DaneBramage Posted June 9 Share Posted June 9 (edited) Club Deportivo Armenio were formed in 1962, by members of the Armenian community in Argentina. After ten years of existence they won the Primera D title in 1972, securing promotion to the third tier. Four years later they won the Primera C title, making it up to the second tier for the first time. 1986/87 was the most successful year in the clubs history, as a 38 game unbeaten run was the catalyst to winning the Primera B title. However, their spell in the Primera Division only lasted a couple of seasons, and Armenio suffered relegation in 1988/89. In the present day, Armenio have been in Primera B for a few years (although due to league restructuring, this is now the third tier of Argentine football). So it's time for a new manager to take charge and attempt to get them back to the top flight for the first time in 35 years. Edited June 12 by DaneBramage 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 This thread is a chance for me to rectify some past failures. My most recent career (which isn't necessarily finished, but I was getting the urge to try something different) saw me trying to manage as many promotions as possible. Twice I ended up in the Argentine second division, and twice I failed miserably. So I'm looking for some redemption in Argentina. I've also tried youth only a few times before, but without huge amounts of success. I can normally achieve a promotion or two, but then progress stalls. So I'm looking to do better this time. It might be youth only+ though, rather than strictly youth only. I like the idea of building up a collection of feeder clubs and signing the best players from their academies, similar to the Red Bull or City groups. And given the club's Armenian heritage, it might be fun to also look out for young Armenian players to add to the mix. But these ideas are years away, we may never get to the point where we can pick feeder clubs or scout abroad, so I'll worry about that if and when it comes to it. The manager is an English fella, with suitable qualifications for the Argentine third tier (Continental B licence, ex-pro footballer at a local level). Active leagues: Argentina (top 3), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay (all top 2), Peru (top 1 only), England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain (all top 2), Portugal (top 1 only). 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 January 2022 Current Squad I'm glad we're a professional club (as is everyone else in the division), as I find that easier to deal with than starting amateur or semi-pro. I won't have to worry about players being stolen away the whole time. There looks to be plenty of quality and potential in the squad, with Fabricio Lopez and Franco Almanza possible the standout players on first glance (both 4.0 CA and 5.0 PA). I'm actually pleasantly surprised by how good the standard is, I was expecting worse. Spoiler Spoiler There are a few gaps which we'll have to look in the other squads for solutions. We could do with another left-back, and we're short at centre-back too. German Aguirre will likely miss the whole season with a knackered ACL. We're also short of wingers, which are pretty vital for the 4-4-2 system I normally use. -------------------------------------------- Reserves Six players with 4.0 CA are out on loan elsewhere. That's quite the decision that someone has made, though to use a cliche, they'll be like new signings when they return. We do have two players in on loan ourselves, but I've decided to banish them to the reserves and not use them (including a left-winger who would have been a starting player, this might be a bad decision). At least we're not paying anything for them. -------------------------------------------- Under 20s A number of youth players were generated to fill out the squad, so I've labelled them as the first intake. There is a bug in FM23 where nearly all Argentina newgen players are called Tomas, so I'm using old World Cup squads to give them different first names for my sanity. I know he's only 15, but given the scarcity of left-wingers in the squad Tobias Luna will probably be promoted to the first-team sooner rather than later. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 (edited) January 2022 Expectations The media think we should finish in the top three, while the board want a top five placing. The bookies aren't convinced though, favouring 15 teams over us and giving odds of 20-1 for promotion. -------------------------------------------- Finances + Facilities Our facilities are among the best in the division (yes, that is a major part of why I picked this team). We hold just under £50k in the bank, I have no idea what the finances are like in the Argentine third tier but I can't imagine they're great. We have a wage budget of £21,295 per week and we're overspending at £23,170, so this probably won't last long. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 12 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 February 2022 Primera B Metropolitana There are twenty teams in the divisions, everyone plays each other twice for a total of 38 games. There's only one promotion spot, while the bottom four are relegated. We won all six friendlies during our pre-season warm-up, so we headed into the campaign full of confidence. And then we conceded within 52 seconds of the season beginning. We equalised pretty quickly, before suffering an own goal, an injury, and a red card. We battled back to clinch a point late on but we made it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to. At least we know scoring goals won't be an issue, even if we're leaky at the other end. We hit four goals in each of the next two games, though neither display was entirely convincing. Jonathan Herrera is the man who's made an immediate impression, scoring five times in these three games. Spoiler For what it's worth, we're in third place after the first few games. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 (edited) March 2022 Primera B Metropolitana Spoiler I mentioned that Tobias Luna would have to be thrown in at the age of 15, and he's already setting records. He's now getting attention from some of the big boys, though nothing serious at the moment. He's on a youth contract until 2027, is that safe? Or can players be stolen on that type of contract? Two more narrow wins made it six games unbeaten, and things were going well as we made it to the top of the table. But next up were Ituzaingo in a 1st v 2nd clash. It was an even tie, but they narrowly had the better chances. We took the lead, but they turned it around to take the points. That didn't knock us off top spot though. Points are equal, but we have the superior goal difference. -------------------------------------------- Finances One word - terrible. In three months we've lost over £200k and are now £160k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 9 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 April 2022 Primera B Metropolitana The new manager bounce has well and truly worn off. We only managed five points from a possible 15. Quilmes fans will be baffled how they lost that match to us. They had more possession and over 20 shots, but of a low quality and few were on target. We broke their spirit early by taking a quick three goal lead with attacks on the counter, all from an xG of just 0.91 We used up our luck in that game though, we absolutely battered Los Andes but couldn't extend our lead, then conceded in the 91st minute. We then battered Canuelas too, but penalties have been an issue for us. We've missed three out of four, and this time it caught up with us and cost us points. In better news 22 Roberto Heredia was the first intake player to score (on his debut). The stats suggested a draw would have been a fair result at UAI Urquiza, but that's because there isn't a stat for 'how many times do defenders refuse to mark opposition forwards and leave them free in the six yard box?'. Jonathan Herrera is at 12 goals for the season, but nobody else has more than three. A bad month and we've suffered, dropping down to 6th. -------------------------------------------- Finances Another £140k gone, we're now £300k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 (edited) May 2022 Youth Intake The first real youth intake has come around pretty quickly, less than five months into the save. It was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (2 Elite talents, 3 Top talents, 5 Good talents, 6 Decent talents). Everybody in the group is Argentine, with a couple of Italian second nationalities, and one each of Spanish and Uruguayan second nationalities. Everyone has been signed for now, which will put further strain on our wage budget and bank balance. Most are on £5 a week youth contracts, but the top four all wanted full-time contracts straight away, ranging from £90 to £210 per week. Under 20s don't need to be registered so we'll get them in to start making use straight away. Left-wing was a position I needed, but there's not much in that regard, so I'm thinking of re-training 22c Javier Banegas to fill this role. Determination stats and personalities are a bit of a mess, any recruitment I've made during my time here has been for staff with 10+ determination, so hopefully that will improve in future intakes. In the tryout match they beat the Under 20s 3-1. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 9 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 May 2022 Primera B Metropolitana 22c Javier Banegas came into the first team at the first opportunity possible, while 22a Francisco Lopez came off the bench. The game was a bore draw, but the former set a new record for club and league youngest player. Spoiler Spoiler Things were feeling decidedly rocky, as we'd gone six games without a win. I was beginning to think we were never going to win again and that this thread would be shorter than I'd hoped for. Luckily we hosted Sasachispas at the end of the month and their form wasn't much better than ours, and we smashed them 3-0 to add to their woes. We haven't slipped any further down the table, but a significant gap has grown to top spot. -------------------------------------------- Finances £168k gone this month, now £468k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 June 2022 Primera B Metropolitana It probably wasn't ideal that a 15 (now 16) year old was playing so much, but this is even worse. We now don't have a recognised left-winger, 22c Javier Banegas is going to have to learn the role quickly. We won the first and last games of the month, thanks to some magic from Franco Almanza and Jonathan Herrera. There were a couple of poor results in between though, due to stupid players doing stupid things. We took a very early lead against Fenix, then Carlos Battigelli got sent-off in the seventh minute and it was all over as a contest. That's his third red card of the season already, I think he's done. Fined, transfer-listed, and demoted to the reserves. Then Gonzalo Errecalde missed a penalty against San Martin, costing us the win. We have only a 20% success rate from the spot. I don't want to put my goalkeeper on PKs, but it looks like I might have to at this rate. We've moved up into the top five, keeping the board happy. -------------------------------------------- Finances -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 9 Author Share Posted June 9 (edited) July 2022 Primera B Metropolitana A good win over Villa San Carlos. 22c Javier Banegas became the first 'real' academy graduate to score for the club, we managed a rare penalty success (33% record). The loss at Dock Sud was pretty poor. We had the majority of the possession, but failed to turn it into anything useful until it was too late. The game at Sarmiento was a 4th v 5th clash. When they took a two goal lead it looked like they'd go back above us, but we levelled things before half-time and then took charge in the final 20 minutes. We ended the month with a second loss this season to Ituzaingo, they're just better than us. We've risen another spot. We've scored 46 goals which is the best in the division, but 34 conceded is the fifth worse defensive record. -------------------------------------------- Finances Due to this we only lost £28k in July, our balance is now £628k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 10 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 August 2022 Primera B Metropolitana 2-1 is a great scoreline, I will happily take a few more of these. Three home games in a row was definitely preferable to the four consecutive away games last month. With nine games left we're not getting promoted and we're not getting relegated, we just need to keep stringing a few wins together to ensure we finish as high as possible. Board wanted top five so we're looking in good shape to manage that and earn another season here. -------------------------------------------- Finances £730k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 September 2022 Primera B Metropolitana Two good home wins, including a convincing victory over the league leaders Acassuso. Tobias Luna returned from his injury to grab two assists off the bench. Tomas Jerez was pretty ineffective over the first half of the season, but he's come on strong over the last few months with seven goals in his last 10 games. Jonathan Herrera is still miles ahead of everyone else with 26. As the away game at Sporting Penarol was midweek a second-string team with a few youngsters played. They did well, but tired and conceded an equaliser in stoppage-time. Five games to go, we're likely to end up somewhere from 2nd to 4th. Since it doesn't really matter which I'll use more kids over the last few games. -------------------------------------------- Finances A slight improvement in our financial position due to this investment but we're still £687k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 (edited) October 2022 Primera B Metropolitana I picked squads based entirely on potential, and we responded with our biggest win of the season and a really good away win too. Perhaps trying to pretend you know what you're doing is overrated, and it's better to rely on dumb luck instead. 22 Roberto Heredia benefitted from that this month, and he's also quietly turned into a tidy current ability player too. Spoiler Two games left, we're guaranteed a top three finish. I just hope that means the board don't get their hopes up too high for next year, the difficult second season. -------------------------------------------- Finances There was a news story about upcoming elections, so hopefully that'll sort this out. Otherwise I'll have no chance of requesting any upgrades once the season ends. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 10 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 (edited) November 2022 Primera B Metropolitana A pair of draws to end the season, though the results didn't really matter. Just a case of getting more experience for the lads. That being said, we have finished up with a 13 game unbeaten run. That should send us into next season with some confidence. 3rd place, very happy with that. We were top scorers and averaged just over 2.0 goals per game, getting 17 more than the next highest team. -------------------------------------------- Finances We received a £178k sponsorship payment this month, but we're still more than £800k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 14 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 (edited) November 2022 Squad Stats Jonathan Herrera had a great season. He was our top scorer, had the highest average rating, and the most MotM awards. He also took these awards for the division too. Nobody reached double figures for assists, though there were six peoples in the 6-8 assists range. -------------------------------------------- Academy Players Seven academy players made their debuts this year, and three of them are now firmly involved in the first-team squad. 22 Roberto Heredia has certainly staked his claim to play more next year with 7 goals in 9 games. -------------------------------------------- History I'm happy with this first season. I didn't know what to expect and when we had a rocky spell through April and May I thought this career might be coming to an abrupt end. But we recovered well to finish in 3rd place. I just hope expectations don't go mad next year. With just one promotion spot up for grabs I don't want that to be the objective until we're really ready, with enough younger players ingrained into the first-team squad that we can handle it. -------------------------------------------- Finances + Facilities If it wasn't for the cash injected by the board we'd have lost well over £1 million this season. I don't know how much transfer business goes on at this level but we have a big squad, so I'd happy to move out quite a few of them. There are a few contracts expiring so that will reduce the outgoings somewhat, but it likely won't make a huge difference. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 14 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 10 Author Share Posted June 10 December 2022 Elections New chairman, but nothing is changing. -------------------------------------------- No, no, and no I asked for upgrades, but predictably increases to the junior coaching and youth recruitment budgets were declined due to the lack of funds. An application to go an o coaching course was also rejected for the same reason. The board did agree that finding a senior affiliate to receive an annual fee from would be a good idea, but couldn't find a suitable club to link up with. -------------------------------------------- Departures Eight players left at the end of their contracts, with combined wages of £395 per week. We also managed to get rid of this red card machine. No one would take him permanently, even for free, but at least Sansinena agreed to pay 90% of his £1,200 weekly wages, In all it's about £1,500 per week saved, or £75k per annum. A small amount in the grand scheme of things, but got to start somewhere. -------------------------------------------- Loanees I thought we were going to be financially ruined even further by these six returning to the club, with a combined wage of more than £15k per week. Turns out that they're all on two year loans, so won't be back another 12 months. So I can ignore this problem until December 2023. -------------------------------------------- Finances £909k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 11 Author Share Posted June 11 February 2023 Expectations After last year's good performance the media now think we'll go one better and finish 2nd. Luckily, expectations are more realistic elsewhere. The bookies don't think we'll be in the mix, having us midtable with 10-1 odds of promotion, while the board just want a top-half finish. -------------------------------------------- Primera B Metropolitana The AssMan did a terrible job of getting the squad ready during pre-season, and we've come into the campaign completely undercooked. We're not sharp at all and are lacking fitness. We got away with it against Talleres due to a defensive mistakes from our opponents, but we were well off the pace and deservedly lost to Fenix. -------------------------------------------- Finances A couple of big donations have helped with our bank balance, as well as the season ticket payments this month, but we're still £598k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 11 Author Share Posted June 11 March 2023 Primera B Metropolitana Pretty poor, but at least Jonathan Herrera has ended his drought and most of the players are now match-ready. A bad start, but plenty of time to go. No need to panic yet. -------------------------------------------- Finances Keep it coming, one of these every month and we might just make it out of this mess. £514k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 11 Author Share Posted June 11 (edited) April 2023 Primera B Metropolitana 22a Francisco Lopez has been getting plenty of gametime at right-back, he's one of the main academy players who has made it into first-team reckoning. But being ruled out for half the season will slow down his progress. I'm trying to ensure there's at least two academy players in every starting line-up, sometimes three, so I'll have to pick someone else to make the step up. Ignoring the injury though, we had a much better month. We're up and running with several wins, and both starting strikers Jonathan Herrera and 22 Roberto Heredia have been scoring. Just the one loss, but it was to Colegiales who have been going strong at the top of the table so I can't really complain too much. We've moved in the right direction and into the top half. Colegiales have made a very good start and already hold a six point lead, but I'm not worried about that. I don't think this season is about promotion, it's about bringing more academy graduates into the team and letting them improve so we're in a better state when the original players at the club start getting phased out. -------------------------------------------- Finances No investments this month, so we're back to losing large amounts of money. £661k in the red. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 12 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 12 Author Share Posted June 12 (edited) May 2023 Youth Intake This was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (1 Elite talent, 7 Top talents, 5 Good talents, and 3 Decent talents). Everyone is Argentine, with one Italian and one Spanish second nationalities. A lot of low determination stats here, that sucks. I like that the top-rated player is a left-winger, that's a position we need strengthening in. They beat the Under 20s 4-1 in the tryout match. -------------------------------------------- Edited Monday at 15:37 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 12 Author Share Posted June 12 May 2023 Primera B Metropolitana Bit of a crap month really. It started well, then went downhill. We were comfortably better than Argentino Merlo, but did survive a scare when they missed a penalty. We led for more than 40 minutes against Dock Sud, probably against the run of play, then threw it away in the final five minutes. A draw was fair against Los Andes, we had more chances than them but most were low quality efforts. The performance at Defensores Unidos was really poor. We dominated possession but didn't do much with it, and they scored nearly every time they mounted a strong attack. We have just as many losses as we do wins. We only lost seven times last season and we're already on six this time, and we're not even at the halfway point. -------------------------------------------- Finances -------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 12 Author Share Posted June 12 June 2023 Primera B Metropolitana 22c Javier Banegas has been really poor so far this season (admittedly, few players have performed well). But he's been especially bad, with just 1 goal and no assists in 14 appearances, and an average rating of just 6.40. So he's received a number of criticisms and warnings, and not reacted well to them. He asked to leave and I told him to grow up, and now he's skipping training. His contract is up in December so there's not much I can do, I'm resigned to losing him. There's been very little transfer interest in any of my players so far, but I'll try and drum something up. In turn this has led to 23a Ernesto Farias coming in to make his debut on the left-wing, setting records in the process. And we happened to win on his debut too, one of two wins this month. Both came at home with Jonathan Herrera showing his class, a brace in each. He's now at 12 for the season, after him we have one player on 5 goals then nobody else has more than 3. Both away games were terrible though. We may as well have just not turned up, it was pathetic. Especially the loss to UAI Urquiza who were in the relegation area at the time, At the halfway point of the season we're in 8th place, but it's all very close in the middle of the table. -------------------------------------------- Finances Nearing the million mark. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 12 Author Share Posted June 12 (edited) July 2023 Departures Carlos Marques Semeao was a spare goalkeeper we didn't need using up our wage budget. £21k isn't a huge amount by any means, a drop in the bucket compared to the money we owe to the bank, but we'll save roughly the same again though not having to pay up his wages over the rest of the season. We managed to sell 22c Javier Banegas (to a team in the division above us) rather than lose him for nothing. Again, £29k by itself isn't much. But we've also got a 25% of next sale clause and a friendly included. And they've loaned him back for the rest of the season, but I probably won't use him. -------------------------------------------- Clauses I thought I'd checked this when taking over and not seen any clauses in place, but maybe I didn't look properly as I saw some when checking for 22c Javier Banega. First up is the money we'd have to pay for our starting goalkeeper. For some reason, if he gets sold he gets the entire 100% of the fee. What a nonsense idea. Pretty much means I will never sell him, just as a matter of principle. Second is the money that would be coming in to the club. Leonel Alvarez and Agustin Pereyra are both contracted to us, but have been on loan at clubs in the tier above. Both deals could be made permanent for £450k. Yes please. The interesting one is Ivan Leguizamon. He's at San Lorenzo in the top tier of Argentine football, and is valued at £1 million-£9.8 million. We'd be due 35% of any transfer fee, and Borussia Dortmund, Porto, Benfica, and RB Leipzig are all showing some interest. If that turned into something substantial we'd be laughing all the way to the bank. Spoiler -------------------------------------------- Edited June 12 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vakama2619 Posted June 13 Share Posted June 13 Best of luck mate, will defo be following 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 @Vakama2619 Appreciate it, thanks. Luck is the right word, I think I'll need as much of that as I can get. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 July 2023 Primera B Metropolitana A bit of a rubbish month. We drew a game we should have won at home, then drew a game we should have lost away. Feels like karma sorting itself out immediately, but in reality it means we're down a point. At least we won our other home game this period, but it was sandwiched between a pair of really bad away performances, especially the last game when we were leading 2-0 after 11 minutes. There's no excuse for losing that one. Our home form is actually really good, second best in the division. The problem is away games, where we're absolutely diabolical. Just the one win so far, third worst record in the division. -------------------------------------------- Finances More than £1 million owed to the bank. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 August 2023 Primera B Metropolitana We're not showing any signs of improving any time soon. After mentioning our good home form last update of course we got smashed almost immediately afterwards. Deportivo Espanol are in the relegation area so we should have got a win from that, but no, just a draw. At least a draw against league-leaders Colegiales was a good result. The drop-off compared to last season is just embarrassing. We're scoring 0.5 goals a game fewer, while conceding 0.5 goals more. Only two players have average ratings over 7.0, nobody else is performing to an acceptable level. -------------------------------------------- Finances Another £130k down. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 13 Author Share Posted June 13 September 2023 Primera B Metropolitana One step forward, one step backward. We finally win a second away game, with Jonathan Herrera smashing four goals past Sporting Italiano. But in the process he got hurt and will miss most of the run-in. We then had a second successive away game against a relegation candidate, and should have won again. But we were terrible instead and passed up any chance of gaining any momentum. It's just incredibly frustrating. Nearly every game we have at least two players performing poorly, and it goes around the team, different players each time letting us down. -------------------------------------------- Finances The biggest single investment yet, but really it makes no difference. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 October 2023 Primera B Metropolitana Ugh. We scored six goals over two games, yet managed to come away from them with just a point. Idiot goalkeeper and idiot defenders can't do their stupid jobs properly. Yikes. We've slipped to our worst position since the opening months of the season, and the board are now disappointed in my performance. Media messages are also starting up about the fans being disillusioned with the tactics we're using (4-4-2). -------------------------------------------- Finances I missed getting the value, but I think it's safe to assume we continued losing money. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 November 2023 Primera B Metropolitana A strong end to the season, though we can thank the AssMan for that. I put him in charge of team selection, and he picked 22c Javier Banegas. I'd probably have removed him if I'd noticed, but I didn't, and he went on to score twice in the first game and add an assist in the second. We recovered to rise back up to 10th, just about scraping a top-half finish. The board are delighted with this, I'm lucky it doesn't take much to keep them happy. -------------------------------------------- Finances Back over a million in the red again. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 (edited) November 2023 Squad Stats Not a lot to be impressed with this year. Jonathan Herrera and Lautaro Montani are probably the only players coming away with any credit, also maybe 22 Roberto Heredia and 22 Angel Cabrera if I'm feeling generous. I wasn't really able to introduce as many young players into the team as with how badly the senior players were performing it was a battle just to meet the top-half expectations. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records 22 Roberto Heredia is by far the best product of the academy at the moment, with the most appearances, goals, and assists. Three more players made their debuts this season and 23a Ernesto Farias is showing some early promise. 22c Javier Banegas is the first academy player to be sold. -------------------------------------------- History A significant step back from last year, though as long as we're not being relegated it doesn't really matter. There's no prize money so just not getting fired is the aim really until if and when we start producing enough players to have a proper crack at promotion. But the difference between our home and away from was mad. At home we won 39 points, best in the division. Away we won just 13 points, worst in the division. Our games were exciting for the neutral - we scored 65 goals, best in the division. But conceded 67 goals, worst in the division. -------------------------------------------- Finances + Facilities No change other than our bank account sinking deeper into the red -------------------------------------------- Edited June 14 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 (edited) December 2023 New Contract Renewed for two years on the same terms. -------------------------------------------- Affiliate Club Last time I asked for a senior affiliate the board looked for a team, but couldn't find anyone suitable to link up with. This time they provided a shortlist of three teams, but all were for loan options only and didn't offer any financial incentives, so no point taking them up on it. -------------------------------------------- Returning Loanees When I took over there were six players out on loan for two years, and these deals have now come to an end. One of their contracts expired in December, but the other five have now returned to the club, and this poses quite the dilemma. Four of them are ranked among the six best players at the club, so they would obviously massively improve our starting XI. But they are very expensive, between the five of them adding £13.1k to the weekly wage bill (just over £680k per annum). The one not listed here is 33 and on £3.5k per week, so it's an easy choice to get rid of him. But the other four are at their peak or approaching it in the next few years, so they still have a lot to offer. But they would of course be removing opportunities for young players to come through, and AML and DR are both positions where academy graduates have been involved a decent amount. And they are very expensive. And all four only have a year left on their contracts, and have already stated they'll be considering their options. I think I know what I have to do really, for the long-term gains rather than the short-term advantages (which will fall apart when they leave anyway). -------------------------------------------- Finances Sponsorship money for 2024 has come in, but things are still looking bad. Also, with the aforementioned players returning from loan, wages are a disaster. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 14 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 14 Author Share Posted June 14 January 2024 Departures Any transfer fee for Ivan Lopez would go straight to him, so he was let go for free, although we will get 50% of his next transfer fee and a friendly. Two of last year's loanees were shifted for a total of £675k. There's also an additional £63k after 50 games for the first player, and £83k after 50 games for the second (plus 20% of any profit on his next transfer). This saves us £4.5k per week on wages, roughly £235k for the year. -------------------------------------------- Finances Some improvement but the finances are still in a poor state. In reality we lose so much money each month we need a lot of sales all in one go to stand any chance of reaching a positive balance again, and then we have to hope the board are amenable to any upgrades immediately if and when that happens. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 (edited) February 2024 Expectations I think I might be screwed. The media are predicting that we'll be winning the league this year, the bookies have us 6-4 favourites, and the board want us to secure promotion. I don't see it happening. The pressure will definitely be on. -------------------------------------------- Primera B Metropolitana Although if Jonathan Herrera continues on like this, we might stand a chance. Seven goals in the first two games is certainly a good start to the campaign. Three of the loanees that returned to the club are still here, we haven't managed to move them on. The 33 year old is in the reserves, but Gonzalo Rios (AML, 25) and Agustin Pereyra (DR, 25) are involved with the first-team. They will be allowed to leave if any offers come in, but in the meantime and given how much we're paying them, it seems silly not to use them, especially with the ridiculous expectations this year (which is probably partly due to the fact that they are here). -------------------------------------------- Finances -------------------------------------------- Edited June 15 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 15 Author Share Posted June 15 March 2024 Primera B Metropolitana This lad is great. In my last save I went through 22 teams (and 1 country) in 35 seasons, so I never really knew any of the players. But this chap is obviously my favourite here. He just won't stop scoring, he's already at 12 goals this year in 7 games. Spoiler The draw with Midland was a decent point, as they were newly-relegated into this division. But losing to El Porvenir was poor, as they're new to this division from the other direction. We somehow conceded three times from just four shots on target. and a 0.91 xG. We bounced back though with three good wins, something we haven't achieved since August 2022. We're top of the table, but I don't know why we're playing so much better than last year. It can't be all down to the return of Gonzalo Rios can it? Though he has slotted in well, with 4 assists and 1 goal so far. Academy players aren't being forgotten, we generally have at least three in the starting line-up. 22 Roberto Heredia has 4 goals so far and 22 Angel Cabrera has 3 assists. -------------------------------------------- Finances -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 16 Author Share Posted June 16 April 2024 Primera B Metropolitana Our great run of form continued, making it as far as six wins in a row. It was ended by a stinker of a match with Sarmiento, a game of low chances and low skill but they just eked out the one goal needed. The scoring run of 22 Roberto Heredia also ended at this time, previously he had scored in seven consecutive games. We stay top thanks to the win over Sporting Italiano, a 1st v 2nd clash, but way too early in the season to call it a six-pointer. -------------------------------------------- Finances Our crap financial situation could put us into some major trouble soon. We're limited to offering wages of only £90 per week, so we're not able to renew contracts. A lot of deals are running out in December, including three first-team regulars (22 Fernando Pardal, 22 Roberto Heredia, and 22 Angel Cabrera), and it's pretty worrying. Once we reach 1st July they'll be within six months of expiry and other clubs will be able to talk to them, and we won't be able to counter their offers. -------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shep1920 Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Just out of interest how are you losing so much money on wages etc etc ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 16 Author Share Posted June 16 17 minutes ago, Shep1920 said: Just out of interest how are you losing so much money on wages etc etc ? There's just so little money coming in. Even if we weren't paying any wages we'd still be losing money each month. The largest source of income last month was fund raising, just over £23k. Then 'other' and gate receipts, about £9k each. The total income was £46,758. Spoiler Our total expenditure was more than four times higher, at £219.585. Player wages of £115k made up more than half of this, along with another £21k on bonuses and £19k on staff wages. But then there's nearly £20k on loan repayments and interest (we don't have any loans being repaid, so this must all be interest on the overdraft) and £15k tax, plus the other smaller ongoing costs. Spoiler ----------------------------------- At the end of the last couple of seasons we received sponsorship payments of just under £200k per year (if I remember correctly). It looks like one of these deals ended and a new one has started at a much lower rate, as the deals now come to a total of just £58.1k per annum. This is the second lowest amount in the division, though this screen only seems to be picking up a couple of these deals. Spoiler ----------------------------------- Our wages are the highest in the division, entirely due to the three players who returned from their loans that I was unable to move on. - ----------------------------------- We made more money selling players during pre-season that all other teams combined, and only one side spent more than they brought in. - ----------------------------------- Only 7 clubs have finances listed as okay, the other 13 are listed as insecure. So it's not an issue isolated to us, it's a division-wide problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 16 Author Share Posted June 16 (edited) May 2024 Youth Intake This was rated as a 5.0 star Excellent intake (zero Elite talents, 3 Top talents, 9 Good talents, and 4 Decent talents). Everyone is Argentine, with one Italian and one Spanish second nationalities. A lot of low determination stats here, that sucks. I wasn't able to sign three of these players as they wanted more than £90 per week. By the time the tryout match happened the deals for the other 13 to join the club had been completed. So in the tryout match the candidates team was made up of the three unsigned players and a bunch of greys. They beat the Under 20s 4-3. -------------------------------------------- Edited Monday at 15:37 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 16 Author Share Posted June 16 (edited) May 2024 Primera B Metropolitana Three good wins, all with clean sheets, and one astonishing loss. I'm baffled how we lost to UAI Urquiza. They were 4-0 up at half-time, we dragged it back to 4-2 but then they added another after 55 minutes. We carried on battling and got two more, but couldn't find a fifth. Infuriating, and their goals came from an xG of just 1.01. All free training sessions over the next week were replaced with additional goalkeeper sessions, and we responded well. Against Ituzaingo seven academy players started the game, including two debutees. We've scored 40 goals so far this season. Nobody else has more than 24. We've conceded 20 goals, and only three teams have let it more. -------------------------------------------- Finances -------------------------------------------- Edited June 16 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 June 2024 Primera B Metropolitana I thought we were on for a good month after the big win against Lujan (5th at the time). But that turned out to be our only win of the month. We lost three points due to late goals, two in the last five minutes at San Miguel and another in the 87th minute against Deportivo Laferrere. We also struggled a little with injuries; nothing major, but issues keeping players out for a couple of games at a time meant we weren't able to field consistent line-ups. We had eight academy players starting against Sacachispas, including one debutee, but it was more out of necessity than choice. We're just past the halfway point now. Top on goal difference. Hopefully this month was just a blip rather than a turn in fortunes. -------------------------------------------- Finances Cheers lads, very helpful. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 17 Author Share Posted June 17 July 2024 Primera B Metropolitana A mixed month, but better than last so I'll take it. We really should have received two points more, we were the far stronger team against Midland but just couldn't make the breakthrough. I'm trying my hardest to move on Gonzalo Rios, he of the £5k weekly wages, but no one will take him. In the meantime though he put on a MotM performance against Comunicaciones with a goal and an assist. We've dropped to second and fallen a couple of points behind Sporting Italiano, but it's still all to play for. -------------------------------------------- Departures We did manage to shift one of the big money drains, letting Francisco Molina go for free to remove £3.3k from the weekly wage costs. Nicolas Gimenez was a first-choice player during my first two years, but when he announced he was considering his options at the end of his contract I froze him out. That's another £1.1k per week saved. -------------------------------------------- Finances Profit! Just a one-off though due to the player sales and a new sponsorship deal. -------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 (edited) August 2024 Primera B Metropolitana A bit of a potentially tricky month with four away games, but we handled it very nicely. Two away draws at first was fine, but the turning point was the home game against Dock Sud. We battered them in a dominating performance, admittedly where we did benefit from them going down to ten men during the first-half. That then gave us the momentum to follow this up with a pair of away wins, both by the only goal of the game. Sporting Italiano only won one of their games this month, and we've climbed back to the top. -------------------------------------------- Finances -------------------------------------------- Edited June 19 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 19 Author Share Posted June 19 (edited) September 2024 Primera B Metropolitana If Sporting Italiano thought they might squirm their way back into contention, then that was a short-lived hope. We were comfortable and arguably should have beaten them by more. We nearly suffered an embarrassing loss to relegation candidates Defensores Unidos though. We were looking well on course for a 1-0 win until a five minute disaster in the 79th-83rd minutes saw us reduced to ten men and concede twice, the second from a terrible defensive mistake. But our strength in depth saw us take the win really late, both stoppage-time goals coming from substitutes. UAI Urquiza are a decent side, 5th in the table, but it's never good to concede from every shot on target. The game against Central Cordoba looked like it was going to be a bore draw, but Jonathan Herrera had other ideas with his 30th goal of the season. Wow! We might actually do this? We started the month three points above Sacachispas, but they lost two games this month and the gap has grown to six points with just five games remaining. And our goal difference is far superior. -------------------------------------------- Finances More of this please. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 20 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 20 Author Share Posted June 20 (edited) October 2024 Primera B Metropolitana The game against Ituzaingo could have gone either way, but 22 Angel Cabrera made the difference with an assist and a goal in a MotM performance. Sacachispas could only draw, while Sporting Italiano won to become our nearest challengers, albeit seven points behind. We didn't allow Estudiantes anything, but they restricted us pretty well too. It took until the 87th minute for a couple of substitutes to make the difference. And the goal from Gonzalo Lazzarotto was the one that won us the title! Sporting Italiano drew, Sacachispas lost, no one can catch us now. We celebrated by giving San Miguel a whooping. YES LADS!!! We've been on a great run of form, and while doing so our rivals were floundering and falling away. The title was wrapped up with three games to go, and whatever happens over the final two matches we'll end up with a good winning margin. -------------------------------------------- Finances Keep 'em coming. The real good news is that with promotion confirmed, our wage budget has been increased accordingly and we can start offering contracts again. If this hadn't happened our squad would have been decimated in December, as it stands we now shouldn't lose anyone vital. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 20 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 20 Author Share Posted June 20 November 2024 Primera B Metropolitana The final two games of the season didn't matter, but I was still annoyed by the loss to Lujan. The team was rotated slightly, but it should still have been strong enough to get at least a point. It looked like the season was going to end with a whimper, but Gonzalo Lazzarotto came off the bench to grab a 93rd minute winner. I was ready to let him leave this summer, but since September he's scored three late winners so I think he might have earned himself a new contract. I expected nothing from this season, so I'm massively surprised that we've won the title. I thought it was nonsense when the bookies made us favourites and the board wanted promotion, and thought I'd be doomed to being fired. Then when we went five games without a win over June and July I still thought we'd fall away. But then we just started winning again. An incredible year. -------------------------------------------- Finances Crossing my fingers that going up a division will see more money coming in next year. -------------------------------------------- 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 20 Author Share Posted June 20 November 2024 Squad Stats Both of my starting strikers had great seasons. Jonathan Herrera beat his tallies from the last two seasons, managing 31 goals this time, while 22 Roberto Heredia also had his best year yet with 23. Gonzalo Rios is the player earning £5k a week that I couldn't shift, but he knuckled down and played well. I thought he might complain about often being on the bench but he didn't and contributed 11 assists. I did have a cheeky punt at asking if he'd like to stay (obviously on massively reduced wages), but he still wants to leave when his contract is up. On the other wing 22 Angel Cabrera also impressed. He reached double-figures for assists, and nearly the same with goals too. -------------------------------------------- Academy Player Records Four academy players are now in our first-choice starting XI, with another two rotating in and out. 22 Roberto Heredia is the obvious star man with more than 40 goals already, but 22 Angel Cabrera is also breaking out. -------------------------------------------- History We sold the exact same amount of season tickets to the faithful, but the average attendance rose in line with our success. Jonathan Herrera is continuing and improving on his own records. -------------------------------------------- Facilities + Finances After promotion was confirmed we received a bump to our reputation, from 2.0 stars to 2.5. Our bank balance is basically the same as it was this time last year, a tiny bit over £1 million in the red. There doesn't seem to be any way of making significant amounts of money, we need regular injections of cash put in by the board. -------------------------------------------- Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 21 Author Share Posted June 21 (edited) January 2025 Departures A couple of significant losses here, one that was expected and another that is a bit of a blow. Gonzalo Rios and his £5k per week had to go, but he represented us well last year and we'll have to hope someone steps up and contributes what he did from the left-wing. 23h Hector Leon was our back-up goalkeeper and was poached away during the period we couldn't offer new contracts. We're now left very thin in that position. A few of the others were regulars in 2022 and 2023, but frozen out last year when they were considering their options. Turned out to be for the best considering how well we did without using them. In total these departures will save us about £8k a week. -------------------------------------------- Finances A smaller hit than normal due to the season tickets being bought this month (currently at 1,358, the exact same amount as the last two years). -------------------------------------------- Edited June 21 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaneBramage Posted June 21 Author Share Posted June 21 (edited) February 2025 Copa Argentina I was caught out by this. I knew we were being entered in the cup this year, but the game came earlier than expected so we weren't match ready. Turns out that it had originally been scheduled for the 19th, but was pushed forward two weeks as River Plate had their preparations for the Copa Libertadores, and I'd just missed that message.. So while we weren't at full sharpness, they probably weren't either. But they are a much better side. We did manage to take the lead twice, but their superior quality showed and both times they pulled us back before overhauling us in the second-half. -------------------------------------------- Finances Profit! The rest of the season ticket money came through, and we've now sold over 2,500 packages this year, nearly double the previous seasons. But the real money was the cup tie. We received roughly £290k from the gate receipts against River Plate, which is almost three times the gate receipts we made in the entirety of 2024. Still deep in the red though, so it doesn't really matter. Most teams in the Primera Nacional are listed as having insecure finances, so it doesn't look like our money issues will be solved any time soon. -------------------------------------------- Edited June 24 by DaneBramage Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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