Jtomsett11

Final squad August 2030 That leaves us with this for the first team. And the second string. You'll notice it's a 25 man squad, with Huarte, Rubio and Agirrezabala adding numbers. I found last year that we needed 5 DMC and 8 players across the 3 AML, AMR and AMC positions due to injuries. Notable promotions for Koliada and Edu who make the second spot LB and RB positions respectively, while Oca will now be a full-time backup rather than competing with Padilla. The first team has no youth academy prospects, the second team has 4 and there are also 2 extras in the 25 man squad. You will also notice that Banjac is wanted and is also unhappy. He wants £100k a week to sign a new contract, which I'm not prepared to offer. I cannot find a replacement CB at the moment, but would rather leave the chance of him leaving for his release clause which has been met twice already but surprise surprise nobody is offering him enough money! Mara's unhappiness I've already covered. Basic I'm happy to have him leave at the end of the season as I suspect another DMC will be ready to step up, or we'll be targeting that position in the transfer market anyway. Deportivo Fabril I've got a few players who may leave on transfers, and registration issues, so I'll come back to this closer to the time. Ones to watch out for: Martin did really well last season as a substitute/ backup as we didn't have a full 11 to rotate (and we won't this season either). I've just noticed his contract; he needs a new one pronto! David is our next potential DMC - I really like him but another season at this level will be good for him. Alende is a weird one; potential but not really improving. He's going to play every game he is fit for this year and we'll see if that helps. Oliveira has had mixed success on loan; let's see what he can do starting ST every game; Curran was too expensive to keep. U19s Too many wingers on the bench, but in reality a lot of these won't make it so it's just about weaning out the rubbish ones over time and loaning out those who could benefit from developing as we're likely to release them at the end of their contract anyway. Gonzalez needs to develop more on loan, Ramirez is looking a star at AMC and Leiva is still highly rated despite low starting attributes. Gil and Asin are the others to keep an eye out for if we need starters in the first team due to injuries.

Loans out and transfers August 2030 Missing from this are any players sold from the B team to aid their finances, such as Padilla and hopefully Ludewig (nobody wants him so far and those that do he won't go to!) Lots of loans out!

Summer 2030 developments It's taken me longer than usual to get through the summer and through the friendly season. Part of that is work (and life!) and the other part is the shear size of the team. We had 90 players in total when I did my attribute analysis in June! 90 Part of that is having a B team as you realistically have a 25 man squad for both the first and second team, but I've also got lots of players out on loan and it becomes quite a chore trying to move some of them on for a fee and then the rest out on loan. It also didn't help that the B team, despite my best efforts, will have a wage budget of just £75k a week this year. Now, that is double last year, but wages are going up as a renew younger players contracts because of the success of the first team. Once again, the large majority of the B team needs loaning out. Transfers in Having looked over attribute growth and my foreign players, I decided we needed to upgrade LB and sell Williams, who is now rated at just 2.5 star current ability, which would free up a foreign spot, and upgrade at AMR and AML at least in terms of backup players. I initially planned on potential upgrades to DMC and CB but these proved harder areas to fill. The first transfer in is Sosa, who is a non-EU player so it's one in one out for Williams at LB. He's definitely an upgrade on Williams and his height was also very attractive, as both our potential backup LBs Huarte and Koliada (both youth academy products) are pretty short. At £3.3 million, this was a bargain deal. LB sorted. I was then happily plodding along when I realised that Imaz was interested in joining and we might actually have the money to sign him this window. He's been on my radar for quite some time as a young and Spanish AMR inside forward. We spent a cool £51 million on him (I allowed the board to negotiate his deal as I didn't have that money) but I really think this is a sign of our development as a club. It knocks Gordon down to second choice, and having a non-EU as second choice doesn't really make sense, but for now I'll keep him as nobody has come in with a decent offer. Another player I've been chasing is Vidovic who joins on a free from Real Madrid. I thought his wages would be ridiculous but he brought his demands down and isn't even our highest paid player. This will knock academy product Fondevila back to second choice at AML, but an opportunity to improve your squad in this way doesn't come along too often. Mara is still unhappy at ST as well as I've apparently broken too many promises despite him signing a new deal - he's now contracted until 2033 so I will have to sell at the end of this season probably so we now have another quality ST if needed. Finally, a transfer agreed back in January was Sevillano. I think the plan now will be to send him out on loan for a season and then he replaces Gordon. At £8.5 million he'll be worth it if he fulfills his potential. Vidovic and Imaz are massive upgrades at AMR and AML while Sosa is also a big upgrade at WB. Sevillano isn't there yet but has potential. Departures and clauses Most of these outgoings clear the path for incomings. Man has done a great job in Europe especially but we had two better AMRs coming in, while Padilla did well last season but is blocking the path of Oca. Williams goes out for Sosa as mentioned before and we also sold Capone at AML, again freeing up space for the Vidovic signing. He went for £5 million but I forgot a screenshot. It was nice to make a little more money on McAtee as well as I always felt we undersold him. I think we're up to £11 million plus the loan fee of £3 million on him which isn't far off what they've sold him for now. One final and strange development transfer wise: I always thought this worked on repupation, so why Lugo are stealing our players I don't know! Club developments The TV money is starting to rise, which is great as it'll boost our income and thus our wage budget allowance. The board is now expecting greater things of us, with more money on offer for this - of the £1.2million wage budget we're allowed £1.1 million for La Liga registration but still sit at £825k a week so we're well within budget. We're now the 4th biggest side in La Liga in more than just finishes in the league; we're punching our weight financially as well and our playing squad now sees the media think we're the 4th best side in the league. I would take another top 4 finish but it would be nice to challenge for the title again. Pre-season I somehow forgot to do a cup for the last one, so the second string might start the season to keep them fresh.

Right, I get you! I think with newgens you're allowed to do whatever, it's just with real players you should put any CA/PA in spoilers in case people don't want to see. Amazing how wrong the scouts get it isn't it! I would be very interested to see your full squad by PA to see the sort of potential you're producing as a club still only just in the championship!

Great season and an FA Cup final appearance - sensational! A question regarding youth intake, I can see you name them 32a,b,c etc but I'm not sure what you're basing that on as you haven't sorted by potential stars to do it as I've seen most people use?

Attribute growth June 2030 Goalkeepers Nikolic has really come on and now looks a top class goalkeeper. I think during my Jersey Bulls save we had keepers around the 83 mark at our peak, and with Nikolic still with potential to fill, he could be the best keeper I've had for a good few saves. Settineri has only been here 5 months, so we need to give him time to settle and then see how much growth he has in him. Cano is a good B team keeper while the other 4 will either be in the U18s or on loan. Centre backs Just comparing to my Jersey Bulls save, we have a long way to go in this position; we had players near to 90 points in that save. Scholl has grown impressively to be our best player by attribute score, helped by the 18 for jumping I think. Marcos is the biggest and most interesting player in terms of growth. He was signed to give the B team a CB and has 4 star potential, so if he keeps growing he could easily be in our first team in a couple of seasons. It's likely Restrepo will go out on loan as he's non-EU and we've hit our quota. I'm a little disappointed that Rotena seems to have hit/ neared his peak. We don't have huge potential down in the ranks, Angel, Daniel and Ban are probably B team quality at best unless they improve more than their potential indicates. Wing/ full backs Fort was our best full back last year, but it's interesting that Huarte now is our best LB. Koliada and Edu have made good progress and both need La Liga football in my opinion. Edu should get that as backup to Fort, but I'll need to decide between Huarte and Koliada. Torres and Diez are also showing good growth and are likely to feature in the B team more next year. Albes is another one; in fact we have great depth in terms of potential at full back. Segunda volante Oca is the big improver; I'm set to promote him to backup DMR and it's possible that David will take over his role as 5th choice (while also playing for the B team). Padilla has stagnated and although he does perform, I might get rid to allow our younger youth products more chances to continue their growth. AMC Our first 90 point players and we have 2 for the same position! Augusto needs a loan spell this season coming as he's too good for the B team; that'll give players like Martin (just 16 years old still) a chance to continue his growth. There's a lot of players (Diez, Crespo, Tortosa) who have either hit their peak or aren't ever going to feature for us and need to be sold really. Inside forwards There's way too many of these even with a B team. Fondevila may only score 74, but he has improved which is good. B team players such as Priest and Torres are likely to continue in the B team, perhaps just with new contracts. Capone and Man may need to make way for new signings or promotions from the B team. Rivera isn't a player you'll have seen before as I signed him in January and immediately loaned him back. I've got a lot of players we could make money off if I can get offers for them. Pressing forwards Carrasco continued his development this season, while Curran did really well for the B team, but I'm not sure if he'll be able to make the step up to the first team. If he's not happy continuing for the B team then perhaps we'll sell him. Escabros is another who isn't really going to take over Mara's role as backup striker so it'll depend if we can keep him out on loan for decent money or get a fee from him now.

Enjoying this save (as usual) after your abrupt and very unfair end to life in Colombia!

Player performances 2029/30 review Team of the year This was the team of the year, and I can't really complain about any of these selections. We don't usually play two right footed CB's together, but maybe I should as they're the best performers by far at CB. Awards I didn't realise that Fondevila had become a wonderkid. 11 assists is very decent for a young player. Considering the fact that apart from the first 10 games of the season, Mara was second choice, he had a truly brilliant season. Records Performances Goalkeepers I've given up on keeper goals for some reason, I think because my strikers were getting towards the record number of goals for the club in a season and I wanted to see if we could get there. In terms of keeping the ball out of the net, Nikolic is performing superbly. Settineri hasn't played as well, but in my experience it takes a while for a new keeper to settle and start performing. Defenders There's a clear hierarchy of performance with our CBs, with the two right sided players Bella-Kotchap and Scholl out in front in almost every measure except for tackles. Banjac is our most successful tackler. Rotena has potential but was probably a little underwhelming judging by statistics. Williams is the best LB, but I've not been hugely impressed with Huarte this year. Koliada has the potential and when you look at the stats he looks at least Huarte's equal if not better with the exception of progressive passes. Huarte can't dribble and ultimately that holds us back. On the right, Fort had a great debut season despite just 1 assist; he's really solid at the back. Ludewig is a fine backup, but I'm very excited by Edu. Midfield Padilla and Basic did so much better than my main midfielders Seiwald and Garner in terms of productivity this year. Oca was also more successful. Seiwald should definitely have scored more goals and I'm hoping for more from him next year. The question for me is whether I keep Padilla around, knowing he can produce, or give Oca a starting role in the second eleven and promote a B team player with potential. Attacking mids and forwards Enrique was superb on his return to the club with 12 goals and 3 assists, but arguably Arsenijevic has even better numbers with 13 goals and 8 assists. However, Enrique overall does do more and is just unlucky that he's not got more assists as he's created more potential assists. On the wings we've had superb performances all year. Capone and Man had the least game time, but wow what a [performance from the former; 19 goal contributions in just 1600 minutes! Fondevila had his best season yet, while Gordon came back from injury to do pretty well overall. Then we have Rubio who got 12 goal contributions and Agirrezabala with 16! 8 players for 3 roles is probably too many, and we've got more in the B team, so it might be time for some hard decisions in the summer. Up front, Carrasco and Mara. 25 and 26 goals apiece, with Mara also getting 8 assists. We're seriously doing well at the top of the pitch!

End of season 2028/29 club growth I think this shows how far the club has come and shows also that this season is another sign of progress. There's some big news off the pitch, as the B team is getting a new stadium while the club is also looking for a new stadium for the first team too as attendances hit near 100% weekly.

May 2030 Our fixtures for May. Real Madrid's fixtures for May. On paper, they had a tougher game against Barcelona, but Valencia and Atletico Madrid away are never particularly easy games. I thought we might slip up against Atletico. In the end, our slip came against Valencia. Deportivo 4-0 Elche A super strong start to the month, with Oca playing a fine role here and Fondevila racking up the assists as we head towards the end of the season. The red card for them helped, but the dominance was just at ridiculous levels here. We could and probably should have scored more. Real Madrid saw off Barcelona. Valencia 1-1 Deportivo Gutting. We started so well, Oca setting up Gordon for a lovely drilled effort into the bottom corner, but then we wasted chances and it didn't surprise me when Valencia went and scored. They had a few chances, but we could and should have won this game and I felt at the time that this would cost us the title as Real Madrid had played the night before. They then went and won their next game ahead of us playing Atletico Madrid. Atletico Madrid 0-4 Deportivo The second team took it to the final day with a genuinely superb performance against Atletico Madrid. The counter attacking and finishing was surgical in nature and I couldn't be more proud of the team. Atletico hadn't been beaten at home in 20 league games before this. Deportivo 3-0 Alaves Carrasco finishes the season well as have Fondevila and Gordon, but it's not enough as Real Madrid score the goal they need to get them over the line! League table When a team wins 18 out of the last 19 games, with their only defeat coming against you, you have to stand back and applaud even if it's hard to take. We finish 1 point above our record points total of 90 and 7 ahead of last year. It's the best we've been offensively and certainly defensively. We're also a long way short of the quality of Real Madrid and Barcelona and possibly even Sevilla, but have now finished above at Real Madrid or Barcelona (or both) in the league three seasons running. You could say going from winning a double in 2027/28 to the cup in 2028/29 to nothing now isn't progress, but for me it is as the squad continues to improve, the finances improve and our performances in Europe indicate we're getting stronger. Awards

Alas, it wasn't to be! Still a great season though! I've taken a second look at him and he does look really good! Fingers crossed he has decent potential and not just a high starting current ability!

April 2030 It's been a hell of a month. 3 chastening defeats and then four wins without conceding a goal. Barcelona 3-1 Deportivo A highly frustrating game, we let ourselves down by conceding after 2 minutes and that made everything so hard from that point on. Enrique got a goal back late on but we missed some good chances to leave ourselves with too much to do. Deportivo 2-0 Real Betis I love it when a youth player combination comes off! Here, Oca scored a great goal from a Fondevila cut back and set us on our way. Betis missed some absolute sitters but we took advantage of it and in the second half it was all us before the Carrasco goal sealed the points. Back to winning ways! Deportivo 1-2 Man City We might have beaten them earlier in the season in the league phase, but they were just too good for us here. In all honesty, we're miles behind teams like Barcelona and Man City in terms of quality and it's only our clever rotation and good tactics that enable us to compete so effectively. Mara did equalise, but Vlahovic and Vincius are really rather good! Athletic 0-2 Deportivo This had the potential to be a real banana skin, but a second half free kick headed goal from Scholl and fine finish from Mara saw us creep over the line. Nikolic made some good saves to keep us in the game in the first half. Man City 4-1 Deportivo Yeah, this one was over pretty quickly despite Basic smashing one in from 30 yards on the stroke of half time. Vlahovic was again our tormentor although 4-1 was a little harsh; their xG was 2.1 before the penalty. Huarte conceded the penalty and hasn't been looking that convincing going forward making me consider whether he's right for the team for next year with Koliada coming through and ready for first team action I feel. After this game, we had the bad news of Enrique slipping a disk - he'll be out for the season, while Banjac will also miss a couple of games. Not great timing really! Deportivo 2-0 Racing de Santander Enrique may be out injured, and we're really short of CBs after knocks and tiredness affected Scholl and Bella-Kotchap, but we take another 3 points as Arsenijevic takes advantage of moving to number 1 AMC and Gordon gets a goal; I'm not sure he's had too many recently! Mallorca 0-4 Deportivo We finish the month superbly with Agirrezabala showing his worth at AMC. A goal and an assist for him and two more for Mara who has been knocking them in consistently all season long. Basic also scored again; he's added quite a few goals now this season. League table Wow, it's tight! We're level with Real Madrid with 4 games to go due to our head to head record. They've been on fire this half of the season, but their next game is home to Barcelona. That's surely the key game. This is us. Away to Atletico Madrid looks the toughest game. I worry Madrid are going to win all 4 games and we won't. To be fair, if they manage that, they'll have won 18 out of 19 games in the second half of the season and will fully deserve the title. Club developments Our financial position has improved drastically this season and I was really hoping that would lead to better budgets for next season. This is much better! With expected sales, we might actually be able to do some decent business this summer! I love this!

April 2030 youth intake Now this looks like a good intake. 6 players here would, if they got to their potential, be at least very good La Liga players. When players score highly across a number of positions, it's always a really good indicator of high CA. Obviously we want them to be good in certain roles, but AMC for example requires very few high attributes to score highly, and lots of them don't seem to require all that high a CA. We don't half seem to produce a lot of full backs of very good quality! I'm not quite sure what Jorge is for our side as his best position as a winger, we don't use! Maybe not immediately suited to segundo volante but Asin looks very good overall. Technically very good, physically good, mentally with a little development also pretty strong and a great personality. Both footed too. Very impressed. I see him more as a AMC that striker with that finishing. It's a shame his vision isn't higher to start to match what appears a superb starting set of attributes. He's a bit raw and I'll be interested to see how he develops. Overall a very nice intake. We're signing all those I've got bids in for in the screenshot above.

March 2030 Deportivo Fabril Now, a lot of these have been draws, but when you consider the start they made to the season, the B team have done really well. A couple of players will be close to promotion to the first team for sure next year, but a lot will depend on how much money we get to spend on the wage budget (hopefully more than £35k a year!) and how much we get to spend for the first team transfer budget! Edu and Koliada possibly stand the best chance of promotion as they're not far off second team level. David looks very promising while Augusto would be already in the first team were it not for us having two high quality AMCs. Martin is 16, so to have played 1615 minutes for the B team in La Liga 2 has done wonders for his development.

I'm enjoying this save, but like you really struggle with the concept of winning the league not being important! I know it's like that in a lot of American sports too, I've just never understood the point of having a league if you're not supposed to win it!?

March 2030 We were 1 goal away from the absolute perfect month. Alas, we beat Real Madrid and are through to the Champions League quarter finals, so we can't really complain! Deportivo 6-0 Osasuna One of those games where a defence cannot contain Carrasco; he was absolutely clinical here. Gordon, Rubio and Enrique were also superb. Such a joy when games go like this! Dortmund 2-3 Deportivo What a game! We went behind to a really smart move from Dortmund, but struck back superbly through Arsenijevic who finished a lovely cross and then through Mara, who hit the ball so hard I didn't actually realise it had gone in at first (the Champions League games goal flash isn't as obvious I find). Despite then playing really well, Adeyemi found space to head home from a deep cross in the 89th minute and I thought we'd undone a lot of our good work. However, 92 minutes gone and Enrique pops up to slot home from a Mara cross. Lovely stuff! Deportivo 4-1 Rayo Vallecano 6 La Liga goals in 2 games for Carrasco, who was on penalty duty here. The other two goals were Gordon corners; he has 4 assists in 2 games as he starts to return to the form he showed before his double-injury this season. I was initially concerned when we went behind as we haven't been at our best at least in terms of consistency in the league recently. Deportivo 1-1 Dortmund (win after ET 4-3 on aggregate) This was a long and hard slog. Wattiau scored in a very similar way to the first leg as Dortmund showed us they're a really good side. We created enough to score, but Carrasco missed chances after Mara had done the same in the first half and been substituted. In the end, a 119th minute corner was headed home by Scholl to my delight, seeing us through to the Quarter finals of the Champions League for the first time under my reign. Deportivo reached the semi-finals of course, the year Porto won it in 2003-04, so can we equal that? It probably depends who we are drawn against. Deportivo 2-1 Real Madrid A huge game, a huge result and a huge delivery from Enrique, who has been winning games for us recently. This time it was two carbon copy crosses from Williams and two headed finishes low past the keeper the got us past Madrid, who equalised from a free kick but always looked dangerous. This is a big result that moves us 5 points clear of Madrid. Almeria 1-1 Deportivo Ah yes, beat Real Madrid then draw the next game. This could have been worse as Basic came on and scored a lovely 25 yarder to earn us a point. Once again we were profligate up front; Carrasco is young but he needs to become more consistent if he's to become the world beater I think he might be one day. A poor way to end the month, but overall we have to be happy. Only one slight downer is that we'll be a centre-back down for most of the next two months; however, at least it's our second choice LCB and we know Banjac likes to play every game so I'm sure he won't be too upset! League table Barcelona's form continues to be average, so we're 7 clear of them now, but just 3 points ahead of Madrid. There's 27 points to play for, so a maximum of 96 points for us and 93 for Madrid. I think it'll take 90 points to win the league, which is the number we got 2 years ago. Barcelona got 97 last year, so they've definitely had a poor season this year. March I've posted both months to give an idea of our fixtures. The real tough games are Atletico Madrid away and Barcelona away, but Valencia and Athletic club away aren't easy either. The Champions League draw against Man City isn't ideal. I'm tempted to play the first string against Barcelona and City and hope the second string beat Betis and Athletic Club, but I think the sensible thing is to hope the second string can snatch a result against Barcelona/ Man City and try and beat Betis, Athletic club and Racing Santander with the first 11.

February 2030 It's been a tough month; I got my first and second string mixed up because my league game with Sociedad was moved from the 12th to the 18th so I didn't play the second string for the easier cup tie, which ultimately cost us against Valencia. The derby loss really stings too. Deportivo 2-1 Espanyol Gordon is starting to find some fitness again and he played a lovely through ball for Carrasco here. There was late drama, but the order of the goals meant I felt we'd always get over the line. Almeria 1-2 Deportivo Another late consolation goal conceded; I'm not sure if we're tired or just complacent at the end of games at the moment. Basic played possibly the pass of the season over the top for Capone to open the scoring before Arsenijevic smashed one home from just inside the area. Deportivo 2-3 Valencia At 1-0 we looked really comfortable, but our midfield struggled to be honest and we conceded 3 really poor goals. We should still have drawn and taken it to extra time, but Carrasco missed a penalty before scoring late on. No three years in a row for us in the cup! Some good news in the league ahead of our next game, as Barcelona decide to start losing some games! Getafe 0-0 Deportivo We're lucky that Barcelona lost, because this was really poor and frustrating. We didn't create much and didn't deserve more than a draw, but it was a real opportunity to extend our lead at the top of the table. Carrasco missed our best chance. Deportivo 5-1 Real Sociedad The second team show the first how it's done! Basic was great, as was Arsenijevic who scored two high quality goals after good runs beyond the defence. I'm again slightly annoyed we conceded! Deportivo 1-0 Villarreal This was really tight and it shouldn't have been. Enrique scored the crucial goal, a header from a Fort cross, but Carrasco put so many chances wide I really thought they'd equalise. Nikolic really is a great goalkeeper; he made an absolutely crucial stop from their only real chance. He seems to save a lot of one on ones. Celta Vigo 1-0 Deportivo We conceded a horrible own goal and then failed to score repeatedly. To be honest, without Nikolic making some really good saves, this could have been worse. We haven't lost in the derby yet, so it had to happen at some point, but our form this year has been a little disappointing to be honest. League table Barcelona have stumbled in a similar way to us recently, but Real Madrid are now something like 9 wins in a row and they've come from nowhere to be just 2 points behind us. Barcelona could join level with them with their game in hand, so it's a three-horse race again, with Madrid the team in form. We play them next month at home; a crucial match! March When I took this screenshot, I didn't know that we would face Dortmund with the first leg away. We'll play the second string in both legs to prioritise the league: we're going to need to beat Real Madrid I feel and win the other three as well. Finances We really should get more than £13 million transfer budget currently being mooted for next season!

Golden boy I forgot about this from 29th December 2029 - but not bad to have our two AMC winning this! It'll be interesting to see how good they both go on to be!

January transfer window 2030 We have £106 million in the bank, so I asked for more transfer funds. I think this is a little tight to be honest! Surely £30 million on transfers wouldn't be ridiculous? Anyway, we went into January not really needing anything, but I have had regular complaints from CB Banjac about playing time. He's an 'important player' as are many of my team, but he's one of the few who moans about my rotation and wants to play every game. I'm therefore willing to upgrade. I saw Molina a while ago, and although he's non-EU, I would be happy to look for another LB and sell Williams to bring him in for £6 million. Of course, he went for Inter over us. With this, I thought I'd just put up with Banjac for another 6 months. However, my Argentinian scouting mission has identified quite a few goalkeepers, and one of those was Settineri, who also has Italian nationality. He's come in for just £2.8 million + 30% sell on clause on profit and is already technically our best keeper, although I haven't looked to see if Nikolic has improved attribute wise since the start of the season (he probably has). As a 'cup goalkeeper', he's unlikely to be unhappy and it gives us two very good, young and likely to improve goalkeepers. That left the moaning, and unhappy and maxed out Yaakobishvili as third choice, so we cashed in. We've made one other signing, a young CB from Colombia who is also non-EU, but has high potential so can go out on loan and if he becomes good enough, we'll get him in the squad! Restrepo costs nothing as he arrives on a free, so it's a win-win situation really!

January 2030 Just the 8 games in a busy January! We've not done as well in La Liga, but to be fair Barcelona and Sevilla are no mugs, even if we did beat Sevilla 6-0 17 days earlier than our loss! We also saw more silverware. Alaves 1-2 Deportivo A double from Carrasco, with two simple and smart finishes from our Argentinian. The late consolation goal was annoying and perhaps a sign of our slightly increased vulnerability in defense from December continuing. The other worrying news was another injury to Gordon. Fortunately, Agirrezabala has been more than adequate to bolster our AMR options this season. Enrique was also injured for 12 days, which with such a busy run of games wasn't ideal either. Deportivo 6-0 Sevilla A stunning victory for our B team, especially considering Edu and Koliada played at full back. Man has been really good this season despite limited appearances as has Capone and both continued that form here. Into the final with just 2 days to prepare! Barcelona 0-1 Deportivo This was a superb result considering we were down to 10 men for almost the entire game. Rubio hit a superb volley 2 minutes after Seiwald was sent off and we defended brilliantly to seal my first Super Copa and Deportivo's 4th. Deportivo 1-1 Atletico Madrid This was highly frustrating as we simply couldn't finish Atletico off and eventually paid for it. Carrasco had an off day and we just ended up looking a little tired and lethargic and that allowed Atletico back into the game. Well, we went 27 unbeaten in La Liga - not bad!! Castellon 1-3 Deportivo We're still a little bit profligate infront of goal at the moment. Carrasco may have scored twice, but Mara missed a hat-full of chances! You may notice a new keeper (more on that in the transfers) so I just haven't put my new keepers on penalties yet. Capone benefitted to improve his numbers for the season. PSG 2-0 Deportivo I hate Mbappe. Sevilla 1-0 Deportivo The unbeaten streak is over! We were unlucky to go down 1-0 here. We deserved something out of the game, but if you don't finish your chances... Deportivo 3-0 Milan Much better! We still probably created more than 3 goals worth, but at least we finished 3! Arsenijevic scored superbly early on and then Mara reminded everyone that he's still the top scorer in these parts! Would that win be enough to qualify in the top 8 of the Champions League? Just about! Goal difference from Napoli and Juventus and head-to-head against City I think! This is great news as we probably could do with 2 less games to play at the moment. League table We're top, but the lead has been cut to 2 points. We're still doing superbly, but we need to continue to rack up the points if we're going to challenge Barcelona for the title. We're probably safe for Champions League football bar an absolute collapse. February Winnable games all month which is nice.

Potential December 2029 and Youth intake preview I thought I'd take a look at all the squads by potential. We now only have 5 5* potential players, but only one of those is an 'exciting youngster' and that's Koliada who is playing for the B team this year but isn't far away from being a good choice at LB. I have high hopes for him. For the others, it'll be interesting to see how far they develop. We then have 12 4.5 star potential players. Of those, Fondevila, Edu and Oca are in and around the first team squad, or featuring regularly. David, Marcos and Augusto have been the best of the others in the B team and could be called up next year, or perhaps the year after depending on squad depth and transfer budgets. A 4 star player is either a good or leading La Liga player at the moment, but obviously many of these players will not make that standard (which we'll want to aim for in the future for all of our players). I like Rotena, Agirrezabala and Huarte who are already in the first team squad, but I also wonder is Aitor Torres and Albes have strong futures based of their attribute balance. This preview is interesting, as I'm very happy with our keepers, attacking midfielders and the depth of youth at full back, so it'll be hard for any youth prospect to come through in these positions. Of course, with the club where it is we are still likely to have to sell our best players, so perhaps there will be more opportunities than I think there will be.

Mid-season performance Well, it's been a brilliant season so far and despite those two draws at the end of December, we should be very proud of our efforts. The team have been superb overall. Goalkeepers I've forgotten to put Nikolic on penalty duties, so he hasn't scored, but he has been superb in goal. A 92% save rate and preventing 0.37 goals per 90 minutes. That's over 4 goals he's prevented this season. I have my eyes on another goalkeeper in January, available for around £3 million from South America but with Italian nationality, so Yaakobishvili may leave us. Despite winning us a title and playing OK this season, he's nowhere near Nikolic. Defenders I find it interesting that Banjac wins 95% of his tackles, while Bella-Kotchap wins just 67%. Rotena looks our worst CB, but then he is our worst CB as he's young and learning. Huarte isn't a million miles behind Williams while Fort has just been that little bit more effective defensively than Ludewig. He has failed to make an assist however. Despite this, I feel Fort's stronger defensive performance is part of the reason we've conceded so few goals this year. Midfield Oca, Basic, Padilla, Seiwald and Garner have had minutes here this season. We've had just 2 goals and 5 assists from DM this year and none from Seiwald who is our best player in the position. Defensively, Oca and Basic have really impressed, they press well and win the ball back effectively, although Oca is still learning and has a long way to go. Padilla has come back into the side and he's got the best offensive output in terms of numbers with almost half the total goals and assists. Attackers Goal contributions have been superb from this department. Mara has 20 in 19 games. Carrasco has 10 in 9. At AMC, Enrique has 7 in 19, Arsenijevic 7 in 16. On the wings, Rubio has 6 in 13, Man 5 in 14, Fondevila 8 in 19, Agirrezabala 9 in 11 (!!), Capone 13 in 15 (!!) and Gordon who's been injured, 2 in 4. That we've used 10 players for 4 roles shows you the rotation needed and the injuries we've had. I had thought that Capone and Agirrezabala wouldn't see much game time at all, but they've arguably been the best performers when it comes to goals and assists.

December 2029 December started superbly, but we had two disappointing draws to end the decade. Racing de Santander 0-2 Deportivo A rather straight forward victory, but we weren't exactly prolific here and a header from a corner put us 2-0 up to ensure that our missed chances in the first half didn't come back to bite us! Deportivo 2-0 Mallorca We didn't create loads, but we won a penalty and then Capone set Mara free to score and that was enough! Deportivo 3-0 Valencia In the first half, we weren't great, but the own goal, forced in by Carrasco set us on the way. Fondevila set up Agirrezabala brilliantly for the second and then Carrasco scored a tap in late on to seal a very good victory over a struggling, but still decent Valencia side. Deportivo 3-3 Celtic I was really annoyed with this game. At 2-0 I thought we were going to thrash them and move to 15 points in the Champions League which I think would have meant we needed just a draw to seal qualification. Instead, we let in two goals quickly and despite Mara restoring the lead, Furuhashi scored a lovely goal to get Celtic the point as we missed chance after chance. Fondevila scored what looked like a winner, but it was just offside. Elche 2-2 Deportivo Sometimes, it's just not your day. We come away with a draw here, courtesy of Agirrezabala and Mara, but I'm disappointed we didn't win with the chances we created and the two -just about- offside goals. I think we've run out of steam slightly! League table Despite that draw, we're on target for over 100 points if we kept up our current form. Barcelona are not in bad form themselves though, so they're just 5 points behind us. Champions League If we'd have beaten Celtic, we'd be looking really, really good. As it is, we need to beat PSG or Milan. PSG are down on 8 points, but with Mbappe it's likely they'll beat us. January If we beat Sevilla in the Supercopa semi final, we'll play 8 games in 25 days which is pretty tough.

Deportivo Fabril November 2029 I thought I'd continue posting about the upturn in the B teams form. The home games were won, but the great news is we won away and we only just lost to Tenerife. Survival should be a formality now.

Contracts and happiness December 2029 We've had some unhappy players this season due to increased competitiveness of the squad and wages. Mara wanted £65k a week or something and I wasn't prepared to pay that. However, I have now agreed to pay him £52k a week as he's a very good backup striker and there's interest from PSG, so I wanted his minimum fee raised from £20 million, especially as when we signed him we agreed to 20% sell on fee (he was on a free transfer). Despite this, he's still unhappy as I've "broken too many promises", which is strange. Padilla also demanded not to be replaced by Seiwald as he thought he'd been signed to replace him (he had). He didn't play much and requested to be transfer listed, so I said yes. However, we've used him quite a bit recently due to Oca's injury, so he's now happy again. Yaakobishvili was also unhappy at being dropped for Nikolic (who has 11 clean sheets in 13 appearances, so pretty fair I promoted him). He's now no longer worried about game time, but is still transfer listed by request . Panzo is also likely to leave due to a lack of game time. We've used him 3 or 4 times at LB when Huarte was injured and I actually think he might be better than Banjac, but I have a long term plan to improve LCB and so selling him (and Banjac when the time comes) probably makes sense. January could be interesting when it comes round, as 10 of our first team squad are currently wanted by other teams.