more players. 

The next thing I need to do is negotiate with the board so that I receive more than 10% of a sale once a sale is made. I don't need 100%, but would absolutely love to get it up to near 50%.

 

[RoguPL]

Awesome job 
Looks like with Europe, the finances are much much more manageable, even now with season almost done, facility upgrades and still having 19M in the bank is great. 
I think the upcoming season if you can get to Champions League, and get to playoffs on the off chance is going to be a game changer. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. We've been scoring 3's and 4's all season, but the defeat in the Europa League seems to have knocked our confidence and it's a struggle getting our mojo back. Somehow we're still 2nd as Hibs have imploded and Celtic unable to take full advantage, but Kilmarnock coming with a late run to challenge us now. 

UEFA Europa League. We gave it a right good go, but it just wasn't to be. We hit the post early on and then had player sent off, (2nd yellow), right at the start of the 2nd half, and then gifted them a goal with an awful backpass and even then we were banging on the door in the last 5 mins at 2-1 trying to get an equaliser, but they hit us on the break again and that's that. 

When you consider the financial constraints we're under and the fact that this is only our 2nd season back in the Premiership and my 3rd in charge, then I would say this is pretty decent progress. We might have got passed Chelsea on another day, but they were just too good for us and the truth of it is that they are just too good for us. Our squad shouldn't be getting anywhere near theirs and with 5 mins to go and playing with 1 man down, we were bang right in the mix. 

Records.

Transfers.

Finances. 

 

Next season's wage budget has dropped from £160k pw (as of the end of last month), to £105k pw as of now. Nothing of note has happened, other than us losing in the Champions League I suppose, but we were never expected to get past them anyway so surely that can't be a factor. Anyway, £16k was probably too high for the current finances so that's ok. As long as it stays at the £100k pw mark I will be a happy chappy. 

Something that I don't usually do in my saves is ask for more transfer revenue from sales, (because I'm usually playing Youth Only so don't need it), but with the finances slightly improved I'm going to risk it. 

I could argue the point, but I'm not going to risk it. I'll just work on getting some more money in the bank and then let it happen organically. 

[Jimbokav1971]

35 minutes ago, RoguPL said:

Awesome job 
Looks like with Europe, the finances are much much more manageable, even now with season almost done, facility upgrades and still having 19M in the bank is great. 
I think the upcoming season if you can get to Champions League, and get to playoffs on the off chance is going to be a game changer. 

Thanks. Yeah, it's going quite well. 

I've had to work quite hard selling players, (and not just selling them for max cash up front, but ensuring that the structured deal we get is the best in the longer-term for the club. If I keep doing this then we should see regular clauses getting paid out, (although at this stage not huge sell-on clauses). 

I'm not too bothered about the Champions League right now if I'm honest. Don't get me wrong there is a good battle for 2nd place in the league, but if we miss out, (like last season), then I really don't mind). We're nowhere near good enough to get into the Playoffs right now I don't think, and losing all those games takes it's toll on the players. I would be happy playing in the Europa League if we miss out on 2nd, (or we lose in the qualifying at the start of next season). as long as we have European Group stage football though, I don't really mind what competition it is. 

The player valuations are looking much better now too, and the £12.5M - £14M player is actually Matheson (IRL) 6'5" (who we signed on a free from Partick Thistle), and despite being 2nd Team AF, he has contributed 23 goals in 24(29) appearances. He's 27 years old and Sporting Gijón are interested in him, so although he's got 4+1 years left on his contract, it might make sense to cash in on him in the Summer. He's just done so well though that I wonder if I could hold off for 1 more season. I suppose it actually depends on who else we manage to sell. 

11 of his goals have come in Cups, (either domestic or Continental), but even ignoring them he's still hit 12 goals in the league when playing in the 2nd Team. I just think he's one of these players who is worth much more than they appear when used correctly because I'm certainly not suggesting he's good by any stretch of the imagination. He plays good though. 

Interestingly, and this sort of links in with my previous conversation with @Deisler26, although he plays as a central AF(a) when he starts, he usually comes on as a PF(a) when he is used from the bench. It would be good to have something that tells me what his performances/goals were in each different position. Quite a few of his league goals were from the bench, playing as a PF(a), attacking a ball delivered by our WBL at the back post. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. For the 2nd successive season, we miss out on Champions League football on the final day. It might appear that I have engineered results to swerve the much tougher Champions League, (qualifying rather than straight into the Group Stage), and instead be guaranteed Europa League Group Stage football, (with no qualification games). It's weird, although I didn't engineer the results to drop into the Europa League, I certainly thought about it, and I wasn't the slightest bit bothered about missing out on qualifying for the Champions League.... until it had been decided. Now we're not in it, I wish we were in it. 

Awards. 

Finances.

This is just what we needed. We've been given a nice tidy wage budget of £155k pw, (we're currently spending £64k pw), and a transfer budget of £5.6M. We should be able to supplement that with income received from any player sales, but of course we only receive 10% of what we bring in. 

This isn't as impressive as it sounds. There was a small consolidation loan outstanding and the balance outstanding was left was about £1.3M, so the board have paid it off. We still have a lot of debt.

Our hard work with the wage control and the transfers is rewarded with our bank balance up at almost £48M at the start of the close-season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2061. 

European Competition Rankings. 

European Club Rankings. 

Qualification Places. 

Nation Club Coefficients. It's very close between Scotland, Turkiye & France for the 5th, 6th & 7th qualification places. We were 2nd, (of the 3), to Turkiye this season, but I would expect France to be favourites to top the trio next season. The following season is probably still up for grabs, with Scotland again being favourite for the 3rd season, (based on the season coefficient values that each Nation will lose). 

Friendlies, (as a result of transfer clauses). 

Transfers. We had a few clauses that I was keen to trigger. 

That little lot amounts to £2,458,000 so certainly not to be sniffed at. If you wonder about us having 5 identical clases on the same player by the way, (all £200,000 after scoring 50 league goals), then I think I had asked for £200,000 after 10, 20, 30, 40, & 50 goals, but they negotiated and I didn't notice. I'm more than happy to take £755,000 up front for a potential £1M further down the road because this player never scored freely so I think the chances of him hitting anything other than the very 1st target were pretty unlikely. 

Morrison (F.Pro) 6'0" was signed because I quite the look of him as a right-sided striker. He's cheap and cheerful with decent physicals and I think I would like to have him as backup rather than keeping a young prospect at the club, (but not playing very often), when they would be better served going out on loan. Ideally he will play a few games, his valuation will rise, and we will flog him in 12 months time for a few quid. 

(58h) Duncan (Unamb) 6'6" came in from our old club Tullibody and if it seems I'm signing a lot of players from them, (this is actually the 1st that I have personally instigated), the truth is that they had/have so many players that lots of the available younger talent in Scotland is at Tullibody. He's a 6'6" teenage giant with 5.0 PA and we signed him on a free. There is lots to like there. 

Simmons (Pro) 6'0" is one for the future and a bit of a punt if I'm honest. When 5.0 PA players because available on a free and don't want too much in wages, it's hard not to sign them. 

Goddard (IRL) (L.Heart) 6'0" is a player I knew absolutely nothing about until I got asked to confirm the deal. He's a teenager, on a free, and he looks decent. What's not to like? I've used by veto on absolutely LOADS of signings, but this seems pretty low-risk to me. 

Stephen (Perfect) 6'0" * SELL was good for us, and I love his personality, but he's an experienced player that we could get money for and unfortunately, (for him), money talks at this club. 

Fernandes (POR) (F.Det) SELL is 28 and it just made sense to cash in on him and the plan is to bring in a better and younger player. 

Sim (Res) 6'2" * SELL PPM has been 1 of the most key players in this section of the save. He's scored 42 goals in 3 seasons from centre-half, and we now have a big gap to fill at the back post for set-pieces. £1M+ for a 32 year old is a no-brainer though. 

Clark (Res) * SELL was 3rd choice WBL last season, and because I opted not to sell either 1st or 2nd choice, (and possibly bring in another one), it makes sense to move him on. 

Thomas (ENG) (F.Det) 6'6" is the 1st of 2 absolute gems that we've signed from Aston Villa. He's 6'6" and still a little raw in some areas, but there is scope there to develop and I think he will be plenty good enough and for us and will really suit the way we play. We got him on a 3+2 deal so he's likely to be here for a while. He's scored for Villa in the Cup, but not the Premier League. 

Bennett (ENG) 5'10" may be rubbish at jumping, but he's very strong and is very good in the air, (surprisingly). I mainly signed this guy as a bit of an experiment because we know that big strong blokes who can jump, (but aren't very good at actually heading the ball), can still be very effective, but what if they can't jump but are strong and very good headers of the ball. Can they out-muscle their opponents and still be a threat in the air? I guess we will find out. 

Something that I missed before I signed him however, was that 1 of his PPM's is a real no-no for me, so i will be trying to get rid of it. 

Williams (WAL) 5'9" WBR looks excellent. He;s been playing on the left, but I'm not interested in that. He will play on the right flank and I think he will be absolutely fantastic! I really like him. Just look at those physicals! 

Ashanti (ENG) (Res) 6'2" is the 2nd signing from Villa and he is sensational! Forget this "big striker" think we've got going on here. He's just really good. He's scored goals in the Premier League for Villa and the Bundesliga for Frankfurt and even scored on 1 of his 2 ENG U21 appearances. This bloke is a player! He has a £7.25M min fee release clause, (that I expect to be met pretty quickly if he performs as I think he might), but I think we're going to enjoy him being here while it lasts. I was so desperate to sign him that I even offered him 5% of the next sale to sweeten the deal, (and I never do that!) 

Bolger (IRL) 6'2" has come in to offer some depth to our defence. We've lost a couple of experienced guys so I wanted to sign someone who could come stright in. 

A mistake I made when I was allocating responsibilities is that I delegated responsibility for all recruitment, (as I often do in my Youth Only saves), but what I hadn't considered was an ambitious, (in actions rather than personality), DoF or whoever, signing staff member after staff member and incurring significant compensation payments that come out of our transfer kitty. I have taken control of these actions now and while I'm not hugely concerned about who we sign, we will absolutely not be paying a fee for any staff members! 

At the same time, it's nice to earn a few quid out of them when they leave the other way; 

Squad by Transfer value. I'm not going to sell everyone we get a bid for, but at the same time if someone offers me a really good deal for anyone then they are probably going. I've tried to include +year options and where I've been forced into min fee release clauses I've tried to set the quickest possible expiry. I'm not bothered at all about the Relegation releases. 

Squad by Basic Wage. I've tried to limit myself to a hard cap of £10k pw for all players with no exceptions, but I must admit that I succumbed to player/agent pressure a few times and while the current wage is £10k pw, (so I didn't break my self-imposed rule), there are clauses in various contracts that increase the wages beyond that after 20 or 30 league appearances. Hell, if I was willing to give 2 players 5% of their selling fee, then it tells you quite how keen on them I was. 

Finances. We're looking really good financially, (if you ignore the loan debt), but I'm trying to just ignore that and just deal with the repayments and building what we can build as we go. I would love the Board to repay the CVA loan from 2048 early. There is £86M outstanding but there is also £21M due to pay on that, (if it runs to 2078), so the sooner we pay it off then the less interest we will pay. I would guess that I would need somewhere in the region of £136M in the bank for them to pay off the £86M debt, (so a £50M surplus), but we will just keep doing what we're doing and see what they decide. We've got £47M in the bank right now, but our wages have rocketed and as a result we might lose money a little bit/lot quicker than we have done in the last few years. The flip side of that however is that we've now got some serious assets at the club and I won't mind selling them on and bringing the next lot in, (again probably on a free). I haven't even started looking at players we have to pay a fee for yet, but probably will do between now and Jan. To this point it's all been out free agents, (and I think it's worked out ok).

 

 

Edited July 2 by Jimbokav1971

[l4nd3r]

It should take you 5~6 seasons to get the ~150 million to maybe clear the CVA debt. Also, no new stadium sponsor?

[Jimbokav1971]

12 minutes ago, l4nd3r said:

It should take you 5~6 seasons to get the ~150 million to maybe clear the CVA debt. 

I don't think it will take that long. I think once we start selling players for £10M-£20M we will sell quite a few of them. 

I think it will be interesting to see where we are even just 24 months from now. The danger is that we reinvest all the money we make back into the squad and we never see the profits. I don't want to do that. I want to really see our bank balance rise year on year. 

[Jimbokav1971]

15 minutes ago, l4nd3r said:

Also, no new stadium sponsor?

I don't think I saw a message, but let's have a look. 

Last season's total income from sponsorship was £8,255,392
This season, (2 weeks in), we have already generated £8,443,228

Just adding that little lot up in my head gets me to approx. £9.8M, (up from £8.25M last season), so it's gone up, but not by loads. 

[BML]

On 23/06/2024 at 19:32, Jimbokav1971 said:

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).

I can confirm it does; while they removed the 'drop down' after the League Stage, this still exists for the qualification rounds and is something I made use of during the early part of my Welsh save.

Winning a single tie across the three comps gives League Stage football of some flavour once you enter at the Second Qualifying Round of the CL.

[Jimbokav1971]

1 hour ago, BML said:

I can confirm it does; while they removed the 'drop down' after the League Stage, this still exists for the qualification rounds and is something I made use of during the early part of my Welsh save.

Winning a single tie across the three comps gives League Stage football of some flavour once you enter at the Second Qualifying Round of the CL.

I checked after I wrote that, (but thanks). Must admit the qualifying for Europe is a stage of the save I really miss. It's my favourite part of saves. I remember battling through, (or not as the case may be), in Wales, Iceland & Gibraltar many many many times, and more recently in Kosovo. There is just something really special about European Qualifying when you're in a properly small Nation, (rather than Scotland which we pretend is "small" just to annoy them, but which really isn't). 

Can you imagine if there was an ELite European competition above the Champions League, where there were no Group Stages and only the Champions of each Nation's domestic league were invited, and everyone started at the same stage and it was played over 2 legs all the way through until the Final, (which was 1 leg)? 

You could call it something like the European Cup or something wacky like that. Stupid idea though. It would never catch on! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. I really wasn't expecting to lose, but considering how many new faces we have and how many have left, perhaps it's not such a surprise that we're not firing on all cylinders immediately. 

One of their players called Keegan Eyre (M.Citizen) 5'9" * scored 3 goals and provided 1 assist against us on opening day. He scored 25 league goals last season and looks like he is going to score a few again this season.

Season Tickets. I'm astonished that this has stayed at the same level as last season, (in fact the last 2 seasons). Just doesn't make sense. Don't they know we've got a big stadium now? 

Transfers. I really was serious about not spending cash on players while I don't have to. At this point there are plenty of decent players willing to join us on a free, and the problem will come when these free agents aren't good enough and we're looking for players with that little bit of stardust sprinked about. 

Robinson (NIR) (F.Pro) 5'11" is another player who although he's on a £10k pw wage, I have agree to exceed the £10k rule after 10, 20 and 30 league appearances. 

Goldsmith (ENG) 6'4" looks like a decent young player, but his physicals are a problem and he has some work to do. 

Stevens (ENG) (Pro) 6'3" was signed by the DoF and we needed a 2nd GK so I gave it the ok. I wouldn't have signed him myself though. 

Williams (DEN) (F.Det) 6'3" was signed by the DoF, and if I'm completely honest, I probably would have used my veto had he not been a 6'3" teenager. It remains to be seen how good he is or isn't. 

Friendlies, (arranged as a result of transfer clauses). 

Finances. 

 

[RoguPL]

I think the season ticket thing is broken, 

In my save, we have been playing on a 16k seater stadium (expanded now) and only managed to sell 2k season tickets BUT in post season review, season ticket waiting list was 7k ?  Why don't just sell the 7k season tickets from the waiting list rather than incrementing season ticket sales by 100 every season. 

[Jimbokav1971]

19 minutes ago, RoguPL said:

I think the season ticket thing is broken, 

In my save, we have been playing on a 16k seater stadium (expanded now) and only managed to sell 2k season tickets BUT in post season review, season ticket waiting list was 7k ?  Why don't just sell the 7k season tickets from the waiting list rather than incrementing season ticket sales by 100 every season. 

We've sold 47,501 season tickets, (which I think is the 3rd year running now), but our attendance in the 1st game of the season, (Home to Kilmarnock), had an attendance of only 51,458, (with 2,770 of them away), meaning that there were 48,588 home fans, 47,501 of which were season ticket holders, so we only sold 1,187 non-season tickets and there were more than 24,000 empty seats. 

I will have to remember to look at the season ticket waiting list. 

[RoguPL]

7 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

We've sold 47,501 season tickets, (which I think is the 3rd year running now), but our attendance in the 1st game of the season, (Home to Kilmarnock), had an attendance of only 51,458, (with 2,770 of them away), meaning that there were 48,588 home fans, 47,501 of which were season ticket holders, so we only sold 1,187 non-season tickets and there were more than 24,000 empty seats. 

I will have to remember to look at the season ticket waiting list. 

You can check it in club vision -> supporters this will show you whatever screen you had at the end of last season, it doesn't dynamically update as the season goes along. 

[Jimbokav1971]

39 minutes ago, RoguPL said:

You can check it in club vision -> supporters this will show you whatever screen you had at the end of last season, it doesn't dynamically update as the season goes along. 

Season Tickets. Aug 2061.

This makes even less sense. 

[l4nd3r]

In the real world there's usually a cap on season ticket sales (i think it's ~70% of capacity), but it's weird these people aren't buying normal tickets when they are available, i guess it's something SI never managed to fully implement correctly, you should be selling out your stadium or pretty close.

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, l4nd3r said:

In the real world there's usually a cap on season ticket sales (i think it's ~70% of capacity), but it's weird these people aren't buying normal tickets when they are available, i guess it's something SI never managed to fully implement correctly, you should be selling out your stadium or pretty close.

That's a good point, but I also wonder if there is a...... not sure what the SI word is here, (peak capacity or something like that), above which fans just won't come based on local population numbers, and other hidden factors.

In fact I think there is something in the IGE so let me have a look. '

this suggests that the Max club attendance is 95,031, (which seems pretty reasonable), but it doesn't explain why we seem stuck at filling the capacity of what used to be the old stadium. Maybe it's something that will improve over time as the game catches up with itself. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. We're playing ok, but the 1st Team weren't good enough to beat Tullibody, and the 2nd Team weren't good enough to beat an in-form Celtic. It's fine thought. We've had a huge overhaul of the squad in the close-season and that will have an impact on it's own, but we've also gone MUCH younger in the squad so that will have an impact too. I would rather we hadn't lost to Kilmarnock on opening day, but the Tullibody and Celtic results are not an issue at all. 

UEFA Europa League. Our fixtures have been drawn, and I have to say they don't seem too bad at all. (Famous last words). 

League Cup. We're into the next round. 

Transfers. 

Finances. We've spent most of our budget, (without moving transfer funds over to wage budget), and I'm happy with the players we've brought in and what's gone out in the window. 

 

[RoguPL]

1 hour ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

That's a good point, but I also wonder if there is a...... not sure what the SI word is here, (peak capacity or something like that), above which fans just won't come based on local population numbers, and other hidden factors.

In fact I think there is something in the IGE so let me have a look. '

this suggests that the Max club attendance is 95,031, (which seems pretty reasonable), but it doesn't explain why we seem stuck at filling the capacity of what used to be the old stadium. Maybe it's something that will improve over time as the game catches up with itself. 

The screenshot from IGE represents current status, but I am not sure if its tied to the stadium capacity. However I am pretty certain to think that club attendance in IGE is dynamic, otherwise there would be clubs that never can go beyond some point. 

Eg. Non league clubs from london has got every right to win PL and pinch fans from other big London clubs, and they wouldn't be capped at let's say 10000 Max attendance.

 

I also agree that population etc can be a factor, however giving enough time (10s of seasons) you should still be able to increase fan base but maybe not as quick. 

I recently read about a guy who still plays FM15 in attempt to break Guiness Record of longest save. He plays only in Welsh clubs and managed to build 3 or 4 over 100k stadiums in Wales. Although it is FM15 which is 10 years behind. I don't believe that the dynamic would have changed so dramatically. ( or I am just BS here and there was a proper revamp of this since then LOL) 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. Another loss, but it's just where we are at the moment. We're still in 4th and with the exception of Celtic, everyone is pretty close together. 

UEFA Europa League. 2 good wins here suggest that perhaps some of the 2nd Team, (particularly Matheson (IRL) 6'5"), need to be promoted to the 1st Team. 

League Cup. We're into the Semi's and with Motherwell being a Championship club it should mean that we play in another Final. 

Friendlies, (arranged as a result of a transfer clause).

Facilities. 

Transfers. 1 more decent sized fee received, 

(50f) Knudsen (FRO)(DEN) 5'5 is 27 years old and we have at least 2 bright prospects at WBL. It made sense to cash in on him so that we could give some senior experience to 1 of the youngsters, (Simmons (Pro) 6'0" PPM in this case). We're going to keep seeing this as I sell players to boost our cash Reserves and replace them with younger players with better PA> 

Finances. 

 

[l4nd3r]

3 horas atrás, Jimbokav1971 disse:

That's a good point, but I also wonder if there is a...... not sure what the SI word is here, (peak capacity or something like that), above which fans just won't come based on local population numbers, and other hidden factors.

In fact I think there is something in the IGE so let me have a look. '

this suggests that the Max club attendance is 95,031, (which seems pretty reasonable), but it doesn't explain why we seem stuck at filling the capacity of what used to be the old stadium. Maybe it's something that will improve over time as the game catches up with itself. 

It's probably related to reputation (i really dislike how so much revolve over this value) as the Rangers have had a fall from grace before you took over.

[Thebaker]

8 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

That's a good point, but I also wonder if there is a...... not sure what the SI word is here, (peak capacity or something like that), above which fans just won't come based on local population numbers, and other hidden factors.

In fact I think there is something in the IGE so let me have a look. '

this suggests that the Max club attendance is 95,031, (which seems pretty reasonable), but it doesn't explain why we seem stuck at filling the capacity of what used to be the old stadium. Maybe it's something that will improve over time as the game catches up with itself. 

Perhaps this is a bug, you should report it as it seems strange to show no real increase after moving stadium

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Thebaker said:

Perhaps this is a bug, you should report it as it seems strange to show no real increase after moving stadium

It might be. I'm going to keep an eye on it and yeah, reporting it would make sense if there is no change. 

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, l4nd3r said:

It's probably related to reputation (i really dislike how so much revolve over this value) as the Rangers have had a fall from grace before you took over.

It could be Rep. (and you're right it does seem to have it's fingers in so much in the game), but in this instance it just doesn't make sense. I guess we will see as the seasons progress. 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. That's a really good month for us, but could have been even better but our 9 men couldn't hold out against Tullibody and they scored a 96th min equaliser. 

UEFA Europa League. We were 2-1 up with 20 mins to play against Napoli, but they found a way and we have to take it on the chin. 

Transfers. There have been no ins or outs this month, but there are a few deals in the pipeline. There is 1 Big name going out, and there is a player coming in who even I thought we had no chance of signing. He could be huge for us. It's ridiculous that we're signing him even if he might not be around for long. 

Finances. Although we're within our wage budget at the moment, we're committed to exceeding it because we've signed deals for 2 players to arrive on a free shortly. I won't keep us over the budget though. I will transfer funds across from the Transfer budget to cover and then in Jan/Summer I plan to sell more players anyway. There is no danger of Rangers repeating the mistakes of the past under my watch. All the signings I'm making are with a view to us making money rather than losing money.

 

 

[RoguPL]

Shame with the Napoli result, but league form is really good! 

I see that you are almost overspending your wage budget  
I recall you saying earlier about not going too crazy haha  

[Jimbokav1971]

Nov 2061. 

Scottish Premiership. We were poor against Ross County, but it was good to see Ward (F.Pro) 6'1" get off the mark early and he has 4 goals in 3 appearances since his arrival. 

UEFA Europa League. we should have done better against Sparta Prague. 

League Cup. We're into another Final.

Transfers. No players leaving this month, but 2 arrivals and a few clauses cashed in. 

McDonagh (ENG) (Spirit) 6'1" isn't a player I actually like, (his positioning puts me off), but I know we can make money on him so it's a no-brainer, and I think I might be selling 1st choice GK  (44f) Gordon (F.Pro) 6'1" in Jan. It's fine to make signings such as this, just so long as I keep players leaving in the opposite direction and don't hoard players and explode the wage bull. 

Ward (F.Pro) 6'1" is a ridiculous player for this level of the save and quite frankly I;m astonished that we were able to sign him. He's played and scored in the Premier League and the FA Cup as well as at International level and has also played in European competition, (without scoring). He's immediately worth £20M and I plan on cashing in on that before too long. Yeah I know I've broken my self-imposed wage budget of £10k pw, but whether he's worth it or not in terms of his ability as a player, he's worth it simply as a sellable asset. 

Finances. 

 

Edited July 4 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

7 hours ago, RoguPL said:

Shame with the Napoli result, but league form is really good! 

I see that you are almost overspending your wage budget  
I recall you saying earlier about not going too crazy haha  

Yeah, we're doing ok when you consider that there has been so much change in the squad this season. 

We were over-spending at the end of this month, so I moved some cash over from the Transfer budget. 

I don't think I am going crazy, but just look at Ward (F.Pro) 6'1" and see how good he is and how much he's worth. I plan on selling him as son as I can. I promise you the money in the bank will keep growing. 

Edited July 4 by Jimbokav1971

[Jimbokav1971]

Dec 2061.'

Scottish Premiership. We're unbeaten in the league this month, (and in all competitions if you ignore losing on pens), which brings to 13 our unbeaten run in the league. Despite that, we've dropped to 5th place as we've simply drawn too many games. 

UEFA Europa League. It's interesting seeing the likes of Kilmarnock and Celtic right at the top of the table, and even Ross County on track to qualify for the Playoffs. I would suggest that they're prioritising these European games where as we're prioritising the league and Cups and Europe are very much a secondary consideration, (at least until we get to the business end of the competition). 

League Cup. It's weird. In the Tullibody branch of the save, this loss wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest. When I tell you that it's just a collection of friendlies with a Trophy at the end, that's honestly how I feel, but with Rangers it's difference because success has come far less easily, (certainly with more work), and with far less resources available. This actually grates. 

Facilities. 

Transfers. 

(44f) Gordon (F.Pro) 6'1" has done well for us, but his best days are behind him and we needed to get a few quid for him while we still could. He was also being just a little disruptive. The biggest thing though is that in a save like this, I don't want an old experienced GK. I want a young GK who is going to increase in value, (before being sold). We've got 2 GK's who are plenty good enough to play for us, even if I don't think they're amazing. 

Fry (NIR) (F.Det) * is simply not good enough and any cash we got for him was a bonus. 

Friendlies, (arranged as a result of transfer clauses). 

Finances. I didn't ask for this. The board suggested it and I agreed, (as I do to almost all of their suggestions). 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jan 2062.

Scottish Premiership. This was our 1st loss in ages in the league, and of course it came at the hands of Tullibody. Weirdly we're down in 5th place despite our recent unbeaten run, (too many draws), and we're 5 points off Hibs in 4th, (although we do have a game in hand). It looks like the league is really competitive this season and even Tullibody have drawn 5 and lost 5 by this stage. 

UEFA Europa League. That's a really good campaign and I'm surprised that it wasn't good enough for auto-qualification. 

Scottish Cup. Into the next round we go. 

Facilities. 

Transfers. 

Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * was a club legend and it's tough to let him go, but £1.7M is £1.7M and he just wasn't really getting into the side now so it had to be done. 

Friendlies, (as a result of transfer clauses). 

Finances.

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Feb 2062. 

Scottish Premiership. This really isn't good. Selling legend Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * maybe made financial sense, but it's been a disaster on the pitch. Quite a few of the players are unhappy and losing him and moving others has upset the relationships on the pitch and neither the 1st Team nor 2nd Team strike force have managed to fire successfully after his exit. HUGE mistake on my part.  I think I got rid of him 12 months too early. I should have just kept him until the end of his contract. 

UEFA Europa League. I think the league campaign went really well, but we missed out on automatic progress by 1 points and then were rubbish in the Playoffs. 

Scottish Cup. We're into the next round, but have been drawn against Tullibody so that's likely to be as far as we go. 

Transfers. No business this month. 

Player valuations.

• The top valued player at £20M-£22M is 23yo striker Ward (F.Pro) 6'1". He joined on a free in November and my plan is to sell him in the Summer if there is interest. He's contracted for 4 more years though so there is no rush to sell, (although I am keen). 
• 2nd top value is 27yo striker Matheson (IRL) 6'5" who is a beast and who I don't want to sell if we can help it. 
• (49f) Clark (Pro) PPM is the #3 valued player at £8.5M and ideally I will sell him in the Summer. He's 28 years old and only has 1 year left on his contract. 
•  Stewart (Res) * is #4 on the list at £6.8M-£8.8M and I will probably try to see if there is any interest for him in the Summer too. 
• Williamson (L.Heart) 6'5" * is #12 on the list at £2.1M and he will hopefully be moving on too. 

Just selling 4 of those 4 players listed above should bring in close to £37M in transfer fees. That will do nicely thank you very much. We would obviously replace them, but I think it likely that I would be able to replace them all with free transfers, so that £37M would be profit. I'm going to be selling a LOT of players over the next 18 months or so. 

Finances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Youth Intake day. Mar 2062.

[Jimbokav1971]

Mar 2062.

Scottish Premiership. Good at home and rubbish away. 

Scottish Cup. We've crashed out of both domestic Cup competitions on pens this season. 

Transfers. 

Problems with form in 2nd half of the season. As someone who usually plays Youth Only saves, the current situation is one which I don't often find myself in, and considering what my overall strategy is for the save going forward, it's one that I'm going to have to overcome if we're going to be successful in clearing the debt. In a Youth Only save, you have a really settled squad, Senior players have usually been around for ages and there are loads of positive relationships within the club, both between the players themselves, but also between players and staff and players and manager. Because of the on-pitch success and the feel-good factor, player unhappiness with tight wage control is often less of an issue than it might otherwise be, and of course I have usually signed the players onto really long contracts so there isn't much they can do about it anyway. The best players play and the players who aren't good enough to play go out on loan. As long as everyone plays somewhere then it's basically all good. It's a pretty happy camp most of the time, and when individual players aren't happy, then playing in a winning team for long enough is generally enough to get the player through his unhappy period until whatever is making him unhappy, (usually not being allowed to leave), goes away when either the transfer window closes or the interested clubs are no longer interested. 

The problem I've got here is that this isn't a Youth Only save and I haven't been here for long so I don't have a good relationship with the players, (nor they with eachother). Because players are coming and going all the time, it;s hard to build relationships and I need to find some sort of balance between selling players on for a nice profit, and providing some sort of stability on the pitch. I made a huge error in selling club legend Selfridge (F.Det) 6'5" * for a poxy £1.7M, but we have quite a few decent strikers at the club and I thought it made sense to cash in on him. This obviously made quite a few players unhappy, on top of the unhappiness that certain players were already feeling about my tight wage-control. I had initially restricted myself to a max wage of £10kpw, but then eased to to an initial £10kpw that was able to rise after appearances. Now I have relaxed that still further and the limit has been increased to £15kpw. This is a slippery slope that I really don't want to go down, but we're in danger of dropping out of European contention, and a season without European football would be a disaster that I just can't allow to happen, and at the moment this Premiership season is looking the most competitive in ages. 

While I can usually just bludgeon over and through player feelings in my Youth Only saves, this is something that just won't work here. I have to keep players happy long enough to get out of them what we want, (whether that be a transfer fee or performances), but it's something that is so much easier in a Youth only save and honestly requires little or no effort, (hence my love for Youth Only saves). This is challenging and different though, and while it's also pretty annoying, it's also something that I'm quite enjoying getting my teeth into. 

Height. The word from SI Towers for years is that Height is simply a cosmetic attribute and doesn't impact directly on anything within the game, (although it is an indication of where an individual's relative strengths may lie), however time and time again I find myself able to prosper with tall players, (irrespective of other attributes), and it's made me look at things in a slightly different light. One of the plans I have for my main FM25 save involves a "Big is Beautiful" strategy, and with that in mind I've been experimenting a little with big players in this save. 

We've got quite a few tall players at the club, (6 above 6'4" and 14 more above 6'1"), and the basic premise is that a good big-un will generally be better than a good little-un. 

NxGn 2062. 

Finances. We're spending £170 pw on wages, (from a budget of £314k pw), but they're saying that we will have a budget of £325k pw next season. I don't believe that, and even if it is true, there is no way that I will spend that much. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Apr 2062. 

Scottish Premiership. [Sigh] Playing Celtic and Hibs before the split really wasn't ideal, and then having to play Tullibody as our home game immediately after the split was another blow.  On the plus side we're guaranteed European football next season, but even with 3 Champions League spots we won't be getting 1 of them. With 3 games left to play we're 12 points behind Celtic in 3rd. It just remains to be seen whether we will be playing in the Europa League or the Europa Conference next season. I think we would quite enjoy the Conference, and this could be our last opportunity to do so, but the difference in money to be earned is significant and I'm not sure we can afford not to play in the Europa League. 

Transfers. Quite a few clauses triggered this month. 

Finances. Our bank balance has dropped considerably and we're now down below our starting point of £25m, but we have some serious assets to sell and that could be happening sooner rather than later. 

[Jimbokav1971]

May 2062. 

Scottish Premiership. We finished the season in slightly better form, but it was still only good enough for 5th place and the Europa league. 

Awards. We scored a lot of goals, but our problem was stopping them at the other end. 

Transfers. 

Finances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jun 2062. 

Facilities. 

Transfers. 

Ashanti (ENG) (Res) 6'2" SELL has gone to Germany for an initial £4.7M, but we have absolutely loads of clauses in the deal, including a 25% clause which I expect to come up big for us. I don't mind paying him his 5% at all, (even though I didn't sign the deal). 

Ritchie (ENG) 5'10" WBR was signed because he had a 5.0 PA scout report, and then it drops to 4.0 when he arrives. 

Moore (NIR) (Spirit) 6'4" is a player I really like and I think he will be a big player for us. I think the plan is to play his as Libero. 

Gillam (Res) 6'2" is a proper player and will provide some real quality for us at the top end. He's not a giant like some of our players, but still pretty strong in the air. 

Arifi (KOS) 5'5" WBR might very well have been a mistake. I signed him early and the more we progressed towards the window opening, the more I regretted signing him. 

Pye (ENG) (F.Pro) 6'0" arriving is no mistake. He's a proper player and is going to be enormous for us. It's really just a case of getting him in the side somewhere. 

Millar (NIR) (Driven) arrives and becomes the 3rd in a central trio, (1st choice Libero & both MC's), hailing from N.Ireland. (Love that!)

McAtee (ENG) 5'9" is a signing for the future and will probably go out on loan. 

Soley (ENG) (Res) 5'10" is another for the future, but I really like the look of him. 

Friendlies, (arranged as a result of a transfer clause). 

Finances. We've not off-loaded as many players as I would like, and I will be trying to get a few more out the door between now and the end of the window. 

 

[RoguPL]

Pye what a pickup !! 

[Jimbokav1971]

Jul 2062. 

UEFA Europa League. We finished so low in the league that we have to go through Qualifying for the Europa League. 

Transfers. 

Ashanti (ENG) (Res) 6'2" SELL was always planned to leave, but when someone met his min fee release clause of £7.5M, (I think), the race was on to see if I could get a different offer with some add-ons accepted by someone else. In the end he went to £4.7M(£6.5M) and obviously included in that is a 25% and a friendly clause so that should come good later down the road. 

Öztürk (TUR) (F.Amb) 6'4" was another who had a min fee release clause, and when it was met I couldn't get anyone to pay more. £8.5M profit is still decent and I've got no issues with him leaving, (even though that wasn;t the plan). 

Ward (F.Pro) 6'1" SELL was always going to go simply because he was such a valuable asset. He had a min fee release clause of £20.5M (I think), so to get £16.5M(£25M) which unfortunately only includes 20% profit and a friendly, but is better than I could have dreamed of. He's immediately valued at £56M-£64M

Owen (WAL) (Res) 6'5" was the only arrival this month, (and he arrived too late to be registered for European Qualifying). Although he's 34 and getting paid £30k pw, (which is huge for us), I felt more relaxed about paying that sort of wage for an ageing player with little/no saleable value because we had brought in £30M+ in sales during this window, (and again spent nothing). £30k pw amounts to £1.56M for a whole year, and I'm fine with that as a one-off. My plan is that he will start every game on the bench, and probably won't start any at all unless we have an injury crisis. 

Friendlies, (arranged as a result of transfer clause). 

Finances. I would love to get us to £100M in the bank by the end of the season, but we will have to make some big sales for that to happen. 

  

[Jimbokav1971]

Aug 2062.

Scottish Premier League. It's a decent start in the league, but I was frustrated to drop points at Raith Rovers. 

UEFA Europa League. We've been in really good form in qualifying for the Group Stage of the Europa League and I'm delighted to have scored 21 goals in 6 games at a rate of 3.5 goals per game

League Cup. Into the next round where we will meet Celtic. 

Transfers. We've been really busy in the close-season and I expect this sort of thing to be the norm now. £30M+ income from players sales already this season. 

Player valuations. The top player here is Pye (ENG) (F.Pro) 6'0" and he has a min fee release clause of £16.5M. Ideally he will leave next Summer.

We're 2 players short of our HGN quota of 8, so I will have to be careful that we don't sell any more HG players this season. 

Season Tickets. No Change again. 

Finances. Things are starting to look really good now. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Sep 2062.

Scottish Premiership. The Ross County was a bit of a strange one, and then we probably only drew the Hearts game because we had lost the Ross County game. I would like to say that we were unlucky in the Celtic game and that the result could have gone either way, but we weren't and it couldn't. I was really happy to get back to winning ways in the league after that little run. 

UEFA Europa League. We should have beaten Utrecht, (even with the red card we suffered), but the Lazio game was might tighter and might well have ended in a draw or even an away win. It really could have gone either way. 

League Cup. What an absolute pig of a performance this was, (and against our big rivals too). 

Facilities.

Transfers. Nothing to update this month. 

Finances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

Oct 2062. 

Scottish Premiership. This is much better form, but we did it by dispensing with my rotation policy. We had so many player injured and unavailable that it seemed more sensible to just stick to 1x starting XI through this month, and it worked as we won 4/4 league games, and also 1 European game. As a result we've moved to the top of the table on goals scored, (but have a game in hand), 

UEFA Europa League. After a couple of tough results in Europe, we got back to winning ways again.

Transfers.

Finances. 

 

[Jimbokav1971]

On 05/07/2024 at 22:34, RoguPL said:

Pye what a pickup !! 

He's pretty decent. 

Spurs must have some phenomenal strikers if he could only make 1(28) appearances in 8 years after coming through the Academy. He has a £16.5M min fee release clause, (for Champions League clubs), and if all goes to plan we will sell him in the Summer after just 1 season with us. 

While Pye (ENG) (F.Pro) 6'0" has been performing well as a PF(a), our central striker has been beset with problems. 

Matheson (IRL) (Unamb) 6'5" scored 38 goals in 36(11) appearances last season, (most of them in the 1st half of the season), but he has really struggled with fitness this season. We've played 25 games so far this season and he's only made 14(1)appearances, scoring just 6 goals, 4 of them in the last 7 games, (which is the 1st time he's managed 3 games in a row all season).