Virtual Male

Previous Season Victor San Marino Season 4 2027/28 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances - Transfer History Competitions Serie C NOW Girone B (Past Positions) - It all came together this season! All season the top 3 were within a few points of each other after we opened a bit of a gap from 4th early on in the season, Going into the last game of the season we'd hit the top of the table for the first time over the season but there was only 1 point between the top 3 teams. Luckily there wasn't any final day drama for me as the team secured a 2-1 win and secured the automatic promotion place intro the Serie B. I don't know if we can stay up but I'm hopeful we will be able to put up a good fight, even if we do end up coming back down we should have put a little more money in the bank and will, hopefully, be able to return at the first time of asking. Italian C Super Cup - A little post season tournament between the 3 Serie C league winners saw the team end their year with a couple of lacklustre performances, only picking up a point from the games. I can't say it ruined my summer after the promotion though. Coppa Italia Lego Pro - A much better showing than we've managed in previous years ending in the clubs first silverware under Astley's leadership. This run really made me believe that the league form at the time was the real thing since we we're dominating teams from all 3 Serie C divisions, the two legs of the final were pretty straight forwards too with a 3-1 win setting up a more defensive 2nd leg that ended 2-1 to Catania with us winning 4-3 on aggregate. Squad The team continued from last season with everything starting to feel really solid and the majority of the youth prospects that have been getting minutes have developed really well over the year to the point that I think we've got a really good chance of staying up next season as long as I can keep on top of the morale. Francesco Gattuso who's been the first choice keeper for pretty much the entire save so far decided that he wanted to leave the club at the end of the season so I made the decision to move 17 year old prospect Mathias Pedretti into the starting team full time to help him progress a little faster. This move cost us some points over the 2nd half of the season for sure but there was nothing to regret about it in the end, I am a little worried that he seems to love a massive blunder though but I don't really have any other options with Gattuso leaving and no-one else worth the time at the club right now, fingers crossed for next year. The stand out player over the season was Nicolo De Prisco (the first academy product to do this), he grew into arguably the best midfielder at the club and was the first name on the team sheet by Christmas, I've locked him into a long-term contract so he'll be sticking around for a long time unless a ridiculous offer comes in for him. Youth Intake (Preview) The preview promised me an 'excellent' intake but the letters didn't really fill me with confidence. When they arrived I can't say I was filled with excitement if I'm honest, there will be a couple of players that can make it into the first team though I'm sure with my favourites being Alessandro Liguori and Simone Cecchetti. Cecchetti will get more game time initially than Liguori purely because we're well equipped in the midfield right now, I'm going to try to do something about their personalities though because unambitious while not being the worst definitely makes it much harder for these guys to hit their full potential. Transfers & Finance - The club lost about 300k over the season and it's starting to become a bit of a concern for me since we've not made any progress with upgrading the facilities but are consistently losing money which really isn't ideal for the future of the club and me being able to keep hold of any good prospects that come through with the club. Hopefully there will be some more money in Serie B than there has been in Serie C but I'll just have to wait an see. Nothing of note on the transfer front again with the biggest sale being for £13k, I might have to look at cashing in on what little youth talent we have next year if the financial situation continues to get worse. Other - The board have decided that now is the time to build a new 5500 seater stadium at the cost of £7.855m. £5.5m of which we've secured a loan for so that'll be another £600k a year I'd have to find just to break even. I get why the board felt like this was the right move since our current stadium didn't meet league requirements but it could really hold me back for this challenge as I feel like this might mean I have to just survive the next decade while we clear the loan before the money will be available for any substantial facility upgrades, hopefully I'm wrong though.

Previous Season Victor San Marino Season 3 2026/27 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances - Transfer History Competitions Serie C NOW Girone B (Past Positions) - 4th place for a 2nd year on the bounce, but it felt a lot more assured than last year somehow. I went into the Play-Offs feeling really confident after making the finals last season and I think that was our undoing only just getting through the first 2 rounds by a goal and then being dumped out in the Quarter finals by Perugia. Despite a somewhat disappointing play-off campaign I feel like next year could be the year that we can get promoted as long as the team continues feeling as solid as it has over the 2nd half of the season. Coppa Italia Frecciarossa - Won our first cup game of the save this year, that's where it ended though. Coppa Italia Lega Pro - The clubs first final under the guidance of Ryan Astley! Some good football and a little bit of luck saw the team get all the way to the final and faced Atalanta U23's but they were too strong turning us over 7-2 over the two legs of the final. The players footed the bill for the supporters who made the finals tickets after the heavy loss. Squad The players are really starting to come together now and the performances are showing it with games feeling much more convincing than they have been over the last couple of years, the players are being recognised for this too with Larrarulo and Sabba finishing 1st & 2nd for Serie C/B Player of the Year, as well as both named in the Team of the Season and winning defender and midfielder of the season. The club was given an award for being the best team in the Serie C/B too, so progress is being made for sure! Sabba hit double digits for both goals and assists in the league and was head an shoulders above everyone else in my mind, as shown above he was recognised and awarded for this too. Our top Sammarinese performer is academy graduate Matteo Berardi, honestly he didn't set the world alight averaging a little over a 6.7 but he made 25 starts over the season and has improved really rapidly to a point where he is one of the best players at the club looking at his attributes. The only things he needs to improve will come with age as he cuts little mistakes out of his game and becomes more consistent. Youth Intake (Preview) The intake preview was 'excellent' but the ratings didn't look too excellent to me when that e-mail dropped though in December. I'd have been a little deflated when the players came in April too if it wasn't for the fact the top 2 prospects were Sammarinese, the best of them being Andrea Casadei, the save isn't at a point where there's much to say about the players coming through the academy but I think Casadei will be in the team before he turns 18. Transfers & Finance - Nothing worth looking at on the transfer front. The finances are hopefully starting to balance now with a profit of £18k over the season, I'll keep an eye on it over next season but hopefully it won't become a real issue at any point. Other - The board continued sending me for licenses and gained the Continental A License and started working towards the Continental Pro License.

Yeah, it isn't ideal but I'm just happy to have some young players that could (but won't) have a highish potential.

@naterr Always love to see United dealing with some sort of hardship (the last decade has been full of fun for me!). On the intake note, I don't think I had one intake with Merthyr that didn't have a couple of players in it that looked like they could make the cut in all the seasons I managed with them, I figured it might be something to do with them being based in Wales but playing in England so there is less competition for the Welsh players... Probably not the case, but made sense in my head at the time.

Previous Season Victor San Marino Season 2 2025/26 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Serie C NOW Girone B (Past Positions) - Coming off the back of a very mid table finish last season I was hopeful that we could do a little better and maybe creep into the lower play-off positions. I wasn't disappointed and we spent pretty much the whole season between 4th and 9th position and finished comfortably in the play-offs without ever threatening the automatic promotion positions. The post season was much lengthier than I was expecting and I lost a sizable chunk of the team to international duty towards the end but we still managed to make it all the way to the final! By that point the legs of the players that were still hanging around had gone and we never really posed a threat to Gubbio who beat us 3-1 over two legs meaning another season in the Serie C. I'm hoping for next season we can threaten for the top spot, so even if we don't win the league we can cut out some of the post season matches... 10 is too many. Coppa Italia Lega Pro - A non starter this season with a 1st round exit. Squad Much the same squad as the first season with only Matteo Berardi getting substantial minutes from last years intake but overall it's a much stronger team than last year. Riccardo Gramellini has again been the standout performer and was awarded a number of things at the end of the season including Serie C player of the year, Serie C/B player of the year, Defender of the Year and was named in the Serie C/B Team of the Year, I've got him signed onto a new contract so he'll be sticking around for the foreseeable future. Going into next season I hope to get a few more of the youth players blooded into the first team to enhance their development. Youth Intake (Preview) The preview looked like it could give us a couple of decent players, including a much needed goalkeeper. It didn't disappoint either with 3 players having over 4.5* potential, this pick of them being Goalkeeper Mathias Pedretti, he's not got awful attributes for a 15 year old and I think he'll come into the first team as the cup keeper while he's training with the U18's. The top Sammarinese talent is William Mularoni who can play both fullback positions, I think he's got something about him so he'll be coming in as backup to both fullbacks for next season so hopefully he'll develop fairly quickly. Transfers & Finances - Nothing to show on the transfer front since there's not really enough players to be letting anyone go at this point. The bank account is starting to cause a little concern but the board aren't worried so I'll continue to ignore this potential problem. Other - The board continued to accept any request I made to gain more qualifications and by the end of the season I'd gained a Continental B License and started studying for a Continental A License.

@libbyshuss massive well done for getting the job done in Belgium, made even harder by the finances being awful over there. @naterr Loving seeing some familiar names from the start of my Merthyr save, I've never found the Vanarama National a big step up so fingers crossed you'll be the top end of the table next season too!

Previous Season Victor San Marino Season 1 2024/25 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Serie C NOW Girone B - A solid first season in charge for Astley. His game plan was clear from the off with little attention paid to the defensive side of the game and clearly fully embraced a Luis Enrique quote 'If they can score 4, we can score 6', there wasn't any real consistency over the season either with one run of results being a 5-5 draw, 6-0 win, 4-4 draw then a 5-0 loss, a game with less than 4 goals was an anomaly but more often than not San Marino came out on the right side of the result. Come the end of the season his team were one of the few in this league that didn't have any post season responsibilities coming home in a respectable 13th place. The aim for next season will be to make the play-offs, after that anything is possible. Coppa Italia Lega Pro - Wasn't prioritised and resulted in a first round exit to FeralpiSalò. Squad The inherited team had some pretty large gaps as expected but on the whole was fairly easy to work with and quite young too so early retirements and having to fit youth players into positions they're not familiar with or before they're at the right level shouldn't be a problem, which I'm sure we're all too familiar with. The stand out performer of the season was our right back Riccardo Gramellini who lead the league for assists and at only 21 looks like he could grow into a mainstay for years to come. Youth Intake (Preview) A promising preview with A's in 3 positions left me a little disappointed when the new players came around, by no means is it a bad bunch but only 1 5* and 1 4.5* player in the first intake might cause a little bit of a headache a few years down the line. The personalities are pretty good overall though, so that's a win! Matteo Berardi is the top prospect and he's Sammarinese too! He made a couple of appearances over the back end of the season and didn't embarrass himself so will continue to play a roll in the next season and we can see how he develops. Transfers & Finances - Nothing of note on the transfer front, just a couple out at the end of the season who hadn't played any part to help trim the wage bill a bit. We finished the season with the bank balance a little in the red and with the loan taken out for a stadium expansion being paid back at £10k p/m I don't see this improving over the coming years if the team remain at this level of the footballing pyramid. Other - At the end of the season the board had to expand the stadium to meet league minimum requirements and took out a £1.1m loan to enable us to do that. They also agreed to expand the youth recruitment and were very generous when Astley was asking to start new coaching licenses, by the end of the season he held a National B license and was studying for his National A license.

Victor San Marino 2024/25 Pre Season 1 After what he judged to me an unfair dismissal of his former manager fan favourite Ryan Astley tore up his contract with Merthyr Town and moved across Europe to pursue his own managerial career. At Victor San Marino he'll aim to follow in Hiemann's footsteps by refusing to use any player who hasn't been developed by the club from an early age, he's also determined to prioritise young talent from San Marino over Italian youngsters where possible. Can he make his mentor proud?

It all happened so quickly too, 5/6 losses on the bounce, new board in and I'm out of the door the next day. Oh, well! Gives me an excuse to start a new save doesn't it.

Merthyr Town Season 14 2037/38 A very short one here. A run of bad results at the start of the season and a board takeover has cost me my job, very disappointed after so many seasons at the club and the growth I've overseen. But, we move! To Italy (hopefully), there's a team in my mind that have pretty slim odds of coming up to the playable leagues so I'll be spending the next few days reloading a save to try to grab them. Hope to get a new starter post up soon.

Season 14 2037/38 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Premier League (Past Positions) - Another strong start to the season saw us sitting in the top 6 for a few weeks before there was a bit of a reality check but we came back into some form and sat between 9th-14th for the rest of the season. A couple of results at the back end of he season saw us close the season in a comfortable 9th position. The Emirates FA Cup - Another year of nothing happening in either cup competition, exiting both at the earliest opportunity. Carabao Cup - A really disappointing result against a lower league opponent, not overly bothered at this point though. Squad The starting squad has developed well over the season with some of the players even being rated as Premier League quality players by my staff! They should carry on the same path next season so I'm hopeful that will lead to another quite comfortable season next year too. Robert Jones - The star of my team and currently refusing to renew his contract so I've got a big decision to make over the summer. Keep Jones for another year and face the possibility of losing him for nothing in a year or look to cash in on him and take what I would expect to be a fairly sizable transfer fee even with him not having long left on his contract. Alun Duckett - A tweak to the formation left Duckett playing as a pressing forward this season and he seemed to be a big fan of this change! Another 13 league goals this season but he was much more involved in the overall build-up play and his 7.10 average rating reflected this. Youth Intake (Preview) An incredible youth intake preview lead to what is looking like a very good intake with 6 4.5*+ potential players coming into the club, some pretty good personalities in the higher potential players too so I'm hoping they'll be able to get up towards that potential ability. Lee Williams is one of the stand out players both in terms of ability and also because he's Gibraltarian, a new flag is always welcome! Josh Gruffydd - Looks like he'll be the pick of the bunch in the coming years though, fairly solid attributes for a 15 year old and a model citizen too!! I think he might be the first to come through at the club since I started the save. He's going to spend a few years in the youth teams to develop into hopefully a player that can be an important part of both the Merthyr and Welsh national teams. Transfers & Finance - Not much on the transfer front again this year, just a few loans out that didn't really do much and a couple leaving at the end of their contracts. £150m in the bank now and the board aren't allowing me the opportunity to upgrade anything at the moment so it's just going to sit there for the foreseeable future I think. Other - We had 2 players in the NxTGN 50 this year so that proves we're on the up in terms of youth development I suppose. I also managed to convince the board to allow a Stadium Expansion bringing the capacity up to nearly 8,000 seats... Still nowhere near what we need though. We'll be playing in the Millennium stadium in Cardiff while the work is being carried out..

@XaW you're flying through the divisions!! I'm always jealous of the variety of nationalities you get in your intakes, are you doing anything special or is it just a case of crossed fingers?

Season 13 2036/37 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities Competitions Premier League (Past Positions) - It's a bit difficult at the top isn't it! We got off to a great start to the season winning 4 of the first 5 games and I foolishly thought what's all the fuss about? I then got 6 points between the beginning of November and the middle of March, A run that included some less than motivating results like a 7-0 loss to Newcastle and 10-1 to Chelsea. A bit of an easier run in saw the team pick up a few much needed wins to drag us out of the relegation zone and into 15th place at the end of the season. Honestly, I don't really think we deserve it but I won't say no to another season in the Premier League, I need to sort the defence out though, we conceded 50 more than the team that conceded the 2nd most goals! Still, at least the 116 scored against us wasn't a league record. The Emirates FA Cup - Another 1 game FA Cup run, I didn't pay it any attention. Carabao Cup - Another short one, I played a heavily rotated team to keep my better players fresh for the league. Squad - A lot of player development again this season given the higher level of competition, we're still well out of our depth and I think we only have 1 player that is actually the right quality for the league. Something must be working though for us to stay up, hopefully the development can continue and next year will be slightly easier. Robert Jones is our stand out player, clearly has more ability than anyone else on the team and is refusing to even enter contract negotiations, so not ideal! He had a solid year with 17 G/A in 34 league games, he's got 2 years left on his £300p/w deal so I'm hopeful we can get him to talk with us this season but if not I'll have some thinking to do nest summer. Youth Intake (Preview) A fairly promising preview followed by what looks like a pretty good intake, A couple of much needed fullbacks and a DM that has something about him and all good personalities too! I think there are 3/4 players in this years intake that will find themselves in the first team in a few years and will likely stay there for a long time to come. Lamine Mendes (2037YP9) has already been improving massively and has been called up to the Senegal U18's over the summer so that's really promising. Ben Davies is probably the pick of the bunch though, one of the much needed full backs and not far from getting into the rotation of the first team as a right back, I think I'll let him play a season with the youth groups before he moves into the senior team. That could all go out of the window though, we'll see. Transfers & Finance - Not much to talk about with transfers, a few out on loan to either try to develop them a little or just so they stop complaining about not getting game time. The bank balance is looking really healthy now thanks to the massive Premier League TV deal so just over £80m in there now, It shouldn't be a concern from here on out unless the board decide to so something ridiculous. Other - On the back of out newly found riches I got the board to agree to a few things, We'll be a level 1 academy soon which while I'm not really sure what it actually does in game I'm sure it's a good thing. We also upgraded our training facilities at the start of the season before some technological advancements meant we had to do it all over again at the end of the season. They're also expanding the stadium by a little over 3000 capacity but only 750 of that will be seated, every little helps though. Something that I have noticed this season that doesn't make sense to me is the board have been putting pressure on me because they're disappointed I'm apparently not using the clubs youth system to develop players.... I'm not sure they've been paying attention for the last decade plus of the clubs existence!! Is this something anyone else has been experiencing? Or are my board just talking nonsense?

I've been lurking again for the last week or so and getting caught up on what's been going on since I burnt out of my save a few months back. Some massive completions and @XaW deciding the challenge isn't hard enough for him in its standard form! I'm getting back into my Merthyr Town save in their first Premier League season. I'm just hoping to not get embarrassed every weekend, This Newcastle game is definitely one to forget.

If you're not a fan of keeping clean sheets then give it a whirl. I assume it's something to do with the central attacking mid and one of the strikers being offset, I could well be talking nonsense though.

@Brentmeister I don't think it's anything special... Just a pretty standard 4-2-3-1 to start but then I sold my only competent right wing so moved to a kind of wonky 4-2-2-2. No special player roles or instructions either. If you can see a reason it's working that I've missed that's be good.

Season 12 2035/36 Manager Profile - Competitions - Finances - Facilities So, I'm going to start this update with something I'd usually put at the end but if you guys are anything like me I'd end up just glossing over a paragraph of text at the end of a post without much reading actually taking place. I'm finding this save quite hard to stay invested in at the moment and I feel silly for even saying that because it's for completely the opposite reasons people usually drift away from these saves, I'm struggling because there hasn't been any real challenge since my relegation from the VNL. Since then I've been promoted every year all the way into the Premier League now and it just doesn't feel right but I can't sandbag can I? I've a feeling that the shape and tactic I've been developing over the last 4/5 seasons is breaking the match engine in some way and players are vastly outperforming their abilities, I mean Frankie Thomas shouldn't be anywhere near a game in the Championship unless he's paid for a ticket but here he is with a fairly respectable average rating from 14 games this year . He's a VNN player on a good day right? Anyway the point of all of this is just to say that this might be the last update for a little while until I'm feeling this save again.... I just miss the pain I think Competitions Sky Bet Championship (Past Positions) - I don't understand what's happening anymore, 2nd place in our first season in the Championship means five successive promotions now. 78 points only just scrapes the play-offs in almost every season in this save until this year but here we are heading off into the Premier League, I really don't know how this has come to be. The Emirates FA Cup - 90 minutes of the Fa Cup this year, 4-1 loss to Newcastle. Carabao Cup - Continued to not care about the Carabao Cup in the slightest exiting in the group stage again. Squad We're very top heavy now, we've got a Premier League quality attack and a defence that's League 2 on a good day. Luckily there's some potential at the back coming through but it's felt like that's been the case for a number of seasons now and I'm still playing the same guys because of a lack of development. Robert Jones became our first official Wonderkid this year and made his Wales debut! He's got a couple of years left on his contract but I doubt I'll get to keep him until the end of it and will probably be forced into a sale before then, Sam Haggett had another solid season up top bagging himself 17 league goals on our way to automatic promotion. I'm hoping he can manage to hit double figures next season, we'll need it if we have any hope of survival. Youth Intake (Preview) - Probably one of the best previews we've had in a few years and it left me a little disappointed when the youth intake came around. Now, I'm not saying it's a bad intake, it isn't. Just I got my hopes up and wanted more. Richard Lloyd is apparently the main man from this years intake, he's coming through in a position that I need some more players in due to a sale so he'll be in and around the first team at some point in the near future. I'm much more interested in Lim Yong-Jae though, a big Korean center back who's got a little bit of potential is everything I could have asked for really, he's going to be training with the first team with the hope that he can make his mark before too long. Transfers & Finances - A couple of big sales this year. Llion Davies kicked up a massive fuss in the new year and it was spilling over to the rest of the team so a deal with Portsmouth worth up to £10m saw him heading to the south coast. Mike Cox-Davies was much less planned out but LAFC threw £18.5m upfront with another £1.5m in clauses that will be met and I really couldn't turn that money down. All of that left the finances in a good place with about £7m in the bank but with the Premier League money coming in next season we should be pretty set from now on unless something goes horribly wrong. Other - The board we're very co-operative this year again allowing the training facilities to be upgraded twice and the youth facilities to be upgraded twice too! We moved up a youth category too, we're category 2 now. I got my final coaching badge too. The stadium needed some love with the promotion so we're getting undersoil heating fitted and a few thousand seats put in. Bingo Card - A handful of things got marked off this season so we're up to 29/100.

Who needs all that Hollywood money anyway?

Season 11 2034/35 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Sky Bet League One (Past Positions) - I was hoping for a largely forgettable season and for the first half of the season that was looking likely as we bounced around between 10th-18th, A serious injury to my only competent right winger in early December meant some tactical changes and we started playing a wonky 4-2-2-2 that I really didn't like the look of but it seemed to work as we climbed up the table and into the play-off spots. In what could possibly be the most entertaining play-off games in history we managed to beat Luton 9-4 over two legs before heading to Wembley to face Preston, that game was a goal fest too ending 5-3 in our favour! So it's the Championship next season, I don't think that the team has the quality to survive but I've thought that the last few seasons too and look how that's gone. The Emirates FA Cup - A lucky run in the FA Cup saw us getting drawn against lower league opponents all the way to the 5th round where we faced eventual Premier League champions Tottenham Hotspur who made light work of us. Carabao Cup - Out early against Wolves EFL Trophy - Really disappointed with this, we should have been able to get out of the group at least but in the end didn't pick up a single point. Squad The team is looking okay, I guess. A little light in places but most positions have someone coming through that has a fair amount of potential, could have really done with another season in League 1 but I can't really complain about getting promoted can I. Alun Duckett was one of the main reasons that we did as well as we did this year, he ended the season as the leagues top scorer and I'm hoping that he'll be able to score enough to keep us up next season. We scored a lot of goals as a team this season and broke the leagues scoring record by a distance this year and we needed to since we conceded the 2nd most goals too. Ryan Astley League One Player of the Season! I know I talk about him every season and even though he doesn't actually look that good he just keep preforming well, 36G/A in 39 league games leaves him within touching distance of hitting 400 league appearances and 200 league goals for the club, further cementing himself as a club legend. Youth Intake (Preview) - what looked to be a decent preview ended up being a somewhat underwhelming intake, maybe I've just been spoilt in the last few years though. I think a number of these guys could go on to become squad depth players but it doesn't look like anyone has the potential to play a huge part in taking the club forwards. Jordan Evans looks to be the pick of the bunch, not a great personality but fairly well rounded so hopefully he'll be able to develop well with a little mentoring. Transfers & Finances - Sam Jones (2029YP1) became the clubs biggest sale when the chairman made a decision for me, it ended up being a good deal for us though and all of the optional fees were quicky met meaning the full £10.5m was received. The other out was David Gregory (2033YP2) who left for Brighton for £2m and 50% of future profits, this was a sale I'd have really rather didn't happen but when 16 Premier League teams are bidding on a player from League 1 there's not much you can do apart from take the money. I'm hoping that since he's gone to a lower mid-table team he'll be moving on again sooner rather than later and with a current value of £32-£40m we're in for quite a payday. The finances are looking fairly healthy now, I don't expect that to remain like that though since facility upgrades are starting to get more expensive now and the wage bill is inflating as we go through the leagues. Other - We put the transfer income to good use and upgraded both the youth(1, 2) and training (1, 2) facilities twice! The board also agreed to send me off for my next coaching badge, only 1 more to go! Bingo Card - I think I got another 5 marked off this season, mainly due to the sale of Sam Jones topping £10m. 23/100.

The January window is going to be eventful.

@XaW Solid first season and a good intake too! Very jealous of the variety of nationalities you've got coming through though, pretty much exclusively Welsh at Merthyr.

Season 10 2033/34 Manager Profile - Competitions - Facilities - Finances Competitions Sky Bet League Two (Past Positions) - The pre-season preview had us in 9th so I knew we could do something this season but I wasn't expecting a 2nd place finish and a 3rd consecutive promotion! We spend the full season in the play-off spots and a good run towards the end of the season saw us climb into the top 3 and secure automatic promotion with a game to spare, League 1 here we come. The Emirates FA Cup - A mega run in the FA Cup this year going all the way to the 5th round before getting knocked out by Wolves. We even managed to get the better of Premier League Aston Villa in the 4th round. Carabao Cup - Out in the first round. EFL Trophy - Didn't get past the groups, only getting 1 win in the 3 games. Squad Everyone played really well this season with the exception of Frankie Thomas (2025YP8) who's cover for the fullbacks and well out of his depth at this level, but he's a team leader so he's just going to hang around for a while I think. Our defence is starting to lack quality a bit and there's not been much coming through the intakes in the last couple of years so fingers crossed it doesn't cost us in a higher division. Wales games are starting to cause us a little bit of a problem now because we're having 16-20 players getting called up the the various age levels and some of the youth games overlap with other fixtures so we've been left a little short at times, I know I shouldn't complain about that because it means we're doing something right but it's still a little annoying when it happens . Sam Jones - He's been our starting keeper since he came trough the academy 5 seasons ago and had another solid year. He's been getting called up to the Wales senior team but hasn't managed to get on the pitch for the yet, surely only a matter of time for him though. Robert Jones - He's not even 17 for another 7 months and he's making something happen every time he plays, 23 G/A in 2200 minutes means he's made a goal contribution every 95 minutes. I truly believe that the sky's the limit for this guy and with half of the Premier League after him I think it'll be a struggle to keep him around. Ideally I can get another year or two at a push to see how he develops but mainly so his value will shoot up. If he kick up a fuss and force a move over the summer I'll make sure there's a % of future fee clause included in any deal. Youth Intake (Preview) A good preview and I think an even better intake this year! With 6 players that have 4.5/5* potential could this be Merthyr's very own class of '92?? Most of them will see some minutes in the coming season, Lewis Powell will be the one that I'll probably be looking to the most since he's not far off the first team already and will hopefully go on to be a mainstay at the back for years to come. Transfers & Finances - Again, nothing really that important on the transfer front. A number of players dropping a division or two to get some first team football on loan and hopefully develop, I even got a whopping £2.1k loan fee for one. Unfortunately, that loan fee income didn't make much of a dent in the losses for the season that stand at a touch over £1.3m and completely wiped out what we'd been saving up for the last decade. My plan going forward is just to not look at this tab so I can't worry about it then right? Other - At the end of the season we saw the Training Facilities downgraded due to technological advancements, it still leaves us with 'adequate' for both youth and training facilities and I can't see the money being available for further upgrades for a while, unless we get a crazy offer in for someone. Bingo Card - The promotion saw us tick off another box to take us to 17/100

As long as you've got a save from before the leagues become active you should be fine to go back and take them away if any issues crop up.

@HanziZoloman I'm the same with youth set-up cost. Spending more in 2 months than we did in a full season last year.... Oh, the joys of going full time. The only way out I can think of is player sales and hope for a future sell on %

They're not no, I backed it up just before I added them.... From what I've been able to find out (and been told by someone who seems to know what they're on about) it doesn't appear to be a common issue, but definitely worth creating that extra 'just incase' save before you add them as pending.