Ron_Swanson

2025 Youth intake Do you remember what the preview looked like? Well, what I actually got is... just have a look Two players who are almost god-like level for us, few more that will used heavily in first squad rotation, plus a lot of potential. I'm really excited with this group of youngsters

February 2025 A month I want to forget. First day, first match and Jordan Cox got injured, so over a month without my best player. It cut our wings. Only one win, wasted 3-0 lead against Lydney Town and now Slimbridge is 7 points above us.

January 2025 Only 3 league games, just 1 win so now it's a point for point race at the top of the table. Over 700k at the bank balance. We have so little expences (if not count friendlies cost) that it's not hard to make a profit month by month and the projections say we will keep that pace and be even richer. Yet it's still not enough to get the training facilities upgrade. If I remember correctly it shouldn't cost that much at this level. I wonder why the board thinks otherwise

December 2024 Almost a nice month except a loss against Longlevens where we were dominating side yet we couldn't win. It looks like it will be a close fight with Slimbridge for the promotion. Youth intake preview - says it's a good intake but one A-grade position and most of them got only "E". But as last year shown the preview could be far from acurate so I'm waiting until march.

November 2024 Mixed results but we keep the 1st place. Dissapointing loss in FA Vase so now we're left with only Hellenic League Cup which I don't care much about. I was also able to convince the board with another youth recruitment increase and I'm pretty sure we now have the best academy among non-league teams.

October 2024 We're on the right track still at the top of the league table. Most important we beat 2nd Slimbridge at home.

FA Cup 3rd Round The draw put us against Chorley - they sit at 1st place in VNL North so way way above us. Let's see how it went

September 2024 What a month! We won every single game. My young striker James Davies scored a total of 9 goals and had two consecutive hat-tricks. It's time to make a shot at promotion battle. It's been not a long time since I've signed current contract but the board hit me with a new one already. Yet they don't want me to start another coaching course as they're affraid I'm gonna use it to leave for a bigger club.

August 2024 A strong start of the season. We're scoring a lot. Just one unlucky loss against newly promoted Longlevens. Also we're past two preliminary rounds of FA Cup, I hope we will get at least as far as last year, because it's a good income source. Now we're going into probably the busiest month of the season where we will have a competitive games twice a week, so no room for friendlies. But now I have some squad depth so fitness won't be such an issue. My two Jordans have the highest odds to become divisions top player. It makes me very confident about my overall squad quality. Also Continental B Licence completed

July 2024 Friendlies time, as usual against top tier U23's. I wish I could have that attendance in league games. It still makes us around +5k net profit per game. Season preview shows a lot of improvement, we're no longer the worst predicted team. Due to high bank balance our budgets looks huge for this level. And as we don't plan to buy anyone I moved as much as I can from scouting budget to transfer budget and then all to wages. It ended at 4,7k per week, we spend 1,1k so we're more than secure for now.

May - June 2024 Offseason, after great results I signed new contract. Bank balance looks excellent, but we're still not rich enough to get facility upgrades that I want At least we got Junior Coaching increase, so our academy will get better

December - April 2024 What a second half of the season. We finished just one point away from playoff spot even though my best DC Harrison Yates broke his ankle in february and he's still not recovered. Squad is improving and I have much more hope before next season. I think we can do it and really be able to fight for promotion. Meanwhile in january I completed coaching course for continental C licence

March 2024 - Youth intake The actual intake looks way better than preview. Possibly golden generation, everyone rated as elite talent. Even one with 2* CA already, but he's AML and I have last years youngster Matthew Ross on that side whos doing excellent job with 12 goals and 10 assists in 31 games so I'll have to split playing time between those two somehow. Few more 1*CA's - plenty to choose from.

There's no rush for promotion but if I'll get a chance to be near the top of the table I'll definetely go for it. My young team is not ready quite yet if we're talking about skill level but going up could be very benefitial. Higher match day income, playing against stronger teams can help improve players, possibly better staff willing to join - it's all worth.

December 2023 - youth intake preview It doesn't look great, not at all. Maybe it's just my HoYD is very bad at judging potential but I can't get better one now.

July - December 2023 A quick jump to the middle of the season. Very similar story - we're somewhere in the mid-table now, but we didn't have easy start, we were in the lower half for the entire time. My top talent Jason Powell broke his foot in the preseason games and missed over 3 months. Our FA Cup run ended one more round further than last year. We still play friendlies every week between league game so club's bank account grows slowly but steadily. All of my best players accepted new contracts until 2025 plus 2 year extension each so that's huge. We didn't get any facility investments - I try with training facilities but get denied every time due to financial situation so we need to save more money. But Junior Coaching and Youth Recruitment grew a little over time since last upgrade and now it looks way better than average tier 9 team - now we need time to improve all those youngsters.

Thanks, I'm really enjoying this career so far. It's gonna be a long slog but I think it's more fun than starting in Vanarama North/South

May - June 2023 A break before next season, so no games, everyone's on holiday. But few things worth mentioning happened. I got offered a new contract with a small wage raise which I happily accepted. I also completed another coaching course and now I have National A Licence. Rising manager attributes, results above expectations even got me some interest from other clubs from higher divisions (one offer was from League 2) but I don't go to interviews as my goal is to lead Worcester to greatness. And we made one more step to accomplish it - we category 4 youth rating. Our facilities made a big leap forward through this season. Now I'm saving money for better training facilities, it's gonna take some time, maybe over a year.

April 2023 Final games of the season. We did a little better than previous months. 7th place in league is way beyond expectations as we were considered as a relegation candidate. A lot of players got some game time throughout the season, I still try to fill positions where I don't have a star player so there's rotation of youths. That's how the squad stats look like after last game

March 2023 - youth intake Definetely not a good month, we lost most of our games but we're secure in mid table. Youth intake looks decent, everyone is a 4/5* potential (but are they really?) I'm pretty sure this group of youngsters is gonna have more quality than last years because our facilities are not garbage anymore so some of them will be used in first squad roation straight away.

February 2023 Very sloppy form. Only one win and once again we couldn't beat local rivals - Worcester City. At least we have officialy avoided relegation. The squad is healthy and I even see a little improvement from some of our youngsters. This month also brings us more upgrades. First - youth recruitment - we had a little talk with the board but eventually they accepted. Then I thought why not try another one if they're so generous, and I got increse in junior coaching. Sweet. Future will definetelly look brighter.

January 2023 Nothing interesting really happened. We add 6 points in league but lost in Midland League Cup 3rd round agaist team from lower division. Little dissapointing but this is the less atractive cup with very low prizes so I can live with that. Plus a nice moment when we beat Newcastle U23's where I had a chance to use my best lineup

December 2022 I'm still happy with league results, we get some wins and we wander around playoff spots. More friendlies when we have some space in our schedule, as usual. This month my key players gained a lot of attention. There's more and more club chasing them but I keep rejecting offers as they are only for 0$ so it's not gonna be beneficient for us in any way. I triggered all contract extensions so we're good until june 2024. Youth intake preview came and I have mixed feelings. It's a 4* intake and only two positions have A grade. But I desperately need someone in the midfield and there's a chance we will get him this year. Also a striker would be nice. My current one, James Davies is performing really well with 13 goals in 19 games but I need some depth

November 2022 Another decent month. We are establishing our position as a mid-table team. I think with form like that we don't have to worry about relegation. Few more friendlies, my youngsters even won against Tottenham U23's although Spurs were way better, but one lucky goal and we got it. Talking about finances, we are in red this month, but guess why? Yeah, the option to ask for youth facilities upgrade shown up again and this time the board said yes without hesitation. I'm looking forward to see what the intake preview will look like next month but I know we're not gonna benefit from these upgrades quite yet. It takes couple of years but it will look better and better.

October 2022 We are back on a winning track. 4 games in a league and 4 wins. We played against teams from lower half of table so there was a good opportunity to break the bad run and we squeezed as much as we can from it. No current injuries, some young guys look really decent performance-wise. We had a free week since we're no longer in FA Vase and that means more friendlies - money and some playing time for my backup players. Finances are still stable, another month with profit. Another improvement to make a great youth academy. Junior coaching budget increase approved. I'm really happy with it