Jtomsett11

February 2029 This was an exciting month, although we struggled towards the end. Getafe 2-6 Deportivo Well, Carrasco has well and truly landed! He missed a penalty, or he'd have had 6 goals which would have been a club record. Getafe were down to 10 men, which helped as we recovered from losing the two goal lead in real time to absolutely trounce them. Carrasco just ran beyond their defenders time and time again and the 4.41xG shows how many good chances we had. Deportivo 4-2 Real Sociedad Gordon was truly sensational here, opening the scoring with a brilliant curler from outside the box, before setting up Cirjan and then sealing the game after a defensive mix-up. The Banjac header, his first goal for the club I think, was a really key point as we'd threatened to draw level without doing so. Our xG again shows our dominance. Deportivo 4-0 Real Betis Carrasco makes it 8 in two starts this month. One of the goals was from a superb through ball from youth product Huarte who I have high hopes for. Deportivo 3-0 Lazio A brilliant performance in the play-off round first leg. Banjac got his second goal, but Mara was key here, finally finding his finishing boots after a spell of not scoring for 6 games. Gordon is getting better and better as well, finishing a through ball from Val. Barcelona 5-0 Deportivo Ouch. This was a really bad game. We were taken to the cleaners and it just shows how far off the top teams we actually are. Rubio did not help at all with that red card, but we were second best before that point. Lazio 2-2 Deportivo Another red card, this time for Carrasco who went mental in the 12th minute and two-footed a defender for no apparent reason. We did really, really well to come back from conceding. In reality, we created very little, but Man and Val scored two superb long range efforts to see us through to a tie against PSG, where I suspect we'll be outplayed by Mbappe! Deportivo 1-2 PSG Wow, the quality PSG have is unreal. Cucurella is much better on FM than in real life and played just as well as Mbappe, who just bypassed our defence. We actually did well going forward, and but for some excellent keeping from Donnarumma, we'd probably be going into the away leg at least level. League table The Barcelona defeat probably sees us out of the title race, but we're still well placed to finish in the top 4. March A shorter month, but some seriously tough games!

Facilities upgrade Just the final youth upgrade now to go!

January transfer window I wanted to move some players out on loan from the B team and was on the look out for any ways we could upgrade the squad. There was also a couple of players running into the last 6-18 months of their deals who I don't think will have a future here. Jimenez joins Zaragoza and Costa joins Monaco. Both have potential, but aren't going to meet it as they don't get selected for the B team and so cashing in makes sense now. The big one. I've got a scouting assignment for EU-second nationals playing in South America, and when Carrasco came across my scouting page I put in a bid immediately. He's pacy, composed and can finish and while he isn't strong or good in the air, his PPMs are also really positive. His attribute scores show he's already excellent; one of the best inside forwards we have and a decent pressing forward. As an advanced forward he'd be almost elite already. His first few games have been really exciting. I think he's going to be a very good player. As a result of him arriving, I decided to send Escabros on loan to get his game time. He's got potential, but he's just not getting the game time he probably needs at the moment. We got him for very cheap, so even if he has 2 seasons of loans and is sold or becomes a backup to Carrasco, he'll be money well spent. The other transfer involved me, in that I signed a new contract. I did get offered the Atletico Madrid job at the end of December, but turned that down as I'll be with Deportivo to the end now.

End of January table I'm not sure why my screenshots are suddenly so large, but anyhow there we go! Here's how we look at the end of the month. Just 4 points off top, and at least 5 clear off 5th place. Personally, I think this is a wonderful achievement considering our start to the season. To give some context to that, look at wage expenditure: February February is a big month and I'm not 100% how to approach it. Play the B team against Getafe then leaves them facing Betis, Barcelona and Mallorca - I'm not sure that's the best use of the team. I may have to go: B, A,A,B,A,B,A,B and risk playing the A team twice in 3 days.

January 2029 This was a beast of a month, as we were also really busy in the transfer market in terms of loans and one big incoming. Deportivo 2-0 Elche Technically in December, but I decided to include with January as it was post the season break. We start as we left off, with a convincing win. Garner set us on the way and Mara finished clinically from Arsenijevic's beautifully weighted past. Celebrating his Golden Boy Award. Deportivo 0-1 Barcelona It wasn't to be here as the B team couldn't get over the line, but it was pretty close and to be honest, if there's a competition I don't care about this year, it's this one! Deportivo 2-0 Getafe Easy as you like. Capone is back in the goals after a great through ball from Padilla and then Yaakobishvili scores from the spot. You may have noticed Escabros playing and Banjac playing every week at the moment. Well that's due to African Nations call ups and Banjac throwing toys out of the pram over not playing every game (he's played about 70% so he really needs to do one). Numancia 1-2 Deportivo A keeper penalty and a giant scoring a header from a corner, what's not to like? We struggled to break down Numacia, but I don't really care if we get to the next round. This month is all about game management. More minutes for young players Huarte and Fondevila (who has struggled majorly with injuries this season and isn't having the same impact as last year) as well as Escabros, who looks like he's never scored a goal, but we'll persist with him to give him minutes for growth! Man United 4-0 Deportivo I played the second team back to back against Numancia and Man UTD as I really didn't think we'd beat United away and thought the second team could get through in the cup. That would leave the first team really rested for Villarreal and Real Madrid games. An injury to Scholl did mean we started with our first choice CB's however. The second team did not surprise here, but we should have scored at least one and actually the second half was really even. Escabros had another nightmare in front of goal. Deportivo 3-0 Villarreal And that's what a rested team do! Absolute domination. The first goal for Mara was from a Williams cross that was the stuff of dreams, curving back for Mara to run on to and power home with his head. Despite his two goals, it was Arsenijevic who did all the heavy lifting and how he only had one assist I don't know. You may notice a new name, Carrasco, more on him shortly! Deportivo 4-1 Chelsea Wow! We went into this game knowing that a loss would probably be enough for a play-off place, and wanting to keep it respectable. We started Oca in midfield and Escabros up front. I was not expecting the two of them to combine beautifully for the opener. The assist was excellent, a chipped through ball and Escabros rounded the keeper to put us in the lead. A penalty followed and then two Scholl headers put us in dreamland. We even gave a debut to a 16 year old CB (we're a bit short with Panzo at the African cup of Nations to be honest). He's promising, and looks pretty solid across his attributes, so with some growth he may be a future player for us. He didn't look out of place here. Real Madrid join us in the play-offs, as do Barcelona who just sneak in. We'd have qualified with 10 points, but the win was a bonus! Real Madrid 1-0 Deportivo Back to the league, and back to reality. There was a gulf in class here, have no doubt. It could have been more than one and it reminds me that we are the plucky underdogs in this top four battle for the league title and way off Madrid. That was our first loss for 16 games! Andorra 0-3 Deportivo I've had to stop screen-shoting the formations as it's exceeding the max file upload size (not sure why as I've never had an issue before). I did play the second string, excluding Banjac who got his first goal, but it was only late on when Gordon came on that we really looked impressive. He scored a belter and then set up Carrasco for his debut goal. Oh my word, Carrasco is exciting.

Awards and B Team These awards are brilliant. Yaakobishvili should be nowhere near this award, but when I look at the goals he's prevented both in our title win and already this season, it's no wonder he is considered one of the top goalkeepers at the moment, if only by performance. Arsenijevic is now our first choice AMC and when you see those stats from his year. 18 contributions in 36 games; very very good for a 19 year old. Not sure why it says former boss as he's the manager! Halfway and the B team are well placed for promotion. That would have a hugely beneficial impact on our young players' development.

Youth intake preview Let's see what we get, but a goalkeeper and centre midfielder would be good as long as the CM is either suited to AMC or DM as we don't play a CM.

December form Yaakobishvili has again exceeded the goals he should have saved while Vallejo under performs, especially with his saves. However, I'm pretty sure Yaakobishvili was also poor when he was slightly younger so I think this could be simply down to experience, age and growth. Vallejo also faces some of the most difficult teams. He's the much better penalty taker! I'm not going to go into too much depth here, but some players do stand out. Bella-Kotchap is doing everything very well, but I'm particularly impressed with him winning possession back way more than any other centre back. Man stands out on average rating, but actually Gordon has scored more and has created roughly the same key passes per 90 even if he's not creating quite as many chances. Cheddira with 9 goals is our top scorer despite just playing 11 games. That's really impressive!

December 2028 Three more victories before the winter break, and although we do return on the 31st against Elche, I thought that this was actually a natural pause point. Granada 1-3 Deportivo We may have started badly, but from the moment Mara scored there only looked to be one winner. However, we missed a whole host of chances and substitutes Cirjan and Scholl were the ones who saw us over the line. Deportivo 2-0 Celtic A comfortable win, but a really important one. Unless we're really unlucky, we should now be in the Champions League play-off round which is a great achievement for our small and let's face it, not brilliantly talented squad. Val played an incredible pass to set up Rubio for the first goal and Scholl scored from his second corner in two games to seal the three points. Edu got his debut at right back due to an injury to Ludewig and he played really well. He'll need to play for the B team or on loan next season I feel to continue his excellent development. I noticed when taking this screenshot that Spanish teams are doing really quite badly. On the other end, Monaco, Udinese and Leicester are flying! Las Palmas 2-4 Deportivo This was a really topsy-turvy, we've-run-out-of-steam kind of game. Fortunately, enough of our players played well enough to overcome some really poor defending. Gordon did well as he shows further signs of setting in. It's very tight at the top, with a slight gap to Valencia and Villarreal, which is what we want as Champions League football is where we need to be finishing after a very good last 11 games (the first 6 were not so great!). Poor Las Palmas! Club developments One upgrade away from maxed out facilities! We can't use this for La Liga squad registration rules (we're still at £675k) but this gives us more leeway signing younger players for the B team or to develop on loan. Speaking of loans. There are more players out on loan, but they're in the B team so don't appear in this report. There's two standouts here, Enrique and Rotena. Both would feature if I recalled them, but they're developing really well in La Liga and La Liga 2 respectively. I'm also quite happy with my squad at the minute in these positions (AMC and DC respectively) and I'd have to upset someone to give them game time.

I should add, you play the first 11 for 90 minutes on the Saturday and then the second 11 for 90 on the Sunday, with any extra players being subs on both days so they get a few minutes in both if players are injured/ knackered to the point they must come off. The total game time then adds up and the players are used to playing 90. I'll link the article here in a second and of course credit @danielgear who wrote it.

The idea with the two cups is to maximise playing time and training. Usually after a game there's very little training, so a Wednesday/ Saturday approach would leave most people with 2 rest days and 2 match days so just 3 days of training. Some of those players then fully rest after very little game time. The cup games mean 2 match days and 1 day of rest giving you 1 extra training day per week. I always used to use wed/ sat but have been converted this year!

Just catching up - so close last season but with the development of your players and turning pro I think you'll be up there again this season!!

I think the international job might add that layer of competition you now only have in European competition. Would be interesting to see how you did as I'm sure you'd better the AI. Really enjoying your goal scoring stats, if you were playing the games it would take you ages just seeing the goals

That escalated quickly! League title, champions league qualification and more money than you'll ever need again As you say, when you turn pro it'll be very interesting who is interested in signing. Are there any former players who are now on your radar (i think you mentioned Mema??) or do you think you'll keep promoting youth even if your best players don't want to sign new desks?

Staff development and loss I tend to spend a while finding good coaches, physios and scouts and upgrading the staff team each summer. Lee Wallace has been a great assistant manager for the U19s. Now, while his preferred formation doesn't match, his style does, he has a good personality, an ability to coach to the highest level and also is a decent assistant manager. The problem with finding staff like this is they then get poached and it's very hard to replace both the assistant manager side of things, but also the training quality. Currently, I can't find a replacement so I've put an advert out to see what I can get.

November 2028 A pretty poor (but expected) month for the Champions League, but a very solid month in the league. Dortmund 4-1 Deportivo We were in shock for most of the first half as Dortmund tore us apart. We then showed a little bit of fight and Man set up Arsenijevic - I'm really liking these two and if they keep playing like this they'll be promoted to the first eleven rather than the second eleven. The fight was ended by Dortmund's 4th goal. To be honest, anything would have been a bonus! Atletico 0-2 Deportivo This was a really tight and even game, and then I made two substitutions that changed the game. Capone and Cheddira came on and combined for both goals. Capone's was a wonderful team move which involved Padilla playing the key pass to set Cheddira away to square to an onrushing Capone. He then returned the favour in more typical fashion for us, a through ball to Cheddira who had a lot of work to do but did it brilliantly. The back 7 at the moment are definitely my starting 7, but you can make a case for the front 4 to be replaced by the second eleven at this point. Espanyol 2-3 Deportivo A second away win in a row, but this one was much harder. We had to fight back, and then fight for the win, but we managed it, with Capone and Arsenijevic making more impact again than the starters. Ludewig was sensational in this game, Gordon got his first goal with a stooped header from a gorgeous cross from Capone and the icing on the cake was Arsenijevic nearly breaking the keeper and the net to win us the game. Interestingly, this came out just before. He'd be my number 1 at AMC if his physicals were slightly better, but he now has 3 goals and an assist from just 3 starts and 4 sub appearances in La Liga plus 2 goals in 3 Champions League games. That's it, I'm putting him as number 1. Deportivo 2-3 PSG We were much closer here than against Dortmund! We did score from two corners, but we also created quite a few chances and I think we'd have come away with something if we weren't facing Mbappe who was just unreal. Deportivo 0-0 Sevilla Our winning streak may have come to an end, but we didn't lose against top side Sevilla, and we perhaps deserved to win. Mara has lost his shooting boots after having them all of October, and Cheddira wasn't any better here. Deportivo 2-0 Valencia I've moved Capone and Arsenijevic to the first 11 following their recent performances. Rubio responded here with a lovely assist for Val to fire home from inside the box and that set us on our way. Not to be outdone, Capone then finished off from a lovely lofted ball from Gordon, who is starting to perform a little more regularly. 4th, but it's very tight from 1st to 4th and if Villarreal win their game in hand, it's even tighter. We've done exceptionally well to recover from our start to the season. We just need to finish 24th, so I think we really need to win our home game against Celtic and then hope we get lucky. Finances We're losing around £3 million a month (I cashed in on a transfer clause this month), but that doesn't really worry me as one Champions League win would cover that, plus TV money at the start of the year or a sale of a player. Clauses I haven't written as much about monitoring clauses as in previous careers as to be honest I haven't had any to cash in on. I don't believe that Ahlmann is going to develop stuck in Watford's U21s, with 4 sub appearances in the Carabao Cup and Europa League to his name, so I can see him being released at the end of his deal despite his valuation. Therefore, it made sense to cash in on the near £1million for him. December No early Copa del Rey cup round this year. I'll aim for 6 points and a Champions League victory before the winter break.

Nope, just leave them to the assistant manager for youth and B team. This year is the first year I've actually run my own training, so I'm seeing how it goes before extending it to the other teams. I would highly recommend the pre-season approach

Sad to see Vonmoos leave, but what a deal! I reckon he'll improve and go for £10 million + and that'll be your huge windfall in a couple of years if you haven't qualified for the group stages of a European competition by then.

Vaananen. maybe sell Vanmoos ASAP?

I personally think that this is well worth it. If you finish in a European place you'll make the money back in one go just from a qualifying round. Also, in two years you may be in a position where you've qualified for a group stage of something and can give him a new contract as a professional. He also keeps you from being near the relegation zone which is worth £750k a year isn't it?

October 2028 Now that's more like it! A 100% win month (if you ignore the friendly) sets us back on the right path. Four 2-0 wins and a 4-1 and 4-0 sees us win the months games 12-1 in the league and 16-1 overall. Osasuna 1-4 Deportivo Mara returned for this game, but we created very little while he was on the pitch. Cheddira came on and within a minute he'd scored, and then he scored again and helped to create the space for Garner's which sealed the victory before Man scored a lovely goal cutting in within the box from the left. Notably, that's the first and only goal an inside forward has scored in the 11 league games and 3 European games (I'll go into that more later). We needed to build on the Mallorca result so I was delighted that we put 4 past Osasuna. Deportivo 2-0 Celta Vigo A very strong defensive performance here, but it did take a corner goal as Bella-Kotchap celebrated a new contract with a header to send us on our way. It was really good to see Mara put his injury behind him too to score a classic goal, a through ball from Hector Rubio (who had 0 assists and 0 goals up until now). We're not firing on all cylinders yet and I largely think this is down to reduced output from Cirjan, Rubio and Gordan, who really hasn't come close to replacing Mella. It is worth mentioning that Mella was largely anonymous until later on in the season. I really don't think that Bella-Kotchap will be here for the whole of this deal, so I'm prepared to pay him £28k a week more than he was on to get more than £10.25 million for him. Man City and someone in Italy have a strong interest in him, so I think we'll see some bids in January, but hopefully I'll have at least doubled the money we get for him (he's worth £21-27 million now). Plzen 0-4 Deportivo As easy as it gets in the Champions League as we make it 7 points from a possible 9. Cheddira was unlucky that his second strike went in off a defender for an own goal. Capone and Man were responsible for the first and third goal, and they seem so much more dangerous than Rubio and Gordon right now. Arsenijevic is also doing well, finding space in the area to slot home here after the ball bounced around the box. Vallejo scored his penalty for his second goal of the season. Rayo Vallecano 0-2 Deportivo Williams is out for three weeks, so Bernabei plays in the first eleven for now. Another, really solid performance. Mara again with a classic finish from a through ball; nice to see Cirjan and Mara connecting again. Then Cheddira came on and scored a similar goal from a Man through-ball. Yaakobishvili is much worse at penalties than Vallejo and missed again here, but it didn't harm us at all. Again, we're not smashing in goals, but Banjac and Bella-Kotchap win everything in the air and sweep up most of the danger while Garner and Padilla are doing a really good job patrolling the middle at the moment, keeping the danger well away from our goal. Deportivo 2-0 Athletic Club Huarte wasn't getting any game time on loan, so I recalled him with a view of him picking up 3-4 games before Williams returns. He did well on his debut, but it was Arsenijevic who made the difference, literally as I was about to substitute him. A lovely one-two with Capone set him free and he fired home past the keeper. Panzo then scored a header from a Hoever free kick (I don't think I've set anyone for free kicks to be honest). Considering this is the second string, they're doing really well. Deportivo 2-0 Cadiz Look what happens when we have some decent home games to play! Mara finished off our perfect month and he's now on 4 goals in the last 3 league games having scored 0 in the first 3 and then missed a few through injury. A Cirjan and Gordon assist (a wonderful ball from the middle of his own half for Gordon) is also great to see as we start to become a bit more creative. The 10 games must be including European games as we've lost 3 of our opening 11 fixtures in the league! What a difference a month makes. An excellent string of victories sees us back into the European places and I hope to see us competing there across the season. Real Madrid and Sevilla have made very good starts so I'd be shocked if we were competing for the title, but you never know! We just want to finish in the top 24. Our remaining fixtures are Dortmund (away), PSG (home), Celtic (home), Man Utd (away) and Chelsea (home). I think we probably need to win and draw to give ourselves a good chance of qualifying. The Celtic home game looks key! Anything from any of the other four would be a massive bonus and we'll play the second string in those games I'd imagine. November The second string are up next and then it'll be the first team for the league games bar Valencia I'd imagine. I'd prefer to play the first team against Valencia than Sevilla, but if we play the first team against PSG then we can't against Espanyol and that's a much more winnable game. Performances I've mentioned we're struggling for goals from inside forward positions. Last year Rubio and Mella contributed lots of goals and Cirjan was right up there as well. This year, it's our strikers dominating the goals (12) with AMCs getting 5 between them, DM's 4, CB's 3 and GK's 2 before Man's solitary goal for the inside forwards. I think perhaps teams are sitting slightly deeper offering less space in behind, so it's something I'll have to monitor.

Yes, firstly my entire squad is now match fit in just 4 weeks of pre-season as we can fit 4 cups in that time. I use to play a game every 3 days and never thought about the impact on training. It also makes me select a first and second team pretty early on as I obviously need full rotation from the Saturday to Sunday as you advised in the article. That's a real help for transfer business as I can then plan who needs to go out on loan and who does need to stay as an option player (I often get injuries in DM and winger roles so keeping 1 extra young winger who can play both sides, and DM around, plus a striker as I play a 1 striker system so one injury throws out my rotation) so we then also get the benefit of good relationships forming between the players early in to the season. I combine this with @Jimbokav1971's rotation policy so that the 1st and 2nd team are then fixed and learn to play together. I have to admit I do adapt the 1st and 2nd team if I think I've made an error or a player's form stands out to me, but largely I stick to the teams and I think the combination of these approaches has made a big difference to the success I'm having. I've also not had players jaded during the season since using your approach either, and definitely use to have that problem.

No problem. Pre-season, I read an article by @danielgear in @_Ben_'s thread and so use a pre-season schedule of cup's, maximising training time. This is just a screenshot of week 1 below, with the cup games Saturday and Sunday followed by a day of rest and then 4 days of training (with a move towards tactical work towards the end of pre-season). Again, not my ideas, just some slight adjustments from me based on player complaints. I then have 4 schedules for 1 game weeks and 2 games weeks, with a defensive and offensive training scheme for each. I tend to use the offensive one before home games, but this is not always the case. I try to balance the mix of offensive and defensive weeks, and I do vary the set piece training. The only complaint I sometimes get from players is a lack of physical training, so every month I try and make sure there's one of these slots shoved in somewhere. I've looked at various other threads having originally been convinced to do my own training by @_Ben_'s work in his threads, so I'm not entirely sure of all of my thinking. Generally, I have chosen sessions that suit my tactics (I think). We have a high press tactic and also a mid-press tactic, so my defensive training looks a little all over the place but reflects that. We had a major problem with conceding from corners early on in the save, so that's the default set piece training for defensive weeks and has worked well, along with changes to my defensive set piece set up. I read somewhere that someone tested the impact of match preparation sessions and I think that match practice was the only one that had significant impact, but I do have match review in there occasionally as I feel it must do something (even if it actually doesn't). I do fill most of the slots, but I deliberately use 'team bonding' and 'community outreach' in slots that I feel it would be too dangerous to work load to use another training session. I haven't had loads of injuries doing this, but I did when I had the default training intensity at 'double' for 100% fitness. Chance creation and conversion are always high up on my list, as I notice problems when I don't have these sessions down. I'm not sure if this is one of those 'I feel it works so it seems like it does' placebo effects that often take place in FM. I always schedule a friendly if we have a week off for international breaks, so the Sunday 8th October 'match practice' will be a friendly for those players unfit, reserves or those not on duty as I like everyone to always be match fit. I don't know how much you'll learn from that, I feel I've learnt from others and then made things up as I go along. It feels like it works, so I've stuck to it! Players are developing well for the most part as well. One thing I have noticed is that tactical familiarity is only improved by certain sessions and not sessions like 'ground defence', so I've added more general sessions as I've gone along e.g. 'defending' on 3rd October and 'tactical' on Saturday 7th. Feel free to criticise or pick apart my approach!

Transfer window September 2028 I've already shown the majority of transfers, but there was a little more at the end of the window. Bella-Kotchap has a £10.75 million release clause and a 10% sell on fee for himself (we signed him on a free so I was OK with this). Rennes triggered the release clause about 2 days before the transfer deadline. I looked at his wage demands and decided we couldn't compete. I managed to find a suitable replacement on my shortlist and agreed the transfer and then delayed, waiting for Bella-Kotchap to make up his mind. He rejected the contract on deadline day, so we didn't have the funds to bring in his replacement (no problem). However, he's now wanted by Man City. He'll probably leave in January, although in a slight twist he's dramatically lowered his wage demands and I think there may be some hope for us to at least increase the minimum release clause. We did bring in one more player. My scout assignment for U20s playing in Spain has seen us sign players such as Escarbros and Arsenijevic, now we have signed a really good prospect keeper too. In hindsight I think Nikolic could have walked into the reserve team ahead of Vallejo, but this gives us a season to see how both develop and then make a decision. He's immediately our second best keeper and he's also 'either' footed which takes up CA points, so he's actually probably nearly our best keeper. He's playing in La Liga 2 for the year so that'll be superb for his development.

September 2028 It feels like an age since I played this month, but overall it still looks like a successful one. 4 points from 3 league games might not look brilliant, but we've played 2 games away from home and our home game was a draw against Barcelona. Our return to the Champions League has also gone really well. Real Betis 3-1 Deportivo We started well, but really we were outplayed by Betis who have started this season really well. I can't remember a whole load about this game to be honest. I am pleased with Arsenijevic who has started the season well, while Cheddira is also looking good. Deportivo 2-0 Antalyaspor Firstly, I absolutely love the Champions League music and scoreboard. Absolutely love it. I have no idea why something so small makes such a difference, but I really felt like I was playing in the Champions League. This is the first time I've experienced this as it's my debut in the competition on FM23 and I didn't play FM22 (no idea if it was in there then?). I'm not sure how good this Turkish side are as we don't have Turkey loaded, but I was really impressed with our performance. Bella-Kotchap, who nearly left at the end of the transfer window, headed us into the lead and then Fondevila came on to provide another lovely assist for Cirjan. We could, and should have won by more. Colley made his debut at left back as Bernabai is out injured. He probably won't end up being a first team starter, but he's playing in the B team so gets the call up when others are injured. By the way, in case you're wondering, these are the odds on us winning the Champions League. Deportivo 2-2 Barcelona The reserves did really well here. Really well. If you consider the fact they had a penalty worth nearly 1xG, then we should have won. As it was, they cancelled out Arsenijevic's deflected opener and after Vallejo saved the penalty, Man then provided Escabros with a great cross for the young striker's first goal for the club. Mallorca 0-1 Deportivo I felt we absolutely had to win this game. We were in the relegation zone despite that great result against Barcelona. We played the new adjusted first team and it was two of the three adjustments made who made the difference. It was Padilla who delivered, scoring a lovely low strike from the edge of the area after fine work from Ludewig in dribbling to the byline before cutting in back. We were excellent and deserved our second win of the season. Lazio 2-2 Deportivo The week off allowed us to play the first team again, but looking ahead at the schedule for October I decided to play the B team here. We were very close to winning, and probably should have won having come from behind to take the lead as I always feel that if you're leading past 80 minutes you really should hold out, but in the end this was a fair result. Val has recently come back into the second string ahead of Oca, who really hasn't played well this season, and he's had a real impact with positive performances and here an excellent finish from just inside the area. Cheddira is playing really well and finished nicely from Man's through ball. Man is getting his chances after his horrible injury-hit first season and he's popping up with some assists which is great. Okay, 14th after 6 games isn't great. However, we've only played 2 home league games, against Real Madrid and Barcelona (loss and draw) so have won 2 and lost 2 of our away games, which really isn't too bad. We've also played 4 of the top 6 in our opening 6 games. I think we'll be in the hunt for European positions by the end of the season. I'll show the Champions League table when it becomes a bit more meaningful. Finances Things are looking very strong for us at the moment, but we do need to increase our income from commercial activity and TV revenue in the near future if we're to grow. We're close to our wage budget restrictions from La Liga now, and we're nowhere near the top sides for income. Yes, our ticket revenues are pretty solid, but I think a couple of years of European football in probably needed to allow us to expand the sorts of wages we can offer players. Our transfer budget is still stupidly low but hopefully will improve for next season. We did have our first youth player poached. From our rivals as well. 1.5 gold star probably isn't something we need to worry about missing, but I do hope this doesn't happen too much going forward as we need our best youth players! October A really busy month. The first team will play against Osasuna and Celta Vigo probably and maybe against Plzen as the gap of 5 days may be enough time. We'd then have the reserves for Rayo and Cadiz though, which seems like we might throw away points. Therefore, it's probably first team, first team, reserves, first team, reserves, first team.